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| I was born on December 1st in Sittard in the south of the Netherlands. I was raised together with my big sister, Sandra, and little sister, Cindy, in a small rural town called Limbricht. I also attended elementary school, the Lemborgh, here. High school was attended in Sittard, the school was within walking distance of my home so together with 3 friends I walked the "distance". After graduation I decided to study business at the university of Eindhoven, but after 1 year, a great year in several ways, I decided that this was not to be my future and I changed universities to Tilburg. Here I studied for over 3 years, and here it was that I came in contact with some Japanese people who soon became my friends. As these friends were not able to speak English very well I decided to pick up Japanese and therefor change universities yet again. At Rotterdam university I studied Modern Japanese Studies (a mix of economics and Japanese) and loved it. It was also the very first university where I did relatively well (didn't fail any subjects the first time!). After 1 year I wanted to go to Japan, a country I already visited during my summer holidays in 1995, to study the Japanese language for 1 year. After enrolling in several universities I decided to go to Kita-Kyushu as there they had a course that started from September 1996. I was enrolled at a women's university (sounds strange doesn't it?!?). After a few months I started dating a Korean lady, Hee Jin Kwon. I have not so many good memories about her, but I do thank her for teaching me not to be so possessive! After 1 year I decided to study for another year, but the immigration office thought otherwise, they wouldn't extend my student visa, I therefor started working as an English teacher at a small school called AIM through which I also got a working permit. After a few months and not so many good experiences (late pay etc.) I became unemployed and I decided to head for home at the end of November 1998. During my time in Kita-Kyushu I also helped former Dutch prisoners of war, who visited once or twice every year, in their contact with the Japanese people. It was through them that I met Yoko, who was a volunteer translator, in October 1998. One week later we had our first date and on the 30th of August 1999 we got married by submitting the papers to City Hall. We didn't have a ceremony. We didn't plan to marry that fast but again stay permit troubles forced us into marriage (we were planning marriage anyway, so why not then we thought). Now looking back we din't have to get married that day as after we submitted the papers at City Hall, I had a job interview with Baiko High School. I was hired as an English teacher at this school the next day and I could have gotten a new work permit through them, but this was not necessary anymore as we already had submitted the papers to get a new status, "spouse or child of a Japanese national". I worked at Baiko for one and a half years before getting a job at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Osaka. A job I still hold and like very much! If you'd like to mail me: |  |
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