Beata is of Polish descent and Polish folk dancing is her hobby. She misses it here. 'I went to a lot of parties here - flat parties, S.M.I.T. parties and birthday parties and so on - but people here do not dance much at parties. Let alone folk dancing. And you know, I also saw Lithuanian folk dancers on festivals and they have traditional dances with wooden shoes. That says something, doesn't it?'
Besides the dancing, the drinking behaviour in Holland is different from back home. 'Virtually everybody drinks beer here, in Lithuania the strong booze like vodka is more popular. And people seem to know that here, for there has been hardly a party where someone did not say 'Oh, you are from Eastern Europe. Don't you want something stronger to drink?'
Compared to what she knew about Holland, she thinks that very little is known her of Lithuania. Even Russian culture is hardly known. 'At a party they served Pushkin Vodka, so I asked if they knew who Pushkin was. 'Vodka of course', they replied. Nobody knew he was a famous Russian poet. And maybe I can generalise from that. Probably people in the world hardly know Lithuania while everybody knows Holland. And consequently the Dutch wooden shoes, and not our klumpes. But they are ours!'
Beata Masevic
