Thoughts on Stel's Meulen after being home for almost two weeks

I arrived back home two weeks ago this upcoming Monday.  It has been an adjustment being back here in the US. The events of the past three months have been the start of a monumental life change. Part of that change is my current work as volunteer miller for Stel's Meulen, a windmill built to mill grain into flour in 1851. 

Another thing in my life which dates from the 1850's is the house I just bought. We are not certain of the date the house was built, but it is very early in Vermont's history. The town I'm living in got it's Royal Charter in to be a town in 1763. This means that my house, if it is from the 1850's could have been witnessed by a human being who was alive for both events. 

Brick part is from the 1850's and the wood part from the 1890's

If I find out that the mill and the house were built in the same year that would be cool!

Anyhow. Stel's Meulen is fully operational. It has one grinding stone couple (two stones make a couple). 

This image shows the internal workings of a grain mill.  Stel's Meulen has only one millstone couple. This image shows two. It also shows two moments in the operation of a mill.

• The left, where the mill stone and is connected to the mill's power wheel (het spoorwiel) and
• The right, which shows the top stone (loper in Dutch) being lifted to allow for cleaning of the stones for hygenic reasons or to sharpen the top stone

Those interested in an exhaustive discussion on how this all works, gear ratios, angular velocities, types of stone used, type of carving of the ridges on the stones...we can get into all of that. But that is later and much more in depth.

  This image shows the mill stones of Stel's Meulen. You can see the curved shape of the mill crane in the upper middle of the picture. The "kuip" or "hoop" is wooden sides of the mill stone which keeps the flour inside of the couple stone assembly. Here you can see it is open and the "loper" or runner (the top mill stone which turns) is visible. During normal operation this would be closed with another wooden part of the "kuip".   This "kuip" is made up of four parts. The entire assembly can be taken apart for cleaning, lifting the runner stone for sharpening, etc. 

Stel's Meulen hasn't milled any flour in years, but this will soon change. I have plans to start milling grain there within a year, and hopefully early in that year.

I spoke with one of the instructors at MSMOG (Molen Stichting Midden en Oost Groningen) about milling grain. He said that the mill is all ready to do this and grain is easy to find. The issue, he explained, was that there is noone to take the flour. In order for the flour to be usable by people or animals it needs to be certified as hygenic by the Dutch version of the US Food and Drug Administration (De Nederlands Voedsel- en Warenauthoriteit or NVWA). These are the people who come and make sure that you are making something that is not going to make people sick.

I want to have their stamp of approval. I was warned that this would require that I clean the mill stones and other parts of the milling assemblies each time I was there.  "That's fine with me," I said. "That is what the mill is supposed to do and I plan to have it making flour the way it should."

The miller (Lex van der Gaag) was happy to hear that I am so resolute. We discussed setting up a meeting (virtually for me of course) where we discuss what this would take, involving the Henk Klopping, the other miller instructor and the Board of Directors of the Association (MSMOG). 

We'll have to see how this all works out.

A mill like this would be able to grind about 150 kg of grain into flour per hour (330 lbs)!!! 

It does take quite a bit of time to clean up once you are done, but if that is the requirement to be allowed to make flour with the mill the I am down with that!

  This is where the flour comes down from the floor above (stone floor/steenzolder). Once it has been ground between the mill stones it is pushed to a hole in the bottom of the hoop assembly (kuip) by a piece of leather called the "jager". Jagen is an interesting word. Kind of like driver. It literally means 'to hunt', but that meaning has expanded over the centuries to include 'to push forward' and even 'to egg on'.  It also means 'to drive' as in driving cattle.  In this case we use the meaning 'to push'. This piece of leather which is attached to the top mill stone (de loper) and sweeps the inside of the kuip (hoop assembly) pushing the freshly ground flour to a hole.   This hole feeds into the flour pipe (meelpijp). You can see the meelpijp (prounounced mail-pipe) in the image above. It has a red piece of paper attached to it.  

The flour shoots down this wooden chute and lands in the slanted wooden holder called the meelbak (meal box - prounounced mailbok).  Here the miller has the opportunity to feel the flour for heat and roughness before it goes into a bag. Once it is in the bag it is ready to go to the baker or to people's homes to be baked into bread.

One of the main jobs for the miller, in order to get flour of a good quality is to ensure that the mill stones are the proper distance from one another. Too close and the grain is heated up by the process and begins to bake, ruining the flour. Too far away and the flour is too grainy, not suitable for eating as flour or the products made with flour.

This requires constant attention, as the distance between the stones is also a function of the speed at which the mill is turning. In this sense, the miller is operating a clutch to manage the quality of the flour, not by adjusting the speed of the stones...which is set by the speed the mill is pushed by the wind, but rather by adjusting the space between the stones. 

The mechanics of how this is done is fascinating, but I'll leave that for another blog. 

The Dutch are very much a bread culture. The whole 'gluten-free' fad is not very popular there. You can find lots of gluten-free stuff, but it isn't like that because of a fad diet. There are just many products which historically are not made with wheat flour. Roggebrood or rye bread, is a heavy bread made only with rye and no wheat flour. This is a completely gluten-free bread which dates back to medieval times.

Well. That is the post for this time. 

See you next time.

PS. I am working on setting up guided master tours of Dutch windmills. The Dutch used windmills from the 1300's through to the 1950's as the driving force of their industries. There are over 50 things that mills were used for and many different types of mills. Participants in these tours will get a special, insider look at different types of mills and see how they work. At the end of the week-long tour the participants will get an opportunity to work for a few days on Stel's Meulen, learning how to make flour from grain. How cool is that!?!

Windmills or molens of meulens

Trip to the Netherlands July 2017

Bloemendal, Noord Holland 24July17

This trip to the Netherlands is part of a yearly journey. Though I am an American, my wife was born and grew up in Groningen, a city in the northeast of the country. When we were first married we lived here in the Netherlands. Our children were born here and grew up here for the first six to nine years (depending on which kid we are talking about). 

Our annual journey has a rhythm which is familiar and aspects which are new each time, as with anything. Time changes some things but leaves others alone.  Visiting family and friends, renewing bonds and creating new ones. 

There are quite a few changes in our lives as we come again to the low lands. My mother passed away a little less than two months ago. This has meant that there are quiet moments of reflection and sometimes sadness mixed in to our regular jaunts. I often find myself "remembering" to call her and say hi, but catch myself and realize that there is no-one waiting to hear from me there, as has always been the case. It is the normal way of things, an elderly mother passing yet there are still consequences.

Windmills:

Among the many things we are doing this trip, the main theme of this trip is Windmills. To be honest many of my trips here have windmills as a theme, but this trip in particular is about windmills.

For those of you who don't know me or my journey with these magnificent and majestic machines of yore I'll include a short introduction to my connection to them.

I am a big fan of history and historical buildings. During my ten years as a resident of the Netherlands I got into the history of the place and the people. I started reading books on the past.

To make a short story long, I spent three years of Saturday's at the above pictured sawmill, De Eenhoorn (The Unicorn) in Haarlem (Noord Holland).  

Just before I moved back to the US in 2010 I passed my miller's exam and became a Certified Dutch Windmiller (Gediplomeerde Molenaar).  Unfortunately, I also moved to the US, where there isn't a windmill within 500 miles!  

I was expecting to spend the rest of my life having studied and passed the test to be a windmiller without having a mill to spend time running.

This all changed this past Spring when my monther-in-law found an article in the local paper (Het Dagblad van het Noorden, Groningen, NL).   This news article described how there were windmills in the east of the city of Groningen which didn't have any millers so they were sitting, unused, not turning. In total there were three mills without millers.

I send an email to the Molen Stichting Midden- en Oost- Groningen (Mill Association of Middle and East Groningen).  I offered to be the miller of one of their unmanned mills under the condition that I can only come to Groningen four times per year for a week.  I got a response that they thought this was a good idea and could I send them proof that I was a certified miller.   I sent them a copy of my Miller's Diploma and information about who my instructors were when I was an apprentice.  This was enough. They invited me to come to meet them and see if we could work together. 

This meeting took place on July 16th, 2017. I went to De Groote Poldermolen in Slochteren. At this meeting I met the Chairman, the Secretary, and the two Instructors of the Association (MSMOG - Molenstichting Midden- en Oost- Groningnen).  After a short discussion and some delicious banana creme pie (homemade by the wife of the Secretary), I signed a contract with the Stichting.  All of this was then photographed and appeared as an article in Het Dagblad van de Noorden (https://www.dvhn.nl/groningen/Amerikaan-Chris-West-houdt-Groningse-molens-belangeloos-draaiende-22366296.html).  

A picture from the article where I am shaking the hand of

Reint Huizinga, the Chairman of MSMOG

I learned at this meeting that I am to become the miller of Stel's Meulen in Harkstede in the province of Groningen!  

(https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Stel's+Molen/@53.2143327,6.697959,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x47c9d4a541fce1d5:0xd08cdfefeb3b37ed!8m2!3d53.2143327!4d6.700153?hl=en)

Archived image of Stel's Meulen, Harkstede, Groningen, NL

I have an appointment on the Sunday, July 30th, to "meet" the mill and the current miller who is retiring.  Although I will only be able to be at the mill four weeks a year, I am very much looking forward to being a miller on a real windmill!

Stay tuned for more blogs about my experiences at the mill!

New Nature

New Nature. This is the term that the Dutch use to describe their brand of nature. It is difficult for them because the Netherlands have been intensively lived on for the past 3000 years or so. Every square centimeter has had a purpose and an owner for a very long time. When I first arrived I was very impressed by the neatness of it all. The highways which connect each major city crisscross the country and considering there are many major cities in each province then you can imagine how full of asphalt the country is. Most of the nature areas are painfully close to highways or byways of highways. It does make these parks easily accessible but it also means that there are very few really remote places.

The Dutch have worked very hard to have and maintain their green areas. Many of these areas are only there because they were owned by royalty or the very rich who kept them wild for their own reasons. To hunt. To have 'lots' of wild land when everyone else didn't. From what I have been able to ascertain from the history books, these areas are the remnants of a bygone age. A time when the rich and royal held tracts of land and when this no longer was really acceptable to the larger society then these were transformed into national or regional parks.

The most famous of these parks is the Veluwe. A beautiful and rather wild bit in the heart of the country. It is a mix of coniferous forest with wide swaths of heathland. It boasts quite a lot of wildlife. Ree, a kind of small deer, is quite common here. The wild boars have been getting quite a lot of press of late because it seems there are too many of them. They are starting to become a nuisance and threat to the millions of people who go to the parks for their nature walks.

There are a few national passions which are associated with the national parks or any park for that matter. The Dutch feel it is healthy to go walking in nature at least once a week. Often it is on the weekend when people are off of work. Sometimes it is on Wednesdays, which is the day when most father's take their one day of the week of to be with their kids. A wonderful program of the Dutch government designed to help the culture balance work and family. The Dutch call these nature walks 'wandelen in het bos' or wandering in the forest. Wandelen is a great word which means to stroll, but to stroll without any real destination in mind. Just walking around for the joy of it. They also call it getting a fresh nose. This means that you are getting yourself outside to get some fresh air. It is thought healthy and I must admit that even though it may or may not be truly physically healthy to do this it is certainly good for your psyche to get out of the city or town and be around trees and fields. Wander around the goats and cows. See the many birds which visit or live in the Netherlands.

Oh yes the birds. The Netherlands is a river delta. Three large rivers traverse this land and empty into the sea here. One of the very successful nature restoration programs of the last thirty or forty years is the creation of fields and marshes as habitat for migratory as well as indigenous birds. This river delta is on the stop over list of a multitude of birds, most of whom I had never heard of before I came to live here. There are even times of the year that farmers are discouraged from working their fields in order to allow certain birds to make their nests and brood.

The one thing that the Dutch don't really have, and this hurts them deeply in some secret place, is real nature. They have a term for the type of nature they do have. It is New Nature. This is the recreated natural habitats which they make and which have been very successful at bringing back many species of birds which had disappeared from the landscape. This New Nature is made up of very carefully thought up and laid out nature preserves and areas. The canals and ditches that they dig for these areas are always straight and/or go off at calculated angles to one another which reminds one constantly of the artificiality of it all. The trees are often carefully planned and planted, at least at the start of a New Nature preserve, and are sometimes allowed to 'go wild' after that but are often very carefully observed and cataloged. You don't mess with New Nature. There are very strict rules and laws about the management of these areas...and even a special police corps, the Nature Police (Milieupolitie) who are charged to make sure that things are kept up right.

For instance. It is almost impossible to cut down a tree in the Netherlands. In order to cut down a tree you must first apply for a permit to cut it down. This permit process costs quite a bit of money and allows for the people in the immediate vicinity to have a say about whether this tree is important to them and whether they agree with the proposed felling. When I was planning my move to Vermont in the U.S. I was working as a volunteer wind miller at a saw mill. I told my colleagues at the saw mill that I was allowed to buy a chain saw and to cut down any one of my trees or all of them as I wished without any kind of permit or committee having anything to say about it. They were astonished and a bit jealous.

If you were to be so brash as to decided to cut down a tree you might get the milieupolitie after you and you could be fined, and no small fine either. And who knows. You might even be required to replace the felled tree!

This passion for nature is very Dutch. Even to the point of lunacy. But they are certainly not alone in this. Two years ago there was a huge international uproar about a certain Dutch tree. There is this tree in the back yard at the Anne Frank house. This is a tree which Anne Frank herself looked out upon while she and her family were hiding from the Nazi's. I understand the emotional load Anne Frank has for many in the international community but the tree was old and was falling down. At first a tree doctor inspected the tree and said,'Well you know it is an old tree for that sort and it is in danger of falling down on the people who live in the area, it should be removed.' So there goes the Museum, going through all of the proper procedures to get the permit to have this tree removed and what should happen? The international press heard that the Anne Frank tree was going to be cut down. It sounded in the press as if this was a callous attack on Anne Frank's memory itself. There were more inches of story on this tree than on some stories of actual import. In the end the Museum stopped the process to have the tree removed and some international tree expert was brought it to make a special brace to hold the tree up so that future generations could get to see the tree that Anne Frank had stared at in her isolation. In my opinion absolute madness! It seems to me that these people are just trying to save Anne Frank herself in some twisted way. If the tree is a danger then cut it down. Follow the right procedure and just get rid of the thing. It is not any kind of attack on her memory to do this. The reaction of the international community to this was just hysterical!

Another issue concerning New Nature and the Dutch tree policy. Then Netherlands is a small country but quite wealthy. Since medieval times the Dutch have been importing their lumber because there just wasn't enough in Holland to fulfill the need that the country had. This is a trend which has continued to this day. Now, I understand that all peoples and countries have their hypocrisies but one of the current one for the Dutch is the incessant desire to have things made of wood and at the same time not being willing to use their own trees to fulfill this consumer driven desire. It is a Dutch dream to have a small garden with a wooden fence and a small wooden potting shed. So they import wood from everywhere else except for in Holland itself, and put it outside to rot in the rainy weather. After five or so years, if they don't paint their fences, which many don't because it looks nicer as real wood, these fences are all rotted and need to be replaced thus more wood is imported, etc. etc. etc.

In my travels I came into contact with a civil engineer who designed and installed windows and conservatories. During one of our conversations he told me that every window which is made of wood in the Netherlands is made of tropical hard wood. Wood out of the rain forest. Most windows in Holland are made of wood. He said that his fellow engineers and window makers used this type of wood because they believe it is better against the wet Dutch weather. Humbug he said. He had renovated hundreds of houses in which the window sills and sashes were made of pine (a very cheap and renewable type of wood) which were more than one hundred years old! He was embarrassed by the fact that the Dutch government bowed to the political will of these users of tropical hard wood by refusing to place a ban on the import of these woods. There are perfectly good alternatives which will last just as long and are logged and harvested in responsible ways.

I am 100% behind this engineer who feels the pain of the hypocrisy of this policy. A government which on the one hand makes it illegal and almost impossible to cut down a tree in your own back yard, is up in arms about the dwindling rain forests in the world and at the same time is unwilling to ban the import of these hardwoods because of economic pressures which are actually phantom in nature.

America isn't any better. That is for sure. We are just as hypocritical in many ways and on many fronts but it does not make this situation in the Netherlands any less egregious.

In the end the Dutch love their nature. They love going out into it. Designing it if it isn't there and supporting those who want to take care of and expand it. Yet at the same time they are caught in the same conundrums of any modern society trying to balance their conscience with their desires.

Finally I will relate one story that I heard that I just loved when I heard it. It is an idea which was put forward by a fellow I know, Arjen Mulder. He is a biologist and a writer who has quite a following in the Netherlands. He suggests that if the Dutch really want to get back to nature then everyone in the country should move to Limburg, the southern most province. There they should build one big city in which to live and let the rest of the country return to a natural state. It would be a very crowded city but the rest of the country would be something the Dutch soul yearns for...Real Nature.

Well what a day!

It is now the 18th of June 2010. We are 18 days from take off. That is a funny coincidence. 18 and 18. I am certain that there is a culture somewhere which uses this as some sign of significance. Some group of people who make up the wondrous tapestry of humanity.

Today I got to revel in one of my favorite rituals. The Parting. It is one of my favorite rituals not because I am leaving or because I am happy to be out of this place. That is not it at all. It is a favorite because you get a moment to look back at what you have done in a particular part of your life and recognize its importance. Its impact on your life.

'Een dag van wardering,' as the Dutch would put it. 'A day of showing someone's worth.' This is one of those many moments in Dutch where a single word can only be translated with many other words. Dutch has many beautiful sayings and simple little words which are extremely full of meaning. I will go into some more of them in later entries.

So today was the day when I was given a parting party. Leaving party. My good friends and colleague Ton Meulemans (from Anton) went to great lengths and pains to set up and throw a party for me. I was extremely touched.

I have worked, for the past six years, at the local technical college (Bachelor's degree level) teaching technical drawing and three dimensional drawing to engineering students. I have enjoyed this work very much and had a very good working environment. I got to interact and influence young Dutch students between the ages of 18 and 25 or so. I put great a bit of effort and time into this. I took it very seriously as well. My work there as only part time because I am also a stay-at-home-dad. I could teach between the hours of 8.30 am and 2.30 pm. I had to be at the school at 3.00 pm to pick the kids up and be with them for the rest of the day.

This did put rather strict limits on the times I could teach. Yet this did not stop my boss from asking me if I would like to take the job on permanently. This was about four years ago. I had to turn them down because I was also doing other work. Work which was also important. I had just graduated as a Mechanical Engineer and wanted to try to work in the branch of this field which interested me most, sustainable technology. I did stay on in a part-time capacity. This suited my boss and me so well that I would probably still be doing it if we were going to stay in the Netherlands.

About a year and a half ago my boss, Jan Meijer (John Mower), hired a new guy to work with me. This was Ton Meulemans. Ton had worked as an instrument designer/builder at the local academic hospital. He had worked there for 30 years but his department had be dissolved. Some manager had decided that it would be better for the hospital (cheaper) if the work done by Ton's group was outsourced. They fired 30 of the 34 members of the team. Glassblowers, designers, technicians, instrument builders, etc. Ton tells the story of the dismantling of his department with a great deal of distaste in his mouth. After 30 years they had developed into a group which was at the top of their level. Designing new medical instruments in association with the doctors/professors at the hospital. Ton was involved in projects which have changed modern medicine...but that all changed.

Jan Meijer was visiting Ton's department, looking for used milling machines, lathes, etc. for the school. Jan is the manager of the technical training department at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. While Jan was there he got to talking with Ton and soon had convinced Ton to come down to the school and take a look around. In no time Ton had agreed to come and teach technical drawing as well as to teach milling, lathing and other metal and plastic working skills.

Now Ton is what my wife Anita calls a Real Amsterdamer. This is someone who is born and raised in Amsterdam. But not just in Amsterdam but in one of the working class neighborhoods of the inner and older part of Amsterdam. In this case it is the Jordaan. The Jordaan is one of the oldest working class neighborhoods in Amsterdam. It was built in the early 1600's in response to the need for housing for the working class. Amsterdam had just built three large canals around the original medieval center of the city but it was built by the rich and powerful of the city. The poor were living a wretched existence in the streets and old rotten core of the city. They were forced to live wherever they could including the fields around the city walls. So the city, put under considerable pressure by the religious leaders of some of the humanitarian congregations built the Jordaan to house them.

Until the 1990's it was still very much a working class neighborhood. Ton grew up there in the 1950's and 60's when it was a rough and tumble place. He had it rough as a kid and has the tales to tell about it too. Although it is mostly lost on my Dutch, everyone I know who knows Ton tell of how wonderful his Dutch is. Real Amsterdams. Like Johan Cruiff, the legendary Dutch soccar guru. They both grew up in the same time and in the same sort of neighborhood.

The Dutch educational system is set up in such a way that you are streamed into different levels of education based on test scores at quite an early age. At 11 you get tested and this decides whether you go to a Lower Technical School, to learn to be a hair dresser or something like that; or a Middle Technical School where you learned or automobile mechanic or a plumber, etc.; or a Higher Technical School where you could get a Bachelor's in engineering or airplane piloting or journalism, and finally the highest where you go to a university and end up with a Masters degree. There are different types of high schools, each is designed to get you prepared for one of these post-high school educational institutions. This was done, in part, because the Netherlands as a country only needed so many scientists and needed others people to be the plumbers and street sweepers and hair dressers and pilots, etc. It is a system which has changed many times in the past 50 or so years, but has this type of streaming as one of its basic tenets. One of the problems that this system has is that people from the lower classes often end up being streamed into the lower technical schools. They become the street sweepers and the hair dressers, etc.

Ton had other ideas about this. He was a smart kid who worked very hard and also had the good fortune of being noticed by someone who could help him to get further than his background would normally allow. He ended up getting through the lower technical school and then through the middle technical school and then was accepted at a special school for medical instrument designers/builders. This became then Ton's career. He even won the National Prize for Insturmenten Makers (Instrument Makers) and went to Portugal to represent the Netherlands in the European finals. He didn't win but did come out in the top of his group. So this guy has been through a lot and has come very far from where he started and his origins are very evident in how he is as a person.

Ton is a very genuine person. He shoots straight from the hip. You always get 100% un-adulterated Ton. You never have to wonder what he thinks about something because he will tell you and often tells you before you need to ask. He is also a very loyal friend. He happens to live just around the corner from me. I only regret that we got to know each other so late in my Dutch Experience. I would have loved to have been able to spend more time with him, doing stuff together.

For me Ton is also one of a kind. The party he had organized for me was just another sign of his specialness.

After I met Ton we started spending time together at work. He was to attend my classes to get a feeling for how I taught and to get to learn about the types of things we needed to teach the students to get them up to the proper level for their course of study. He was very quick to give me compliments on how I teach. He was impressed by my use of theatrics to keep the students attentive in the class. Humor is sometimes the best way to see who is awake in your class. Tell a joke or make a funny comment to yourself and the people who are laughing (or moaning) are with you. The others are asleep with there eyes open.

As the time went on Ton and I became closer friends. As I said he lives around the corner from our house in Amsterdam. We both love to play tennis. When the weather was right and the sky was light late enough we would play together. He teaching me how to better my game because he was and remains so much better at tennis than I am. It never did bother me that he was better. He is also a good teacher. I learned quite a bit about tennis from him. About the body mechanics. He always beat me, but I always learned something.

So. After two years working together and becoming friends it gets round time for me to move back to the US. Ton has turned into my best friend here in Amsterdam. We see one another almost every day at work and still do things some evenings too. When his wife is out of town he comes to our house at least a few evenings to eat dinner with us. The kids love him and it is clear that he loves the kids too. Anita always says that he doesn't get us as a family. We are messy and loud and many other things that just don't fit into his idea of how it should be. But what is wonderful about Ton is that he sees it, recognizes it, mentions it and then against all odds he appreciates it. Yeah the kids are loud and run around and make a mess, but they are great people who are interesting and funny and just a joy to be around. He gets that.

It is thus time for the Parting Party or the Farewell Party at work. Now this is something that Ton has organized. It is not something that we commonly do at our work. This is new. My boss and the other guys at work would be fine if I just came around and shook everyone's hand one last time. Ton would have nothing with that. He insisted that we do a whole party with music and chips and sausage (worst) and beer and wine and soda and that sort of thing. It included, and needed to include a speech about me by him and a present.

It is the 18th of June now. Anita and I go to my work, the Hogeschool van Amsterdam at Amstel Station. We arrive a bit early and I take her around to meet some of the people. People who I would like to say goodbye to but I am rather certain that they wouldn't be at the party later. Then we go downstairs to the -1 (as we call it). Our department is in the basement of the school. It is large, almost the entire basement and has, just to mention it, the worst cell phone reception you could imagine.

We get down there and I see some colleagues. Say hi, introduce Anita to them and then we run into Ton. "Oh," says Ton. "You guys are a bit early, don't go in there just yet go and take a walk and come back in a few." This we did I showed Anita the whole department and introduced her to all of my colleagues. Then it was getting round the time when the whole bash should begin. We are shuttled into a room where we sit and drink and eat and talk for a bit. I show the whole group the photos of the new house and also the location using google maps. It is great fun. Then we talk more amongst ourselves. Eat more food (I distinctly remember the salami wrapped pickles). Then Ton says it is time to make the speeches. Firstly my boss, Jan Meijer stands up and says three words which in effect are to say that Ton is going to give the speech for the whole department.

Ton turns the music down and then gives his speech. I am still stunned. The way he described our friendship and our working relationship got me all choked up. He said that he came from an entirely different career to learn about teaching and that I had shown him that you didn't have to become some authoritarian teacher, didn't have to mimic that image of the teacher that he had in his mind. I had shown him a different path to teaching where it was fun and engaging for the students. I was so proud that I had gotten to work with someone who got me, really got me and appreciated me for the things that I think I give in my lessons and in life in general. It was really moving for me.

He went on to say that he thought it was a shame that I was going. No, he said, it is not a shame it just sucks!

Here was this wonderful man, baring himself before this group of stoic working class guys. He was getting choked up. I started to tear up. It was quite the moment. I saw just how much Ton cared for me. Wow it was quite something.

Then, Ton turned and said it was time for the present. Firstly he gave some flowers to Anita. Then he talked about the journey of getting me this gift. I thought that they had probably made something for me with some of the computer aided manufacturing machines we have there in the shop. A pencil holder or paper weight with my name or something like that. But Ton was having none of that. He was told a story of how I was when I shared with them all my experience taking a blacksmithing course the previous spring. How I showed them all the stuff I was making and how enthused I related my experience there. I was trying to relate his story to the pencil holder or paperweight. Then he called me up and from under a desk he produced...now get this... an ANVIL!!! No joke. They had all pooled together and bought me a 100 kg anvil! No way. I was speechless. Literally. Which for me is quite an accomplishment. I could not believe that Ton had actually gone and gotten me an anvil.

Ton had been joking for the past six months that he was going to give me this old beat up anvil that we have in the shop there. I always laughed and asked how I would get it to America. Now here he had actually gone and found an anvil as a present for me! I was bowled over. Couldn't believe it. Still can't. This is like someone giving you a present and you say no way. A better present couldn't exist. This is too beautiful to be true. I was so deeply touched. So unbelievably moved that Ton not only got me, completely, but went to great expense and trouble to arrange for this gift. And on the front of the anvil is a plaque which is a plaque of appreciation from the department for my years of hard work.

Oh man. I couldn't have asked for a better gift or a better friend. Ton, you are one of the best things I have experienced here in the Netherlands and I will sorely miss you.

I will be back to visit and you will come to visit us and help build something there in America, but I will always look back on these days with great joy and thanks that we had the opportunity to become friends.

I wish this kind of friendship on all of you!

Misconceptions that the Dutch Have about the US part 1

One of the things that I have constantly been confronted with while being a foreigner in the Netherlands is what the Dutch think about America and Americans. The Dutch are always talking about what Americans think about them. The only thing that Americans know about the Dutch is tulips, windmills, the red light districts and soft drugs (marijuana). Americans have learned about these things through the media. Movies and news reports about the Netherlands. Stories like Hans Brinker the boy from Spaarndam who put his finger in the dyke to stop a leak and saved the village.

It is sadly true that most Americans would be hard put to locate the Netherlands on a map if shown one. It is also sadly true that the Dutch in this manner are also quite hypocritical (by the way it is a normal human condition to be a hypocrite). Most of what the Dutch know about America has been gleaned from movies, news and other cultural media (music, music videos, tv shows, etc.) . It can't be any other way. This is the only contact that most Dutch people have with America.

It is funny that while the Dutch think they know all about America from the exposure they have had through the media, they look smugly down on Americans who think they something about the Netherlands through their exposure to similar media.

I have been a member of Dutch society for more than nine years now. I have learned to speak Dutch fluently. Studied engineering in Dutch and taught at college level in Dutch. My Dutch is pretty good. Not great but pretty good. The Dutch are not shy about letting you know what they think about your culture. In contrast they are also more than likely to be quite defensive about their own society.

So here goes my attempt at exposing some of the myths that the average Dutch person has about the US.

- Americans are so (fill in the blank).

I often hear from friends, acquaintences and total strangers that Americans are so ... . This space can be filled with nice adjectives but usually the adjectives they use are less complimentary.

There is nothing wrong with having opinions about a group of people but you need to understand the scope of your statements before you say them.

America is enormous when compared to the Netherlands. The Dutch are very quick to ascribe any number of attributes to all Americans without batting an eyelash. This is one of the assumptions that I try to break through when I talk to my students and others. I always say that you need to look at America like you look at Europe. That's it. America is Europe but with one common language. It seems like a strange association to make but it is true.

So the Dutch paint all Americans (300 million of us) with one brush stroke. Yet if you start to talk to the Dutch about their own ideas about people from different provinces or even towns you get quite strong opinions.

For instance. Many Dutch people think that the (white) Dutch people from the town of Den Haag (The Hague) are unfriendly and money pinching. That people from "De Achterhoek", an eastern Dutch area which boarders on Germany, are stupid and slow. There are even opinions that people have about various neighborhoods in certain cities.

So there are specific, individual characteristics for all sorts of Dutch communities, yet all Americans are fat, stupid, right-winged, war mongering, capitalists, who don't know how to ride bikes.

America, for your information, is a complex collection of states, each with their own history, and yes I know it is a short lived history, but still a history. That history, who settled the place and who has moved there since it was settled are very important to the character of the state. Utah for instance was settled by Mormon fanatics. There is a very distinct flavor to Utah. There are even distinctions within Utah (believe it or not). It is a state the size of Great Briton (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all rolled up in one). Yet with a population of 2,7 million. The population density is 10.5 per square kilometer. The population density in the Netherlands is 400 per square kilometer.

Or California or Chicago or New Orleans or Atlanta or keep on naming cities and states and areas and you get vastly different people with very different points of view about lots of different issues.

- Americans don't know how to ride a bike.

That last one is of great importance. The Dutch are convinced that they are the only people in the world who really ride bikes. Those sloppy Americans only pretend to ride bikes. They don't really know that much about it. That is why they need to ride with a safety helmet on. Because they don't know how to operate this complex machine safely enough to ensure their own heads won't be bashed in.

I remember quite clearly the first time I went bike riding with my wife, Anita. We were in this National Forest (the only one really) called the Veluwe. It is a sand dune with lots of nice woods and stuff. There is a famous museum in the middle of this park and we went there to see it. Since the park itself is a beautiful thing to see we decided to park on the edge of the park and use the free bikes which the park provides and ride to the museum that way.

Now. Just for your information I got my first bike when I was 3. I was riding without training wheels when I was 4. I was riding my bike to and from school from the age of seven. I had, in my garage, a shop where I would take bikes that other people threw out in the garbage and build my own super bikes. Which I rode with pleasure throughout my neighborhood. For hours a day. For my entire childhood!

Now. Here we are in the Veluwe, Anita and I. We get these clumsy one speed bikes with solid tires and we get going along a nice path towards the museum. Anita now feels the need to instruct me on how to ride a bike. Uh sorry. I mean how to ride a bike "properly." Now I love my wife and all. But this was just a bit much for me. It was kind of like some one telling you how to walk when you first take a stroll with them. You are 36 and still, since you don't come from a culture that "takes country walks" your faithful companion tells you about the ol' one-foot-in- front-of-the-other strategy.

I have to admit. The Dutch are just crazy about bikes. In the late 19th century, when the bike was first making its debut, a society was set up called the ANWB or General Netherlands Bike-Riders Union. This group was one of the most influential public lobbying groups in the early years of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They still are. In the 1880's they raised money and built a series of bike paths - roads which provided a proper riding surface. Before that there were no hardened roads which were suitable for bikes. This group was responsible for the modernization of the Dutch road network from a rural series of dirt roads to an organized system of interconnected roads. At the cross points of these roads they set up signs. The most famous is the 'Mushroom,' which is a squat polished concrete square with beveled top edges. On these mushrooms is listed the various possible destinations and the distances. Early road signs. As the car was introduced the ANWB transformed it the Dutch version of the American Automobile Association.

So with such an illustrious history you might understand that the Dutch are quite proud of their bikes and bike paths. It is said, and rightly so, that you can ride your bike on bike-only roads from the very northern point of the country to the southernmost point. In Holland you have more types of morning and afternoon traffic. A large number of Dutch commuters use their bikes to get to and from work. The central train stations have bike parking garages which are almost always completely full.

Thus you can give the Dutch a break for thinking that they have a monopoly on all things bike. Yet it is this type of national pride-driven myopia that is the root of their misunderstanding. Like, for instance, Wilbur and Orville Wright, inventors of the airplane, were...you guessed it they were bike repair shop workers. They owned a bike repair shop in Dayton, Ohio.

It will amaze and astonish Dutch readers to know that there are some American cities which have embraced the idea of bike commuting. Some cities in Arizona have a full system of bike paths very similar to the Dutch model, but without the mushrooms.

- Dutchie is going on vacation to the US. He has two weeks and wants to see as much as he can. So he asks me what I would recommend. This has happened to me more than once.

Two weeks I say. Well you can't see very much in that time. What were your plans? Dutchie gives me a list of things. NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, LA and maybe Seattle. Whoooa. Hold on here Nellie! Let's get some perspective.

The Netherlands is a small country. It is a bit less than twice the size of New Jersey. If you get into a car and ride straight in any direction within three hours you are in a different country. Often you are in another country in much less time than that. Dutch people are used to short trips of one to two hours. Which for them seem very, very long. Just for some perspective.

Now we have our friend Dutchie who is hoping to "see" America in two weeks. Thank goodness for Google maps. It gives you a great tool for describing the size of various parts of the world. I call up the Google maps site and put in New York City and Chicago, just for starters. You CAN get there in 12 hours and 45 minutes if you drive the whole way through and don't stop to look at any of the gorgeous things you will be passing on your way. The rental car is cheap enough and compared to Europe, the gas prices are ridiculously low. Yet we are talking about 13 hours of driving! For an American is this a long trip, but not unheard of. In Europe it would be like driving from the Netherlands to Barcelona. In SPAIN! Or Warsaw in Poland. And this is just one of Dutchie's destinations! Never mind actually doing stuff once he gets there.

Almost invariably I have to disappoint our friend and tell him to choose a smaller list of desired destinations or fly the whole way (which is outrageously expensive!).

- America is filled with Crazy Religious people who hate blacks and carry guns.

Well yes. I cannot deny that this is true about the US. It is not the only kind of people that the US is filled with but it is, in part true. We need to look at history to understand a bit about the founding of the US and the part that the Dutch played in it. Yes the Dutch are not innocent in this story.

When the US was first being settled Europe was embroiled in a savage and horrifically violent schism. The protestant church, which had shown its face in the 16th century had become a real threat to the powers that be, the catholic church. The 30 years war and the 80 years war were both, in part, wars about religious freedom and dominance. In England there had been an official protestant church (the CoE) for some time. Yet even within this protestant community there were factions. This was also true in the Netherlands, Germany, etc. Some of these factions advocated extremely radical (often violent) changes in political systems. These groups, among others the Anabaptists, were outlawed after they seized a number of cities (including Munster in Germany). The ruling classes all over Europe were petrified of these types of groups. All over similar groups who advocated more democratic or theocratic ideals were outlawed. One of these groups was the Pilgrims. They were an English group who advocated the setting up of a new Eden in which the rich and royal were no longer on the top of the food chain. The king outlawed them. Two groups of Pilgrims moved to the Netherlands to escape this persecution One to Leiden and one to Amsterdam. They stayed here for a nine years before they were picked up by the Mayflower on it's way to Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. The years in which the Pilgrims were protected in the Netherlands is significant in the history of the US. Here in the Netherlands they were free to propagate their beliefs and practice freely.

Now the Pilgrims are just one of any number of crazy Christians who left, fled or were kicked out of Europe in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. This migration was important to the makeup of modern day US politics and religion .

Yes we have lots of crazy religious fanatics in the US. But they came from here!

- The US is much more REAL than the Netherlands.

By real the Dutch usually mean deprived and depraved. One of the reasons that many Dutch people go to places like New York City is to experience the dregs of society. My nephew once came to visit us while we still lived in NYC. One of the things he was interested in as a young 13 year old Dutch teenager was graffiti. He lived in Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands (south of the three big rivers). He was used to the Dutch way of dealing with graffiti. There is lots of illegal graffiti in the Netherlands but it is really frowned upon (just like in the US). The difference between the two countries is that in Eindhoven, for instance, the local government has tried to legitimize graffiti by making legal places where the artists can showcase their work. Legal graffiti. If you get caught making illegal graffiti you will get into trouble. Dutch trouble (which is not very big trouble). In contrast to in NYC where graffiti is a plague. Where the cops for the most part don't even stop kids who are spraying graffiti in forgotten and rotting neighborhoods. As long as it isn't in the richer neighborhoods who cares?

And there is the crux of it. The Dutch want to come see this wild art. This art which is inspired by true depression and poverty. Not like the nice white Dutch graffiti which is born out of a kind of awe and appreciation of the REALNESS of the inner city graffiti of the US. The Dutch kids 'wish' they had access to that kind of passion. The kind of drive that a life of deprivation offers...yet without the actual pain of poverty and racism, etc.

That is why we took the 7 train into Queens to a well known graffiti building just on the other side of the river. We got out. It was cold. First week of January. We strolled around this old factory building that had been taken over by artists, themselves college graduates who have moved to the forgotten industrial areas to find inspiration and cheap studio space.

The walls of the factory were coved in graffiti. The elevated train which ran along the factory was crumbling and falling apart and was, of course, covered in graffiti in places that makes you wonder how on earth the artist got there to paint it.

Sietse, my nephew, took lots of pictures that day. He recognized many artists. We went to a dumpy diner near the subway stop and had some hot chocolate. He was very excited about our expedition into the belly of the beast. It was day time. The sun was shining. The diner was full of the lunch hour crowd. Extremely overweight workers with slimy clothes and dirty hands stuffing their faces with saturated animal fat and potatoes. Not all of them fat...not all of them slimy...but all of them looking trapped in their lives. Not especially happy. Or protected from the vagaries of life, the way that poor people (white Dutch) are protected in the Netherlands. This is REAL life. Where the hard realities grind you down and form the inspiration for the art form we had come to see.

The grime is an important part of the REAL life experience for the Dutch tourist to a big city. Just like the huge and seemingly unending beauty and spectacle of the nature in the US.

More Later

This blog is going to be a series of my impressions of the country and the people of the Netherlands, often called Holland. These impressions will then be formulated into a series of chapters and hopefully later into a boo

Through the nine years of living and working in the lowlands of the Rhine basin I have seen and done things that few foreigners who live here ever do. I have completely immersed myself in he Dutch culture and history to a level which I have not often seen. My wife, who is Dutch, describes me as "more Dutch than the Dutch." I hope my special perspective can give some insight into both the Dutch psyche and the misconceptions the world has about the Dutch and vice versa.

I have always been a people watcher. Often the wallflower at a party. Enjoying the spectacle which lay before me. I have always attributed this personality trait as having been greatly influenced by my second mom...the TV. (look for my poem 'My TV is dead'). This propensity towards voyeurism had some part in my choosing to study Cultural Anthropology for my first Bachelor's. It involved watching people, ascertaining things about their interactions and analyzing these into helpful descriptions and theories about the culture or clash thereof.

It is one of my theories of life that when people tell a tale of some happening in their life they create a script. Maybe not the first time. But certainly by the second time of the telling the teller has edited it to flow better. Has chosen to embellish it or shorten it for the audience or for the circumstances or as a reaction to your audience's reaction to your previous telling. You tell a story about a birth differently at work than to your sibling, for instance. Or in a short subway ride than in your living room.

During the repetitions of this tale the narrative thread becomes clearer. The teller builds blocks of the tale which can be easily added or removed from the text to suit the context of the audience (time, place, make-up) until the story, which began as a explanation of a real-life occurrence is transformed into a play of sorts. A script which you act out when told.

I have known this for a long time. It is not a new idea, but it is the basis of the chapters of this book. Stories that are based on real happenings which have been crafted into playlettes.

This process was never more clear to me than when I was teaching Technical Drawing to budding engineers at the local technical college. I would give the same lesson up to twelve times in a week to different groups of students. I developed a script which I freely edited, kept jovial and cordial but serious. Whenever a student would attend the same lesson twice I would feel a bit ingenuous, as if they were seeing behind the curtains of my stage and noticing that my lesson was not spontaneous but a carefully crafted play. The students laughed where I have planned that they should laugh, etc. Once you see the bag of tricks the whole thing feels kind of fake. Yet I assure you that this process is natural and the crafting of a good story is not a clever form of lying or deceit, but a necessary part of how humans communicate their information to many people over time. The tales I will tell here are true and the impressions I take away from it are honest, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent (grin).

That is this the process which, over the years have yielded the grist for this story-mill. I hope it will be worth reading for you and offer food for thought. In the end the opinions are my opinions and not fact, but I am actually kind of good at this watching stuff thing and maybe, just maybe, through my watching, thinking and telling, I have brushed upon the truth.

Christopher D. West

Amsterdam, 9 May 2010