Photo By Staff Sgt. Candice Harrison | Sgt. Maj. Remko Weijts, from the Netherlands and a student at the U.S. Army Sergeants...... read more read more
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WASHINGTON - Two Sergeants Major from the Netherlands who were attending school at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, had the opportunity to visit their embassy in Washington, D.C., on Queen's Day, a Dutch holiday.
International military students at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, face many challenges while attending the nearly yearlong school. Language barriers, difficult classes and culture shock are just a few of these hurdles.
The International Military Student Office at USASMA strives to make the transition to living in the U.S. for a year as easy as possible with U.S. student sponsors for each international student, English classes, Field Studies Program and other programs.
During the FSP trip to Baltimore and Washington D.C., from April 27 through May 4, 2013, two students from the Netherlands had a once-in-a-life-time experience.
“On April 30th, our queen abdicated the throne,” explained Sgt. Maj. Peter van Esch, a student at USASMA from the Netherlands. “It happens only once in 30 or 40 years, maybe. It happened to be this year on April 30th … that’s the celebration we call Queen’s Day.”
Queen’s Day’s originated with Princess Wilhelmina, the last child of King William III, on August 31, the princess’ birthday in 1885. On the same day in 1902, the people of the Netherlands began celebrating publicly. The date changed to April 30 in 1949 in honor of Queen Juliana’s birthday and has remained that day since.
“It’s a national holiday, like the 4th of July,” said Esch. “Everybody in the Netherlands has the day off and there is celebrating everywhere, in every city.”
In the Netherlands, the celebration consists of festival-like events including games, live music and dancing with plenty of food and drink available.
“Back home we have what is called the free market … people start a four or five o’clock a.m. to start setting up their booths or find a place to sit on the ground,” describes Sgt. Maj. Remko Weijts, also a USASMA student from the Netherlands. “There’s a lot of festivities. DJs flying [to places] all through the country, stages with live music from different artists going on.”
While the two Dutch students knew they were missing out on the annual celebration in their home country, they did not realize that another monumental event would be happening that day.
“During our stay here in the U.S. we were missing [the celebrations],” said Esch. “While we are in the U.S., we found out that there was going to be a change, the queen to the king.”
Queen Beatrix’s abdication on Queen’s Day in front of citizens of the Netherlands was a historic event, marking the beginning of her son, King Willem-Alexander, time on the throne.
“After five or six queens, we finally have a king. Our queen got on the throne in 1980, so she’s been there for quite a long time,” said Esch. “The king we have now will probably stay on the throne for 30 to 35 years at least.”
To add to the array of unforeseen events, during one of the outings on the FSP trip to the U.S. Capital, Esch and Weijts received an unusual invitation.
“In the morning while we were at the Pentagon, we talked to the foreign liaison, and he said ‘are you going to the embassy?’” recalls Ecsh. “Remko called them in the afternoon, then we hopped in a cab and we drove up to the embassy.”
The Netherlands Embassy hosted a celebration for Queen’s Day and the crowning of the new king. The two Dutch sergeants major mingled and enjoyed traditional Dutch food and drink.
“The people that are invited there are the happy few. Some U.S. Army generals and all the Dutch executives from the multinational [companies], usually people we are not around,” said Esch. “So there we were, standing between the happy few, eating herring and bitterbal.”
Even though the celebration at the embassy did not compare to the festivities of celebration Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, Esch and Weijts were still able to enjoy themselves in a fashion they weren’t expecting.
“[In the Netherlands], every one dresses up with orange clothes and put orange paint on their face. This was more of the formal side, but it was still pretty awesome,” said Weijts. “This was at the embassy, so it was sponsored by a lot of companies that do business with the United States.”
Not only did the two visitors to the embassy get to enjoy some of their native food, drink and music, they also got to experience something else from their homeland.
“Almost everyone could speak our language,” said Weijts.
| Date Taken: | 05.04.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 06.25.2013 17:06 |
| Story ID: | 109245 |
| Location: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 219 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Celebrating the Netherlands in another land, by SSG Candice Harrison, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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