Garrelt Mellema
October 24, 20021
This document is meant as a help when starting working at Leiden Observatory. To encompass the largest possible audience, it is written with a non-Dutch individual in mind, hence the section on information on settling in the Netherlands and Leiden. Since some specific university entities/titles are difficult to uniquely translate and may frequently be encountered in Dutch, they are given both in English and Dutch. The Dutch terms are all typeset in slanted font when they occur for the first time.
Starting a new life in a new country involves a number of sometimes aggrevating ``things which need to be done''. In this section we try to guide you through most of them. We may not be able to limit the frustration, but can hopefully reduce the number of surprises. We start with a list of things that one should take care of when coming to Leiden. Especially important for foreigners are the steps that need to be taken to get past the aliens department!
Unfortunately most things are subject to change, or are just handled differently from case to case. We therefore cannot promise that all the information we give is 100% correct or applicable to your case. But please send an email to soccom@strw.leidenuniv.nl if you find anything in here that is blatantly wrong.