Me with the hologram
Daniel, Louis, me and Dennis
Louis, me and Lisa
Me, Dennis, Lisa and Daniel
NSEP boarding the plane
Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we trained in from the airport, grabbed lunch at the train station, and then took a tram to our hotel- which turned out to be quite nice. There were a mix of rooms (some held 2, some held 3 and others 4). Brittany and I snagged a 2 person room which I think was ideal since it meant less people in and out and a bit quieter if we decided to get some sleep (which, we really didn't but still... great to have that option?)
Brittany and me arriving in Amsterdam
Once we were checked in and unpacked Brittany and I decided to go explore since we had a few hours before we needed to be back in the hotel lobby for some introductory field trip stuff. We bumped into Kanako on the way out and so the 3 of us set out to explore. We just wandered, always keeping a solid idea (so we thought) of which direction our hotel was. We found several gorgeous spots, a flower market and a really cool art music. I immediately fell in love with the city. In some ways it feels old european, but there is also lots of brick that has what I think of (as an American) as almost a colonial american feel... yet the windows on the buildings are HUGE and modern frames and the interiors of buildings are often modern. With the huge windows that feeling spills out onto the streets. It's such a colorful and eclectic place.
The art market. Brittany and I both bought small paintings of Amsterdam from this artist
The city, along the river.
Stole this photo from Ole- check out the narrow buildings with the huge windows... supposedly the buildings are like this because in the old days people paid tax on how much of the river bank they owned property on, so buildings were narrow but tall. The huge windows were for loading and unloading cargo from ships into stores and warehouses along the rivers and canals!
When it was time to head back we set off confidently in the direction of our hotel. When we got to the spot our hotel should have been we realized we were lost and I realized we were going to be late. I hate being late and I hate getting in trouble (I know, I know... no sense of adventure) so I was not a happy camper. Also, from all my travels the past few years I have felt like my sense of direction has vastly improved so I was unhappy to be wrong and have no idea where I was. Things seemed so familiar and we all "felt" like we were in the right area, but we just couldn't find the hotel. We finally stopped in a different hotel and asked the concierge for help. By this time we had wandered much further and embarrassed ourselves several times... including trying to hail a "cab" by waving our arms and jumping about... it turned out it was just a business car with an advert on the side...
Anyway, we got directions and found the hotel about a 1/2 hour after we were supposed to be there. We joined the discussion on the articles we had read in preparation for the week and got the info for the week's schedule. Afterwards, groups headed out for dinner. When we left we walked about a block from the hotel and immediately felt like idiots.... we recognized where we had been standing earlier when things "felt right" and had we just turned around and looked behind us we would have seen the sign for our hotel.... oops.
We split into smaller groups to eat and me, Brittany, Andreas, Ole, and Cody went to a Japanese place. The food was pretty good and service was amazing- such a refreshing change from the attitude that England seems to have. From there, all the different groups all met up at a place called De Ysbreeker (The Icebreaker). It was a cool bar and almost all of NSEP showed up so we had one crazy long table. Someone took a picture of us all and when/if they post it I'll try to snag it.
After that we all headed back and to bed. The next morning we got up, dressed, had breakfast and headed off on the 25 minute walk to the Artis Library. The name of the library is actually part of the Amsterdam Zoo, named "Natura Artis Magistra" which roughly translates from latin to "Nature is the teacher of art". The library has an amazing collection of books on zoology and botany, including collections of drawings from the animals in the zoo during the 18th century. We had a lecture on the ideas of nature in Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries and got to see amazing old drawings and prints.
Photo credit to Lisa! Fran, Alex, Katherine and Gabrielle
Photo credit to Ole
Photo credit to Lisa
Photo Credit to Lisa
After that lecture we had 2 more lectures, one from an NGO guy (I barely remember any of this one.... bad sign?) and then a lady from Green11, an environmental lobby group who explained what lobbyist do in the Netherlands, providing information and working with the opposition to find common ground. I'm sure some of it was spun a bit, but it still sounds much different than the lobby industry in the U.S. and even what I know of the lobby industry in the U.K.
After that 3rd lecture we had a lunch break. Brittany and I decided to skip the italian that everyone else was heading for and go in search of something with more veggies and that would warm us up since the library was freezing. It took us forever but we finally stumbled upon an adorable place called Cafe T that had homemade soups and breads and salad. The place is about as perfect as they come when it comes to cafes or even places just to sit and drink tea and watch the world go by. The food was amazing (I had homemade orange veggie soup, Brittany had the homemade green veggie soup... both came with homemade multigrain bread, and salads with greens, avocado, grilled veggies, and marinated tomatoes), but it did take us awhile to find the place, and then awhile to get our food and then we were a ways from the library. We didn't get back lost going back but even jogging and power walking back we were about 5 minutes late for the next lecture.
Adorable outside seating... but too cold for us!
Our cozy spot upstairs
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Cool string art, it says "Do good and forget it"
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More cool art in cafe T... talk about "non-human charisma" :p
The next lecture we had was on extinction and included ideas about invasive species, changes in what we consider "natural" or the "baseline" for a place. It included the broad idea that animals don't just go extinct physically but also from our memories of a place. We often think of extinction jumping from the dinosaurs to the dodos, but really we have been losing huge animals continuously in the past 1-2 decades... like the peddle fish just 15 years ago or so.... or how we have made the sturgeon extinct in the US and now think of it exclusively connected to places like Russia and the far east. It was a pretty cool lecture and definitely piqued my old interest in extinction and conservation work. As a kid I used to think that there was absolutely nothing sadder than an animal going extinct.... particularly that point right before extinction and how lonely and sad that must be to not have others of your kind (I was a kid!) but it definitely brought out some of those same emotions, along with anger and a feeling that I should be more involved with conservation. If you are interested in these ideas further, check out shiftingbaselines.org
The next lecture was from the head of a new organic, sustainable chocolate company called Original Beans. They work to conserve biodiversity, maintain forested areas where the cacao tree grows, and improve local livelihoods by providing a larger income for local workers. We got to sample bars made with cacao from 4 different places: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and the Congo.... all were delicious and I have to say it really was some of the best and most satisfying chocolate I've ever had.
Our final lecture of the day was on legible landscapes and about how we should dwell on/with landscapes rather than occupy them to co-create nature. He talked a lot about Auge's ideas of non-places and places of memory, including places (or non-places) like airports and theme parks. He argued that the erosion of place is not an accident but rather a symptom of who we have become and talked about new nature in 4 different ways: 1. as only a river management tool, 2. as a threat to the legible landscape. 3. as a sense of place v. 2.0 and 4. as a post modern forum of place making.
After the lecture we were free to stick around to look at more of the books and drawings and I really wanted to, but unfortunately Brittany and I were having a housing emergency (we applied for that house we are in love with and there was a problem with some of the paperwork that needed to be dealt with asap) so I didn't stay. Instead, Brittany and I rushed back to the hotel and sorted everything out.
After we took care of that we felt like meeting up with the group might be too difficult or too far, and we were both tired so we looked up restaurants and found a Mexican place with great reviews not too far from us. We went to eat there and it turned out to be a great decision. I wouldn't really expect Amsterdam to have good Mexican, but the food was delicious and I liked the atmosphere, so it was a great find. After dinner we had a gorgeous walk back (Amsterdam is so pretty at night!) and then laid around for a bit, had a laughing fit on the beds for no good reason, and then went to join a few people who were heading to an Irish pub for St. Patties Day.
Our walk home from the Mexican restaurant
The place was pretty full but we managed to snag a great table as a group was leaving. I think it was me, Brittany, Anna, Daniel, Ben and Cody at first, but Cato, Andreas and a few others arrived later. I was too sleepy to even think about drinking so I just hung out and we all started playing a game called "High Stakes". The game involves a deck of cards and the way it works is that the person holding the deck singles out a person and gives them a dare and the odds- something like "If you draw a red card higher than a 7, you have to ask our TA for dating advice." You can negotiate for better odds (i.e., I won't do that for your odds, but I will do it if I draw a red face card) or refuse to draw at all and there is no consequence... but IF you choose to draw and you draw one of the agreed upon cards, there is no backing out. I think the only person who was unlucky was Ben, who ended up having to wear his pants inside out the following day to our fieldtrip. We didn't stay too late at the pub, I think I was back at the hotel by midnight, showered, and hit the hay.
Cody and James, plotting a dare for me during high stakes
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Actually taken the next day at Millingerwaard but you can see Ben's pants on inside out. :)
The next morning we were up for another busy day. We boarded a bus to take us to The Millingerwaard, an 800 hectare nature reserve on the banks of the Waal River. The area is run by an NGO that has pioneered naturalistic grazing with de-domesticated large herbivores, including horses, cows, and deer, along with reintroducing the beaver. I expected the site to be more like the Oostvaardersplassen, a more controversial site where "rewilding" is taken to the extreme, but the site was actually much more developed than I expected. The NGO still allows for clay collection for brick making on the site by large, industrial companies, there are ferries and cargo boats along the river, and landscaped paths throughout the site for walkers and cyclists. To be honest, it didn't feel very "wild" and I think I have trail ridden in pastures that are less developed.
That said, I still prefer the Millingerwaard site to what I know of the Oostvaardersplassen. To explain a bit about rewilding, I'll give a brief explanation. Rewilding is a large scale conservation approach that involves letting a landscape return to what it once was. A part of this includes trying to reintroduce large scale herbivores to areas that were once naturally grazed by animals like the buffalo, wild horses (Przewalski's horse and the tarpan), and the auroch. The idea is that large, grazing herbivores keep wooded areas at bay and recreate grasslands for birds, insects, etc. However, I see many problems with rewilding... first, the animals on the land are not wild. They have tried to breed cows and horses that have traits of their now extinct, wild ancestors, but using Heck cattle or scottish high land breeds or the konik or exmoor pony do not make these animals wild. Even ones that have never been handled and are "wild" in that sense, still come from hundreds of years of breeding and selection for domestication. Now, the animals are turned out into the wild with no extra food sources during the winter, no farrier work, no vaccinations, no medication, no assistance during dystocia, nothing. It seems to me that from an animal welfare standpoint, we can't suddenly dump domesticated animals into the wilderness and call them "wild", even after a generation or two. In fact, "wild" and "domesticated" shouldn't even be a true binary... after all, even "wild" horses in the U.S. are descendants from domesticated spanish stock and while they are "wild", mustangs that are captured and bred can be "re-domesticated" in a generation.... the same cannot be said for other wild animals like large cats or even zebras.
Another problem I see with rewilding projects is that public opinion and fear prevent the reintroduction of large carnivores into many of these areas. That means that the grazing patterns are not what they "naturally" would have been anyway because the locations lack an ecology of fear that force a balance between food/grazing and herd safety. Additionally, with no large predators, suffering animals are more likely to die slow, suffering deaths and their decaying bodies are left to rot rather than being consumed by coyotes or other scavengers.
Thirdly, as a solution to the second problem, the management now sends out a trained "hunter" who kills weak, hurt, or sick animals, as well as any animal who has struggled to give birth in the past (and their offspring assuming both survived the birth). This is meant to mimic the "hunter" or large predator, but in a way, it seems to me like we are still selecting which animals can breed and for which traits we want. In an attempt to speed up the de-domestication process, we are simply continuing the actions that are actually signs of domestication.
Anyway, despite my criticisms, the day was still really cool and it was interesting to see all the animals and take a long, albeit cold, walk. I will say, as my final criticism, that I asked a few questions relating to how much veterinary care and/or assistance they do or don't give the animals, specifically with dystocia or maybe a one time wound, and the guy running the place kind of smiled at the other guide as if I was some "left wing animal rights nut" type. I think they assume someone like me could know nothing of farm animals or how things work and i wanted to stomp my feet and talk about pulling calves and show them that they aren't the only people who have practical experience with animals... but I bit my tongue. After the tour we had lunch at the cafe that the site runs and it was an amazing lunch.... soup, salad, homemade breads and cheeses... really homey and quaint and also delicious. They made their tomato soup using goats milk and a bit of goats cheese rather than regular cream and it's a trick I'll have to remember.... really amazing.
"Wild" Konik horses along the river
The beaver dam!
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Part of the rewilding site... greener than most areas!
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Cold!
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. See? There are trails and paths... not very "wild" feeling
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Swampy/marshy area
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. One of the "wild" cows. The Dutch government does not recognize the wildlife site at having "de-domesticated" the animals and so they still must adhere to regulations that require ear tags for identification.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Wild Konik ponies
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Konik ponies
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. More swampy land
Post lunch we had a few lectures, one from a representative of the NGO that runs the sitre and then one from a guy named Ronald Goderie who is a board member of Tauros Foundation, an organization seeking to "back breed" the aurochs to be released in rewilding Europe sites. He openly admits that they haven't been particularly successful in recreating the auroch, though he argues that they have still created a unique type of cow that is ideal for de-domesticating. He talked about the bull catalogs and ordering semen and artificial insemination when I asked a question about bull selection in their breeding program and I was like 'no, no, I know how that all works but I want to know what traits you are selecting for" but again, I didn't feel comfortable arguing out loud.... the guys didnt seem like they wanted to release me from the category of "Oxford student" but maybe these are my own insecurities or I was making unfair assumptions... still, I later had a convo with the TA about these things and he agreed.
We took the bus back to Amsterdam after the lectures and then changed and got ready to go to dinner. What was supposed to be a quiet Indian meal with a few people grew into 1/2 of NSEP so we split into smaller groups and I actually ended up going for Japanese with Lisa F, Kanako, Katherine, Nina, and Cato and we were shortly joined by Daniel, Dennis, Rob, and Louis. The food was really, really good, even Kanako, who is Japanese, said it was authentic and reminded her of home- and she had a nice chat with the sushi chef in Japanese.
From there, we decided that a trip to Amsterdam is not complete without a trip to the red-light district. Sorry to family reading this, but I think it's interesting to blog about. We took a walk through the district and it's so unlike anything I've ever seen- so many young girls all displayed in windows, beckoning, smiling, flirting, making lewd gestures, etc. Really, really bizarre. We decided to walk through one of the brothels and as a girl, it was actually a terrible experience. The women could tell/assume I wasn't there to provide business and one of them even yelled "Get out of here you f*cking b*tch" at which point Dennis put his arm around me, shielded me and got me back outside. We also went to a strip club called La Vie which was also quite weird.... the beer was 8.5 euros for a bottle of heineken (ridiculous) and some of the women were actually already completely nude.... no stripping actively happening since there were no clothes to take off. The guys in our group found it just as uncomfortable as the girls in our group and we didn't stay for more than a beer. Still, it's a key part of Amsterdam that prostitution and strip clubs as completely legal and well regulated, and I think it's interesting to see that it is not some dark underbelly of the city but happening all out in the open. While there is still lots of human trafficking that happens, I still think the legalization and regulation of the industry is better than letting it happen unseen.
Anyway, part of the group was really tired and wanted to hurry home, but me, Ben, Katherine, Louis, and Rob took our time wandering, stopped for food, and then finally got back and headed to bed since we had another early morning the next day.
The next morning, Wednesday, was the final day of our official fieldtrip. We started by walking to the Eastern Docklands (Oostelijk Havengebied) where we met an urban geographer from the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Willem Boterman. We explored parts of Amsterdam that have changed from alternative (and often derelict) housing area, to a yuppy area that is largely gentrified- it at first shifted to an area where the middle class could have an urban life, but is becoming a wealthier and wealthier area, though I think he said more than 50% of the housing is still government assisted. I think my favorite part were these large buildings called "meteorites" because they were "dropped" in places where their architecture doesn't fit at all, but some of them were super cool looking. I didn't take any photos of them but I did get a few other good shots and once again, stole lots of Lisa's, all of which are credited below.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Cato and me, interested in something in the distance.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Dr. Willem Boterman with our course director and fieldtrip leader, Dr. Kersty Hobson
Photo credit to Lisa Lange.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. NSEP on our urban geography tour.
"Unique" urban buildings that actually fit a standard mold for the area.
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Really cool boat thing covered in plants and such. Super cool looking.
After our tour of the eastern docklands we rushed to the train station and jumped on a train to Wageningen, about a 45 minute ride. We got there and first of all, the amount of bike parking is just insane... imagine an airport parking lot... for bikes. I have to say all the bikes/biking is one of my favorite parts of the Netherlands. Anyway, from the station we walked to the headquarters of Wetlands International where we were met with a good lunch and by Marcel Silvius, the program head of their climate smart land use area.
Parts of the talk (such as using local knowledges, or how environmentally UNfriendly using peat is) were super interesting, but I was finally warm after the long, cold walk that morning, full of food, and tired from the night out.... so I started getting really restless. Instead of paying great attention, Brittany, Louis and I passed notes, made cootie catchers, created paper hashtags (#beforefacebook), and made joint drawings where one person draws the head, folds the paper over so the next person can't see their drawing, and the person adds the body, etc, until you have a whole creature. I'm so mature... Here are a few high lights:
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Bicycle parking at the Wageningen train station.
Still trying to pay attention...
Joint drawing by me, Brittany, and Louis.
A cootie catcher!
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What? I don't know... courtesy of Louis.
At the end of the afternoon we headed back to the train station, but instead of training back to Amsterdam, most of us decided to hop off the train at Utrecht, a university town where Dennis did his undergrad. We weren't there for very long but it's an adorable town and I really enjoyed poking around. We saw a few "big" sites and then sat in the sunshine by the river and had a drink before heading back to the city for a big group dinner.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange.
What a gorgeous afternoon in a gorgeous place.
The Utrecht Conservatory.
Once we trained back to Amsterdam we all met back at the hotel before heading to a middle eastern place for dinner... the entire group. The food was really, really good and the company was even better. After the meal we all headed to a bar (even the field trip leaders) and continued to hang out there until around midnight, at which point the group migrated to another bar. I was feeling tired and sleepy and so I decided to call it a night, but our professor decided to stay out with some of the rest of the group... pretty bad when you go to bed before your teacher...
The next morning was quiet. I slept in a bit, had breakfast at the hotel, and got ready to check out by 11. Most of our group met in the lobby and most of the 13 of us staying in the hostel for a few extra days along with a few of the others staying with friends all trekked to the hostel where we'd be staying for the next 2 nights since the official field trip was over. We made the 30 minute walk to the hostel, losing Brittany and Lisa along the way and then having to search them out and we got checked into the hostel by the grumpiest, most unfriendly man on earth. I should have taken a photo. The place was... interesting. I think more of a smoker's paradise than a clean, traveler's youth hostel, but we didn't plan to spend all that much time there and a place to stay is a place to stay, especially considering how little we paid.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Ben, Rob and Louis heading for the hostel.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Gabrielle loaded down
Photo credit to Sophie Gleizes. The sign in the hostel lobby.... really?
Photo credit to Louis Pilard. Decorations in the hostel lobby.
It took FOREVER to get everything sorted, paid for, deposits down for the keys, etc. but eventually we were finally ready to head off. It was such a beautiful day and none of us could be bothered to spend it in museums so we wandered in the direction if a park enjoying the canals. Along the way we saw James and Lea in a paddle boat which was fun, and then we finally found a spot in a park to just soak in the sunshine. We'd stopped along the way for snacks/lunch so we had salad, cheeses, hummus, bread, crisps, veggies, and chocolate. Pretty much perfection.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Unexpected sighting of Lea and James from a bridge over a random canal!
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Brittany enjoying the sunshine!
Photo credit Louis Pilard. Ben, Rob, and Cato.
Photo credit to Cody McCoy. Dennis, Louis, me and Lisa.
Photo credit to Lisa Lange. Ben, Rob, Louis and Cato.
Photo credit to Cody McCoy. Dennis, Louis, me and Lisa.
After it started to get chilly in the park we headed back to the hostel to unpack a bit and then took a walk around Jordaan, an upscale area of Amsterdam where Rembrandt spent his last years... an area now filled with shops, restaurants, galleries and expensive housing. We couldn't afford most of the restaurants in the area but finally found a cheap italian place for dinner.... that then charged me and Brittany 2euro each for a glass of what could have been tap water (they claim it came from a bottle in the kitchen but seeing as they just brought us a glass of water... I'm skeptical... and clearly still bitter haha).
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The boys getting settled.
From dinner we headed back to the hostel and since it was early to go out and some of the non-NSEP hostel guests were already asleep in our room, we decided to go hang out in the hostel lobby. We were hanging out, playing card games and talking when the lights all went out.... the hostel had lost power and said they suspected that it would be out for the rest of the night. We lit up our phones and the hostel handed out some candles and we actually just stayed and kept playing/talking.
When we'd played for awhile we decided it was time to head out dancing. Some of the group wanted bed, so they headed up to our room, but me, Brittany, Lisa L., James, Anna, Dennis, Rob, and Louis, along with one of Dennis' dutch friends, all headed out to a club. On our way, some clearly drunk kid (around 16) stopped and asked if we had cigarettes. We said no, and the kid started pushing and shoving. Despite our insistence that we really did NOT want a fight and we would just be on our way, the kid wasn't having it. Finally, his friend came out of the club/bar up ahead and was helping/apologizing to us for who turned out to be his cousin. In the meantime, we stopped paying attention to the kid... who ended up backing James against a wall, head butting him, and chipping his tooth. His cousin ran the kid off, apologized again, and we finally headed into the club.
It was one of the weirdest clubs I have ever been too. The upstairs area was huge with actual locker type things as coat checks and you had to load up a card to take downstairs to buy drinks... but then when we did all this and got downstairs... the dance floor was TINY. It was also mostly empty and had this large, free-standing archway that people decided to push over about the time we walked downstairs. After dodging the falling arch and dancing to some blah music, we decided maybe it was time to head to the next club, a place in Rembrandt Square.
This place was much, much more crowded than the first, but there was a creepy guy who kept getting handsy or motioning to all of the girls in our group and saying "You and me? You and me!" Most of the time a firm no is enough to get rid of someone like that, but this guy just would not let it go, so the guys in our group had to run constant interference and the MC was being super annoying and interrupting the music every 15 seconds to insist that everyone "get their hands up". It felt like 2001 in there (also due to the music... clubbing in Europe is often like being back in high school with the musical choices). Anyway, we didn't stay long and soon left and walked back to the hostel to get some sleep. For whatever reason, I was too wound up to fall asleep, so I read for a bit, played on my phone, etc until I finally drifted off around 6AM.
Photo credit to Louis Pilard. Smokey was the second club of the night.
Despite being exhausted, it's hard to sleep in in a hostel... once a few people are up, it's pretty hard to stay asleep, at least for me. Besides, I didn't want to spend my last day in Amsterdam in bed. I got up and headed out with Brittany, Cody, Katherine and Ben to hit some museums. After running into a few more people for breakfast, we split into smaller groups based on who wanted to see what and Brittany, Katherine and I headed off to the Rijksmuseum- the Dutch National Museum of art and history. The weather was miserable outside, freezing and pouring rain (probably to balance out the crazy nice weather we'd had the day before) so we grabbed a tram and then took pictures with the famous IAMSTERDAM sign (such tourists!) before going to the museum.
We snapped a few photos and then headed for the museum entrance.... only to realize that the line to get a ticket to get in wrapped around 1/2 of the building and then there was ANOTHER line for once you had your ticket. We were all soaking wet and freezing and a quick glance around at each other and we all knew we weren't going in. Instead, we decided to head back to Cafe T to warm up with more soup and tea. It was a 30 minute walk from where we were, but Brittany and I amazingly found the cafe again with no trouble at all (not counting the trouble of Katherine nearly getting hit by a car... which was terrifying). We each had a soup, I got the cauliflower and sage and it was just as good as the first one I had there. We sat in the cafe for ages chatting and trying to dry (and thaw) out and finally decided that we'd head out when we spotted the sun peaking out.
We wanted to see the Anne Frank House (well, Brittany and I did, Katherine had already been) so we decided to head that way. A few blocks later Brittany was already freezing again so we ducked into a ridiculous shop to warm up and Brittany bought a hat and scarf while Katherine bought a hat. We ambled for quite awhile in the general direction of the Anne Frank House, passing through the edge of the red light district and finally getting to the museum and getting in line. While in line, Cato came by and Katherine decided to head on with her to meet the group that was thrift shopping since she'd already seen the museum, but Brittany and I stayed in line.
She got the scarf but went with a different hat... thank goodness :)
The Anne Frank House was a really incredible museum, but of course, quite sobering. I was actually surprised by how large the hiding space was, and I say that still recognizing that being cooped up with the same people for so long, no privacy, no sunlight, constant fear, must have just been impossible... but it was just different than the tiny room I'd imagined even though I suppose I knew it was more like a small apartment. I had forgotten much of the book but being there made me want to re-read it since it's been so long. It's hard to imagine that it really wasn't so long ago when this was happening. I don't want to dwell on it here, but it certainly was cause for much reflection and I think both Brittany and I left feeling quiet and serious.
From the museum, we decided to walk around a bit more and find a coffee shop (and actual coffee shop... not a "coffee" shop) and drink some tea and warm up again. We both felt like we'd just been cold all day. We found a cute place to drink tea and then decided before more exploring we should head back to the room to put on warmer clothes. We did that and then headed out to explore the red light district... only we couldn't really find it. I thought we were in the right area and that maybe stuff just didn't pick up until after dark.... but regardless, we may be the only tourist ever to not be able to find the heart of the red light district in Amsterdam. Even though we didn't find it, we did stumble upon some pretty cool dancing robots.
From the dancing robots, we headed back to the hostel where we relaxed and hung out and poor Dennis (God bless him) cleaned up our hostel bathroom from where someone (not an NSEPer but one of the randos) had had explosive diarrhea everywhere and not bothered cleaning it up. Sometimes I wonder about people because really... is that a thing you do? It wasn't even contained in the toilet.... I don't even.... anyway, Gob bless Dennis.
Finally everyone was gathered at the hostel and the whole group headed to an italian chain place, Vapianos, for dinner. Dinner was delicious and it was good to have a meal with most of the NSEPers still in Amsterdam. Even the few that didn't come to dinner met up with us afterwards, and we even got to meet Cato's older sister and younger brother. She and her older sister have the exact same mannerisms and facial expressions so it was fun to chat with her and see the similarities. From Vapianos, we headed to a place that translates to The Beer Factory. It's a kind of beer hall style place and one where there are free peanuts and the shells cover the floor. We started playing Fives, a hand/betting game that would take too long to explain but is easy to play. I lost one round and had to ask the table next to us to dance on their table (thankfully other people, not NSEPers, had already been dancing on tables in the place so it wasn't as bad as it could have been). NSEP has a way of just being the party wherever we go and soon we'd started a limbo party and a dance party. Cato said that she'd never seen Dutch people so drawn in by another group.
We left a little after midnight and headed back to the hostel but since we hadn't found the red light district earlier in the day, and Brittany hadn't been with us earlier in the week when we went, she really wanted to go see the red light district. We weren't going to have her go alone, so me, Katherine, Rob and Louis all went with her and wandered around, wondering about the prostitutes friendships with each other, their personal relationships, their monthly income, etc etc. We didn't stay long, just did a quick lap through and then headed back and to bed.
The next morning was just getting packed and getting everyone organized. We got checked out, ate breakfast, and headed to the train station. We said goodbye to those staying in Amsterdam a bit longer (to see friends/family or to travel elsewhere from there) and we played a few rounds of Fives while waiting... Brittany lost and had to do a 10 second handstand against the wall... as you can see below she nailed it. The trip back was uneventful and since being back, I've mostly worked on my extended essay, though I've also had too much dessert (ice cream with Andreas, Brittany and her friends and belgian waffles with Katherine) and had lunch with Jacob. I've also done boring stuff like laundry and cleaning and made a few really yummy meals... like an orange tarragon glazed salmon over an arugula, mango and pomegranate salad with a side of roasted potatoes (with Andreas' help) or last night's meal of balti style roasted veggies over rice.
Brittany's handstand... one of many things that might happen when you lose a game of fives
Andreas and I make amazing food.
Posting may get a bit more sporadic over break but I still have lots to keep me busy... a paper to write ("Are commodity checkoff programs making American children fat?"), Mom and Dad visiting (yay! and lots of itinerary planning to do) and hopefully a trip to a warm and sunny beach with Katherine and maybe a few other NSEPers if I can squeeze that in.
Hope things are well wherever you're reading this from and cheers if you made it all the way through this epically long post!
<3
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