I am already living in my brand new apartment for 5 weeks now. Most of the hectic and chaos that always goes with such a move is behind me. It is quite a change: new city, new home-work route, new way to travel from home to work and back (train instead of bike, more than an hour one way instead of 20 minutes), and a twice as big apartment which is much better heated and isolated. Even the Dutch winters, which we hardly dare to call winter anymore in the absence of snow and ice, were pretty cold in my old place, but now it's always as warm as I want it to be

There are still some things to do and to change, like hanging something less temporary in front of my windows, and less temporary and nicer-looking lighting, and hanging up some stuff to make my walls look less empty, and some very very last repairs by the construction and kitchen companies...(etc.) But it already very much feels like home! You never know what lies ahead, but my guess is I will live here for quite some years. 

Now that my home is almost entirely to my liking, it's time to rediscover the city I grew up with. Where and how could I get to know people? Any nice activities or meetings or groups to join? Can I do all the things next door that I was used to in Amsterdam? With spring getting close I will probably be walking and cycling a lot in the city and around it into the countryside and to the dunes (the closest to hills we have around here).  A lot of things in and close to Alkmaar look very familiar from my younger years, but quite some things have changed too. Enough left to explore in the next few months!