Shortly after midnight on January 1, 1999 they played a remix of the song
"1999" and one of the people there said, "I've been waiting since 1982 to hear
that song played on this night!"  Personally I don't remember hearing the song
then but anyways, now I suppose we're going to party like it's 1999 except,
where are all the people?  Happy New Year to all of you anyway!  What's up
and what are you doing these days?

29 responses total.

the 1999 Party is online???
I'd rather be there.
Then again with all the snow and such.

We can party like it's 1999 online.  How much snow is there where you are,
clees? No snow here.

What about the blizzards in Chicago, and I guess thus Ann Arbor????

Snow in Holland is rare.
Mostly Winter interprets snow as rain.

I hear Ann Arbor got 14 inches - most in a single day in about 25 years.
Anyone care to verify / deny this rumor?
I saw Chicago on t.v. - cars needed to be dug out.
What lattitude is Holland?  Or does the Atlantic prevent the snow?
Have you ever seen snow?

Hey,I have been on Winter sports in the Alps.

Before global warming we had our cold winters. ;)
Ever heard of the 11-cities skating tour of Frysland?
That's entirely outdoors for 180 miles. To be prepared for 30.000 
contestants the ice got to be at least 5 inches thick.

Latitude is between 520 and 540 or so.
But it is mainly the Gulf Stream that comes from the Bahamas that gives 
Western Europe such mild climate. Compared to Michigan, 400, we say that
 Michigan to according European standards would be subtropical (same 
latitude as Madrid). What did I know when I came over last June and 
found myself confronted with 93 Fahrenheit. (oof)

I hope that's between 52 and 54 degrees.  I don't think latitude goes up to
the 100's :) What did you think of Michigan and how is it different from
Holland?

   the blizzard of 1978 (which i missed by one day) dumped 18 inches
of snow on michigan in about 24 hours.  the snowstorm of 1999 (the wind
was not strong enough to qualify it as a blizzard) dumped between 12
and 14 inches of snow on michigan, depending on your source.  so our
storm was the most snowfall in one day in twenty-one years, give or
take about two weeks.

   the thing is, this is the way michigan is *supposed* to look in
january.  the difference is that the accumulation normally starts
around hallowe'en and builds up gradually.  michigan has had
unseasonably warm winters for the last fifteen years or so.

It was 52-54 degrees, and Michigan 40 degrees. 
I didn't know backtalk can't cope with the degree symbol.

Michigan reminds me of *parts* of the Netherlands. Say some 50 square 
miles we got left of what we call nature, but more like large parts of 
southern France, without the lavender and the olive trees.

There's a degree symbol? <looks at her keyboard>  Where?

How are the people / culture in the US different from those in the
Netherlands? (Ok broad question, but I've never been to the Netherlands,
so I wouldn't know what to expect) Culture shock?

Well, my car was buried for almost a week... the people who plow
the parking lot of my apt. complex plowed my car in, just cause it
was in a corner. <grins>  But it's free now.

How much snow did you get? Sheesh!  Poor car...glad s/he's okay now :)

We got about... a foot and a half (or so it seemed!) I don't know for
sure.  The worst part was the snow that got plowed up and behind my
car.  Oh, da car is fine. :)  Has a fondness for Savage Garden
apparently- it won't eject the tape from the tape player!

It's just huddling around the tape to keep warm.

I know, but I'm getting bored... I wanna listen to one of my other tapes...

Bring a walkman and a tiny set of speakers...
(you laugh? I did that at work before we got speakers for the computer)

Do you know where you can get those little sets of walkman speakers? I've been
keeping an eye out for a pair, but I haven't found anyplace that sells 'em.
Of course, I haven't been looking that hard....

How are the people / culture in the US different from those in the
Netherlands? >>>>>
First of all: entering the Netherlands is not like what you've always 
seen on t.v. as I have coming to the US. (No Dutch sitcoms, police 
sequals or whatever ;).
Culture shock?
Yes and no.
Compared to Americans the Dutch are openminded and will speak out when 
they feel like to. Which may seem blunt, but isn't intended.
On the other hand I think the Dutch are less extravert than the average 
american. The Dutch are reluctant to be in the focuspoint of undevided 
attention, yet they are individualists.
What I have noticed is that we Dutch are bad mannered and behave like 
barbarians when it comes to general ettiquette, these days.
The average Dutch drinks more beer.
The average Dutch litters like hell.
The average Dutch drives like a madman (agressive and intolerant)
The average Dutch goes on holiday twice a year.
The average Dutch hate Germans (WWII)
The average Dutch like their personal freedom (in the sense that 'as 
long as you mind your own business, I won't mind yours; i.o.w.: 
indifference)
etc.
Doesn't sound too good.
Still, I love my country.
Is that a bad thing?
Check out my homepage for more info on the Dutch:
http://huizen.nhkanaal.nl/~rickdos

        Edward Hall also said America has a lot of what he called "informal
rules" socially - i.e., social rules that exist, but that have to be found
out about by breaking them, and are seldom discussed by seem to be known by
most members of the society.   Have you found that to be true?

I think it depends on the group that you are with.  I can think of 
situations where something is aceptable with one social group, but is
totally unacceptable to another... Would that kind of fall into the
'informal rules' category that you are talking about?

        Hall's distinctions between social rules are in how they are learned
and communicated in a society, and how strict they are.  Technical rules, for
instance, are very strict but openly communicated - the kind of information
you need to talk to a mathematician, for instance, is largely a matter of
public record.  How to deal with a divorce is not, nor is how to talk with
a friend in a given social situation.

Does Hall say if these are 'hard and fast' rules, as in they should
apply to everyone, or that everyone has their own learned rules?

going back to my acceptable/unacceptable.  Given what people have
experienced they might deal with a divorce one way, a different person
with different experiences would deal with it in another...

Well,
there might a discrepancy between what has brought been to me in rules 
when I grew up and what today's youth get. There can be various reasons 
why.
1. In Amsterdam 45% of the people is not Dutch. Those people are bound 
to have been/or are being brought up according to different values and 
social rules.
2. Today's kids, also called the backseat generation, are often being 
kept busy by inserting videos in the recorder rather than attending to 
them all the time.
3. The heritage of the seventies 'Freedom for all' attitude has 
disbalanced the fabric of society. I won't say that a rigid set of rules
 and values are a good thing, but basic rules and well behaviour *are* 
the glue that keeps society together. 4. The ratrace of the nineties
doesn't allow too much space for interest  in others than oneself.

If I did notice a difference: Americans are more polite in basic 
contact, whether it is professionally or in the streets. That doesn't 
matter. E.g. don't expect shop-employees to treat you polite and 
respect.
Everybody askes 'How are you doing, where are you from; that's nice' as 
a form of politeness without being sincerely interested. Of course here 
I am referring to the superficial running into a stranger mode.

(Hamburgers are huge! hmmm)

Other differences in values:
Hmm, I concur this will widely differ between the various social groups.
I stayed at Sylvia's (bhelliom) and at Jan (jwolter) and Valerie's 
(popcorn). All these hosts are blessed with higher education, so 
basically most people I dealt with are bound to have a certain basic set
 of values. The main difference between the three is that bhelliom is 
much younger than popcorn and jwolter.

Generally speaking I think that the Dutch can be considered more leftist
 than the Americans (even our rightwingers can prove themselves quite 
engaged with society). Issues like legalizing (soft)drugs or coniving at
 possession for personal use. Why even now discussion is going on 
whether, in certain circumstances, softdrugs should be put in the social
 security system or not. Other issues are genetic engineering,
euthanesia  . Abortion may be called a fait acomplie. Put next to that
that the  majority is against nuclear power.

"Americans are more polite in basic contact" - really? I've never been to the
Netherlands, of course, but American shopkeepers, bus drivers, etc. seem to
be incredibly rude compared to their counterparts in England or even Canada.
Dealing with Detroit Metro Airport staff after a week in England was more of
a culture shock than anything I'd encountered over there.

I departed from Metro, and indeed the customs man could not appreciate 
my jesting, in contrary to Ohare.
I wasn't speaking of England, those people are extremely polite.
Yet, the Dutch are really rude, even to my standards. Eh..maybe 
they'd sooner be considered blunt instead of plain rudeness...
(Compare it with New York).

        I don't think any society is rude per se ... individuals can be ...
but societies just have different ways of communicating.  Even groups within
societies have different ways of communicating.  The brusque and distant
affection you see between men concerned with a "macho" image has the same
content-meaning as a hug or a double-cheek kiss does amongst men not so
concerned, but each group would find offence with the other's expression.

Very true.  There are ways that online people treat each other that
wouldn't happen in real life... Or at least would be different.

        Someone's in party today talking about how anyone not from India is
harassed.  He's Indian.  It was like a shock.

Wow... that's pretty interesting... <blinks>

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