Two weeks in so let’s asses the accuracy of the wardrobe and, quite frankly, the validity of all the “Do’s and Taboos” blogs that I read over the past 8 months. This one’s for you Dan.
First the shirt: …actually no. not the shirt. As long as it looks good it’s pretty standard and trans-cultural. And let’s face it; the kid looks good.
Next the scaly cap: pre-departure I had developed the hypothesis that the only reason I get made fun of for the scaly cap – or anything really – is because people have known me for so long as the kid wearing sneakers, t shirts, and baseball caps that any change to my style as I grow up out of such slovenly styles will be so obvious that questions of “where did you park your cab?” and “how much for a newspaper?” become inevitable. Because really, I like the hat as do many members of my extended family (thanks grandma!), and of course mom thinks it’s cute, while dad tends to contribute to the group curious about what I’m doing with my “Newsies” money. Europe seems to be the right place to put this theory to the test, right? Right.
So I put the scientific method to the test. My “other” IF project, if you will.
Question: Is my hat worthy of ridicule?
Hypothesis: The jokes are merely the product of evident change combined with my jesting nature.
Results: I have stopped hearing the cabby comments. Yes, now its “how was your trip to Paris last night?” (I enjoyed that one) I asked my advisor, Rick, what the consensus might be regarding my hat. He responded that it might be “more French,” but that “certain circles here might also appreciate the gesture.” Fair enough. So it’s French. I’m taking that as a win, I just said the scaly cap was European, I didn’t specify which it was, I just overshot being totally correct by a few hundred miles.
Finally the shoes: Now my personal opinion is that I have adequately blended by virtue of the shoes and very much stood out on the day I wore white sneakers on the tram. I honestly got looks that day. Otherwise, most everyone wears some form of nice shoes, usually brown, but sometimes black, with jeans. They aren’t the EXACT same shoes, but at least it’s the same idea generally. Even the women are riding bikes in heels (female equivalent of a nice shoe turned casual). There was, however, one bump in the road of my seamless assimilation. Sunday, following a group interview with three baseball players after practice (I’ve seen this skit before. I’m pretty sure my response was “I have no intention of conducting an interview this while on locale”…oops), my interviewees were kind enough to treat me to a beer in the clubhouse. While we discussed my project and informally chatted about the state of Dutch baseball, the conversation broke off as one player pronounced, “hey, I gotta ask, what is it with you American’s and wearing nice shoes everywhere?”
I couldn’t contain myself.
I explained to him this whole social experiment and how I had read that Europeans, Dutch specifically, wore nice shoes, not sneakers, and expressed that I was just trying to not stand out. He agreed that the Dutch won’t wear white sneakers and dressier shoes may be common, but “Jordan’s” are perfectly acceptable.
More importantly, he agreed with my hypothesis that the kid looks good.
No comments:
Post a Comment