Bas Siebring's Blog

Tag: engels

  • GREAT news!

    Life is good!

    It’s time to tell the world that we did it!! Actually, Bas did it and I am just sort of tagging along.. 😉 but YES, we’re staying in New Zealand for a year!

    Today our passports with work visa arrived by courier. It took quite a bit of work to get everything sorted out, but now Bas can actually legally work at Green Bay High School.

    It’s about a month ago since our last update, when we told you that Bas got the job. He has been voluntarily teaching ever since and now they’ll be able to pay him for it  🙂

    The fact that Bas was working full time, and I was too (for some clients back home in the Netherlands), plus we had to arrange a lot of things here in NZ, made it difficult for us to stay in touch with all of you. Sorry about that. Also, we didn’t really want to say to much on our blog till things were officially sorted out.

    The last couple of weeks involved:

    • working, working, working and arranging stuff for our work permits, Bas’ teacher license (for which he still will have take a few more hurdles – amongst which a language test!!!)
    • living in a B&B with our wonderful hosts Timo, Olivia and little Oscar (2 years old) for a couple of weeks. They were very accommodating, because it took a bit longer than expected for us to find our own rental place. It was quite difficult with a demanding market and our list of ‘must-haves’ quickly turned into a list of ‘at least it should have this’. After several viewings of places in the area, we succeeded though:
    • as of Saturday February 18 we are living in a really nice 3-bedroom place in Glen Eden, Auckland. It is about 10 minutes drive to Bas’ work and I am working from home. See pictures below.
    • Filling this place with furniture and everything else that is needed to make a place liveable. Other than some built-in closets, curtains, carpeting, light fixtures and a stove, there wasn’t much that came with the place. However, we set ourselves a budget and went shopping for good deals. We also found some stuff on TradeMe, the NZ version of Marktplaats (for the Dutchies) or YK Trader/Craig’s List (for the Canadians).
    • Getting a bank account, contents insurance, arranging an Internet and telephone connection, getting our electricity account set up, rescheduling our flights etc. By the way, Judith will come back to the Netherlands from March 16 – March 30 to deal with some business things and arrange a few things back home.
    • Besides all the working and organizing, we also did some fun stuff. We went for a couple of nice walks and we went to the Auckland museum on the 5th of February. It was a wonderful place with lots of great exhibitions, amongst which about typical NZ things, such as the Maori culture and Volcanoes (did you know Auckland is built on approx. 50 volcanoes, and the area is due to erupt any time now within a margin of about 1000 years – which isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things).
    • We also made our first friends in our new home-for-a-year. We are now part of a group of friends/colleagues who play board games every Wednesday night and we are having Bas’colleagues of the science department over for a BBQ housewarming/permit party tomorrow night. Bas is preparing the satay-marinade as we speak. Except for the weather forecast (storm and rain) we are looking forward to a great evening. Fortunately we have a covered deck and if things get real bad, we can also move inside, since we now have some comfortable couches and a dining table 🙂

    All in all we can say that we’re pretty proud of what we have achieved so far! Cheers mates, life is good!

    p.s. If you would like to know our address (and as of Monday the 5th, we’ll have a landline (telephone) number as well), please send us a private message and we’ll get back to you asap.

    p.s. 2 Enjoy the pics. More to follow soon!

  • Interview with Bas

    We know, it’s time for an update… And there’ll be one very soon with lots of great news! However, we are just way too busy right now getting the final details done. Today, we do want to share something fun though, which just arrived in our mailbox:

    Bas contributed to his Alumni-magazine of his University in the Netherlands. It is about his experience teaching abroad, as an inspiration to other students and alumni! You can read the interview with Bas in the Educator right here! (Sorry, it’s in Dutch, but the non-Dutchies might like the accompanying photos!) Enjoy!

     

  • July 9-12 photo update

    Overview of our trips in photos

    Here are some pictures of the next few days of our eastcoast trip. More (text and picture) updates will follow! :)

    July 9 Quebec City

    July 10 Quebec City – Rimouski

    July 11 Rimouski – St. Charles (New Brunswick)

    July 12 St. Charles – Stanhope (P.E.I)

  • 4th of July – update

    Our two year stay in Yellowknife is over. Before heading back to the Netherlands, we are spending 3 more weeks in beautiful Canada. This time we’re exploring the east coast.

    July 1 – Yellowknife – Halifax

    After some frantic packing on Thursday (till 12.30 in the morning and after deciding to ship one extra box back home – which makes 4 boxes in total), we left Yellowknife on Friday morning July 1st at 6am in the morning. After a stop in Calgary as well as in Toronto, we landed safely in Halifax at 7.40pm. We got our suitcases quickly and were able to take the Airporter shuttle bus at 8pm to the hotel in Dartmouth (right across the water from Halifax). We had a room with a beautiful harbour view and were able to see the Canada Day fireworks from our window! It was strange to experience the darkness at 10pm again though!

    July 2 – Halifax

    we had a wonderful sleep and got up around 8am. We took the 9.30 ferry across the harbour to explore Halifax for the day. The weather was great (approx. 25 degrees Celsius). A quick summary of the day would be:
    10 am: a visit to the old farmers’ market, where we had a late breakfast with coffee and some fresh baked goods.
    11 am: we walked over the boardwalk to the new farmers’ market, near Pier 21.
    12 am: we toured the Pier 21 museum. This is where new immigrants would enter Canada from the early 1900s to 1971. It was a very interesting historic place and a great multimedia presentation + guided tour were included.
    Around 1.30 we decided to go for lunch at the farmers’ market (lots of good fresh food to be found). And we walked back to the Alexander Keith’s brewery, where we did a fun tour, which ended with a taste of beer (even Judith had half a glass of Keith’s Red!). Even though the alcohol made our legs feel a bit heavy, we decided to climb up the hill next, to pay a visit to the Citadel. An historic landmark! We spent 2 hours, of which one hour was a very good guided tour in the Citadel fortress. By then, it was already 6pm and it was definitely time to find a restaurant to get some dinner. To celebrate our first day of this wonderful trip, we decided to go to Salty’s upstairs, an upscale restaurant, where we had some good (sea)food! Yummy! At 8.15 we took the ferry back to our hotel, and after some coffee we did some more repacking (since we’ll be back in the same hotel at the end of our trip, we decided to leave 2 suitcases behind).

    July 3 Halifax – Riverdale

    we woke up at 7.30, called Jitze (Judith’s brother) for his 28th birthday, and checked out the hotel. We took the 8.30 Airport shuttle back to the airport. Not to go on a flight, but to pick up our rental car. After the necessary paperwork, we were able to drive away at 9.30. Our first stop was Tim Hortons, for our final preparations (and some necessary coffee fuel!). We were truly on our way around 9.45 am. We took the Lighthouse Trail down to Lunenburg, which was our first stop. We walked around a little and had lunch there with a great view. At 1pm we were on our way again. The roads were twisting and turning, so it took more time then we had expected, so when we got to Liverpool around 2.30pm, we decided it was time to take the highway instead, to be able to reach our destination – still quite a drive – in a reasonable time. We were going to stay with Ben’s parents. Ben is Dave’s partner, and Dave was one of Judith’s colleagues at Kellett. Keith and Gaylene’s hospitality was amazing! we arrived around 5.15 at their place, in the middle of nowhere. A true Novia Scotia experience. So beautiful! We were allowed to stay in their cabin on the lake. The most spectacular view and just a beautiful place. After some snacks on the porch, Keith and Gaylene prepared a delicious dinner for us, and we had a great time together. They went back to their home up the road around 9.30 and we went to bed, after planning our next day.

    July 4 Riverdale – Maitland

    We got up around 7.30 and had breakfast with fresh (still warm!) muffins, which Gaylene had dropped off at the cabin, before she went to her work. After that, Bas went fishing for an hour or so, and actually caught a couple of fish. Judith started typing up this blog post. Around 9.30 we went over to the main house, where we could take a shower, before heading out to our next destination. We arrived in Digby around 11am, we walked around for a bit and drove on to Annapolis Royal for another walk around the shore. we were very surprised to see Dawn Oman’s gallery right downtown in Annapolis. Dawn Oman is a Yellowknifian artist, who moved away last year. Apparently, she went to Annapolis! We told her we came from Yellowknife and actually had bought some of her art there last year. She was more than happy to have her picture taken with Judith. What a coincidence! Unfortunately, we didn’t have room in our luggage for more art, otherwise we would have shopped some more. Oh well…
    After Annapolis Royal, we drove on to a nearby small town, Port Royal. We visited a reconstructed ‘habitation’, a small fortress settlement from the 17th century. Interesting! We still had some way to go, before reaching Maitland, and on the way we decided to make a few more stops and detours. First we stopped in Grand Pré. This was a place where the French had been deported by the British in the 17th century. Lots of history in these surroundings!  Finally we stopped in Noel Shore to look at the tide. Maitland was only about 10 more minutes further down the road. Our Bed & Breakfast room is wonderful. Cozy, luxurious and well-equipped. The owners are very friendly and we are immensly enjoying the view from our room and from the surrounding garden. It is just beautiful! You can see the famous tide right from the window. Gorgeous! When we arrived here just before 6pm, we hadn’t had dinner yet, and there’s not much nearby to go for dinner. Therefore, we drove to Truro, about half an hour from here. We looked for a restaurant that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet, but it was closed for the evening… fortunately we had a back-up plan; a Chinese restaurant we had just passed on the road. The food was delicious and plentiful (enough left-overs for lunch tomorrow for sure!). We were back at the B&B around 8.30 and sat outside for a bit with a coffee, before it got too dark and the mosquitos too bad… Now, it’s about 10pm and we’re going to get some sleep after posting this blog 😉

  • Photos June 22

    Just a few more days and we’ll be packing up… We are leaving Yellowknife on July 1st. It’s getting real now. Bas is finishing the school year and Judith has started organizing our stuff and our trip, since she had her last day at work June 3rd. And the rest of the time we’re just taking in every minute of our stay here, hanging out with friends and enjoying the gorgeous summer weather in the Knife. It’s been +25 Celsius over the last couple of days, and 24-hour daylight, which was of course great for the Aboriginal Day festivities (June 21st). It was almost too hot! We’re having the best weather of all of Canada these days…. can you believe that just a couple of weeks ago, it was still freezing?! Yup, that’s the North! 🙂

    Enjoy the pictures below. Our next batch may come from a different part of Canada, since we’re going on an eastcoast roadtrip, starting in Halifax, in the first three weeks of July. We’ll make sure to keep you updated!

  • Update May 15, 2011

    Hello friends and family!

    Time for an update. We have some major news to share…. (drumroll)… we are leaving Yellowknife and going back to the Netherlands in July…

    We needed to make a decision about what we were to do after the summer and after some careful deliberations we made our decision.

    Although the prospects for work for Bas look good, he still doesn’t have a job offer for a teaching position next year; therefore, it will be very difficult for him to get his work permit in order in time for the new school year. Besides that, Judith hasn’t been able to apply for her work permit either, since we haven’t heard about the outcome of the Labour Market Opinion yet.

    Rather than having the decision made for us – by not granting us the work permits on time, we’ve made the decision ourselves; the result is that we’ve decided to go back to the Netherlands… We have mixed feelings about this situation, but we think it is for the better. We can focus on our careers back home and look back at two amazing years in the North of Canada. We will miss many things and many people here in Yellowknife, which has become our second home.

    There will be a lot of things to take care of (selling and shipping our belongings, etc.). Therefore, Judith planned to spend her last month in Yellowknife off, so she can take care of the things to do, while Bas can finish the final weeks of the school year in reasonable peace and quietness. Consequently,  Judith has just resigned and her last day at Kellett Communications will be June 3rd.

    We’ve booked our flight and will be arriving in Amsterdam on July 23. However, we will leave Yellowknife July 1st, because we’re planning a road trip in Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Quebec) before we leave Canada. Lots of things to look forward to.

    Let us know if you have any questions. For now, we leave you with some more pictures of this amazing place…

  • Photos January 3, 2011

    First of all: to all of you a Happy New Year! We have been busy over New Years’, baking “oliebollen”,  hanging out with friends, dog sledding, more aurora watching and what not more! It is almost time to start working again. Just before we get less time again, one more update with some nice pictures. Enjoy!

  • Photos Monday Dec 27

    Another post with a lot of pictures. During Harma’s stay, we’re doing a lot of things to show her around. In the upcoming week Judith needs to work and Bas really needs to do some preparation for the second part of the school year, so we probably won’t have a huge photo update next week. But boy, we did a lot of fun things:

    • We saw a lunar eclipse, out at Cassidy Point.
    • Harma and Bas went out on the highway down south, for a bison safari (with success!)
    • We went to St. Pat’s to see Myles (one of Bas’ collegues) feed the snake in his classroom
    • We went to a Ugly Christmas sweater party in the Black Knight
    • We went to Prelude Lake, to attend a small party and do some snowmobiling
    • We had Christmas dinner at Emma and Camille’s place
    • After a few tries taking Harma outo to see the Nothern Lights, we finally saw them! Awesome and so much better than you can ever see in a picture or a movie!
    • We drove to the end of the Ingraham Trail, where the ice road on Tibbitt Lake starts
    • We went to the Cameron Falls, which were frozen over! (That was much nicer than you can actually see in the pictures!)

    Note: Some of the pictures are larger than the others. Allthough in the last post we incorporated all Harma’s pictures nicely, the pictures in this post are taken with Harma’s new camera, which makes pictures at another resolution than Harma’s old(er) camera. When converting, I used the old “31%”. We found after everything was done….. so I am not feeling like redoing all the pictures and all the comments with it. Enjoy and scroll where necessary. 🙂

  • Photos December 20

    Here are some new pictures! Quite a few of them are made by, or include, our current guest: Harma! Enjoy!

  • It’s been a while

    It’s been a while since we wrote our last blog post. We made some updates with pictures and a bit of text, but no real long stories anymore. In our second year living in Yellowknife things seem to be a bit more “normal” and besides that, both Judith and I are spending a lot of hours at our new jobs.

    New Jobs? Explain the plural there!

    You heard me correct: new jobs. Besides the two jobs that I am doing (Teacher at Ecole St. Patrick High School and Ballroom Instructor at Bella Dance Academy), Judith started on a new job two weeks ago. At a “Tweetup”, a meetup for people on Twitter in Yellowknife, she met a guy that was working at Kellett Communications in Yellowknife. This company started a few years ago and has currently about 20 employees. They talked about the possibility of Judith doing some freelance work for them and at the end of the Tweetup, Judith promised him to send him a copy of her resume.

    After translating her resume, Judith sent it a few days later. In between she also worked a day for Office Compliments, a company that outsources temporary workers to different companies throughout Yellowknife. She got a reply almost instantly, in which they guy from Kellett told her he had forwarded her resume to his boss. Mr. Kellett, the boss of Kellett communications, e-mailed Judith a good two hours later. He regretted that Judith wasn’t looking for a fulltime job, but still wanted to meet for coffee and a talk. Barely having sipped the coffee, he offered her a job when they met, a few days later on a Wednesday. Judith initially declined, but made an appointment two see the office on Friday. After some brief discussions and some encouragement by yours truly, Judith decided that this was actually a huge chance! So she e-mailed on Thursday that she changed her mind and would consider taking the job offer. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow”. At that Friday, when Judith walked in the office and sat down with her current boss, he said: “You thought about it. Can you start on Monday?”. Which basically sums it all up: that Monday Judith started on her new job with Kellett Communications. Her experience working for clients and nailing deadlines made her get a position as “Team leader”. Yup, you heard that well. Amazing eh?

    Visitors from The Netherlands

    In the second week of Judiths new job, a week in which I had two classes write a test, a third class with a deadline for a Slideshow for marks, a three-way-conference (parent-teacher night), we had Martijn and Renske over for a week. After a tour of three weeks in the Rocky Mountains they had 1 week of exploring Yellowknife, some of the surroundings and being a part of our day-to-day life. It was a great week, which started out driving the Ingraham Trail, hiking to the Cameron Falls. We had great weather that day. Actually, considering we’re as North as we are, we had great weather overall.The week before Renske and Martijn arrived we had some snow and temperatures near and under zero degrees Celsius. We were worried they would miss the fall colours, that they would be forced to be inside most of the time because of rain or snow, but it turned out way better than all that: there were still beautiful fall colours, temperatures averaged out around 10 degrees Celsius and almost everyday proved to be a good day for hikes.

    Unfortunately, they had to do most of their hikes by themselves. Judith and I were gone from 7.30am-5.00pm and were only able to do some stuff at night. So that meant going out for dinner (Vietnamese Noodlehouse, Fuego’s), spending time with friends (with Camille and Emma @Vinnie and Jesse’s place) and me taking them to one of my Ballroom classes. Their last night in Yellowknife was a night at Robyn and Travis, with beer, wine, wodka and great food: we actually did a Dutch raclette, with pieces of bison meat and moose burgers. Great fusion for sure! The week flew by and a few hours ago we had to say goodbye to them and we watched their plane take off. But it proved to be a good week for sure!

    Judith’s birthday party

    The Saturday that Martijn en Renske arrived Judith was throwing a birthday party. Our new place is in a building with many ammenities, one of them being a partyroom, which one can rent for a very modest price. BYOB and potluck was the way to go for us and over the entire night about 35-40 people came out to celebrate Judiths birthday. At 11pm (when we had to leave the partyroom) we went up with Martijn and Renske and two more friends two drink some champagne and we had some more good conversations. After the last two friends left and we were cleaning the last few things, we were surprised when we went to our balcony and saw the Northern Lights. They were amazing! Although they weren’t as sky-filling as we have seen before, they were bright (with all the city lights there they had to be) and were green, pink, purple, even a bit blueish. I have never seen so much colour beside green before, let alone for patches this large! Dancing in fast pace they were a phenomenal spectacle! We told Martijn and Renske how lucky they were and the rest of the week proved we were right: no more lights. But they sure were a nice birthday present for Judith!

    Wrapping it up

    We were really happy to have friends over this week. Life in the Knife is at times exhausting, but it is fun, rewarding and exciting! And we have more people to come over this year as well! Some long time ‘knifers are a bit jealous: we seem to get a lot more visitors that even travel further to get here! But thos of you who haven’t booked yet (you know who you are), we have two more witnesses that can testify it is totally worth it! Martijn and Renske were already talking about getting back in March, for dogsledding, skidoo-ing and more winter fun!

    Tomorrow it is a new day of work for me; catching up, marking tests and presentations, prepping for a new chapter in Science and more classes of Math! Looking forward to it. On Monday a new week awaits us, filled with work and hopefully some more miracles from the North. We’re looking forward to it.

    In a next update I will tell more about my adventure at Bella Dance Academy, which allows me to share my passion for Ballroom Dancing with a fast growing group of people. Judith may tell more about her job and hopefully we have seen some more lights, bought a skidoo or did something else that was fantastic!