Born in Warsaw, Poland and educated in her home country and Germany, Olga Mecking, a 32-year-old member of the Millennial generation, has found happiness in her adventure to The Hague, Netherlands with her husband Nikolai and their three kids.
What makes her happy about living in The Hague? “Well, I think it is a combination of many things,” Mecking explained. “I like the support you get here as a family and as an expatriate. There are countries where being an expat makes you a lot more isolated and frustrated. I also like the Dutch attitude of “live and let live” because it helps reduce the pressure on me. I also like that the Dutch do not believe in boasting or speaking highly of yourself.”
She also likes how child-friendly the Netherlands is. “There are many playgrounds and parks to take your children,” Mecking said, “and children are welcomed everywhere.”
She loves living in The Hague because it is so international and has a large network of expats, which has been a real plus. “The local group has a Facebook page where I can ask a lot of questions and get good answers that help me with my every day living,” Mecking said. “Every big city in the Netherlands has a variety of expat groups for whatever your needs are, including business, writing, cooking and others. Most of the expat groups are English-speaking.”
About 45-minutes south of Amsterdam by train, The Hague is the Netherland’s seat of government and the capital of the province of South Holland. With over 1 million residents in the metropolitan area, it is the third largest city in the Netherlands and home to the Dutch government, parliament, Supreme Court and the Council of State. Over 150 international organizations, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, are located in The Hague.
Olga grew up in Warsaw and graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in German literature and language. Soon after, she moved to Bremen, Germany to complete her master’s degree in media culture and communication. Along the way, she met her husband in Hamburg, Germany while on a one-year student exchange program. They married after she finished her degree in 2009 and moved to the Netherlands, where Nikolai started working for an international organization located in The Hague.
“The move to the Netherlands was not that big of a problem for me because most countries in the eurozone allow easy access across borders,” she said. “My biggest problem was the stress of having our first child.”
Their first home was an apartment in Delft, Netherlands, a suburb of The Hague. At the time of the move, Olga was pregnant with their first child, Klara, now five-years-old. Soon after, three-year-old Julia and one-year-old Markian, joined the family.
The expanded family now required a house, not an apartment. The Hague housing market is very expensive and rentals are difficult to find because everyone buys, partly because of government subsidies.
“I had a lot of stress over buying a house,” she said. “Renting an apartment here is considered just a temporary move. People do not rent for long periods, like in Germany or Poland. When we went to buy a house we found that the real estate agents are powerful and price negotiation is difficult. Homes are very expensive here, often twice the price of a similar home in Germany. Luckily, we had friends who had been through the process. They helped us with the negotiation and contract.”
Culture shock was relatively minor for the family. Both Olga and Nikolai quickly added Dutch to their list of spoken languages, which also includes Polish, German, French and English.
“There were things that we had to get used to, though,” Mecking explained. “For example, we were used to seeing medical specialists in Germany and Poland, but the healthcare system does not work that way here. If you are pregnant, you do not see a gynecologist. You see a general practitioner. You are referred to a specialist only if there is a problem. The first-line care providers decide if you should see a general practitioner or a more expensive specialist. This is done to better control costs in the healthcare system.”
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