I once read in a book that if you want to start a good conversation but do not know what to say, the question “How’s the weather?” can do wonders. I do not think it works in the Philippines (it is sunny there almost all the time), but it is definitely true here in The Netherlands.

The weather changes so quickly in this country – one moment sunny and the next moment windy and the next moment after that, rainy. One must always be ready with his or her paraplu, because there is no certainty that if you leave the house in sunny weather, it will stay that way all day. I’m sure there must have been days where you left the house biking on a sunny day just to come home dripping wet.

The week before this week, it was raining almost every day. The sun peeped in a while in the latter part of the workweek but the rain reigned supreme again over the weekend. In the early part of this week too, the sun shone (perfect jogging weather) but just today, it was raining again.

This drastic change in the weather could be the reason why the Dutch is equipped for almost anything. He thought of making dikes to keep the country from flooding and continues to pump out water to create land for a growing population. If The Netherlands has tendency to be hit by a tsunami, it would have also set up tsunami warning gadgets a long time ago.

Call it weird, call it strange – Nederlands weather is anything but stable. Never trust the sun to shine all day and leave your laundry hanging out in the balcony or you might need to crank up your dryer once you are home. But the Dutch compensates with being always ready, which, I guess, they should be admired for.

So, if I want to start a conversation with someone in this country, I think, the line “How’s the weather?” could work. But then again, I was thinking, the author of the book I read must have been a Nederlander.#