August 2003 Archives
The Den Bosch Court ordered on Tuesday the release of Fons Spooren, a former PSV football club director accused of having sex with underage youths and intentionally exposing them to the HIV virus.
Spooren is to be released from Jail on the condition that he does not commit a criminal offence. uh.... wait a minute.... arenīt we all free on the condition that we donīt commit criminal offences? What a *!*"#$*. The guy willingly had unprotected sex with underage boys while he knew he has HIV, this went on for years! Itīs so wrong that he is released! Spooren himself said that his wife is the only one that may condemn him. How about the children you could have murdered? How about the law? How about GOD?
US gas prices zoomed at a record pace during the past two weeks, increasing by more than 15 cents per gallon to a national average of $1.72, according to cnn. But you know what? In The Netherlands we pay $1.30.... per liter! That's $4.92 per gallon.
This webpage contains information for Dutch people who want to move to the United States, and Dutch people who already live in the United States. You will find detailed information on how to file for an Immediate Relative Visa.
Since Sweety and i are both Dutch that won't work for us and you'll mostly find information about the Diversity Lottery Visa on Dutch Cheese and American Pie.
It surprises me still.... a lot of things are so expensive in The Netherlands that it is cheaper to by it on a different continent and ship it! Like the clothes our friends brought back for us from the States. We ordered them by phone at Macy's and had them delivered to Mel's sister in Atlanta.
Or the Canon powershot Cristin got. The best buy she found in The Netherlands was $454, so she had it deliverd to her dad in the US for $289 and he shipped it for $30.... that's $226 saving!
Or the books i ordered last week, to get just one in a local bookstore was the same price as to get both online from the UK. Holland is expensive....
The recent 660% increase in permit prices in The Netherlands made me wonder what the permit costs for the USA are. I don't think it's really thát important. Moving to the USA is expensieve anyway and we really want to move there. So who cares :)
But i took a look anyway, and i think i've found it. I think that after winning the Diversity Lottery, which is free, you have to file form I-485. It has 7 pages and the fee is $255. A separate fee for fingerprinting may also be required: $50. And when your "green card" expires, you have to file I-90 and pay another $130.
That's expensive too. I just think it's all fraud :)
I've read the Green Card Lottery 2005 guidelines and showed them to our US friends. Not much has changed except the electronically submission. Because of the online entry the signature requirement has been eliminated.
Also, natives of Russia will not be eligible to apply for a diversity visa. But that's not my problem :)
The U.S. Department of State announced the instructions for the 2005 Diversity Lottery (aka Green Card Lottery). There's a major change! Applicants must submit an Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (EDV Entry Form), which is accessible only at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ (not online yet). No more paperwork to enter the lottery. They also moved the entry dates to november/december.
And how about this:
"If the submitted digital images do not conform to the specifications, the system will automatically reject the EDV Entry Form and notify the sender."
Does this mean that you get a change to correct it? That would be a great improvement from the old system.
I did not have time to read everything to see if there are any other changes. I'll let you know when i find more changes. For more information visit the Department of State website, click here.
This is a great site for people intrested in America. It awnsers a lot of questions if you want to live/study in the states. I think iīll put this one in my favorites!
www.usa101.com
Yesterday i ordered two books to prepare myself for taking the CompTIA A+ exam. I want the certification because itīs an internationally recognized one. It tellīs a future employer in the States somethong usefull about my computer knowledge. The CompTIA A+ together with the Brainbench Certificates are just a start.... iīll keep you posted.
It turned out that we miscalculated the cost of the study. It is far more expensive than we first thought. The good news is that Sweety's Dutch VWO diploma may help her skip most of the first two years of college, that might save us thousands of dollars. If only i had worked harder at school and also got my VWO. Instead i got HAVO, which is "only" High School.
Just a comparison. The total cost of the recent blackout for New York City is estimated to be $1 billion, according to NY Newsday. That's the total Dutch GDP per day!
Sometimes i feel so tired of the Dutch way of thinking. Or is it just human nature maybe? Anyway, let me just expectorate.....
Dutch farmers say the government is accountable for the damage caused by recent dry weather and high temperatures.... Thatīs like the me saying Levi's is responsible when a bird shits on my jeans.
Hurray! Today was the last day of the T-Mobile training for new employees. And i graduated :) Yesterday we had an exam and i scored a 9,4 (out of 10), wich was the highest in my class. Like i told you before, i am NEO!
"You won't have as much Holidays!", is one of the arguments we often get from people who want us to stay in The Netherlands. And they're right. The Dutch workplace is paradise compared to the America's. A recent study by Mercer Human Resource showed that the Dutch get an average of 28 paid holidays. Compare that to the US average of less than 10, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wow, 18 days difference a year, times 40 working years..... 720 days, two whole years! And still we want to move there... we're weird!
There was a typically Dutch news item on tv today. One i wouldn't expect in the USA. The last few weeks the weather was uncommonly warm, even hot. And the Dutch like to complain so they complained about the weather a lot. Oh, it's to hot! And since there's not much else happening in The Netherlands, the tv has been wasting airtime to let people tell about how the warm weather is affecting their lives. Yesterday the florist could complain about how the flowers grow faster as a result of the high temperatures. And to make thing even worse, people aren't buying as much flowers as when it's cold!
Today a different group of entrepreneurs got their go. The pimps, prostitutes and mistresses. Yes, really... a five minute news item about how the prostitution industry is suffering from the warm weather. It turns out that when the weather is hot, the horny guys are not. The pimp was putting up a "for rent" sign. The prostitute was smoking some pot on the beach. The mistresses was weeping in her dungeon... such an awful sight.
You know there's actually a union for prostitutes in The Netherlands. I think they'll start lobbying for a tax deduction for airconditioners soon. Yes, in The Netherlands prostitution is taxed. In Holland you really can get screwed by the government, so to speak.
Click here to get more info about prostitution in The Netherlands.
Today our transcripts/diplomas arrived! And this time the ib-group made some new mistakes! No surprise after our previous experience. They actually made spelling errors, typos and forgot to mentions some things. So we'll have call them again tomorrow. Remerber that we paid more than 200 Euro for this 'service'.
And now the good news :)
It turns out that Sweety's Dutch VWO is worth more in the States than we expected. The VWO diploma can be compared with High School Diploma with an academic or college preparatory programme PLUS 2 years of undergraduate study at a university or a college in the United States of America. Wow! I knew Sweety is very smart and now we have it in writing :)
My own HAVO diploma can be compared with High School Diploma with an academic or college preparatory program in the United States of America. So now we can both really start looking for an online study on an US college.
Dutch marines in the south of Iraq have come under gunfire in the first clash with Iraqi renegades since the peacekeeping troops were deployed in the war-torn Islamic country.
I've found this study by David F. Duncan, Dr.P.H., CAS, and Thomas Nicholson, Ph.D. It's about the Dutch Opium Act and how the US can learn from it. In The Netherlands we don't have a war on drugs, some drugs are tolerated. It's a nice, scientific and theoretical study and i would like to add my own 27 years of experience with the Dutch policy. It's not all that....
I've found a site about Dutch emigration to Michigan. We've been to Michigan twice and really liked it. Heck, we could live there! When you're there the Dutch influence and heritage is very obvious. You see a lot of Dutch family names and cities like Holland. There's also the annual Tulip Time Festival!
Click here for From Holland to Holland.
We are still waiting for the status summaries of our diplomas. The women of the ib-groep called monday to ask some more questions.
I really get the idea the lady has no clue what she's doing. I already told you how whe went there while we could have just send the paperwork in. When we brought the diploma's she asked for a listing of our courses and grades. So i turned the diploma because the listing is always on the back of a Dutch diploma. Now, wasn't she supposed to know that? Since she is working at the department that values and validates diploma's? And this monday she called to ask the name of the school head, which is also on the diploma.... she said the diploma's would be sent back and now i just hope she'll sent it to the right address.... and that she sends us our diplomas and not somebody else's.....
Boy, am i tired! hahaha... one more week of training to go and then i'm ready to start working. I've learned a lot this week and it was a busy week. Yesterday was Sweety's birthday and we had a party at her parents place! So we had to do some shopping thursday night and i had to do some secret shopping earlier this week :) Wednesday we had a birtday party of a colleague of Sweety. So that's why my blog wasn't updated :)
But you can expect more updates soon....
Today was my first day at T-Mobile. I start of with two weeks of training and today was HR day. Different people from the company explained what they do and why that matters to me :) I have the training with a group of 10 other new emplyees. They al started out a bit quiet this morning but during the day everybody felt more comfortable and started talking. Which is good for Customer Service people :)
:) today i bought a new Fujitsu Siemens pc at Mediamarkt. My last couple of pc's i just bought the parts and build it myself. It's kinda stange to just plug it in and see it work, software installed and everything. Normally it would take me a whole day, now just 15 minutes....
Earlier i talked about Dutch diplomas. We want to use them to study/work in the States. Well, just having an diploma or degree translated into English isn't enough to be able to use them in the USA. What we need to do is get a "status summary". To get one we had to contact the ib-group. That's a Dutch government organization. Every student in The Netherlands will have to deal with them sooner or later. They're terrible! We called them twice to ask what the procedures are. They basicly told us that we could send legalized copies and wait for two months to get the summary OR to come to their office and get it while we waited. Only problem is, they're office is in Groningen and that's not around the corner from The Hague.......
