Clockwork Oranje

Orderly traffic,incorruptible government officials,cleanliness and a very liberal outlook towards life - that's how Maxim Logtenberg from The Netherlands describes life in his country.

Orderly traffic,incorruptible government officials,cleanliness and a very liberal outlook towards life – that’s how Maxim Logtenberg from The Netherlands describes life in his country. Logtenberg is in the city to pursue an internship for business informatics and he terms his Indian experience as a unique one.

Logtenberg mentions that life as a student in Zwolle is a mixture of parties,studies and sports. The life of a student back home is chaotic but fun. Sometimes the days would start at seven in the morning and end at four am the next day! The best times were the weekends when I would get the chance to go home – to home-cooked meals and a life of absolute happiness. We don’t have maushis (servants) there in The Netherlands so we have to do everything ourselves. That’s why the weekends at home would be like real holidays!” he says.

Logtenberg,who is part Russian,would also visit a lot of Russian museums with family. I especially enjoyed reading about the Dutch history. One of the stories about the Dutch hero Michiel de Ruyter is particularly fascinating. He single-handedly inflicted the first ever defeat on the Royal Navy in June 1667, he adds.

For him food is usually a simple affair of vegetables and meat. An Indonesian dish called the Nasi Goreng,which is made of special fried rice with sausages,egg,krupuk (prawn cracker) and pickles,is very popular. It is a favourite with the Dutch people who live along the coasts because the dish was historically imported from Indonesia, he explains.

Though football has a huge fan following in his country,he confesses to not being an ardent supporter of the sport. Local games inadvertently bring along riots with them which is very sad. But it’s brilliant to see how the entire country supports the national team players,especially during a match between The Netherlands and Germany. It is like watching a cricket match between India and Pakistan, he says.

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