Submitted by Shawn Gaines on the 2018 summer session program in France and the Netherlands sponsored by the Department of English …
When I arrived in Amsterdam, I was surprised by the large number of people in the city. The streets were very crowded with people walking. I was also surprised by the large number of people riding bicycles around the city. In the United States, most cities are relatively large, so few people decide to ride on bicycles or mopeds. Most people in America drive cars to and from their place of work. I was also surprised by the large number of people that were fluent in English in the Netherlands. I expected that most people would speak only Dutch, but as it turns out many people learn both English and Dutch. This is different from the United States where most people speak only English. I was also surprised by how safe the city was; Amsterdam is much larger than Baltimore or Washington, but it has far fewer homicides than either city although this is probably because guns are harder to find. The only people I know in the United States that are fluent in two languages either went to private schools where they teach a second language in kindergarten or people whose parents were immigrants. I was also a bit taken aback by the casual attitudes towards alcohol, marijuana and prostitution in Amsterdam. I always believed that America was a relatively liberal country, but compared to the Netherlands it is not. The Dutch people have a more laissez-faire attitude towards things compared to Americans. I look forward to learning more things about European culture in the weeks to come.