A Stroll In Holland

Today I got to see a little bit of the nation that is the Netherlands. I went for a nice quiet 2 hour ride to a town near here called “Ommen”. The ride was another picturesque European scene from a movie. As I road on the bike path (which are literally everywhere) I passed fields with cows and corn, then forests into more fields. The cow pastures here are significantly smaller than American ones. It seems our cows are incredibly spoiled! That would be if only if the grass was not as green and perfect as I have seen in my few years of life; good ol’ American spray-paint can’t match this honesty. Also, along the way I realized that I don’t think the Dutch people like Americans very much. I got stared down with every passing citizen. I guess one would expect the same treatment in a big American city such as New York or Los Angeles, but I never saw it coming from this little homely Dutch town. Although these people seem to not take kindly to me, I did notice the importance of family that overshadows America’s pathetic attempt at it (not to offend). In this Western European culture work is a lot less important than family. I learned in German class that the typical German work week is only 32-35 hours long, and is considered full time. This leaves plenty of room for family, and they do bond a lot through “holiday”. Ask any of these people where they’ve been and you will hear a long list followed by “that’s usually on holiday” or something like that. These people get it. Family trumps money every time, no excuse. Please, if you don’t already let your family know how important they are, do so soon because we all know the fathers love; now display it to those closest to you. And to my family, you all know how you have impacted me and how much I love you guys.