Monument to tonsillitis

Utrecht, the Netherlands

Checking email in an Internet cafe

Kpn, our Internet provider, won't install our Internet till at least
the end of October. I miss the good old British competition, so good
for the consumer. But at least Stefi and I found a nice Internet cafe
this morning.

Sunday morning

Outside our window

Things we noticed about holland, 2 weeks into holland.

I won't write here about cheese being cheesy and bikes attempting to kill you at every junction. Those are known things. But I'd like to write about a little cultural shocks that stefi and I are experiencing here in Holland. I am aware this is incredibly superficial but ... hey ... we've only been here 2 weeks!

1) Everything takes ages. Ages to get a contract for our flat. Ages to get a bank account. Ages to set up utilities. Ages to get an internet connection. I am not sure if this is because people are relaxed (which is good) or because bureaucracy is a tad more complex than in Britain. I suspect it's the latter. My passport, which has hardly ever been required in the UK, has already been refused by two separate institutions: the first time because it was too shiny to be scanned by a machine at the bank (!), the second time because I wasn't able to replicate the signature on it in front of a tax officer (we later discovered that he was actually comparing the signature I was making to the signature of the Italian consul, which is printed on my passport).

2) Beer is served in small glasses, at a table, in cafes. I LOVE it! After so much time in the UK I had almost forgotten the pleasure of sitting down at a cafe and taking the time to drink a small beer. Don't get me wrong, I used to like pints and pubs, but I find that here there is a more relaxed attitude to drinking here. Perhaps it is a very european thing, but small beer doesn't get warm. Small beer goes down a pleasure. You can always have another small beer.

3) If the English are understated, then the dutch are definitely assertive. Not rude, but they say it the way it is. I had been warned about this and I thought I would like it, but to be true, I miss the British way of being polite and respectful of others even when delivering bad news. It took me so long to get used to it and now I miss it. I guess politeness played an important part in making my British work experience so enjoyable and I'd like to retain some of that if I can.

4) There is a very different concept of privacy here. Actually: there is less privacy. One funny anecdote: Stefi and I are sitting on a bench in the city centre, facing each otehr and eating our lunch on sunday. The bench clearly only has space for the two of us but nonetheless a lady comes to sit between the two of us. She wasn't old, ill, pregnant ... I had to let her sit. Stef's and my reaction was almost of disbelief, but I guess we have become a bit too English in the last few years.

5) I love the fact that there are few cars, at least in the two cities that we visited (Utrecht and Amsterdam). Apparently the rest of the Netherlands is a massive traffic jam, but city centres seem healthier, quieter. People cycle or walk. And amazingly to me, it is possible to live without a car. Italians wouldn't believe it.

overall we are still adapting I guess.