Driss Boukhalfa was born in a small town in Morocco and moved to the Netherlands when he was a child. He now owns a driving school in the Leiden area, really enjoys herring, and would like to meet Armin van Buuren.

How did you end up in the Netherlands?
I came here with my dad. He was brought here as a guest worker in the 1970s. They came to our small town, the Dutch people, and were looking for “gastarbeiders” after the war. My dad was one of the people chosen, so they flew him to Holland and he worked here. In 1984, he brought me and my mother, brothers, and sisters to live here with him. I grew up in Leiden and have felt like a Leidenaar all my life.

How do you describe yourself – an expat, lovepat, immigrant, international?It’s all a bit mixed. Since I grew up over here, I feel really Dutch, but sometimes I feel like I’m an immigrant. I’m a little bit this, a little bit that.

How long do you plan to stay?
I hope, but it could be wishful thinking, to spend the last years of my life, after my pension or maybe before, in my home country. We have good weather and I miss that. I miss the food and the people. I miss the mountains. There’s a lot of things.

The weather here is so bad. Even after 40 years, I’m still not used to it. The rain and the cold and everything. The weather in Morocco means you do everything outside. You eat outside and you sit outside because the weather is good. Here in Holland, it’s the opposite. You always do everything indoors.

Do you speak Dutch and how did you learn?
When I came here as a six-year-old child, there were schools set up to help the newcomers learn Dutch. I went to a kind of special school and it was really focused on Dutch. In two years, I was taught Dutch and then I went to a normal school.

Of course, watching TV helped. Friends who got here before me also helped teach me Dutch. Back then, there was no internet, so we had to read books. I read a lot of Dutch books.

What’s your favourite Dutch thing?
I like that Dutch people are always on time and punctual. Their punctuality means students are always on time for their driving lessons. In my country, back in Morocco, if you make an appointment for four o’clock, it’s okay if you show up at 4:30.

The Dutch are quite direct. This is something that I got used to when I moved here and I kind of like it. With teaching, you can be direct. It helps sometimes and you can be honest with students.

With the food, I really like herring. I can eat it without bread, just with onions.

How Dutch have you become?
I have thought about that a lot of times in my life. In the beginning, I thought, ‘No, I’m not really Dutch.’ But after 40 years here, I have to say I think I’m quite Dutch. I got married here, I have my kids here, and most of my friends are Dutch.

I also got used to biking. Of course, when I was young, I did nothing else but biking. That’s how you grow up here in Holland. For me, it’s normal. I love the bike and how we try to promote and encourage people to use bikes and leave the car at home. I think Holland has the biggest network of bike roads in the world.

So I love the biking part, but it can be quite annoying when you’re the driver of a car. As a driving instructor, I love them. Cyclists do crazy things. It makes the students stay focused.

Which three Dutch people (dead or alive) would you most like to meet?

King Willem-Alexander. Because I’m a Leidenaar, and because he studied in Leiden, I think it would be nice to spend an hour with the king, just chit-chatting.

Armin van Buuren. He’s a very famous DJ and he comes from Leiden so we are both Leidenaars. When he was younger, he used to always come here on King’s Day and DJ for free. I like that in him.

Harry Mulisch. He’s dead of course, but I really like his books and I would have liked to sit with him and talk about his books and the way he thought about things. He was a very interesting man.

What’s your top tourist tip?
Everyone who talks about Holland always talks about Amsterdam. I would, of course, take a visitor to Amsterdam but also to Lisse and the Keukenhof. It’s very pretty, with all the flowers.

But of course, because I love Leiden, I would want to show them around here. We would go to the Pieterskerk and the Burcht. The old centrum is very interesting and the Hortus Botanicus is very special. A little bit further away is the Leiden Observatory, which is also very old.

Tell us something surprising you’ve found out about the Netherlands
It’s not like I came here two or three years ago. After 40 years, nothing is surprising. But when I was a child, what I found amazing about Holland was the bridges. All the traffic has to stop and a bridge opens up and a boat passes through. It baffled me. I had never seen anything like it.

If you had just 24 hours left in the Netherlands, what would you do?
I would definitely go do some shopping and bring some cheese, peanut butter, and other Dutch things with me. I would want to go to a party or a festival. I think that’s what I’d do.

Driss Boukhalfa was taking to Brandon Hartley.

You can learn more about Driss’s driving school by visiting the Rijschool Leiden website