@juno
that description is spot on! i am german, lived in scotland for quite some time, so Dutch is not really a problem for me. the only obstacle vocabulary-wise is to remember when to use the german word, when it is the english word and when the dutch use one of their own creations ;)

the Dutch are pretty extreme house-buyers, just like the british. we have several phd students, who bought a house (every bank here is happy to hand out loans), but as a foreigner i dont want to be stuck with a house in the netherlands and a gigantic loan. besides, even the house you have to invest quite a lot of money to make it habitable.

unfortunately the dutch housing organizations have that stupid rule that when you move out of a flat you dont have to do anything - not redocorating or painting, no fixing,.... basically you can leave the entire flat in shambles and nobody cares. just the poor soul who moves in next ....

Hmm. Over here if you left the flat in a shambles you would lose your deposit, as you probably know since you lived in Scotland.

The Scottish know how to deal with winter, I expect. Lots of whisky and hot soup. I read somewhere that Scottish women are the slimmest in the UK (average size 10, as opposed to 16 for the rest of the UK) because they eat more soup than solid food.

@juno
where in scotland are you stationed? i was in glasgow and cannot really say that the people were some sort of slim there .... maybe i just looked into the wrong corner ;)

i just found a nice recipe for a goot hot chocolate: baileys + milk + honey + 70% dark chocolate :D

I'm not in Scotland, I'm in Leicester. I was also suprised to read about the Scottish being slim, though - that's why I mentioned it. Did you ever try the deep-fried Mars Bar? I heard that's a Glasgow tradition. In Lancashire, where I used to live, a curry-and-chips takeaway is called a "Glasgow Friday Night". Doesn't really give the impression that the Scotish are slim and healthy.

When I lived in Scotland there was an abundance of healthy eating adverts on TV which I attributed to the poor diet they have up there. They also do deep-fried pizza, burgers, and even magnums! And Irn-bru being so orange cannot be healthy, and Buck Fast - honestly it's a different world up there!

See here:

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/203729/new_survey_finds_scots_women_are_now_the_slimmest_in/index.html

Mind you I've also been assured that the Dutch will batter and deep-fry anything they can get their hands on. Maybe Moneky can confirm or deny that for us?

sorry for replying late - the stupid cable company switched off my internet at home so i have to do my surfing in the lab :D

juno you are indeed right, the Dutch LOVE fried stuff - they have those strange walls with little compartments where you throw in a coin and then you can take out the chips, the deep fried mashed up meatballs or the deep fried mashed up sausages ..... similar to Scotland, healthy food is just so much more expensive than junk food. On the other hand, Holland is a biking country and it is quite hard to swell up to 300 pounds when you have to cycle for an hour everyday (not to mention that it is quite hard to get onto the bike in the first place ...)

True enough Monkey. I always fancied one of those big black Dutch bikes, much more stylish than the 'orrible sports bikes that are all you can get here.

DanB: my pleasure. Though I must say I spent two years (2003-2005) working at Loughborough uni innovation centre and the bus route from the train station to the uni seemed like a tour of the armpit of hell. I hope Loughborough has some nicer areas. Not that Leicester is the best place in the world either, but it has its highlights.

Hey monkey,

where in Holland are you? I did a MSc in Rotterdam and loved the weather there - not the rain but the five-month fog during winter...

hi marbeaux,

i am one of the view people who try to make a living in the east of Holland - Enschede.
i have to admit, i havent made it to rotterdam so far, but the winter here is kind of depressing, visiting other cities while it is pouring down on me is not really fun ;)

mh, so you like the weather - what did you do in your spare time then during that period of the year. over here, from november onwards the town falls dead-quiet, not much going on.

That endless Dutch rain has arrived over Leicester now. So much for Regatta "waterproofs".

On the topic of chocolate products, don't the Dutch have those nice little chocolate sprinkles which you can put on toast?

Yes, hagelslag (possibly spelt wrong). Though I find they fall of the bread unless you keep it perfectly horizontal. Maybe you have to be Dutch to master it.

those chocolate sprinkles just exist to annoy foreigners - normal people use chocolate spread. why on earth would you want to use sprinkles .... the only use of that stuff i can think of is when you get a baby. apparently tradition has it that you eat blue hagelslaag when it is a boy and pink hagelslaag when it is a girl....

but to come back to the chocolate topic: i managed to restock my stock in germany :D