Now that I’m off of the European continent I thought that I would offer some reflection on some things that I learned from visiting Amsterdam for 5 days.
First is that they are extremely passionate about their football. Watching the quarterfinals for the World Cup Match there was an experience I won’t be forgetting any time soon! It reminds me so much of the gold medal hockey match between Canada and USA in the Olympics this year.
I also noticed that the Dutch seem to have us beaten on a few aspects…
Everything is so laid back. Although by our standards it may seem rude to make someone wait at a counter, or not deliver their bill immediately after they are finished eating… but it’s refreshing once you get used to it that everything just happens at a different pace. Life is meant to be more relaxed… the high paced speed of North American society could use some relaxing.
They use bikes for everything. They have such narrow streets, that can’t be expanded, so people make use of what they have. It was amazing some of the contraptions that people build to allow their bikes to carry what they need. In our world we just build bigger freeways to make bigger traffic jams (not to mention the environmental problems with that).
Their transit is amazing. You can get a tram/bus anywhere in and around the city, take a train to almost anywhere in Europe as well as within the Netherlands (and get lost trying to get around if you’re a tourist) and really I could see no immediate need to have a car if you lived there at all, except if your job required it. Makes me a bit frustrated living in Langley with a 2.5 hours of transit if I wanted to get downtown from home.
Lastly, i didn’t notice the flash that you see so often at home (bigger house, bigger faster car… etc) From my perspective it just didn’t seem to matter as much.
By no means am I saying that everything there is better, but those are a few things that we could learn from the Dutch (and I’m sure the rest of Europe). I know none of this is new… but you’re reading my post so now you know my thoughts. J
I’ll step off my soap box for now. I’m sure the speech after Kenya will be much more inspiring!
PS after I land (I’m writing this from the air) I will officially be on the other side of the world! Horray!
Now that I’ve landed update… just thought that I’d let you know that I’ve landed in Nairobi and am safely inside my hotel. Even got to watch the second half of the Spain game. The place we are staying is really nice, but it’s now midnight so I’ll attach pictures tomorrow.