customer service?

i've lived in this country for almost five years and i have become pretty much accustomed to dutch culture and dutch life but there is one thing i refuse to accept and that is the inability of the dutch (many but not all btw) to be service oriented in the same way that canadians and even americans are.....two examples....

1) i was at the train station and walked into a grocery store to pick up a few things for the trip....i stand in line and while i'm waiting to pay, the three cashiers that have managed to distribute themselves over two cash registers are arguing about who can go home first....they were so incredibly busy with their own discussion that any kind of 'hello' was impossible for them to offer....i had to interrupt them to pay....and when i left, i was the one who said 'thank you' and 'have a nice day'....

2) i had to change some demographic info somewhere and i came in and the woman who should have helped me was on the phone....not that this is a big deal...i am willing to wait....surely, it would have been nice if she put the call on hold and said 'i'll be right with you' but ok, i can live without that courtesy.....after a full ten minutes, she hangs up and turns to help me....within 30 seconds, the phone rings again and she picks it up!....if we are going to work on a first come first serve basis, the phone would have to wait and i knew this so i kept talking but no, she picked it up anyway....what did i do?....i wrote the info she needed on a piece of paper and walked out the door....my frustration was obvious.....she knew it....

these kind of things irritate me immensely...i know i am occasionally impatient but, most of the time, i am willing to wait and be patient if there is reason to be.....and i think it comes down to a respect issue....when cashiers ignore my presence completely and receptionists give the phone priority, i basically feel dissed and we all know how much i like that.....

so tell me, why are some cultures service-oriented and others not?....is there something in the dutch culture that gives them a sense of entitlement or disregard?....is it the social security that is provided here that creates a situation wherein they simply don't have to be nice?....and why are some less willing to put the effort in?.....these are things i wonders about....

an important caveat: there are numerous companies, restaurants, bars and other service providers here in the netherlands who do put the effort in....not all places are shitty with servicebut, unfortunately, many are and i don't think i will ever get used to it....

that's my story today....

gezocht: stagiarre interieur verzorgster

first and foremost, i appreciate the discussion and debate about the value of blogging, the role of audiences and the issue of context.....surely, blogging is a kind of self-indulgence for the writer but it is a harmless one at that.....noone is obligated to read or agree.....the issue of audience is an interesting one....not knowing your audience has indeed it's disadvantages and it's advantages....on the one hand, blogging maintains a sense of anonymity and, in many ways, i like that....most of the time, i don't write for an audience....i write mostly for me.....but sometimes, i don't....and why?....because i know who part of my audience is and sometimes there are things that are simply inappropriate....and yes, the chance that my words will be misunderstood is certainly present....it has happened in the past and will sure happen in the future but i have never really had a problem with that....i guess i just blog for me (mostly then)....and i think that the moments in which I have blogged for an audience are the moments in which i have been unsatisfied with this blog so what can i say?....

on to totally different things here.....summer has a arrived...i'm sitting on the balcony with this laptop and i am totally giddy.....it is amazing to see what kind of effect the sun has on me....i swear i'm photosynthetic....i am always a much happier person if the sun is shining and i can be outside....i am not made for winter or rain (except the occasional thunder storm)....and i don't think i am the only one.....people seem much happier in the sun....so why on earth do we have winters?.....to appreciate the sun when comes?....i say skip the winter altogether and move south....but not quite yet....the summer here treats me well....

summer in maastricht has always meant lazy afternoons in the park with a book, some work, some fruit and the elixer of life (long live excessive alcohol consumption!)....this past weekend, i was with the 'dames' playing cards and reading and the most disturbing thing happened....a dirty old man with short shorts and ugly orange sunglasses came, sat on the park bench, looked around, observed the women and (you guessed it...) jerked off....it was absurd....extremely public and basically just gross....the odd thing is that our reaction was equally absurd....mankind has the ability to act very strangely in certain situations and this was one of them....you know how everybody stops and stares when an accident happens?....this guy had the same kind of effect....i couldn't watch him play with his shriveled up dick and i couldn't not watch him....i was so dumbfounded by his incredibly overt and almost shameless indulgence....and let me tell you, watching a sick old man get his rocks off in the park is not really good for your stomach....i felt sick and disgusted but also very sorry for him....it was just weird....

that's it....

under the influence....

i don't know what it is about idiots who decide to make a ridiculous amount of noise at four in the morning...last night, these losers came into the building laughing and hollering and being ridiculously obnoxious....my assumption was that they were drunk but really that is no excuse for acting like 16 year olds...i was so irritated that i, like some old 80 year old lady, got up and spied on them through my peephole....they took all the garbage and what not here in the hallway and put it in front of the elevator....sure there may be some humour in that but i was just not pleased to have my beauty sleep interrupted...these are the realities of living in a building with losers i suppose and it's not like i can be terribly judgmental....there was a time in the past that bas, myself and others came home significantly under the influence and inconsiderate of the poor people sleeping....so, i crawled back into bed and dreamed out inconsiderate people....funny how that works....

on a totally different note, i have been giving the actual concept of blogging some thought....why do some blog and others do not?....is blogging ego indulgence?....are bloggers people who basically like the sound of their own voice (but then on paper)?....i often wonder about these things because there have been times where i have been an adament blogger and there have been other times where i wonder what the point of a blog is....i know it is functional in keeping the people you know up to date on what you do but my blog was never intended to be a report of what i do on a daily/weekly/monthly basis....i think the intention initially was to convey observations of the my environment....entertainment rather than information....but i think that the quality of my blog has diminished significantly in the past year and that is disconcerting....perhaps i have moved out of phase in which i consciously analyse my environment to autopilot living....or maybe i am just too lazy to sit down and write about things....but i've gone off topic here....the question was why do people blog?....any thoughts?....

bareback mountain...

good afternoon patient friends and family....as is the norm, i have severely neglected my blogging duties and thus lost some very very nice stories that were in my brain but have now fluttered away....sorry...but i am here now with a quick update....

i don't recall my last blog...it must have been around carnaval so it's probably been a month....so what have i done?...well, i've gotten back into the swing of things here...the weather has improved a wee little bit...at least enough to put the winter coat away and pretend it is spring....some crazy people are already hanging out on the terraces but i think it is ridiculous to sit there in the cold (read 10 degrees) and drink beer...i get disturbing images of people shivering away and doing their utmost best to pretend it is summer...soon...soon enough we have days in park and wine of the patio but not quite yet....

i spent last week in berlin hanging out with the liethoff and indulging in one of my greatest addictions of all time: 24.....what a brilliant show....jack bauer, tony almeida, george mason, ryan chappelle, david palmer, mike novick.... amazing.... brilliant....i love it....so exciting....when i wasn't indluging myself with episodes of 24, i was out and about discovering the city....berlin is not a pretty city but it is incredibly cool....graffiti everywhere and the pre-1989 communism is still very present in the architecture, in the people and the places you see.....i really enjoyed it....

my sister was also here about a month ago and we had a really good time together both in maastricht and in amsterdam....went to museums and saw an incredible exhibition called the amazing rembrants in which mentally disabled (politically correct terminology: differently abled) artists mimicked rembrant's work....it was very cool to see....we also did a city walk in maastricht and i have to admit that it is nice to play tourist in your own city....maastricht has a very rich history and sometimes you forget that when your life is limited to work, thesis and an occasional night out on the town....

other than that, i am not sure what to tell you...i am back in the swing of things with my thesis and hope to be able to get done in the very near future....who knows what will happen after that....

here's one last pretty pic from berlin:

bon bini...hulanda!

yup, i'm back...and it is uncanny....yesterday i arrived at schiphol and was fully prepared to find a way to carry a ridiculous amount of luggage to the train station and head to maastricht but, lo and behold, i was not entirely alone in my arrival....unexpected but well appreciated, the one i expected least was there to help me out...it's funny how that works...so i spent yesterday and the night and today in amsterdam....it's odd getting reacquainted with the scenery and the way people are....rush, rush, rush....no poko poko poko....and today i caught the train to maastricht and it was absurd...i fell right into carnaval....two days ago i was in the tropics and i show up here to hear weird polka-like music and to see people in red, yellow and green running around with beer....it was nuts...helen met me and helped me unpack a few things and we went off to the only place a girl like me would go to after being away for so many months: the take five...and seriously, it seems as though nothing has changed....the same crowd (with a few new very young additions)...but the guys that work there are still the same and it was fantastic to be see old friends and good people that have been out of my life for the last seven months....so...despite the rotten weather, it is good to be back....i think i will find my place here....finish my research project and move on....and this is all good....but yes, it is fucking cold!....but i will survive....and sure, i will miss things there...my parents, the weather, friends, places, beaches....but i think it is good that i am back here....and let me tell you, it is a wonderfully freeing feeling to be able to walk the streets at night alone and to have all the places where you want to be close by....i have really missed that freedom....so here i am....and things are good....i'm off to bed...x

ballentine's day

ballentine's day is the alternative name for the utterly commercial wannabe holiday people like to call valentine's day....now i am not a big fan of valentine's day....i have never really been...i tend to think it is a big scam to make people spend ridiculous amounts of money to sit in crowded so-called romantic restaurants....and it sends the message that you only have to be nice to your partner one day a year or that you can make up for bad behaviour and indescretions in one day....total bullshit in my opinion....nonetheless, i was out and about on the dreaded day and it was good fun as you can see here...

but hey, that was a week ago....on to more recent topics....two days from now i leave this tropical paradise and head back to the land of rain and cold....in many senses, i would much rather stay...the weather is fantastic and my parents are here and i just can't imagine sitting in maastricht layered in shirts and sweaters and the works....on the other hand, i have the sense that my time here is finished...since july, i have done a lot, learned a lot, changed a lot....but the island is small, many of the people i know have left and i just have the sense that it is time to start a new phase and that won't be here....so off i go....back to maastricht and we will see how things go....wish me luck...

what country are we in?

ladies and gents....this will be a short blog because i have to be home in 10 minutes for very nice quiche that my mother has made for me....

so much to tell....so little time....the past month has been a complete blur....

i spent christmas in bonaire with the family....very low key....very quiet....i did plenty of recovering from too much partying prior to christmas....came back on the 26th and flew out 2 days later to st. maarten and there you are, up north in the caribbean with one of your best pals....and he phones and says, how do u feel about spending new years in st. barths (read the monaco of the caribbean)....and i say sure and before you know it, we are on some jacht sailing away to the richest island in the caribbean....we got there and it is gorgeous and yes, before you know it you are drinking cristal champagne at a 1000 dollars a bottle and then one of the guys says, sorry gotta say hello to tiger....yes, tiger woods....it was all very surreal but good fun and new years was fanastic and i couldn't have wished for a better one....

and now i am back on my own island....it is difficult to motivate myself to work but i do it anyhow....and of course, for those of you who know me well, i have created a grand disaster that currently takes up a lot of head space and requires some serious soul-searching and thinking....but now is not the time and here is not the place for the details....

for those of you out there that love me and miss me....xxx

vodka meet cranberry

good day...it is thursday afternoon and as always i am sitting here waiting on contrasida....i never know when they will show up, i never feel like going and i never want to do any work while i am waiting....i have been lazy this week....i consumed far too much alcohol for tuesday night, slept too little, spent yesterday recovering and today i am just doing nuttin....well, i transferred all my data and music and pics from this computer to my shiney new laptop but that is about it.....so yes, ladies and gentlemen, i am a slacker....haha....

my boyfriend and ahfan princess (as her boyfriend is inclined to call her) are all dolled up and off to jamie cullum tonight...i am jealous....not that they are together but because i would love to be there for jamie and his fancy jumping over the piano moves.....unfortunately, i am here and he is there and we will have to meet some other time....on the upside, i am going to see jack johnson sometime in march and that is going to be some good fun.....

and guess what? in just 63 days i will be back in the land of cold rain, no sun, frites speciaal and trains....it's scary....sure it's still two months away but it is definitely going to be weird....the upside: a beautiful blond man who loves me very much, my dames, my own space, the opportunity to travel more for less, dark cafés with candlelight, more freedom to get where i want to go, jack johnson and a trip to berlin....the downside: no sushi, no parents, no cleaning lady, no sun, no beach, no reunion, cold rain and too many sweaters....but hey, here or there....both are good....both will be fine...and i think i have to go now....be well...-s

living with your parents is like having servants that you don't have to pay...

the above is a quote from a sex in the city episode in which carrie dates a guy who lives at home....it made me laugh....not that it is entirely truthful in my case but in many ways my life is made easier living here with my parents....my mother makes me food and the cleaning lady tidies up the shit lying around here.....but it is not like i do less than what i do at home....i do all the laundry and that is much more than what i do at home and tidying up all the shit my father leaves around and turning off all the lights and fans he leaves on could technically be someone's full time job but i don't do it full time...i guess we all contribute in our own ways in this so-called community but i really have to admit that my preference is to live alone....that way noone talks to me in the morning and all the mess lying around is always mine so the only one i can be irritated with is myself....but hey, i am indeed spoiled here and that is nice....

it's almost christmas (again) and i don't seem to even notice it....i'm just irritated with the fact that noone seems to have time to do interviews before the new year but i guess that is just part and parcel to the season....it's amazing how quickly this past year has gone....i remember blogging about spending christmas with the dames and then with the liethoffs last year and that was the first in many years that did not generate some kind of disappointment....and now a new one is upon us and i am disliking the whole thing as much as other years but, hey, i just keep trying to ignore it and here that works quite well....with the exception of the occasional christmas tree and the fact that the bakery girls are wearing santa hats, i can pretty much pretend the whole thing doesn't exist.....but indeed it is amazing how quickly the time passes and how last christmas seems like yesterday....

that's it today....

thumb-sucking whores...

thursday was world aids day and like any good idealistic health educator/promoter, i was out and about making a contribution....i spent the afternoon handing out condoms with contrasida....we devoted our time to a little place called race cafe....race cafe is bar/strip joint that is just one step up from a shack....it is very very green and made of termite-invested wood....there are tables covered with quaint yellow and green table cloths, layered over each like it were some fancy-dancy restaurant, only these ones were filled with cigarette burns....it seemed to me that the table cloths were some sort of pitiful attempt to mask the fact that this place is a strip joint...and in fact, this place is not only a strip joint, it is a whore house...behind the secret doors, there are roms and beds and when we showed up, some fifteen women came out of the woodwork to listen to lucy give her lecture on how to properly use a condom....the women we work with are interesting....they are over-the-hill, beyond-their-prime, twenty-something latinas from santo domingo and columbia who came to this island in hopes of brighter future and more money for their children back home....most try to work in restaurants or bars....almost all end up having sex for money....it's really quite sad....it's, in my opinion, human trafficking but IOM doesn't seem to see it that way....but anyhow....there we were....lucy, alberto, myself and 15 worn looking illegal latina sex workers....and while they sat and listened to lucy, i observed....there was one girl who came halfway through lucy's lecture...she came in - high heels, long painted nails, tits hanging out (I swear these women wear bras three sizes too small)....anyhow, she plopped down, pulled up her legs and stuck her thumb in her mouth....my jaw nearly hit the ground...this here was a grown woman who had sex for money and she sat there sucking her thumb without any shame whatsoever....i was fascinated and completely dumbfounded so i diverted my eyes elsewhere and saw another girl in the corner doing the exact same thing....now i don't know if a thumb-sucking whore fulfils some kind of pedaphile fantasy but it was weird...and then this kid walks in....this four year old little boy stands there spinning around on the stipper's pole and watches the girls demonstrate their skills in putting on condoms (which by the way were far from good)...now i am all for openness about sex at home but this seemed just a little odd....anyhow, after this kid was done showing off his dance moves, he came over to play with me so we bounced around a balloon and threw coasters at each other and then he came right up to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, "puta"....this four year old kid called me a whore....i didn't know if i should laugh or reprimand him but not one of the fifteen women there felt the need to tell this kid that it was highly inappropriate to call a stranger a whore....but whatever....he then proceeded to mimic my dutch, stick out his tongue, wiggle his ass and run away...it was, uhm, interesting....and kind of sad because obviously no one is teaching this kid the ways of the world....he lives in a whore house, is unregistered, will not go to school and, sadly enough, will probably grow up to be a bad man....it's kind of sad but this stuff is surely a reality here...even if people don't want to see it...a sad cycle of poverty and desperation....