Social Life

After we got back from the US, Dennis and I took a couple weekends just to recuperate. Then, Dennis was on call for two weekends in a row. So last weekend, we were finally ready to once again embrace our European life and get out there!

Over the year and half that we’ve been living here, we’ve noticed that the Dutch are very closed people. They are not open to new friendships and they don’t go out with new people just to hang out. They really only hang out with the friends they made in high-school and college. I had read this on the expat forums, but I did not believe it. The expat forums are full of people who just whine about everything. But, on this point I am going to agree that it’s true.

The conclusion, of course, is to meet people from other places who are living here. I had been reluctant to meet other expats because they always seem so whiny on the forums. I wanted to come to my own conclusions about living in the Netherlands without having other people color my opinions. We also wanted to meet people who do more than just go out to the bars. Dennis found an adventure group that does a lot of outdoor activities. Last weekend, they were planning a 13 mile hike so we decided to join in.

The hike started in one town and followed a river to another town. Each town has a train station so the logistics are easy. Dennis and I drove to the first town (Zutphen) and met the group in the train station. There were about 15 people total and a really nice mix of people from different countries. There were two other American ladies, two people from India, also people from Romania, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, England, and also one Dutch guy. It turned out that the Dutch guy had traveled as an expat in other countries so he has some rather un-Dutch attitudes towards friendships. Our hike was 5 hours long, so we had plenty of time to get to know everyone. By the time we got to the other town (Deventer), it was getting dark and we were TIRED! We were planning to take the train back from Deventer to Zutphen to get back to our car, but there was construction on the tracks and the trains were not running. They had busses available, but it was chaotic and hard to figure out which bus we needed to be on. We were with another lady who left her car in Zutphen as well. We had to ask a lot of questions, but we finally got on the right buses. It ended up taking an hour to get back to Zutphen and it was only a 15 minute drive. With 20-20 hind-sight, we should have taken a taxi from Deventer. Oh well, it’s all part of the adventure!

That same weekend, we had dinner with a Romanian couple that Dennis works with. They are a fairly young couple, but apparently they didn’t mind having us old fogies over. They served us traditional Romanian foods and some home-brewed Romanian wine and liquor. We had some funny conversations about politics. Dennis and I told about the corruption in Chicago politics and that some of our politicians are actually in prison now. They pointed out that the difference in Romania is that nobody goes to prison for corruption so it just continues. And because you can’t trust any branch of the government, you learn how to get around the laws rather than learning how to follow the laws. It’s a very different attitude than the US or the Netherlands.

This weekend, Dennis and I went to a horse show. We were looking on the internet for things to do and I found a link to an international horse jumping competition. Dennis surprised me saying it sounded like fun. The show was in Assen, a town about 2 hours north east of us here. We were surprised that it was held in a convention center and not just a stable with an arena. We were able to sit so close to the jumps that I was afraid of spooking the horses. I felt like they were looking right at me, but I know they were probably pretty focused on the jumps. It was fun to watch the different styles of the horses and riders. One rider was trying to make a very sharp turn and he fell off when the horse turned but he didn’t. Another rider fell off when his horse landed hard after a jump. The horse got really excited that his rider was gone and he ran around the arena and wouldn’t let anyone catch him. It was funny watching all the people trying to corner him in a round arena!

This week for work I spent three days in Belgium for a plant test at a potato chip factory. The whole trip was a disaster, but I really enjoyed the food. We went to the historic town of Veurne and walked around to square to pick a place to eat. We kind of randomly chose a restaurant and it ended up being fantastic. I’m not sure why the food is so much better only a few hours drive from Netherlands, but it really is. For one meal I had pheasant cooked in a rich browned butter sauce. Another meal was a fish stew served with bread to soak up all the creamy sauce.

On our way back home, we stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch. It is interesting to note that we did not see any McD’s in Belgium, but as soon as we got into the Netherlands there was one at every exit. I should also explain that we had breakfast at 7:00 am and didn’t get “lunch” until 4:00 pm. So, I ordered the Big Mac and was two bites into it when I noticed that it was undercooked. I walked back to the counter and got a new Big Mac. Again, two bites into it, I noticed it was also undercooked. This was not a little bit undercooked either – it was raw and bun was soaked with raw meat juice. Again, I went back to the counter. The guy was NOT happy to see me again. He started to argue with me that a little red color is OK, until I showed him the burger. His eyes practically popped out of his head and then he quickly showed the sandwich to the manager. He cooked the replacement burger himself. And that about sums up the difference between the food in Belgium and the food in the Netherlands.

On my next post, I’ll tell you about some of my adventures cooking in the Netherlands. Stay tuned!