1/ You have a bike
2/ You even know how to brake using retropedaling
3/ Walking from your faculty to the cafeteria has become unimaginable. You take your bike, even if it’s for 50meters
4/ Eating 7 slides of bread for lunch doesn’t scare you anymore
5/ By the way, you stopped eating warm lunch. You just eat bread
6/ You know what a kroket is, and you learned to avoid the orange ones
7/ It doesn’t surprise you anymore to eat at 18:30
8/ You drink beer
9/ You got used to trance and electro music
10/ You don’t cheat on the train, because controllers are EVERYWHERE
11/ When the cafeteria is crowed, you line up neately with the others
12/ You used to use cash all the time, but now you have a pin card
13/ You think ducks are cute
14/ As soon as the sun pops out, you make a barbecue, even if it’s 10°C outside
15/ You think 15°C is warm
16/ You know winter stops in May, and not March as everywhere else
17/ You don’t remember what a moutain looks like
18/ You still don’t know how to speak Dutch. But your English has improved
19/ You know what Surinam is. And where it is
20/ You never go out without your bike lights
21/ You think butter in a bottle is normal
22/ You know that all the guys are in Delft. And the girls, everywhere else, especially Leiden
23/ You go to Leiden on Saturday
24/ You’ve been to a flower park, and thought it was cool
25/ You’re ok with having only one flavour of ice cream (the white ones)
26/ You don’t even bother to ask “do you speak English?”, you just speak English right away
27/ When you go to the cinema, you are ok with being told where to sit
28/ And you wouldn’t dare sit anywhere else
29/ You have finally accepted the fact that Gouda is cheese
30/ Paying 6€ for a meal in the cafeteria seems normal
31/ You know how to repair a bike
32/ You eat potatoes at least once a day
33/ You always check the weather before leaving home
34/ You know what it is being late and having to wait for a boat to cross the bridge
35/ You can drink milk at any time of the day
36/ Sometimes, you only drink milk as lunch
37/ You have tried karnemelk at least once
38/ You start liking dropjes
39/ For you something sweet means straubwaffels
40/ Spring means flowers blooming and construction sites opening up all over the place
41/ Being tall gets a new meaning
42/ Blonde is back to being a hair-color, not a concept
43/ You have 4 seasons in one day
44/ You can start a mail to your teacher who happens to be a doctor by “yo, wassup doc” (exaggeration can get the message through)
45/ You think that paying to use the toilets is normal
46/ You know that kapsalon is not a typical turkish dish, but a hairdresser
47/ You start to think that the strange position of the hole in the WC is not that disgusting
48/ You find it easier to find a good joint that a good coffee
49/ You have the AH bonus card
50/ Your windows have no curtains, and you don’t care
51/ If your windows have curtains, you don’t use them, and just don’t care who might be looking at you
52/ For you, light rain is not rain
53/ Professors write a “well done” comment in your assignment and still grade you with a 6
54/ You can drink beer in the cinema (good)
55/ 10°C is warm enough to wear a short or mini skirt
56/ You can ride your bike in the rain, wind and even snow
57/ Guys are very cute
58/ You can ride your bike wearing skirt (if you’re a girl), a suit or even high heels (if you’re a girl)
59/ When you start having strong opinion even if you vaguely know the topic
60/ When you “wash” the dishes with soap without rincing them
61/ “Alstublieft and dank u wel” are the only dutch words you know
62/ You aren’t surprised anymore that the disco closes at 4 (but it still pisses you off)
63/ You learn to bike without using your hands on the handle
64/ You go to the market and you only buy the stuffs that fit in your bike
65/ Riding a bike and driking coffee/smoking/eating lunch at the same time is not a problem any more
66/ You reformulate the saying “if you drink, don’t drive” by “if you drink, don’t ride”
67/ You’ve been asked where the coffeeshop is
68/ You start wearing orange during soccer events, even when you’re not Dutch
69/ You get used not to use napkins when eating. You just eat dirtily.
70/ You know what GVD stands for
71/ You can never predict the weather and can not believe the weather forecast anymore
72/ You wait for the light to go green before crossing the street, even if there is no car
73/ You sometimes eat only with a spoon
74/ You tried fried fish from the caravans at least once
75/ You clap the lecturer (just because he’s been speaking for 2 hours)
76/ You run to Albert Heijn at 21.55 to get some beer for the party that night
77/ Trees planted in straight rows/ aka the forest/ seems normal
78/ You think you understand why they don’t serve coffee at coffeeshops (but you’re not sure yet)
79/ You steal a bike at the station because the night before someone stole yours
80/ You think it is okay to eat multicoloured sprinkels on bread for breakfast
81/ You use 9292ov.nl to go to the supermarket
82/ You know that the wind blows in your face regardless of the direction in which you are biking
83/ You don’t even try to park in an unauthorised area just to ‘pick something up in 5min’, because you know you will get a ticket in 30 seconds
84/ When you move out of your rental apartment, you know you might have to take the floors with you
85/ Stepping in doggiepoo on the sidewalk becomes almost a daily thing
86/ You end up eating super greasy food at 5am at FEBO or ALEV (Delft)
Dutch Junk Food

Dutch Junk Food

87/ And after that, you manage to bike home still completely wasted and go to class at 8:45
88/ You need an appointement to talk with your friends. Or your mother
89/ You enjoy making tourists jump off the bike path
90/ You paid more for the lock of your bike than for the bike itself
91/ Real bread? You’ve made your peace with it. It doesn’t exist
92/ You know that the Netherlands doesn’t have a special dish. They just fry everything
93/ You know getting a couch will be difficult because it doesn’t fit through the door. Windows maybe?
94/ You’re ok spending Queen’s Day in the train because people are walking on the rails
95/ Jaap, Joost and Jeroen are the names of most of the Dutch guys you know
96/ When the sun pops up all your Dutch friends are wearing beach flip flops
97/ Dutch people ask you why don’t you speak Dutch?
98/ You still don’t speak Dutch but watch silly Dutch TV shows like Take me out and Single
99/ You have been in a relationship with at least one Dutch person
100/ You are used to people bumping into you abruptly on the street, yet never saying sorry
Tagged with:
 

64 Responses to “You know you’ve been in The Netherlands for too long when…”

  1. anonymous says:

    These are
    so true almost all of them! And it’s so funny to realise about those facts. Great job :)

  2. Cynthia says:

    I love this!

  3. Eurogates says:

    Great article! Do not you mind if we publish it on our Educational portal about study in Holland – http://www.eurogates.nl?

  4. Ross says:

    Haha, This is legend!
    Im a South African studying here in Delft and this is pretty much the story of my life…
    Nice one!

  5. Joost says:

    ‘Real bread? You’ve made your peace with it. It doesn’t exist’

    Lol, that is exactly what we think if we go to any foreign supermaket

  6. Vincent says:

    Haha, nice, and pretty accurate too :)

  7. Remco says:

    And you still don’t understand what your Dutch professor means when he tells you that “you can shake it” if you don’t start attending his classes.

    You like being hazed.

    You met most of your friends in a hazing and use the stories from you hazing as the perfect pickup line or smalltalk.

    You learned at least 100 new reasons why a train or bus can be delayed or should be canceled.

    You don’t mind paying more for the train ticket to Cheaphol airport (Schiphol) than for the actual flight home.

  8. Gerry says:

    I also learned to eat my numerous slices of bread (with various fried something toppings) at lunch with a knife and fork and of course washed it all down with a glass of Karnemelk. Number 100 never happened to me in 10yrs of living in Amsterdam. They rather deliberately walked in to you and then exclaimed “sorry hoor”, before carrying on down the street to walk into and exclaim the same, to countless others. I think it is just a Dutch way of being sociable.

  9. Dwight says:

    23/ You go to Leiden on Saturday … this should be Monday night to get wasted

  10. [...] friend shared this article on Facebook earlier and the list made me laugh a bit because a fair few of them really do apply to [...]

  11. j says:

    hahaha, i loved it! just too little errors: it should be ‘ neatly’ and stroopwafels is written like this!! (not straub… that seems german… never confuse german with dutch, because we get really upset!) (oh, btw, i’m dutch ^^)

  12. Li says:

    You have some typos, but regardless, this list is hilarious.

  13. Ravi says:

    100% correct

  14. pietje puk says:

    WAT EEN BELEDIGING IS DIT !

  15. Aidai says:

    This is so true, OMG! Any international student in Holland will agree with me. :)

  16. Marieke says:

    Fantastisch!!!!

  17. Jeroen-Jan says:

    Very nice! Quite accurate.
    I think it should be “Jan, Joost, and Jeroen”. Or any combination of the three.

  18. maria s. says:

    Muito engraçado (=very funny!)

  19. Lucie says:

    Very true, but depending on where in NL u live ;)

  20. Almost Dutch says:

    haha! true, almost there =P btw, whats GVD?

  21. admin says:

    GVD is an abbreviation of ‘godverdomme’ which is translated in ‘goddamned’, sadly also in Dutch a widely used word :) .

  22. admin says:

    Thanks. No problem go ahead! (Ps. sorry for the late respons).

  23. Stephanie says:

    I’m dutch and not all of this has happend to me :O AND THE ORANGE KROKET IS THE BEST ONE!!!!!!! That’s my main issue with this, don’t hate on the orange kroket. And we don’t really fry our food that’s the English I think or Scottish, they fry marsbars:O

    82/ You know that the wind blows in your face regardless of the direction in which you are biking.
    So true, hate that!

  24. djzifiron says:

    I am Dutch and from Breda, but it’s also very applicable to the foreign students we have here on the NHTV and Avans. Good job!

  25. ilmi says:

    hilarious… very accurate i might say…

  26. marina says:

    I agree with most of this but Whats about
    - all guys in Delft?
    - going to Leiden on Saturday?
    - GVD?

    I dont agree that
    - clubs close at 4am, at least not in Groningen, maybe it depends where you live
    -rinking milk often
    and some others

    PS And I stopped checking the weather coz I know that it would rain anyways and I still hate dropjes

  27. Lawrence says:

    I’ve been living there for 20 years sound”bekend” I miss patatje oorlog thou -D

  28. DrKikker says:

    hilarious!!!!!! and so true!!!!!!!!!

  29. Carolyn says:

    Uhm… hello BOERENKOOL!!!!

  30. admin says:

    LOL :) …GVD is the abbreviation of godverdomme which means damned.
    Delft is a guy city because of the university of technology which attracts almost exclusively guys.
    This also explains why you go to Leiden on Saturdays ;)

  31. Evelin says:

    But then, on the other hand there are plenty of people who have lived here long enough to know what a kroket is and who also know that not everything here that is called food is fried, at least not for the people who bother to prepare their own food using Dutch recipes. Try the Allerhande… Oh… Can you read Dutch?

  32. Heer Rozenwater says:

    You wait for the light to go green before crossing the street, even if there is no car????

    You never visited Amsterdam, I guess.

  33. lost angelust says:

    when you yourself say ‘not possible’ to someone

  34. Jules says:

    OMG I am not that Dutch at all :-)

  35. Irenka says:

    The only one that isn’t true is 92, we have stamppot, that’s the national dish. Just mash everything with potatoes and a little gravy and spekjes.

  36. Sami says:

    So very true list. :D

    However, I was missing references to mayo and pindasaus.

  37. Capitein Pannenkoek says:

    Lots of spelling errors, but also pretty funny stuff. But really, most of this is taken care of in the first week!

  38. Anna says:

    Hi!

    Great list, although I miss the fine tradition of “prakken” (mashing ANY kind of food you get; an ex boyfriend of mine even managed to “prak” things like pancakes or carfully grilled, stuffed peppers, garnished with painstakingly carved veggies I made to look like little stars….)
    Anyway, that’s also a common denominator of our ‘cuisine’; basically everything we fry has been mashed before, and “Boerenkool” is a dish consisting of mashed potato with kale, with either meat balls (“mashed” meat) or saucage (also).

  39. eliza says:

    Well done! Please correct number 95: Yap doesn’t exist as a name in Holland. Maybe you mean Jaap? :)

  40. Meru says:

    /95: Yap?! You probably mean Jan.

  41. Tuan Jinn says:

    - LOLZ, hillarious. 100 is not very fair though as the Dutch is quite polite the way I see it, they always say sorry first.
    - Btw, I have never been to Leiden… =.=.
    - And, the highway limitation is 120 (going to be 130) but everyone drives at 160 if their Tom Tom says no speed cam

  42. Leonie says:

    Lol that’s sp funny, for me almost al these things are really strange and I am from Holland. Maybe I’m a failed Dutch :(

  43. Bob says:

    The person who wrote this definitely hasn’t traveled a lot.
    The problem with Dutch people and culture overall, that if some “ritual”(let’s call it like this) was used several times by even a few people, it becomes “Dutch”.
    I mean:
    8/ You drink beer – really? what do people drink around the globe then?
    or 43/ you have 4 seasons in one day – c’mon, go to Ireland and have a look (also considering “Stepping in doggiepoo on the sideawalk”).
    And many others.
    Seems like some student went first time abroad (perhaps he lived with mom and dad all the time) and considers every difference as “Dutch”.
    Wake up and travel, people.

  44. Tim says:

    “Vind ik leuk” (I Like)

  45. Joost says:

    I feel so generalized :<

    Allso,
    72/ You wait for the light to go green before crossing the street, even if there is no car.

    You've never been to "the big city" ?

  46. Lisa says:

    Funny to see that Dutch people feel offended :)

  47. nonneke says:

    so true, most of it. btw, stamppot is widespread but not originally Dutch! It’s true, we have nog true Dutch cuisine. except maybe raw herring? We do actually have great bread, and Gouda is also a city.We dont generally use 9292ov for the supermarkt, since we usually have one closeby and 9292ov is for public transport.

  48. Laurens says:

    (54) wait… you gays aren’t allowed to drink beer in the cinema?!

Leave a Reply