こちらオランダ、10月6日は化学の日ということで、いろんな化学系の会社でオープンデーが開かれていました。オランダはいわゆる理系と呼ばれる人員が不足しているんだとか（ま、そのおかげで私も職にありつけた訳ですが 笑）。なので、理系の会社はなんとかして良い人員を、と楽しさを人々、特に将来を担う子供達にアピールするのです。(最近は理系も人気が出てきて、そちらに進む子供もどんどん増えてきているみたいですけどね。）
Here in the Netherlands, the 3rd of October is National Chemistry Day. Several chemical companies were open to visitors. It is a problem here in the Netherlands that there are not so many technical people. (That is why I got my job!) People preferred to study management or things like that. So, many technology related companies are trying to advertise the niceness of these jobs, especially to children, so they will get good workers in the future. (Recently technical courses are getting extremely popular though.)
うちの近くにある化学の会社BASFでもちょうどこのオープンデーが開かれていました。車窓でオープンデーの張り紙を見た我ら。もちろん行ってきましたよー。他の会社に入れるって超楽しいー！
There is one chemical company, BASF, close to our house and they also had an open day on that day. We saw the advertisement on the window of their building from the car. How could we miss it! I love getting into a different company.
最初にこの会社が作っている製品等を展示、説明している部屋があって（ここは大人向け）、そこを過ぎると、あとはずーっとラボ内を通り抜けるコース。そこにキッズラボというのがあって、子供が実際に簡単な実験ができるのです。一応対象年齢は8歳から、とのことでしたが、5歳のBoy１もしっかり参加してきました。
First of all, there was a room displaying and explaining their products（this was mainly for adults) after that, the route just went through laboratories and factory halls. There was a so-called Kids' lab in the route and children could do some simple experiments by themselves. The target age was over 8 but Boy1 who is 5 was also allowed to join.
白衣と安全メガネも貸していただいて、いっぱしの科学者風でしょう？
Put him in a white coat and safely glasses and he looks like a serious scientist!
こちらはメガネだけ〜。超嬉しそう！
This one got only glasses. But he looks extremely happy!
何をやったって気になりませんか？こんな感じのことをやりました。
Are you curious what could he do? He did something like that.
こちらはペーパークロマトグラフィー。定番ですな。
This is Paper chromatography. Classic experiment．
あとは工場見学をして、企業消防隊のところで、消防車を見せてもらって。これもお約束ですな。火事の家の絵に向かって放水！
After that, we visited the factory. At the company fire brigade, we could enter the fire truck! That is also a classic event. Aim a jet of water at a (drawing of a) burning house.
あともう少し滞在できればオランダの宇宙飛行士さん（本物）がヘリコプターでやってくる！というのもあったのですが、お腹も空いたので、これにて退散。
さて、Boy1はこれで興味を持って将来理系の道に進むかしら？
If we had stayed a bit longer, there was also an event where a real astronaut arrived by helicopter! But we were quite hungry so decided to leave.
Let's see if Boy1 will choose science as his major because of this event...