Student
Typical Dutch

Killing me softly

My friend and I arrived at Wageningen University 11 days ago. My friend never tried to ride a bike before , and she found it too far to walk to the Lumen building from Bornsesteeg. After some consideration she decided she needed a bike.

As I am more experienced in this area, I promised to help her out. We bought a bike at Emmaus for 35 euros and the lessons started. She moved her body like a belly dancer at the first try on the bike. As we began she fell directly on the soft grass. And even after some hours of practice it was no better. In the end I realized that she was not going to learn to ride a bike. Instead she was learning how to fall softly and how to choose a right place to fall.

In Uzbekistan hardly anyone rides a bike. We mostly use taxis and public transport because it is relatively cheap. It costs about 25 cents to travel by bus and it does not matter how far you go. Bikes are ridden only for short distances like 1 or 2 kilometres. Sometimes, love couples rent a bike for an hour to relax a bit. I could teach my friend to ride because I got my first bike when I was 7 years old. I rented my bike to my friends for some kilos of apple or other fruits.

Avazkhoja Akbarkhojaev, exchange student from Uzbekistan

Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounterwith Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to resource@wur.nland earn fifty euro and Dutch candy.

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