Welcome to Local Expat Insights. Just our way of getting to know more people in our local community. Times are tough what with all the restaurants and bars closed for the moment. We all miss eating out. Well, as long as you chose a good place to eat. Going out with family and friends, not having to cook or clean. It is really something we all will really miss including the social element of eating out in a group too. Hopefully, we will soon be able to again go and sit in restaurants and enjoy a lovely meal away from home. In 2019, I organised a series of restaurant meals with a social element to them. They were random expat dinners. Eight people around a table, so that random strangers could meet new people. They were always a fun evening out and new connections were made and new friendship established. It was at one of those dinners that I met Rory Brosnan for the first time. We had a nice mixed table with lots of new faces at a curry house opposite the Westerkerk. Almost everyone loves a curry!
Rory and I met again since for coffee and it turns out we live just one street away from each other in Amsterdam, so now our paths regularly cross, both by chance and by design. As part of a regular series we revisit often, Rory is replying to our Q+A in Local Expat Insights. This is a nice way to introduce local expats to the community, as everyone has an interesting story to tell! We love to learn more about the people in our local community and what keeps them busy, even in these crazy times. So here is a Q+A with Rory. It’s about his life in Amsterdam and his work during the time of Covid.
Q1. Hi Rory. Please tell us more about your past before coming to Amsterdam. Where did you grow up and please tell us more of your origins.
I was born and raised in Ireland, and moved to Los Angeles at 23 to attend graduate film school. I stayed for 11 years and in hindsight led a semi-bohemian existence as I chased the Hollywood dream (I wanted to be a screenwriter, not an actor).
Q2. When did you first move to Amsterdam and how has it changed for you over time?
I moved to Amsterdam in 2014. It seems kind of timeless to me to be honest. Although, even as someone who makes his living from tourism, I have to admit the inexorable increase in tourist numbers was a bit much. Nowadays people who relied on tourists for work would love to have those days back again.
Q3. What keeps you busy during the working week and how has that been affected by the Corona Virus?
I work in the cultural sector. For a number of years here I was doing authentic backroads tours for my own little company (I took people out of Amsterdam!). Then I was just developing a team-building events business called Culture Games Amsterdam when Covid hit. After a period of muttering “bloody hell” to myself and not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel, I devised an online / Zoom version of Culture Games Amsterdam and luckily it’s found a bit of traction.
Q4. Tell us all about the things you love the most about Amsterdam. what are your other Local Expat Insights?
It’s a world city that you can easily bike through in a matter of minutes! Oh, and Roopram Roti on Van Wou.
Q5. What are your plans for the future?
Keep on keeping on!… It’s been a pleasant surprise that the online version of www.culturegamesamsterdam.com has caught on , so at the risk of tempting fate my plan would be to continue growing that.
Thanks Rory for your time and these Local Expat Insights. Hopefully tourism will start again and your great looking tours and events will get the users they deserve. I’ll probably Rory see in our neighbourhood soon and hopefully in the near future in a restaurant!
If you are a local expat/international in the Amsterdam are and would like to feature in an article like this, please get in contact: info@internationallocals.nl
To read more blogs like this, see our local Amsterdam blogs section.
