On TV

Watching television here is fun. In the US, all programs start and stop at either the 1/2 hour or hour. You know you can flip through the channels at 8 pm and shows will be starting. Not so in Holland. Programs just start and end at random times. There are fewer commercials breaks, and you can see when the American commercials would break in, but when there are breaks they are, for the most part, longer. I flip around and find something to watch. It ends, and then I flip around and find something else. I rarely catch the beginning of anything, unless I stay on the same channel.

To add to the variety, there are some Dutch channels. If I spoke the language, I'm sure I would actually watch them! There are actually a couple of Dutch sitcoms that look rather funny. All of the English programs have Dutch subtitles, which is actually helping me pick up words and phrases here and there. They aren't direct translations, so they actually use phrases that people use here sometimes. Any time a weight is mentioned, it is translated in kilos. When someone talks about dollars, the correct amount of money in euros is translated on the bottom of the screen. Maybe I'll get more familiar with weights, measures, and the language.