Great start

As my last post from the Netherlands for an entire month...its only fitting to end on a happy note, right? I'm happy to go on vacation, happy to leave work, happy to go home and see my family and friends again, some friends I haven't seen in a very long time...over three years ago. And of course, happy to get married! The only thing I'm not so happy about--that I have to leave my little bunnies behind for a whole month. I will miss them so much, and I hope they will be ok with their bunny-sitters.

Last night was the first game for Holland in the EK. They played against Italy. Holland hasn't beat Italy in over 30 years, and Italy is the reigning world champion. No one expected it, but we basically blew them out of the water---winning 3-0. It was a fun game to watch. M and I watched the game at home, and every time they scored a goal, you could hear the entire neighborhood cheering and screaming and shouting!!! It was so cool! Bull horns blasting, car horns honking..it was like everyone in the city was glued to their tv watching the game. Not only that, but over 40,000 Dutchies made the trip to Bern, Switzerland to just be there for the game, not in the stadium, but in the city cheering them on (reminds me a tiny bit of OU/Texas games in Dallas every year....but this is such a bigger scale than that!). The whole city is orange. Bern is orange. The fans in the stadium were orange.

Here are some pictures of what its like here. The first is in Bern. The other two are here in Amsterdam- right outside my office. They decorated the 'Nightwatch' statues on Rembrandtplein with orange shirts. Had to take a picture of that one!

Hopefully we can catch some more games in WI...we'll have to go to a bar to watch them at 1.45 pm in the afternoon, since we don't have cable at my parents' house. But what a fun time to be in Holland, for the Euro Championships. It is truly an amazing experience and feeling to be here during a game...and see how orange crazy Holland gets! This is the best time to be here...guess I scheduled my wedding at the wrong time of year! jk

So, tomorrow its back to the USA for one month. When I return I will be a married woman!

bumper sticker a la holland

bike bumper sticker
Originally uploaded by dutchlop.

if you don't have car bumpers to display your opinions, then you have to adapt to what you've got: bikes!

this biker is pretty dutch as they get. strong opinion, don't mess with them.

"i want my bike and nothing else."

ok, don't worry, I'll leave you and your bike alone!

Holland is gek, and so am I!

I know I may be going crazy lately, with my wedding coming up and all the long distance planning I have to take care of. But the Dutch have been going crazy lately too- and it will also only get worse! I don't mean losing-your-head type of crazy like me, but I mean more fanatic-crazy. This is for two reasons that you could only find in Holland: fish and football. By the way, the Dutch word for crazy is "gek"...with a very guttural g sound.

Just this past weekend, 'hollandse nieuwe', or the first new herring of the season, arrived on shore, and the winning barrel went for thousands of euros. It was auctioned off on Tuesday. The fish stand down the street from my office has flags up and signs and everything. On Tuesday he even had shots of alcohol to his customers to celebrate. He is known to us as, "the fish man". It may be just a bunch of fish, but it is a BIG deal here. They must be extra tasty or something...I refuse to let those fish get near my mouth. Nee, dank je!

The other craziness is not only in Holland, but all over Europe. The European Championships are starting on Saturday. Every 4 years , Oranje (orange) Fever begins. Whole neighborhoods come together to deck out their apartment buildings and streets in orange flags. Stores are selling more Dutch team related shirts and items...its a great marketing ordeal...and it sells, big time. The first game is on Monday night vs. Italy...its gunna be huge! I'm excited for it, it was great fun to watch 4 years ago here in Utrecht...and even the World Cup was fun to watch while i was in Washington DC. Too bad I will be in the USA for most of the EK (abbreviation for the Dutchies). I bet I won't be able to catch a single game, not just because I will be so busy with other things, but also because Americans aren't very soccer savvy and it won't be shown on tv. Big hopes for the team this year, as Marco van Basten, the coach of this year's team, could become the first every person to have the EK trophy as a player (1988) and as a coach...but can Oranje go far this time around? We shall all see how it plays out in the Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria.

Oh yeah, and if you were planning a camping trip to Switzerland around this time, you can expect to be flooded by a bunch of crazy Dutchies...many camp sites have basically been taken over there by orange-clad dutchies, renaming them Oranje-dorp (orange village). It is a very Dutch thing to go camping (in tents but also campers/RVs). I wouldn't attribute this only to Dutch loving the outdoors, I think it is more of a thing about being cheaper than staying in a hotel. That is a very large part of the Dutch persona - "thriftiness".