The onion layer theorem; Dutch style

I’ve been in this country for all of four weeks now (give or take a few hours).I must say its been quite the ride thus far (no pun intended) but I’m settling into the ebb and flow of things around here. Be that as it may, there are still a few things that I have noteworthy and shall proceed to share them with you:
1. They have very subtle ways of making you learn Dutch(even when they say you don’t really have to); what with writing names of all the products in Dutch at the supermarket and all notices, road signs and such like items are all in Dutch;
2. A ‘high-speed’ head on collision with another bicycle is not only a possibility but a very painful reality and not as comical as it sounds; I know!
3. Onions are a very big part of the Dutch culture (though they don’t really know it yet or won’t admit to it).

The last of this we shall dwell on for a bit of a while.
I come from the sunny side of the world; where the only use for jackets is filling up the wardrobe except for one month in a year, after which they assume their prescribed purpose of filling out the space in the closet. With this in mind, its pretty evident to see why I’d learn to take good weather for granted. However, this is not the land of sunny days and warm nights; this is the land of schizophrenic weather patterns and misguided rainfall patterns- misguided mainly because the rain always catches me off-guard.

I have, through misguided bravado and really bad weather prediction skills, learnt that the weather cannot be taken for granted in this not so sunny side of the world.

The few Dutch friends I have made have taught me the layering principle i.e. to put on a ridiculous number of clothing layers to combat the cold and strange weather patterns and then proceed to shed off the unnecessary layers as the day warms up and layer up as it cools down. Needless to say that dressing up like this in the house is a bit retarded and thus one must strip down the extra layers and leave only the basic layer of clothes…just like an onion…

Doesn’t it make you wonder, aren’t onions grand?