Doing the Ambassadors Research Program: Bastiaan van de Lagemaat (The Netherlands)
Doing the Ambassadors Research Program: Bastiaan van de Lagemaat (The Netherlands)
Before I went home, I started thinking about cultural objects that I could buy to take to the US.
I made a huge mind map with all the topics involving the Netherlands that are worth sharing – it turned out to be so large that I could not possibly cover all topics included!
So I started to make a selection of topics that I wanted to cover during my presentations. That made it so much easier to decide what to buy!
However, buying cultural objects was still not the easiest thing to do – Dutch culture and American culture are similar in many respects. Both are Western, modern, mostly Christian and individualistic. However, subtle differences exist, and I tried to buy items that express those differences.
… I bought several books; some written by foreigners, some by Dutchmen. It was interesting to look at the Dutch character through different perspectives….
It was very interesting to visit some tourist highlights of the country. I had never been to the places where tourists go, other than Amsterdam.
I went to traditional fishermen’s villages. I visited windmills. I went to cheese producing villages. I went to the world famous madurodam. I went to different old Dutch cities. I took a canal cruise. I climbed the highest church tower in my city. I looked at things foreigners are interested in.
At some of these places, I was treated like a foreigner – people spoke Dutch to me, and tried to rip me off by offering over-priced souvenirs.
To me, it is so normal to be surrounded by buildings which are over 400 years old, to have canals everywhere, to live below sea level. Now I was doing research, I re-examined these things and learned to re-appreciate them.