A little gem

You'd think by now I'm aware of how life works here in the Netherlands, what "business-as-usual" really is. But sometimes I'm still surprised by some interesting quirks that I did not yet know about or experience yet in Dutch culture. One such little gem caught me off guard when I went to the movies a few weeks back to see the new Batman movie. The Dark Knight is a pretty long movie, as far as most mainstream blockbuster movies go. It is a hefty 2.5 hours long. Apparently, in Holland, you don't always just pay a simple flat ticket fee per movie, but rather, by how long the movie is! When a movie is defined as 'extra long', you have to pay an extra 1 euro per ticket!! You can imagine my shock, even though I'm pretty good at rolling my eyes by now, after having had lived here for over 3 yrs (in total). But what "they" define as an extra long movie, I really don't know, but have I ever received a discount for an extra short movie? I don't think so! If you often think that American culture is the only consumerist/make-as-much-profit-as-you-can economy...think again. The Dutch just do it differently, and that's what I have to keep telling myself. But of course, that doesn't mean I will ever get used to it!