On Saturday, after a lovely day of doing homework and cleaning, I went to the Nemo for a little bit with Liza, Becca, and Drew. The Nemo is located right near my dorm building, and it is a science museum. They also have a huge roof that you can sit on and get nibbles from as well. It was a bit cold and cloudy, but the view was enjoyable anyway. It was a nice break from doing work.
The Nemo, walking up the stairs.
Our view from Nemo roof. I can see my building from here! (look to the left of the Nemo sign, it's that first white/tan building to the left. I live right behind that building in a courtyard.)So on Sunday night, a few of us decided to have a little scavenger hunt around the Jordaan, a neighborhood of Amsterdam that's close-ish to my home. We made it more of an alphabet scavenger hunt, where we wandered the streets around the canals and found things that started with each letter of the alphabet, like C for "Cat sitting in the window", or something silly like that. We just wandered about and got a bit lost, but the canals were all lit up with Christmas lights. The weather was around 65/70 degrees out that night, so it was not cold at all- absolutely magical Dutch weather. It was just beautiful looking at them and the light reflections off the water.
WARNING: if reading/thinking/discussing prostitution makes you uncomfortable, I advise you to just skip the next few paragraphs.
On Monday I went with my Dutch Social Policy class to the PIC, or the Prostitution Information Center in the Red Light District. The organization was started by former prostitute Mariska Majoor, and it is an organization that provides information to the general public about prostitution. It was a very informative morning there. We actually got to go on a tour and walk inside of one of the red-light windows where some of the prostitutes work. The room was probably the size of my dorm room here, maybe a bit bigger, although all of the windows throughout the city vary in size. They came with a bed, a sink, a locker to store your belongings while you work, and a chair to sit in. They also are equipped with a plethora of mirrors and a panic button next to the bed. This panic button is to be used in emergencies, if the prostitute working is in a dangerous situation with a client. When the button is pressed, a loud alarm will go off, so the other prostitutes and the landlord, maybe even the police, will be notified and will come to the rescue. It is a very smart addition to the windows to ensure the safety of the sex workers/prostitutes.
Mariska, a lovely Dutch woman and was so kind to show us around the Red Light district, told us about her life as a prostitute. She started as a prostitute when she was sixteen, and then started the PIC about seventeen years ago. When Liza asked Mariska how or why she became a prostitute, her reply was not what I was expecting. She told us why: She wanted a dog. She had moved out on her own when she was fourteen, and she became a prostitute to make money to buy a dog. Liza then asked if she got her dog, and Mariska replied "of course! That very same day I started as a prostitute!" It was quite a funny response. It is pretty interesting to think that a sixteen year old girl made enough money working as a prostitute for one day to buy a nice, pure-bred German Shepherd puppy. Even more interesting to think that she chose this occupation. Whenever prostitution was discussed back home, it seemed that everyone implied that only people in sticky financial or personal situations were somehow forced into prostitution. While there are still numerous cases of sex exploitation and human trafficking in the United States and the Netherlands, it is cool to see and to hear the reasons why many women became prostitutes, and that they purposely chose that profession. There are also women that are older than 18-25 years old that are in prostitution. According to Bonny and Mariska, the oldest prostitute that either is still alive or just passed away was 88 years old and STILL WORKING. A crazy thing to think about, but pretty cool also. Everyone needs to give and receive love, right?
http://www.pic-amsterdam.com/
Another sort of groovy thing that they have in the Netherlands is the FleksZorg, which provides the elderly, disabled, and handicapped living in the Netherlands with free/inexpensive sex workers to satisfy their....needs. The Dutch government pays for it, and many of the disabled clients will hire the same woman twice (there are about seventy different sex workers working for FleksZorg currently) and develop a relationship with her. This situation is not only about sex- it is about companionship for the disabled as well. It is shocking to hear that the government will do this for the disabled so easily. But it is also wonderful to see that the Dutch government is taking care of the needs of all people in the Netherlands, not just the rich and healthy ones. It also makes me think that we could NEVER have a system like this in the United States.
On Wednesday morning I went with my Colour and Culture class to Utrecht (About a 30 minute train ride south-east from Amsterdam) to see a few art museums. Utrecht is a beautiful city, with a population of about 300,000 people. It is also the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. Since I had class at 1:00pm that afternoon, I could only go to the first museum, which was the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht. We saw a bunch of contemporary Aboriginal art that came from the Aboriginal tribes in Australia. There were some very cool and beautiful works of art. The city of Utrecht was also beautiful, with many canals, gorgeous architecture, and a quiet, calm atmosphere. Since Liz and I had class at 1, we left early by ourselves and did some exploring around Utrecht before we had to catch the train to Amsterdam. It was quite delightful.
My insane but lovely professor Marietta (I think I called her Marianne previously, my bad.)
Utrecht Centraal Station.
A piece of contemporary Aboriginal art.
Cool/famous cathedral in Utrecht.When we finally made it back to class back in A-Dam, we just had presentations given about prostitution, signaling the end of our prostitution unit in our class. At the end of class, the fabulous Bonny Wassing gave us an extra homework assignment for our LGBT unit in this class: go to a gay bar and write about your experiences with it. two words: SO EXCITED!! There are known to be a plethora of fun and groovy gay bars in the city. One of my good friends here is gay, so we are all going to go out to a gay club hopefully this weekend or next weekend to fulfill our homework requirement. All I have to say is that this is probably one of the most fun homework assignments I've ever had.
The rest of Wednesday was very relaxing. It was sort of rainy and icky weather, so we stayed in and watched movies. We then made pancakes for dinner- yummy! We also saw the most gorgeous sunset here.
Funny words for today:
komkommer=cucumber
ananas=pineapple
aantrekkelijk=attractice (an-trek-kuh-like)
de ziekenwagen=ambulance, literally: sick car
kunst=art
FUN FACT: they apparently have a Dutch version of the movie "Love Actually", called "Alles is Liefde" (translation: All is Love). According to my Portuguese buddy André from my Dutch class, this version is better than the real Love Actually. Do I believe him? I'm not sure. Do I want to believe him? noooo way.
I also want to give out a HUUUUUUUGE congratulations to all of my friends that have figured out where they are studying abroad in the spring! I'm so happy and proud of all of you. I know that each of you will have the most amazing life adventures.
Well, since today is my last day of classes before the weekend (YAHOO!), today I will just be doing my Dutch homework before my class 6:30-9:30pm, then freedom! I hope you all have a magical weekend.
Doi!
ps. here is a picture of Kobus, our dorm kitty.
meow.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI want to go to a gay bar for my homework assignment. Instead I get to put together lab reports on yeast cell cultures. It smells like rotting beer in our lab. hahahahaha!
I love you!
xo Inca