{"id":14924,"date":"2015-09-23T22:58:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T22:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/?p=14924"},"modified":"2022-01-10T21:41:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:41:30","slug":"the-stroopclub-chantal-tako-followed-their-dream-via-green-card-lottery-from-the-netherlands-to-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/the-stroopclub-chantal-tako-followed-their-dream-via-green-card-lottery-from-the-netherlands-to-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"The StroopClub &#8211; Chantal &#038; Tako Followed Their Dream via Green Card Lottery from  The Netherlands to Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>This story is written by Chantal and Tako in their own words. You will meet them on Saturday, Sep 26\u00a0 at the Roosevelt Room &#8211; and have a chance to sample the famous StroopWafels.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-pueejw-12fe7f66f6152601ee35f0124510bf88\">\n#top .avia-gallery.av-pueejw-12fe7f66f6152601ee35f0124510bf88 .avia-gallery-thumb a{\nwidth:20%;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-gallery av-pueejw-12fe7f66f6152601ee35f0124510bf88 avia_animate_when_visible  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  deactivate_avia_lazyload avia-gallery-animate avia-gallery-1'  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><div class='avia-gallery-thumb'> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1.jpg 500w, 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data-onclick='1' title='Interview-TheStroopClub1'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-14927 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-14927\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='Interview-TheStroopClub1' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1-450x450.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub1.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2.jpg 548w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-529x705.jpg 529w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-450x599.jpg 450w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\" data-rel='gallery-1' data-prev-img='https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-495x400.jpg' class='lightbox ' data-onclick='2' title='Interview-TheStroopClub2'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-14928 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-14928\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='Interview-TheStroopClub2' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub2-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3.jpg 548w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-529x705.jpg 529w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-450x599.jpg 450w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\" data-rel='gallery-1' data-prev-img='https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-495x400.jpg' class='lightbox ' data-onclick='3' title='Interview-TheStroopClub3'  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"  ><img class=\"wp-image-14929 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-14929\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-180x180.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\"  title='Interview-TheStroopClub3' alt='' srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-120x120.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-content\/uploads\/articles-member\/2015\/09\/Interview-TheStroopClub3-450x450.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p>You know this quote of a guy named Robert Fulghum?<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe\u2019re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness\u2014and call it love\u2014&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This quote has probably been used on countless wedding invitations, but for us&#8230; This is (even without the wedding invitation) just so true!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here&#8217;s our story.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re <strong>Tako and Chantal<\/strong> and we\u2019re originally from <strong>the Netherlands.<\/strong> (For y\u2019all who don\u2019t know where that is, it\u2019s western Europe, with our beautiful, but cold, beaches\u00a0at the North-Sea. Amsterdam will probably ring a bell.)<\/p>\n<p>Tako is a senior economist specialized in anti trust. With the wish he had for years to once come to the States to experience life here, he entered the Green Card Lottery. As a miracle\u00a0 &#8211; and a chance of once in 200 years &#8211; he actually won this thing! Happy and excited, he started\u00a0the process to change his life and live his dream. Unexpectedly, right in the middle of that process, he met Chantal, an experienced corporate technical recruiter. Her dream was to once build her own restaurant and live in any other country to experience the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>You see the match here? We certainly did!<\/p>\n<p>We both love cooking, we love baking, we love good, real, fresh, honest food.\u00a0We love to experiment, to go out for dinner, to try new joints.\u00a0Some even might call us foodies..\u00a0We often get disappointed though, because our own cooking often beats the restaurant quality. So if you\u2019re that arrogant.. Yeah, one\u00a0must\u00a0start his\u00a0own food business! So that\u2019s what we did. Fully indulging in Austin culture, but still cherishing our own traditions, we first took workshops at home to make these lovely Stroopwafels ourselves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Stroopwafel, the one and only traditional cookie of our home country.<\/strong> We invested in the professional baking iron and appliances and here we are. Baking and selling\u00a0our delicious, home-made, hand-pressed traditional Stroopwafels! The fun part? We&#8217;re actually still in an AirBNB&#8230; \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Our dream? Our very own Stroopwafel empire. Numerous coffee shops, a couple of bakery production plants, lots of national and international locations, the whole nation wearing t-shirts and caps with our logo and drinking out of our StroopClub mugs. You gotta have a vision, right \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step-by-Step overcoming obstacles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BUT.. Let&#8217;s start off small.. And somewhat realistic&#8230; \u00a0Because we literally don&#8217;t know a thing about American or Texas laws and regulations and oh my&#8230; That&#8217;s not something you learn overnight. We&#8217;re guessing that foreigners in Holland might experience the same as we do here: Not knowing where to find information, the bureaucracy, the one rule that contradicts the others and an American system in which we just don&#8217;t tick the boxes.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t have <strong>an address<\/strong> yet, but for applying for an apartment you&#8217;d need one. We don&#8217;t have an apartment yet, because you need proof of employment and income to apply for it, obviously with starting our business, we can&#8217;t proof income&#8230; We don&#8217;t have or get a\u00a0credit card, because we don&#8217;t have <strong>credit history<\/strong>&#8230; To get your basic needs arranged, housing, transport, money&#8230;. is such a hassle! You get the point? We don&#8217;t fit in (yet) and people don&#8217;t seem to be able to work around it (yet). <strong>These are definitely things slowing us down and getting us utterly frustrated now and then&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The fantastic part about being in Austin though, is the friendliness of the people. Everyone you meet is trying to help you out, on the spot. We&#8217;re renting a room though AirBNB and the hosts, they&#8217;re our heroes at the moment. Everyone just seems nice and although we&#8217;re warned and have experienced this kindness is not permanent, it&#8217;s getting us a jump start.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing.. <strong>The weather<\/strong>.. Oh my, how lovely it is to be walking around in your t-shirt at 1 am at night, not even feeling chilly, that&#8217;s luxury to us! And as for starting off a business, the taxes are heaven compared to those in Holland!<\/p>\n<p>Delicious regards,<\/p>\n<p>Tako &amp; Chantal<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connect with Us<\/strong><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;\"><a href=\"tel:%28512%29%20400-8906\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(512) 400-8906<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stroopclub.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.stroopclub.com<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/in\/stroopclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">linkedin.com\/in\/stroopclub<\/a> \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri,Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;\">Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stroopclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #cc0000;\">Facebook<\/span><\/a> and <span style=\"color: #cc0000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stroopclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This story is written by Chantal and Tako in their own words. You will meet them on Saturday, Sep 26\u00a0 at the Roosevelt Room &#8211; and have a chance to sample the famous StroopWafels. You know this quote of a guy named Robert Fulghum? \u201cWe\u2019re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14924"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29576,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14924\/revisions\/29576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eurocircle.com\/euro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}