the healthcare game

this post was inspired by this new yorker story by David Sedaris:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/02/120402fa_fact_sedaris

there haven't been many blog posts since we moved in because we haven't been doing anything too exciting! we've been very busy taking care of all of the paperwork that it takes to move to another country, which is all required to receive our container of stuff sent from the US. luckily we had help from our relocation agency and everything went quite smoothly, it just took a while to go through all the steps of going to city hall, submitting paperwork, picking up ID cards, etc. our container did finally show, so we've been buried in boxes for the last week.

and health insurance! we can't forget about that. i feel like howie and i often learn by mistake, like after we got married and i went on his health insurance but we failed to change the plan and ended up paying much more in cash. last year we paid big bucks for great health insurance that howie didn't use once because he was too busy going to class.

so this year we were hoping to get it right. and in the end we don't have much choice, because in the Netherlands everyone is required to have a certain level of health insurance coverage. it is not cheap- we do get a small discount from Howie's employer- but from what I understand the insurance companies are not allowed to give huge discounts to corporations which keeps the prices reasonable for everyone.

now that we're properly covered its time to figure out how to go to the doctor!

overheard near this herring stand in Amsterdam:  "a herring a day keeps the doctor away!"

 

...we will not be testing the theory, couldn't stand the taste!

hhi: chanowitz edition

for all of the house hunters [international] fans, here is our super dorky spoof with footage from our actual house hunting- not professionally filmed!



House Hunters International Chanowitz Style from Howie Chan on Vimeo.

how to meet your neighbors

1. say "hello" as grumpy man tries to get to his mailbox while you are holding the door open for the odd cast of characters (two middle aged women wearing high heels and one extremely tall and thin guy) who are carrying lots of your stuff into the building. grumpy man grumbles something under his breath while he is trying to figure out which one of you ya-hoos is moving into the building.

2. as you are making the trip down to the storage room to retrieve the ski boot you've been using as a hammer to assemble furniture, a friendly neighbor is putting his bike away and offers to lend you a REAL hammer!

3. you need to take some photos of scratches on the outside of the entry door of the apartment but the lighting isn't quite right. in order to get better lighting you move into the hallway, close the door and almost instantly you realize that you've locked yourself out of the apartment in an unheated lobby wearing neither shoes nor jacket (or even sweater) with no phone, no watch... only a camera. about forty-five minutes later your neighbor will come home from work and (because everyone in this town works for Philips) will help you find your husband's phone number by phoning colleagues still at the office and then let you sit on his couch and warm up.

4. you hear a door close across the hall and since you're curious you grab your bag and rush out as quickly as possible. in the hall you are relieved to find out that the remaining apartment on your floor is NOT inhabited by the grumpy man but instead a very kind man who chats it up in the elevator. (he also worked for Philips)


*so far all neighbors we've met have been single males.

**when i was locked out i took a series of photos to check the time while praying for Howie to hurry home from work. i like to call this series "did i ever set the clock on my camera?"