Als We Gaaan! The Dutch invasion

Who would imagine that a week in France would be such an enriching Dutch experience? I just came back from Studentenwintersport 2012, a skiing and snowboarding trip to the French Alps. Every year half thousand students from all over the Netherlands invade an unfortunate, little French village. We clogged the public transport for four hours, trying to stuff our entire luggage up to the roofs of small ski buses and get to our rooms. Once in the ski resort, we were constantly occupying the best seats in all ski bars.

I didn’t have a chance to catch up with latest music trends in France, because we brought our own DJs and took over a local bar. All week long Dutch hits echoed in the valley, while hectoliters of beer were flooding the floor of an après ski bar. The French bouncers and bartenders seemed to enjoy the party much less than we did. They observed our polonaise dance without much enthusiasm and they frowned trying to understanding the rules of our Beerestafette contest.

If I needed to ask for time or directions, I would just come up to a random person and ask in Dutch- it was more probable to bump into a person from Eindhoven than into a Frenchman. It was also easy to recognize who is “one of us”, because all Dutch students were wearing eye-catching, blue StuWi hoodies.

You could also expect that being in France would be a great opportunity to try French cuisine. But croissants and fondue had to wait, because during this special week bars and restaurants were serving the haute cuisine of Holland: kroketten, bitterballen and frites with mayo. We were also given food packages to survive these harsh winter conditions, in which we found stroop, pannekoeken and ready-made lasagna bolognese. The only French touch were the fresh baguettes delivered to our doors every morning.

I have to say, the trip was unforgettable even if it was more Dutch than French. Or, perhaps, precisely because of it.