Farewell, Netherlands

Time to leave. Still, the two years have given me so much - unforgettable memory and a whole new direction in my life and... a lot of amazement from a new culture.
Bikes - everywhere; the most confident and prominent part of the traffic. And be careful when you come here - it's just too easy to get rid over by a bicycle! To make it even worse, the state of some bikes is desolate - in other lands, such bikes would not be allowed to enter a city (indeed, for instance, the Netherlands is unique in that it doesn't require bikes to have a hand brake - apparently there is no expectation that cyclists would need to brake...)
Water - everywhere. On the one hand, you have the omnipresent canals and ditches. And the fact that some parts of the Netherlands have been under the sea a few years ago... On the other hand, it's raining all the time and Dutch people talk incessantly about the weather.
The cohesive society - I was just amazed by the number of association (verenigingen) - student associations, sport association, cultural associations, you name it... The Netherlands has one of the largest percentages of volunteers in the population among European countries and "cooperative mindset" is all pervasive.
Coming from the "poor" Czech Republic, I have also noticed that "consumerism" - in a broad sense - is far more advanced in the Netherlands. People in general expect much more from their life. Almost everyone wants to own a house. Even students feel that they are entitled to live a comfortable life - so even though everyone gets a grant and a free travel card from the government, many students end up heavily indebted after their studies. A lot of people pride themselves as "environmentally conscious", but don't mind throwing away food rests or buying a new cell phone every year.
Architecture - very courageous. The first time that I went to Amsterdam and left the train in the Bijlmer Arena station, I felt as emerging in a crazy futuristic city. The UFO that I saw there just emphasized this feeling.
The Dutch are world famous for their directness or even rudeness, what a stereotype, isn't it? Still, I have noticed that the use of "please" is essentially obsolete in the Dutch language. Also, trying to use the polite form of "you" ("U") leads people quickly to shaking their heads in disbelief - even professors are addressed informally. That said, I have found the overall openness quite refreshing - there are very few tabus, people don't mind talking about sexuality, drugs, money...
Optimism - Enormous atmosphere of "we can do it" and "everything is possible". Everything should be "top" and people seek out "challenge" ("uitdaging") in what they do - at least they claim so. When you write a motivation letter for a job, it is expected that you are very very self-confident...a Czech recruiter would laugh seeing such a letter. And this optimism is also somewhat connected to the "nation of traders" tradition - many people know three foreign languages and when talking to my classmates, I sometimes have a feeling that almost everyone was an exchange student at a different continent - perhaps unsurprisingly, given that e.g. Universiteit Utrecht has exchange agreements with schools on all continents (OK, leave Antarctica out...).
Food - A shock was eating bread as lunch... Other than that, there is just overabundance of fried food - well, I guess you take the kilos down quickly when you are biking all the time... Also, when Dutch people are asked to cook a typical Dutch meal, they come up with something Surinamese or Indonesian - perhaps no one is proud of stampot or erwtensoep...