The culture shock hasn't been too bad, yet. But, since today is July 4 (which of course means nothing here) and we're feeling homesick for America, here are a few things we find strange about living in the Netherlands.
1. There are very few stopsigns at street intersections. Most minor intersections are open, and whoever's approaching from the right has the right of way. Unless there was a sign with a yellow square, which means you have the right of way. Or if there are white triangles on the road, which means you have to yield. Bicyclists always think they have the right of way no matter where they are, and lots of drivers don't follow the rules anyway. Traffic lights don't seem to have a consistent pattern. There are lots of roundabouts, which take some getting used to, but they seem to work.
2. Students graduating from high school celebrate by hanging their bookbags and books out of a window or on a flagpole.
3. Every store is closed on Sunday, unless the town is having a "koopzondag" where all the stores are open (as often as once a month in larger cities). It's nice to have everything closed on the sabbath. But it is absolutely not possible to pick up some milk or bread on the way home from church, like we're used to in America, so you have to plan ahead.
4. There are greeting cards for celebrating "samenwoning" (living together) right next to the wedding and anniversary cards. It is very common for people to live together before (or instead of) getting married--even more common than in the US. One of my new American friends is married to a Dutch man, and her mother-in-law was upset that they didn't live together before getting married.
5. Most "customer service" phone numbers cost 10 cents per minute. You have to pay 10 cents a minute to navigate through a convoluted touchtone menu, and if you have to talk to someone live, you usually have to wait on hold a long time. After two such phone calls to our TV/phone/internet provider (10 minutes on hold one time, 15 minutes the other), we had to have a repairman come out to fix our digital TV box. It took him only 30 minutes to diagnose and fix the problem, but then he had to call "customer service" to get a special number to finish the job. He had to call the same number as the general public, and he waited on hold 55 minutes. I thought that was ridiculous.
6. Prenatal appointments during pregnancy are held with a midwife, not a doctor. Most women give birth at home, with a midwife, without pain medications.
7. For some reason, the Dutch seem obsessed with toilet hygiene. Even the smallest grocery stores have at least half an aisle devoted to toilet cleaners, toilet deodorizers, toilet perfumes, and little blocks that you hang inside the rim to keep the toilet fresh with every flush. I've never seen such choice in toilet cleaners, in the same grocery stores where I often can't find skim milk, flour, and other basics. Dutch toilets are designed in such a way that they must be cleaned frequently, which seems like an engineering flaw to me.
8. We get a couple local papers free every week. Here is the complete "police report" for this week:
Loosely translated, this says that the police caught a rabbit that was found walking around outside the police station. The rabbit is black and white, and if it's your rabbit, you can contact the police. I guess it was a slow week for the local police.
In a future post we'll list some of the things we really love about being here.
