Back Stateside now. It hasn't been that weird being back; it's like we were here the day before we arrived. Anyway, it's great being back; there are things I love about being back, and surprisingly, things I miss already about Holland! So in the spirit of High Fidelity, here's a list of those things (albeit unnumbered).

Things I Miss

• Frites met. Yes it's all about the food; I totally miss the frites with mayo, and haven't found anywhere here that does proper Lowlands-style frites. Sigh. Guess I'll have to recreate them myself! Did I mention that a month before we left, our frites-stand guy started recognizing me and what I usually ordered? How embarrassing is that, to know you buy frites so much that your frites guy recognizes you?
• Poffertjes. Tiny pancakes in heaps of butter and sugar: how can you go wrong with that?
• Excellent public transportation
• De Haagse Markt. My favorite place to buy awesome vegetables priced for cheapskate immigrants like myself. :)
• Amsterdam canal streets
• Amsterdam in general. I understand now why it's considered one of the great cities of the world.
• The Dutch attitude toward bikes. People in the U.S. are freaks about bikes! What is with all the Tour de France get-ups just to ride down the Burke-Gilman trail?
• Dutch attitude about children. The Dutch have a great attitude towards children because of their laissez-faire philosophy about raising them. This makes for a culture known for bratty kids, and therefore really understanding and friendly toward your kids if they're not little monsters. Americans aren't nearly as accommodating when it comes to small children.
• Museum Jaarkaart. (Holland's annual museum pass) We don't seem to have the quantity of museums that they have in Holland, but I would totally pay $30 to be able to get free admission to Seattle museums. How excellent is it that once I had the jaarkaart, I could go to the Mauritshuis or Rijksmuseum whenever I wanted without paying admission?!
• Scheveningen beach. I love how Scheveningen has like 30 restaurants right on the beach. For other cultures beaches are all about snacking and eating. :)
• Fantastic information design. This is design-nerdy, so it's not something one necessarily notices, until you're away from there. Even visiting Belgium and France really made me realize how great the information design in Holland is-- you will never be confused (at least in Den Haag) by a tram schedule, or by a menu or museum admission. Who designed the bus schedules in Seattle, for God's sake?!
• Visual consistency. Row after row of rowhouses. There's something really neat and comforting about it. Seattle, as most American cities, is visually cluttered-- something I never really noticed before coming home.
• The summer sales. Everything at Benetton was 50% off, along with every item of clothing in every store in the entire country. It doesn't get more shopping crazy than that.
• Not understanding what everyone is saying. Yeah, it sounds weird, but being in a store now or buying coffee and people are yapping all around you into cell phones and you can't help but listen, actually makes me nostalgic for being blissfully unaware of what people were saying!
• Of course the friends we made from all over the place. :)

Things I Don't Miss

• DOG CRAP. Why the Dutch put up with all the dog crap is something I just don't understand. Speaking of dogs, they have the life in Holland. We actually saw some dogs being pushed around in strollers. (Not Bugaboos, mind you). One of Kyle's friends said, "If reincarnation exists, I would want to come back as a dog that lives in Holland."
• Not understanding what everyone is saying. I sometimes love overheard phrases like:
  Guy into cellphone: "I don't want to go to her cheese-tasting party so I'm just not going."
• Dutch bureaucracy. NS (the train company), Dutch banks, KPN. 'nuff said!!
• Dutch service (or lack thereof). See this previous post for details.
• Digging out change to make it even. Typical exchange at the register.
  Cashier: "5.97."
  Me: (hand cashier 10 euros)
  Cashier: "Do you have 1 euro 97?"
  Me: (digging through purse for 5 minutes)
  People in line behind me: (waiting patiently not sighing or tapping feet because they are patient Dutch people, not tempermental Americans)
  And on and on...
• Dutch weather. Okay, it was not a typical summer in Holland: rain, cold, rain, cold (sun) rain. At least we got some good sun in July to hit Scheveningen with.
• Lousy exchange rate
• Not being able to use a credit card. Sometime in the nineties, Dutch businesses rebeled against credit card rates, and it's been essentially a cash-based society ever since.
• Only open until 6:00 Going shopping at 8:30 at night is a luxury you just don't appreciate until you live in Holland.
• The Dutch attitude toward those not on bikes. Although, rude cyclists are a world-universal thing. Here in Seattle, they just bellow at pedestrians ("To your LEFT!!") instead of ringing those bells in your ears. I think it's a toss-up.
• Institutionalized targeting of minorities. Yes, institutionalized racism does exist in America, but somehow there was something really open and in-your-face about some of the things we ran into back in Holland. Maybe this is just more honest, in a way, but it still felt disturbing. This includes the Haagsche Lounge not allowing our friend Yasmine in for wearing a headscarf, or the tram "controls" confined to the predominantly Muslim areas of town (there are tons and tons of Moroccan and Turkish immigrants in Den Haag), shaking down African immigrants for ID on the tram. As a result, the native/immigrant stratification seems really pronounced compared to Seattle, and the anti-immigrant sentiment is more open as well.

All that said, I love being back and eating Hawaiian bbq, but I'm sure we will be back to at least visit Holland and get our fix of frites met, and meet up with old friends. :)