Days 83-85

Happy Holidays!

You might wonder, why happy holidays? It's too soon for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and even for Hannukah. What holiday am I referring to?
The answer is SINTERKLAAS! Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent to Christmas. It is the holiday that the little Dutch children look forward to the most. Sint Nicholaas (ie Santa) wears robes and a big red pope's hat. The legend goes that Sint Nicholaas comes from Spain. Every year in the middle of November, Sint Nicholaas travels to the Netherlands by steamboat from Madrid (FUN FACT: Madrid has no port, and is completely surrounded by land.) and arrives in the Netherlands on his white horse (schimmel) and his Black Pieters, or Zwarte Pieten to give the children toys and treats from then until December 5, when he returns back to Spain. Little children leave their shoes by their fireplace or their front door, and the Black Pieters are supposed to come down the chimney and leave little treats in the shoes. This year Sinterklaas occured on this past Sunday November 14, and he arrived on his steamboat down the canal right by where I live! Now what the controversial issue is is the Zwarte Pieten. According to tradition, they are called "Black Pieters" because their faces are black. Their faces are black (apparently) because they always go down the chimneys and are always covered in soot. However, it is not black actors portraying the Pietes, but it is white Dutch citizens that don black face. When I first got to the Netherlands, I was honestly shocked and slightly horrified about the black face. If this stunt was ever pulled in the United States, the NAACP and basically every American citizen would be all over their butts! So all over the city there have been Dutch people, donned in ruffly costumes, black face, and bright red lipstick, running and roller skating all throughout the city. The ironic thing is that the Dutch think that this is a totally acceptable tradition. The Dutch are so pragmatic, socially sensitive, and accepting of prostution, drug addicts, squatters, gay marriages, etc, etc, yet they don't see any racism with the black face. It is preposterous to me. Even some of the little children will dress up as Zwarte Pieten and wear black face as well! Maybe I am not looking through the correct cultural lens when assessing the Dutch situation, but it is a very interesting and highly controversial subject, especially when discussing among the international and non-Dutch students.

Zwarte Pieten
Sint Nicholaas coming down the canal by Steamboat with his boat chock-full of Pietes
Sint Nicholaas himself!
two children excited for Sinterklaas. Note the irony here.

On a lighter note, our program is doing a secret santa type thing with Sinterklaas. Our celebration is on December 6, so technically the day after Sint Nicholaas goes back to Madrid. But I will share more info on this when the date arrives.

The rest of my weekend was quite eventful and full of many different cultural events, all spanning over the cultural spectrum. On Friday night I got to go see Ratatat, a New York based electronic/alternative music duo. They combine synthesizers with guitar, bass, and drums. The music is primarily intrumental, with occasional vocal clips. I wasn't expecting anything incredible when I bought the tickets. However, I was completely blown away by their music. It was honestly one of the best live shows I've ever seen. It was a small crowd, but still just an epic show- great sound, cool lights, great vibe. Here is one of the only pictures that I got of the show.
I've always been saying here that there are very few genuinely creepy Dutch people. Well, I was proven completely wrong at Ratatat on Friday. It seems as if every single creeper in a two-mile radius was at Paradiso seeing Ratatat. So many weird, awkward men trying to dance, touch, and creep on the girls. So that was a down side. But aside from the weirdos, the show was absolutely AMAZING!! If anyone ever has the chance to see them live, DO IT. It is completely worth your while, money, and time.
Here are some YouTube links to some of their songs:

"Loud Pipes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64liF2VuLxI
"Mirando"-one of my favorites, even though all of them are stellar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk8qcGOtBFw

On Saturday night a few of us engaged in yet another cultural activity. This time it was ballet. It was the Ballet Preljocaj from the Bolshoi Theatre. They are a Russian Ballet company who performed in Amsterdam for a week. They combined beautiful ballet with electronic music, along with other crazy stuff. I wish I could've taken pictures of it, but sadly they don't allow cameras in the theatre :(

The piece was called "A Thousand Years of Peace". I'm not sure what it was about, but it could've involved themes of gender roles, violence, and world peace. I'm not sure, but the whole show was pretty trippy with the cool light effects and electronic music. At one point all of the dancers had a book in each hand and one in their mouth and danced for FIFTEEN minutes with a book in their mouth, doing complicated danced moves non-stop. At one point there were dancers in a bubble of saran wrap, tons of different flags from different countries, and even two baby lambs were brought on stage! Such a random show, but a beautiful and brilliant performance nonetheless.

This week is chock-full of work, school, more work, and other random activities.
FUN FACT: the 7th Harry Potter movie comes out in the Netherlands before London OR the United States. Jealous much?

FUN FACT: A girl in my Dutch class named her dog Febo de Lekkerste. if you don't recall, Febo is a late-night munchie spot where you can get fried snacks out of this vending machine thing. A very funny name for a dog.

funny Dutch words:
moeten=should
moetje=child out of wedlock (rationale behind this word: a child out of wedlock is called a 'moetje' because the parents SHOULD'VE or SHOULD get married with their kid. amusing concept.)
hand=hand
schoen=shoe
handschoen=glove (literally: hand shoe)
vuilnisbak=trash can
hond=dog
vuilnisbakkenhond=mixed breed dog (slang)

Days 75-82: Dijon imports, Museumnacht, and more!

Bonjour from the Dam!

These past few days have been super busy. This past weekend (Thurs-Sunday) Caroline Riina and her lovely friend Hannah came from Dijon, France to stay with me in Amsterdam for a few days. We went to the Van Gogh Museum, the I Amsterdam sign, the Anne Frank Huis, Waterlooplein, and to MuseumNacht, among various other adventures.

Caroline and Hannah at the "m" in i amsterdam

They even had their first Dutch pancakes- a real treat to be able to document.
remnants of our pancakes.

Museum Nacht was this past Saturday, and all of the museums in Amsterdam were open until late (around 2am for most of them) and with your ticket you could access all of them for free! They had their exhibits, plus food, drinks, and good music. At the Hermitage Museum, where they have an Alexander the Great exhibition currently, we made it just in time for the "Larp your heart out" event. For those of you who do not know what LARP-ing is, it means "Live Action Role Play". So there were people dressed as Alexander, his ladies, and various other people from Alexander's time, dead and alive. They were interacting with the museum visitors. My friend Becca was even attempting to negotiate with Alexander himself!
We also went to the FOAM (museum for photography), the Botanical Gardens (where they were selling bugs for people to eat...intriguing), and the NEMO. At the NEMO, the science museum, they had everything from kid's games to a sex education exhibit (where Caroline and I could try out the tongues box where you "french kiss"! see picture below for explanation.)
note: did not intentionally make a creepy/pervy face in this.

We also got to just sit outside on the roof and see all of the city lit up. It was, and still is, a magnificent view of Amsterdam.

The view of the city from the roof of the NEMO.

Overall it was a stellar weekend. Pretty good weather, good friends, good activities!

However, this week has been stressful with papers, presentations, Dutch classes, and the like. Not to mention that today there has been the WORST weather since I've arrived! 40 degrees fahrenheit, freezing rain, gusts of wind that are so powerful that they will literally knock you off your bike. Or the wind will be blowing directly toward you, so even if you are pedaling as fast as you can, you aren't moving forward at all. Quite a challenge.

This weekend/week have been great successes in the Dutch language category (NOT including the class itself.) I have been able to communicate with various strangers only in Dutch. They were basic questions, like "where would you like to sit?" (café) or "who is the last person in line?" (filling up tram cards), or "how many siblings do you have?" I have been (somewhat) coherent in my Dutch speaking capabilities, which was very fun!

While the weather has been stinky here today, I did receive a FANTASTIC letter from the one and only Sienna Beckman! It was such a great way to wake up and to get this letter. I apologize to everyone for being so TERRIBLE at writing postcards (current # of postcards sent=0. sorry.)
But I do miss you all so darn much.
Here is a picture that Sienna sent me of the whole gang playing the TRAIN GAME!!!! Which no one here in my program or in the Netherlands for that matter understands. Thank you again Sienna for the letter, the photo AND the temporary tattoos!! I will wear them at the most appropriate time, just for you ;)
taken from my phone. This photo (along with the postcard about the two fall shows at Oxy) is stuck to my wall right above my bed. LOVE to Sienna, Zoe, Alyson, Aylia, Tristan, and Eric. (and to everyone else, obviously.)

After my Dutch class tonight (6:30-9:30, ugh) I am FREE from classes until Monday- huzzah! Friday night I am going to see Ratatat live (SO. EXCITED.) and then perhaps I will get to see a cool ballet performance on Saturday night (ballet + dubstep/electronic music=bliss).

Either way, I am looking forward to this weekend!

Funny Dutch words:

lawaaierig (la-VAI-er-ig)=noisy (ps. very hard word to pronounce!)
geboren en getogen=born and raised
zand=sand (so simple, right?)
huis=home
dier=animal
huisdier=pet (literal: house animal)
knuffelen=to cuddle, snuggle

Dag!!

Days 69-74

So I left off last time (Last thursday, to be exact) saying that I was going to an English tea room. Well, I did, and it was so fabulously English! Betty's is in a quaint town of Harrogate, with some groovy shopping. Their main "site to see" is Betty's Tea Room, a classy three-story restaurant with floral print and classy English patrons everywhere. They even came around with a delicious cake trolley, chock-full of different types of cakes, tarts, and other yummy sweets. I opted for the Yorkshire rarebit with bacon, which is essentially bread under a layer of baked cheese and Worcestershire sauce, paired with chutney. I went for the caramelized onion and tomato chutneys, but they had a ton of others. Those Brits love their chutney!
Camilla and I outside of the tea room
Rarebit (partially eaten already, was too impatient to wait to take a pic!) with (clockwise): bacon, a bit of caramelized onion chutney, tomato chutney. NOM
cake trolley. Wish they had one at school.
the outside of the tea room.

After some wandering around Harrogate, we went back to good ol' Leeds. Camilla and I saw The Social Network, the movie about the creation of Facebook, that night. It was actually a well-done movie, and it was cool to see how Facebook, something that basically everyone that I know, and probably everyone who reads this, knows about or obsesses about constantly. Nice way to end Thursday.

On Friday Camilla gave me a tour of Leeds, where we went to the Corn Exchange, which has a cool restaurant and some shops inside, and we also went to the shopping area and walked around for awhile. I also tried roasted chesnuts for the first time. A great chilly day treat!



Camilla also took me to this trendy sushi place on top of a cool Leeds department store called Yo! Sushi (yes, the ! is included in the actual title of the restaurant). It was a rotating sushi bar with bright colors and all you can drink green tea.


The destruction we did on the sushi plates. So tasty.

That night we all went out to one of the University bars on campus to an event called "Fruity", which is a weekly tradition for Leeds students. They turn their Uni (short for university, fyi) terrace/restaurant into a bar/club for the night. Everyone was dressed in costumes which was a pleasant surprise to see, since none of the Dutch know what the heck Halloween is.

I flew back to the Netherlands on Saturday after a fantastic stay with Camilla and her lovely posh British roommates. I made it back just in time for more Halloween festivities with my CIEE crew. We gallivanted around the Dam, went to Paradiso for some boogying, etc etc.

Now, I am back to school work and the school routine. It was nice to have a mini break from classes and school! Also, I only have 1 and a half months left here. THAT'S IT. It is already November. I have finals in the beginning of December. I can't even fathom leaving this place. I feel as if I have just gotten into a good routine, and I will be so disoriented when I have to be removed from my Dutch bubble and when I plop right back into the American lifestyle. I'm not sure how I'll react to it.

I had classes all day today, and so now I am VRIJ (FREE) for the weekend- huzzah!
Tomorrow my good friend Caroline Riina and her friend will be staying with me in AMSTERDAM for the weekend. I am so excited to see her since it feels like I haven't seen her beautiful face in years (that could even be true, it's been so long since I've seen her!). Will blog more about it later!

Much love to all back in the States.

funny Dutch words:
air mattress=luchtbed (literally: air bed)

Dooi!!

Days 63- 68

So, since I left off with the Anne Frank House on Friday, I never even mentioned what I did for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday night I went with a big bunch of kids to Panama, one of the many nightclubs in the city. This past weekend was the Amsterdam Dance Event, where there were so many DJ's playing at tons of different groovy locations in the Dam. We were supposed to see Kaskade (who didn't show up, epic fail.) But the other amazing and hip Djs were Martin Solveig, Bassjackers, La Faille, Sidney Samson, and Dada LiFe. So much good music, so many great people to be with. I also have developed a new love for techno/electronic music. Just sayin'.

Sunday through Tuesday were basically uneventful, just doing work and other mundane things. I did go to the Dappermarkt again to pick up some yummy food. I also went to the carnival in Dam square on Monday night. All of Dam Square was taken over by a massive ferris wheel and other cool but super-fast and spinny rides. So I opted not to go on those.

*FUN FACT: while rides usually last for no more than five minutes (typically) in America, a normal fast spinning upside-down crazy ride can last for over seven minutes. Too much time being spun around for me- noooo thank you.

I also got to hang out in Plantage Muidergracht (one of the other dorm buildings) where they have their own tv WITH CABLE!! Usually I'm not a huge TV afficionado, nor am I completely obsessed with it. But, it was sort of relaxing to just flip through the channels (most of them were in Dutch), and to just hang out. The simple things in life.

But, this is where things get ultra-hip: Right now, as I am writing this to you, I am in Leeds, England with the fantastic Camilla Rix and her posh friends in her house. I arrived into the quaint Leeds Airport Wednesay morning, after a long and amusing flight next to Richard from Leeds. Richard from Leeds appeared to be about mid/late forties, British (obviously) and flying home from Bucharest, Romania (layover in Amsterdam) where he will be working in a few months. We chatted about the maps in the back of the SkyMall magazine, us swapping stories about our travels, asking about where we would travel if we had a million dollars, etc etc. It was only an hour plane ride, but it still reinforced my thought that all people are just wonderful. I love people, meeting, seeing, talking, watching, and laughing with them. When we all left the plane, we shook hands and we parted ways. I wanted to say 'Tot ziens' to him, which means 'until me meet again.'
So I landed in Leeds and was picked up by Camilla and her friend. I also was given a glorious tour of the University of Leeds campus (she lives about five minutes from it.) Their Uni (as the Brits call it) was beautiful, and had such a college-campus feel, unlike at Universiteit van Amsterdam. We then relaxed and meandered, while I also got to meet a lot of her cool friends, who have all been so friendly to me. After siestas and showers, a big group of people went out to dinner for another one of their friend's birthdays, where they had delicious fajitas and yummy Brazilian mojito-type drinks. Such a delcious meal with uber posh Brits. After we went to one of the on-campus clubs, where there were a bunch of other students just going out for their Wednesday night. Even though all of the kids kept saying how lame and not- crowded it was, I still thought it was pretty packed! Maybe that's just because I'm used to Oxy events, where no one attends... but it was a lovely night overall.

Right now I am sitting at Camilla's desk while she is doing a work seminar-thing in Harrogate. In a little bit I will be joining Camilla with her friends Nicky and Holly, maybe more, in Harrogate, where apparently it is more of the English rural countryside. We also get to go to Betty's Tea Room, where they serve traditional finger sandwiches and little cups of tea- so dainty, so English.

Well, I must be off, so I will keep you updated on the rest of my English adventure.

Cheerio!

FUN FACT: quid is the English slang for 'bucks', ie. twenty quid=twenty pounds

Days 54-62

Hallo hallo!

These past two weeks have been jam-packed and stress-inducing with tests, projects, presentations, icky weather, cold-ness, sick-ness, etc etc etc. I have been quite stressed and sometimes homesick here due to illness and so much work, and have not been functioning properly (example A: as I was just writing this bit, my friend spilled her tea, and five minutes after I just knocked over a candle and got melted wax all over the floor. excellent.) But it has also been full of exciting adventures in Europe.
Note: this entry will be very long, rambling, and including topics and events that are quite random. You have been warned.

Last weekend, Saturday through Sunday (october 16/17) the whole CIEE gang boarded a bus and trekked down to Ghent, a beautiful city in Belgium. We first had lunch at a little restaurant that could barely fit twenty people, let alone forty plus college students and other miscellaneous adults/children in our posse. We originally thought we were just going to get bread and cheese (which would have been a very sad lunch for us...) we also got soup, so crisis averted.

our sad lunch pre-soup.

We then took a lovely tour of an old castle in Ghent, which was around since the Medieval times. It was chock-full of secret passageways, old weapons (including swords that were over 2 meters long, old muskets, etc) wells, torture chambers, guillotines, windy staircases, and stunning views of the city from the top.

View from the top.

We then had ample free time to wander the city, eat food, soak up the Ghent lifestyle.
*FUN FACT: The Dutch speak Dutch. The Belgians speak Flemish. Flemish is a dialect of Dutch, so comparing the two languages is like comparing English spoken in America and English spoken in England- same language, different accent/dialect.
We also walked around and went through this cool back alley full of awesome graffiti.
That night we went out to dinner to this lovely restaurant called Amadeus where they had an assortment of delicious food. I ordered their "All you can eat" ribs. And when I say all you can eat, I MEAN all you can eat. Literally, the minute it looked like one of us was remotely close to finishing a rack, BAM a waiter would slap another rack on top of your plate. I never thought there would be any "all you can eat" options available other than in the USA. interesting... We all then, as one big CIEE gang, went out to a little bar in the sleepy city of Ghent, and danced the night away.

Sunday we trekked up to Brugge/Bruges/Brugges (however you spell it, not quite sure myself!) and had a quasi-dull tour with a tour guide. We were told that we were going on a chocolate tour, but sadly we only went to a chocolate store for like ten minutes. Pretty disappointing, but at this place (and at almost all of the chocolate shops in Brugge) they had the most savory, rich, melt-in-your-mouth chocolates. I even tried one that was wasabi flavored- strange but actually quite good!
NOM NOM NOM

We also went on a cool tour of a brewery, where we got to taste malt (tasted like nothing), and learned how it was brewed. We then got yummy samples of it- such good quality. Much better than any drinks at college back in the States!

On our bus ride back to good ol' Amsterdam, we watched the Dutch film "Alles is Liefde", translated into "All is love". It is the Dutch equivalent to "Love Actually", and it takes place around Sinterklaas, not Christmas. Sinterklaas is on December 5 (I will explain more about this glorious and yet slightly controversial holiday as the date gets closer), and it was a cool movie- I recommend that everyone watches it. It definitely doesn't compare to the original, but it is a close second.
On the topic of Sinterklaas, there are already tons of Sinterklaas / Christmas decorations up all around the city! It is nuts that they are already starting to decorate for December 5. It also makes me extremely happy because I looooooooove Christmas and the whole holiday season. So I get to celebrate Sinterklaas here and then as soon as I get home I have Christmas- yahoo!

The rest of last week was fairly uneventful, aside from being sick (ew), having a stupid Dutch test (which was much more difficult than I had thought, was quite disappointing to study so much and then practically fail. Awesome.) But on Wednesday I got to do three groovy things.
1. I got to go to the Dappermarkt, which is another outdoor market with basically everything, but it was a ten-minute walk from my dorm. So convenient, right? I got an amazing assortment of olives, bread, and the best feta I've had from a nearby Turkish market. The food just keeps getting better and better here...
2. On the topic of food, I also was invited to one of my CIEE ladie's houses- Annabel's- for a home-cooked meal. While I was late and mis-managed my time to get there, I made the twenty minute train ride, the 10 minute walk to the bus stop, the fifteen minute bus ride to the random stop in the yuppy-ish area outside of Haarlem (where Annabel lives) to be met by Annabel, with bike in tow. She graciously dinked me (where I sit side-saddle on the back of the bike and hold on for dear life) down the paved road, down the narrow little dirt road, over the quaint bridge and creek, and through the luscious fields to her rustic country house. It was like an old farm house in the more rural areas of Maryland. Annabel made me and four other kids- Zach, Patti, Katie, and Mandy- a traditional Dutch meal, with a leek pie (yum), carrots and potatoes mashed together, paired with applesauce (scrumptious), sausages, and a yummy pudding thing called 'fla" which was SO good. It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal and to enjoy it with some chill people in a beautiful and more rural place in the Netherlands.
3. When I got home from this adventure, I also skyped with the one and only Erika Nacim for a little bit while she was studying in the library. She also was so kind to show me around via laptop to see everyone else who was studying. So I got to see Alyssa, Calvin, Alberto, Alex, Ashley, and SO many other people !! It was so nice to see Oxy again- I really miss everyone there so much.

Speaking of Oxy reunions, on Friday (Oct 22) Lauren Cooley and her lovely boyfriend Tyler were in Amsterdam for the weekend, so I got to go to the Anne Frank house with them. I also got to reunite with a bunch of other Oxy girls in the process as well! So much reuniting- it was a great feeling. The Anne Frank House was absolutely incredible and so moving. While we had to wait for a good thirty minutes to get inside, it was completely worth it. I had been to the house in high school, when the GFS hockey team all went to Amsterdam during Euro-Tour. I had forgotten how moving and emotional the place was. I will never do this place justice by describing it, but it is just the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during the Nazi Occupation in World War II. Many parts of the house look the same from when Anne herself was living there- magazine clippings on the wall, pictures, etc. They also had quotes from her diary all around the museum, which were just incredible. All I can say is, if you are ever in Amsterdam, you HAVE to come here. No question about it. One quote that was from Otto Frank, Anne's father, really touched me and made me think. It was "Om een toekomst op te bouwen, moet je het verleden kennen" (1967). It means "to build the future, you must know the past." One of Otto Frank's main reasons for starting the Anne Frank House was to bring awareness of not only the Holocaust and the Nazis, but also to inspire young people to understand the past. It was meant for a gathering place for young people to learn and to work together to make the world a better place.

Days 47-53

This past weekend has been lovely, exciting, and relaxing all at once. It started off Thursday night after my Dutch language class when I got to skype with Zoe and LT! A great way to start my weekend. Thursday and Friday nights consisted of frolicking through Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein, meeting new people, dancing, and other miscellaneous merriment. Friday afternoon a bunch of us went down to the more southern part of the city (about 20-ish minutes away) to the Albery Cuypmarkt. It is like a huge outdoor flea market, except that it is at least two blocks worth of different stands with clothing, bike supplies, food, produce, bedding, shoes, and anything else you could possibly imagine.
A view of Albert Cuypstraat.

At Albert Cuypmarkt they also have a home-made stroopwafel stand. So, naturally, we each got some. so yummy!
It was fun walking around, looking at all of the different stands of absolutely anything and everything. We then walked toward Museumplein, where the Van Gogh, Stedlijk, Rijks, and other museums are.
FUN FACT: many of the streets in this area are named after artists (eg. Johannes Vermeerstraat).
We happened to walk past the American Embassy there as well. We knew that it was the American Embassy because it was the only building around that was surrounded by security guards, cameras, and huge gates. A real welcoming place. This was the first time that any of us had seen an area so restricted. Very few other areas in Amsterdam were like this.
so out of place. Makes Americans look like idiots here. yet again.

On Saturday Becca and I frolicked through the Eastern side of the city, toward Plantage Muidergracht and the Artis Zoo. Right outside of Prins Hendrikkade (where I live) there was a big rowing competition going on. Becca and I meandered over there, where they had live music and so many different people in different rowing colors. We then continued to wander the streets and we eventually made it to Oosterpark. It is a small park, but it was very beautiful. We saw so many blue herons and other lovely creatures. Unfortunately, we went around 6:00pm, so it was still light out but it seemed as though the homeless people and sketchies had come out as well. There were hoards of homeless men (some presumably druggies) just lounging on the grass, most of the time minding their own business. It was such a gorgeous day- the perfect sort of day to go exploring.

Sunday and Monday were fairly uneventful, full of homework, classes, more homework, etc etc. However, YESTERDAY (tuesday) was quite exciting. I got to go to the qualifying match for the European Cup 2012- Netherlands vs. Sweden. It was SUCH a cool experience! It was a group of about fifteen or twenty of us from the program all decked out in orange, surrounded by thousands more decked out in orange. All day on Tuesday all you could see were people on the streets wearing their team colors- blue and yellow for Sweden; Orange, red, white, and blue for Netherlands. The metro station was packed with crazed and rambunctious soccer fans. Even though we had the highest seats up in the stadium, we had an awesome view of the field. The Dutch annihilated the Swedes, 4-1, with some amazing goals by the Dutch (and one nice one from Sweden...) It was such a fun night. The only professional sports games I've been to were baseball, so this was such a new thing for me.



Funny Dutch words:
Snoepen (pronounced SNOOP-en)=to eat sweets
koffie verkeerd = café latte, literally: false/wrong coffee
voetballen=to football (ie play football/soccer)

Days 44-46

(while I may have already discussed days from the weekend in the previous post, I forgot to mention these little delightful adventures. Just thought I'd include them, so bear with me.)

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.