Thursday, October 14, 2010

Stories from a Canadian in Holland

A good friend of mine recently moved to Holland. These are his stories.

 

Today I got a lecture from the security guard at the Canadian embassy about how you *must* speak Dutch if you live in Holland. The security guard was Moroccan, but I initially started with him in English because it was the Canadian embassy, and I thought he would be Canadian. My mistake was that I'm living in Holland, but nevertheless used English. He gave me the lecture in Dutch.

Another story: A couple of days ago, I saw a little black girl who I didn't know in the elevator of the building where I live. We hadn't said a word to each other, but then she just looked up and said "Sir, I know I look like a foreigner, but I'm actually Dutch." I'm still trying to analyse this one. One potentially important fact is that I live in an immigrant neighbourhood - "the projects" of Delft - and I'm one of the only white people here.

Posted via email from Sammy's posterous

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