We knew we were in Holland when...
Potato chips are something to be eaten as a snack like popcorn, not with sandwiches!
You count the number of rooms in a house with the exception of the kitchen and bathrooms (not just the number of bedrooms)
House listings give you the amount of airspace in a home (cubic meters) more frequently than they give you the floorspace (square meters)
A parking lot can have more spaces for bikes than for cars
You have to throw your own birthday party.
Mail and pizzas are delivered on bicycles!
Movie theatre rows are numbered from back to front (row #1 is considered the best and it is at the very back of the theatre!) and the movie stops right in the middle for an intermission break.
A trip to Ikea (pronounced here as “ee-kay-ah”) is a major social event!
We found ourselves grateful for stores that put labels with instructions in Dutch on products that came from France, Germany, and who knows where else!
We found catsup, mustard and mayonnaise in what looks like toothpaste tubes
The Bedweters store downtown Alkmaar is not for people with bladder control problems...it is Dutch for “People who know about beds”
Applesauce is found amongst the canned vegetables, not the canned fruit!
You can’t pop into the grocery store (or many other stores for that matter) between Saturday around 8 pm until Monday morning...plan those weekend meals ahead! Some stores are now starting to have very limited Sunday afternoon hours.
You make people nervous if you don’t drink tea or coffee when you go to their house.
It is not considered polite if you take more than one (or at most two) cookie when offered them on a plate.
Car repair shops wanted to know if we wanted a rental bike!
...and we knew we were back in America when...
We would turn to look to see who was talking with an American accent only to realize that EVERYBODY had American accents!
There were multiple kinds of everything to choose from
Toilet paper rolls got wider and thicker...in fact everything was bigger!
Tax was not included in the price...and it is only 7-8% instead of 19%
Gas was ONLY $3 a gallon (we're used to about $8 a gallon)
We had to start thinking in Fahrenheit and miles again
Houses were big and have big green lawns surrounding them
You aren't offered mayonaise for your french fries and catsup is plentiful and free
Stores were open almost round the clock, 7 days a week
Contact information:
Ilpenwaard 77
1824 GE Alkmaar
The Netherlands
Phone from the U.S.: 011 31 72 520 94 61
Terri.Chapman@GEMission.org
Chris.Chapman@GEMission.org