The first phrase I said when I first arrived at Schiphol airport was: “This country is so organized.” I noticed right away how orderly the road is and staying here for a couple of months has made me realize that I was not wrong.

Being an organized person, I immediately liked it. The roads are planned, transport time is planned, and even the residences of immigrants are designed so they can integrate faster. There seems to be nothing that can happen for which you cannot plan.

One can plan his or her day, or his or her travel through the many varied websites over the internet – www.9292ov.nl, www.ns.nl, www.eurolines.nl. One can also plan the food which he or she will eat for the week based on the “best before dates” in the food packages. Or what he or she will splurge on for the weekend from the countless reclame flooding the mailbox – of course, that will be whatever it is goedkoop.

And related to my “weather article” last week, one can also plan what to wear for the day based on the weather forecast via the television or the websites www.weathernews.nl, www.weer.nl or www.hetweer.nl. These websites are also very helpful in the domestic front, because then, one knows when to do the laundry. And the best thing about all these is that one can plan even while sitting at home because everything is within the grasp of one’s fingers.

The government has also planned for everything – bad weather, good weather, water management, transportation system and road routes. They have planned for the security of the old and the young and for those who are out of jobs and those who would like to have jobs. And recently, they have also made a plan on how to curb the ballooning migration. (But that’s another story.)

Surely there are still events in one’s life that cannot be planned. They just happen – like life and death or love and heartbreak. But given these roadmaps, the Nederlanders have life’s battle half won. #