Nothing too exciting has happened over the last few days...I'm getting into a groove here, between work and going out.
Thursday I met up with this man who used to teach in the Enviro program at my school, but now is a professor at the Institute for Social Sciences in Den Haag. I got his name from the director of the ES program, in hopes that he can help me sort out my future and figure out what the hell I'm going to do with my life after graduation. He was extremely helpful. It turns out that although in the States, it is highly recommended that you work for two years and then go back to grad school, the international arena does not work that way. Because of the diversity in undergraduate programs on a global scale, you are nearly unemployable without a masters or higher. So, if I really want to get into international environmental policy (which, at this point, it looks like I do) it would be better for me to go directly to grad school, and internationally, as well. Or I could do Peace Corps and THEN grad school, but unless I plan on staying in US domestic policy, I shouldn't bother working for a couple of years between.
And I might decide to stay in US domestic policy. Obama's campaign leaves a lot to be desired on the environmental front (actually, all the candidates' do) and I would love to work on something like that, if I could find a way to get my foot in the door. So in that case, it would make sense for me to stay in the states and work, since I probably wouldn't need a masters to be a low-level campaign researcher for Obama's environmental advisors.
Anyway, it's all very terrifying, there being so many possibilities and I have NO idea where I'll end up. But if I've learned anything so far, it's that not knowing is okay - I will be able to meet people wherever I am and make friends and handle myself all right. Which is a relief to know.
After that meeting on Thursday night, I went out with some Dutch people I met in a bike shop; we had a great time - turns out they have very similar interests as I do, and they share many things with my Chicago friends (they watched TMNT and ThunderCats growing up, they are into politics, they're nerdy but socially adept, they throw costume parties, etc etc), which meant I felt comfortable around them perhaps unjustifiably quickly. But in any case, it was a good time.
Then on Friday I went out dancing with Kim and the International Criminal Court crowd, which was a little awkward at first because I'm (obviously) not part of the ICC. Everyone who I've met from there are either lawyers or on their way to becoming a lawyer (and in Europe and other countries you can get a law degree as an undergrad, so even if they are only 25 they could have already worked as a lawyer for 2 years, and now are doing an internship at the ICC to get into Int'l law). But, I knew a few people already (Marta, Miriam and Kim) and that was enough to make me comfortable enough to meet new people. I ended up talking for a while to a girl from the States who did Teach for America; she was visiting her Kenyan boyfriend for the summer, who she met studying abroad as an undergrad, and the three of us talked about education, Obama, and Africa. It was great.
I think that's the most amazing thing about this whole trip - the people I'm meeting. And it's not because I'm travelling so much but rather because The Hague is so international to begin with, and in the Courts especially, so through Kim alone I've met so many diverse, interesting people from all over the globe. It's crazy. Everyone speaks French. Maybe I should learn?
Saturday evening I went to Miriam's place for a wine-and-cheese thing with the ICC crowd. It was really great - Jiri came with Marta and another guy from the ICC brought some non-ICC friends, so it ended up not being all ICC and me, which is how it looked at the beginning.
Saturday during the day though I was lazy, I did nothing...and I feel like that's how today will go as well. The weeks have begun to pass so quickly that I can't even believe another weekend has arrived, and I'm so exhausted to do anything during the day! And Miriam made a good point last night - when you are in school even your weekends are filled with studying and other things to do. When again will I have the opportunity to not set an alarm on the weekends? Definitely not during the year. So as long as I'm taking advantage of being abroad in some capacity, either by travelling a little or even just meeting a whole slew of diverse and interesting people who I wouldn't meet at home, I think I'm doing okay, and I shouldn't overstress myself to try and do something new every weekend or see a new city every weekend. It's too much. I'll burn out!
Enough for now. I'm off to do laundry. :)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Friends, Expats, and Winnie the Pooh
I'll start with the best topic of the three listed in the title - Winnie the Pooh. This commentary is almost entirely unrelated to anything, a bizarre train of thought sparked by one comment in the office today, but whatever. Here's the conversation that triggered it:
(MTH, MK, JW and V are all men. "The Chicks" are two visiting consultants from our Oxford office, one visiting consultant from Indonesia, and presumably, myself.)
MTH: Well, I'm taking the day off tomorrow, as well, if JW and V are gone! Ah, but then, MK gets all the chicks to himself...
MK (in the most Eeyore-like tone ever): What's new.
So, after this exchange, I could not get the idea out of my head that MK is the closest embodiment in human form to Eeyore I had ever met. A quick (ok, 10 minutes) analysis allowed me to match up nearly all my co-workers with a "Pooh" character - we definitely have a Tigger (MTH himself), a Kanga and Roo, a Piglet, a Christopher Robin, a Rabbit and an Owl...but we don't have a Pooh! I think this is why the feng shui of the office feels strange sometimes. We're all sidekicks with no main character.
Anyway, after spending 10 minutes thinking about this, I got back to work. Don't worry, I stayed 10 minutes later than I planned to because of it. It didn't cut into work. :)
Okay - now for Friends and Expats. Kim and I have seen Jiri, the guy from Prague in the photo post below, a couple of times since Friday. I hadn't realized it then, but even Marta had only just met him that night, so we're all quite new acquaintances. But Jiri is incredibly friendly and charismatic, and it's been really nice to hang out with him, Marta and Kim together.
Tonight we went to an Expat gathering that gets together once every two weeks. I met a bunch of people, from Italy, Portugal, Denmark...and New York. I admit, it was nice to meet someone with shared experiences, and she was very friendly, but the incredible thing is, we all have shared experiences. Everyone there tonight, regardless of country of origin, has (at the very least) the shared experience of moving to Den Haag as a foreigner. And everyone is so incredibly friendly and welcoming, it is constantly blowing me away. I think a lot has to do with the "traveler's mentality" (a phrase I made up, but probably not one of my more original ideas) - if you are the type to willingly pick up and start somewhere completely different, move by yourself, and face cultural and language differences, you have to be a pretty outgoing, open, friendly person in order to hold your own in that situation.
I'm also beginning to realize that 3 months in a place is definitely not long enough to learn the ins and outs. I think you'd need to be somewhere for at least a year or two to even begin to understand cultural novelties, how things are done, etc. It almost seems futile for me to try and make friends, since I'm just a 10-week blip on their radar that covers 2, 5, 10 years of living in Den Haag as an Expat. I'm not an expat; I don't even think the US gov't realizes I'm here (well, maybe, but only because I registered at the embassy to be an extra-cautious traveller). There was no paperwork, no nothing - 3 months is incredibly temporary.
But, that said, I am enjoying so much meeting all the new people. And I think part of the reason it's been so so nice to hang out with Marta and Jiri and Kim is that it provides some consistancy in meeting new people - it's not a complete constant whirlwind of new people every time I go out. Which is nice, too.
(MTH, MK, JW and V are all men. "The Chicks" are two visiting consultants from our Oxford office, one visiting consultant from Indonesia, and presumably, myself.)
MTH: Well, I'm taking the day off tomorrow, as well, if JW and V are gone! Ah, but then, MK gets all the chicks to himself...
MK (in the most Eeyore-like tone ever): What's new.
So, after this exchange, I could not get the idea out of my head that MK is the closest embodiment in human form to Eeyore I had ever met. A quick (ok, 10 minutes) analysis allowed me to match up nearly all my co-workers with a "Pooh" character - we definitely have a Tigger (MTH himself), a Kanga and Roo, a Piglet, a Christopher Robin, a Rabbit and an Owl...but we don't have a Pooh! I think this is why the feng shui of the office feels strange sometimes. We're all sidekicks with no main character.
Anyway, after spending 10 minutes thinking about this, I got back to work. Don't worry, I stayed 10 minutes later than I planned to because of it. It didn't cut into work. :)
Okay - now for Friends and Expats. Kim and I have seen Jiri, the guy from Prague in the photo post below, a couple of times since Friday. I hadn't realized it then, but even Marta had only just met him that night, so we're all quite new acquaintances. But Jiri is incredibly friendly and charismatic, and it's been really nice to hang out with him, Marta and Kim together.
Tonight we went to an Expat gathering that gets together once every two weeks. I met a bunch of people, from Italy, Portugal, Denmark...and New York. I admit, it was nice to meet someone with shared experiences, and she was very friendly, but the incredible thing is, we all have shared experiences. Everyone there tonight, regardless of country of origin, has (at the very least) the shared experience of moving to Den Haag as a foreigner. And everyone is so incredibly friendly and welcoming, it is constantly blowing me away. I think a lot has to do with the "traveler's mentality" (a phrase I made up, but probably not one of my more original ideas) - if you are the type to willingly pick up and start somewhere completely different, move by yourself, and face cultural and language differences, you have to be a pretty outgoing, open, friendly person in order to hold your own in that situation.
I'm also beginning to realize that 3 months in a place is definitely not long enough to learn the ins and outs. I think you'd need to be somewhere for at least a year or two to even begin to understand cultural novelties, how things are done, etc. It almost seems futile for me to try and make friends, since I'm just a 10-week blip on their radar that covers 2, 5, 10 years of living in Den Haag as an Expat. I'm not an expat; I don't even think the US gov't realizes I'm here (well, maybe, but only because I registered at the embassy to be an extra-cautious traveller). There was no paperwork, no nothing - 3 months is incredibly temporary.
But, that said, I am enjoying so much meeting all the new people. And I think part of the reason it's been so so nice to hang out with Marta and Jiri and Kim is that it provides some consistancy in meeting new people - it's not a complete constant whirlwind of new people every time I go out. Which is nice, too.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Faces with the Names
Here's to help put some faces with the names, for those of you without access to Facebook to see the whole of my trip picture collection...
Marta, Me, David and Kim. Kim is my roommate, Marta is her co-worker, and David is a German guy we met who's cycling through the Netherlands.
David, Kim, and Jiri, a guy we met from Prague.
Kim and I get the Potter Book!!
Co-Workers - Lisa (former other intern), Miguel (Lisa's BF), Michael, Daniel (Jessica's BF), Jessica, Juan and Me!
Marta, Me, David and Kim. Kim is my roommate, Marta is her co-worker, and David is a German guy we met who's cycling through the Netherlands.
David, Kim, and Jiri, a guy we met from Prague.
Kim and I get the Potter Book!!
Co-Workers - Lisa (former other intern), Miguel (Lisa's BF), Michael, Daniel (Jessica's BF), Jessica, Juan and Me!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Catch-up from the last week and a half!
Things here have been going really, incredibly well. Aside from one stumble on Thursday, which was basically me freaking out about my future, I've been pretty happy most of the time. :)
Let's see, where did I leave off? Berlin, Africa stuff at work, becoming friends with Lisa...Right.
Last Friday after work, I went to Rotterdam with Lisa, and two others from my office, Juan and Michael. The plan was to go to Lisa's, make dessert, then go to Jessica's for dinner, and out afterwards to a club in Rotterdam. We arrived at Lisa's, achieved our dessert-goal, dressed and cleaned up a bit, and headed over to Jessica's only an hour behind schedule. We blamed it on the fact that we were with Miguel (Lisa's BF) and Juan, and apparantly the Spanish/Hispanic stereotype is to be late. Though I feel like this is a stereotype with every ethnicity - Jewish Standard Time, for instance, is always a good hour behind the normal clock.
Anyway, Jessica's BF, Daniel (also Hispanic [Colombian], so when we got there dinner wasn't ready yet, anyway) cooked for us, and we had a really nice, relaxing dinner in their home. Michael, as usual, provided the entertainment, as he described his efforts at writing a speech as Best Man for his friend's upcoming wedding. He tried out a few incredibly offensive jokes on us, and decided to scrap it and start over.
Then we went out to a club where Lisa's future co-worker (she was the other intern, and recently got a job at another company) was having a birthday party. It was very...Dutch. The music was super-Euro-techno, and mostly okay to dance to, but there were these 2 minute streches where it was an impossible rhythm, either too fast or whatever - undanceable. Plus, all of the guys were incredibly gelled up and dressed like what I would expect a typical Euro club to be like. And, as Daniel pointed out, not dancing, but watching the women in the club dance. Apparantly this is typical. Huh.
After, we went to another club that Jessica had noticed the week before, which had a steep cover. Daniel managed to talk his way into letting our whole group get in for 10 EUR apiece, which, beyond the financial savings, put everyone in a really great, giddy mood. The music was significantly better here, too, so we danced and danced and before we knew it, it was around 3:30. We sadly said goodbye, and Juan and I went back with Lisa and Miguel, who had invited us to stay the night so we didn't have to deal with trains back to Den Haag and Amsterdam, where Juan lives.
The next day, we walked about Rotterdam for a few hours, exploring some parks and looking at the super-modern architecture that is really prevalent in the city. This is apparantly because it got the worst of the bombing during WWII, so they had the most opportunity to rebuild in a style different from typical Dutch canals and tiny cottages. We went to this great, huge, overwhelming market where I finally found some good produce, spices, dried fruit, etc. It was excellent.
That night, back in Den Haag, I biked to Scheveningen to catch the sunset at 10, and Sunday I went to the Mauritshuis museum, which holds a dozen Rembrants and three Vermeers, including the Girl with the Pearl Earring, and a View of Delft. Both were incredible to see in person. I never thought I would be able to notice a difference between replications and originals, but when you see the original, you just can tell it's better. Maybe it's the placebo effect, though -if they put a replica in front of me and told me it was the Real Thing, it might look just as grand.
Fast forward another work week. Continued working on Africa stuff, as well as my Big Policy Assessment (I wish that had a better acronym). Marius also put me on another project he's working on, which will be really great experience in terms of material, the deliverable at the end (possibly published, at least internally), and the other organization that's on the project, called Global Mechanism. Anyway, I'm always shocked when people take me seriously, for some reason, and I was really flattered that he wanted me to work on this/thought I was capable of doing a good job.
Another weekend crept up super fast. Kim and I had plans to buy Harry Potter 7 at midnight between Friday and Saturday, and I had reserved a copy at The American Book Club (I know, lame), so we were going to head over there for the festivities.
We went out for drinks first, with Kim's co-worker Marta and Marta's flatmate, Monique, who is involved in the most amazing thing ever. Basically, it is a network for travelers and hosts, called "Couch-Surfers". It's international, and uses the internet to match up travelers with sofas to sleep on in dozens of citys. It's huge in Europe, too, thousands and thousands of people, mostly young professionals, are part of this movement. Also, there are social meet-ups all the time, apparantly, which means that there are almost always other travelers to hang out with and experience nightlife with, all really friendly people, because it's self-selecting. It's a brilliant system, and even though I was four-times removed from an actual Couch Surfer (Monique), and the only American (well, there was one guy from Aruba, which might be considered part of The Americas), everyone was so nice and fun.
I unusually found myself in a chatty group of four or five guys, Kim one group over, and Marta floating between. Word quickly spread that we were going to get HP after this, which resulted in a few things. Mostly, people took the opportunity to have a good laugh at me and Kim, but it also directed the conversation away from football, a subject which I am horribly underversed in, and I had been getting grilled on American Soccer by a Dutch guy named Carlo (a conversation spurred by my name...I should at least become familiar with the Chelsea Club), so I was totally fine with changing the subject to HP. But also, the jesting resulted in our HP group growing to nearly three times its original size. Promptly at 20 minutes to 1am, Kim, Marta, a guy from Prague, myself, and this guy David I had been talking to (and he didn't even read HP! He just wanted to see what the fuss was about) left the bar and walked to the American Book Club, where we "queued up" (which, in Holland, basically means the same as "clump up") and waited for them to open the doors.
While we waited, I talked to David some more, whose uncanny resemblence to Harry Potter lead Kim and Marta to actually start calling him Harry, which he did not appreciate. In any case, this kid was so cool. He was from Germany, and taking two weeks to cycle through the Netherlands (what can I say, I get on well with endearingly nerdy guys who bicycle, I guess), and stopped over in Den Haag on the way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. He was also the only one I had met so far who was my age - everyone else is in their late 20s or early 30s, which I am totally okay with. But it was nice to talk to someone who also didn't have a real job/career/life yet.
After we finally bought our books, we said goodbye, doing the usual "three cheek kiss" that is the normal in Holland. Kim and I cycled back home, giddy with our purchases and our fun evening.
Along the way, it occured to me that I would never see David again, which was sort of sad, since we seemed to get along really well. In fact, I would probably never see any of the "couch surfers" again, since they were all transient and passing through. It's strange, no? I guess that's the nature of traveling - you meet people, and then have to say goodbye so quickly, and it's not even like, "Goodbye, I'll see you back in Chicago in September," but it's like, "goodbye, I hope you have a nice life, because I haven't exchanged anything with you except first names and some witty commentary on the Dutch". I guess you get used to it if you travel a lot, but this was my first exposure to it, and while it was fun, it was sad, too.
Ayah, this post is LONG!! Okay, enough. More next time!
Let's see, where did I leave off? Berlin, Africa stuff at work, becoming friends with Lisa...Right.
Last Friday after work, I went to Rotterdam with Lisa, and two others from my office, Juan and Michael. The plan was to go to Lisa's, make dessert, then go to Jessica's for dinner, and out afterwards to a club in Rotterdam. We arrived at Lisa's, achieved our dessert-goal, dressed and cleaned up a bit, and headed over to Jessica's only an hour behind schedule. We blamed it on the fact that we were with Miguel (Lisa's BF) and Juan, and apparantly the Spanish/Hispanic stereotype is to be late. Though I feel like this is a stereotype with every ethnicity - Jewish Standard Time, for instance, is always a good hour behind the normal clock.
Anyway, Jessica's BF, Daniel (also Hispanic [Colombian], so when we got there dinner wasn't ready yet, anyway) cooked for us, and we had a really nice, relaxing dinner in their home. Michael, as usual, provided the entertainment, as he described his efforts at writing a speech as Best Man for his friend's upcoming wedding. He tried out a few incredibly offensive jokes on us, and decided to scrap it and start over.
Then we went out to a club where Lisa's future co-worker (she was the other intern, and recently got a job at another company) was having a birthday party. It was very...Dutch. The music was super-Euro-techno, and mostly okay to dance to, but there were these 2 minute streches where it was an impossible rhythm, either too fast or whatever - undanceable. Plus, all of the guys were incredibly gelled up and dressed like what I would expect a typical Euro club to be like. And, as Daniel pointed out, not dancing, but watching the women in the club dance. Apparantly this is typical. Huh.
After, we went to another club that Jessica had noticed the week before, which had a steep cover. Daniel managed to talk his way into letting our whole group get in for 10 EUR apiece, which, beyond the financial savings, put everyone in a really great, giddy mood. The music was significantly better here, too, so we danced and danced and before we knew it, it was around 3:30. We sadly said goodbye, and Juan and I went back with Lisa and Miguel, who had invited us to stay the night so we didn't have to deal with trains back to Den Haag and Amsterdam, where Juan lives.
The next day, we walked about Rotterdam for a few hours, exploring some parks and looking at the super-modern architecture that is really prevalent in the city. This is apparantly because it got the worst of the bombing during WWII, so they had the most opportunity to rebuild in a style different from typical Dutch canals and tiny cottages. We went to this great, huge, overwhelming market where I finally found some good produce, spices, dried fruit, etc. It was excellent.
That night, back in Den Haag, I biked to Scheveningen to catch the sunset at 10, and Sunday I went to the Mauritshuis museum, which holds a dozen Rembrants and three Vermeers, including the Girl with the Pearl Earring, and a View of Delft. Both were incredible to see in person. I never thought I would be able to notice a difference between replications and originals, but when you see the original, you just can tell it's better. Maybe it's the placebo effect, though -if they put a replica in front of me and told me it was the Real Thing, it might look just as grand.
Fast forward another work week. Continued working on Africa stuff, as well as my Big Policy Assessment (I wish that had a better acronym). Marius also put me on another project he's working on, which will be really great experience in terms of material, the deliverable at the end (possibly published, at least internally), and the other organization that's on the project, called Global Mechanism. Anyway, I'm always shocked when people take me seriously, for some reason, and I was really flattered that he wanted me to work on this/thought I was capable of doing a good job.
Another weekend crept up super fast. Kim and I had plans to buy Harry Potter 7 at midnight between Friday and Saturday, and I had reserved a copy at The American Book Club (I know, lame), so we were going to head over there for the festivities.
We went out for drinks first, with Kim's co-worker Marta and Marta's flatmate, Monique, who is involved in the most amazing thing ever. Basically, it is a network for travelers and hosts, called "Couch-Surfers". It's international, and uses the internet to match up travelers with sofas to sleep on in dozens of citys. It's huge in Europe, too, thousands and thousands of people, mostly young professionals, are part of this movement. Also, there are social meet-ups all the time, apparantly, which means that there are almost always other travelers to hang out with and experience nightlife with, all really friendly people, because it's self-selecting. It's a brilliant system, and even though I was four-times removed from an actual Couch Surfer (Monique), and the only American (well, there was one guy from Aruba, which might be considered part of The Americas), everyone was so nice and fun.
I unusually found myself in a chatty group of four or five guys, Kim one group over, and Marta floating between. Word quickly spread that we were going to get HP after this, which resulted in a few things. Mostly, people took the opportunity to have a good laugh at me and Kim, but it also directed the conversation away from football, a subject which I am horribly underversed in, and I had been getting grilled on American Soccer by a Dutch guy named Carlo (a conversation spurred by my name...I should at least become familiar with the Chelsea Club), so I was totally fine with changing the subject to HP. But also, the jesting resulted in our HP group growing to nearly three times its original size. Promptly at 20 minutes to 1am, Kim, Marta, a guy from Prague, myself, and this guy David I had been talking to (and he didn't even read HP! He just wanted to see what the fuss was about) left the bar and walked to the American Book Club, where we "queued up" (which, in Holland, basically means the same as "clump up") and waited for them to open the doors.
While we waited, I talked to David some more, whose uncanny resemblence to Harry Potter lead Kim and Marta to actually start calling him Harry, which he did not appreciate. In any case, this kid was so cool. He was from Germany, and taking two weeks to cycle through the Netherlands (what can I say, I get on well with endearingly nerdy guys who bicycle, I guess), and stopped over in Den Haag on the way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. He was also the only one I had met so far who was my age - everyone else is in their late 20s or early 30s, which I am totally okay with. But it was nice to talk to someone who also didn't have a real job/career/life yet.
After we finally bought our books, we said goodbye, doing the usual "three cheek kiss" that is the normal in Holland. Kim and I cycled back home, giddy with our purchases and our fun evening.
Along the way, it occured to me that I would never see David again, which was sort of sad, since we seemed to get along really well. In fact, I would probably never see any of the "couch surfers" again, since they were all transient and passing through. It's strange, no? I guess that's the nature of traveling - you meet people, and then have to say goodbye so quickly, and it's not even like, "Goodbye, I'll see you back in Chicago in September," but it's like, "goodbye, I hope you have a nice life, because I haven't exchanged anything with you except first names and some witty commentary on the Dutch". I guess you get used to it if you travel a lot, but this was my first exposure to it, and while it was fun, it was sad, too.
Ayah, this post is LONG!! Okay, enough. More next time!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Finally, some words on Berlin.
I haven't had a chance to upload the pictures from Berlin, yet (it's been a crazy week at work), but I have a little while to sit and write about the trip.
In short, it was amazing.
The long version is a bit, well...longer.
I got to the train station, caught the train with plenty of time to spare, and got off to change at Amersfoort. As I was sitting on the platform waiting for the train, this young man sits next to me and starts talking in rapid Dutch. I displayed a look of sheer non-comprehension, and sputtered "Ik...sprekt...geen....Ne..Nederlands." Which means, "I don't speak Du..Dutch." Great start to the conversation. He nodded. I said, "Do you speak English?" He said, "No. A few words....{something muttered in German}...Alemans?" "No. Do you speak Spanish?" "No." Great, 0 for 4. What are the chances. I nod. Silence. Then, in broken English, he started talking again. It was the most awkward conversation, simply because of the language barrier (he seemed like a nice enough guy) but we managed to establish some crucial facts. Like, I was going to Berlin. He went to school in Berlin. I was from the US, but worked in Den Haag in an office (the word "office" tripped him up for quite a bit, and resulted in me trying to gesture out "office", which is difficult to do. I wasn't even going to try "climate-change consulting firm"), and that he worked for Volkswagon (this actually might not be true, but he drew the logo in the air and made like he was driving, while saying something that sounded like "volkswagon"). Also, that we were going on the same train, and when it finally pulled in, it was clear that he wanted to sit together to continue "chatting". Unfortunately, I had a reserved seat and he did not, and I would have gladly sat in an unreserved seat instead, but there were TWO high school tour groups in my car, which meant it was really packed and there were not many extra seats, let alone two unreserved seats together. So we sadly said goodbye (or at least waved) and I sat down next to who I thought would be my seatmate. Another rather attractive guy. This wasn't so bad!
He asked if the train went to Apeldoorn, and after saying I didn't know, but had a map, we started talking. Then, all of a sudden, a grandma and three grandkids walk over, she points to the "reserved" sign above our seat, and says, "This is our seat, sorry..." and my seatmate had to leave. And, in the end, I sat next to a squirmy 8 year old kid who kept glaring at me. Within a minute of establishing who wore the pants in our seat-relationship, he pulled down the armrest in between us and started kicking the seat in front of him. I witnessed the most rapid change of emotions from this child when he went to get a juicebox from the suitcase of snacks his "Oma" had packed for them, pulled out the wrong flavor, and let out an exasperated "UGHH!". He then went in again, pulled out the correct flavor, and exclaimed what I can only assume to be the Dutch equivalent of "alright!". Needless to say, an interesting ride.
I got into Berlin (finally!) at around midnight, Anne met me at the station, and we walked back to her flat. We looked at some tour books, caught up on our summers, and decided what we wanted to do the following day, before passing out.
We woke up pretty early for a Saturday, were out of the flat in an hour, and walking around before we knew it. We went down to Checkpoint Charlie, which is the spot where the American Allied forces controlled the border between East and West Berlin. We then continued on to the only piece of wall still left, which has a lot of photos and stories posted (though mostly in German) about the Cold War, the Holocaust, the fall of the wall, etc. It's crazy how much history is there, but REALLY recent. I mean, I'm sure there's a ton of older Berlin history being overshadowed by the Cold War history, but it's really incredible to be in a city where I can actually remember the most recent truly important thing happening.
From the wall, we walked to the new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, this huge modern art installation with a museum below it (we didn't go into the museum). It's made up of over 2700 vaguely coffin-sized slabs of cement of all varying heights, set up in a grid. The ground it's on is not flat, so you start walking into the grid and all of a sudden the coffin things have risen up on both sides of you. It's really crazy.
Then we walked to the Brandenberg Gate and over to the Reichstag, which is the German state house. Then, through the Tiergarden, which was formerly the private hunting grounds of some rich German prince or something, centuries ago. We ended up in the shopping district of West Berlin (Anne's flat and all the other things I just mentioned were either in the former East Berlin or right on the wall-line). We went to look at this church which was completely destroyed by a "misplaced" allied bomb during the cold war, which is now preserved and located in the center of the busiest district in Berlin. It's so crazy - I mean, really convenient for historical tourism, now, but it must have been HORRIBLE as recently as less than two decades ago, when literally there was a wall dividing what would have otherwise been a bustling, modern, European city. And now, in the former East Berlin, there are still vestiges of Soviet control, like Cyrillic graffiti and Russian street names, etc. It was really incredible.
We shopped around for a bit, then headed back to Anne's flat. Her parents were in town, as well, so we changed and met them for dinner. We then all went to an organ concert at the Berliner Dom, out for a drink after, and then to bed, exhausted from the long day of sightseeing and walking and trying to dodge the rainstorms.
The next morning we walked over to the Marx and Engels statue, to pay our UofC respects, and walked around that neighborhood for a while. We ended up walking through this street market, marveling at the really good artwork and fun antiques (an entire gleaming set of sharp dental tools displayed next to a collection of skulls...), mini books, jewlery, and before we knew it, I was running late for my 12:30 train.
I made it with time to spare, met some friendly Brazilian girls on the track (I'm not really worried about travelling alone anymore. Everyone is really friendly), and hopped the direct train to Amsterdam. From there, caught a train back to Den Haag, and was home by 9:30. Long day of travel, but I got to see some beautiful countryside and HUGE wind farms.
I then baked cookies for my office in an apology for bringing down the network the previous week (though the next day, no one really thought twice about the previous week's mishap, everyone was just really pleased to have cookies).
This week has been busy! I've been working really hard to try to make up for last week's lost time, and people have been giving me new assignments all week. I've been working closely with this guy Marius on a report he's doing on climate change investment opportunities in Africa, and I'm pretty close to changing my BA topic. It's an incredibly interesting problem they have there, and much more hopeful and solvable than say, China, which often just makes environmentalists shake their head in frustration (okay, it makes at least ME do that). Anyway, busy, but all great, great stuff.
Then, I went out with Lisa (the other intern) after work yesterday for smoothies, which turned into OJ and Oude Amsterdam Kaas (Old Amsterdam Cheese) at a cafe because the smoothie place was closed. We ended up staying and chatting for like 3 hours, and she invited me to Rotterdam to a party tomorrow night (word got out today in the office, and now there are about 4 others coming, as well!) and then to stay over and explore the city with her on Saturday. I'm super-excited. She's really sweet, and just accepted a job at another climate consulting firm, and she's done at ES next week. But from the looks of it, we will still be in touch and probably hang out a lot before the summer is done. Yay!
Okay, more in a few days (and I swear, I will get around to posting the pictures!).
In short, it was amazing.
The long version is a bit, well...longer.
I got to the train station, caught the train with plenty of time to spare, and got off to change at Amersfoort. As I was sitting on the platform waiting for the train, this young man sits next to me and starts talking in rapid Dutch. I displayed a look of sheer non-comprehension, and sputtered "Ik...sprekt...geen....Ne..Nederlands." Which means, "I don't speak Du..Dutch." Great start to the conversation. He nodded. I said, "Do you speak English?" He said, "No. A few words....{something muttered in German}...Alemans?" "No. Do you speak Spanish?" "No." Great, 0 for 4. What are the chances. I nod. Silence. Then, in broken English, he started talking again. It was the most awkward conversation, simply because of the language barrier (he seemed like a nice enough guy) but we managed to establish some crucial facts. Like, I was going to Berlin. He went to school in Berlin. I was from the US, but worked in Den Haag in an office (the word "office" tripped him up for quite a bit, and resulted in me trying to gesture out "office", which is difficult to do. I wasn't even going to try "climate-change consulting firm"), and that he worked for Volkswagon (this actually might not be true, but he drew the logo in the air and made like he was driving, while saying something that sounded like "volkswagon"). Also, that we were going on the same train, and when it finally pulled in, it was clear that he wanted to sit together to continue "chatting". Unfortunately, I had a reserved seat and he did not, and I would have gladly sat in an unreserved seat instead, but there were TWO high school tour groups in my car, which meant it was really packed and there were not many extra seats, let alone two unreserved seats together. So we sadly said goodbye (or at least waved) and I sat down next to who I thought would be my seatmate. Another rather attractive guy. This wasn't so bad!
He asked if the train went to Apeldoorn, and after saying I didn't know, but had a map, we started talking. Then, all of a sudden, a grandma and three grandkids walk over, she points to the "reserved" sign above our seat, and says, "This is our seat, sorry..." and my seatmate had to leave. And, in the end, I sat next to a squirmy 8 year old kid who kept glaring at me. Within a minute of establishing who wore the pants in our seat-relationship, he pulled down the armrest in between us and started kicking the seat in front of him. I witnessed the most rapid change of emotions from this child when he went to get a juicebox from the suitcase of snacks his "Oma" had packed for them, pulled out the wrong flavor, and let out an exasperated "UGHH!". He then went in again, pulled out the correct flavor, and exclaimed what I can only assume to be the Dutch equivalent of "alright!". Needless to say, an interesting ride.
I got into Berlin (finally!) at around midnight, Anne met me at the station, and we walked back to her flat. We looked at some tour books, caught up on our summers, and decided what we wanted to do the following day, before passing out.
We woke up pretty early for a Saturday, were out of the flat in an hour, and walking around before we knew it. We went down to Checkpoint Charlie, which is the spot where the American Allied forces controlled the border between East and West Berlin. We then continued on to the only piece of wall still left, which has a lot of photos and stories posted (though mostly in German) about the Cold War, the Holocaust, the fall of the wall, etc. It's crazy how much history is there, but REALLY recent. I mean, I'm sure there's a ton of older Berlin history being overshadowed by the Cold War history, but it's really incredible to be in a city where I can actually remember the most recent truly important thing happening.
From the wall, we walked to the new Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, this huge modern art installation with a museum below it (we didn't go into the museum). It's made up of over 2700 vaguely coffin-sized slabs of cement of all varying heights, set up in a grid. The ground it's on is not flat, so you start walking into the grid and all of a sudden the coffin things have risen up on both sides of you. It's really crazy.
Then we walked to the Brandenberg Gate and over to the Reichstag, which is the German state house. Then, through the Tiergarden, which was formerly the private hunting grounds of some rich German prince or something, centuries ago. We ended up in the shopping district of West Berlin (Anne's flat and all the other things I just mentioned were either in the former East Berlin or right on the wall-line). We went to look at this church which was completely destroyed by a "misplaced" allied bomb during the cold war, which is now preserved and located in the center of the busiest district in Berlin. It's so crazy - I mean, really convenient for historical tourism, now, but it must have been HORRIBLE as recently as less than two decades ago, when literally there was a wall dividing what would have otherwise been a bustling, modern, European city. And now, in the former East Berlin, there are still vestiges of Soviet control, like Cyrillic graffiti and Russian street names, etc. It was really incredible.
We shopped around for a bit, then headed back to Anne's flat. Her parents were in town, as well, so we changed and met them for dinner. We then all went to an organ concert at the Berliner Dom, out for a drink after, and then to bed, exhausted from the long day of sightseeing and walking and trying to dodge the rainstorms.
The next morning we walked over to the Marx and Engels statue, to pay our UofC respects, and walked around that neighborhood for a while. We ended up walking through this street market, marveling at the really good artwork and fun antiques (an entire gleaming set of sharp dental tools displayed next to a collection of skulls...), mini books, jewlery, and before we knew it, I was running late for my 12:30 train.
I made it with time to spare, met some friendly Brazilian girls on the track (I'm not really worried about travelling alone anymore. Everyone is really friendly), and hopped the direct train to Amsterdam. From there, caught a train back to Den Haag, and was home by 9:30. Long day of travel, but I got to see some beautiful countryside and HUGE wind farms.
I then baked cookies for my office in an apology for bringing down the network the previous week (though the next day, no one really thought twice about the previous week's mishap, everyone was just really pleased to have cookies).
This week has been busy! I've been working really hard to try to make up for last week's lost time, and people have been giving me new assignments all week. I've been working closely with this guy Marius on a report he's doing on climate change investment opportunities in Africa, and I'm pretty close to changing my BA topic. It's an incredibly interesting problem they have there, and much more hopeful and solvable than say, China, which often just makes environmentalists shake their head in frustration (okay, it makes at least ME do that). Anyway, busy, but all great, great stuff.
Then, I went out with Lisa (the other intern) after work yesterday for smoothies, which turned into OJ and Oude Amsterdam Kaas (Old Amsterdam Cheese) at a cafe because the smoothie place was closed. We ended up staying and chatting for like 3 hours, and she invited me to Rotterdam to a party tomorrow night (word got out today in the office, and now there are about 4 others coming, as well!) and then to stay over and explore the city with her on Saturday. I'm super-excited. She's really sweet, and just accepted a job at another climate consulting firm, and she's done at ES next week. But from the looks of it, we will still be in touch and probably hang out a lot before the summer is done. Yay!
Okay, more in a few days (and I swear, I will get around to posting the pictures!).
Sunday, July 8, 2007
End of the Week Tumult
Where to start? It's been almost a week!
Last week was crazy, bizarre, and (mostly) great. All was chugging along well, I was getting to know my coworkers some more, I went to see some Irish folk music at a bar with Kim on Tuesday (the band was great, and we had a good time), I baked for the office on Wednesday (which they loved), and bought my train ticket to Berlin for Friday afternoon. I'd have to leave work an hour or two early, but they had already said this would be okay since I come in pretty early and I'm just an intern, afterall.
Then Thursday rolls around. I start the day by not being able to access the internet, which isn't a huge deal because it happens a lot and I had other stuff on my computer to work on. But then, when our tech-minded guys couldn't fix it (we don't have any in-house IT people since we're so small), we started to worry. Next thing we know, our internet provider is calling us, telling us that it detected a MAJOR virus on one of the computers and shut down our whole network. In order to fix this problem, we need to run three "deep scans" on every single machine in the office, and then they will restart our network.
Needless to say, this took several hours to achieve, especially given that we couldn't download the three programs since we don't have internet. This process involved someone going to the public library to download the programs, install them on everyone's machine, and run them all. Meanwhile, we can't do any work on our computers now, because beyond having no internet, you can't run any other programs when a scanner is running. So we hang out, eat lunch, screw around for a while, tap our fingers, etc. It's clear that everyone is getting very impatient and it was really interesting to see how everyone dealt with it.
Then the network company calls back. "Mistake - " they said, "you don't have the most current versions of the scanners. We're sending over a guy to help." By 6:45pm that evening, the process was still not complete. The (extremely Dutch) service guy they sent to help was very helpful, but you can't force a scanner to run faster than it does.
Meanwhile, the conversation had progressively gotten more and more esoteric - started with the Mouse, moved to the hobbies of the Interns (they wanted me to sing but I said no effing way) and ended off with "What is love?" People do NOT handle uselessness well; everyone is used to working so hard, that when we lose the ability to use our computers (which, face it, is like losing your right hand), no one knows how to do nothing.
Friday morning, the problems are still being fixed. Michael (service guy) is back, and within an hour of running the scanner on my machine, points to me and shouts "AHA! Is DEZE mevrouw!" which basically means "It's this woman!" Apparantly, they found something on my machine. Something huge, which of course led to joking questions of what kind of sites I was on. Michael quickly confirmed that it didn't matter what type of sites I was on (which were completely legit, I swear) but the virus could have attacked anyone and even from the most clean websites out there (which, I think the UN Framework for the Convention on Climate Change website qualifies as). There were some smaller viruses on the other intern's computer as well, and by the end of the ordeal, the consultants were assigning baking duty for the coming week.
Internet was fully restored by 3:00pm, and my train to Berlin left at four. So, after being the "cause" of two days of upheaval, I then had to cut out early, right after I regained access to work I had hoped to have done by that afternoon. I was not pleased, to say the least.
Marius said it was fine that I get him the stuff by Monday, since he didn't have a chance to do what he had wanted to, either. So I'll be in super-early tomorrow in an effort to finish my assignment before he gets there, and in additional repentance I've made chocolate chip cookies. I know it's not my fault, per se, but it was found on my machine and I'd rather be remembered as the Intern Who Baked A Lot rather than the Intern Who Took Out Our Network.
In any case, this post is long enough. I will post tomorrow, hopefully with pictures, about my trip to Berlin (which was amazing - more than made up for the trauma of the end of the week).
Last week was crazy, bizarre, and (mostly) great. All was chugging along well, I was getting to know my coworkers some more, I went to see some Irish folk music at a bar with Kim on Tuesday (the band was great, and we had a good time), I baked for the office on Wednesday (which they loved), and bought my train ticket to Berlin for Friday afternoon. I'd have to leave work an hour or two early, but they had already said this would be okay since I come in pretty early and I'm just an intern, afterall.
Then Thursday rolls around. I start the day by not being able to access the internet, which isn't a huge deal because it happens a lot and I had other stuff on my computer to work on. But then, when our tech-minded guys couldn't fix it (we don't have any in-house IT people since we're so small), we started to worry. Next thing we know, our internet provider is calling us, telling us that it detected a MAJOR virus on one of the computers and shut down our whole network. In order to fix this problem, we need to run three "deep scans" on every single machine in the office, and then they will restart our network.
Needless to say, this took several hours to achieve, especially given that we couldn't download the three programs since we don't have internet. This process involved someone going to the public library to download the programs, install them on everyone's machine, and run them all. Meanwhile, we can't do any work on our computers now, because beyond having no internet, you can't run any other programs when a scanner is running. So we hang out, eat lunch, screw around for a while, tap our fingers, etc. It's clear that everyone is getting very impatient and it was really interesting to see how everyone dealt with it.
Then the network company calls back. "Mistake - " they said, "you don't have the most current versions of the scanners. We're sending over a guy to help." By 6:45pm that evening, the process was still not complete. The (extremely Dutch) service guy they sent to help was very helpful, but you can't force a scanner to run faster than it does.
Meanwhile, the conversation had progressively gotten more and more esoteric - started with the Mouse, moved to the hobbies of the Interns (they wanted me to sing but I said no effing way) and ended off with "What is love?" People do NOT handle uselessness well; everyone is used to working so hard, that when we lose the ability to use our computers (which, face it, is like losing your right hand), no one knows how to do nothing.
Friday morning, the problems are still being fixed. Michael (service guy) is back, and within an hour of running the scanner on my machine, points to me and shouts "AHA! Is DEZE mevrouw!" which basically means "It's this woman!" Apparantly, they found something on my machine. Something huge, which of course led to joking questions of what kind of sites I was on. Michael quickly confirmed that it didn't matter what type of sites I was on (which were completely legit, I swear) but the virus could have attacked anyone and even from the most clean websites out there (which, I think the UN Framework for the Convention on Climate Change website qualifies as). There were some smaller viruses on the other intern's computer as well, and by the end of the ordeal, the consultants were assigning baking duty for the coming week.
Internet was fully restored by 3:00pm, and my train to Berlin left at four. So, after being the "cause" of two days of upheaval, I then had to cut out early, right after I regained access to work I had hoped to have done by that afternoon. I was not pleased, to say the least.
Marius said it was fine that I get him the stuff by Monday, since he didn't have a chance to do what he had wanted to, either. So I'll be in super-early tomorrow in an effort to finish my assignment before he gets there, and in additional repentance I've made chocolate chip cookies. I know it's not my fault, per se, but it was found on my machine and I'd rather be remembered as the Intern Who Baked A Lot rather than the Intern Who Took Out Our Network.
In any case, this post is long enough. I will post tomorrow, hopefully with pictures, about my trip to Berlin (which was amazing - more than made up for the trauma of the end of the week).
Monday, July 2, 2007
Il Divo, and some further Mouse-capades
Sunday was uncommonly beautiful weather, so I took the opportunity to go outside for a bit. Then, Kim had found out about this free concert by this group called Il Divo - they're a four-man "pop-era" group, formed by Simon Cowell from American Idol. There's one American, one French guy, one Spaniard, and one Swiss guy. On stage, they are all complete caricatures of their nationality, which makes it so funny to see how the American is portrayed (at the end, he said "I don't know what he said [his fellow singer who addressed the crowd in Dutch] but I hope you all had a ROCKIN' good time!"). And of course, they are all incredibly attractive. Simon knows what sells. Anyhow, the concert was AMAZING. It was an open air concert on the boardwalk by the North Sea, in the beach town of Scheveningen, which is a 25 minute tram-ride North of Den Haag (officially still part of Den Haag, though they would like to think otherwise). The weather was still amazing, the sunset was gorgeous over the water, and it rained for a split second, just long enough to make a huge rainbow over the statuesque hotel behind the crowd. Plus, did I mention that all the men in the group are really attractive? It was overwhelming eye candy from every direction. You could tell that the entire crowd (of mostly older women, huh...) felt the same way - the energy in the audience was great. What a great, unexpected experience! And free!
Today at work we had another run-in with a mouse. I'm sure it's not the same one, but Jan-Willem seems to think that if you release them too close to the building, they will just find their way back to where they started. I can't imagine mice have that great of a capacity for memory, but there was no arguing with him. Mice are sentient, out to get our office specifically, and they are not to be treated lightly.
Thus, when we were setting up lunch (I was chatting with Pieter-Johannes about the difference between sheetrock and drywall, both terms he was unfamiliar with), and Michael found a mouse quivering with fear from being caught red-pawed in the coffee beans, it was a huge deal to try and catch the poor thing to get it out once and for all. Except not really, if J-W was right in saying they always return to the same building. Anyway. PJ managed to catch it with an upside-down pail as Michael chased it out of the cabinet under the counter with a Swiffer. Then came the old slide-the-box-under-the-pail trick, which I have now seen work twice in as many weeks. They decided to leave it there while we ate lunch, deciding it's fate over the table. They discussed tossing it out the window, throwing in some poison pebbles and just leaving it in the pail, or just plain leaving it in the pail to starve for a few days. None of these were acceptable to me, so I offered to take it down to the street and release it.
But, according to J-W, the street was not good enough. It needed to be released far enough away so that it would be so disoriented, it couldn't find it's way back to our building. He suggested 5km, but I figured that was a bit excessive, and after being nominated the official girl for the job, I walked the mouse, inside the pail and covered with a box, around the Hofvijver and released it by a tree. Success! It looked so happy as it scampered off...in the direction of our building...huh...
Anyway, that was basically all the excitement for the day. More next time!
Today at work we had another run-in with a mouse. I'm sure it's not the same one, but Jan-Willem seems to think that if you release them too close to the building, they will just find their way back to where they started. I can't imagine mice have that great of a capacity for memory, but there was no arguing with him. Mice are sentient, out to get our office specifically, and they are not to be treated lightly.
Thus, when we were setting up lunch (I was chatting with Pieter-Johannes about the difference between sheetrock and drywall, both terms he was unfamiliar with), and Michael found a mouse quivering with fear from being caught red-pawed in the coffee beans, it was a huge deal to try and catch the poor thing to get it out once and for all. Except not really, if J-W was right in saying they always return to the same building. Anyway. PJ managed to catch it with an upside-down pail as Michael chased it out of the cabinet under the counter with a Swiffer. Then came the old slide-the-box-under-the-pail trick, which I have now seen work twice in as many weeks. They decided to leave it there while we ate lunch, deciding it's fate over the table. They discussed tossing it out the window, throwing in some poison pebbles and just leaving it in the pail, or just plain leaving it in the pail to starve for a few days. None of these were acceptable to me, so I offered to take it down to the street and release it.
But, according to J-W, the street was not good enough. It needed to be released far enough away so that it would be so disoriented, it couldn't find it's way back to our building. He suggested 5km, but I figured that was a bit excessive, and after being nominated the official girl for the job, I walked the mouse, inside the pail and covered with a box, around the Hofvijver and released it by a tree. Success! It looked so happy as it scampered off...in the direction of our building...huh...
Anyway, that was basically all the excitement for the day. More next time!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Pictures! Weekend Two.
My office building! Modern architecture, designed to look like a woman's torso if you look at the gold meshing from the right angle...ES is on the top two floors, as well as the roof deck, where we eat lunch when it's sunny (hasn't happened yet...it's not usually sunny).
The central Markt in Delft, with the Stadhuis in the background. There was the Wereld Culturen Festival (world culture festival) the day I went, which (sort of) explains the open market.
Typical, adorable canal in Delft. These line the streets and make it the quaint, beautiful city that Vermeer painted about.
Klezmer in Holland! This band is called L'Chaim, and was performing at the festival. They were great!
The Haagsweg or Delftweg (way to Haag when you are in Delft, and the way to Delft when you are in Den Haag) with a canal on one side and a farm on the other.
Drinks, Delft, and ...Klezmer?
Friday brought the end of the work week and the end of a frantic two days in which the New Boss came for a visit. ES recently acquired a consulting firm in Portland, OR, and after some shuffling, the boss in my office (Jan-Willem) is no longer the head honcho; the New Boss is located in Portland. He came with his right-hand-man to visit the Dutch office, took us all to lunch, had a grand staff meeting of sorts, and then met individually with every employee. Well, everyone except me, since I won't really have that great of an impact on the functioning of the consulting group after two months. After a crazy-paced Thursday and Friday, the New Boss ended the trip by taking everyone out for "biers" at a place called The Plein.
I began to talk to Henk about my bicycle (which had thrown the chain, again) which somehow led to discussing Belgian beer with him, Jessica, and J-W. After each of the men telling a ridiculous story about how Belgian beer basically knocked them on their ass at a most inopportune time (one story involved someone turning on the hot water in a hotel bathroom with the ambitious idea of taking a drunken shower, only to wake up the next morning, still clothed, with the hot water still running and all the wallpaper pealed off the bathroom walls), Jessica went and got two genuine Trappist beers for us to try. Trappist is apparantly a label that is given to only six brands of beer, based on the way they are brewed (by monks) and the length of time the brewery has been in operation (I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but I got the idea they had to be from the 1600s or so). They have a higher percentage of alcohol, and also taste very good, which is why they can be so dangerous. Jessica likened them to American "designer martinis" - almost entirely alcohol, but you can drink Apple-tini after Apple-tini without feeling the effects - until you stand up.
In any case, I had been forewarned, and since this was my first social outing with work associates I thought it would be in poor taste to get sloshed. I stopped after one Belgian beer (and out of courtesy to the others who were still drinking [and buying] switched back to tamer, Dutch beer). Gradually those who lived further away left to catch trains and such, leaving me with Michiel (the one who caught the mouse) and Juan (the only one darker skinned and haired than I am; from Ecuador). We discussed politics, colonization, resource use in China and Africa, hydro-power, and the Dutch tradition of Sinterclaus and his black (Moorish) helpers; a tradition I found to be incredibly offensive and was even more surprised to realize that the others did not. The thing is, during the parade, the helpers aren't really black, or Moorish; they are Dutch people painted black, serving their master, the (white, European) Sinterclaus. It would NEVER fly in the US. But here, it was tradition and normal and no one took offense. At least, not the white European man I was talking to. I didn't have a chance to survey the Moorish population of the Netherlands.
All in all, I biked home in sort of a floaty daze, elated by the positive social experience (and I'm sure, in part, by the beer).
Saturday I biked to Delft. About 10 miles away from The Hague, it is the cutest, most quaint town I have seen so far. Canals line the streets, everyone rides bikes (though that's the case here, too) and there were outdoor markets around every corner. Some of them were affiliated with the annual Wereld Culturen Festival that happened to be this Saturday, and some were just the usual vendors that came out to sell antiques, cheese and dairy, produce, candy, baked goods, etc. It was amazing. I walked around for a while, bought lunch from a couple of vendors, listened to some Turkish music followed by some Dutch rappers at the festival, and read through the rest of the program for the day. To my surprise, they had a Klezmer band lined up to play, called L'Chaim. Of course, I stayed for the show and was not disappointed. They were great! I couldn't tell if they were singing in Dutch or Yiddish, but it didn't matter. Their spirit was what counted. I'm going to try to put a short video of them up on YouTube, if I can figure out how to get it off my camera.
The bike ride home seemed much shorter than the one there, and I got home without any problems. I cleaned up a bit, and met Kim (my new roommate!) in the Centrum for dinner. We explored the nightlife a bit, not actually going into any bars/pubs/clubs yet, but marking down the ones that looked interesting for future reference. We also decided to go to Harry Potter on the night the movie opens, since they are having a midnight showing at the theater in town, and possibly to London the weekend the last book is released.
A great weekend, for sure. This post is certainly long enough, but due to popular request I will follow up with another post containing pictures from my most recent adventures.
I began to talk to Henk about my bicycle (which had thrown the chain, again) which somehow led to discussing Belgian beer with him, Jessica, and J-W. After each of the men telling a ridiculous story about how Belgian beer basically knocked them on their ass at a most inopportune time (one story involved someone turning on the hot water in a hotel bathroom with the ambitious idea of taking a drunken shower, only to wake up the next morning, still clothed, with the hot water still running and all the wallpaper pealed off the bathroom walls), Jessica went and got two genuine Trappist beers for us to try. Trappist is apparantly a label that is given to only six brands of beer, based on the way they are brewed (by monks) and the length of time the brewery has been in operation (I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but I got the idea they had to be from the 1600s or so). They have a higher percentage of alcohol, and also taste very good, which is why they can be so dangerous. Jessica likened them to American "designer martinis" - almost entirely alcohol, but you can drink Apple-tini after Apple-tini without feeling the effects - until you stand up.
In any case, I had been forewarned, and since this was my first social outing with work associates I thought it would be in poor taste to get sloshed. I stopped after one Belgian beer (and out of courtesy to the others who were still drinking [and buying] switched back to tamer, Dutch beer). Gradually those who lived further away left to catch trains and such, leaving me with Michiel (the one who caught the mouse) and Juan (the only one darker skinned and haired than I am; from Ecuador). We discussed politics, colonization, resource use in China and Africa, hydro-power, and the Dutch tradition of Sinterclaus and his black (Moorish) helpers; a tradition I found to be incredibly offensive and was even more surprised to realize that the others did not. The thing is, during the parade, the helpers aren't really black, or Moorish; they are Dutch people painted black, serving their master, the (white, European) Sinterclaus. It would NEVER fly in the US. But here, it was tradition and normal and no one took offense. At least, not the white European man I was talking to. I didn't have a chance to survey the Moorish population of the Netherlands.
All in all, I biked home in sort of a floaty daze, elated by the positive social experience (and I'm sure, in part, by the beer).
Saturday I biked to Delft. About 10 miles away from The Hague, it is the cutest, most quaint town I have seen so far. Canals line the streets, everyone rides bikes (though that's the case here, too) and there were outdoor markets around every corner. Some of them were affiliated with the annual Wereld Culturen Festival that happened to be this Saturday, and some were just the usual vendors that came out to sell antiques, cheese and dairy, produce, candy, baked goods, etc. It was amazing. I walked around for a while, bought lunch from a couple of vendors, listened to some Turkish music followed by some Dutch rappers at the festival, and read through the rest of the program for the day. To my surprise, they had a Klezmer band lined up to play, called L'Chaim. Of course, I stayed for the show and was not disappointed. They were great! I couldn't tell if they were singing in Dutch or Yiddish, but it didn't matter. Their spirit was what counted. I'm going to try to put a short video of them up on YouTube, if I can figure out how to get it off my camera.
The bike ride home seemed much shorter than the one there, and I got home without any problems. I cleaned up a bit, and met Kim (my new roommate!) in the Centrum for dinner. We explored the nightlife a bit, not actually going into any bars/pubs/clubs yet, but marking down the ones that looked interesting for future reference. We also decided to go to Harry Potter on the night the movie opens, since they are having a midnight showing at the theater in town, and possibly to London the weekend the last book is released.
A great weekend, for sure. This post is certainly long enough, but due to popular request I will follow up with another post containing pictures from my most recent adventures.
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