Dutch Manners

More soccer tonight. It seems the whole country stops during game time. The Dutch team just scored and I hear cheering and the sound of horns in the neighborhood. The Dutch people take their soccer seriously here judging by the amount of orange clothing worn and orange decorations displayed. Yesterday, we borrowed a couple of bikes and biked to a park, through the center of town, and back. The "fietspad" or bike path ran along the airport property. I could see in the distance some planes taxiing after landing and getting ready to take-off. Some old men were fishing in the canal along the path and a couple other biked past us at a leisurely pace. It looked like they had full side packs on their bikes I couldn't help but think they must have some good Dutch bread and cheese packed for a lakeside picnic. There was weathered sign on a fence post that said, "denk om de schapen" watch out for the sheep and sure enough, sheep were all along the path munching grass with the occasional sheep looking up as we biked past. We pedaled on and came to the lake and park grounds. They were putting up tents and grandstands and grooming a ring for a horse event. The fietspad wound around the lake and we came to a fancy restaurant. The restaurant jutted out into the lake and we had to go past two walls of water cascades to get to the door. We relaxed on the patio overlooking the lake before continuing on our ride. On the other side of the lake there were cows grazing on top of a dike. This area of the Netherlands or Holland as it is commonly called, used to be a big lake, but in the 1800s the water was pumped out to make more farmland for crops and grazing. The subsequent flat land is called a polder. There needs to be pumping mechanisms like windmills, dikes to hold the water back, and canals to carry the water away. The Dutch are experts at managing water removal systems. New Orleans can take some lessons from the Dutch. We saw a squat cement bunker type building that we later found out was built during WWI. If the enemy was on the way the idea was to cause flooding of all the land in the north to hold them back. I am unsure how the bunker is connected to this drastic, watery defense plan. As far as I know they did not employ the flooding defense during the German invasion in 1940. The bike paths here are amazing going to the country and back to the center of town. Navigating by bike is much easier than by car. They have bike paths along every road that are only used for bikes and the occasional moped or small motorcycle. All people ride bikes here and many use it as the main mode of transportation for commuting, shopping, taking the kids to school, and generally getting around town. Although, driving a car in rush hour traffic is just as frustrating as anywhere else with just as many cars. Luckily, most people take the train, bus, or bike to work otherwise the traffic would be even worse. We took the bus to Haarlem last week and I noticed there are dedicated lanes for only the buses that are separate from the car lanes. The bus was quick, cheap, clean, and convenient. It would be a great place to get rid of the car and only rely on public transportation. I've got a good collection of books about Dutch culture and etiquette going including The Undutchables and Dutch Ditz Manners in the Netherlands and Pocket Guide for American Servicemen to The Cites of the Netherlands

during World War II. The last one is listed as an ebook, but my copy is a paper hardback book. It's a guide written for American servicemen who were in Holland during World War II. I'm not sure after fighting the Battle of Arnhem Operation Market Garden they grabbed the guidebook to sightsee and discover what was left after the Germans bombed and plundered national treasures. The US government published book suggests servicemen sightsee as much as possible while paid for by the American taxpayer. All of the books give insight into Dutch culture, but nothing beats sleeping next to a Dutchman to learn the culture and peculiarities of the Dutch! :) Geert Hofstede's book, Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind is good to understand culture in the context of the organization. I mention this book because Hofstede is Dutch and writes the book from the prospective of a Hollander. He includes many cultures in the book and, of course, Holland is one of them.

Stroop, Shoes, and Soccer

I'm officially living as a Hollander. The toilet in the apartment has some strange Dutch viewing shelf in it and assorted plants are on the window sills making the experience that much more Dutch. I also made a lovely batch of pannenkoeken with stroop this morning. Pannenkoeken are Dutch dinner plate sized pancakes that are thin, light pancakes cooked in butter for crispy edges. Usually, they're dusted in powdered sugar, but I didn't have any (note to self: pick up some powered sugar at Albert Heijn on Monday. Stores are closed on Sunday) so instead I smothered them in stroop. Stroop is a molasses type thick syrup made of sugar and other sugary substances making it doubly good. Next, we hopped on the bus to Haarlem. If the town name sounds familiar, the NYC Harlem is named after the Dutch Haarlem. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the train/bus station in Hoofddorp and about 30 minutes on the bus to arrive at the center of town. It seemed that at every stop there were people dressed in orange getting on the bus to get to their soccer party. Orange jerseys, orange hair ribbons, orange hats, orange horns, orange, orange, orange. The bus dropped us off right in the center of town where there were shops big and small and a McDonald's. A nice center market had fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, fish, meats, and many other items for sale. We bought some Dutch cheeses made in the north of Holland, a wedge of old cheese and one of new. The vender cut off slivers from large cheese wheels for a taste test. The old cheese is quite pungent and hard while the newer cheese is softer and a bit milder in flavor. I prefer the younger cheese. I found another pair of shoes in Haarlem bringing the count to 4 pairs of shoes so far. Well, damn, they fit so nice I can't pass them up. The Europeans have sensibly sized shoes that actually fit me feet. It's worth a trip here just to buy shoes. While I was trying on shoes the clerks tuned in the TV to the soccer game. The Dutch team played Japan and later won 1-0. A close game. The Dutch being the Dutch, complained there could have been another goal. Hey, a win is a win. We watched the last few minutes of the game in front of a nut stand, No, the nuts were peanuts, cashews and such, not the folks watching the game. Although, there was an old man sitting in front waving a cane. I'm not sure exactly what he said because he spoke Dutch, but I do understand the universal language of get back to work. The workers passed around some warm, salted peanuts and I bought 100 grams. The peanuts came in an orange bag that said, "hup Holland hup" which means rah rah or some such. The picture above is a view of Haarlem from about 5 stories up. We were at the V&D department store cafe. The large church is the protestant church that dates back to the 1500s. The prominent townspeople and clergymen were buried in the floor of the church. Apparently, that's where the saying, "stinks to high heaven" comes from. If you can imagine the parishioners sitting in church on a warm day after a burial.

Soul Journey

This is the C. G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht Switzerland on Lake Zurich which is just south of city of Zurich. This is where activities, seminar, workshops related to Jungian analyst training are offered. They have a summer intensive workshop conducted in English that lasts about 2 weeks every summer. I won't be going this year, but I plan to eventually attend. My dream has been to attend the summer intensive workshop since first hearing about it 7-8 years ago. It was an absolute pleasure visiting this site last week. It took us a while to find the institute, but we eventually found it right on sparkling Lake Zurich.We stopped at the post office and they gave us a map and told us where to find it. The houses on the lake were very close and parking tight. We found a parking place and walked to the institute. There was nothing going on in the classrooms or library, but we looked around the building and visited the bookstore where I bought a book by Mary Ann Mattoon (Jungian analyst from Minneapolis) called Jung and the Human Psyche and a CD about Jung. I'll load the CD into my iPhone. The rose garden was lovely with places to sit and stroll in peace. A perfect place to contemplate life, growth, love, and all things important for soul searching. I like the path in this photo representing a soul journey. No better path to start or continue a a journey self-discovery.