Netherlands culture

a big culture difference I noticed while in the Netherlands was that they are much more direct. In America we use a lot more pleasantries in conversations even just quickly in passing. The Dutch are much more to the point skipping the pleasantries and small talk you see a lot of back home.

The Culture of Europe

An interesting aspect of culture and everyday life I've come across in Europe is safety. In the multiple cities we visited I always felt safe compared to the places I've been to in the US. The odd thing about this is that I see on a daily basis more police in the US than in Europe. Also compared to Europe the police in the US are intimidating and look more like members of the military.
  From my time spent there I also noted especially in the Netherlands that there is more diversity and tolerance such as LGBTQ+ rights. Another interesting contrast was how water and space is treated differently. Water and space is abundant in the US where as in Europe it's more valuable.  

Culture in Europe

The time we’ve spent in Europe has been an eye opening experience. Though the intention here is to share the differences I’ve noted during our trip, I want to first mention how familiar at times life felt around me. There was (unfortunately perhaps?) very little culture shock, naturally due to the origins of American culture stemming out of a conglomeration of lifestyles which grew into what we find in europe today. When given the opportunity to view the tourist secluded burgs and city streets before work hours, life felt very natural as one might expect. People came and went about their business, waiting for a bus or stopping for a coffee and it was at those times that I, despite not knowing much of anything with regards to the local language could fly under the radar. Passing for a local amongst the crowd so much so that I was able to carry out basic transactions or even get solicited with sales and information for things not intended for non-locals. In that sense it all seemed very normal in a sense.

However, it is amongst those may normalicy that one could notice the subtle differences. For instance, despite being the height of rush hour the streets were not packed with cars. Sure it may be busy, but instead masses of people clambered for public transportation and more pedestrian friendly means of transportation. Not to say that public transport isn’t used in the US, but it’s almost more so a  standard of European city life to the point of which cars are reasonably irrelevant for a greater proportion of city dwellers as opposed to America. With respect to transportation, those who drive cars are known for traveling with smaller vehicles. This has less to do with preference and so much more to do with the lack of space. The old streets of towns raised hundreds of years prior to even popular knowledge of our continents existence are fortunate to even be accessible to the smallest of cars here. On many streets, the width of the lane is usable as a strictly one way road. If there’s a little extra room you may see cars utilizing half the sidewalk as a parking space. Said sidewalks are quite often no more than single file buffers from the walls of buildings in many cases.

Following the line of thought on space, the countryside itself is more noticeably densely populated. Flying above the land made it obvious just how regularly little villages dotted the landscape. Akon our train rides a town was always within view of another, visible by its steeple peaking over the next ridge or tree line. Just today, from atop the steeple of one such church in Delft, The Hague and Rotterdam, two major city centers for the Netherlands were visible on opposite sides of the cathedral simultaneously; clearly separate but as if we were in the far reaching suburbs of either had we been in the United States.

So many little mannerisms become apparent as well. Especially in the food services. Not only is water not complimentary, it is even occasionally more costly than soda which is still charged at rates upwards of double that in the states (and half the volume). They seem to prefer it when you are ready to order food at the same time as drinks, and prefer not to split checks. When it comes to handling money, they’d rather it not be handed directly if it can be helped and credit card transactions are almost exclusively brought to the customer to be completed at the table. Tips are often included as a service charge on the bill, though even that is at lower rates than common to us. These are just a few differences I’ve noted over our visit to Europe, though I’m sure to notice many more after I have time to more deeply analyze our own customs upon our return.

Culture in Europe

The biggest culture difference I noticed in Amsterdam is the integration of the red light district. In America a place like the red light district would be regulated and people under a certain age certainly would not be let in. Here however it's just like any other area of town. It's so easy to get into that when we first were roaming around the city our first night we accidentally ended up in it. Once we knew where it was you could walk one block over and that street would have wholesome restaurant and cafes up and down the street rather than bars and shady glass doors. To simply have this integrated into the thread of a city is very different to what one would expect to see in a similar area in America.

Other just overall differences: free water is a wonderful and under-rated American thing, ice is a good thing, and trams are integrated into traffic patterns differently in every different cities infrastructure which is cool to compare (and may not be cultural buuut oh well).

European culture

There have been a lot of cultural observations done throughout our whole stay in Europe, but I have picked out a few that I think are interesting or important for us to think about.

Something that I am super passionate about is the decrease in tobacco products, so this trip has been extremely hard for me. I did my research and it says that 19% of people in the United States smoke, as where in Europe it says 29% of people smoke tobacco products. This is weird to me because as we have been walking around, it seems like every single person is smoking a cigarette, no matter which country we were in. It’s a social thing, at every restaurant with outdoor sitting, and especially when people are walking down the street. I am the president of a club called colleges against cancer, so I am very passionate about ending the use of cigarettes. In the United States I see a lot of e-cigarettes or vapes, but here in Europe I have only seen three vapes. So the United States may be see as the less healthy country because of all the junk food and fast food we eat, but Europe is worse when it comes to health dealing with tobacco. This is Europe’s most preventable cause of death, and I hope in the future they switch to another form of smoking, or quit all together.

Something that has REALLY bugged me is the lack of ice in every single drink we get. I haven’t really figured out why Europeans don’t love ice, because I grew up with my mom filling the whole cup with ice and barely any soda. Even when we go to sit down restaurants and ask for ice, they give us one ice cube per person, so that lasts about two minutes until completely melted. I might also be spoiled because I never drink just water, it’s always filled up ice. Perhaps people that like room temperature water (aka my brother) would do just fine in Europe. I on the other hand will use more ice once I get back to the United States.

The last thing I wanted to write about is the biking. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, which I think is really bike friendly. There are paths most places, and it’s really popular downtown. Here in Amsterdam, I’ve noticed that literally everyone bikes. People bike in heals, suits, they bike with their kids, their partner, or their parents; literally everyone bikes here. The bike lanes are way more popular  here, and they are busier than the car lanes. I love it, because that means it’s great for the environment, and you can also tell the people here are skinner than the average American. I hope that one day biking will become really popular in the United States, but maybe not to the extreme as we see in Amsterdam!!
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Culture Discussion

Throughout the duration of this course I have noticed a few cultural differences between Europe as a whole, the countries themselves, and the US. One difference is the price of soda in comparison to water. In the US water is free and refillable. Here water is often 1 Euro more than soda. I find this odd considering that European culture tends to be more ”health conscious.” I have been having to order two drinks at restaurants and pay 7 Euros just for a beverage in comparison to the one refillable glass of water I get for free in the states. This is one cultural difference I personally struggled with while abroad.

 Another cultural difference I noticed especially in the Netherlands is the lack of motorized or gas using vehicles. I have seen more tiny gas efficient cars here than anywhere else. The amount of cars that are replaced by bikes is overwhelming. When comparing Amsterdam to Chicago, there aren’t even a quarter of the amount of cars on the streets. I was amazed to learn that they’re are more bikes in Amsterdam than there is people. After our day trips I noticed that the use of bicycles as a main form of transportation is very prevalent in the Netherlands as a whole, not just Amsterdam. 

A third cultural difference in comparison to the U.S. is the use of less sugar. Lemonade  and orange juice are squeezed fresh, will almost no added sugar. Breakfast at the hostel included plain cornflakes. At cheap hotels in the states plain cornflakes aren’t usually an option (that I’ve noticed). Another example was in Utrecht when I ate frozen yogurt expecting something similar to ice cream, but I received the exact opposite. It was more sour and not sugary. 

Fashion, Style, Context

So I've been trying to pay attention to the choices of attire that European individuals are making throughout my time here and for my purposes here this will have more to do with male clothing. French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is known to have said, "Fashion fades, style is eternal", this to me defines fashion then more as the current trend of popular clothing choices whereas style is a personal individuals expression through clothing. That being said for the three cities we have visited I attribute Budapest to a sense of fashion, Vienna with an understanding of context, and lastly Amsterdam a place filled with style.

Young men in Budapest can be seeing wearing a number popular clothing choices, white leather sneakers, rolled up chinos, mandarin collar shirts, a shocking number of jorts, as well as the current trend of retro street-wear making waves globally. That being said, although many Budapest clearly stick with inoffensive neutral colors and nicely fitting clothing I didn't see much deviation from the types of outfits you might find on a mannequin at any H&M. By all means the outfits looked "good" but perhaps a little uninspired.

Vienna to me exemplified an understanding of context for outfits. I was given little time to look around but in that time I noticed a vast array of clothing choices all the way from the type of outfit you mind find at 1:00 AM in an American Walmart to the type of outfit you wear going out to a 100 Euro a plate restaurant on the Danube. Yet no one really seemed out of place, the more sloppily dressed individuals were not seen at the upscale restaurants and neither were the dressed-to-the-nines Wieners found at the local burger joint.

Now Amsterdam by all means understands trends, white leather sneakers are everywhere, Levi's branded t-shirts as well. Devoid of a sense of fashion Amsterdam is not, but Amsterdam is also not afraid of looking past neutral colors and just fitted clothing and is more than willing to explore unique directions. One thing in particular is the lack of "pack-fashion" where a group of people are all wearing similar items. The very items themselves are a bit more progressive as well, wherein Budapest a young hypebeast might just stick with the skinny jeans and a t-shirt, in Amsterdam he may opt for a pair of overalls rolled up to expose his hi-top chucks. Even something as simple as a t-shirt is done in so many ways here with some opting for scoop necks, or unfinished hems, or any number of knit materials. Fit is also forward as although many stick with form-fitting clothing, there is a strong presence of looser fits in both genders. Overall to me it feels as though there are more individuals with a sense of creative direction to their choice of attire. No doubt in part a product of being surrounded with a plethora of interesting chains and local boutiques selling styles from all over the world.