It's a two-part blog post today! First: Dutch immigration law update.
I get a lot of information about living in the Netherlands from other bloggers, and one of my favorite blogs to read is Winderige Dagen - a 26-year-old American woman publishes this blog and writes candidly about her move to the Netherlands and offers great advice and tips. I strongly recommend that anyone who is considering a similar move to check out her blog. In a recent entry, she speaks about obtaining her SOFI number (the Dutch Social Security Number). Except it's not called a SOFI number anymore, since November 2007 it is referred to as BSN - burgerservicenummer.
Her experience with the Dutch bureaucracy has been confusing to say the least, but in the end she was completely successful and offers a lot of incredibly helpful information on what you need to do to obtain the BSN.
Changes to Dutch immigration law for 2008 can be found on Expatica.com.
The second topic in this post is a small announcement: I finished a short video project that I started in late November (2007). I have a list a mile long of everything I wish I did differently, of course, but it's a great feeling to say it's done (for now).
Working on my own video project for the first time in years was, overall, a great experience. I had very limited experience with the HDV camera I was using, and I had to more or less teach myself Final Cut Pro as I went along. Several years ago I might have been more confident with a camera and an editing system, but I had no idea how to build websites or upload video to the web. In order to learn, I ask a lot of advice from friends, but mostly I just start trying until something works.
The video project is up on my website, and I'll probably put it up on YouTube sometime tomorrow. It's about raising a child with Down Syndrome, and I interviewed my friend Adine (I've known her for over 20 years) at her house in upstate New York. I didn't really plan anything and only had an hour of tape, so I just asked questions and tried to piece together a story that I thought might help someone else learn. As I interviewed her, I was learning how to ask the right questions and how to guide the conversation - which is part of the reason why I think the second half of the 10-minute video is much stronger than the first half. I was incredibly lucky to have a subject who was so willing to be involved.
I watched my video on a television for the first time last night and started to cringe at all the things that I know I could do better (if I only had one more day to edit!). I even thought about not showing anyone except Adine. However, Adine saw the video, loved it, and forwarded it around to her family. I got an email today from Adine's mother-in-law that said "Thanks for taking on this project. I hope it helps change perceptions about the condition." Honestly, just knowing that Adine and her family like it is good enough for me. It was a great learning experience and it's something that I'm not going to stop doing. I can't wait to keep learning more.
If you get a chance to see it, I totally welcome any comments, suggestions, or criticisms of the video. The only way to improve for the future is to figure out what I did wrong in the past. Comments are welcome here, or feel free to send me an email - tami.mahoney@gmail.com.
January 18, 2008
January 14, 2008
The final two weeks in New York City
With just a little over two weeks left in New York, I'm finding that every minute of my time is booked up, though I'm certainly not complaining. All of my free time is generally being spent with friends, running around, and having fun. I finally made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and was delighted that they accepted my expired, phony ISIC student ID - but I must remember to try and get a new one before I leave the states again.
My father came down over the weekend to take a carload of photo albums, comic books, and a few other items that I don't want to permanently get rid of but I won't move overseas with me. My grandmother's beautiful silver coffee set, the coffee mug my old roommate made for me - all those items are packed up yet again in a box and will live in my father's attic for an undetermined amount of time. It is a little sad to see my apartment start to be emptied out of my things.
I received a wonderful gift in the mail from my friend Christine, the girl that I'll be staying with when I arrive in the Netherlands in April. She sent me Geert Mak's "Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City," which I've been devouring anytime I get a spare minute. There is nothing that will make me fall more in love with a city than learning its history, and this is a totally new subject for me to learn and obsess over. I fell for the author's writing style when, in the first chapter, he explains the early history of Amsterdam by saying "...the young city drew strength from the fact that it was situated close to so many important cities, at least by the standards of the day. Added to this were factors that so often lead to great success: 1) chance; 2) an invention that was to have momentous consequences; and 3) above all, the stupidity and short-sightedness of others."
In the next two weeks, my main focus has to be wrapping up my life here in New York. My co-workers and supervisors are being incredibly kind and supportive of my decision to leave, and while right now I'm still excited, I have a feeling that my last day at this job is going to be pretty hard. In addition to getting everything in order at work, I need to change my address in a million different places, try and see a doctor, donate all my furniture, and of course buy my tickets to Europe (which I'll do tomorrow after I get paid).
By the way, if anyone is looking for the best deal between New York City and Paris, Air India always has the best prices. There's a daily flight between the two cities, and I'm going to pay a total of $560 USD for roundtrip tickets. They also make it very easy to exchange tickets for a different date and only charge a $75 fee, which isn't actually that much compared to other airlines. Plus, the airline attendants don't think it's weird when you request a vegetarian meal. Being able to change the date for my return trip is important, since I really have no idea when I'll be able to go back to the states. I've randomly picked December 22 2008 as a return date, figuring it would be nice to be home for the holidays - then again, it might be nice to spend the holidays somewhere totally different. It is always cheaper to buy roundtrip tickets and change the return flight rather than buy one-way tickets between the states and Europe.
Though I have been having a great time in New York City lately, this weekend my neighbors were robbed (at knife point) and I had to step over two dead rats on the sidewalk outside my house. It comes with the territory of course, but it is nice to remember all the things I won't miss.
My father came down over the weekend to take a carload of photo albums, comic books, and a few other items that I don't want to permanently get rid of but I won't move overseas with me. My grandmother's beautiful silver coffee set, the coffee mug my old roommate made for me - all those items are packed up yet again in a box and will live in my father's attic for an undetermined amount of time. It is a little sad to see my apartment start to be emptied out of my things.
I received a wonderful gift in the mail from my friend Christine, the girl that I'll be staying with when I arrive in the Netherlands in April. She sent me Geert Mak's "Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City," which I've been devouring anytime I get a spare minute. There is nothing that will make me fall more in love with a city than learning its history, and this is a totally new subject for me to learn and obsess over. I fell for the author's writing style when, in the first chapter, he explains the early history of Amsterdam by saying "...the young city drew strength from the fact that it was situated close to so many important cities, at least by the standards of the day. Added to this were factors that so often lead to great success: 1) chance; 2) an invention that was to have momentous consequences; and 3) above all, the stupidity and short-sightedness of others."
In the next two weeks, my main focus has to be wrapping up my life here in New York. My co-workers and supervisors are being incredibly kind and supportive of my decision to leave, and while right now I'm still excited, I have a feeling that my last day at this job is going to be pretty hard. In addition to getting everything in order at work, I need to change my address in a million different places, try and see a doctor, donate all my furniture, and of course buy my tickets to Europe (which I'll do tomorrow after I get paid).
By the way, if anyone is looking for the best deal between New York City and Paris, Air India always has the best prices. There's a daily flight between the two cities, and I'm going to pay a total of $560 USD for roundtrip tickets. They also make it very easy to exchange tickets for a different date and only charge a $75 fee, which isn't actually that much compared to other airlines. Plus, the airline attendants don't think it's weird when you request a vegetarian meal. Being able to change the date for my return trip is important, since I really have no idea when I'll be able to go back to the states. I've randomly picked December 22 2008 as a return date, figuring it would be nice to be home for the holidays - then again, it might be nice to spend the holidays somewhere totally different. It is always cheaper to buy roundtrip tickets and change the return flight rather than buy one-way tickets between the states and Europe.
Though I have been having a great time in New York City lately, this weekend my neighbors were robbed (at knife point) and I had to step over two dead rats on the sidewalk outside my house. It comes with the territory of course, but it is nice to remember all the things I won't miss.
January 3, 2008
Getting ready to leave New York - first Portland, then LA, and finally Amsterdam
I purchased one-way flight tickets from New York City to Portland, Oregon and from Oregon to Los Angeles. I leave New York on the 29th of January, and I'm spending five days in Portland before heading to LA to begin my (temporary) new life as someone who works at an accounting office as of February 4.
While in Portland I'll be meeting with the woman I talked to about a potential job in Amsterdam at an editorial company. Getting in with this company would give me the best chance at a legit way of living and working in the Netherlands and would do wonders for my career, so obviously that is my first choice. The company has their main office in Oregon, a very small operation in NYC, and a growing operation in Amsterdam. I already met someone from the NY office and really fell in love with the entire company and filled my head with all types of wishful thinking.
I also started writing out my application for the Binger Filmlab. From what I can learn about this school, it sounds like a dream. If being accepted meant that I got to apply for a student residence permit, the timing would be perfect. It would also be absolutely amazing to spend five months working intensely on my film in a creative and supportive environment.
In the time between Christmas and the New Year, I really went back and forth a million times about taking this next step. Quitting my job here in New York, moving to the west coast for a few months, planning out my living situation in Amsterdam... it definitely all started to seem a little overwhelming. But what I keep coming back to is this very simple fact: if it doesn't work out, I'll do something else, and that will be okay. If the weather or the flat landscape of the Netherlands depresses me too much, or if I really can't find a way to get the proper permits, or if I run out of money, then I will just simply do something else. I mean, it's possible that I might try to make the film and discover I don't really have the dedication that I think I have, though of course I really hope that's not true.
Here's the thing I've learned after having moved around a bit from city to city, and it's a very simple lesson: I need to allow myself a decent amount of time to figure things out. When I lived in Paris, I honestly never really felt like it was my home until I had been there for about a year. It took about that long to figure out my routine, to find my regular spots, and to stop having to ask questions about the culture/language/policies before doing everything. After about a year, I had been to French doctors, done little things like give directions to other Parisians who would end up lost in my neighborhood, and I found a job. When I moved to New York City - a place I've been visiting my entire life - it took about six months before I felt similarly comfortable. I had to learn a lot of things about this culture that I didn't know that I needed to know, if that makes sense. I had to act like a ten-hour work day was something I was totally familiar with, when in fact I had just moved from a country where I worked about six hours a day max. I had to figure out how to survive without any health insurance, it took months to find an apartment, and everything in NYC is done through favors and friends and knowing the right people. The rules are always bent and things are always just a little (or a lot) illegal, from apartment terms to work conditions.
Living in Paris was originally a six-month experiment that ended up stretching on for almost two years. There was so much I figured out as I went along, and it's been the same for NYC. I thought I would move to NYC and stay for a few years, but after about six months here, everything in my personal life changed and it prompted me to come up with another plan. I love this city and I love the people here, but this isn't the life that I want right now. If you had asked me about a year ago, I would have given a totally different answer.
So what I'm going to do is keep trying to learn as much as I can about living in Amsterdam. I'll keep listening to podcasts on Radio Netherlands and trying to teach myself as much as I can from books, message boards, blogs, and expat communities online. I will save as much money as humanly possible in the next several months and keep working on research for my documentary. However, I know that no amount of research is really going to teach me all the things I'm bound to pick up along the way. No matter what happens, I'll keep this blog updated and hope that someone out there is reading, and maybe even learning through the mistakes that I'm bound to make!
While in Portland I'll be meeting with the woman I talked to about a potential job in Amsterdam at an editorial company. Getting in with this company would give me the best chance at a legit way of living and working in the Netherlands and would do wonders for my career, so obviously that is my first choice. The company has their main office in Oregon, a very small operation in NYC, and a growing operation in Amsterdam. I already met someone from the NY office and really fell in love with the entire company and filled my head with all types of wishful thinking.
I also started writing out my application for the Binger Filmlab. From what I can learn about this school, it sounds like a dream. If being accepted meant that I got to apply for a student residence permit, the timing would be perfect. It would also be absolutely amazing to spend five months working intensely on my film in a creative and supportive environment.
In the time between Christmas and the New Year, I really went back and forth a million times about taking this next step. Quitting my job here in New York, moving to the west coast for a few months, planning out my living situation in Amsterdam... it definitely all started to seem a little overwhelming. But what I keep coming back to is this very simple fact: if it doesn't work out, I'll do something else, and that will be okay. If the weather or the flat landscape of the Netherlands depresses me too much, or if I really can't find a way to get the proper permits, or if I run out of money, then I will just simply do something else. I mean, it's possible that I might try to make the film and discover I don't really have the dedication that I think I have, though of course I really hope that's not true.
Here's the thing I've learned after having moved around a bit from city to city, and it's a very simple lesson: I need to allow myself a decent amount of time to figure things out. When I lived in Paris, I honestly never really felt like it was my home until I had been there for about a year. It took about that long to figure out my routine, to find my regular spots, and to stop having to ask questions about the culture/language/policies before doing everything. After about a year, I had been to French doctors, done little things like give directions to other Parisians who would end up lost in my neighborhood, and I found a job. When I moved to New York City - a place I've been visiting my entire life - it took about six months before I felt similarly comfortable. I had to learn a lot of things about this culture that I didn't know that I needed to know, if that makes sense. I had to act like a ten-hour work day was something I was totally familiar with, when in fact I had just moved from a country where I worked about six hours a day max. I had to figure out how to survive without any health insurance, it took months to find an apartment, and everything in NYC is done through favors and friends and knowing the right people. The rules are always bent and things are always just a little (or a lot) illegal, from apartment terms to work conditions.
Living in Paris was originally a six-month experiment that ended up stretching on for almost two years. There was so much I figured out as I went along, and it's been the same for NYC. I thought I would move to NYC and stay for a few years, but after about six months here, everything in my personal life changed and it prompted me to come up with another plan. I love this city and I love the people here, but this isn't the life that I want right now. If you had asked me about a year ago, I would have given a totally different answer.
So what I'm going to do is keep trying to learn as much as I can about living in Amsterdam. I'll keep listening to podcasts on Radio Netherlands and trying to teach myself as much as I can from books, message boards, blogs, and expat communities online. I will save as much money as humanly possible in the next several months and keep working on research for my documentary. However, I know that no amount of research is really going to teach me all the things I'm bound to pick up along the way. No matter what happens, I'll keep this blog updated and hope that someone out there is reading, and maybe even learning through the mistakes that I'm bound to make!
December 28, 2007
Various Work and Residence Permits in the Netherlands
Trying to find legitimate work as an American anywhere in Europe can be difficult. Right now, the Netherlands has a strong economy and low unemployment rate, and a lot of their business dealings are done in English. If I could get a work permit, I would have a pretty good chance at finding a job – even though I don’t speak Dutch.
I've mentioned this in earlier entries, but there's a basic order of how I need to do things in order to move to Amsterdam. Because I'm American, I do not need to apply for a visa (MVV, or Machtiging voor Voorlopig Verblijf). However, once I'm in Amsterdam, I need to apply for a residence permit. I'll need to have legal residence, proof of income, and a reason for living in Amsterdam other than the fact that I just like all the bikes. That's step one.
If I want a job in Amsterdam, I need a work permit, but how? I'm moving to Amsterdam on my own, just me and my US passport (and my aspirations to make documentary films, but that’s not going to pay the bills). Well, there is something called "de kennismigrant," or a "Knowledge migrant" permit. Expat Law sums up the requirements and rules for this particular permit:
Dutch employers are permitted to hire non-EU nationals without work permits if the following requirements are met:
1. The employer has enrolled in the IND Highly Skilled Migrant Program
2. The job pays a salary that meets or exceeds the minimum annual gross salary requirements which are based on the age of the employee. For 2007, the minimum annual salary requirement is €46,541 for employees 30 years of age or older, and €34,130 for employees younger than 30 years of age. The income criterion does not apply if the employee enters the employment of an educational or research institute as a PhD student, nor does it apply to post-docs and university teachers under 30 years of age.
There's also the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, which basically means that Americans are welcome to move to the Netherlands to start up a (profitable) business. "In contrast to other non-EU nationals who want to work in the Netherlands on a self-employed basis, Americans applying under the treaty do not need to satisfy the 'essential Dutch economic interest' test which is applied to non-EU businesses." There are a lot of requirements to meet, of course, including having at least €4,500 ($6,622 USD) in cash. Again, it's kind of nice to know that this exists, but I don't know if it would really help me. Under the rules of the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, "self-employment activities are only permitted in connection with the business plan." I wouldn’t be allowed to work for other employers (legally). If I get to the point where I want to start a production company, it's great to know that this Treaty exists... but I don't think I'm quite ready for that now.
What I would like to find is some kind of rule that allows me to live in the Netherlands while freelancing for American clients. When I move to Amsterdam in April, I will have enough in savings to get by for a while. According to
The Ministry of Social Affairs & Employment for the Netherlands, the gross minimum wage for everyone over the age of 23 is €1,317 a month (that's $1,938 USD). What if I could prove that I could make that on my own, from American clients? That's only $485 a week. I guess that wouldn't really help me in terms of getting a work permit in Amsterdam, but I wonder if it would help at all in getting a residence permit, at least for a year.
It's so hard to imagine how people learned about all this stuff before the internet.
I've mentioned this in earlier entries, but there's a basic order of how I need to do things in order to move to Amsterdam. Because I'm American, I do not need to apply for a visa (MVV, or Machtiging voor Voorlopig Verblijf). However, once I'm in Amsterdam, I need to apply for a residence permit. I'll need to have legal residence, proof of income, and a reason for living in Amsterdam other than the fact that I just like all the bikes. That's step one.
If I want a job in Amsterdam, I need a work permit, but how? I'm moving to Amsterdam on my own, just me and my US passport (and my aspirations to make documentary films, but that’s not going to pay the bills). Well, there is something called "de kennismigrant," or a "Knowledge migrant" permit. Expat Law sums up the requirements and rules for this particular permit:
Dutch employers are permitted to hire non-EU nationals without work permits if the following requirements are met:
1. The employer has enrolled in the IND Highly Skilled Migrant Program
2. The job pays a salary that meets or exceeds the minimum annual gross salary requirements which are based on the age of the employee. For 2007, the minimum annual salary requirement is €46,541 for employees 30 years of age or older, and €34,130 for employees younger than 30 years of age. The income criterion does not apply if the employee enters the employment of an educational or research institute as a PhD student, nor does it apply to post-docs and university teachers under 30 years of age.
There's also the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, which basically means that Americans are welcome to move to the Netherlands to start up a (profitable) business. "In contrast to other non-EU nationals who want to work in the Netherlands on a self-employed basis, Americans applying under the treaty do not need to satisfy the 'essential Dutch economic interest' test which is applied to non-EU businesses." There are a lot of requirements to meet, of course, including having at least €4,500 ($6,622 USD) in cash. Again, it's kind of nice to know that this exists, but I don't know if it would really help me. Under the rules of the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, "self-employment activities are only permitted in connection with the business plan." I wouldn’t be allowed to work for other employers (legally). If I get to the point where I want to start a production company, it's great to know that this Treaty exists... but I don't think I'm quite ready for that now.
What I would like to find is some kind of rule that allows me to live in the Netherlands while freelancing for American clients. When I move to Amsterdam in April, I will have enough in savings to get by for a while. According to
The Ministry of Social Affairs & Employment for the Netherlands, the gross minimum wage for everyone over the age of 23 is €1,317 a month (that's $1,938 USD). What if I could prove that I could make that on my own, from American clients? That's only $485 a week. I guess that wouldn't really help me in terms of getting a work permit in Amsterdam, but I wonder if it would help at all in getting a residence permit, at least for a year.
It's so hard to imagine how people learned about all this stuff before the internet.
December 20, 2007
Finding an apartment in Amsterdam
I know that once I'm actually in Amsterdam doing the apartment search, I might look back at what I'm about to say and think that I'm insane. I'm kind of excited about looking for apartments in Amsterdam.
Anyone who does about five minutes of research on living in Amsterdam finds out very quickly that it's "impossible" to find an apartment. There's a huge housing shortage, the Netherlands is a small and overcrowded country, people are on waiting lists for years and years to get a place, etc.
But I'm telling you, spend two years in Paris and then over a year in New York City (in two different apartments), and the thing that will excite you is the fact that renting in Amsterdam isn't that expensive. It's not cheap, don't get me wrong. However, I've been combing through ads on a million different websites and one thing remains clear: for what I pay to live in crappy neighborhood in Brooklyn ($650 USD/453 Euros, plus utilities), I could live in a bigger, nicer apartment in Amsterdam. I'm not planning to find my own apartment; instead I'll try a flatshare situation so that I have roommates. Even that excites me - I have great roommate history and I would like to live with some other international types.
The state of the US dollar is an unfortunate issue. Two years ago $650 was more like 530€. Ouch.
Here in Brooklyn, people think that I'm lucky that I found a place so cheap. Again, I want to emphasize that my neighborhood isn't very nice and my apartment is very small and very run down - I don't even have windows in my bedroom. I know that finding a room for 450€ in Amsterdam won't be simple, but it's possible. It wouldn't be remotely possible in Paris at all. Since Amsterdam is such a small city compared to what I'm used to, I don't feel the need to be right in the center. It's such a short bike ride to get anywhere, and other than the two years I spent living in Philadelphia, I've never felt the need to live right in the middle of everything.
Just today I saw an ad for a room - 16 sq meters, 550€ a month, near station Vlugtlaan, and it included those lovely key words - registration possible. If I want to live legally in Amsterdam, I need a residence permit. And to get that permit, I need a legal residence. Technically I'm supposed to have the address pretty much the day I step in the country and apply for the permit with 8 days, but I don't think that is realistically going to happen. Instead I'll stay with a friend in Amsterdam and give myself three months (for three months I can just be there with a passport) to find a place. When the time comes to apply for the permit, I'll say "of course, I just moved to Amsterdam two days ago. I arrived from Paris and came to Amsterdam in a car." Since I'll be flying into Paris, I'll have the plane tickets as proof (if necessary).
This is going to be an interesting experiment. Will finding an affordable room in Amsterdam REALLY be more difficult than finding an affordable room in NYC or Paris? I'll find out this spring!
Slightly off-topic, but important: Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are becoming part of the Schengen area, which means that there is now a 24-nation border-free zone in the European Union. This is good news for anyone traveling in Europe!
Anyone who does about five minutes of research on living in Amsterdam finds out very quickly that it's "impossible" to find an apartment. There's a huge housing shortage, the Netherlands is a small and overcrowded country, people are on waiting lists for years and years to get a place, etc.
But I'm telling you, spend two years in Paris and then over a year in New York City (in two different apartments), and the thing that will excite you is the fact that renting in Amsterdam isn't that expensive. It's not cheap, don't get me wrong. However, I've been combing through ads on a million different websites and one thing remains clear: for what I pay to live in crappy neighborhood in Brooklyn ($650 USD/453 Euros, plus utilities), I could live in a bigger, nicer apartment in Amsterdam. I'm not planning to find my own apartment; instead I'll try a flatshare situation so that I have roommates. Even that excites me - I have great roommate history and I would like to live with some other international types.
The state of the US dollar is an unfortunate issue. Two years ago $650 was more like 530€. Ouch.
Here in Brooklyn, people think that I'm lucky that I found a place so cheap. Again, I want to emphasize that my neighborhood isn't very nice and my apartment is very small and very run down - I don't even have windows in my bedroom. I know that finding a room for 450€ in Amsterdam won't be simple, but it's possible. It wouldn't be remotely possible in Paris at all. Since Amsterdam is such a small city compared to what I'm used to, I don't feel the need to be right in the center. It's such a short bike ride to get anywhere, and other than the two years I spent living in Philadelphia, I've never felt the need to live right in the middle of everything.
Just today I saw an ad for a room - 16 sq meters, 550€ a month, near station Vlugtlaan, and it included those lovely key words - registration possible. If I want to live legally in Amsterdam, I need a residence permit. And to get that permit, I need a legal residence. Technically I'm supposed to have the address pretty much the day I step in the country and apply for the permit with 8 days, but I don't think that is realistically going to happen. Instead I'll stay with a friend in Amsterdam and give myself three months (for three months I can just be there with a passport) to find a place. When the time comes to apply for the permit, I'll say "of course, I just moved to Amsterdam two days ago. I arrived from Paris and came to Amsterdam in a car." Since I'll be flying into Paris, I'll have the plane tickets as proof (if necessary).
This is going to be an interesting experiment. Will finding an affordable room in Amsterdam REALLY be more difficult than finding an affordable room in NYC or Paris? I'll find out this spring!
Slightly off-topic, but important: Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are becoming part of the Schengen area, which means that there is now a 24-nation border-free zone in the European Union. This is good news for anyone traveling in Europe!
December 12, 2007
Inspiration from Philadelphia
This past Saturday (December 8) I was running (well, biking) all over Philadelphia from one event to another. I started off at Molly's Bookstore in the Italian Market, where Big Tea Party was having their 10th-anniversary celebration and fundraiser. They had a great crowd come out, and the small bookstore was packed with activists, artists, filmmakers, musicians, etc.
I was happy to see someone I knew from back in the day, Ellen, come in to the room. As we started talking I caught her up on what I'm up to (living in Brooklyn and working in TV post-production) and what I'm planning in the near future. Part of me remains a little scared that that no one will take me or my plans seriously, but I shouldn't have been worried about something like that while I was at a fundraiser for an anarchist cooking/crafts/activist show. So I began talking in more detail about why I want to live in Amsterdam and the documentary that I want to make - and Ellen's response is "I did that exact same thing!"
I'm going to guess Ellen is about 40 years old. When she was younger, she decided to move to Paris with her boyfriend for no real specific reason (hey, me too!). Then she took a 3-day trip to Amsterdam, fell in love with that city, and relocated. She stayed for about five years, had her son there, and had a great story about living on a houseboat. She's currently a video production instructor in Philadelphia and also makes her own documentaries. Both of us shared pretty much the exact same views on why Paris is great but we don't want to live there and why Amsterdam is such an appealing city. As I talked in a little more detail about exactly what I want to do with the documentary, a guy says "sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you were talking about Sarajevo - I did some shooting (with a camera, just to be clear) there in the past." So now I'm in this amazing conversation with an American documentary filmmaker who has lived in Paris and Amsterdam, and this guy who has experience shooting throughout Sarajevo, and they're both telling me that I should absolutely move back to Europe and make my documentary. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" the guy (whose name I forget, dammit) said.
"28," I replied.
"Oh, you're still a baby! Of course you have to do this," was his response.
In my head, I silently thanked him for thinking of me as someone who is still a kid. Every so often I get an irrational fear in my head that I have waited too long, that I should have been out there when I was 18 years old. I should know more languages and I should have traveled to more places by now, and maybe it's too late and I should just stay in New York City and work myself into the ground trying to become a bigshot in TV production. But then I attend events like the Big Tea Party fundraiser, and I'm surrounded by people like Elizabeth, who will be celebrating her 50th birthday this year and is still just as passionate and daring as any 18-year-old. These people are still traveling, still protesting, still activists, and still have time to encourage me to do the same. I feel very grateful to have such amazing role models in my life.
It's always been hard for me to be patient, but I really want to do it right this time around. This is the good part about being 28, and not 22 - I simply know a little more now. I know that my first priority in Amsterdam must be figuring out a way to live there legally with a proper residence permit. I know that is going to be very, very difficult. The first few months I'm there - well, I have no idea what it will be like, but it won't all be sunshine and roses and bike rides and apple strudels. There will be mountains of paperwork, bureaucracy rules that I'm not used to, and the very real fact that I don't have a lot of friends living there right now that I can lean on for support. But when I do have all my paperwork in order and I've obtained the residence permit and gotten myself a place to live (and I don't doubt that I will be able to do all of that), I'm sure I will have made a few more friends along the way, and I'll toast to the next phase in my life.
I was happy to see someone I knew from back in the day, Ellen, come in to the room. As we started talking I caught her up on what I'm up to (living in Brooklyn and working in TV post-production) and what I'm planning in the near future. Part of me remains a little scared that that no one will take me or my plans seriously, but I shouldn't have been worried about something like that while I was at a fundraiser for an anarchist cooking/crafts/activist show. So I began talking in more detail about why I want to live in Amsterdam and the documentary that I want to make - and Ellen's response is "I did that exact same thing!"
I'm going to guess Ellen is about 40 years old. When she was younger, she decided to move to Paris with her boyfriend for no real specific reason (hey, me too!). Then she took a 3-day trip to Amsterdam, fell in love with that city, and relocated. She stayed for about five years, had her son there, and had a great story about living on a houseboat. She's currently a video production instructor in Philadelphia and also makes her own documentaries. Both of us shared pretty much the exact same views on why Paris is great but we don't want to live there and why Amsterdam is such an appealing city. As I talked in a little more detail about exactly what I want to do with the documentary, a guy says "sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you were talking about Sarajevo - I did some shooting (with a camera, just to be clear) there in the past." So now I'm in this amazing conversation with an American documentary filmmaker who has lived in Paris and Amsterdam, and this guy who has experience shooting throughout Sarajevo, and they're both telling me that I should absolutely move back to Europe and make my documentary. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" the guy (whose name I forget, dammit) said.
"28," I replied.
"Oh, you're still a baby! Of course you have to do this," was his response.
In my head, I silently thanked him for thinking of me as someone who is still a kid. Every so often I get an irrational fear in my head that I have waited too long, that I should have been out there when I was 18 years old. I should know more languages and I should have traveled to more places by now, and maybe it's too late and I should just stay in New York City and work myself into the ground trying to become a bigshot in TV production. But then I attend events like the Big Tea Party fundraiser, and I'm surrounded by people like Elizabeth, who will be celebrating her 50th birthday this year and is still just as passionate and daring as any 18-year-old. These people are still traveling, still protesting, still activists, and still have time to encourage me to do the same. I feel very grateful to have such amazing role models in my life.
It's always been hard for me to be patient, but I really want to do it right this time around. This is the good part about being 28, and not 22 - I simply know a little more now. I know that my first priority in Amsterdam must be figuring out a way to live there legally with a proper residence permit. I know that is going to be very, very difficult. The first few months I'm there - well, I have no idea what it will be like, but it won't all be sunshine and roses and bike rides and apple strudels. There will be mountains of paperwork, bureaucracy rules that I'm not used to, and the very real fact that I don't have a lot of friends living there right now that I can lean on for support. But when I do have all my paperwork in order and I've obtained the residence permit and gotten myself a place to live (and I don't doubt that I will be able to do all of that), I'm sure I will have made a few more friends along the way, and I'll toast to the next phase in my life.
December 7, 2007
Talking about another city that is below sea level
This post doesn't have much to do with moving to Amsterdam. If you've been following this blog than you probably noticed I've been writing a lot about the documentary I want to make (which is a huge reason for my move to the Netherlands). My inspiration to be a documentary filmmaker only grows stronger when I watch films like Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke. Though Hurricane Katrina is at the center of the story, it's really a film about New Orleans and how that city fits in to the rest of the United States. And that being said, it's a film about the United States that I don't think the rest of the world has ever really seen before.
I was visiting the US (from Paris) and staying with friends in Philadelphia when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I consider myself someone who is relatively familiar with NOLA as a visitor. I've been there three or four times, never to just be a tourist, but always because I had friends who lived there. I've stayed in the real houses and apartments, I knew how to get around, I had my favorite bar (The Funky Butt, which closed several years ago), I knew where I liked to shop, etc.
Watching Katrina destroy New Orleans on the news broke my heart. I knew what it meant to have stagnant water just sitting there in a city that is already below sea level. I thought about the disgusting humidity that all Southerners deal with in the late summer, the mosquitoes, the rats, the snakes.... I knew that NOLA had pretty much become an open sewer. Everyone I knew in New Orleans had air conditioning, even if they lived in a run down, cheap, tiny studio apartment and were making minimum wage. There was just no way to survive that heat and humidity without it. Obviously, the electricity was down for days after Katrina, so there was no relief from the heat. The heat... god, I remember being in New Orleans in the summertime and taking three or four showers a day, changing my clothes all the time, and feeling exhausted just walking down the street to the next air-conditioned restaurant. It can become sweltering - average temperatures for August are 90 (32 celsius), and the humidity often makes it feel like it's over 100 (over 37 celsius). Imagine that type of environment buried under water so deep that it covered houses. It became absolutely toxic.
When I got back to Paris in early September 2005, all of my friends - or even just people in the neighborhood who knew I was American (like the guy who worked at the fruit & vegetable market I frequented) - asked about Katrina right away. They all said the same thing "But... really? Is it really that bad? Are you okay? Did it happen near you?" Their concern was absolutely genuine. Then they would say "But how did it happen? I mean, it's the USA, you are a rich country...and it looks like the whole city was just destroyed.. How is that possible? Are people really left for dead in the street? In the US?"
Yes. THAT is the real United States. That is what my non-American friends don't see in Hollywood movies or on MTV or read about in magazines. People walked for miles and miles in the sweltering heat without food or water to try and leave the city on foot if they didn't have a car... and were told AT GUNPOINT to turn around and go back. Dead bodies of humans, dogs, rats, etc., were left wherever they fell for days. Almost makes it sound like a war, huh? Especially when the media started calling the millions of people - the millions of American citizens who lost their homes - "refugees." The dictionary definition of a refugee is "a person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc."
Political upheaval, war, etc. I guess "a bad hurricane that everyone knew was coming" falls under "etc." This wasn't exactly a surprise. The hurricane was a category five. Scientists knew the levees could break.
Come on! How are we one of the richest countries in the world, with a super powerful army, big enough to go in and invade/occupy other countries, important enough to world politics so that our presidential election is front page news all over the world... how can all that be true, yet we can still call well-educated, tax-paying, American born and raised citizens "refugees?" Well, maybe it's because as I watched these people try to get the bare necessities for survival (food, water, shelter), I realized they couldn't. Maybe because they weren't free to walk across a bridge on American soil, from one town to the next. Maybe because after days and days of being trapped, when people did get out on planes they had no idea where they were flying. Maybe because ... there wasn't much difference between New Orleans residents in 2005 and real refugees in war-torn countries.
The way the US federal government failed to react to Katrina did not surprise me a bit. But I can understand why other people just simply didn't get it, especially if they've never been to the US. I understand the confusion. This documentary explains the history, explains the storm, and shows the aftermath with brutal honesty. My eyes kept welling up with tears when I wasn't fuming with anger.
When the Levees Broke was released by HBO in December 2006. I don't know why I waited so long to watch it, and if anyone reading hasn't already seen this film... put it at the top of your priority list. And if you have already seen the documentary... stay angry.
I was visiting the US (from Paris) and staying with friends in Philadelphia when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I consider myself someone who is relatively familiar with NOLA as a visitor. I've been there three or four times, never to just be a tourist, but always because I had friends who lived there. I've stayed in the real houses and apartments, I knew how to get around, I had my favorite bar (The Funky Butt, which closed several years ago), I knew where I liked to shop, etc.
Watching Katrina destroy New Orleans on the news broke my heart. I knew what it meant to have stagnant water just sitting there in a city that is already below sea level. I thought about the disgusting humidity that all Southerners deal with in the late summer, the mosquitoes, the rats, the snakes.... I knew that NOLA had pretty much become an open sewer. Everyone I knew in New Orleans had air conditioning, even if they lived in a run down, cheap, tiny studio apartment and were making minimum wage. There was just no way to survive that heat and humidity without it. Obviously, the electricity was down for days after Katrina, so there was no relief from the heat. The heat... god, I remember being in New Orleans in the summertime and taking three or four showers a day, changing my clothes all the time, and feeling exhausted just walking down the street to the next air-conditioned restaurant. It can become sweltering - average temperatures for August are 90 (32 celsius), and the humidity often makes it feel like it's over 100 (over 37 celsius). Imagine that type of environment buried under water so deep that it covered houses. It became absolutely toxic.
When I got back to Paris in early September 2005, all of my friends - or even just people in the neighborhood who knew I was American (like the guy who worked at the fruit & vegetable market I frequented) - asked about Katrina right away. They all said the same thing "But... really? Is it really that bad? Are you okay? Did it happen near you?" Their concern was absolutely genuine. Then they would say "But how did it happen? I mean, it's the USA, you are a rich country...and it looks like the whole city was just destroyed.. How is that possible? Are people really left for dead in the street? In the US?"
Yes. THAT is the real United States. That is what my non-American friends don't see in Hollywood movies or on MTV or read about in magazines. People walked for miles and miles in the sweltering heat without food or water to try and leave the city on foot if they didn't have a car... and were told AT GUNPOINT to turn around and go back. Dead bodies of humans, dogs, rats, etc., were left wherever they fell for days. Almost makes it sound like a war, huh? Especially when the media started calling the millions of people - the millions of American citizens who lost their homes - "refugees." The dictionary definition of a refugee is "a person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc."
Political upheaval, war, etc. I guess "a bad hurricane that everyone knew was coming" falls under "etc." This wasn't exactly a surprise. The hurricane was a category five. Scientists knew the levees could break.
Come on! How are we one of the richest countries in the world, with a super powerful army, big enough to go in and invade/occupy other countries, important enough to world politics so that our presidential election is front page news all over the world... how can all that be true, yet we can still call well-educated, tax-paying, American born and raised citizens "refugees?" Well, maybe it's because as I watched these people try to get the bare necessities for survival (food, water, shelter), I realized they couldn't. Maybe because they weren't free to walk across a bridge on American soil, from one town to the next. Maybe because after days and days of being trapped, when people did get out on planes they had no idea where they were flying. Maybe because ... there wasn't much difference between New Orleans residents in 2005 and real refugees in war-torn countries.
The way the US federal government failed to react to Katrina did not surprise me a bit. But I can understand why other people just simply didn't get it, especially if they've never been to the US. I understand the confusion. This documentary explains the history, explains the storm, and shows the aftermath with brutal honesty. My eyes kept welling up with tears when I wasn't fuming with anger.
When the Levees Broke was released by HBO in December 2006. I don't know why I waited so long to watch it, and if anyone reading hasn't already seen this film... put it at the top of your priority list. And if you have already seen the documentary... stay angry.
November 29, 2007
Documentary talk
The 20th annual International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam is taking place now. It began on Nov 22 and lasts through December 2. Eleven straight days of documentary screenings... I've been dreaming of attending this festival for years. It's just one more thing that appeals to me about living in Amsterdam - for such a small city, there's so much going on.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I finally got my hands on a camera and did some taping. It felt great to be behind the camera for my own project again ... It's literally been years since I've done that. It's very small scale stuff, but it taught me a great deal. For instance, every time I use the Sony HDV camera it's always too dark. Always. I need to stop assuming that what I see through the LCD screen is what I'll see on a regular TV screen. I realize that even though I'm using this swanky, somewhat hi-tech camera, in my head I'm operating on the same rules that I learned when I first started learning how to film oh... seven years ago. I love video and am in no way a "film is better" snob, but I understand film in a way that I don't understand video. When I'm adjusting the f-stop on the video camera, my mind almost always starts thinking about what f-stop I would use if I was looking through the lens of a B&W 35mm film camera or a bolex 16mm.
The only thing that that will get me up to speed and thinking digitally is practice, so that's what I'm doing. I'll be editing all weekend and my goal is to have something finished by mid-December.
I am pleased with some aspects of my filming. For instance, the sound is really great and everything seems pretty much in focus (doesn't sound like much, but I consider that an accomplishment!). I was able to make my subjects feel comfortable in front of the camera (and was lucky enough to work with people who weren't camera shy!). I had to ask some very sensitive questions during one of my interviews and wasn't sure if I would be able to get through it without reacting, but while I had the camera running I stayed very focused on the task at hand. I saved all the reaction for after I turned the camera off.
So back to the topic of living in Amsterdam... Even though it would obviously be easier for me (logistically and financially) to live there with a real job and have some kind of work permit, there's still a part of me that just wants to live off savings and a bit of freelance work while I actively pursue trying to get into the Binger Filmlab for September 2008. I actually just realized they also offer a Documentary Directors Coaching Programme, which may be more up my alley rather than the Creative Producers Programme.
All of the options in front of me are good ones, I just have to wait and see what happens. November flew by at the speed of light, and I hope the same is true for the next four months!
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I finally got my hands on a camera and did some taping. It felt great to be behind the camera for my own project again ... It's literally been years since I've done that. It's very small scale stuff, but it taught me a great deal. For instance, every time I use the Sony HDV camera it's always too dark. Always. I need to stop assuming that what I see through the LCD screen is what I'll see on a regular TV screen. I realize that even though I'm using this swanky, somewhat hi-tech camera, in my head I'm operating on the same rules that I learned when I first started learning how to film oh... seven years ago. I love video and am in no way a "film is better" snob, but I understand film in a way that I don't understand video. When I'm adjusting the f-stop on the video camera, my mind almost always starts thinking about what f-stop I would use if I was looking through the lens of a B&W 35mm film camera or a bolex 16mm.
The only thing that that will get me up to speed and thinking digitally is practice, so that's what I'm doing. I'll be editing all weekend and my goal is to have something finished by mid-December.
I am pleased with some aspects of my filming. For instance, the sound is really great and everything seems pretty much in focus (doesn't sound like much, but I consider that an accomplishment!). I was able to make my subjects feel comfortable in front of the camera (and was lucky enough to work with people who weren't camera shy!). I had to ask some very sensitive questions during one of my interviews and wasn't sure if I would be able to get through it without reacting, but while I had the camera running I stayed very focused on the task at hand. I saved all the reaction for after I turned the camera off.
So back to the topic of living in Amsterdam... Even though it would obviously be easier for me (logistically and financially) to live there with a real job and have some kind of work permit, there's still a part of me that just wants to live off savings and a bit of freelance work while I actively pursue trying to get into the Binger Filmlab for September 2008. I actually just realized they also offer a Documentary Directors Coaching Programme, which may be more up my alley rather than the Creative Producers Programme.
All of the options in front of me are good ones, I just have to wait and see what happens. November flew by at the speed of light, and I hope the same is true for the next four months!
November 16, 2007
Inching closer
Lots of exciting work-related and documentary-related stuff going on, and fortunately both of those things are pushing me closer to Amsterdam. I had a meeting with someone from this commercial post-production editorial company that I have my eye on - the agency with offices in both Portland, OR and Amsterdam (and a very small operation in NYC). It went really well, and getting in with this company would be a really huge step in the right direction for my career AND my goal to live in Amsterdam. Right now all I can really do is hope for the best and keep on top of the situation.
Ideally, I could freelance in Portland for this company for a few months, and in the off time I would go to LA and do the office job. That would really be the absolute best-case scenario. Experience, money, the chance to live in a new city, the chance to move ahead in the lovely world of post-production.. it's all really exciting to consider.
Last weekend I went down to my old hometown, Philadelphia PA. I was lucky enough to have a long lunch with my former boss, Gretjen. I worked for her as the Program Assistant for a non-profit cinema for several years, and value her advice and input more than just about anyone. She's made really important documentaries, she's fought for public access to come to Philly, and she's currently the Program Director for Scribe Video Center. By the time we were done with our meal, I felt like I had real direction. I know what I have to do next (WRITE!), I have an idea how much money I need to raise, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go the fiscal sponsorship route rather than trying to start my own non-profit business. Gretjen's advice and guidance really means the world to me, and I spent hours on Saturday writing and researching. Very, very productive.
I also spent time in Philadelphia with good friends that I don't get to see too often. Over brunch one day, my friends were asking me all sorts of questions about Amsterdam - mostly practical questions like how much I expect to pay in rent. It felt really good to have an answer (or at least a very educated guess) to everything I was asked. I really have done my research! The more I tell people, the more I get "oh, I have a friend/cousin/brother/ in Amsterdam, I'll get you in touch with him/her if you want." Yes! I do want that! I got back in touch this Dutch guy Marcel, who was my Hospitality Club host during my third visit to Amsterdam in September 2006. Right away, he said "you are welcome at my house." That's an invitation I certainly won't turn down when the time comes. When I stayed at Marcel's apartment, that was the first time I saw "real" Amsterdam and completely fell in love with it. I didn't know at the time that I would end up planning to move there, of course, but it all kind of seems to make sense now.
Ideally, I could freelance in Portland for this company for a few months, and in the off time I would go to LA and do the office job. That would really be the absolute best-case scenario. Experience, money, the chance to live in a new city, the chance to move ahead in the lovely world of post-production.. it's all really exciting to consider.
Last weekend I went down to my old hometown, Philadelphia PA. I was lucky enough to have a long lunch with my former boss, Gretjen. I worked for her as the Program Assistant for a non-profit cinema for several years, and value her advice and input more than just about anyone. She's made really important documentaries, she's fought for public access to come to Philly, and she's currently the Program Director for Scribe Video Center. By the time we were done with our meal, I felt like I had real direction. I know what I have to do next (WRITE!), I have an idea how much money I need to raise, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go the fiscal sponsorship route rather than trying to start my own non-profit business. Gretjen's advice and guidance really means the world to me, and I spent hours on Saturday writing and researching. Very, very productive.
I also spent time in Philadelphia with good friends that I don't get to see too often. Over brunch one day, my friends were asking me all sorts of questions about Amsterdam - mostly practical questions like how much I expect to pay in rent. It felt really good to have an answer (or at least a very educated guess) to everything I was asked. I really have done my research! The more I tell people, the more I get "oh, I have a friend/cousin/brother/ in Amsterdam, I'll get you in touch with him/her if you want." Yes! I do want that! I got back in touch this Dutch guy Marcel, who was my Hospitality Club host during my third visit to Amsterdam in September 2006. Right away, he said "you are welcome at my house." That's an invitation I certainly won't turn down when the time comes. When I stayed at Marcel's apartment, that was the first time I saw "real" Amsterdam and completely fell in love with it. I didn't know at the time that I would end up planning to move there, of course, but it all kind of seems to make sense now.
November 3, 2007
Organizational habits
This past week was particularly crazy, between work and Halloween and just general ... craziness. So I took a few days "off" from my obsessive need to plan out this move. I genuinely like planning and making charts and spreadsheets and organizing notes and coming up with backup plans and backup-backup plans. It's what makes me good at my job, and hopefully means I'll be a good producer. I'm also sure this is a direct result of me being my mother's daughter - she sent me two different spreadsheets to explain how much money I could expect to make if I go to work at her company for 8 weeks with everything worked out to the penny.
Moving to Los Angeles for 8-10 weeks is still on the table, but I also had another option pop up out of nowhere early in the week. A friend of mine told me about an editorial house that had offices in Portland and Amsterdam. She had met with someone while she was in Portland a few months back and said "hey, you might as well see if they have anything." A company that has offices in both the US and the Netherlands is a dream situation. I sent the company my resume and a short email, and they responded quickly and quite positively. There is a position they need filled in Amsterdam, working with a young editor from NYC - seems to good to be true! I had a really great phone call on Monday and since then I've been going back and forth with emailing the woman who runs the Portland office. It's possible I could have a job in the Amsterdam office sometime next year, but of course, it's also possible that nothing could come from all of this talk and I'll end up working full time in LA... but what a great set of options!
I'm using my Amsterdam-Paris train ticket as a bookmark (since I'm still reading the same book I was reading when I was there last month), and every time I see it I get excited. Beyond my dreams of being a documentary filmmaker and my career goals, I just love knowing that I'll be back in Europe. I'll finally make it over to Poland to visit my friends out there, I'll get to spend more time in Germany, and maybe one day soon I'll even be able to afford a visit to those pricey Scandinavian countries. Paris will be just four short hours away by train and I'll be living in one of my favorite cities in the world. That makes all this planning worth it!
Moving to Los Angeles for 8-10 weeks is still on the table, but I also had another option pop up out of nowhere early in the week. A friend of mine told me about an editorial house that had offices in Portland and Amsterdam. She had met with someone while she was in Portland a few months back and said "hey, you might as well see if they have anything." A company that has offices in both the US and the Netherlands is a dream situation. I sent the company my resume and a short email, and they responded quickly and quite positively. There is a position they need filled in Amsterdam, working with a young editor from NYC - seems to good to be true! I had a really great phone call on Monday and since then I've been going back and forth with emailing the woman who runs the Portland office. It's possible I could have a job in the Amsterdam office sometime next year, but of course, it's also possible that nothing could come from all of this talk and I'll end up working full time in LA... but what a great set of options!
I'm using my Amsterdam-Paris train ticket as a bookmark (since I'm still reading the same book I was reading when I was there last month), and every time I see it I get excited. Beyond my dreams of being a documentary filmmaker and my career goals, I just love knowing that I'll be back in Europe. I'll finally make it over to Poland to visit my friends out there, I'll get to spend more time in Germany, and maybe one day soon I'll even be able to afford a visit to those pricey Scandinavian countries. Paris will be just four short hours away by train and I'll be living in one of my favorite cities in the world. That makes all this planning worth it!
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