My Reverse Expat Bucket List

Instead of keeping track of all the things I still want to do in life, I loved Erika from America's idea of capturing all the experiences and achievements that she has already been fortunate enough to have.

And as a contra to some of the most recent posts I have written about the tougher aspects of expat life, I thought it would be nice to dwell on all the great things I have done, seen and achieved because of my expat life.

You can read more about how this idea evolved here. But I don't want to just throw my reverse expat bucket list out there - I want to read yours too, hence the idea of a blogging link up. You can find the link up button and a picture you can use at the end of this post.

So here goes. This is my reverse bucket list made possible because I became an expat and moved to the Netherlands.

1. Be a mama to three beautiful Dutch boys
2. Abandon your comfort zone and take a huge risk
3. Expand your world
4. Fit all your worldly possessions into a borrowed police trailer and take it from England to the Netherlands to make a new life
5. Marry a Dutchman
6. Get married at a mill (even if it is water and not wind)
7. Live daily life in a second language
8. Go through the classic culture shock curve and come out smiling
9. Adapt to a new culture
10. Appreciate your British culture
11. Learn what is important in life by watching the Dutch masters of work life balance
12. Have Dutch people speak Dutch back to you when you speak Dutch to them
13. Have three bilingual children
14. Have three dual nationality children
15. Bring three children up in two cultures
16. Visit four countries in one day 
17. Find three ways to travel from the Netherlands to England
18. Take a high speed train to Paris
19. Visit a Christmas market in Germany
20. Drive to Denmark and visit Legoland
21. Drive to Euro Disney
22. Visit Movie World in Germany by car
23. Visit Muiderslot
24. Visit Keukenhof at its most beautiful 
25. See the Dutch flower fields up close and personal
26. Visit the Zaanse Schans
27. View the Netherlands from above in a very, very small plane.
    
    Fly it yourself for seven seconds before you freak out and give the control back to an experienced pilot
28. Have a family photo session outside the Dutch parliament
29. Get back on a bicycle after a twenty year abstention
30. Plan for a home birth
31. Plan to give birth without pain relief
32. Have three children born in a Dutch hospital
33. Welcome kraamzorg in to your home three times and realise just how lucky you are to have postnatal help
34. Own a home abroad
35. Cook a Dutch meal
36. Eat a sweet pancake and call it dinner, not pudding
37. Eat speculoos with abandonment
38. Eat an orange tompouce
39. Eat Indonesian food
40. Renovate an old worker's house in The Hague
41. Understand the terms and conditions of your mortgage written solely in Dutch
42. Watch The Bridge spoken in original language with Dutch subtitles and understand what is going on
43. Watch Borgen in Danish with Dutch subtitles and totally get it
44. Watch a Dutch film and actually laugh at the funny bits
45. Watch a musical in Dutch and sing along - quietly
46. Read a book you are not familiar with in Dutch and be able to follow the plot
47. Listen to Dutch music
48. See Dutch musicians in concert and sing along - quietly
49. Meet inspirational people from all corners of the world, including from countries you barely knew the existence 
50. Love the diversity of culture in your life
51. Make Dutch friends
52. Be brave and quite your job in the corporate world and start a career you are passionate about, one that makes your heart sing 
53. Take a distance learning course in journalism
54. Start a blog about expat life
55. Write expat articles
56. Write for Smitten by Britain
57. Have an idea for a book
58. Interview the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest from both the north and south sides
59. Celebrate Queen's Night in The Hague
60. Celebrate Queen's Day in Amsterdam
61. Celebrate Sinterklaas
62. Celebrate new year's eve in the Netherlands
63. See a Chinese New Year celebration in The Hague
64. Celebrate Bonfire Night in Amsterdam
65. See the preparations made for a Nuclear Security Summit
66. Stand two feet away from the Dutch Prime Minister
67. Stand so close to a Dutch Crown Prince you could almost touch him, a risk not worth taking because of the inconspicuous security he has near him
68. See behind the scenes at a Dutch hospital
69. Get whisked away to hospital in a Dutch ambulance
70. Go on natural ice - a frozen pond or canal
71. Hang a birthday calendar in the smallest room of your house instead of writing birthdays out year after year
72. Learn it is better to pay to use a clean toilet than to visit a dirty one for free
73. Use a cheese slicer without losing a finger, or a part thereof
74. Go to a Dutch birthday circle and survive to tell the tale
75. Watch a football tournament with English and Dutch teams in the Amsterdam Arena 
76. See a football team you care about make it to the World Cup Final
77. Help out in a Dutch classroom for a morning and be proud that the children actually know what you are saying to them in Dutch
78. See Bruce Springsteen in concert in Feyenoord's stadium

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<a href="http://lifewithadoublebuggy.blogspot.nl" title="Expat Life with a Double Buggy"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ0N6ik1LnF-b7CpjdqQ8Yn8g85ywT1Czd8tSzxer-Z80tW2UfPEFjOZhEVBWNMxbLsD2eOvaG8y9WqvG_ddeeXi6YSRDvtv1yvFJ1C3LHosBfoOfQk2OQiP6fMGDX_pBAKihGZfcLM3Y/s1600/ELWADB+LinkUp.JPG" alt="Expat Life with a Double Buggy" style="border:none;" /></a></div>