Slipping through mud and elbowing my way through orange people.

My weekends have been busy since I got back from London, and they will continue to be busy pretty much until I go home! Here are the highlights since my last blog post, some big, some small, all fun!

My friends and I met several cool people who were staying in the same hostel as us in London, and one girl was stopping in Amsterdam about a week later, so one afternoon while she was here we met up and explored the city for a bit. One place we visited was the Electric Ladyland Museum - a museum of fluorescent art. The museum is under an art gallery, and was made by a man who loves fluorescent art and collects it, makes some of his own, and also collects various fluorescent things. I thought the whole concept seemed a bit odd at first, but once the museum owner started giving us a tour I was really glad I had come along. He taught us about the history of blacklights and blacklight paint (did you know that the man who invented blacklight paint eventually moved to Cleveland, OH with his brother to establish the DayGlo paint company? And that Cleveland was one of the first places to make blacklight parties popular way back in the 1930s and 40s?). He also taught us about different types of naturally fluorescing minerals (did you know New Jersey is the fluorescent mineral capital of the world?). The pièce de résistance of the museum was a piece that looked somewhat like a cave, that the owner had made himself, and that you could actually climb into:

 

 Trippy.

Two weekends ago I went to an island in the north of Holland with CIEE, called Schiermoonikoog. It's primarily a vacation island - only 950 people live there permanently, but the population will grow to about 4 or 5 thousand in the summers. The island had a lot of nature and open spaces; I love living in the city, but it was very relaxing to get away for the weekend and breathe some of that salty sea air I adore. It was never warm enough to swim :( but we still managed to fit in a lot. The second day we were there we went mudflat hiking - when the tide goes out there's large expanses of mud you can walk through. I had bought a cheap pair of sneakers at a market before I went there, which was good because my shoes were completely destroyed after just a few minutes of walking. It was quite a challenge to walk without falling, but minus a few close calls, I made it through unscathed! And although my feet were cold, the sneakers came in handy for not getting stuck, which a lot of people in boots did. That evening (after a nice hot shower) we had a bonfire on the beach, which was a lot of fun. We made s'mores (of course) but instead of using graham crackers we used stroopwafels (Dutch cookies made of two thin wafers with a layer of caramel in between) which were pure sugary deliciousness. We got lucky with a clear night, and were able to see lots of stars. The next day we had a bike tour of the island. It was neat to see all of the landscape of it and learn some of the history, but we had a bit of bad luck with the weather. People in Cincinnati (myself included) often complain that in Cincinnati you can have all four seasons in one week. On this island we got all four seasons in a day. It was chilly and rainy at times (spring), chilly and sunny (fall), warm enough to wear short sleeves (summer) and there was one point where we got caught in a hail storm for five minutes (winter). Pelting by ice aside, it was a nice weekend to unwind and I enjoyed myself a lot!

 

Wiiiiide open spaaaaces.

 

Mud, as far as the eye can see. 

 

Dirty feet. 

 

There were lots of sand dunes. I sprinted up that one. You may take a moment to be impressed. 

The next weekend I stayed in Amsterdam, but it was still very busy as there were concerts, Queensday, and a visit from my friends Morgen and Josi! I got to see some good electronic music, with a Major Lazer concert on Friday and a Skrillex/Pretty Lights concert on Saturday. We visited the Anne Frank house on Saturday, which was really interesting to see, and I learned a lot about her and her time in hiding. It was actually quite impressive to see - the secret annex was a lot bigger than I would have imagined, but at the same time felt quite small when you considered how many people were living there and had to be together at all times. On Sunday we went to the famous "I Amsterdam" statue, and I tried to climb onto the "m" at the end of "Amsterdam" to take a picture - I succeeded with some difficulty, and put on quite a show for some amused tourists (I saw them laughing at me. I would have like to see them try and do a better job. Those letters were slippery...). We then visited the Van Gogh museum and got to see a lot of his most famous works. I even bought a print of this one: http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=1628&lang=en. Then it was time to gear up for Queensday (aka Koninginnedag). Queensday is a national holiday that celebrates the birthday of the queen - Queen Beatrix's birthday is actually in January, but since it would be no fun to be outside all day in the middle of winter, the holiday continues to be celebrated on the birthday of the former queen, Beatrix's mother. There's a lot of stuff going on on Queen's day - for starters it is the one day a year you can sell things on the street without a license, so people kind of use it as a garage sale, and the streets are covered with little stalls. There's also plenty of outdoor concerts to go to, and everybody goes all out and dresses up in orange, the national color. We got really lucky and had perfect weather the whole day - I was even able to wear shorts!

 

Strugglin'.

 

Success!

 

 

At one of the outdoor concerts - so much orange!

  

Morgen, Josi and I in our Queensday gear. 

Tomorrow I travel to Belgium for the first time in five years, then next weekend I have more friends visiting, and the weekend after that I am planning on going to Prague so stay tuned!

Cheers, London!

Now that my class load is lighter, I finally have some time to start traveling! This last weekend I went to London with two of my friends - we had a long weekend since we had Monday off for Easter. I got there after my friends, late on Thursday evening, so I didn't have time to see any sights that day, but I did get to navigate the underground all by myself so that was an adventure on its own. It was actually easier than I thought it would be, and London's public transport system, I learned over the next few days, is really quite incredible.

My first full day there we started out visiting Buckingham Palace. We tried to see the changing of the guard, but there were so many people there we couldn't see much, but were able to stand where we could see some of the new guards walking in and the old ones walking out. This still gave us a nice overview of the range of funny looking hats there is to be seen at Buckingham Palace. Afterward we went to King's Cross station, where it is possible to take a picture at Platform 9 3/4 (put up for Harry Potter nerds such as myself). Next we went to the Natural History Museum, which was really nice. We had to rush through it a bit since we were short on time, and this museum is HUGE. But we had time to see a nice exhibit on dinosaurs, so that was fun. After that (yes, this was a busy day) we walked through Harrod's, London's famous, fancy department store. And when I say fancy, I mean FANCY. Walking through the women's clothing department, for example, there is a section for just about every major international designer, and most of the clothes don't have price tags on them (and if you have to ask, you can't afford it). There was also a floor where you could buy a toy poodle puppy for £1700 and a dog bed for £1800 (yeah, that confused us too...). But it was a lot of fun to walk through and see all of the displays - the store at times felt like a museum itself!

 At Platform 9 3/4!

Harrod's from the outside

On Saturday we started the day off in Camden, and visited a market there. This market was unreal, like no other market I'd ever been to before. We got some delicious Chinese food from a stand, and walked around to all the different stalls, most of which sold vintage, handmade, or unique clothing. It was a major case of sensory overload, and the market was so big we didn't even get to see it all! Then we went to see the play Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which was really cool. It's London's longest running play, and has been playing for 60 years. At the end of the play the actors came out on stage and announced "This is London's longest running play, and we want to keep the mystery alive. So please keep the answer of whodunit a secret." So you're not gonna find out who the killer is no matter how much you bug me. Even if you bring me cookies. Nope. Not telling you. 

 

This was just a fraction of the market. A very small fraction. 

 

St. Martin's Theather - Where we saw the play. 

On Sunday I did some sightseeing and visited Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, etc. I didn't go on the London Eye since I had been there before with my family, so I just walked around while one of my friends who had never been to London went on it. We then got some food from a nearby market, including one of the best hamburgers I think I've ever had in my life, and a crepe with Nutella in it (also delicious). We went to see the Tower Bridge as well, and in the evening we looked for a piece by the graffiti artist Banksy, which was a fun little treasure hunt.

 

London Eye with Big Ben in the distance. 

 At Tower Bridge.

Banksy's "Falling Shopper"

On Monday we had just enough time to visit the Imperial War Museum before it was time to head back to Amsterdam. Even though I had a great time in London, I was glad to get back to Amsterdam - it feels like a second home!

Delft and the zoo

I just realized it's been two weeks since I last posted...time really is flying here. It doesn't help that I've got exams and papers coming up, which is leaving me somewhat stressed out, BUT still enjoying Amsterdam. I am very much looking forward to next block when I will only have two classes, and still no class on Fridays, which will give me plenty of time to travel, visit museums, etc. I have done a few unique things since my last post though, which I will detail....now.

1. Day trip to Delft. Our program brought us on a day trip to Delft, which is an old city about an hour's drive outside of Amsterdam. It was fairly small, but very pretty. The first thing we did when we were there was take a "kickbike" tour of the city. A kickbike is a cross between a bike and a Razor scooter - they were all bright yellow and we looked incredibly touristy kicking around the city in those in groups of 20, but it was still a fun way to get around, and quite a decent workout! The city is pretty rich in history, since William of Orange used to live there, and it is also the traditional burial place for members of the royal family. We also visited the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) which is called such because it is about 100 years newer than the Old Church, but is still about 500 years old. We got to climb all the way to the top, which was nice, because the view was pretty, but also terrifying, since I have a severe fear of falling to my death. There was no covering up top, just a waist high wall between you and long and terrifying descent to the concrete sidewalks 300 or so feet below you. As long as I stood with my back against the church though I was (mostly) ok, and only attracted mild stares from people when I inched along walkway whilst clinging to the church wall and laughing nervously. Afterward we had some free time so I walked around the market that they were having that day and got an espresso and sat on the plain and people watched :)

Nieuwe Kerk - we went all the way to the top!!

 

 A pretty view during the kickbike tour

 

 Definitely not hyperventilating. 

 

 So high up...

 

 So very, very high up...

 

The kickbikes!

 

I try to take artsy pictures of coffee.

2. The zoo. It was absolutely gorgeous weather out last Thursday, so a couple of friends and I decided to go to Artis Zoo, which is only a block away from where I live. It was warm (and by warm I mean like 60 degrees), so naturally, I decided to wear shorts. Most of the locals and tourists were still walking around bundled up in jackets and scarves, so I got some weird looks (my shorts were also bright yellow, which probably didn't help) but I didn't really care, since I was so sun deprived and excited about the coming of spring. The zoo was very nice, and it's only 3 euros to get in for students, so I will definitely be going back! We didn't realize how big it was because it's so close to the city, but we were walking around for about an hour and a half and still didn't get a chance to see everything! Also my camera died before I got any pictures of the red panda, so I apologize for my lack of panda-ness, but here are a few animals:

 

SHORTS. and monkeys.

 

Llamas

 

My namesake, the codfish (in Dutch - kabeljauw, proper spelling in Portuguese - bacalhau) 

 

A gorilla

 

A sea lion

Quarter of the way through my Amsterdam experience! Wait, what?

It's hard to believe that I've been in Amsterdam for one whole month now. If feels both like I've been here for a year and like I just got here last week all at the same time. Things are still going well though! I hope I don't jinx anything by writing this, but the weather has been quite decent - chilly (but what can you expect from Amsterdam in March), but with much less rain than I had mentally prepared myself for coming over here. I don't have any major events to talk about since my last post, so I'll just talk about bits and pieces of random things that I've glossed over in previous posts.

1) My Dutch class. I'm enrolled in a pretty intense Dutch class - the course is only 6 weeks long and we meet Mondays and Thursdays from 18:30 to 21:30 (6:30-9:30 PM - along with Celsius I've converted to military time. I also write my dates backwards now. Today is 1/3/2012.) I had to take a placement test and tested into the advanced level because of my prior knowledge of Dutch/Flemish. When the first class started and we were going around just speaking and introducing ourselves I was feeling pretty confident, like "Yeah, I can totally ace this class!" And then we did a grammar exercise. Now my grammar is usually pretty good, but definitely not perfect. Just speaking though it's easier to get away with small mistakes, and some grammar elements only come out in writing, so I never learned those at all. When it came to doing grammar exercises out of a book though and having them corrected in front of a class, well, that's just a whole 'nother story. Not that I'll let it faze me! Learning and practicing Dutch was one of my primary reasons for coming here, and though I know I'll be overwhelmed at times, I'm excited to improve and then use my skills around the city and with the local people I meet. Even though it's three hours, the class goes by quickly, there's always so much to do. It also helps that my teacher is nice and keeps the class interesting and varied.

2) Bikes. I know in one of my previous posts I said I'd talk about biking at a later time and now I've got room for it! The prevalence of bikes here in Amsterdam is insane, but it's a really great system. Not having a bike here or having a car instead would both be incredibly inconvenient. I knew I'd be getting a bike when I came over here but I was a bit nervous, because I was picturing the American biking system. If I'm biking around town in the US I can only bike on the sidewalk (where pedestrians hate me and I am at constant risk of running into trash cans, telephone poles, etc.) or on the street (where cars hate me and I fear for my life). Here though there is ALWAYS a bike path that is completely separate from both the sidewalk and the street. Every once in a while it will combine with the road but then there's still plenty of room for cars and bikes to ride side by side. Parking here looks like it'd be even worse than in Clifton, and the government makes it tough to own a car what with taxes and all. The easiest way to spot a tourist is if somebody is walking on the bike path like it's a sidewalk. The first rule of Amsterdam is: You do not walk on the bike path. Locals do not care if you are in the way, they will ring their bell and continue at normal speed and you have to get out of the way or you will get run over. Since I'm living here for four months I consider myself an honorary local so I can do this now too :)

3) Food. If I could pick two foods to describe the Dutch diet it would be bread and cheese, and not necessarily at the same time. For example in one of my classes I saw someone who I knew to be a native Dutchman pull out a bag of what appeared to be hamburger buns. I was waiting for him to pull out another bag with toppings (you know, because he didn't want his bread to get soggy before he ate his sandwich, which is perfectly logical) but no. He just pulled out a hamburger bun and started eating it. Now don't get me wrong I love bread, a lot. But unless it's a baguette or something, I like my bread to have something on it. It doesn't have to be much, just some Nutella or a slice of prosciutto. I haven't had too much other food shock though, since carbs and cheese are two things that I thoroughly enjoy so for the most part the Dutch diet and I get along just fine.

And now since that was a lot of text here come some pictures!

 

The view from my room again, minus ice and plus swans!

One of my friends and I visited the NEMO Science Center over the weekend. Technically it's a children's museum, but that didn't stop us from having a good time! 

The science center was near a pier

 

I was able to get my nerd on here.

 Panoramic view of the city

Classes, canal walking, and more!

I've just finished my second week of classes, so now I know a bit more what they're all about. The classes I'm taking are Dutch Social Policy, Introduction to Conflict Studies, Environment and Sustainable Development, and Advanced Dutch Language (this last class is actually only starting next week). So far my favorite class is Dutch Social Policy - it talks about the evolution of all the different policies of the Netherlands on everything from drugs to prostitution to euthanasia. It's interesting to compare how different the policies are here compared to the US, to see what works and what doesn't. We also get to go on field trips to see the social policies in action and to hear about people who know about them first hand. For example this past week we went to a Smartshop (where a wide range of drugs, including mushrooms, are sold) and heard from two people that not only worked there, but are also involved in drug and addiction research. Their take was that instead of banning all drugs outright, there should be a policy of "harm reduction", that is making it so that people that want to take drugs can do so in a safe and well-informed manner. This is done by educating the people that come into Smartshops about different drugs, and providing safe places for people to take them, etc. Environment and Sustainable Development and Introduction to Conflict Studies are set up similarly in that I will have one two hour lecture per week, and one work group session with about 20 students where we'll discuss literature and do group activities. I feel a bit out of my element sometimes in these classes, since I have a neuroscience background and most of the students in these classes have more related majors. However, I am learning a lot, and it's interesting to hear the perspectives and knowledge of people from other areas. In Conflict Studies for example, we'll talk a fair amount about current world affairs, and it's nice to be able to understand some things that I hear in the news better.

It's warmed up now finally, although that does mean it's started raining. It's currently about 8 degrees Celsius (that's about 40 Fahrenheit - I'm trying to convert!). Besides the lack of rain though, there was one big bonus to the constant cold, and that was that the canals froze! Unfortunately, they just didn't freeze enough to do the elfstedentocht, which is where you can skate between 11 cities in one of the northern provinces along all the canals! Even so, there were plenty of canals frozen enough to walk on, and I even got to skate! (Not in Amsterdam though, in a small city outside). Skating is an important Dutch past time, and as soon as the canals are frozen enough, all the locals are out skating and even throwing parties on the canals.

 

Some canal walkers

  That's me!                     

 

View of the frozen canal from my room

Last weekend we went on a day trip with CIEE to a place called Zaanse Schanse, which is a town outside of Amsterdam with a lot of windmills. It used to be an industry hotspot, and it's been preserved as a museum town. It was really pretty, and some of the windmills are still used to make products - we got to see the inside of one that saws trees for lumber.

 We got to see how wooden shoes are made!

 Windmills

 Inside a windmill

 Zaanse Schanse is also where I got to skate on a canal!

That's all for now - tot ziens! (Until later!)

 

First week in Amsterdam!

It has been officially one week since I have been in Amsterdam and BOY HAS IT BEEN A WEEK. I feel like I've been here for a month already!! This will probably be one of my lengthier posts, since there's a lot to tell. And since I haven't taken too many pictures (sorry, everyone) it'll be pretty word laden, but I'll try to break it up (and keep it interesting!). Hopefully next week I'll have some more pictures that I can upload to show the city, where I'm living, etc.

I got here last Monday, at about 8 in the morning, Amsterdam time. I was able to sleep on the plane because I got two seats to myself (victory!) which was tremendously helpful for getting through the day. The first day was CIEE orientation, although nothing too intense since we were all tired, followed by a dinnertime canal cruise. It was the first chance I really had to see the city and I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it was. Everything looks like it could be on a postcard! The next day was more orientation, followed by a walking tour of the city. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was so busy drinking it all in I kept forgetting to take my camera out. The next day (Wednesday) was even more orientation, but we did finally get to move into our dorms! I really like where I'm living a lot. I'm near a few of my classes so that's nice, and the set up is good too. It's a suite with 6 bedrooms, and then we share two bathrooms and a kitchen and living room. I'm living with five boys, which was a bit of a surprise at first, but they're all so nice and have made me feel at home, so I'm really looking forward to the rest of the semester! My room has a gorgeous view over a canal, so it's really fun when I wake up in the mornings to throw open the curtains. Thursday began yet another orientation, for the International Student Network. This orientation was less practical though, and a lot more getting to know the other international students. I lucked out and was put in a good orientation group - we all get along well and had really nice "coaches" (as the local UvA students who showed us around were called). There were lots of getting to know each other activities, and they threw us a couple of parties so that everyone would have a chance to get to know everyone else.

I started classes today, but I'll write more about those later when I've had all of them and know more what they'll be like. I will though make a one culture shock comment, and that is that it is VERY easy to get lost in Amsterdam. The streets aren't set up in blocks, like New York is for example, so if you take a wrong turn, you can end up getting very turned around, as I have already a few times. This might not be so bad if it weren't for the fact that it feels like only about half of the streets have signs on them, and when they do they're hidden away on the side of a building. I've started getting my bearings a bit by now though so hopefully in a week or two I'll be a pro at navigating the city!

I have even more to tell (about biking, food, etc.) but I'll save it for another time since this post is pretty long already. In sum, I love the city and the people so far, and I'm excited for the next four months! Pictures to come!

I didn't like the fact that this space was empty.

So there's still two and a half weeks until I leave for Amsterdam, but it was bothering me that this page was empty, so I decided to write a short pre-departure post. When winter break started in December, I felt like I had all the time in the world before I left. Once New Year's passed though, January 29th seemed a whole lot closer, and time has been passing incredibly quickly. Today, I got the official e-mail from CIEE telling me where to meet the staff at the airport, final reminders of what to bring with me, etc. and started freaking out, just a little (in a good way!). I've never been this far from home for this long, and I'm a little nervous about that, but I'm also really really excited to learn about and explore a new place.

One thing I hope to do while in Amsterdam is break some stereotypes about the city. A couple of times over the last few weeks, people (particularly adults) who hear that I'm studying abroad soon and ask where have had negative responses when I say I'm going to Amsterdam. Probably the comment that stuck out in my mind the most was "Wow, if I had a daughter that would be the last place that I would let her study abroad". This shocked me, as my parents were always 100% supportive in my choice of study abroad city. Other comments were milder but the asker always seemed mildly concerned about my decision. At this point I would explain to them my connection to the Netherlands and the Low Countries (father from Belgium, mother's ancestors from the Netherlands), my desire to practice my Dutch, and my interest in the culture, since the Dutch are well known for being an open minded culture that welcomes intelligent discussion. When explaining these things though, I feel unwillingly defensive, like I have to justify my decision. The only things people seem to associate with Amsterdam are drugs and prostitutes. While it's true that Amsterdam's policies towards these subjects are different from the US some people seem to think that's all there is. With this blog, as well as when I tell people about my experiences, I hope to teach them that there is more to the city, as well as a great place to study abroad.