Laura caries a backpack with a lot of stuff. \u201cI started my Dutch classes two months ago and I have my study material with me. I decided to do an intensive course and that means I\u2019m in class for four hours a week and study for two hours every day. Reading is easier at the moment than speaking the language. There are a lot of differences in pronunciation in Spanish and Dutch. A simple word like \u2018jij\u2019 for instance has a sound to it that we don\u2019t use in the Spanish language. At the company where I work everybody speaks Dutch, so I feel the need to learn Dutch as quick as possible. I\u2019ve been working at the-bike for two months now. My work is very diverse and that is something I love, that makes it fun. I notice a lot of people here work as a specialist in something and they are the best at what they do. I\u2019m more happy with doing lots of different things.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/laura4-1024x684.jpg\")
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The last four years Laura had her own fashion company, but it was difficult to continue the company here in the Netherlands. \u201cEverything was new to me here, also the rules and regulation about owning a business. Also, the production costs are higher here. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t continue with my company here. Besides my job and learning Dutch, I\u2019m still working on projects of my own, like my website<\/a> where I share content about my international life, fashion style and decoration and design. I \u2018m also a volunteer at The Hub. Nowadays I manage their Instagram account, but before I found my job, I was there a lot more. I would recommend to anyone to join The Hub, whether you are an international or not. Everybody is welcome and as a foreigner, you meet people who are in the same situation as you.\u201d<\/p>\n Laura decided to join The Hub after she got a bit lonely from working from home every day. \u201cI didn\u2019t meet other people and when I worked at a communal workspace I didn\u2019t connect with the other people there. I got out of my comfort zone and went to The Hub a few times. That\u2019s where I found the social contact I needed. Most of my friends are internationals. In Spain is common to have friends at work too, who you see outside of work. I haven\u2019t experienced that in the Netherlands yet. Everyone is very nice, but the conversations stay on a certain level. That isn\u2019t a bad thing, but it is different from what I\u2019m used to. In Spain, you go out for lunch and get to know each other more. Here most people make a distinction between work and private life, and again I don\u2019t mean this is worse or better, it is just different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMainly in the weekends, I can enjoy some free time, because of my work and study. We love to go to the market on Saturday morning. There is a stall with dry sausages with all kinds of flavours we really love, so we always take some home. And of course, we get some more fresh products like fruit. After that, we like to have lunch in one of the restaurants at the Kleine Berg. I like this area because it is cosy. Depending on where there is a concert or event, we will go there at night. I would love it if there is a platform in Eindhoven with all the events on it. I sometimes miss nice events, because I didn\u2019t know about it. Besides this, I’m very happy here. I take my bike and go to the forest or to the Karpendonkse Plas (a lake). I also loved Dutch Design Week and GLOW this year. These are amazing events. Everything I need is here and at the moment I don\u2019t need more in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Photography: Diewke van den Heuvel People from many different countries live, study and work in Eindhoven. Every week, Innovation Origins has a talk\u00a0with an international about what brought them here and what life is like in Eindhoven. Name: Laura Yva\u00f1ez Country of origin: Spain Work: Marketing and brand manager at the-bike We noticed Laura for the first time on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1617,"featured_media":504102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[3520,21169],"location":[],"article_type":[],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-161729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-expats-en","tag-spain"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Sabine te Braake","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/sabine-te-braake\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/laura5.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["expats<\/a>","Spain<\/a>"],"unlinked":["expats<\/span>","Spain<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 7 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 5, 2019","modified":"Updated on January 5, 2019"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 5, 2019 9:00 am","modified":"Updated on January 5, 2019 9:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=161729"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=161729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRead more stories of internationals\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"