It seems that, in the Netherlands, if you want to maintain privacy even in your own home, you best LOCK your door.
The first person to enter our house without knocking was our next door neighbor Rudy. One day he just walked in the back door and said, "Hello!" I was pretty weirded out by this. I didn't know him hardly at all and didn't know if I needed to be wary or afraid of him, or if he had simply known the owners well enough that this was something he normally did with them and thought (oddly) that he could do so with us.
The second time it happened, back in September or so, it was a repairman who'd come to look at the clothes dryer - only this time it was at the side door. (There isn't a formal front door on this house.) He just opened the door and said, "Hallo?" I figured, well, there's no doorbell and maybe they don't believe in knocking. Who's to say?
And it happened again today! I was getting ready to go to work, heard the side door open and a man say, "Hallo?" Funny, my first thought was that it must be Rudy! But I stepped into the hall and saw the mailman standing in the doorway with a small package to deliver to Charles.
Do these people never walk around their houses naked or leave the bathroom door open? Or do they just not care about privacy?
It's a bit Drentish, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Gelkinghe | January 26, 2007 at 01:47 AM