Moving onIn February 1999 we moved out of Seoul. In two days all our stuff was packed in a container. With only two suitcases we stood in front of our apartment. A strange moment. Our life in Korea is over, history, the long weekends camping and driving, all what we learned about Korean history and the Korean people now. Luckily we have many good memories to take with us. SingaporeIn February, Hans had some work to do in Singapore so Daan and I made a stopover there on our way to Holland. We joined Hans in Singapore, a perfect place to relax after the hectic days prior to our departure from Seoul. We enjoyed Singapore 's summer, the food and the city. After a week in Singapore Daan and I went to Holland. At the airport in Singapore were many Dutch people and Daan started talking with them without stopping. He was very surprised to meet so many people who actually understood what he was saying, that was a new experience! Hans continued his businesstrip to India, Taiwan and Japan but we went straight back to Holland. However after a few days, we departed already. With grandmother Gerry we went to Lanzerotte were we spent most of the time on the beach or near the pool. Daan learned the domino game and went fishing every day. After Lanzerotte we returned to Holland were we had to wait until we could move to out final destination: USA. Our US visa was not ready and Hans was still on his businesstrip so we rented an apartment on the beach-side in Bergen aan Zee. Many friends visited us there and three times a day we went to the beach. Most fun we had with the kite (thanks to Marleen and Bart) , the line broke and the kite was gone. so searching in the dunes took some time, but finally a man standing on his balcony called us that he had found the kite. Denmark When Hans arrived in Holland we decided to rent a camper and see a bit of Scandinavia. Our goal was Legoland in Denmark. Unfortunately Daan broke his collar bone the night before our take off, but after seeing a doctor and with his arm in a cool bandage, we were on the road again. Denmark is a beautiful spacious country, many places reminded us of Holland, pretty farmhouses and nice tiny villages. Musea such as Andersen's birthhouse and the Viking musea were interesting for all of us and visiting Legoland was a dream fullfilled for Daan (and Hans). We came back after a week, and drove the camper to Amsterdam to pick up our visa, where the pictrue of Daan and his bandage helped to speed up the process. We returned the camper, took the train home and one day later it was time to start our new live in the US. DetroitWe picking up a rent-a-car at Detroit airport and drove to our new home, a temporary appartment with swimming pool, tennis court and gym. Next trip was to the "Hiller" supermarket close by that Kimiko had told us about. We were impressed by the huge variety of products, and the over-sized packages. Our first impression of Detroit was: Wow ! all you see is big: Cars, food-servings, people... No time for second impressions yet. Very soon after arriving, Daan started to go to pre-school. The official :Kindergarten does not start till. 2000. It is amazing how his English improves. Even at home, when he plays alone, he speaks and sings English now, and is using words we don't understand. Some are especially challenging, it tooks us quite some time to find out what "Pikachu" is, as it is only a recent addition to the English language and not listed in any dictionaries. When Daan realized that he spoke Enghlish at home, he was sad. He was afraid to lose his Dutch and no longer be able to communicate with his grandma. Daan also was afraid to lose his own Dutch personality. "They call me Dan, not Daan: he said and "The all speak English, but I am Dutch" he once cried. With Dutch books (we enjoyed Wiplala very much, Erie) and a strict "Dutch-only" policy at home we try to have Daan maintain his Dutch. Motown Automobiles: After a couple of weeks living in US. we were already used to the American way of living. Detroit is the Motor city "Motown" and the big US car industrys are here. GM, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler. The public transport in Detroit is limited to the "people mover" a monorail that circles around the inner city asn serves a hand full of station, if it is not broken down, which it has been most of the last years. There is also an attempt to a bus service which services 2 convenient lines if they are not on strike. You get the picture: without a car this is hell. we bought our first one, a Toyota Corolla, and within weeks a 16 year old boy drives the big limo of his father in back of the car while Daan and Eefke are waiting for a red light. Almost total loss. Ough $ 7000 to get everything fixed. Luckily the insurance of the other party, who was at fault, paid a whopping US500. An expensive lesson in the Michigan no-fault insurance system. After we solved our cash flow problems with the sudden reparation we bought our second car. Call it a min-van, but with a motor of 3.8 liter and weighting approx ???? kilo's it feels a lot safer against crazy teenage drivers who can hardly see over their steer.... Buying a houseBuying a house in the US is a bit different. If you have children, it all starts with selecting the right "School District". Children can only attend the public schools of the School District they live in, and there is a huge differences in school quality between different districts, so you want to live in a place with an acceptable level of schools. It is not hard to make a ranking of school districts with public sources, such as: Next find a place that is a reasonable commute. After Tokyo and Seoul we know that traffic can not get worse, but still we would like to commute within 30 minutes to work. After this there are only a few places on the map left. In our case Birmingham, Bloomfield and Farmington. (see 37,39 and 40 on http://www.state.mi.us/dmb/mic/) Next difference is the (lack of) building quality. Houses are practically all wood-frame build. Any bricks you may seen is "brick-veneer", merely a substitute for paint to protect the wooden walls. Nothing wrong with wood, great to build holiday homes and log-cabins, but a serious house? Ever heard of termites, woodrot and fire? In Tokyo they also built in wood-frame, but at least they tear down and rebuilt on average every 20 years.d Anyways, 10 Million people in Michigan live in these crappy houses, even though in winters temperatures of 10~30 degrees below zero (in proper Celsius of course) are not uncommon and last year they had snow till the roofs. The genes of the courageous first Pilgrims, of which half died in their first US winter living in wooden sheds, must be well alive in the Michigan gene-pool. O yes, small detail, as in other places, you need to set your budget. Prices are firstly dictated by the school district. A similar house, 50 meters further in the street, can easily cost 10%~50% more if it is in a desirable school district. Next is location, house and size of the lot. After narrowing down the search this far, we had a list with over 200 houses. I looked at about 100 houses from the outside and visited 30 houses until, after 2 months, we found our house. Our HouseA real American house, "Colonial" is the local description. A circular driveway in the front yard, huge pillars besides the front door and a lovely backyard, with three Apple trees and a dozen other trees. The kitchen is huge, all cabinets in classic cherry wood to Hans' taste and my despair. People are admiring it, but I would like to paint it over or bleach it. The living/family room has a big fire place and a sliding glass-wall to the deck (balcony) that leads into the garden. Also on the first floor there is a formal dining room and an other room (study), a laundry room (bij-keuken) and a attached garage for two cars. Upstairs we have 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Downstairs we have a basement and another bathroom (?) and wet bar. We moved in at the end of August.
Nice messy picture of the living room, taken from the kitchen. The door at the back goes to the TV / study room  Same living room, but now taken from the other side, facing the kitchen.  And the TV / Study room. We have no cable or antenna, so miss all the high quality programs on American television. We do see a lot of video's from the local library. In the back is the old Japanese vintage Gateway2000 computer that we use for this homepage and email.
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