You Know You're in a Drinking Culture When...

1) There is a "borrel" (party) almost every night of the week, and everyone goes regardless of whether or not they have a 9am class. (This means that I end up being super lame, because I just can't handle a 3 hour class when hungover/tired, or when my body keeps getting sick). Borrels are not just student run, but are also put on by the university as a way to mingle with students/professors.

2) Your Beginning Dutch Professor spends time in class explaining the types of beer glasses you can ask for, and not to ask specifically for Heineken (because if its not on tap it will be 2x the price), and that using the diminutive biertje is only polite, and has no relationship with how big your beer will actually be.

3) It is normal for students to try to ride their bikes home drunk (or high).

4) You are more likely to get stopped by the police for not having bike lights than you are for biking drunk.

5) Adults go to and actually enjoy karaoke. Why? Because it's pretty hilarious when you're drunk. Only after drinking a few beers does singing Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" sound like a good idea.

6) They only sell non-alcoholic beer at football (soccer games), in order to control the aggressive soccer hooligans. The also have breathalyzers at the gates for big games, ie Rotterdam vs. Amsterdam (but not U.S. vs. Netherlands).

7) Finding beer sold in a bar for less than two euros is a big deal, regardless of how big that beer might actually be.

8) Your study abroad program gives you two drinks at every official event/dinner, despite being an American program with American students.

NOTE: Some of these are true of Dutch culture, some of international student culture, and some of both. It's hard to tell, since the international student population is fairly isolated from the dutch student population. The only Dutch student I have regular contact with is Jantien, one of my ISN orientation leaders.