The Groningen experience

Hi Everyone,

Of course, there is an adage which says experience teaches fools, but the famous adage tends to say, it is the best teacher. Where ever we are as expat, we are endowed with individual experiences of Culture and Communication.
Therefore, lets do ourselves the honor by sharing various experiences in the City Groningen. Books don't tell it all, and individual varies,.Further Groningen tales could be heard as a single story, which can be misleading, without knowing, the actual facts about Groningen, its people, and culture. Don't forget living in the Netherlands, doesn't earn us, the right or claim to sterotype, or the tendency to equate "Culture with Nations" bacause just as people differs, so are the various provinces in the Netherlands (reference to the distinctions between very different groupings within a national boundary). More so, Culture experience is not merely an abstract set of folk practices, nor a collection of touristy festivals. Rather, as Geertz Protected content it, it is a set of symbolic systems, that serve not only to define and identify the culture and social structures, but also to articulate the synthesis of two essential parts of human culture, ethos and world view. Every specific act, every utterance, every thought must be understood within a much larger, much broader context. However by sharing your experiences, we learn from each other, and maybe prevent other expat from causing cultural blunders, you never know!
Example: The advice below, is extracted from my first experience in Groningen, "Do the Maths" During a friendly visit, when offered a second coffee, it means, you have to take your leave, immidiately after, please Ignore the 3rd coffee offer, no matter how polite, otherwise you are faced with the embarrasement of being ask to leave by your host..