The Dutch

My dear readers, we've a slight change of pace for this week's reading escape. A good friend approached me this morning and asked if I could help her out with something. Her name is Lieke and she is from the Netherlands. Her request is simple: describe what it's been like to know her, a Dutch person (a Dutchie - a new word I just learned from Lieke).

Even though I am a globally minded individual, I was not familiar with the Netherlands, their traditions, culture or food, until I met Lieke. There have been many new fun facts - I now know about Queens-day/King's Day in which one must wear ALL ORANGE. From socks to hair color, orange.

Dutchies on Queensday. Lots and lots of orange Dutchies.

I've learned about the 4.5 million different ways that the date of Queen's-day was decided in the Netherlands (It'll be on April 26th this year for those of you who are unaware, to celebrate the King's birthday, not on his mother's mother's birthday as it was in the past). And that they have a royal family, which was also a bit of a big deal to learn.

This is the previous Queen of the Netherlands, but no one can touch her elegance & style

Style

After much discussion, I have been told that my chances of becoming Queen of the Netherlands is a bit impossible, so it looks like I won't be attempting to challenge the Queen with my sense of style for the purse of her throne.

But nothing has been quite so entertaining or illuminating as the differences between American and European/Dutch lifestyles.

The Top 10 Dutchie Lieke Moments/Facts/Perspectives on American/EU Differences:

10) Cheese - American Cheese CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be compared to European Cheese.

9) Speculaas - addictive and incomparable to any cookies in the US. (My opinion - their animal cookies are far fancier than ours.)

Speculaas

American Animal Crackers..."in my soup..." (Google Shirley Temple and Animal Crackers if that one whizzed by you...Also a key aspect of American Culture.)

8) Music in the Netherlands is referred to as "Dutch Music" though most of it is sung in English.

7) There are 3 sports in the US - Baseball, Football and Basketball. There are 2 sports in Europe - Hockey and Soccer. Mostly Soccer.

6) Bicycles are what the cool kids ride.

And that's probably because finding your bicycle after a long day of work in the Netherlands requires a cool attitude

5) Our singing of "Take Me Out to Ballgame" tradition is our "commercialized industrialization worshiping chips," also known as Cracker Jacks. But that the experience of seeing a 35,000+ people in one stadium singing along to the same tune was an extraordinary experience. 

4) In the Netherlands women do not change their last names to that of their husband's when they get married because that is "old fashioned." (My spin - we in the States are so last century on this one.)

3) It is impolite to shout out at people from across the street in the Netherlands. (This one is pending - I've given Lieke a homework assignment to try this one out when she goes home just to confirm this as fact or fiction.)

2)There is no national pride in the Netherlands. They're above that. They merely wear nothing but orange to celebrate the national symbol of their royal family.

"King's Day"

More orange Dutchies

1) "Don't mess with the Dutch," a line used after Lieke and I did an "April-fools" payback to one of our colleagues who emailed to us the following right before we went to a baseball game: "The National Weather Service has just announced a flash-flood warning for Petco Park region. Given the stadium cannot handle more than ½ inch of rain (the designers did not anticipate rain in SD), the game has been canceled."

(I will confess that I was a part of the plot to April Fool's Lieke so that she could have a rich American cultural experience).

For more random insight into the Dutchie lands, check out this website: http://www.awesomeamsterdam.com/articles/54/10-fun-facts-about-the-netherlands

This is the best quote from the website in regards to why the Dutch are so tall: "Scientists say it's because of their DNA, nutrition and welfare, others say it's because of their copious consumption of dairy." It all goes back to their cheese...

To ensure that we're all on the same page, Lieke LOVES being in the United States and I love learning about her culture and sharing mine with her. I'm very happy to have met my Dutchie friend and I can't wait for the next adventures we'll share once she returns State-side. Happy and safe travels home to you and your husband, Lieke!

Lieke and Me at the Opening Day Padres game

Your humble author,
S. Faxon
For my loyalists, Providence's townees will be back on the blog on Sunday - if you don't know what I'm talking about, return to my blog on Sunday to find out. ;)