The van Putten Diaries

Nowhere is perfect, it's true.  The Netherlands has its flaws just like anywhere else, even though I've spent the last 2 years observing and commenting on almost exclusively positive things.  I thought maybe it was time to gather up some of the negatives. The issue I'm having, however, is that I look at this list and it's contents feel just so inconsequential compared to what we left behind and how much the US has continued to devolve since.  When Nic and I talk amongst ourselves about the negative things we've experienced and observed here, it almost feels like an inside joke.  In the grand scheme of our life experiences, does this thing (insert something from the below list here) actually suck?  No, not often. So, with as genuine of feeling as I can muster and all joking aside, these are the absolute worst things we've encountered so far in The Netherlands (mostly in order of relevance). 1. Smoking I know that I came from a region with a low smoking rate so my...

December 1st marked 2 years since we landed in The Netherlands as fresh immigrants with the intent to stay.  On the one hand, it feels like we've been here forever because we are well established and it feels so right.  On the other, my heartrate still rises and anxiety zips up my spine when I think about Tacoma.  It's not that Tacoma is awful and it's not that I didn't enjoy my time there over the summer.  It's just that, even after 2 years away, I'm still not fully disentangled from it's problems. I'm really not sure how to organize my thoughts on this post, so let's just dive in and see where I end up. Our lifestyle here has become so comfortable and comparatively stress-free.  It is exactly the kind of day-to-day that we were trying to carve out for ourselves in the US, but were blocked by so many things that we had no power to change.  We are happy.  We no longer need a car to get anywhere and we can easily access the rest of Europe. Our kids ar...

We woke up at 04:30 this morning to tune into election results as they swept towards the American west coast, and, while we were definitely sad, we weren't surprised.  One of Nic's first statements was "Well, at least he won't have to resort to violence to steal it."  This has been my biggest train of thought all along - there was likely going to be violence either way.  Violence if he came out behind, violence if he came out ahead.  Violence not just from the Right, also from the Left.  No one was going to fix the broken systems and culture that make up the United States either, so the idea of Harris winning and things being okay wasn't one I subscribed to (just like when Biden won and everyone else seemed to feel relieved). Nic and I went for a long walk just before Wisconsin was called to process our thoughts and feelings together.  I want to record these thoughts for myself, but also to share with you - random reader - in case you want to process this m...

I have a lot to say about our trip to the US, but I'm not feeling eloquent enough to turn it into a nice and coherent thing to read thing.  However, I took excellent notes during the whole trip and I think it would be entertaining to share these one-liners with you. During the car ride from the airport to Tacoma: "I forgot about those really big trees." - David "This is scary." - Miles, while we were on a freeway onramp. I kept looking around and sitting with the feeling that my mom wasn't there anymore. "What was that?!" - David, about the noise a car made while it revved its engine. "It's a flipped over white ship made of tires. Really big." - Miles about the Tacoma Dome. In Tacoma: This latte cost $5.99 omg. The political yard signs were less loud - more green, more unique blues, less red. "I recognize that park, but just a little." - David while driving past People's Park for the first time. Continuing the theme that...

This post was written by a friend who visited us with his family in May. Our kids went to school together in Tacoma and we lived in the same neighborhood. This visit was short, but we look forward to spending some time with them during our upcoming trip to the US 🥰 This summer we were fortunate enough to visit the Netherlands, France and Italy. Going to Europe was a chance to get away from a neighborhood that overwhelms my senses from the cars, the gun violence and those experiencing homelessness. Being in Europe brought solace for my senses, and times of stress for my older son's. I was at peace riding a bicycle through the streets while he stressed out that one of the many cyclists might crash into him. Our children were able to have a good visit with the van Puttens and we will miss the pigs from our farmstay. The only thing I missed about my life in the neighborhood in the US was baking bread and my daily meditation of feeding the yeast. Being back in the neighborhood after ou...

Miles declared recently, seemingly out of the blue, that when he is of the age to learn his 3rd language at school, he would learn French.  He said that if he could speak English, Chinese, and French (or Spanish) that he would be able to speak to most people in the world, and it sounded like that idea really appealed to him. I asked Miles if speaking multiple languages felt like a superpower... and he said no.  He said it just felt normal.  We reminded him of how difficult he found it to engage with other kids when we first got here and he didn't speak Dutch - didn't he feel that that experience signified that it wasn't actually normal?  Maybe, he replied, but he mostly just pretended that we hadn't mentioned that aspect at all. I certainly think being multilingual is a superpower, and I have always thought so, but I can also understand why Miles might disagree, even considering the difficulties he faced in his first few months here.  The culture around language...