Welcome to Eindhoven
So far, I've been pretty impressed by the governmental agencies in the Netherlands. At city hall and at the immigration office, you can just walk in and talk to a real live clerk with only a 5-10 minute wait, no appointment needed. At both offices too, I've had staff issue declarations and statements on the spot. So finally I was able to complete my registration at Eindhoven city hall. In addition to getting my all-important burgerservicenummer, the equivalent to a Social Security number, this registration triggered a bunch of mail. One of them was a letter "from the mayor of Eindhoven" welcoming me to the city and saying that if I brought that letter in to city hall, they'd give me a free welcome pack.
Excited about the prospect of getting a welcome pack from a city, I went to city hall with my letter and the receptionist (whom I'd seen several times already) promptly reached under her desk where there were a ton of these gift bags and gave me one of them. Inside there were a bunch of information pamphlets for things like the Van Abbemuseum and the casino, but also walking maps, a very thin yellow pages, and even a promotional DVD for the city. A bit of a random assortment, but I did get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling of being welcomed.
Another piece of mail was my stadspas, or city card. You can use it as a library card, and also as an access card for the ice skating rink and swimming pool and even the city dump. As an aside, if you're under the impression that the Netherlands is a totally socialist society where all of these services are free, you're sorely mistaken. At the library, adults pay at least 7.50 Euro per year for borrowing privileges, and that rate limits you to borrow 5 items PER YEAR. When I think of my borrowing habits in Cincinnati where I borrowed a ton of guidebooks, I would need the higher package of 37.50 Euro per year (unlimited number of materials but only 15 books checked out at any one time); rates top out at 48 Euro per year for the most premium services. Oh yeah, and regardless of how much you pay per year, CDs and DVDs cost 2 Euro each time you check one out (language CDs cost 3.50 Euro).
