Eye level

Before I came to the Netherlands, people told me that it is considered to have the tallest population in the world. Not only are the people very tall, but everything else is also adjusted to their height. When I finally arrived in Wageningen, I had to deal with this unique aspect of the Netherlands myself. One evening I was sitting in my room at the Brink, studying. It was almost 12 o’clock and suddenly the doorbell rang. I was surprised: who could come by so late at night? I went to the door but was too scared to just open it. I looked to see whether there was a peephole in the door. At first I couldn’t find one, and then I saw it! It was so high above my head! I could just about reach it, but I couldn’t look through it. So I went to get a small step stool I had in my room and put it near the door. I stood on it and looked through the peephole again but could see no one. I thought the person has gone, so I began to feel relieved. But the doorbell rang again. I climbed on the step stool and looked once more. Again I could see nothing. I began to get more scared. So at last I asked in a tiny voice, ‘who is there?’ and then I heard a familiar voice on the other side of the door: ‘It’s me, Ira! Open the door please, I am tired of waiting!’ So the whole thing was that the peephole was just too high for both of us. Ira was standing very close to the door and I couldn’t see her that way! So I guess these eyeholes in the doors of the Brink hotel were made for very tall Dutch men and women! Rezeda Karimova, external PhD student with the Social Sciences Group