Illustration Henk van Ruitenbeek
I was excited when I arrived at Schiphol Airport because it was my first time in Europe and The Netherlands. I arrived in August, and I expected it to still be summer. I imagined that I would still get the chance to feel hot summer temperatures just like in my country. However, in my first few days in Wageningen, I felt cold because of the wind. Even when the sun was shining, I was still cold. So, most of the time I wore a jacket or thick clothes when I went outside.
The Dutch are often surprisingly positive about their weather
At one point during the Annual Introduction Days (AID) my group and I were watching a performance in the city centre. It was around nine in the evening and I wasn’t wearing my jacket. I felt cold because of the wind and I asked my Dutch friends whether the weather in the Netherlands was always this windy. Surprisingly, they answered: ‘Really? Well, it is not even windy. This is just a cute little breeze.’ So now I am trying to make friends with this cute little breeze in the Netherlands.
Siti Widyastuti Noor, an MSc student of International Development Studies from Indonesia
Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience going Dutch? Send it in! Describ an encounter with Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to resource@wur.nl and earn twenty-five euros and Dutch candy.
NL: Briesje
Het was augustus toen Siti Widyastuti Noor naar Nederland kwam, en de Indonesische verwachtte zomerse temperaturen. Maar zelfs als de zon scheen, vond ze het hier koud vanwege de wind. Op een zomeravond tijdens de AID, toen ze weer eens zat te rillen, vroeg ze een Nederlandse student of het hier altijd zo hard waaide. Die reageerde verwonderd. ‘Vind je? Nou, het is waait niet eens. Dit is gewoon een lief briesje.’ Dus nu probeert Siti vriendschappelijke gevoelens te ontwikkelen voor dat ‘briesje’.