I married a Dutchman

The Shallow Man, formerly of London, and for many years, resident in Amsterdam, has become something of an expert in navigating the choppy and touchy waters of intercultural relationships with the Dutch. Indeed, having developed a reputation for selflessly putting myself in the line of fire in order to answer questions posed to me by my expat flock I’ve been contacted by the lovely Christiana Spasova. “Shallow Man, you’ve written a lot about dating the Dutch, but you’ve yet to share the experiences of someone who has married or is in a civil partnership with a Dutch person. Why don’t you write something about this?”

Being as ever the Butler to the Presidential needs of my readers, (I saw the film yesterday, thanks to the ladies who chatted all the way through) today’s post is called ‘So I married a Dutchman’ and based on interviews I carried out with some Expats who wish to remain anonymous.

The Bulgarian

I had no intention of moving here at all, but then in Sofia, while working at a Dutch multinational I fell in love with the man who is now my partner. We were together for two years in Sofia and then when his assignment was over I decided to move to the Netherlands to be with him. I work in the logistics field and my organization kindly seconded me to one of our offices in the Netherlands. I’m very happy to be here with my boyfriend, and the purpose of this article is not to whine about the Netherlands or Dutch people. It’s simply to share my experiences living here, something which I think quite a few of the Shallow Man’s readers will be in a similar situation to me.”

It happened in Zwolle

After jumping through many, many layers of bureaucracy, I married a Dutchman and finally settled here with my husband six months ago. We bought a house in the village in which he grew up and live only a few minutes walk away from his parents and he has many old friends living nearby.

Prior to moving here, I started taking Dutch lessons in Sofia, even though my job is in English and my partner also insists on speaking to me in English as well. This would be fine, however, his family, just as the Shallow Man wrote in his blog either speak to me in Dutch and then when I respond in Dutch speak to me in English. His mother, then constantly makes comments how poor my Dutch is.

When introduced to people and I explain that I’m from Bulgaria, the reactions I receive are often totally rude. A message to Dutch people, not all Bulgarians are members of the mafia, involved in cloning PIN cards, nor are we gypsies desperate to overrun your country. I’m also not here in the Netherlands because Bulgaria is some kind of hell hole that people wish to escape from!

Bulgaria and Romania are different countries. When I meet a Dutch person in Bulgaria, I don’t ask them their opinion of the international xtc trade, so I don’t see why so many Dutch people assume that I’m the expert on Bulgarian and Romanian crime.

I’ve heard the saying that Dutch people can never be rude, and are just telling it like it is. Well, that’s a very poor excuse for a lack of respect and manners. I used to get really angry about the negative comments people make about my country, now I follow the Shallow Man’s advice and respond with sarcasm. For example, “Yes I’m from Bulgaria, I’m with my partner for his money and am also on assignment here for the Bulgarian mafia. I’m so happy to be in the Netherlands, a country with flat screen television and toilets inside houses.” A couple of people even thought I was being serious when I said this. Go figure.

One more thing, there’s no such country as ‘Eastern Europe’. Just so you know.

I married a Dutchmen and am shocked by how different things are here
The Dutch are so direct!

Compromises necessary for a peaceful life in the Netherlands

My husband is a very well dressed Dutchmen, however, since moving here, he has tried asking me to dress down a little as people in our neighbourhood believe that I think too much of myself due to the following reasons.

  • Wearing makeup
  • I wear skirts and dresses and high heeled boots and shoes
  • Regularly have my hair styled

We have both compromised on some things:

  • I bought a pair of UGG boots. UGG is short for ugly, but the girls in my neighborhood keep telling me what amazing boots they are
  • Deep fat fryer, I’ve never owned such a thing, but my mother in law was horrified that we didn’t have one, so to keep the peace I’ve bought one
  • Jeans, I’ve realized that on the rare occasions when I’m invited for a drink with my boyfriend’s sister, that I have to dress down, so wear my UGG boots with jeans 

In spite of Bulgaria being a much poorer country economically compared to the Netherlands, people dress a lot better there. Though sometimes they can also be at the other end of extremes, such as going to the supermarket wearing high heels and lots of makeup. I agree with the Shallow Man that the Netherlands is definitely a country of people that dress poorly. I think that a lot of people really just don’t care about their appearance, which is a shame as the Dutch are naturally very attractive, which is why I married a Dutchman. 🙂

Quality food costs money

When my partner saw how much money I was spending on food, he was not pleased. He used to buy just about everything from the supermarket and lots of it was processed prepared meals. I prefer buying food fresh from markets. Once he tasted how good food tastes when made with fresh ingredients he slowly began to change his mind and complains less.

Curtains

I’d heard about how the Dutch tend to leave the curtains open and thought it was an exaggeration. Well, not in the village where we live. When I first arrived I often used to walk out of the shower and across the main room naked, providing anyone walking past a good view. I decided that enough was enough and regularly have the curtains closed. This leads to comments from my mother in law who says to my partner, “I walked past your house earlier and the curtains were closed!” as if she thinks I’m killing someone or up to no good.

The Dutch hate closed curtains
The Dutch hate closed curtains even more than people that accuse Zwarte Piet of being racism

Guess who’s coming for dinner?

The relationship I have with my husband’s parents is complicated. I’d met the parents when they came to visit my partner in Bulgaria. I get the feeling that his mother hoped that he was just having a fling with me and upon returning to the Netherlands would find himself a Dutch girl. I make a big effort to try and get on with them, even though every time I meet them his mother looks at me as if I’m a package from Zalando that she’d like to send back.

When I first moved here I organized a big meal and invited his parents. I made a great effort, started with a feta cheese and tomato salad and then made Moussaka as the main meal followed by homemade cheesecake. His mother turned her nose up at the salad and then mentioned that she found moussaka was too spicy. The father felt that the cheesecake from Albert Heijn was more to his liking. This was just them telling it like it is. To keep her and my boyfriend happy I’ve tried to master putting together stamppot boerenkool, something which my mother in law almost complimented me on.

I married a Dutchman and learned how to cook Dutch cuisine
Me mastering Dutch cuisine

The Netherlands is a beautiful country, and I do love the countryside, and the pretty relaxed way of life and I’ve met some nice people outside of the immediate family. Learning Dutch has also helped me a lot, having said that most of my friends are mainly expats I’ve met through work. My advice to anyone moving here to be with their partner is to prepare yourself for challenges when dealing with the family.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtL_3VTBcTI/

I married a Dutchman the Englishwoman

I have been here in Amsterdam for around 15 years, I married a Dutchman I met in London many many moons ago.

My husband is wonderful and has a very open minded view of the world, is funny and generous. It’s his family that causes me more concern. They are well off upper middle class, golf club, Aerdenhout types who find social status their holy grail. That’s all pretty normal, but it’s their profound Calvinistic financial tightness that continues to astound me. Every Christmas presents are either from the check out at AH or recycled from unwanted gifts. Sometimes if we are lucky we even get our own gifts. Dinner, when we are invited, is either a cheap fondue using unsuitable cheese or a thin soup made from a stock cube. Horse meat slices, with the label torn off, in case we notice and bread.

Why the long face? "I'm on the menu"
“Why the long face? I’m on the menu”

Every Christmas they bring the smoked salmon which is always out of date, bought from Lidl the summer before. As the years have passed they have abandoned present giving altogether (probably a good thing) and stuck to the soup. Not that expressions of love should necessarily come in the form of material gifts but when a free hamper from a well-known organisation, where my father in law used to work is divided out and wrapped as Xmas gifts; a tin of frankfurter sausages for the vegetarian niece and a jar of peanut butter for the grandson with peanut allergy, I begin to wonder if enough loving thought has gone into these presents.

This Calvinism also seems reserved more for the family. Golf clubs, exotic holidays, be it with a suitcase full of dried food, are fully enjoyed by my in laws.

The Shallow Man will preempt the inevitable responses that some will provide to this article. Yes, the ladies in question will go home to Sofia and London, but only at a time of their choosing.

No Dutch nationalists were hurt during the writing of this post.