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People from many different countries live, study and work in Eindhoven. Every week, E52 has a talk\u00a0with an international about what brought them here and what life is like in Eindhoven.<\/p>\n
Name: Corinne Heyman
\nCountry of origin: Belgium
\nWork: freelance theatre maker, writer and drama teacher<\/p>\n
With a fresh face, including red cheeks from the cold, Corinne enters eatery Onder de Leidingstraat. Almost immediately we start with her story on how she ended up in Eindhoven. It turns out Corinne is from Antwerp. So far, she is the international in this series who travelled the shortest distance to Eindhoven. But there are enough differences she noticed between the two countries, but we will get back to that later. \u201cI\u2019m happy we are finally here. We moved in our house right at the start of the new year. I live together with a guy from the village Budel, where he also has his atelier with heavy machinery. Moving those machines wasn\u2019t an option. It is easy for him to go to Budel from Eindhoven and I can travel to Antwerp where I still teach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding a house wasn\u2019t easy: \u201cBuying a house wasn\u2019t possible for us and in the private rental sector the financial bar is set very high. We almost thought we would never find a house. And we were eligible for social housing, but we would have to be on the waiting list for more than eight years. Eventually, we did find a house thanks to a rental company. It isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019m living together with a Dutch person. During my time I was a student, I shared a house with a few Dutch people. My boyfriend visited his friends at that house and that\u2019s how we met each other. Living together with the Dutch is also very handy. They are more direct and practical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to looks, Eindhoven and Antwerp aren\u2019t really comparable. But when it comes to developments, innovation and renewed parts of the city they are. In Antwerp, there is also a lot going on in the more rougher parts of the city. They are transformed into residential and work areas. The funny thing is you have in Antwerp all kinds of squares and beforehand you never know if it\u2019s busy and happening there or not. Just like Strijp S in Eindhoven, they sometimes are completely empty and sometimes is super crowdy. And everybody knows each other too, just like here. But I really need to build a network here. Last year I started with that already a bit. I taught writing to elderly people at a nursing home from Vitalis. That was so much fun! And simultaneously the participants gave me history lessons about Eindhoven.\u201d<\/p>\n
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