We were fortunate enough that over the Christmas and New Year, we were able to go back "home" to the States and spend time with family and friends - hence the silence here on the blog. We returned "home" in Tilburg yesterday afternoon, and while the jet lag is trying to keep me from forming coherent thoughts and sentences, I found a few differences between the United States and the Netherlands that are a bit fresh in my mind at the moment. So while I start trying to reorganize my thoughts and the house, I'll share some of the obvious and not-so-obvious differences the struck me during our trip and our return home.
The Obvious Differences:
Small Talk - My occasional socially awkward habits can prevent me from holding a "normal" conversation, but I'm an Olympic super star in English when you compare it to my Dutch "conversations." I understand the colloquialisms and abbreviated questions and don't respond in unnaturally halting, not-quite-completed full sentences followed up with an apology for my speaking skills. It was a nice change of pace.
Driving - After not having been behind the wheel for a year, I was able to drive well enough as all that muscle memory and habits returned. And because I learned to drive in America there was no additional thought time to understand the road signs like occasionally happens even when riding my bicycle.
Cycling - In the Netherlands, bikes are everywhere. It's one of the very unique facets of Dutch culture. In America, cars are your transportation option if you don't live in a big city like New York or Chicago, and even then, cars are a big part of getting around. And after 3 weeks of driving, that first trip to the grocery store on the bike in a head-wind was downright slow...
Food - There's nothing so good as home-cooking, especially when you don't have to cook it (our parents fed us really well). The abundance of Mexican-inspired food was also appreciated.
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Clearly, this is not "real" Mexican food. But it's delicious.
Seriously, someone at Albert Heijn needs to get on this. |
The Not-So-Obvious Differences:
Snow: Sure, this is a regional observation, but we grew up in the north in the States, so snow is a normal part of winter. We experienced some of the Snowpocolypse that hit the Midwest and New England, but unlike many others, we were still able to fly out. Little Man was looking forward to seeing snow, and he got his wish several feet over. The Netherlands doesn't get blizzards like we experienced in America, so while the snow was a nice change of scenery, I'm happy to let my upper body strength atrophy from lack of shoveling.
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Snow Cave |
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Sledding. You can tell this was taken before the
Snowpocolypse since you can actually see grass. |
The Take-Out Culture - It's hard to go almost anywhere in America without finding some sort of take-out option. Of course, McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and more are found all over the world, but it doesn't seem to permeate every space in the landscape in the Netherlands like it does in the US.
I Can Reach Things in the US - At a towering 5 foot, not-quite 2 inches, I don't even hit the average height for American women. In the Netherlands, the average person is about 2 inches taller than their American cohorts. I'm really short in the US, but I am beyond petite in the Netherlands which is exacerbated by the fact that things are built taller for this taller population. In our home, the kitchen counter comes up to my sternum and I literally can't see into the bathroom mirror or the convection oven because they are both installed above my eye level. It leads to interesting methods of compensation, and thankfully, I haven't yet fallen off anything that I probably shouldn't have been using as a stool.
Retail Customer Service - In the States, we walked into a hardware store and were asked by every employee that we passed if we needed any help. We passed 10 people. In the Netherlands, employees will sometimes ask if you need help, but it won't be every person in the shop and their mother. It's not that they're being unfriendly or don't care, it's more that if you really do need help you'll ask for it. Which we greatly prefer to feeling stalked and bombarded throughout the store.
Commercials for Prescription Drugs - In the US you can't watch TV, listen to the radio, or even drive down a highway without encountering "Ask your doctor about..." at least once. That doesn't happen in the Netherlands, and it's nice not to have every condition and treatment known to man thrown in your face every 90 seconds.
"Casual Wear" Has Very Different Meanings: North Americans are more than happy to go "casual," which means that I saw more sweatpants worn in public in 3 weeks in the States than I have in nearly a year and a half in the Netherlands. I often feel out of place next to the other moms at school when I wear my "crappy jeans" to drop Little Man off after I just didn't have it together in the morning and everyone else is made up and dressed for the day. As my cousin said, "It's socially acceptable and expected in our culture that you will wear yoga pants while bring your kid to school for at least the first 7 years," and there are some days I envy those parents.
There are plenty more differences, but these are a few that really caught my attention this time around. And whether good or bad, I'm happy to poke fun at the differences from any side.
Have you gone "home" and realized some obvious and subtle differences?