Volume 2, Issue 16 July 20 - August 2, 2000

CAN I SEE SOME I.D.?

The most obvious differences between Amsterdam and here appear when going out at night. And to be quite honest, I think it's pretty annoying.

An average Saturday night, you spend two hours finding the perfect outfit for that specific night, getting your make-up to match your clothes and accessories. You're already running late when you realize something. Shit ... ID ... where did I put the damn thing. Can't leave the door without it, or the club won't let me in. Fuck ... I'm sure I had it yesterday. Maybe in my other purse. Forty-five minutes later, you've finally found it and can go on your way.

The difference isn't just the ID. It's the whole attitude toward it. We Amsterdamians don't want Big Brother to watch everything we do. We don't want to carry ID everywhere. ID is for when you travel, since other countries don't like it when you don't have it around. Plus, what's the use of ID? Sure, officially the drinking age is 16, but who really cares about that? If you're under 16, it's mainly your parents' problem if you can't handle your drinking and puke all over their carpet. And, besides that, if you don't carry ID, how will they know you're too young to drink?

By now you might think, Wow, that's fucked up ... but what about driving? Don't you need your license for that? Well, we generally don't drive anyways. Driving age is 18 in Holland, but hardly anyone gets his or her licence before 21, or even older. You don't really need it.

The public transport is marvelous. It's not like here, where you have to wait at a bus stop without a time table, hoping that the bus will come within two hours. The bus stop by my house has a bus going to the center about every five to ten minutes. Even at night. We've got great night buses that take me home from the clubs within 20 minutes and drive every 15 minutes, all through the night. If you've got a system like that, why would you even to take a car? You don't have to worry about parking or drinking. You can get totally wasted without being dependent on others.

I think our young drinking age is also the reason why we have way less problems with drinking and driving. First of all, people drive less. But more important, we learn to drink and drive in a different order than over here. In Amsterdam, you'll know how much alcohol you can handle long before you'll ever find yourself behind the wheel of a car. Over here you know you're a pretty good driver before you'll ever find yourself behind a glass of beer. You know you can drive and figure you can still drive with (a little) alcohol. Yeah, right.