21st November 1987-2007 - twenty years in Amsterdam

21st November 1987-2007 - twenty years in Amsterdam, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

I left England with a one-way ticket to Holland, by ferry on the evening of 20th November 1987. The next morning, I arrived in Hoek van Holland, me, my Fiat Uno and my worldly belongings. Holland was not exactly the country of my dreams, but Fred lived here and after three years of having a relationship with him, it was time to give it a try.

I drove straight up to Groningen to be with my Fred for the weekend.

On Sunday, I was back down in a little village of Hoogmade, ready for language school on Monday morning.

After spending two hours in the traffic jams to drive 40 kms on a grey Monday morniing, I arrived at the Linguarama Language School at teh World Trade Center, where my teacher walked in introduced himself in Dutch and asked me my name in Dutch. I was having my first Dutch conversation.

Within two weeks, I had picked enough of the language and was fluent enough to face my new world in a new language.

I didn't expect to be here so long (the deal was that we would both go and live in England after a few years) but here I am, here we are, enjoying life and not missing England too much.