What’s Different (Continued)…
Diet
My diet has not changed much. I am still cooking all my
typical college meals with a few additional tweet-able works of art on the side.
So far my most cooked meals have been:
- Breakfast: scrambled eggs with peppers, ham, cheese (sometimes in Benson breakfast burrito format), toast with Nutella & peanut butter and Vruchtenhagel (Dutch sprinkles), and some yogurt or fruit. The Dutch don’t do breakfast as big as us Americans do!
- Lunch: Mostly sandwiches with some of my new favorite
drink…SISI (better than Fanta in my opinion!)
- Dinner: usually some chicken or beef with rice or pasta with a side salad or other vegetables. This seemingly bland combination of food is made much better with my #1 favorite sauce or topping: Sweet Chili Sauce!! Awwww yea!! (Pauly D Voice)
Languages
What is very cool about the Dutch and many other Western
European countries is the fact that nearly everyone knows more than their
native language and English. I will admit that it is difficult to learn a
language in any environment when you are not forced to speak it each and every
day and when you don’t grow up with it. However, in Holland, everyone speaks
English very well even from a young age which I find impressive and equally
annoying as I am not forced to practice my Dutch! Don’t worry mom, I’m still
trying…
An example of this multi-lingual culture is exemplified by our
coach Jean-Marc Jaumin who is from Belgium and he speaks…wait for it…wait for
it...5 languages fluently: English, French, Dutch, Flemish, and Serbian. It is
funny to see this as in the U.S. many of us have 2 or 3 languages on our resume
but can really only speak and can carry on a conversation in one…English. I can
attest that while my Dutch and French comprehension
on paper or in a classroom style environment is still resume adequate material,
I can’t say that I can consistently carry on a conversation like my teammates
or coach can in their arsenal of languages. Of course part of the reason why my
coach and teammates speak so many languages is due to the fact that their job
has taken them to different countries for years at a time. Max (my teammate and
housemate) spent 3 years playing basketball in Spain when he was younger and
picked up Spanish very easily. In addition many of the European languages
transcend boarders for a variety of reasons.
One of the reasons for this is due to
the nature of the EU and its immigration laws established under the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992 which so happens to be one of Holland's oldest cities and the place I was baptized. Specifically, these immigration
laws enable anyone that holds citizenship in one of the 27 member countries to
live, travel, and work in any EU country of their choosing. Despite this treaty, it is still somewhat
difficult to attain citizenship in many of the EU countries as each country has
varying nationality laws. For example, I am a Dutch/U.S. dual citizen because
my dad is American and my mom is Dutch. However, I was born in Saint Germain,
France (basically Paris) and was not able to attain French citizenship using
common methods because French nationality law requires you (like most industrialized
countries except the U.S.) to have either a parent of French nationality, or
attain citizenship through naturalization aka be 18 or older and have been living
in France long enough to know that the phrase “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce
soir?” is not a 5 star pick-up line! Although I’m sure the legendary Barney Stinson might
have 2 words in mind in response to that last sentence...
In the end, it has been
fun to see and hear a lot of languages over the last few months and hopefully I
can get my Dutch speaking prowess to my mom’s level!
[A.D.D. SIDE NOTE: The
comparison I often contemplate regarding the EU and its’ languages and cultures
is imagining if each state or region in the U.S. spoke a different language!
The interesting thing is if you throw away the Louisiana Purchase and a few
other historic moments, you might have had a more proportional “America” existing
today consisting of English, French, and Spanish speaking populations.]
Dutch Culture: Friendliness
In the 2 months I have been here in Den Helder, I have run
several examples of what a nice and friendly community it is. I am sure that
this is a combination of the city’s size and also the Dutch culture in general,
but I continue to run into examples of both teammates and people who are
willing to help you out. For example, on several of the bus rides, a number of
my teammates Jasper, Quincy and Jeroen (a few I've seen) are always willing to
share food they brought with them or let me use their phone to Skype home
after a win. This is cool to see as this friendly, “thinking about others”
attitude goes a long way, especially in a team environment and is one that I am
trying to emulate more and more each day! Another example is that upon walking
into a room or by someone, they give you a friendly smile or a "HOYYY!" (casual
hello in Dutch) and ask you how you are doing and mean it!
Funnies: Trips to
Amsterdam
Trip #1
A couple weeks ago, a few of us went into Amsterdam one
night for Mark Hill’s 25th birthday. We got into Amsterdam around
midnight which is about right on time by Amsterdam standards. The only problem we
ran into was parking which was non-existent. After 15-20 minutes of touring
Amsterdam, driving up and over the canals, we finally found what looked like a
feasible parking spot. The only problem was that we either needed to bend our
car like an accordion or we needed to make room. So whad we do? Seeing that the
car in front had a little bit of room, we picked up the car’s booty and made room
for our car! After a nice parallel park job we were on our way to the nearest
club!
Trip #2
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| Storm & I. Most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in! |
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| Me, Max, Mark, Storm, and 1/2 Stefan! |
On our last day-off, a few of us: Max, Quincy, Storm, Mark
and I headed into Amsterdam for the day. We took the tram into the city as
parking during the week and during the day can eat your wallet alive. Upon arriving, we started to meander our
way through the downtown shopping area. I managed to improve my Euro-appeal quite a bit with a jacket and pair of skinny jeans! We then went to Dam Square where
they had a carnival set up like in the end of the Greece movie which was fun!
Soon after we made a visit to see the ladies of the Red-Light district; *Prostitutes: I will reserve my judgment
on this part of Dutch culture to history… Anyway, 20 minutes and €50 later…I’m kidding, I’m
kidding! A few minutes later we were on the set of the new movie Dutch Street Hooligans...
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| Euro clothes fit me better! |
Ajax sent Man City packing with a 3-1 victory in the Champions League group of death; only a few more games left! All in all a fun day and will definitely have more good stories from A'Dam! Thanks for reading!
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