The Patriot Inside Me

Cycling


How often have I thought of Holland while cycling up the hill. Every time I take the bike to the station, I ride through the lonely darkness of Mölndal. I feel the cold wind of the morning dawn while cruising downhill, see the depressed people waiting for their busses, trams or trains, and smell the night. The nights are long, cold and short (in my case). When I meet up with my bike in the day again, I already feel a bit deprived. That is because I life, of course, on top of a hill. The road is steep, long and trough fully depressing. And that is when I think of Holland and it's flatness.


Flatness


People seem to be shocked when they hear the highest mountain(or preferably hill) in holland is 332,7 meters high. When I mention the number of inhabitants, they stare at me, looking as if I just told them I like Bush(read it with or without capital, what ever suits you). Sweden is 11 times as big as Holland, though there are only 9,x million Swedes. Holland has 16,4 million inhabitants.


3-2


The wounds of losing from the Swedish national football team haven't healed yet. I feel ashamed of MY 'lions'. We were the 2th best team of the world. And we lost against Sweden. I remember sitting on the couch with my orange shirt on, completely confident that Holland would win. We would've humiliated them, played around with them, made fun of them. And, oh, I couldn't have been more wrong. The 3-2 gestures sting me every time. But let's forget about it, shall we?

70-year-olds

A thing that is often related to Holland is drugs. But somehow people think that the Dutch practice the art of smoking marihuana every single day, no matter what age. Like you will find 70 year olds walking down the streets in Amsterdam, left hand strapped tightly on their walker, right hand holding a joint. You won't. Well they are there, but you probably won't find them. Let's just say it's not that common. We're not druggies!

My name is Jelle and I'm an immigrant.

Though it might not be political correct, I am proud of what our tiny country accomplished a couple of centuries ago. And I find myself talking about it. Often. The thing is that I wasn't that proud of those accomplishments before. Somehow it feels comforting to hold on to your culture. And that made me realize something. I am foreign here. Wait, don't get me wrong, I knew that before. But here, I am the odd one, the minority. And that IS something new. I think that everybody should do something that resembles what I am doing right now. Cause it makes some things so clear. In Holland, we love to complain a lot. Especially about immigrants. 'They don't want to be part of the society, they won't learn the language, they form an own society within a society, etc'. But now I completely understand. I know.

Deutsch

People often confuse the fact them I'm from Holland, and therefor speak Dutch. Dutch sounds like 'Deutsch'. So some people think I'm german. And with such a bold statement, the patriot inside me rises. I remember them about Amsterdam, marihuana, the DJs, New York,(we found it!)[and sold it], bicycles, football. And they will never forget, but they will. The queen should be proud with me, defending one's country. Or at least attempting to.