Dear parents don’t panic if your child goes abroad to study or work

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

So, it’s time for your child to go far away from the country he/she was born and raised in order to study or work. Many consolation posts including pieces of advice have been written and we can be sure about one thing: Most of the parents will freak out when they will have to say goodbye to their children, especially if their children are moving thousands of kilometers away.

As they are getting closer to the goodbye moment, most of the parents may start wondering if agreeing to their children’s leave was a good decision. Moreover, they will be probably worried about the difficulties their children are going to experience abroad as they are going to be far from the security system of their own people.

Dear parents please remember in order to stay calm and positive: In the past, many parents have been experiencing the same stress as you. Additionally, in the past, many children had to go far away from their home to another country to fulfill their goals. Keep in mind that if those children were able to survive and succeed their goals sooner or later, then likewise your children are going to do the same.

However, it’s understandable if you experience some difficulty to manage your stress regarding “the goodbye moment” or if you think that your children may experience some challenges which will be crucial for their mental health. Please remember that there are always some solutions:

Het Griekse Huis in Rotterdam: A new beginning, an open invitation to all

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

I am writing this post to share some wonderful news! There is a big important step that some Greeks are taking in Rotterdam. If you are into new, interesting activities and opportunities related to Greek culture, keep reading this post.

What do I miss from Holland when I spend time in Greece

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

Many of us – Greek immigrants that live far from Greece – write from time to time posts about what we miss from Greece since we don’t live there anymore. We may feel nostalgia and maybe sadness because of the thought we won’t go back (yet) and some of us choose to write and “become one” with other people who feel similarly to us.

On the other hand most of us may have noticed the high rate of agreement that Greeks share between us especially when we want to refer to negative things about Greece. More specifically when we want to talk about non-cool stuff from our beloved homeland, we may become really descriptive and talkative and full of cranky comments.

During our last months I moved back to Greece for some business reasons but soon I will be back “home”, Netherlands (I think I chose some really interesting words to form my last phrases!). Coming back to Greece after some years of living abroad gives me the great chance to make some interesting comments! As a typical Greek I can skip quickly my obvious happiness that has – also – to do with the fact that I am eating my mum’s delicious food – which is full of aromas and unique taste of the qualitative Greek products that she buys – and start complaining about all these small annoying things that I notice in Greece and I almost never experience in the Netherlands. This post is a total challenge because in a few lines I will try to refer to many facts I experience in the Netherlands and consider them as absolutely positive. I dare to say that I miss a lot of these small but important details of everyday life now that I am back in Greece.

10 frequent questions that Greeks who want to immigrate in Netherlands ask me

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

During the last years that I live in the Netherlands many Greeks that are currently located in Greece but are thinking to come here for a “better life” contact me to ask for information. They start – most of the times even without knowing me – to ask from general to very special questions. Sometimes it is just difficult to “advise” people that I don’t know about important things but in the end I do my best to help as many as I can in the most efficient way. As a result of this frequent communication with various guys I found myself giving again and again the same answer to the same questions. So I think it is time to write a post about the most frequent questions I and many other Greeks receive to save time and energy either for those who ask or/and for those who try to find time and be in the mood to answer (and trust me, sometimes it’s just unbelievably exhausting to say again and again the same things for years). I hope this post will be helpful with discussions between wannabe immigrants and Greeks that already live in Netherlands.

Eight things that old expats should tell to young expats

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl 

During the last days a childhood friend from Greece moved temporarily at my place in Rotterdam. Actually he may moved temporarily at my place but he is willing to move permanently in the Netherlands. The first step for him was to find a job here and as it seems he will have one soon. Then he will look for an apartment. Tricky but doable if you are single and flexible and you are willing to travel a bit every morning and evening. So far so good, huh? Well, yes but what I was trying to tell him the last days that I feel a mother of a new expat (since I am the “old generation” expat) is that a job and a house is not the exclusive recipe of a happy expat life. It’s just the very early beginning of a life in a foreign country.

So, here I am to write some piece of advice for all those who made the first step, they moved and they are about to get settled and maybe they are wondering “Now what?”. Let me see if I can make it more clear to you.

What have I learned during the last years I live abroad

This article was first published in iamgreek.nl

During the last 3 and a half years I live far from my homeland, Greece. No matter how much I miss Greece, I often think that my life abroad helps me thinking and feeling in a way that I wouldn’t know and have if I was still in Greece and that would be a shame. I don’t know for how many more years I will be staying abroad but what I want to do is to keep noticing and considering things in order to understand people and of course myself in a better way. So, do you want to know what I learned and understood the time I have lived abroad?

10 things that Greeks miss in Holland

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

No matter how much fun we have in the Netherlands, no matter how much we are pissed off with several Greek characteristics and behaviors etc., we will always miss our life in Greece for very specific reasons. I picked 10 here, feel free to add more…

Why I love experiencing Christmas period and New Year’s Day in the Netherlands

This post was first published in Iamgreek.nl

I don’t know if you have noticed but there are some really nice experiences you can have during your (short of permanent) stay in the Netherlands. Here are the stuff that I like more and more as the time passes and I am celebrating more and more Christmas and New year’s days in the Netherlands.

My Bookish Scenarios Tag

I always love invitations almost regarding anything! So today I respond to Georgia’s invitation from “cherrybookish’s Blog” to answer her questions! Here I go:

Eating in the Netherlands

This post was first published in iamgreek.nl

The last 3 years that I live in the Netherlands I am often asked by a lot of people what a non Dutch person could easily eat in the Netherlands. Since I am Greek it is easy to tell you how much I miss Greek cuisine in the Netherlands and that if I don’t cook for myself it is really difficult to find decent Greek food in restaurants here and all these stuff you probably heard again and again by Greeks that live abroad – and which are partly true.

However, I should clarify that nowadays more and more shops and restaurants that serve decent Greek food open not only in the Netherlands but in many other European countries (e.g. England, Germany). Trust me it’s more easy now than ever to taste delicious Greek cuisine outside of Greece, so Greeks that live abroad should stop complaining for a bit. Moreover, what I found here in the Netherlands is that except Greek food you can easily adore cuisines from all the world and actually I have found pretty good places to dine with my friends. Additionally, day by day I found some delicious Dutch snacks that I can taste regularly and that I can buy them almost in every neighborhood and that is actually awesome! I will never stop missing Greek food but trust me when I tell you that food can be actually pretty tasty even here! Let me give you some examples: