The infamous "inspection shelf" © clogsandtulips
I cannot tell you how many complaints I have heard about the construction of the Dutch toilet since moving to the Netherlands. While I admit, I hate the idea of having to fork up the change to take a leak in certain public toilets, I’ve never really given much thought to the toilets themselves.
The first I read about them was in the must-read for all planning to live in the Netherlands, The Undutchables. A friend of mine from England was so disturbed by the shape of the typical Dutch toilet bowl that he went on a quest in search for answers, providing me with a rather entertaining video of a lecture on the ideology of toilets given by professor Slavoj Zizek. Joining the expat community in the blog world, I read many an entry and article on the absurdity of the Dutch toilet. The last straw was hearing from a fellow International Women’s Contact Utrecht member that she was actually tested on this stuff during her inburgeringsexamen. That was it – I had to do my own research and see what all the fuss was about.
And that’s exactly what I did. As a result of my findings, Everything You Never Wanted to Know About the Dutch Toilet was born and subsequently published on Expatica.com. If you would like to watch an excerpt from Dr. Zizek’s lecture on the ideology of toilets, check out the YouTube video below.
Expatica is a website devoted to providing resources for expats living in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and as of summer 2009, the UK. The site offers a wealth of information from community services to forums to blogs to a question and answer section to housing and job information and everything in between.
Originally Holland specific, the site was started by Candian expat Bram Lebo who moved to the Netherlands clueless, wishing someone had been there to tell him what to expect and answer all of his questions. Click here to read his story.
Back in 2004, Expatica launched it’s “i am not a tourist” Fair, a day where expats could come together and learn everything there is to know about living in the Netherlands. The 2009 Fair is scheduled to take place on October 25th in Amsterdam from 10am-5pm. If you are interested in attending and would like more information, click here.
Update: In May 2010, this piece was named Expatica’s favorite blog post for the Netherlands! Thanks to everyone who voted