Precis: Netherlands

Hi friends,

It's been about a month and I don't know where to begin updating you. The most obviously exciting part was my trip to the Netherlands. Our studio project is to make a plan for the Delaware River Basin about how climate change, especially regarding sea level rise, will impact the area. So we went to the Netherlands and met with all sorts of different officials and spatial planners and professors in different cities to ask questions and compare our problem to theirs. What did we learn? Our problem is nothing like theirs. The Netherlands is entirely planned and engineered down to the smallest acre. All of their trees are evenly spaced. There's no truly "natural" land in the country. Interestingly, Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans was an important event for nearly every one we spoke with. I guess it was a wake-up call and a worst-case scenario if the Dutch dykes ever failed. Don't worry tho - they won't. Their levees are built to a 1/10,000 probability of failure. The New Orleans levees are currently being rebuilt to a 1/100 level. The Dutch think this is stupid. I think so too.

But it was definitely interesting to see our country from another perspective. They think that the states should take more control of things like levees. Because their country is so small and water is their only problem, they can master it and apply that everywhere. Our country is large with a multitude of natural threats - hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, tornadoes, etc. Here, people in the Midwest don't really care to spend tons of money fixing levees down in the South, because that's not a relatable Midwest problem. We regionalize these things rather than accepting them as national problems.

In general, the Dutch are very kind. They're just as smart as Germans but they have a sense of humor. They were genuine and excellent hosts. Every meeting had frequent coffee breaks - "We Dutch never start a meeting without a cup of coffee." They also were interested in our problem, interested in collaborating, and interested in whether we liked the Netherlands. There was certainly less anti-American sentiment than I've experienced in visiting other countries. In my opinion, Mary is the only Dutch person I've met in America who reminds me of the Dutch in Holland. The rest of the Calvin College Dutch are poor representations of their ethnic motherland (haha, i'm mostly kidding). The difference is being genuine and open versus conservative and closed? I'm grossly generalizing but I hope you get my drift. I suppose that's why those families emigrated from Holland to Holland MI in the first place?

Besides the people, the country itself is rather beautiful. For those of you who've been to PEI, they're pretty similar, except PEI is way more hilly. The weather is cloudy and chilly but very dynamic. The sun frequently peaks out throughout the day although it's rarely static. Canals roll through all of the brick city blocks. And everyone bikes on those old-school granny bikes. Everyone bikes. Bikes everywhere. When you cross the street you cross a bike lane, a pedestrian lane, a car lane, a tramway, and repeat. It's crazy. So many modes! Planner paradise!

One of the most beautiful sites I witnessed was this: around 4:30 in the afternoon, an 18-year old bikes up to a shop. A girl walks out and sits side-saddle on the rack on back and they ride away. That's how you pick up your girlfriend from work in the Netherlands. That's life.

Of course I have more to tell, but writing it down is harder than saying it. So if you've got more questions we'll just talk on the phone. My class definitely bonded and it was nice to get to know some people better. There were some Phila. city officials on the trip with us and they rented bikes one day and then didn't want them. So a friend and I tried our hand at the biking-someone-else-around thing. It was super fun although a bit scary. I'll throw some pictures in here later.

Just wanted to update you, back to the grind.

<3
k