Good things

Just this year I counted seven flights that I have been on. Five of which were purely for immigration purposes. Now, I'm not writing this post to hate on the immigration policies or  the people working for that part of the government in any way but gosh how happy I am to be out of it for now! Yes you got it my visa has finally arrived and my last mandatory trip, this time to Singapore, has come to an end. In order to get a second tourist visa after staying in Perth for three months I left for bali just over three months ago. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on how different two countries so close to one and other are. Bali, while hot and humid just like Singapore was definitely less urbanized, clean and organised. Although both countries smelled a lot like the pungent sweet and sour fruit durian. While I was in Bali I tried the creamy smelly fruit and decided it wasn't my cup of tea, but then walking through Singapore you get confronted with the smell wherever you go, except on public transport. Singapore's public transport was absolutely fantastic. There were signs all around stating the amount of the fine you would receive if you would eat or drink in any of the public transport station and trains. Just FYI it ranged from S$500  to S$1000. This, no doubt, contributed to the cleanliness of the stations. The cleanliness and the asian feel, smell and shops reminded me more than just a little of Japan and in particular Tokyo. The tall buildings and the large amount of people on their perfectly timed public transportation made me feel homesick for a country I haven't been to in years. This all compared to Bali where public transport was pretty non-existent and all transportation was done with taxis and illegal rides on the back of scooters.  Scooters which flooded the streets and were a big part of the scenery on every road. As a place to stay in Singapore I chose a Hostel for Backpackers on Lavender street. The room had four beds and was only meant for women. The WiFi was included and there was free toast with jam and coffee available in the mornings. The nightly fees were very reasonable and the city was only two train stops away. All around the city there were massive malls filled with restaurants, for me it wasn't difficult to pick Japanese cuisine often but for anyone else the choice could be overwhelming. All in all I would say Singapore has been a positive experience and I even met some people who I could consider friends.

However, I must say, the best part of all was coming back to Perth after five days and having received my partner visa. As soon as I got back I started applying for jobs, I got a bank account now and once I get the bankpas I can get my drivers license changed to a Western Australian one. Ah how good it is to be a recognised resident as I'm sure Nombeko could relate although her case is much more extreme.

Immigration is always so intimidating.

On a different note I would like to introduce you all to our new friends: Ajax and Emma (cats). It's been so nice to have them around in our very own apartment. I have a lot of things to be happy and grateful for lately and I couldn't have gotten here without the help of the people I love. My mind has gone to some dark and pessimistic places in the last year or so but right now I really can't complain about much (I'm sure I can find something if I try really hard). Let's just hope things will only get better right?

Ajax is white with a ginger tail!

Also one last anecdote I would like to share, I had a dream last night where my boyfriend got a new job and they were making him sign an agreement where he would have to pay 50 dollars a day to have his uniform cleaned. I thought this was absolutely unacceptable so I had an argument with his boss which ended with him punching me in the face. I reported it to the police and decided to sue them for millions of dollars!  Ha! I didn't know I had turned into an American.

Lots of Love

Progress

In the Netherlands we have a law that states that houses or office buildings or really any liveable building for that matter cannot be empty for longer than 6 months. Housing is a major problem in the Netherlands so I think this is a really good law. Because of this law something called anti-squatting has become very popular. In Amsterdam there is one company that does most of the anti-squatting placements. It basically means that the owner of a house tells this company to find someone to live in their property temporarily. You barely pay any rent but in exchange they can kick you out every 28 days. There has been a registration stop for Amsterdam because it's so popular and in demand there just isn't enough housing. But sometimes this company posts on facebook that they have property available and you write an application letter convincing them why you deserve a place to stay. You have to have an income and no children or pets are allowed. They posted a place and I decided to go for it and write them a letter about our situation. We were invited the very next day for an intake interview. They told us at the interview that they had a place available for us and that we had to move in there within 12 hours. Without ever seeing the property we agreed and signed the contract. To this day I am so incredibly thankful to that company for giving us a place to stay. It turned out to be a house with a garden and everything. It is a great place to live and our neighbours are lovely. However we still had the problem of my boyfriends visa. I knew that after 6 months we were going to have to move to England or Australia because there was no way a job would come along that was willing to sponsor him to stay in the Netherlands. I decided to just be happy that we had a place and live in the moment.

We moved a couple of days later – we were required by law to place a chair, a table and a bed the same day that we got the key and signed the contract. We even went to the city hall the very same day and signed up as the new inhabitants. - Slowly but surely we made the place our home. We weren't allowed to drill of paint so we had to think of some creative ways to cover the windows and the empty concrete wall. We hung a massive map of the world on the ugly wall and stapled some fabric to the wood above the windows. 

This is what our living room wall looks like.

I got settled into my job and did a poor job the first few weeks since it had been a while since I made coffee but I got better and better and eventually made about 800 coffee's and cappuccino's a day. Being a barista wasn't too bad but they were 9 hours shifts and it was hard work. Since the café had only recently opened it was full all the time. We had about 1500 customers a day. The company I worked for has more than 60 locations across the Netherlands and I eventually asked if there was any way I could be transferred to a less demanding job. My manager said she saw how tired I was every night and said she thought my work ethic was good and always tried to find more to do – if there was a moment of rest. She said she wanted to keep me within the same company and started looking around for another place to work. I eventually got placed at a small café right next to my barista job. This time however I didn't have to make only coffee I did everything. Serving, cash register, making sandwiches etc... It was much nicer to do a variety of things than to be concentrated on just making coffee all day. 

Dreaming of coffee wasn't uncommon.

What I hadn't anticipated was that my colleague would be the most annoying guy to work with in the history of my career - so far. Since it was just a small café with usually less than 50 customers a day we worked in pairs. There were usually two people managing the café and the actually manager would come maybe once a week to create a new schedule and to do some minor administration. I usually worked with one particular person who worked there 6 days a week and because he had been there since the opening of the café he decided it was his job to boss other people around. Nothing I did was ever good enough. When I stayed late to clean everything thoroughly I was taking too long, when I went home sooner but couldn't finish everything as thoroughly I hadn't cleaned properly. If I didn't make a certain salad in time I was being irresponsible. And by on time I mean the time that he find appropriate not an official time limit of salad making. If I didn't do things his way they weren't right. Even though when it comes to coffee making I now have full confidence I know what I'm doing. I wasn't using a spoon to make a cappuccino so according to my colleague, I was doing it wrong. Of course no self-respecting barista in today's coffee culture uses a spoon. I was frustrated but realised that going against him resulted in nothing. So I went along with everything except the coffee making, I stood my ground on that and he eventually accepted that. Even though the work wasn't actually that bad I dreaded going to work every day because of my colleague. All the while my boyfriend was still sitting at home and moving to England seemed like the right thing to do. I didn't like my job anyway, our house was only temporary and in England he could get an ancestry visa because his grandfather was born in England. But then again we didn't know anyone in England, it was very expensive, the job market was quite bad and we wouldn't have a place to go. It was a list of pro's and cons but when you're forced out of the country you don't have much choice.

July came and September was our deadline. Just as I was getting ready for me and my boyfriend to move to England - we even applied for his ancestry visa for England and received it - the best-case-scenario happened. He got hired for a job that was willing to sponsor him. Finally I wasn't the sole provider anymore on my minimum wage. He finally wasn't sitting at home all day and we both had a job, a place to stay. Things finally picked up and we were both feeling a lot less sorry for ourselves. I was still stuck doing something I hated with a person I couldn't get along with but we had income and prospect. If everything came through I would perhaps even be able to start studying again and do something I love.