Cultural exchange, exploring in variety of nature near Amsterdam / Utrecht, Netherlands

Infos

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  Description

  Goal:
  Cultural Exchange is the goal in our hosting offer combined with DIY.
  I invite you to read below what we are able to offer to you.
  Many other workawayers from over the world visited before you and left their feedback, so you can get an idea from them aswell.
  WW's who enjoy working with their hands ( like woodwork, sewing, painting, doing things around the house and creating) are welcome to get in touch for a cultural exchange.
  There is no elderly care and dogs-care needed 😉
  
  Area:
  We live in a beautiful area with lots of variation in nature and culturallly interesting area's to visit.
  Like forests, lakes, biking- and hikingtrails, castles, fortified cities and waterways.
  Biking-trails and walking-trails are starting next to our house.
  You can also enjoy the lakes close to us; with rental kayaks, sailing boats or subs ( take a dog to join you).
  Going there on bike takes appr. 30-40 min. from our house: there are many cycling-paths crossing fields and forests or on the dykes following the rivers. There's also a bike-trailer for 1 dog available to be attached behind a bike.
  Spring and summer is the time for biking, hiking, swimming, exploring nature. It's beautiful light green everywhere and it smells like fresh grass and flowers.
  Netherlands are famous for their blooming bulb-fields in April/May and beautiful skies.
  It's worth to visit enjoy them and see the Keukenhof and bike around in that area.
  There are bikes available to explore the area.
  And there is very good public transport nearby.
  
  We live in a small city with a next-door bus-connection (1 min. walk) to the trainstation; every half-hour schedule. Therefore Amsterdam, Utrecht and other area's are easy reachable with public transport.
  We live in a typicall dutch neighbourhood on walking distance from the stores and terraces or nature to relax or be on yourself.
  If you come by car, there is more then enough free parking available next to the house.
  
  Nearby:
  - Beautiful forests to walk/bike through
  -Fields with cattle and lots of birds
  -Lakes for swimming, sailing, canoeing, renting a sub
  -Bike-boat over the river
  -Old fishermantown/harbour with classic sailing fisherboats
  -Offgrit / tiny houses neighbour- hoods
  - Famous icecream store (yummie!)
  - Villages with cosy atmosphere and terraces to relax and watch
  - Very good flex-workingspots
  - Naarden Vesting (fortified old city)
  - Utrecht;beautiful old student-town
  -A typical dutch grain mill
  -Museum
  -Piet Oudolf gardens (famous garden architect)
  
  The area Utrechtse Heuvelrug is an old historic forest-area with low rolling hills that started in the glacier time.
  It offers many beautifull trails to explore hiking and biking in May/June when the leaves / ferns are light green.
  Or in fall when the leaves turn golden/red.
  Also the sand dunes and blooming purple heather in August are a treat to stroll through.
  
  This is us:
  Bien, Elko, Doenja, Ch'aska and some more.
  Used to travel, free nature-camping and international cultural exchange for many years.
  I love to interact and connect with all kinds of peoples with an open respectful honest mind.
  I'm a sportive, active, creative naturelover, former gymteacher and host for many children, young adults and peoples from over the world also for CISV.
  Our household:
  3 big enthousiastic German Shepherds living in the house and 3 wonderfull adult children who will visit some times, so you probably will meet them. They have been travelling for cultural exchanges themselves several times.
  Me, Bien + 3 BIG GERMAN SHEPHERD DOGS respectfully live together under one roof. Our animals are part of our daily life and we expect you to treat them with dignity. They're honest animals who will respect people with a good sincere hart and love for animals and nature.
  
  For the dogs:
  It's important that you are able to CONNECT with animals/dogs to feel at ease here (don't under-estimate!!)
  You need to have an understanding of dog-behavior in a herd, preferably Shepherds, and what they need.
  You can get a good idea about what it takes to make a good connection by looking to Youtube-films.
  You don't learn it overnight (!!); it takes love, being able to respond at the moment from insight and calmness.
  PLEASE BE AWARE:
  Liking animals / dogs doesn't mean that you can cope with living together with 3 big shepherds in a moderate house. So realize that you can connect with that. The dogs will be around you and close to you all the time.
  Care-taking of my dogs is not part of the tasks. If it gives you pleasure, you are always welcome to spent time together with the dogs.They are well trained and love peoples. If you want to walk with the dogs, you have to be physically and mentally strong for coping with strong dogs.
  
  Offer:
  I always show my guests around and will try my best to give you a good time.
  It's the concept of exchanging that made me choose to being a host.
  
  If you're interested in coming I'd like you to let me know what you're able to offer from experience / bring with you for talents that gives you pleasure in doing and that contributes in an exchange. There are all kind of things that can be done here: the focus here will be on DIY, putting things together with wood or stones, connection for a lamp (only if you know how!), sewing,
  painting, creating, etc...
  So you can use your potential / knowledge on DIY and sewing for an interesting cultural exchange.
  
  What can I offer;
  -A simple modest home with your own private bedroom and a shared bathroom.
  -Healthy tasteful meals to share; always breakfast, in between snacks, lunch and 1 meal on helping days.
  I love cooking , reduce my meat-consumption, lower my plastic-use and koolhydrate/sugar-use, but I'm not vegetarian/vegan.
  You are welcome to cook together and do suggestions
  I love to taste typical food/meals from your country :) and I'm interested in learning from your cooking-knowledge😀
  There is a BBQ ready to be used and we love to put on the fireplace and talk together or stare in it with our own thoughts, do a board game, make some music, read a book, etc...
  
  On free days we are used to have breakfast together (if you want) and after that WW-ers usually leave to explore the area, go biking, visit a nearby town, museum, nature-area according to their interests. During those free days WW-ers have their meals during their trip elsewhere. Most of the times, WW-ers meet each other in my house and enjoy exploring together.
  
  There are books and maps to inform you about, trails, biking routes, historic places to visit etc...
  
  PLEASE READ CAREFULLY;
  We look for workawayers who have handy hands and have DIY-pleasure!
  Workawayers who bring their own skills + enjoy wood connections + know how to use tools. Who have joy in putting things together, solving a puzzle and enjoy finishing a project with the kick of celebrating a good result together.
  
  The working hours are reasonable according to the Workaway-principles. Planning your helping hours will always be done together to what fits with the expected weather and your wishes for exploring-time.
  
  The Netherlands are rainy sometimes....so the outside tasks can be done according to the weather predictions. When the weather is good, we live outdoors mostly.
  You need a rain/windjacket in the NL's :)
  
  for the Hosting:
  I'd rather not have to mention the 2 following issues, but it's IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW and hopefully a no-brainer;
  We do not use drugs.; if you're used to that and wish to, it would be better to look for another host. The dogs will sense it and it will be a reason to stop hosting you. Sometimes just a joint is not what I mean with this. That's something to talk about. Smoking can be accepted outside the house keeping distance to us. But addiction and frequent drug-use is impossible here.
  
  For our hosting offer is based on a mutual exchange in contacts, we are gladly hosting people who limit their use of social media to when they are on there own and after helping hours and social meals. We are aware of the necessary use of mobile phones, I-pads etc... as we use them ourselves too. We are looking for WW-ers who are seriously looking for exchanging cultural backgrounds, foods, etc... by being in contact and having meaningful conversations.
  After a the day it's totally understandable that you want some me-time and/or time to explore....you can take a bike or public transport to discover the area.
  If you're just looking for a cheap place to stay, It's probably not a good match.
  
  Helping hours: average 4-5 hours a day for 5 days a week. I'm flexible about the times en we can plan it together per day. If you want to work a full day for a full day of for exploring it's possible. On half days 2 meals are provided and the 3rd meal is in your exploring-time. On full days 3 meals are provided. I love to cook and we eat together.
  Evenings can be spent together and its normal to respect each others wish for me-/quiet-time after a busy day. In the evenings I have to prepare for my work on sunday-evenings and wednesday-evenings
  
  We normally have a video call with workawayers who are interested to feel if there is a click.
  
  In return for your serious help, I'm gladly willing to show you around and take you to special places so you will have a good idea of the Netherlands and our culture.
  In our Workaway-hosting we are looking for considerate, honest people who like to connect and contribute to each other.
  You will find a warm welcome here with interest in who you are and for your travelling plans.
  We're used to work hard and joyfully share the thrill of the accomplishment with shared meals of good food/drinks/ candles and a burning fireplace or a picnic near the waterfront or in the woods telling eachother stories of our lives with the animals near to us, play ball, swim in the lake, etc...
  
  If you'd like to help us out for some hours and stay with us, feel welcome to just get in touch by telling who you are, what you can do to help us, what experience you have to offer and what you're looking for.
  
  If you have any questions for a possible stay; feel free to ask :)
  We will respond shortly ;).

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Bricolage et construction

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général
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  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Dev. personnel

  

  Culture

  

  Animaux de compagnie

  

  Musique

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Menuiserie

  

  Architecture

  

  Animaux

  

  Sports d’hiver

  

  Sports d'équipe

  

  Nature

  

  Randonnée

  

  Sports d'aventure

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Photographie

  

  Jardinage

  

  Bricolage / artisanat
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Your possible benefit from our cultural exchange can be, that you have a typical dutch experience in a typical dutch neighbourhood with very good connections to explore the wellknown dutch things to visit, like f.i. the City of Amsterdam /Rijksmuseum and other museums in Amsterdam, the mills, the typical landscapes to bike through on yourself or together with us, and a place to stay with people who can speak several languages and can tell you about and help you with exploring The Netherlands.
  Being in touch with house-animals (3 big dogs and a cat) and having some time in your travel to meet, exchange cultures and practise/learn languages. It will suit you if you know about dogbehaviour.
  
  On non-workingdays most workawayers go out exploring and take their meal somewhere.
  I can teach you about gardening, soils, planting, herbs, plants, pruning, wild eatable plants and mushrooms, etc...
  I can help you learn dutch language and dog-bodylanguage
  Further If you like it, we can show you around, let you meet friends and family, visit cultural heritage, visit University-area's to meet students, help you plan or find information on what you look for or want to visit, aswell as learn you what eatable plants you can find in nature and how you can use them.
  You can make a trip to the beaches of the westcoast, visit the Keukenhof in bulb-season (April/May; really beautifull!)) , walk the Waddenzee with low tide (=cultural heritage), combine that with visiting the beautiful islands in the north, visit historical cities around, visit many beautiful beautifull museums, make a canal-tour in the Amsterdam Canals, go canoeing or waterbiking in Utrecht, etc.....
  These are suggestions to concider when you are looking for a host in the Netherlands. It will be very inspiring to learn from your background and travel experiences and I will be thankfull and thrilled for your honest help in accomplishing some cores that will remind me daily on our positive exchange in our contacts!

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  Aide

  For the coming half year the following things are on my to do list:
  - making some changes in my gardenshed: would appreciate some help with connecting a lamp, making a cushionbox from rest-wood, creating a grape-construction, extending 1m2 roof
  - a sewing project for a chair
  ( maybe you can help/teach me?)
  - 3 welding-connections in a chair (I would be gratefull if you can help/teach me welding-experience)
  - spinning wool. I have some bags of sheep-/alpacawool that can be prepared for spinning on my spinning wheel ; I can teach you
  - gardening :
  some help with pruning, potting and planting
  rearranging some pavement
  creating a herbalcircle
  - creating a mini-library from leftover wood for people to take free books
  - connecting a drawer to the cabinet-door in the kitchen
  ( I'm afraid to do it myself; needs to be straight...need extra hands and eye for detail)
  - rearranging the attic and some paintpreparations
  
  How it works here;
  I'm used to inform you about the work , show you arround and prepare a list you can chose from. We talk things through and make a plan for the things you want to work on yourself, together or with other workawayers.
  We daily plan according to the wheater and your wishes for exploringtime.
  You can choose what appeals to you and what fits with your qualities.
  In a video call we can talk about this more
  
  I'm an experienced DIY-er myself and have fun in working together with others who also enjoy creating solutions and putting things together from used materials from the perspective of sustainability. Becauae of my work I can't always be there to teach you, so your own experience/knowledge is needed to. Offcourse I will work together with you when I'm home and we can teach eachother.
  So Ww-ers who are looking for a cultural exchange combined with helping out on tasks that require working with your hands, making things, using tools and be creative are invited to react.
  It makes me really happy every time we work on a DIY-project together; it gives me pleasure seeing peoples work with joy on their own craftsmanship!
  And I truly enjoy all the memories of all the workawayers that are connected to the results that surrounds me :) Even after years those memories bring a smile on my face and it's wonderful when workawayers return and visit again. Feels like precious contacts and almost as family sometimes.

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Hollandais: Courant
  Allemand: Intermédiaire
  Français: Intermédiaire
  Espagnol: Débutant
  Italien: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  Cet hôte a indiqué qu’il souhaitait faire partager sa propre langue ou en apprendre une nouvelle.
  Contactez-le pour en savoir plus.
  
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  Hébergement

  You will have a good bed to sleep in with fresh bedware in your own room.
  There will be a healthy breakfast with typical dutch and fresh ingredients starting the morning.
  We always have Greek Youghurt, fresh cheese, very tasty dutch bio-farmer cheese, fruits, nuts, peanutbutter, chocolate hail, homemade bio- jams, bio-honey. Everyday there will be a coffee-break between working-hours.
  After the helping hours/cores, you will ofcourse have your own free time to explore The Netherlands and the area. Bikes are available aswell as a busconnection 1 minute walk from our house (every half hour)
  You can use our shared bathroom considering, that you allign your time of use with the schedule of the peoples living in the house, and leave it as clean as it was when you started using it.
  Washing-machine+soap, kitchen are available and we assume that you consult the owners for the time of use so that is fits in the daily routines. Naturally you leave them clean and in the same shape after use and you are careful with the things in the house.
  
  For other wishes....we will try to make things right for you so you will have a positive memorable stay with us:)!

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  Autres infos...

  Furthermore;
  Distances are small here and the local busses/trains are good and frequent. Our country is very safe to travel on your own and most people speak excellent English to help you on the way when you need some help. Travel-schedules of public transport are pretty accurate.You can hire bikes, canoes, waterbikes easily on many locations in thearea. There is kitesurfing and windsurfing on the coasts and sailing/canoeing on the lakes. Everywhere there are bikingpaths separated from the roads (not in the cities).
  Our house has very good connections for bus-, train-, cycling and hikingroutes next-door at 1 min. walk. We live within 30 min. car-distance from the airport Schiphol and with the train you can travel straight to Schiphol (main airport near Amsterdam).
  Our small town is situated in the middle of varied different kind of landscapes; forests, heather, meadows, lakes are all close by (biking-distance within an hour). The shops (grossery, medical, bakery, market, etc...are close-by within 15 min. walkingdistance. There are lots of interesting things to explore nearby and when you want to vitit the bigger cities we have good connections to do that on daytrips. If we're on the road and can take you somewhere on the way, you're welcome to come with us so we can drop you at some point or pick you up later. If you're interested, you're welcome to make trips/walks together with the dogs.
  Did you know the Netherlands has an very intreaging system of ancient waterworks, fortifications and tunnels to protect our country? It just is declared as a historical cultural Unesc heritage. And you probably would love the cultural heritage nature-area of de Waddenzee, where you can walk over from the main land to some islands when the tide is low....very special experience :) Or join a sailingtrip on a botter?
  See you!

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  There are several very interesting flex-worker places very nearby on biking distance. Others did that before you and loved to work there.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  I have a parkingplace near my house where a small campervan can be parked.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Mes animaux

  several dogs

  3 big German Shephards

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