the clouds (the clouds here really are different from the clouds in boston, and have been depicted by many famous painters..), the windmill, the green pastures; all so very dutch!!
also the roads; so very smooth and perfect (although i have to admit this road between utrecht and amsterdam is brand new); such a huge difference with the roads in massachusetts that are scattered with potholes and bumps and what-not. other things i notice now that i dont live here anymore; many more people smoke here (yegh), shoes are different (the model), and women often wear high heels here for everyday use, not just for going out, but the heels are less high than the ones american women wear (those are ridiculous and can only be worn when taking a cab and sitting on a bar chair the entire night, no?). its so very cold here, and the cold different from the boston-cold, its so cloudy and already at 3.30 the sun seems to go down. the sun rises much later here (i have a hard time getting up, while in boston its light at 6!), and what i really, really dislike is the fact that you have to pay to use the bathroom here. often even when you have drunk or eaten something at the department store, you still have to pay 50 eurocents for the restroom! in the us you can walk into every hotel and they are happy to show you where the restrooms are, even though you are not a guest.
i do like the dutch language. its so cute! ofcourse, me and tim speak it at home, but its really nice to hear the girls speak it at the register and so on. we have so many nice small words that are simply absent in english.... also, here they are much friendlier, and genuinely friendly in shops when compared to the us (at least in and around boston).
