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Ilan Bloom
biomedical engineer
In Porem van Mokum omdat hij de grenzen opzoekt van nieuwe ontwikkelingen in de medische wetenschap en technologie.
Vindt zichzelf vertegenwoordiger van alle expats in Amsterdam
I
Amsterdam is full of life, full of open people. It’s sort of like a multicultural oasis. I’ve seen many places in the world. Of all the big cities, Amsterdam is the smallest one. It feels almost like a village and that makes me feel quite welcome. On the other hand, I haven’t really learned Dutch, though I moved here eight months ago. Partly because I’m lazy. But I think mostly because everybody speaks English so well and is happy to practice their English. So I love my laziness to grow. I do feel like a citizen, but also like a tourist or a visitor. There are so many people like me, highly skilled migrate workers. I’m the representative of these expats in Amsterdam. I think that’s a big component of Amsterdam and it has changed the face of Amsterdam a lot in comparison to the rest of the country.
II
Hoewel Amsterdam de plaats is van waaruit ik werk, ben ik voor mijn werk internationaal georiënteerd en reis door heel Europa. Amsterdam fungeert als een knooppunt en een goed bereikbare plaats. I moved to Amsterdam to work as an expat. I work as a biomedical engineer in Rotterdam. My job for the company I work for is to make their work possible in different countries. I choose to live in Amsterdam because it’s nearby an airport. I fly quite often and that’s probably the main reason why I’m here. Op dit moment is mijn vakgebied stamceltechnologie. Snijden in een mens vind ik eigenlijk al bijna achterhaald.
III
My father – Colin Bloom, een van de beeldhouwers bij het Porem (red) – lives in Barcelona. I used to live there before I came here. I was born in Israel, and then at an early ages moved to the United States, to Seattle. I spent five or six years in Seattle, and then we moved back to Israel. We moved around to several different places, quite often actually. When I finished my high school I got dragged into the military and I had to fight in the Libanon. After the military services I started to work for a friend in the United States, as a Diamond expert. I stuck with it for less than a year, it wasn’t for me. So I went to Brazil for five months and traveled. I went back to school and that took seven years to complete my studies; overall I spent ten or eleven years in the United States. In the middle of that period I left and lived in Spain and went to Mexico for a few months and I traveled some more, and eventually moved to Barcelona. At the end I got this job for the company I’m working for now, they sent me to Europe in 2010. They let me choose somewhere to live near an Airport. I chose Barcelona for the family and for the weather. I stayed there for about a year and a half, until the opportunity came up to move to Amsterdam for the company and I jumped on it, I really wanted it.
IV
Compare to other cities I lived in Amsterdam is small and quiet and it’s clean. The schedules of the shops are like a village: they open late, close early, some are even closed for two days a week. Buildings are maybe five storey’s high. Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Barcelona, Tokyo: they are a lot bigger. Amsterdam feels like a really provincial city and that feels so nice. But between Amsterdam and other Dutch cities I visited there are a lot of differences. I think that’s because of the most of the people you find in other cities, I think for the exception of Den Haag, have permanently moved to live in Holland, they are permanent immigrants. People outside of Amsterdam are extra-friendly to foreigners. Overwhelmingly wonderful. For that reason I considered moving to Rotterdam, because people that I worked with there were so down to earth and wonderful. But I stayed in Amsterdam as you see.
Voorgedragen door: Saskia de Rooy
Portret : Saskia de Rooy
Sponsor : Nog niemand. U?
Interview : student UvA
Foto : Koos Baaij