"Highly Skilled Migrant"

This epitet, far-flung friends, is my latest title! I had a brief meeting with the HR young man of my law firm this afternoon, and the good news is that the firm will apply for a work permit for me (I may make history, as the first non-attorney to get a work permit). Apparently, this is the title that designates uniquely qualified people of a certain income. The 'certain income' has yet to happen, but I'm assured that it will. I told him that I felt like a very talented fruit picker!

Timing is all, as always. And supply and demand. My speaking Dutch and having a lot of legal experience provides the fit, in this situation. The practice of Dutch law is *very* different than British or American. I'm working in a British firm, in the banking group, but working with generic corporate legal documents, in Holland. Dutch law has a category of legal professional called "notaris", which bears no relation to the American concept of notary public. There are separate businesses here that employ the "notaris". I don't know enough yet to explain the difference, but will report in, when I do.

It's interesting (and often amusing) to see again the types that always seem to be present in a big law firm. There's the diva young associate, who thinks that her calls (from the Paris office) are vital to one of our attorneys. She throws fits if she can't get through instantly. There's the staffer who palms off work that would take her about a minute, but instead spends 15 explaining the task being handed off. There usually is a diva partner, but so far, so good.

And tax here is wild! In the U.S., one never sees on legal bills any tax amounts. In Holland, tax is billed on legal services, and it's stiff! Amazing.

Sorry: anyone still breathing? Tax is not my thing, but it was shocking not to see it on a legal bill.

I had lunch today with my delightful Russian co-worker, Tatiana, who explained where her two young children had been spending the last couple of weeks, in Russia. It's a sort of combination resort/camp, for children. It's not a resort and not a camp, but has all sorts of recreation for children, supervised by adults. It's not fancy, but not rustic, either. It sounded wonderful, and I wanted to go! Tatiana is about 5'10" and quite stunning: honey-blond layered hair, big brown eyes, lovely skin and very bright. Her English is enchanting. We all speak Dutch in the office, but at lunch we speak English, to help her maintain her English. She was a simultaneous translater before she started in law.

From Thursday, I will have a UK vacation until the 14th. It's been years, I think, since my last real vacation (I don't count three-day weekends). I'll be based at my generous London cousin's, who conveniently lives quite near Heathrow, in Chiswick. I'll fly up to Durham (near the Scottish border) to see the remarkable cathedral and sites there. I found a nice B&B on the cathedral grounds, for only 27 pounds.

Also on the list is a visit to a friend on the south coast, near Hastings. I loved visiting Rye a few years ago and hope to discover more of the same. Then, there are London's galleries (more Rembrandt!), including the Tate Modern. And theatre, I hope. And more of the endless list of wonders that London offers.

Then, my first "civil partnership" ceremony, at a London registry office, with a bubbly reception after, which should be real fun. The friends being joined are very dear friends, and it will be as emotional as any wedding. I look forward to meeting other of the couple's friends and family.

And lovely, open weekends with my young male cousins (10 and 12, I think), who are very active (sports fanatics). I hope to introduce them to a new hobby, "geo-cacheing", which is basically a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt, but done with a hand-held GPS unit and some clues. The caches (treasures) are all over the world. There are thousands of them. When one finds a cache, one signs the tiny log book, leaves a new cache, and takes one that's in the box. I was introduced to all this on my trip to Scotland earlier this month, and it was really fun. It's also a great way to get outside, walk around, see nature, learn to follow a sort of compass, and have a clever adventure. There are, of course, web sites on this, and a site on which to post one's comment on the caches.

So, life here keeps changing, dramatically. It's all good, but I'm moving through milestones fairly quickly! Of the many pleasures of living here, I've learned that 25 vacation days are guaranteed to all employees in Holland! That's five WEEKS of vacation. People here take either long summer holidays, or a nice one four times a year. In the States, vacation allotments have been shaved, from fairly normal of three weeks in the '80s, to now combining "annual"/vacation leave with medical leave, and THEN paring down that paltry amount. Here, employees also pay into the vacation money, but a small amount. Then, come vacation time, guess what? One is given holiday money!!!! Who could ask for anything more?

'bye for now, Pamela





I h

Back to WORK

Greetings, all,

It has been quite a while. Many adventures. Small and large triumphs.

School is officially over until September, but I have two exams to do in late August. The year turned out better than I expected, but not as well as I had hoped (I was very naive). I could have worked harder, but not much harder. My memory could have been better, but not a lot. My written Dutch could have been better, but not significantly. When I'm honest with myself, though, and recall that I came here with a 30-year hiatus in all Dutch activity, and I've passed nearly all exams (in Dutch), and a few with decent grades, I'm stupefied. When I'm able to speak fluently and say most of what I need to say, I realize how much I've learned. I think I was senior to the eldest faculty by about five years, and to my eldest classmates by nearly 20, so there's that element, too.

The academic experience was fascinating in other ways, too. I found myself constantly stepping back and looking at *how* I was learning, and not just *what* I was learning. For example, with language learning (maybe not just language learning; I don't know), one has peaks and valleys. Some days, I could say anything I needed to say, and other days, I was tongue-tied. There was no controlling which days were good or bad. Some weeks, learning our 175+ vocabulary words was a breeze, and other weeks an utter impossibility. The great joy of the whole experience, other than improving my Dutch, was going through the process with some very funny and talented classmates.

First and foremost, there is Jenia. She is 21, from Moscow, and has a degree in linguistics. This past year, she did a double major, in our Dutch Studies and also in her real major, tablet languages (taking 15 courses in the second term). She told me recently that last year, there were courses that she didn't pass, but I don't believe her on this. This year, she finished our program with an *average* of 9.5 (of 10). She also scored similarly in her tablet languages program. She's not a drudge, although she doesn't sleep a lot and works 9-9 most days. She's funny, cultured, charming and became a great friend of mine.

Monika, our virtuoso recorder player (doing a master's at the Royal Conservatory, in The Hague) from Estonia, is tall, gorgeous, slightly goofy and keeps us laughing until tears came.

Paulina, from Poland, kept impressing me, also doing a double major (Russian something).

There are three Spanish ladies who work very hard, have children to manage, and still produce good work with good humor.

And there are always people who stand out because they're stupid (or smart, but so annoying that they end up in the stupid category) or annoying, or both. This category was occupied by a consistently obnoxious (I gave her plenty of rope, but she regularly hung herself) second-year student from Austria, who interrupted our faculty, and stuck her nose in everything. No one could stand her. She was also very Germanic. We can't generalize from one person, but I did think more than once of the difference between a nation of people like her vs. the Dutch. I was not the only student who pleaded with the faculty to shut her up, but the Dutch are far too polite to say anything to such a student.

It was very interesting to get to know a bit two young female Chinese classmates (three, actually). One, "Grace", left just before the December exams, having struggled and gave up, basically. She got a job in Amsterdam. "Selano" lives in Utrecht and left us after first term to focus on financial management courses in Utrecht. I missed her a lot. "Yabo" left our "B" group to retreat a bit to the "A" group (beginners), so I missed much contact with her second term.

We all bonded, though, as I have never felt with a group before. We supported each other, loaned things, watched for articles in each other's areas, laughed a LOT, and learned so much from each other. I realize that they are all exceptional people, or they wouldn't be students at Leiden University. I just wish that I could continue to have contact with them.

We had but five male classmates: one silent but talented and shy Hungarian ("Norbert"), one Iranian ("Taher"), who left our program after the first semester, having finished his BA in English, Bo, the hapless young Chinese who never could get anything right, but was comic and very determined. Then there were two second-year Chinese males, who were quite good, and delightful.

I had lots of other classmates, but these stand out.

My wonderful Russian classmate, Jenia, and I spent Saturday together, having lunch and working on a royal inscription (in Acadian) that she had first transliterated, then analysed the grammar and verbs, then put into English, and she recruited me for a little guidance on converting literal English into literary English. It was actually really fun, and entailed a combination of odes and CURSES (in great detail). The inscription dates from 2,000 B.C. and is on a small dark-stone stela, in (I think) a museum, but originally somewhere in Acadia (near ancient Babylon).

It's time spent like this that also makes me treasure this year. If I hadn't come to Leiden, I'd never have met Jenia, and that would have been a major loss. She has been a light in my courses.

A while back, I considered my finances and with some alarm realized that I had to get a full-time job, and SOON. Dutch Studies courses at Leiden U are not offered at night, so I will try to finish my "propedeuse" diploma by December, by taking one exam.

I sent out four sets of CVs and letters. One company, I never heard from, two declined my offer, and one is taking me on, starting tomorrow morning (good return on investment, I told myself)! The question is whether they will rise to the occasion and get me a work permit, come September. That is the question. The entity is a major London-based law firm -- Linklaters. Their Amsterdam office (they have offices all over the world) has only Dutch lawyers (I think), but staff from all over. It's a Dutch-speaking office, so I'll get some more practice.

So, back to commuting (30 minutes, from my train station to theirs), wearing semi-respectable clothing, and spending an entire day (9-6) doing things in an office. *That* will be the hard part. The office is in the Amsterdam version of the World Trade Centre, which isn't as impressive as it sounds, and seems to consist of a few tall, glassy buildings, somewhat marooned, south of the city. It's just 5 minutes from Schiphol, the cool airport. It's a means to an end, I keep telling myself. I just hope that a few of the attorneys are exceptional, since their comparison with my former colleagues will be inevitable, and hardly anyone ever compares with the amazing Mr. B----- (and never will). My requirements for colleagues is first to have a superior (and arid) sense of humor. Intelligence and efficiency follow closely on humor. Decency and kindness have to be part and parcel of the whole package. I hope I'm not asking too much.

So, my trips to Brugge and Gent have to wait for weekends, as well as jaunts around Holland on the train. I look forward to a 10-day jaunt to the UK in early August, to attend friends' "civil partnership" ceremony, and also to visit family and friends in the UK. I'll go up to Durham, not far from Scotland and finally see that amazing cathedral, as well as finally visit London's Tate Modern and other galleries (it's too embarrassing to mention ones I've still not seen).

I nearly forgot! I've just been to Scotland again, this time to south of Glasgow, to Ayrshire, staying in Ayr with a friend. What a shock it all was! Ayr is semi-tropical, due to the Gulf Stream, and sports palm trees and magnolias, as well as (people say) the best golf in the world. Tiger Woods has a home south of Ayr. I flew into Prestwick, which is Glasgow's small airport, only five minutes from Ayr.

Scotland continues to take my breath away, in various ways. While the countryside around Ayr is not craggy and soaring with mountains and lochs, it is rolling, verdant and very lovely. Ayr has a beach, on the Firth of Clyde. There are lots of castles around. I went sailing, which was grand (I'd not been since 1994). The food, from very posh to Chinese buffet, was delicious. I found my native language often very hard to understand, which was more comic than anything else. I just kept asking for translations. The poet, Robert Burns, lived in Ayr, and his cottage is open to the public. His memorial and formal gardens are across the street from the "Brig o Doon", which means the "bridge over the river Doon". Burns' famous poem, "Tam o Shanter" has a passage about a horse running over the Brig o Doon, but the devil catches his tail, so he continues life tail-less (hope I've got this story right). There was a LOT of history to pack into a long weekend.

The sailing was from Troon (north of Ayr), to nearly Saltcoats, due north. We drove south through Dunure, Maidens (fabulous dinner, in a restaurant called "Wildings"), Turnberry (best golf, I was told), to Girvan and back. That coastline is the stuff of dreams. It's rugged, but with gently rolling, green hills.

I've always been a city person -- major cities (Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, Venice, Amsterdam), but I realized that I could live contentedly in a much smaller place and enjoy the quiet. I think that this year has made that difference. Leiden is quiet, beautiful, calm, but with access to big cities. It's a big change for me.

May I recommend Scotland to you all?