How to Star in House Hunters International

My family have just spent the last four days being filmed for House Hunters International ("HHI"). The episode should be aired in the US sometime towards the end of 2014. 

House Hunters International are always searching for new families, singles or couples who are relocating from one country to another. Not only will you have professional footage of your relocation experience, you'll also have your travel costs to your home country paid. 

There are a few ways you can star in your own episode of House Hunters International, but you must have recently moved to another country to appear on HHI.

1. Write a blog. The researchers for HHI will find you if you have an interesting story to tell.
2. Contact HHI directly with a home movie of your relocation story.

What to Expect

It was hard work and not without drama. 

Long Days

Our days were 12 hours long. We were cold. We had to pretty much wear the same clothes for 4 days. We had to repeat ourselves over and over again. 

The filming takes place AFTER you have moved to a new country. We returned to UK to film our back story. This was fun to do. For us it meant that our children put their old British school uniform back on and I had to rustle up a class of baby yoga mums and babies. It was only one day of filming and it was a relaxed fun day. 

The filming in our new country was harder. We were filmed looking around three different properties, including the one we currently rent. This involved hiring a removal company to take out our belongings so it looked like we didn't live there. Then, when filming was over, we put all our belongings back. Once everything was back in place, we had to continue filming until 8.30pm and then be ready to go at 8am the following day. It really was a hard pace to keep up with. 

Pushed to the Edge

My least favourite part of the filming was when I was filmed riding a bike. I love cycling, but I was asked to cycle over a bridge in Amsterdam (equivalent to a steep hill) with 2 children in the bakfiets.  The area was busy, full of tourists, other cyclists, cars and motorbikes. It was hard work as I was asked to go up and down this bridge three or four times. 

My husband and I were then asked to ride some hire bikes. I flatly refused as the bike had a back pedal brake on, which I've never cycled before. I was so tired, the last thing I wanted to do was ride this dodgy looking bike. By this point, it was 1pm, we'd been going since 8am with no food. Eventually, the director persuaded me to cycle this hired back-pedal-brake bike, which worked fine on a flat road. 

We were asked cycle a loop, over one bridge, along a road and then back across another bridge. I cycled down a bridge and the bike wouldn't stop. There was a car in front of me and I was heading straight for it and there was nothing I could do about it. The director ran out in front of my bike and managed to stop it. I was completely terrified. There was a camera clipped onto the front of my bike, so I believe my horror stricken face would have been captured. So embarrassed, but relieved that I didn't come to any harm.

Still Interested in being on HHI?

I would say, 'go for it'. It's a lot of fun and a once in a life time experience. 

The Perfect School

I'm questioning the school calendar.

I know that children have needs which are carefully thought out and have resulted in the way schools are today. However, children's needs must be paid for. Children need clothes food, after school activities (swimming lessons, sport) and toys. How can they be paid for when there are approximately 15 weeks of school holiday's each year and when most schools are finished with by 3.30pm? 

How can both parents afford to work? 

You are lucky if you have a relative who can help out with the childcare. Parents must figure out some wrap around childcare solution for the days the children are at school and then there are the school holidays to consider. Most employees receive about 23 days of annual leave each year. Which is just over 4 weeks holiday. But there are about 15 weeks school holidays to account for. Even if both partners worked and didn't spend their annual leave at the same time, there are still 7 weeks to worry about. The primary school care system prevents both parents from working. 

Yesterday I heard about an amazing new school. It is open from 7.30am - 6pm except for two weeks of the year. Children can take holidays when they want, meaning parents don't have to pay a premium for going away during the summer holidays. Here is the schedule.  I honestly think this must be the way forward for primary schools. There needs to be a wrap around onsite after school care solution and affordable options for childcare for the school holidays. 

Learning Dutch

Many people I've spoken to, some of them linguists who speak 3 or 4 languages, say that Dutch is an especially difficult language to learn. A lot of Dutch people speak very good English. 

Why would an English speaker learn Dutch?

Personally, I have a number of reasons.

1. My children go to a Dutch basisschool (primary school). Their friends won't be learning English until they're 10 or 11 years old. As I like to volunteer to help at the school and would like other children to feel comfortable in our home when they come to play with my children, learning basic Dutch is essential for me.

2. I drive. There are lots of sign posts in Dutch and I really need to understand what they mean to be safe on the roads.

3. I like to be sociable. Although a lot of Dutch people do speak English, I have noticed that if you can speak a bit of Dutch in the supermarket or to other parents at school, or to the children's teachers, they really appreciate it. You can almost see people's faces soften as you make a bit of effort to speak Dutch.

4. Culturally, I feel it is important. There are words and expressions in Dutch, which I'm sure, just don't translate well into English and which speak volumes about the Dutch culture. I also like to understand the radio, the news headlines and what people are saying to around me.

5. Tax. Unfortunately, as a small business, I pay tax. The tax office only communicate in Dutch. It may be a while before I can discuss my taxes in Dutch, but hopefully, I can try if need be.

What is the best way to learn Dutch?

I tried learning using CDs and I did learn a bit. My method was to just spend 20 minutes each night learning Dutch. However, my enthusiasm soon waned and I got to a point where I didn't understand the lessons and went over the first two CDs a number of times.

Figuring out learning on my own wasn't that much fun, I thought I'd find a group of like-minded people who were willing to learn Dutch during the daytime. I set up a group of mum's with children to learn Dutch one hour a week. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the international community. However, I found it hard to concentrate with my two year old in the room though, and I didn't really learn that much. 

Then I found out about a free course, put on my our local council. I signed up for it, which was a long process. I did two Dutch language assessments and had two or three interviews.  It took six months, but I managed to be placed on a Dutch language course for two evenings a week, over a year. I've completed two months so far and I think it's a going well. I know I should spend more time practicing as this will be key to learning. I'll also be happy if I can just get by in Dutch, I'm not expecting to be fluent by the end of it.