Our adventure in The Netherlands
Posted on June 20, 2008 by Jamie Larsen, under The Larsens.
In May 2002, Kaylene & I had the opportunity to move out to the Netherlands to work for Nu Skin Europe. I was brought out there for my job. I had worked for Nu Skin Europe in the states for a couple of years and they were trying to build a web team out there to help support their own site. I was recruited to help build this team.
We moved out and were told to find a place to live in three days. We quickly found a small (and when I say small, I mean small) apartment in the city center of Haarlem. Great city and great location. We moved in a week later.
We attended church in the Haarlem ward. It was a Dutch speaking ward and neither Kaylene or I spoke Dutch. Luckily for us, the ward had another American family and a couple others that only spoke English. We also had an official translator (Mark Reijnders). He did a great job in helping us understand what was being said. It didn’t take us to long to start picking up words here or there, but we never did master the language. The ward became our family and we are so very grateful for the people that we were able to meet out there.
My job was a great experience and I learned a lot in the two years that we stayed. Just as we were leaving to come home, Nu Skin Netherlands started to close down their office and move to Belgium. My boss decided that she didn’t want to move to Belgium and so she quit. It was a great honor to me that she wanted me to take over her position in the company. I had to decline. I missed being in a familiar environment where I understood everything and where the culture was more familiar. So we moved back to Utah in June 2004.
Some of our experiences while there included:
- Christmas snowboarding in the Alps
- May 17th (Norway’s Independence Day) in Bergen, Norway the day before we got on a cruise ship to tour the Fjords
- A drive through Germany down de mosel river and castle tours
- Trying to get a Turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving Day
- A huge church volleyball tournament (including most members from the Netherlands and many from Germany)
- Walking through thousands of Tulips
- A trip to Paris with some great friends
- A speeding ticket in Germany
- Riding our bikes (like all Dutchmen) to the beach and other places
- Many trips on the train into Amsterdam to see the sites (canal tours), eat at Hard Rock Cafe, and go shopping
- Going through tests and finally getting pregnant
- Visiting a zoo full of monkeys (they ran wild in the park)
We will always treasure the people that we met and the places that we were able to see. We enjoyed our experiences there, but are grateful to be back home where we are most familiar with.
Lamar Echols on August 28, 2008
Hey Dude!! Good to see you have a blog. This blog just proves that you are still soooooooooooooo the man. I don’t dare show my wife the remodel job you did, as I’m afraid what may come of it. You could do a TV show it looks so good. I was also very impressed with the portion about the church!! Proof that you are still an incredible missionary. Well, I just wanted to say Hi!! The blog looks great!!–Lamar