Well this is definitely a story!
The process Alex and I went through in looking, finding and finally choosing a Dutch school was definitely funny as well as frustrating, but it all lead to me attending the best Dutch school, in my opinion.
It all began a few weeks…maybe months after we had arrived over here in The Netherlands. We first searched for schools in Rotterdam, looking for intensive courses during the day, that went for at least a few weeks and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
At first we found a couple of potential schools, but in the end only one had all the criteria we were looking for. However when we contacted them, they said they hadn’t enough people to go ahead with a course. No problem, we would keep looking and otherwise check in again in a few weeks time to see if there had been an update.
Our second look took us to the city of Utrecht. Not a bad place to travel to every day if you ask me. It’s such a beautiful city and there are always people everywhere. We found a great school that in the end I registered for, yay!
But that yay was short lived, because a week before the course was to begin, they notified us that there were not enough people registered and as such it was cancelled…
So what did we do? We called the school in Rotterdam, only to be told that the course had in fact been completely filled. HAHAHAHA! Just our luck right?
Well yes it turns out that in those moments of frustration and a little bit of crying from my end, we would in fact find the school I was meant to attend. After all everything happens for a reason.
It was very very late one night, Alex was in fact on a business trip in Italy and I was in Holland. We had both been looking into schools all night with no luck, until Alex stayed up that extra half hour and found a school that could be an option, all the way in Amsterdam.
And how cool does it sound to say, firstly I am going to learn a language, but also I am learning Dutch in Amsterdam? Pretty funky right?!
So I contacted the school and was answered by an extremely friendly and excited man. He welcomed me to The Netherlands (he didn’t need to know I was here already for some time) and assured me that they had courses with plenty of places and I was welcome to join.
After all this, Alex and I decided we really liked it, even if it was an hour each way by train every day, and as such I booked myself a place in their first two courses. I later on registered and went through the third course, taking me from A0-B1 in 6 weeks. And although I do not have the confidence to speak yet (emphasis on the YET), nor do I know everything or even that much compared to some, the courses took me from complete fear and uncertainty to a real love for language and the whole process of learning one! And well I can now speak a little, you know ask for coffee, order food, ask how you are, did I mention talking about food?
I also made some wonderful friends and connections. It definitely added to the integration all that more.
So in the end, going through a few weeks of comparing schools and being let down by some, led me to an amazing school with seriously beautiful teachers who made my introduction to a language and all the culture that moving to a new country brings, that much more easy.
I loved studying in Amsterdam, I loved and continue to enjoy learning Dutch and if you are ever wanting to learn Dutch whilst living in The Netherlands then check out ‘Dutch Courses Amsterdam’, they are serious legends!
anda_ontour 
Well done possum
LikeLiked by 1 person