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Student Reflections

Euros and Europeans: Getting to know the Dutch

Jackson Lynch
July 25, 2017

As a student part of a larger group when abroad, most of my interactions are naturally with other students within the group, although sometimes my interactions branch out to local Dutch citizens. On a day to day basis, these conversations will be between myself and either a cashier or a waiter or waitress and occurs essentially all in English (with the exception of please and thank you, both of which have become part of my regular vocabulary). Sometimes, however, I get the chance to talk to a member of the city planning part of a local government that we are touring for the day, and these conversations have given me great insight into the minds of the urban planners and transport engineers here in the Netherlands, and what type of thoughts drive their actions.

Outside of class trips and necessary interactions, some other interactions I’ve had include while at bars, while on the train, and while climbing. Recently, I found a local indoor bouldering gym and this is where I find that it is quite easy to get along with people and have simple conversations as people are often giving each other advice on routes and helping them achieve certain problems. Today, another person at the gym was giving me advice on a hold I was missing and after a few sentences in Dutch and an “English?”, we were speaking on the same level. The main thing that makes it easy to talk with people in this country is definitely the fact that most every single person speaks nearly fluent English.

Transitioning to a new way of paying for things has been pretty smooth. One big difference between Euros and US Dollars is that Euro bills only get as small as 5 (there are 1 euro and 2 euro coins), and that they do not do pennies here and rather round everything to the nearest 5th cent. The second I like very much because of the first. Because coins are extremely important here, and it is much more important to keep track of them than it is in the US, it’s nice not to get bogged down by 1 cent coins.

Keeping track of money, however, has been a bit difficult. One of the hardest things is taking some money out of an ATM, say 50 euro, just to see 70 dollars taken out of your bank account after exchange rates and fees. This money mostly goes towards food and occasionally towards things like a night in the rock gym, a night out, or a tour of a brewery. The most interesting thing that I’ve purchased, in my opinion, would be the tour of the Heineken factory in Amsterdam. I thought that it was extremely interesting to learn about how the beer was made and the history behind the iconic drink.