Life with the Dutch

The Netherlands and its Dutch people certainly have a defining culture which I've noticed after barely two weeks. I've tried to describe some of these:

St. Joseph's church in the centrum of Tilburg

Greenery
I haven't even seen Holland in the springtime, and already the love of flowers and plant life is so clear. They do the coolest things with even the smallest spaces. It doesn't matter how small their front yards are, but there will be a garden. Even if the front yard maybe has 6 square feet of space - there will be a garden.The windows are large because they love to let lots of light in for the flowers growing on their large window sills. Bouquets of tulips, roses, and every springtime type of flower are quite cheap and readily available. Feeling inspired, I even purchased some potted plants for my window sill, but being the girl who's cactus died due to a lack of water - I fear for their survival. I forgot to water them before leaving for the Introduction Camp. I arrived back to discover the poor wilted flowers barely alive - in a panic - I grabbed the nearest liquid - my Sprite!! And by the next morning - they were back to full life!

Food
In an attempt to embrace the Dutch way of eating - every week I go to the kaaswinkel just down the road to get some delicious Dutch cheese - it is everywhere and it is cheap! Also, I usually make a soup similar to my grandma's and it lasts about 5 days for me. Fries do not come with ketchup here: it is automatically served with mayonnaise - mmmm.
There isn't much fast food - the easiest thing to do is just go to the grocery store. I have a discount card for Albert Hein, or 'a&h'. It can be a bit tricky with the Dutch labels though. I accidentally bought 'added pulp' orange juice instead of the 'pulp-free' orange juice I had wanted. A few people on my floor have been unpleasantly surprised when they discovered their milk was 'karne melk' (sour milk).
The other day on campus there were free poffertjes - they are tiny little pancakes that are served with butter and icing sugar. With all of this - you'd think my jeans would be feeling tighter - but with all the biking Dutch people don't put on many pounds. Above, man making poffertjes

The Weather
Arriving in the wintery months of Holland leave much to be anticipated when spring finally arrives in March. So far, there has been a fair amount of light drizzle - but it is not constant and not bothersome. There have been several clear and crisp days as well. The air here is different too - it smells really fresh and moist all the time.

The People
So far, I have not run into a rude Dutch person. Everyone here (even the bus drivers) have been so helpful and welcoming. I notice that they really appreciate any sort of effort a foreigner makes with Dutch. In my attempts to speak Dutch while out in town, the cashiers have helped me fill in my sentences and then tell me how to pronounce it better. Not to be rude, but to be helpful. You see, people here are blunt. They say it like it is (ahhhh.... NOW I understand where my dad gets this!) Westerners tend to really sugar coat things but to the Dutch people - that is not being honest, that is not being helpful. For example, if you go shopping for jeans with a Dutch person, they will tell the second pair made your legs look fat so get the first pair. Some people here have to get used to this - luckily I have already been exposed back home.

Also, Dutch people as Florence discussed with me, like their privacy, like their space. One of the most evident examples of this is their washrooms. Back in Canada, a public rest room is lined with stalls. You go in, you sit down, and hope no bratty kid looks under the door. You won't find that in Holland. Every toilet in every washroom is in it's own little room where full walls and a full locking door offer you the kind of privacy North Americans long for. It doesn't matter if it is a classy restroom or dirty pub, you will have a private toilet room!

As I've also mentioned in an earlier blog, Dutch people like to sing. It is a marvelous sight to see Dutch people link arms and sway to the tune of "Brabant" by Guus Meeuvis. I will be terribly disappointed in myself if I don't learn that by the end of these four months. There is a certain Dutch word that is used to described warm, friendly, non-stressful and no tension good times. Where everybody is enjoying every one's company - there is no similar word in English - gezellighied.

Final Thoughts
Basically, my first impressions of Holland have been everything positive. I am realy enjoying this experience. Although I do miss people back home, there is so much to do and see that I keep very busy. Now that most of the paperwork and administrative stuff is out of the way - I can really settle into a pattern now. One of the things I am looking most forward to is when my good friend from back at Waterloo comes to visit me. Loretta is coming on Feb. 18th just in time for Carnivale. I can't wait to show her around. She has to be in London by the 25th to start her Contiki tour of Holland so we decided to make a little trip out of it and arrive in London a few days prior to check out some sights and perhaps visit a few Harry Potter landmarks??

(To answer my cousin Cameron's question about what game was my favorite to play: I like the game where you have to hammer a nail into the big logs.)

Hup Hup Holland!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first night of our weekly mentor dinner sessions. This week, the mentors cooked a "traditional" Dutch meal for the students - but next week the students will start to cook. We met by the McDonalds (yes there is a McDonald's here, haven't tried the McKrokets yet) and the mentors picked us up by bicycle and we rode back to Jaap's place. All twenty of us crowded into the small kitchen where we enjoyed some stamppot and sausage. Stamppot is a mashed potato mixed in with some sort of green veggie - if anyone remembers what that veggie is I would be grateful! For dessert we had some delicious poffertjes.

I spent the majority of dinner speaking with a really nice pair of Canadians. They are just a few years older than I but were married only one month ago. What a way to spend a honeymoon! Once dinner was finished, everybody, including all the other mentor groups, met in town to have a "Welcome to Holland Party"!!

Everybody had to show their Dutch spirit and wear creative orange and Netherlands flag coloured outfits. Luckily, the girls and I had done some patriotic shopping and found some excellent things to wear. We found large "Holland" boxers to wear as shorts and bought bright orange leggings to wear underneath! With my orange shirt and dyed orange hair I was quite the sight! The best part is, we can all use this stuff again for the Carnivale in three weeks.

At the "LG" as we call it, everyone looked great in their outfits. In fact, there was even a contest to see who had the best outfit. Guess who won?........ ME!! When the three nominees were mentioned, I couldn't believe it! To help me win the title - Susie (one of the mentors) let me borrow her 'authentic' Dutch hat and feather boa. It was GEZELLIG!

Introduction Weekend!

At this point I cannot wait to hit the sack and have a nice long sleep. I just got back from the exchange students' introduction weekend hosted by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). It was a very busy weekend jammed packed with lots of activities. About 90 of the 110 students came to a beautiful farm called De Kievit equipped to handle overnight group functions. In addition to the family farmhouse and flat green fields, the facility had a large hall with sleeping rooms attached and a kitchen.

As the second group to arrive from the bus, we had to go sleep in the rooms above the cows! How much more Dutch can you get? Fortunately and surprisingly, the smell was not that bad. It was very clean and comfortable. Here is a link to the facility's website, although the site is only in Dutch, there is still some nice pictures. Check out De Kievit

The Friday night of arrival was a mini-tournament for the 11 mentor groups. We played against other mentor groups in really funny (and embarrassing) games like group twister, the cucumber pass, charades and trying to place a nail into a bottle by a string tied to your back. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we did a really cool thing that must be Dutch. Everybody got a song book and we all sang at the top of our lungs classic tunes. Now I understand why the Dekokers' must like to sing so much as Christmas - they are Dutch.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day so we were able to play a lot of fun outdoor games like soccer, volleyball, crate race, nail hammering and ski racing. I was quite good because a lot of these games I've done before at the Duivesteyn family picnics. One of the yummiest games was the blindfolded vla feeding. Vla is a delicious form of custard/pudding that comes in milk cartons. It was quite messy.

Also on Saturday we went to a small, beautiful town called Hilvarenbeek to visit De Rose (the rose) an old brewery converted into a museum. Our tour guide was saying that at one point, this small town of less than 2,000 people had 70 breweries!! That seems a little ridiculous. The tour was very interesting though. We got to have a sample at the end but when I had one sip, I got an allergic reaction! Luckily, I had my Benadryll with me but decided to pass on any other samples. Our transport to the museum was very funny. It was by a tractor that pulled a long, covered wagon with nice padded seating. It had a CD player in it so we all got to sing along to more Dutch songs on the way at the top of our lungs. And by "sing along" I mean that I very sneakily pretended to know what I was saying by just moving my lips and adding the odd "AGGH" sound.

In my mentor group there is this really short and cute Italian girl named Elena. She is still trying to learn English and she is one of the most fun people to listen to with her high, girly voice and thick Italian accent. At one point in the day she turned to me and said in that strong accent, "You-a have-a blue-a eyes.... and-a blond-a haaaar.... and-a perfect teeth-a and-a nose. You-a are like-a Barbie!" After the laughter stopped my new nickname settled in. Now everybody in my mentor group calls me Barbie. I was quite embarrassed. On a special note to mom: I have very weirdly received an odd number of compliments about my teeth. Don't worry, I gave you full credit.

My mentors' names are Jaap, Reanne and Lupna. For this weekend, they purchased a bunch of props to make our group look the most enthusiastic. Jaap was not impressed that Reanne and Lupna made him wear that cowboy hat. Here is a picture of me with my mentors.

The most fun part of the night was when we had to get with the other people from our countries and make a presentation about your country. Not to brag here - but Canada surely represented well. We thought of some pretty sweet lines. There were 5 Canadians and one American girl so the American came into our presentation. She pretended to visit Canada and we taught her how to speak Canadian, explained Tim Hortons, hockey (the real kind played on ice), poutine and moose meatloaf. We were the last presentation and had a GREAT response. The audience was laughing way too hard.

There was a dance afterwards with lots of traditional Dutch songs and of course.... techno. I am beginning to really miss country music - it is not very popular here. The mentors especially like a certain old Dutch song about Brabant - the province we are in. My goal is to learn all the words by the end of the term.

By Sunday morning we were all very tired but had some great memories and new friends. Now I am realizing my classes start this week... oh yeah! I was starting to forget!

Fietsen - the ultimate form of transportation

When one is going to stay in the Netherlands for an extended period of time, it's not a question of if you are going to purchase a bike, more of a how soon are you going to purchase a bike. Now I have done some biking in Canada - the odd summer trek up the old railway trail - perhaps use it to make it time for an 8:30am class at UW - but I was never dependent on a bicycle. Me and Ol' Blue (left)

Here - there is entire transportation routes designed for the use of the bicycle. People ride it to work, to school, to go grocery shopping, to run errands and everything else we would use a car for. There is a lot of bicycle shops in Tilburg - many of my flatmates found some bikes in such shops but I was lucky enough not to deal with shady characters who claim there is one bike left than put another one out as soon as you leave. My first night, a desparate Spanish student rushed into our door asking if anyone would like to buy his bike. I went down to the bike locks - rode around in it for a circle and decided to buy it for 60 euro - 10 less than what he had asked for because the front wheel was a little loose.

The next morning I went down to have a look at my bike in the daylight and was impressed with my purchase - a lot of students had paid over 60 euro for their bikes and mine actually included the lights and the lock (the lights are illegal not to have and the lock is necessay if you want to keep your bike around) Some other friends managed to find bikes for 20 euro - then with the cost of lights and locks it added another 30 euro. It is really a luck of the draw.

But seriously - I was very intimidated to ride it the first time - all the bikeways have their own stoplights and rules and so much to think about - plus - i have not seen one person wear a helmet and you ride like less than a foot away from moving car traffic. I guess you could say I was being cautious that first time out - there certainly was a few elderly men passing me - but now I am pretty much fitting in with all the other Dutch bikers. These is more parking spaces for bikes than there are for cars - by the central train station - I think there must be AT LEAST 2,000 bikes parked there at any time of the day. This is on campus - the non-busy time! Notice all the bikes

Florence and I tried to be really Dutch and attempt to ride with one of us on the back one night after one of the socials. You often see friends ride with one sitting side-saddle behind the peddler. We weren't quite ready to try the running start - but we were able to pull off a pretty decent still start with me as the peddler. I was so impressed with ourselves.

One of the funniest things was trying to ride back home after a huge shopping trip. I had decided I needed a chair for my room and got this great deal on a nice fold-out comfy chair at the Blokker (an everything store). The problem was getting it home. Cheryl and I each had our backpacks and groceries bags in addition to this chair. After trying to strap my backpack to the back of my bike and nearly losing it to oncoming traffic, we managed to find a good system where Cheryl put on both backpacks and I straped the chair to my back and had the grocery bags on the handles.

Silly enough... we did not look out of place!
My room, Danni, Florence and Una (Ireland) sitting, notice the chair I biked home with

Living international

I have been in Tilburg for almost a week and this has been one of the busiest weeks of my life. My new home is in a student housing complex just a two minute bike ride to campus. The official name is Professor Verbernelaan but us "locals" call it 'verbs'. I live on a floor with 16 other exchange students, and, get this - share only 2 toilets, 3 showers and 1 kitchen!!!!! So basically you get to know each other really fast and really well. In front of the Textile Museum

There is exchange students living on every floor below us and above us. So far, I have run into students from Australia, America, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, France, Finland, Italy, Spain, China, Mexico, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Lithuania, Scotland, Turkey, Hungary and counting. One of the craziest coincidences was meeting another Canadian girl on my floor, from Waterloo, and her name is also Cheryl! Clockwise from me: Mitzi (Mexico), Arthur (Italy), Paulo (Italy), Alberto (Brazil), Daniella/Danni (Australia), Cheryl (Canada)

Sometimes it's been pretty funny when two students try to intoduce themselves. On average, I have to ask about 3 times for them to repeat their name. My Canadian tongue has to get used to all these different accents and sounds. I felt really bad the first time I was introduced to one of the Italian guys. He said his name literally 8 times before I finally realized he was saying 'Arthur'. The crazy rolling of the r's made me think his name was something totally different.

One of the really nice things Tilburg has is a chapter of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). This committee is a bunch of Dutch students who act as mentors for the exchange students. They plan socials, get-to-know yous, and divide us into mentor groups of 11 exchange students and 3 menors. Every Tuesday there is mentor dinners where two groups get together and have a dinner that two exchange students cooked. You have dinner with a different group each time until you meet everyone. I have to cook a dinner with a German/Russian girl. We have to make traditional dishes from our countries. Not quite sure what would count as a "traditional" Canadian meal - perhaps some people back home can just send me some maple syrup. my group (right)

It has been a lot of fun so far. Really cool to compare how each coutry lives. This weekend we are all going to a camp about a half hour outside of Tilburg where we will al spend more time getting to know everyone.

Arrived on the tail of a storm!!

Whew!! Finally I have internet! I have been in the Netherlands for almost a week and now can let you all know that I am alive and well.

The flight was only 6 hours and what a nice flight it was! KLM is the airline to travel on. Good food and lots and lots of movies and TV shows to choose from with your very own TV right in front of you. Florence and I arrived in Amsterdam at 6:08am. Our first order of business was sitting in a cafe and ordering a nice hot Dutch cappuccino.

We purchsed some 'trein' tickects to Hilversum where we would take the bus to her Aunt's house in Eemnes. Waiting at the bus stop was not pleasant at all! It was like a monsoon with all the wind and rain - our luggage (and us) were soaked. The bus drivers here are very friendly though and he stopped right in front of the house. Eemnes was everything you would think a small Dutch village should look like. Beautiful old thatched-roofed homes, large trees lining the roads (and bike paths) and miles of flat, green fields with the 'sloten' running through for irrigation.


We arrived on the tail of a HUGE unusual storm so I was glad to learn the weather was not typical. In the morning, the sunshine offered a much nicer impression. Her tante Jopie and ome Jan were fabulous hosts. It was so nice to be able to sleep in a nice room all to myself. The rooms here had sinks in them and the toilets are in their own room apart from the shower room! Within minutes of arrival her tante had us eating nice dark bread with...... Dutch cheese!! mmmm. We had a lot to coffee drink as that seems to be a very Dutch thing. Her aunt drove us to the train station on Friday and what a beautiful day that was!! On the way we even drove past the palace that Queen Beatrix was born in!

The train ride sights included more beautiful scenes of dykes and old homes. The love of nature and greenery here is quite evident. I noticed they do a really cool think with certain tree branches to make all the branches grow in horizontal levels. I can't wait for the spring to see what everything will look like in bloom.

I don't want to tire you all with a larger blog so I will stop here for now and then tell you about arriving at Tilburg university very shortly!

Leaving on a jet plane

Whew! In less that six hours I will be on the plane and off to Holland. Still... it is NOT sinking in. Much too much craziness has happened in the last week. Howie got traded to Owen Sound on the final week that I had off so it was a bit of a juggling act to try to see him as much as possible. To top it off, we got into a car accident on Saturday night driving home from Owen Sound. Just four days before I had to leave...

It was so shocking, happened in less than three seconds but the aftermath lasts a lot longer. Both of the cars involved were basically totalled. Howie's was definitely not worth fixing so he's going to be without a car. I banged my head against the passenger window and was a little stiff these few days but luckily no one was hurt. The accident left us both quite rattled, I hate to leave at a time like this. Between finishing my work report and being shook up about the accident, I haven't had much time to think about my exchange.

Being the last minute kind of gal that I am, I have just finished my packing (I know.. Loretta would be ashamed... she had a "practice pack" like two weeks before she left) I had to make some tough calls as I can only have two pieces of luggage under 50 pounds. In the end, I decided that Holland must have it's own hairdryers so I decided to leave that one at home. We are planning to be at Pearson at 3:00pm as my flight leaves at 5:50pm. Thankfully, dad didn't feel the five hour early arrival was necessary this time. (For those that don't know, we arrived before the cleaning crew on a family vacation way back when)

So next time you read my blog, it will be written from authentic Netherlands itself. Say a little prayer for me at 5:50 when I take off!!