I don't mean this as criticism of the Dutch people at all, but personally after a couple of years, I found the bureaucracy stifling, the work ethic not quite what it is in North America, and the people not as "friendly and tolerant as Dutch society is portrayed" amongst other reasons.

And we lived in a Dutch neighbourhood, my daughter attended a local Dutch school and was fluent in the language within months, my wife and I both attended Dutch language schools and made an effort to integrate as best we could, so it's not like we just lived in the North American enclave but rather made an effort to get to know the Dutch directly.

On the other side of the coin, it was a real learning experience to actually live and work outside of NA and we did alot of travelling within western Europe that wouldn't have been possible from this side of the Atlantic.

I would never say I hated Holland and as time goes by, find myself forgetting more and more of the daily living annoyances and remembering the fun times. Overall, it was a worthwhile opportunity.