When I travel, I like to visit ancient sites, art museums and doing other types of cultural activities. Not when I am in Kuwait. As Kuwait is just a small country, I have seen pretty much everything worth visiting already. The focus shifts to relaxation and catching up with friends instead. Pretty much all of…
One of the reasons I love returning to Kuwait is that with each and every visit, the country succeeds in destroying more stereotypes I have about this part of the world. “What did you learn this time?”, my new friend M. (whom we also met in “A Good Guy Does Not Have A Nationality?”) inquires.…
I am walking home from Kuwait’s newest mall. Just having finished buying cookies for family, friends and colleagues, I discarded the idea of taking a taxi for such a short distance. The weather is wonderful, and even though Kuwait is not exactly a walking country (read: the pavement looks like an obstacle run) I think…
“I am planning to move to Spain for six months to become fluent in Spanish”. A young lady with inspiring plans posts in a Facebook group I am a member of, asking for recommendations. I can’t help responding that whereas I think immersion in a language is great and super helpful, fluency in just six…
“Your life is so exciting, you travel so much”. I am meeting two of my closest friends over the Christmas break, and they express their envy of some of the things that I am doing. And it is true, you know, I do travel a lot. Last year I went on six trips, and the…
There are many great things about living and working abroad: the possibility to discover new places, during the weekend, meeting cool people from all over the world, and yes, also learning a new language. In theory, in any case. Speaking a foreign language on a daily basis was one of the things that I found most…
With less than two weeks to go until my Italy trip, it suddenly struck me. The guilt feeling. That little voice inside your head asking you why you are using a few of your precious holidays to go travel a foreign country, all on your own. The answer is very easy of course: with the…
With Erdogan and his referendum campaign creating headlines all over the world, one would almost forget that a political event of note also took place in the Netherlands. This month, the Netherlands voted for a new parliament, an event I had been looking forward with both hope and anxiety. On the one hand it was a chance to get…
“Oh, you’re from the Netherlands? Not so far from home then, right?”. A pretty standard conversation in expat circles, where friends have moved to Germany from the USA, Canada, South Africa or China. They are indeed a long way from home, and some have not visited their home countries for over a year. I was…
Do not be mistaken, I still would love to travel the world. Or at least part of the world, mostly the countries inhabited by Muslims (well, you either are a Middle Eastern Studies major, or you are not), but places like Canada or the US are still on my list as well. If my contract…
The Life And Times Of A Dutchie Abroad 