Dutch Advertisement

In relation with the coming Football World Cup, this advertisement, from the well-known beer brand Heineken, reflects some customs of the Netherlands. 

The advertisement shows a Dutch Floats in the Brazilian Carnival that sums the Orange Dutch fever to everybody! How do they do that? With the Heineken beer, produces in Amsterdam, one of the bigger element of the Dutch culture. The setting with the decor, the music, the clothes, and other details reflects the Dutch culture too. 

This advertisement says to people to support the Dutch team at the Football World Cup in Brazil consuming Heineken beer, a supporter and an element of the Dutch culture too!

The vices of Amsterdam (free subject)

The city of Amsterdam is knew for some of it vices. If I just want to resume it in this article I will talk about Coffee Shops, the Red District and the night life : music in Amsterdam. 

First the huge reputation of the city : Coffee Shops 

Coffee Shops are numerous in the city. Most of the young tourist are here for that : you can buy and smoke some marijuana in these bars. 

Smoking marijuana is not really on the habits of Dutch people. It is most a tourist activity. Near Centraal station, the railway station where everybody arrive in Amsterdam, you can find a lot of these Coffee Shops, juste to catch tourist that wanted to smoke directly when they arrived.

Moreover, you can't smoke marijuana in the street, Dutch don't like it. 

You also have famous Coffee Shops like the Dampking that is famous because a scene in Ocean Twelve with Brad Pitt. Other are famous because of their theme and design. 

Then you can find in Amsterdam, near Centraal Station again, and in the heart of the city the Red District. A touristic attraction (or not), because it is a singular place in the world. You are walking in a common beautiful street in the city with a waterway in the middle, but you have prostitutes in windows on your both sides. Here the prostitution is regulated, and it seems to work good!

Finally, the night life in Amsterdam is very present. A lot of discos are open all week long. A lot of artist comes to Amsterdam to play in huge discos where thousands of people come to see theme. 

A lot of people live in Amsterdam or near the city and moreover there is a lot of tourism, so discos and concert place are always full of people, some of theme more local people and sometimes people from all the world! 

The most famous are the Paradisio, a concert place where you can hear very different kind of music, and its particularity is that is was a church! After you can find a lot of huge warehouse develop in discos, where most of the time you can listen electronic music, for example the Trouw, that was a newspaper local, the best disco for people, where we always can listen very good electronic Dj's. This kind of disco is the most widespread. 

Amsterdam is kwew for its party at night to listen good music and also in the day because you can find a lot of open air when the sun is coming. 

The only problem of parties in Amsterdam is that entrances are always expensive, night and day! 

Trouw Amsterdam 

Geopolitics

The Netherlands is today leading by the King Willem-Alexander since the 30 April of 2013.

The country is knew for its neutrality in foreign relationship. It doesn't have conflict or tensions with other countries nor internal conflicts.

The Parliament of the Netherlands, the Hague. 

The capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam but all the institutions are situated in the Hague, like the Parliament (picture), the Dutch government, the Supreme Court and the Council of State. The Hague is the politic capital of the country.

Social Rituals

To start this article, I will talk you about some symbols of The Netherlands or from Amsterdam. Then, the traditions and habits of people here, some that I see myself.

The orange is the National color of The Netherlands.

The tulip is an other symbol the The Netherlands. In the center of Amsterdam we can find the flower market, where there is a huge quantity of different flowers, carnivorous plant, and also cannabis seed!

In all tourism shop you can find the wooden shoe, or representation of mill, one of the symbol of the country.

The Stroopwafel, a "Dutch Caramel Syrup Cookies" is the local cake, that you can find everywhere.

The King's Day is celebrated on Saturday, 26 April 2014. First of all, it was the Queen's Day that was celebrating the birthday of the Queen Wilhelmina, for the first time the 31 August of 1885. After the official day became the 27 April of each year, but it use to be celebrating on the last Sunday of the month. This year it will be the first King's Day because of the recent inauguration of the King Willem-Alexander.

During this day, all the city is celebrating! We can see citywide street sale and party during night and day, on the street and on the canals. I look forward to participate to this celebration!

The architecture of the city is really different from other countries. The buildings are skinny, not very upstanding, sometimes on the right, on the left, frontward, but there is not a lot of monumental construction as we can see in other capitals or cities. The city is cross by a lot of little waterways were boats navigates, and where we can see a lot of houses on the water. Actually Amsterdam don't have enough housing for all people, that's why they create many "houseboats" on the waterways.

It is pleasant to live in Amsterdam because the city is not compress with all the water, you can breathe and most of the waterways are very calm. We also find a lot of natural spaces.

There are several museum, of art, history, like Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum or Anne Frank House, there is a lot of things to visit in the city.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city!

BIKES! How visit Amsterdam without see this overcrowding of bike!

The Netherlands is a straight country, it is easy to move by bike because there is no relief. Moreover it is good for the environment, you don't see a lot of cars, only bike and common transports as bus or tram. You can not realize the magnitude of bikes before you come in Amsterdam!

Of course when you live here you must have a bike, it is really easy to find, on the internet, on many shops, it is a good substitute to the common transport, that are very very expensive.  The first time I took my bike in the center I was afraid because you are in Amsterdam with you bike like you are in Paris with you car! I explain myself : people by bike drive very fast, impatient, you can't drive everywhere (I was one time arrested by the police because I was not on the bike area!), and it is very difficult to find a place on the bike park! Be aware of the bike areas is you are walking!

The first crime of the country is the bike steel!

I could personally see that people here drink a lot of beer!

The famous Heineken is actually produce near Amsterdam, you can also visit the Heineken museum, a really nice "experience", as they say. You learn how the beer is made, the different ingredients, steps, you learn how to savor a drink of beer, you also discover the history of the brand, and all that in a very good atmosphere, with a lot of activities.

In the supermarket you can't buy strong alcohol but only beer and wine. If you return your empty bottles of beer, the supermarket return you money for the recycling!

Even in bars and disco, people drink almost only beer.

Fast food and take away food are very present in the city. I don't see a lot of very good restaurant, like in France for example, but a lot of various fast food. The innovative one is FEBO, where the food is in a little locker behind a window, and you just have to put your money and take your food! They do some speciality like a kind of Dutch croquette.

People in Amsterdam are very nice. First of all they speak rally good english so it is easier for foreigners because the Dutch is a difficult language. After, they are always smiling, not stressed, they will be happy to help you if you need, and nobody annoyed you! You feel integrate, comfortable and in security!

Of course when we speak of Amsterdam people think of all the vice of the city : the Red Light District where there is the prostitution, The Coffeeshops where you can smoke marijuana and eat some space cake or the music life, with huge disco and international electronic DJ's, but also awesome open air…

But even if it is a part of the local culture I would like to talk about this in an other article, that will be my "free subject", because these three topics are very interesting for the difference that they afford to the city of Amsterdam.

Inholland University Of Applied Sciences

Inholland is a university located in several cities of the Netherlands which contains approximatively 32.000 students. 

The university teach many different subjects, so you can learn business, health or tourism.

During this semester we are around 30 Erasmus students. In this group we can see different nationalities : French, Spanish, Canadian, German, Finland, Chinese, Mexican, Turkish, etc.

We can find really different personality and different culture, and this mix make an amazing group, with special people very interesting, nice and funny. 

Most of them are bilingual, it was first difficult to understand everyone because of the different accents, but I think it is the best way to improve my linguistic skills. 

When we start the university, on the 30th of january, we had two days of integration, to know every Erasmus students. These two days were really good, we made some games to meet everyone and be friendly. The first evening we made a boat cruise on the waterways, and we went to a pancake restaurant. It was a really good moment. The second evening we went on a Pizzeria and after we had a Pubcrawl, organize by the ESN, the association for Erasmus students. That premised to create friendly relationship and a real good estate on the group. 

Now we try to meet with the all group twice a week, all wednesday the ESN invite us to Erasmus party in the center of Amsterdam, and all days we don't have the time to be boring in this city. 

We have actually 6 lessons based on the international business with some finance, ethics, HRM, economy, European Union and an initiation to the Dutch language and culture. 

Our group of 30 person is separate in different classes because we are not all studying business. 

In our subject "IBMS", we are around 15 person. It is a little group, but it is better to participate on the lessons.

Photo is coming soon

Preface.

To introduce myself, my name is Marine Camerano. I study at ESDES, a management school in Lyon, a fantastic city in France. 

I was born in Lyon and for the first time I will live abroad during more than two or three weeks (holidays)! I will make the ERASMUS program and study in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. 

During these 5 months, I will study business in the Inholland University of Applied Sciences in Diemen, a city just next to Amsterdam. 

I am exiting to discover this new culture. 

Soon in January