“I wanted to move to a larger, more international city, a place where I would belong, where I would feel at home,” says Juliana from Bulgaria. A company in Amsterdam gave her the idea of working in the Netherlands. “They approached me about a job. I tried, but I wasn’t hired. Still, that offer gave me the idea to look for a job in the Netherlands. Because my sister lives in Germany,” says Juliana from Bulgaria.
Quiet and slow
She started looking and found a job in Kerkrade in Limburg. “Just before I started in the Netherlands, my manager asked me if I wanted to go to Prague or Kerkrade. She said Kerkrade was in the middle of nowhere. But I wanted to go to the Netherlands because it’s closer to my sister.” She lived in the small town for four years. “It was nice, it was close to my sister, so I was happy with my choice. But it was too quiet and too slow for me. There was no one there. You couldn’t hear anything. And it’s not the easiest place to integrate and live as an expat. I felt stuck and like everything was in slow motion. I need to feel like something is happening.” She is used to that in her hometown of Sofia, where it is always busy. That’s why she decided to look for a larger, more international city.
No outsider in Rotterdam
From Limburg she had already visited several cities such as Rotterdam and Amsterdam. She felt that Rotterdam met what she wanted. So she applied for a job in Rotterdam. And she succeeded. “I was very happy to move to Rotterdam because everything is moving here, people come from different backgrounds. I can speak English. I can order different types of food, see so many different people… so you don’t feel like an outsider. Rotterdam is alive, dynamic and international, fantastic! There is always something happening here, something new is always being built or set up… more than in Sofia, there are no financial resources for that.”
Learning and discovering
She also learned a lot from the city. “The more people from different cultures you get to know, the more you learn. That changes your mentality. That is valuable because sometimes you get stuck in your background.” That is why she advises others to discover the city properly. “Take your time! That can not happen overnight. The city has so many layers that you really have to peel them off and discover them.”