Okay so I must write about this before I forget it all. Last saturday( I wrote this as it was yesterday) we were out to dinner in Bergen Op Zoom, and near us was this table of Americans. So basically. well... you hear they are Americans. And they most certainly protected our lovely stereotype of being EXTREMELY LOUD. But so I spent almost the entire dinner trying to get up the courage to go talk to them.. which I eventually did. But in between this time, we were just kind of watching them... And now that I've learned how to eat in the proper dutch way with my fork in my left and knife in my right, I got to watch other Americans, and see if they eat the stereotypical way with fork in right, and that is all. AND GUESS WHAT! THEY DID!!! I was like, HENK, EVERYONE LOOK THEY'RE EATING WITH ONE HAND. So everyone looked and of course noticed that they were eating just with the fork, and not holding the knife! I find this entire encounter extremely hilarious, because you don't see that many Americans where we live, because it's not a huge city. But there's a GE in Bergen Op Zoom, and I want to say it's the largest General Electric in... Europe? I believe that is what Henk told me.
But so after I finally decided to go talk to them, well, this is how our conversation went. I asked where they were from, because you don't see a lot of Americans in this part of the Netherlands, and one of the ladies goes... you're also american! I think she was a bit drunk, because she was the loudest of all of them. But so turns out they were from Michigan, and the other couple at one point lived in Arlington! But we didn't get to the topic of work, or what they were doing here. But the couple from Michigan had just moved to the Netherlands, about the same time as I did, so roughly 6 months ago. The other couple has been living here for five years now! And that lady asked me how my dutch was going and I started talking to her, and she was very very impressed with my dutch and so was the other couple who have been here for the same amount of time as me. But the lady who has been here longer, I could really hear her accent when she spoke dutch. So I must brag and say that I think I have a better accent haha. But yeah they started asking oh, like where do you go to school, whats a typical school day for you like, what you're doing when you go home, and it was just really cool to talk to them and see what they think about the Netherlands compared to the US. The new couple was telling me how difficult it is to do anything! They were trying to buy shaving cream the other day and ended up buying deodorant. Which is really funny because over here, they have spray deodorant, in cans that look just like the shaving cream cans. So they must have figured oh yeah okay, this is shaving cream, and then went home... used it... got deodorant all over his face hahaha. It happens, but still funny.
I really enjoyed talking to the lady who has been here for five years. She agrees that the language is really beautiful and nicer sounding than german haha. But she loves it here just as much as I do I think. There's something different about the dutch people, more direct, but also much more relaxed. But it was just nice to hear like, that they moved from the States, and still love the Netherlands after five years. I don't know, I just really enjoyed talking to them and comparing view points with other Americans. haha
What a neat encounter. It is interesting to me how you have worked to really adapt to the ways things are done in the Netherlands, but they clearly have not. I wonder why they haven't ... maybe they live among more Americans because of their jobs and don't feel fully integrated like you do?
ReplyDelete