Friday, March 31, 2006
Do you have an agenda?
It’s been sometime that I’ve not reflected in here, but actually the last 2 weeks I was busy with classes, projects and shit. At the same time, I’ve found myself into a new hobby of forming an integrated picture about the Dutch culture through a new smart way. The process is simple and easy, presented in making use of any chance that there a lot of internationals (preferably from different nationalities and backgrounds), and will be perfect if one person in the group is a Dutch as well. Then during any kind of discussion, you can throw one of the keywords that starts debates or controversial discussions about the Dutch culture and mentality, for example, you just need to say transportation, food, bureaucracy, bikes, Germany, etc… The thing that I’ve noticed that usually when people start talking about either culture or mentality, they’re always comparing them with ether their own countries or where they’ve travelled to, which brings me a bigger benefits of knowing a way lot about different countries through those discussions.
Couple of days ago, I was reading an article written by a British professor who conducted a research about European nations and came up with that Dutch and Germans are the smartest people, Turkish and Bulgarians are the dumbest…..which don’t make sense at all. I don’t mean about the nations, but the idea itself of conducting such stupid research, because intelligence has a lot of aspects to be evaluated for, like for example one person can be more intelligent financially, or socially but in other aspects, he’s not, and this research hasn’t taken in consideration such thing.
From among the things that I’ve concluded about Dutch, that they’re cheap, and this is obvious from riding bikes, as they are always proud of it because they enjoy it and it’s environmentally friendly, but actually they don’t enjoy it at all, it’s just to reserve transportation costs!! Another evidence is that, they eat one warm meal per day, and they say it’s healthy!! Despite the major notice that I’ve found in other countries like Germany, Belgium and France that during weekends specially in big cities, you can find that the shopping streets are always crowded with people which is the same thing in Dutch cities except for a small difference, that people anywhere else are usually carrying a lot of bags, because it’s simply the shopping time, while in Dutch cities, people are empty handed!!
The other notice that all internationals here are making fun of Dutch for, is that they are a so organized nation, that every little kid is walking in the street with an agenda. When you tell a Dutch that you’re going to call him or her over the phone, they usually tell you, hold on a sec., I’ll check my schedule when I’ve 5 mins free to answer your call…..can it be after 3 weeks, because I’m really busy!! BUSY BUSY is the most word that you hear in Netherlands, but actually when you start analyzing your close friends’ schedules and check what they’re busy with, you find nothing. It’s just the normal day basis life that any normal person in this world is leading, but they write everything they do in their agendas….and I mean everything, or I’ll give an example of one agenda to make it clear……
8:00 wake up, 8:03 get off bed, 8:05 go to toilet, 8:06 take shower, 8:12 have breakfast, 8:19 dress up, 8:24 leave the house, 8:25 go downstairs…….and goes like this, and that’s actually the reason that when they check their agendas they look back to you telling that they’re so busy!!
Couple of days ago, I was reading an article written by a British professor who conducted a research about European nations and came up with that Dutch and Germans are the smartest people, Turkish and Bulgarians are the dumbest…..which don’t make sense at all. I don’t mean about the nations, but the idea itself of conducting such stupid research, because intelligence has a lot of aspects to be evaluated for, like for example one person can be more intelligent financially, or socially but in other aspects, he’s not, and this research hasn’t taken in consideration such thing.
From among the things that I’ve concluded about Dutch, that they’re cheap, and this is obvious from riding bikes, as they are always proud of it because they enjoy it and it’s environmentally friendly, but actually they don’t enjoy it at all, it’s just to reserve transportation costs!! Another evidence is that, they eat one warm meal per day, and they say it’s healthy!! Despite the major notice that I’ve found in other countries like Germany, Belgium and France that during weekends specially in big cities, you can find that the shopping streets are always crowded with people which is the same thing in Dutch cities except for a small difference, that people anywhere else are usually carrying a lot of bags, because it’s simply the shopping time, while in Dutch cities, people are empty handed!!
The other notice that all internationals here are making fun of Dutch for, is that they are a so organized nation, that every little kid is walking in the street with an agenda. When you tell a Dutch that you’re going to call him or her over the phone, they usually tell you, hold on a sec., I’ll check my schedule when I’ve 5 mins free to answer your call…..can it be after 3 weeks, because I’m really busy!! BUSY BUSY is the most word that you hear in Netherlands, but actually when you start analyzing your close friends’ schedules and check what they’re busy with, you find nothing. It’s just the normal day basis life that any normal person in this world is leading, but they write everything they do in their agendas….and I mean everything, or I’ll give an example of one agenda to make it clear……
8:00 wake up, 8:03 get off bed, 8:05 go to toilet, 8:06 take shower, 8:12 have breakfast, 8:19 dress up, 8:24 leave the house, 8:25 go downstairs…….and goes like this, and that’s actually the reason that when they check their agendas they look back to you telling that they’re so busy!!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
are you DUTCH?!
Remarking 6 months in Netherlands, I’m starting to contemplate all the situations and incidents that happened to me to discover more about the Dutch culture, and may be it sounds like a long period, but it’s hard to do so, specially living in an international environment…..living with students from everywhere and hanging around mostly with AIESEC trainees, which isn’t the best thing to know about the country.
Now, and only now I realized why some people may think that I’m Dutch, although it happened to me a lot in other countries that random people start speaking to me in Turkish, Italian or even Spanish, as they thought that I’m from such countries as I may look like so, but Dutch!! No way. The reason was clear 2 weeks ago, when we’ve spent the night over in Amsterdam in one of the trainees house and we’ve found that Asian looking guy opening the door for us and after a quick round of introduction, I asked him where he’s from, and he replied aggressively “DUTCH”, and there was a balloon over head saying “hey you idiot, isn’t it obvious from my face feature!!”, and this is due to the globalization trend here, which gives an option that people with different ethnic groups are Dutch. I just remembered that situation that happened to us during one reception weekend, and when we’re having dinner at a boat in the Rhine, when we asked the waiter to take a picture for us, he asked if all of us are Chinese, and we blasted in laugh at him!! Hmmm, not exactly, it was Annie, my Korean friend who was visiting me, Alvin, my Hong Kongian friend, me (Chinese can be added to my look like list) and Clara, my ex who’s half German half French. But now, the guy don’t seem to me that stupid, as according to what they’re living in, makes sense, as it don’t matter how do you look like, but it’s about your passport!!
Do all of us really look like Chinese!!
Now, and only now I realized why some people may think that I’m Dutch, although it happened to me a lot in other countries that random people start speaking to me in Turkish, Italian or even Spanish, as they thought that I’m from such countries as I may look like so, but Dutch!! No way. The reason was clear 2 weeks ago, when we’ve spent the night over in Amsterdam in one of the trainees house and we’ve found that Asian looking guy opening the door for us and after a quick round of introduction, I asked him where he’s from, and he replied aggressively “DUTCH”, and there was a balloon over head saying “hey you idiot, isn’t it obvious from my face feature!!”, and this is due to the globalization trend here, which gives an option that people with different ethnic groups are Dutch. I just remembered that situation that happened to us during one reception weekend, and when we’re having dinner at a boat in the Rhine, when we asked the waiter to take a picture for us, he asked if all of us are Chinese, and we blasted in laugh at him!! Hmmm, not exactly, it was Annie, my Korean friend who was visiting me, Alvin, my Hong Kongian friend, me (Chinese can be added to my look like list) and Clara, my ex who’s half German half French. But now, the guy don’t seem to me that stupid, as according to what they’re living in, makes sense, as it don’t matter how do you look like, but it’s about your passport!!
Do all of us really look like Chinese!!
Friday, March 17, 2006
I’m still ALIVE!!
Yes….I’m still there consuming some of earth’s oxygen and although life has griped me through some dangerous curves and turns, but nothing can turn off the smile on my face or the happiness in my heart. Sounds paradoxically, ain’t it?! Yep, but my only problem that kept me off communication and bloging was the lack of my lovely connecting tool (my computer), despite my dislike of it, but it always refused to adieu me.
Well, to cut it short, here’s the complete story, but you need to fasten your seat belts and try to believe it, because me myself wouldn’t unless that I’ve lived it myself:
Everything started 3 weeks ago, on that day when me, my flat mates and my neighbour flat decided to go out for a dinner and party, kind of welcome me in my new house and farewell for Daniel, one of my flat mates who’s finished his traineeship and was moving back to Germany. So, we decided to go to the Egyptian restaurant which sounded exotic to them, and then after partying a bit, some of them decided to go back home, but of course I should be the last person to leave the party ground, so I’ve stayed with the rest when shortly after, we’ve got a phone call from the returnees telling us that our flat got crushed in and the thieves have stolen my computer!! F**K
On our way back, all the memories of my good and bad times with that computer flashed back tangled up with the idea that they might be mistaken and that the computer had hidden some where, because it can’t be stolen. Anyway, when we got back and made sure of the incident, Sandra called the police for me to explain to them what happened (in Dutch), and I was impressed by their quick service in everything, as they’ve arrived after 10 mins or so, entered my room to see that the bastards had managed to break my windows lock and stolen the computer without stepping inside, but after spending 2 mins, they wished me “good night” and were leaving!! But hold on, is that it?! What should I do next, or aren’t you guys going to take fingerprints specially they had to pull all the cables off the computer and they’ve touched other stuff including a picture frame that was between the computer and the window!! They told me that they can’t as fingerprints has to be taken off a smooth surface!! And after demonstrating to them that the picture frame is smooth, and them replying back that the frame is colored and won’t be helpful, but under my insistence, they told me that they’ll send the investigation team the next day to take off fingerprints…hmmm, COOL.
The next day, I’ve received a call from the police station telling me that they can’t send the team, because there’s a homicide and they’re busy with it, but wait a sec……there’s only one team in the whole city!! So, what shall I do? The office told me that they can do nothing about it, but!! What about sending the stuff to you guys, and it seemed like a sparking idea for the officer, and he told me it’s a good idea….hehehe, why shouldn’t I be working in the police instead of those douchebags.
So, I’ve taken the stuff carefully in a plastic bag without touching them and went to the police station, made a report and delivered the stuff to them, and met Sandra to translate the report to me, in which she discovered that there are a lot of mistakes in the report, starting from the date of the incident which was in the future!! So, I’ve went back with her to the police to correct the mistakes in the report, due to the brilliancy of the officers.
Two days later, I started getting a new relationship with that ugly device called TV, and while watching a movie with one of my flat mates, we’ve seen 2 guys walking over through the big window overlying the backyard of the house, where there’s a water dyke and a small green area, and it’s not a usual place for people to walk, which flashed some suspects in the back of head, when I decided to go out there to check them. When the guys have seen me getting out of the house, they started running, and without thinking, I started chasing them when they disappeared in the dark part of the parking lot behind the Turkish mosque in front of my house and me discovering that I’m wearing a short, shirt and flip flops, so I went back to the house, wear a sweater and returned back with a stick and tried to look for them, when I’ve seen them running away from the neighboring house toward a car and hit the ground running in it. When I was getting back to the house, I’ve found my brave German neighbors standing outside the house and commenting that what I’m wearing doesn’t suit the cold night!! Guys, I’m the least among you, concerning the body size, and no one of you has tried to go to the street to give me even a spiritual support, but anyway, they told that short after, there were couple of cars that stopped close by in the street and floods of Turkish youth has came off them, and I still don’t understand how I’ve got the guts to go check them along with my flat mate, who turned out to be very good guys, and when I’ve asked them about those two guys, they picked up their phones and started doing couple of calls, and after then, they’ve given me a complete profile of them, from names to addresses!! And short after, one of them told me that he’s called one of the thieves’ father, who told him for me to stay in the mosque till he comes. After spending that time to socialize with them, the father arrived, and started a long Turkish conversation with one of them, and then turned back to me and told me to report to the police his son as he hasn’t seen him for few days. Well, the guys volunteered to drive me to the police station to do the translation part, when we’ve found a German girl from the neighboring house asking us about them, ‘cause she got her bags stolen by the same guys……come on over sis, we’re going to the police station. The police then after got an easy mission after getting the guys names and info.
The story seemed to be over, which made me to start looking for another computer for a cheap price, and after founding one good offer, and I decided to go to Den Haag to meet the advertiser and to go to the Egyptian embassy to register and report them the incident and see if they can help out. They were dramatically helpful as on the same day when I returned back home, I’ve found the police sending me a letter informing that they need my fingerprints to differentiate it from the thieves’. Couple of days after, I went again to Utrecht to pick the new computer and meet the guys at IPM, pick Natka and Yuryi to make our tour in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris.
The last Friday, after doing the prayer at the Turkish mosque, I’ve found the good Turkish guy standing along with the father of the thief waiting for me at the door, where they told me that they’ve found the computer in his house and he thought that it might be mine….I was standing in front of them, having a dumb face and open mouth, and seemed like a big hammer was ramming over my head. After following them to the second floor of the mosque, seeming like an alien being welcomed by the Martians, and they handled me the computer back with a balloon over my head with a big question mark in it. The shock made me take the computer and walked away from the mosque, when some issues started to hit my mind….what shall I do with the police, or the insurance company?! I returned back to them and started asking them, what shall I do? Shall I report back to the police that they’ve given me the computer, or shall I even mention their names…..the guy told me it’s fine to tell them everything and mention his name, COOL, I went to the police station where I’ve recognized for the first time, that they’ve a huge poster at the entrance hall, showing a bike with the head and taillights on, and stating how much is the fine that you get if you don’t have them on!! S**T, is that all what you care about for keeping your country safe?! against the lousey bike riders, or poor people like Mils (an aussie trainee), who was walking over the street in Amsterdam by night pulling her trolley bag behind her when the policeman told her that she should pay a fine because she didn’t hanged a back light on her bag!!
Anyway, after asking the officer at the reception if her English is good enough to understand the complicated story, and replying positively, I’ve started telling her the whole story, which she asked for other officers to help her understand, and after having a consolto with them, she turned back to me and told me that they’re sorry but they can’t do anything toward my friend who have stolen the computer, because he’s already prosecuted the theft and the case is going to the court…..Hold on, first of all, he’s not my friend and I’ve not even met him, and please please arrest him or execute him or do whatever, I don’t want him to get away of it…..but she started demonstrating to me again that he may get jailed according to the court’s decision, and after a 15 mins trying to tell her that I don’t care about what will happen to him, I got fed up and told her that I’m there just to report that I’ve got the computer back, and left her with a goofy face.
At the end of the story…I’ve told you, you may not believe it specially it’s taken place in Holland, and anyway, it’s been added to one of the adventures that I’ve gone through lately fe belad el 3’orba :)
Well, to cut it short, here’s the complete story, but you need to fasten your seat belts and try to believe it, because me myself wouldn’t unless that I’ve lived it myself:
Everything started 3 weeks ago, on that day when me, my flat mates and my neighbour flat decided to go out for a dinner and party, kind of welcome me in my new house and farewell for Daniel, one of my flat mates who’s finished his traineeship and was moving back to Germany. So, we decided to go to the Egyptian restaurant which sounded exotic to them, and then after partying a bit, some of them decided to go back home, but of course I should be the last person to leave the party ground, so I’ve stayed with the rest when shortly after, we’ve got a phone call from the returnees telling us that our flat got crushed in and the thieves have stolen my computer!! F**K
On our way back, all the memories of my good and bad times with that computer flashed back tangled up with the idea that they might be mistaken and that the computer had hidden some where, because it can’t be stolen. Anyway, when we got back and made sure of the incident, Sandra called the police for me to explain to them what happened (in Dutch), and I was impressed by their quick service in everything, as they’ve arrived after 10 mins or so, entered my room to see that the bastards had managed to break my windows lock and stolen the computer without stepping inside, but after spending 2 mins, they wished me “good night” and were leaving!! But hold on, is that it?! What should I do next, or aren’t you guys going to take fingerprints specially they had to pull all the cables off the computer and they’ve touched other stuff including a picture frame that was between the computer and the window!! They told me that they can’t as fingerprints has to be taken off a smooth surface!! And after demonstrating to them that the picture frame is smooth, and them replying back that the frame is colored and won’t be helpful, but under my insistence, they told me that they’ll send the investigation team the next day to take off fingerprints…hmmm, COOL.
The next day, I’ve received a call from the police station telling me that they can’t send the team, because there’s a homicide and they’re busy with it, but wait a sec……there’s only one team in the whole city!! So, what shall I do? The office told me that they can do nothing about it, but!! What about sending the stuff to you guys, and it seemed like a sparking idea for the officer, and he told me it’s a good idea….hehehe, why shouldn’t I be working in the police instead of those douchebags.
So, I’ve taken the stuff carefully in a plastic bag without touching them and went to the police station, made a report and delivered the stuff to them, and met Sandra to translate the report to me, in which she discovered that there are a lot of mistakes in the report, starting from the date of the incident which was in the future!! So, I’ve went back with her to the police to correct the mistakes in the report, due to the brilliancy of the officers.
Two days later, I started getting a new relationship with that ugly device called TV, and while watching a movie with one of my flat mates, we’ve seen 2 guys walking over through the big window overlying the backyard of the house, where there’s a water dyke and a small green area, and it’s not a usual place for people to walk, which flashed some suspects in the back of head, when I decided to go out there to check them. When the guys have seen me getting out of the house, they started running, and without thinking, I started chasing them when they disappeared in the dark part of the parking lot behind the Turkish mosque in front of my house and me discovering that I’m wearing a short, shirt and flip flops, so I went back to the house, wear a sweater and returned back with a stick and tried to look for them, when I’ve seen them running away from the neighboring house toward a car and hit the ground running in it. When I was getting back to the house, I’ve found my brave German neighbors standing outside the house and commenting that what I’m wearing doesn’t suit the cold night!! Guys, I’m the least among you, concerning the body size, and no one of you has tried to go to the street to give me even a spiritual support, but anyway, they told that short after, there were couple of cars that stopped close by in the street and floods of Turkish youth has came off them, and I still don’t understand how I’ve got the guts to go check them along with my flat mate, who turned out to be very good guys, and when I’ve asked them about those two guys, they picked up their phones and started doing couple of calls, and after then, they’ve given me a complete profile of them, from names to addresses!! And short after, one of them told me that he’s called one of the thieves’ father, who told him for me to stay in the mosque till he comes. After spending that time to socialize with them, the father arrived, and started a long Turkish conversation with one of them, and then turned back to me and told me to report to the police his son as he hasn’t seen him for few days. Well, the guys volunteered to drive me to the police station to do the translation part, when we’ve found a German girl from the neighboring house asking us about them, ‘cause she got her bags stolen by the same guys……come on over sis, we’re going to the police station. The police then after got an easy mission after getting the guys names and info.
The story seemed to be over, which made me to start looking for another computer for a cheap price, and after founding one good offer, and I decided to go to Den Haag to meet the advertiser and to go to the Egyptian embassy to register and report them the incident and see if they can help out. They were dramatically helpful as on the same day when I returned back home, I’ve found the police sending me a letter informing that they need my fingerprints to differentiate it from the thieves’. Couple of days after, I went again to Utrecht to pick the new computer and meet the guys at IPM, pick Natka and Yuryi to make our tour in Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris.
The last Friday, after doing the prayer at the Turkish mosque, I’ve found the good Turkish guy standing along with the father of the thief waiting for me at the door, where they told me that they’ve found the computer in his house and he thought that it might be mine….I was standing in front of them, having a dumb face and open mouth, and seemed like a big hammer was ramming over my head. After following them to the second floor of the mosque, seeming like an alien being welcomed by the Martians, and they handled me the computer back with a balloon over my head with a big question mark in it. The shock made me take the computer and walked away from the mosque, when some issues started to hit my mind….what shall I do with the police, or the insurance company?! I returned back to them and started asking them, what shall I do? Shall I report back to the police that they’ve given me the computer, or shall I even mention their names…..the guy told me it’s fine to tell them everything and mention his name, COOL, I went to the police station where I’ve recognized for the first time, that they’ve a huge poster at the entrance hall, showing a bike with the head and taillights on, and stating how much is the fine that you get if you don’t have them on!! S**T, is that all what you care about for keeping your country safe?! against the lousey bike riders, or poor people like Mils (an aussie trainee), who was walking over the street in Amsterdam by night pulling her trolley bag behind her when the policeman told her that she should pay a fine because she didn’t hanged a back light on her bag!!
Anyway, after asking the officer at the reception if her English is good enough to understand the complicated story, and replying positively, I’ve started telling her the whole story, which she asked for other officers to help her understand, and after having a consolto with them, she turned back to me and told me that they’re sorry but they can’t do anything toward my friend who have stolen the computer, because he’s already prosecuted the theft and the case is going to the court…..Hold on, first of all, he’s not my friend and I’ve not even met him, and please please arrest him or execute him or do whatever, I don’t want him to get away of it…..but she started demonstrating to me again that he may get jailed according to the court’s decision, and after a 15 mins trying to tell her that I don’t care about what will happen to him, I got fed up and told her that I’m there just to report that I’ve got the computer back, and left her with a goofy face.
At the end of the story…I’ve told you, you may not believe it specially it’s taken place in Holland, and anyway, it’s been added to one of the adventures that I’ve gone through lately fe belad el 3’orba :)
