Dutch & Prejudices

So I arrived in the Netherlands and have spent some time here so I guess it is time to talk about whether I can confirm the prejudices I listed before or not.

Tulips: It’s winter and I live in the middle of a city so maybe not the best voraussetzungen to check for flowers… but based on my limited observations there are no tulips here. Though we all know they exist in huge quantities at the right time of the year.

Wooden shoes: Haven’t seen them yet. Though I guess this is like looking for Lederhosen when living in Berlin. Not going to happen.

Cheese: The supermarkets have an amazing selection of cheese which to me looks pretty much the same. Do you want your Gouda to be aged for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or maybe 6 years? It’s like having 30 types of milk. Anyways: Confirmed.

Deep fried food: Definitely. The cafeteria doesn’t really offer lunch but rather snacks. I’ve been there once and 4 of the 5 options for warm snacks (without the soup) were deep fried. And they have those really famous fast food shops which are basically full of vending machines… with fried food (see below). Even my Dutch colleagues admit that the Dutch kitchen isn’t worth mentioning. So let’s stop it right here.

Field hockey: Again wrong time of the year. Let’s wait for that.

Speed skating: Most of the female CrossFit trainers have been speed skating and have thighs like tree trunks. I think I can confirm that it is pretty popular around here. Netherlands winning all gold medals in this sport at the last Olympics may also be a tell...

Terrible soccer: An obvious one. Didn’t qualify for the last European championship. To use Donald’s a.k.a. the “best words”. They have some bad hombres in their team. SAD!

Terrible driving: I enjoyed driving in Germany so much that I directly got a ticket for speeding. The Netherlands are more like the US. Speed limit for all motorways… I guess it is so engrained in the Dutch DNA not to go above 130km/h (80mph) that they can’t drive faster even when being in Germany. Seriously: The closer you get to the Netherlands the slower the traffic gets as the percentage of yellow license plates increases.

Dutch people are tall: Hell yes they are. Half of my team is at least one head taller than me and the rest has my size. Still the plant here has stairs which are even to narrow for my little feet.

Bicycles: The Dutch claim to have more bicycles than people living here. That does sound impressive but from an efficiency perspective may also be a waste. Just saying… and why are there so many stolen bikes if they have so many excess bikes? Still I guess it is not a secret that it is the most bicycle centric nation in the world. Even my apartment comes with a free rental bike. During the rush hour the traffic is bad not because of the amount of cars but because of the amount of bicycles that have (or just take) right of way. Using the bike is definitely the quicker mode of transportation in the inner city. Interestingly enough also the scooters are allowed to use the bicycle lanes… maybe I should get one of those.

Is there anything I need to add after living here when it comes to prejudices? Yes! Coffee and sweets. I thought that the Swedish are the most crazy about coffee but oh was I wrong. Here they have a rule that the employees get deducted something like 7€ per month from their salary but in exchange get a coffee flat rate… and they are not afraid to use it. I guess on average every 30-45 minutes someone in the office stands up and asks “coffee?” which generally is answered by a nod. Then he gets coffee for the whole office. They use small plastic cups (0,2l) for that but still they add up. Today I counted 10 cups for one colleague. They even have a whole industry that produces different devices to carry as many cups as possible safely. So I’m back to being a social outcast again with not drinking any coffee… or soup… the machine also offers soup. I think that tells a lot about the quality of the coffee.

The other thing that is always present in the office are sweets. There is a whole table in the middle of the office dedicated to sweets. The amount they bring every day is amazing… the amount they eat as well. But at least that is something I can participate in.

Oh… one more thing that is present in the office all the time: Music. That by itself is not worth mentioning. But the kind of music. Every morning the radio plays classics. By that I mean Faithless, Captain Jack, RMB, Technoheads… I think it’s the first time in my life that I worked while listening to happy hardcore. Best work environment ever!