In the Netherlands
I am the hostage of that insidious institution
that is the American Caffe Latte
(grande, tall wasn’t enough, it’s
early)
I’m sipping it slowly, in
the Netherlands
where cold weather has some kind of comfort to it
something familiar
Is cold the same
everywhere? Perhaps, maybe,
I think so
In the Netherlands everything seems a bit foreign
(except cold)
to me, as an European coming from
Portugal
Coffee is not coffee
bread is too much
everyone is so tall, and in general
very young and
elegant
I was participating in a conference; I
thought about writing a book with the name
“Everyone is always so polite at conferences (and other stories)”
because it’s more or less true, and
I liked the title
Anyhow, I’m
in the Netherlands and it’s
Saturday morning, and I’m taking
a train to a train station and then I’ll take another train to another train station and then I think I still have another train and
one last train station
before I get to a city where I hope there will be a good Asian food joint
somewhere near the centre
Yesterday, in the Netherlands of all places, I got a gigantic craving
for Asian food, but the restaurants
were packed
and they close at 22h
in the Netherlands
Anyhow
I’m sitting on a stoptrein to Leeuwarden
I see the watery prairies and etc
the sun and blue sky and etc
cows and all those natural etcs
and I couldn’t thank God more
for my life, but in this particular moment
in time I can’t think him enough
for that amazing capitalist project of world domination
that is Starbucks
with its products of global existential security
that are the only real coffees I could find
around here
and that’s that
