Renting a house and all that

Today I paid the renting agency (Nijestee - pronounced as knee-ye-stay) via web transfer. It took a heck of my time, because the entire webpage was in Dutch. I was using Google translator to translate each and every page and line to make sure I was following the right procedure.

Ramesh will keep looking for his house to appear on the renting company's webpage (should appear this week). That will help to locate and register for this same house ( Polderstraat 28, Groningen : search on google maps for a picture) that he stayed in. We could compensate him for his furniture, house-hold items, floorings, washing machine, fridge and the rest. At Euro 710, it is still quite a bargain, since it is in the heart of Groningen city.

Talking about renting a house: I was about to register on muuse.nl for house search. They asked for Burgerservicenummer. What do you think that is? NOTHING to do with burgers! :-)   It is their equivalent of citizen number, like US Social Security Number or SIN number of Canada (and what is going to be Nilkani Number in India)

I have started scratching around for my work, I fired up PRESTO program today. Without a proper manual, or anyone to guide me through it, it is going to be a hard-ball.

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In ASTRON

Here I am with a couple of pictures of myself having some coffee and fruits. I am uploading them via a wifi connection (Note for Arsh: it works at 600 KBPS :p )



On my rear side is the office building of ASTRON, where I work.



In front is dense woods of Dwingeloo National Forest.




Our guest house can be seen on the left above, or in the photo below.

Banking, Mobile, Cycling, and Amsterdam's famous street.

My bank deals with me entirely in Dutch, except for a few hand gestures and English terms. In fact, if google translator page could pronounce its output, it would do a better job of it. So, the webpage is in dutch, their manual is in dutch, thankfully their currency is still Euro. No credit cards for me, perhaps i should migrate to ABN Amro, which speaks English and would offer a credit card too.

Mobile: one needs to choose carriers, all of which have similar rates. The international calls are terribly expensive, in fact it is cheaper to call from India to Holland and I should pay my friends and relatives for calling me up. They can call me names, but whatever...

Cycling is national way of living, or peddling. One can even peddle drugs, real ones (Marjuana, cocaine), i am not sure in how large quantities.

And, I am yet to see Amsterdam this time. So, I will update you on your question about the R** light area soon.

Going Dutch -- 1

Here I am in the middle of a Dutch reserve forest, next to an abandoned dish, which surveyed Hydrogen in the Milky Way while overlooking vast fields of potatoes, corn, millet, etc. After office hours, the only ones that make an eye contact are occasional cyclists, if I choose to walk on the long forest roads. The nights are so silent, I am told that some Americans can not sleep well due to lack of usual hustle-bustle. Remember Pushpak movie, anyone?

Well, everything goes as per some appointment, I am told. So, I had an appointment with our secretaries here, to decide the course of my life in Holland. Then I had an appointment with the bank, RABO-Bank, Dwingeloo. Now, I have an appointment on Monday to visit the town-hall to obtain my residential document. Then I will be residing in Holland legally for more than 3 months, as it appears on my visa papers. Today I should make an appointment to meet some companies in Groningen, in order to see some houses/ apartments.

Renting is not a straight-forward game in Holland. Government knows everything about you before allowing you a house on rent or purchase. The procedure involves companies that would hunt houses for you, you can not find owners directly. The companies would ask you to register, and then view houses. There is a waiting list on this register, and you are offered houses in that order. If you do not like 4 houses that they offer you, you have to register again, and lose on your priority number, so this is a BIG deal. For all this mess, companies charge you one month of rent as their own fee.

Houses/ apartments come in various catagories: un-upholstered (no floors, no furniture, no amenities), upholstered (no furniture, amenities), furnished (with furniture and other stuff). One has to see what is left by previous owners/ renters. Most of the times, renters carry flooring (wood panels or tiles), wall paintings/ furnishings, and other amenities with them (like shelves in kitchen etc). Sometimes they do not take everything (may leave behind a wash basin for you to use, I am kidding, of course). I may need to fix all that in an apartment.

So, I am asked to wait and watch, this is going to be a Dutch Roulette, if there was indeed such a game :-)