Dutch Exam Level A1 Done!

It has been a week. I am still anxious. I've heard horror stories. Speaking was the hardest part.

Last week, I gathered up all my courage and went to the embassy for my Dutch exam. I was very nervous. Well, even now. The room was filled with the cold air that punctures my skin. Though I was just the only one in the room, I feel as if someone's looking at me. One computer, a chair, and a set of headphones. Those are all I had inside.

The lady explained to me what to do. I tried to listen very carefully but the mask blocked her voice that I cannot pick up some of what she said. Anyways, I proceeded. The first part was speaking. I felt a little bit confident on that one. I just wish I spoke clearly and loudly, for I am not in the mood to retake that part.

Then it was reading. That was the hardest. The first two parts were easy, but the last one was reading comprehension. There were some words that I am not familiar with. I was skeptical.

Last was the knowledge of Dutch society. It was okay. I know I had one mistake, which I terribly regretted answering. I know it was not right but I still pursued it.

I have checked all the questions when I got home.

My travel time was only an hour and a few minutes, which normally takes me two or more. There were not many cars on the highway.

Today, a friend shared her results, she did not pass the speaking. My heart pounded again. Thoughts started to enter my head, what if I did not pass the speaking as well? What if I need to retake again? I will be a total embarrassment. I do not want to do it again.

Waiting for the result was the hardest. Imagine spending eight weeks just to know that you will fail. What a heart ache!

How to Register Your Marriage in Basisregistratie Personen (BRP) The Hague

If you are married outside of The Netherlands, you are required to register it in your local municipality. You can do it by following the steps here: Register Your Marriage In The Netherlands. After this, you might as well consider converting your document into a Dutch certificate. In this way, if ever you needed a copy of it, you don't need to go to The Philippines to extract one. You can simply ask online and it will be delivered at your home, without losing any time of your day.

To be able to do this, here are the requirements:

- Birth certificate of the Dutch national

- Passport of the Dutch national

- Registration from the municipality in The Netherlands

- Marriage certificate (Apostille)

- Foreign birth certificate (Apostille)

- Foreign passport

- Declaration of Non-Dutch Nationality form

(All of the above documents are in PDF/JPG file. If the BRP in Den Haag requests for printed documents, just send it to them and you will be notified about any progress.)

After compiling all of the requirements, you can now submit a request on their website, denhaag.nl. There are no fees for registering your certificate(s). You pay only for the costs of sending back your original documents by registered post. You will receive a payment request for this together with the relevant documents.

And that's it! If you have any queries, please do not forget to contact me in any information available in this blog. It can be on Youtube, Instagram or Facebook. So, thank you and have a great day! Doei!

For converting the document to a Ducth document, that is a total different story. We will blog about it if we finish converting ours! <3 Much love!

Becoming Dutch: Bicycle Hunt

So here's the thing. The situation now with the pandemic isn't getting any better. There are more and more people being infected with the virus and sadly, a lot of people died all around the world. In The Netherlands, there are now more than 18, 000 people tested positive and more than a thousand died. In my country in The Philippines, there are more than three thousand positive cases and a hundred deaths. This is why people are advised to stay at their own homes, avoid social gatherings and keep distance of 6 feet or 1.5 meters.

And since the number of positive cases is increasing, we still don't know what lies ahead. The government here has not implemented any lockdown to prevent huge jump of economic loss. Anyhow, we still are told to be prepared by any means.

That is one of the reasons why I needed to have a bicycle myself. If ever there'll be things in the future that we cannot use any fuel-automated vehicles, at least we have each our own means of transportation. Another reason is, I am integrating myself into the Dutch system so I needed to learn and have one myself.

It was a swift flight this time!

So now that I am back here in my husband's arm, that is, in The Netherlands, I just want to share with you the experience that I had from the luggage drop to the immigration here in The Netherlands. It was my smoothest flight so far since the very first time I had an international trip. Why? In my first to the last one except this, they gave me a hard time in the immigration. I had no idea why are they being so difficult to me. Urrgghh.

Happily, now things have changed. Let me tell you guys what I've been through this time.

I've been very anxious about my flight because for the first time in my life, I needed to fly alone. Yes, you heard me right. It's going to be the first time I will be flying all by my self. So I had some sleepless nights back home, I also had stress ate, and I have been thinking so much how will I do and what will happen to me in this flight.

Here's then what happened. My cousin from abroad went home to The Philippines to spend some time with her parents. My Mom and sister went to see her (that's about 5 hours drive from the place we live). When they learned that she will be flying back for her work, they've also learned that she will be in my flight as well. Now that's God's blessing!



In the time of our flight, we found each other inside the airport catching up and having my fave combos together. It has been so long when we had a good conversation like that.

At least...

It's ten o'clock. Dogs of the neighbor are barking, somehow, it seems like all the other neighbors do not actually getting disturbed by the sound. I am. It's just difficult to go outside, talk to the owners, in the middle of the night. I'm happy tho that I do not work at night anymore, otherwise, my students will never be happy hearing those loud barks.

Anyways, I just finished my Netflix series. You might know about it since it is one of top 10 on the platform. It's Crush Landing On You. It was nice, I finished it in a few days. I was short but I do not complain, I prefer that than the one we have in our local TV, it has been years now, the main actor was shot, stabbed, poisoned (I think), but still well and kicking.

Today, I planned to call the water delivery because I only have a few drops left, but then, I fell asleep. This morning, I went to check on the availability of my visa card in the bank. I've been waiting for it for three weeks now. When they told me that it's available, I made a schedule that I will be retrieving my card. Sadly, the name in the card remained the same, my maiden name. My plan is actually to take it with me abroad. I was dismayed. The expectation turned into a wave of anger inside of me. Of course, I did not let it go out but inside, I was so mad.

Then after, I went to pay some bills. The house rent, the telephone bill, a gift for a friend. Seems like never-ending bills to pay.

I went home, hungry, only to find out that I do not have spare groceries for this week anymore. Anyways, I will not spend that much here any longer. It's better to empty the fridge than to leave something that might spoil.

Few minutes after going up to bed, I felt like I am not tired yet. My mind is still working so sharply that I needed to force my body to stand up and do something.

So far, February had been good to me. My anxiety from the previous post left, and I felt better emotionally. I miss my man, and that's given. But not for long, we will be with each other again.

Now I feel tired, after yawing, I think I am ready to go to bed again and sleep. I hope March will be better than February. Success!