As of September 2007, If you come work for Optiver, in the US or in the Netherlands you will be given a place to live for 2 months. If you work for the US office, then you will be given a place in Amsterdam for 3 months and then in Chicago for 2 months. I am not sure if all of the places are the same, but I think they are of similar style / quality. Here is what Singel 342 looks like.
This picture was taken at night (since I am still on Eastern US time). The open door indicates where I and my apartment mate are living.
Communication
To communicate with family and friends from back home, I am using Skype. I have found that Skype's voice clarity and picture clarity in its webcam chat are much better than the competition. (Optiver provides a computer in the common area with a microphone, so just in case you can't get onto the network or decided not to bring a computer, you will have one.) Optiver also provides a cell phone with 100 euro of credit right when arrive. This is really convenient if you need to make local calls, especially to the cell phones of your fellow trainees. A nifty little option for your computer is to get it outfitter with bluetooth and get a headset. At the time of writing, an HS850 (which seems to work very well for me) is about $35 at Costco and a USB bluetooth is 9 euro (maybe 10-15 dollars in the states). This provides a lot more flexibility chatting so you can clean your room, make a sandwich, or just talk in bed easily.
Communicating with the locals is extremely easy. Just about everyone speaks English.
Quirks of Amsterdam
- Like other countries in Europe, Amsterdam charges extra for hefty shopping bags. You can buy some once and then just reuse the same ones. They are much more durable than in the US.
- Since the city is overlaid with a grid of canals, the water buffers the temperature substantially. They say that it hardly ever snows in Amsterdam and when it does, it is usually in February / March.
- Parking is very expensive. I brought rollerblades but the brick laid roads are a little rocky to rollerblade very easily. Everyone bikes from the CEO to the mailman to the kid, to the ... everyone. I received a tip today from an Amsterdam native (thanks Emma!) that you can buy a nice secondhand bike from people on the street. Be sure to ask if they are police before you ask them if you can buy a bike. There is a lot of bike theft (supposedly to fund the drugged-out lifestyle) and the police will give you a fine for trying to buy a bike on the street.
- Clothes are very expensive relative to the US here. Bring all the clothes you expect to wear.
By far the best way that I have found to convert money is to use an ATM. HSBC does not seem to charge an ATM fee and has a fee of less than 2% for converting US to Euro (as calculated by me). If you are using an American Express card, you need to make sure that they will not charge you for converting. My suggestion is to load up an HSBC account and just withdraw funds from the ATM as soon as you land in the airport.
