Imagine schools in the Netherlands telling Dutch school children to leave their trusted two-wheelers at home and find an alternative means of travelling to school. It is inconceivable here in the land of cycling, but some schools in New York State forbid cycling to school because of safety and liability issues.

For Dutch-raised Linda Hemerik and her family, this goes against the grain but it is one adaptation that Linda, her husband and their four children have learnt to make as expatriates in the United States.

Linda has lived overseas for more than twelve years. She currently lives in New Jersey but has previously called both India and Mexico home. Despite the cycling ban on the school run, Linda and her family have no qualms about living in the US.

“Besides the convenience of everything being extra large such as stores, parking lots and roads, I love having everything close by – New York City, the beach and malls. I love the positive attitude of the people here and the public school system is top notch,” says Linda.

The family does miss some aspects of Dutch life though, and when Linda makes her annual trip to the Netherlands, she heads for the shops to stock up on Dutch bread and deli meats.

“The first thing I always do is eat slices of bread, each with a different slice of meat. So good! The kids eat Dutch breakfast toppings in their bread every morning. We always have a supply of hagelslag, vruchtenhagel and gestampte muisjes,” explains Linda.

Of course, food is not the only thing that the Dutch family miss from their home country; they also honour some of the Dutch traditions as best they can at the Dutch club in New York City.  The family is there every 6 December to celebrate the holiday of Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas as he is affectionately known back home.

“I also miss my favourite store, HEMA. It is a bit like Target, which I also love, but unique in its own way. Of course I also miss my friends and family, but we are so used to living away from them now,” Linda explains, adding that the lowlight of expatriate life is the guilt she sometimes feels when her children are missing their Dutch relatives.

Being separated from loved ones is a common challenge facing expats, but for Linda and her family the initial relocation to the US provided an additional challenge. Whilst her husband was already working in the US, the rest of the family had to wait for their visas to join him. They had already rented out their house in the Netherlands and the shipping container with the family’s possessions was waiting for them in the US, so Linda and her four children lived out of a suitcase in a two-bedroom apartment for three months.

After the initial challenge of getting to the US the cultural transition was a smooth one, and Linda reveals she experienced no culture shock in making the move:

“I lived in this area for four months whilst I was doing an internship, fifteen years ago. One of the friends I made then became my best friend so I was very acquainted with the American culture.”

So much so that Linda has immersed herself into the American way of life and she loves the national holidays in particular, like Memorial Day and Fourth of July.

“I love the laidback way the Americans celebrate. In this area, people place chairs a few days before these events to guarantee a good spot. It amazes me every time that the chairs are still there, untouched, a couple of days later,” she says.

In comparison to the Dutch, Linda finds that socialising with Americans is incredibly uncomplicated.

She explains, “Nobody expects a five star meal when they are invited to dinner – a barbeque or even ordering in is perfectly fine.”

British-born Amanda van Mulligen moved to The Netherlands in 2000 and runs The Writing Well, an English language writing and translation business. She is married to a Dutchman and has one son. Amanda writes about life as an expatriate in Holland as well as travel articles. For more information, visit her website at www.TheWritingWell.eu

Photo credits: Hagelslag on bread by nosha; New York City skyline by Effervescing Elephant (both Flickr.com, Creative Commons license)