Illustration Henk van Ruitenbeek However, the Dutch themselves are often surprisingly positive about it. I can feel the optimism from my new Dutch friends when I talk to them about the weather.
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.
