The Netherlands!!!

I've started the Geography of Bliss. Mostly because I'm fascinated by different countries and different people. I am, however, disappointed that this man didn't travel to Denmark, the happiest country in the world according to a study a while ago. I'm about 60% Danish and it just would have been interesting to know. Anyway, the Netherlands is the first country. I've always thought of Amsterdam as pretty wild with the red-light district, legal marijuana use, etc. But I was surprised to hear that there are some more conservative aspects to the Netherlands. Surprisingly, there;s a high Muslim population. It's been my understanding that Muslims are generally more conservative about sex and drugs, so you'd think it'd all clash. Apparently not. Anyway, in the book, I learned a lot of terms about the official science of happiness. It's quite intriging. I've always thought of myself as a generally happy person, but now that I think about it, I really don't know whether I am or not. I know a ton of statistics such as people who are married are apparently happier than single folk, Republicans are happier than Democrats, People with only BA degrees are happier than those with higher degrees, etc. The difficult thing, though, is to know whether it's cause of effect. For example, are healthy people more happy, or are happy people more healthy? It's a surprisingly complicted concept. I like this book a lot so far. It's funny and it makes me want to travel to all of this places because I have the "travel bug." After I finish this chapter, I'll have 9 more countries to go!