And All That Jazz...

Here are some links to check out of things mentioned in my last post:

The store's website: http://www.aboriginalart.nl/php/index.php

Lies playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Zu4ffLIlI&feature=channel

http://www.liesundertrees.com/

http://www.myspace.com/liesundertrees

I forgot to mention several things in my last post as I was in a hurry to catch a plane to Copenhagen.  

1) I have been to Cafe Alto--an incredible jazz club in Leideseplein--twice now. Each time is pretty much a life-changing experience.  When I walked in for the first time, it was exactly how I imagined a fantastic jazz cafe to look. Dark, cigarette smoke encrusted walls. A huge multi-shelf bar that takes up the back half of the place. Too many people in a much too small of a place. Where you have to squeeze your way through the packed standing room to the front in order to see the virtuosic musicians and then stake a claim in a piece of hot real estate called a table. Those are coveted.  Once you sit down, you are left breathless by the sheer brilliance of the improvisation--literally like the wind was sucked out of your insides.  There, you can easily sit and listen and watch for hours on end. 3-4-5 in the morning. Where older men come to relive the days of yesteryear and buy the college kids drinks, "to a great future, to the next generation." Sometimes, you can just sit back and close your eyes and feel like you were there in the days when Davis, Coltrane, Rollins, Smith, Monk, and other talented heros spilled their souls on stage. The wailing guitar, the sax, hammond b-3 organ, piano, drum set--any variation of these instruments make for a guaranteed mind-blowing night.  

2)Ok, I'll stop attempting to be poetic. On to biking...

There have been several near death experiences riding my bike here, but I think everyone can attest to that. I have to admit, biking has been such a great thing. I can go any place at any time of the day or night without being bound to a train schedule or paying for an expensive cab ride. It is incredible exercise--I am hoping to have huge calf and quad muscles by the end. I feel much more of a native Amsterdamer when I am biking then when I am taking the tram. It is a ton of fun to ride with friends, and I am sure it'll be even more enjoyable when it gets warmer out--to not just bike somewhere to get to that place. Biking at like 3 AM is one of the most pleasant things I have done in my life. There are few-no cars or trains running at the time and there are very few people out.  My friends and I sit much more relaxed on our bikes and absorb the beautiful surrounding space with very little talking as we head to our dorms. In my opinion, it is the best way to see the city and most of what Amsterdam has to offer--at 3 am, on bikes with one person who knows where to go, with a few friends and no fear of getting run over by another force of manmade machinery nature. Pure peace.

I am planning on checking out a lot of other jazz and music clubs in the near future and will compare the other places.

3) I still have absolutely no idea how to navigate this city.

4)  Do you ever have those moments where all of a sudden you just start to smile and know/feel something is going right? Like a wave of relief and sheer happiness and the ability to stay in the 'now'? Yeah, I am very happy here--I'll definitely be excited to come home in a few months, but I am extremely content now.

5) People here and I think, generally speaking, in the rest of europe, are SO trendy and beautiful.  I dont know if they feel that way when they see American students. I'm also not sure Im seeing through non-rose colored glasses myself, but there are some really well-put together people in Amsterdam and Copenhagen. I think we are fairly behind on the fashion trends in the US and base everything on European fashion making it popular a couple seasons later.  No one would dare to wear sweatpants or a hoodie to class or be seen near school not dressed nicely, which is surprising to me.  Who wants to get fancy at 9AM? It is mildly intimidating.

6) Went to Copenhagen last weekend
Some thoughts:

Places we didn't get to go to:
the National Gallery, the Little Mermaid Statue, Louisiana Museum, Tivoli Gardens


a) It is a very nice city, really trendy
b) super cold, and I definitely see the potential in the place when it gets warmer. The harbor is great and can only get better when its 70 degrees and sunny.
c) Copenhagen and every other Scandinavian country is EXTREMELY expensive. 7 kron (kroner) to the EURO. A bottle of water costs approximately 25 kroner. From what many people have told me, Norway is double what it is in COPENHAGEN!!! Ridiculousness.
d) Traveling is exhausting and am reconsidering how many places I should go to (I want to travel and go everywhere, but its time consuming getting places!)
e) People there were really friendly and willing to help out with directions and recommendations.
f) its practically socialist so the people pay very high taxes but receive many wonderful benefits that makes the quality of living quite  high.
g) people ride bikes there like they do here in Amsterdam
h) went to Christiania--look it up online!  An incredibly inspiring place.
i) Danish children are adorable.
j) the first thing I saw when we got into the downtown area was: Build-a-bear. great.
k) the Danish Design center is totally where the party is at!! I am hoping to write a long blog post about this place as it redefined coolness for me!


I posted my pictures on Facebook in the album with Copenhagen in the title.

7) Drag Queen Bingo at Queens Head is a lot of fun!

This weekend and coming week: Tomorrow I am headed on a day-trip with my program to Urk and Groningen. Urk is a former island and fishermansvillage. It is in the middle of the ‘newly created land’ in the centre of the Netherlands. The ‘new land’ now makes Urk mainland. Groningen is a college town in the northern part of the Netherlands. We are going to explore the city, tour a castle, and hang out a bit there. Sunday, I am going to go to some museums around town as I have yet to do many touristy things since I have been focused on wandering around the city. Monday, I plan on checking out a few markets and cool streets.

Wednesday--My program is taking all of us to a huge soccer game between the Netherlands and the USA. It should be a ton of fun.

Friday through Monday I will be in Geneva, Switzerland.  A few friends and I are going paragliding over the Mont-Blanc mountains in Chamonix, France--only an hour bus ride from Geneva!


Hope all is well and will post some pictures here at some point in the next few days.

Looking Forward To Picnics, Sun, and Warmth Soon! Love,

Syd

Neglect

SHUT UP DUCKS!!! SERIOUSLY, THEY NEVER SHUT UP!

Wow, have I neglected to post in the past few days...

Not a ton has happened--I have been getting more and more acquainted with the city and am absolutely in awe of its beauty in every respect.  The weather has been pretty bad--cold, windy and rainy/snow every day. Some days, the grossness lasts the entire day and others it comes in waves. It does not make it pleasant getting around the city by bike and yet I try and avoid the trams because biking gives a completely unique perspective of the city one cannot get sitting and staring out a window. 

My knees are finally healing, but that could signal another fall off my bike is going to happen soon. 

Friday (2/12), my hall had a potluck dinner.  I officially suck at cooking.  Anoop brought an Indian chicken dish,  Creamy (English name) from China made a noodle dish with ketchup and mini hot dogs, A girl from France who lived here last semester and happened to be visiting made the most incredible chocolate mousse, The Romanian girls brought another chicken dish with garlic, oil and a ketchup chili flavoring, and Ola from Poland brought vodka.  Hahaha…seriously.  And, I clearly wasn’t going to make cheeseburgers or deep-dish pizza so I made some sautéed vegetables, pretty much the easiest thing to make.  It was wonderful tasting a little bit of each hall mate’s culture.  We also had great conversation again on Obama, studying abroad, Amsterdam among other topics.  A few of us ended up going out for a little afterwards.

 

Saturday (2/13), I took a day trip with my program around Amsterdam to places that we wouldn't normally go on our daily routines. We got up pretty early--especially after a night of partying--to bike across town to the architecture museum on the northwestern side of the city.  Here, we were given a tour of a neighborhood that represented the larger city's construction--a constant battle between Protestants and Catholics. This was represented in building and home styles.  Pretty fascinating that even religions and politics can determine architecture styles.  The social housing buildings are insanely nice looking compared to what was/is built in the US.  And, these federally funded units are in a nice area so the people living there don’t feel like outcastes and probably are living among people who are relatively wealthy or at least part of the middle class.  It’s essentially a functioning mixed-income housing development/program.  Another interesting feature of the tour is that the building the starting point of the walking tour is in, was an old post office designed by a famous architect who was a literalist—he created the building with purpose in design such as the ceiling made to look like a stamp and the “employees only” sign in the shape of a police baton among other cool features.  

After we were done touring the various sites, the group had lunch at the museum’s restaurant.  It was delicious! Great juice, fruit, soup, sandwiches and a sweet bread that is part of Dutch cuisine. A good meal for a cold day. 

The next part of the day, the group went on a ferry to the north side of Amsterdam, located across a much larger canal.  The Noord Amsterdam Island is home to an artist colony.  David and I had to get back to do some work and catch up on sleep so we left after lunch. We grabbed a quick cup of coffee on Haarlemmerstraat—a swanky area near Jordaan (another young and posh area)--and talked with a local man who wanted to improve his English. I offered my tutoring skills, but in the end he just wanted to speak enough English to get a girl he met in Dallas to date him. J

On Wednesday I gave a presentation to my Religious Diversity in the Netherlands Class on France’s probable ban of the burqa and theoretically what that means/might mean if the bill passes as well as comparing that to the Swiss’ ban of minaret building among other conflicts between church (more mosque than church) and state. 

After class I met up with some friends for a bit of wandering around Spui and Spuistraat—a cool area with lots of restaurants, bars, and fun stores.  We ended up popping into an aboriginal art and instruments store, which was LOADS of fun.  The woman who worked at the store let us bang on drums and blow into a range of digideroos, which were so much fun to play. Lies (pronounced like Lisa without the ‘a’) is a world famous digideroo player who worked with DJ Tiesto and played in front of 30,000 people. She has some cool stories as well.

There, we met a squatter who, while playing with us, discussed squatting.  He comes to the shop to play every day and sweeps the floor in return for the entertainment.  He said that many squatters are people from other countries who came to Amsterdam in search of something, there are many fistfights at the homes. The squatter also noted how the squatters basically take over $1 million + euro homes to crash at.  I will write a longer entry about squatting as it is something that I am fascinated by and hopefully I will have more conversations with the man at the art and instrument store.  After the fun store, we went to De Beerkoning, “The Beer King” store where they import SO many kinds of beer from all over the world. You can buy a single bottle to try or an entire case.  My friends and I are having a competition to see how many kinds from the “good” shelf (the shelf suggested to us by the owner of the store) we can try and by the end we will each by a glass with our favorite’s logo on it (which they also have an entire wall of glasses from random beer companies).  After purchasing a select few, we rode our bikes back to our dorm while watching the sun set over the canals. 

Little Tid-Bits

Travel plans- This weekend I will be in Copenhagen, next weekend taking a day trip to a college town in the Netherlands called Groningen, and the following weekend I will be in Geneva and possibly Zurich Switzerland.  I am looking forward to exploring the world, except it is way more expensive than I anticipated. Sure there are cheapy intra Europe flights, but they are only at inconvenient times and in random places (like 2 hours south of Amsterdam to catch the flight). Planning in advance is essential otherwise a $200 ticket is not uncommon.

Netherlands is ranked as the #2 happiest country in the world and I believe it.  The number 1 and other number 2s are Iceland, Sweden and Denmark.  I completely believe that these countries have the happiest people.  They seriously have fewer issues than people in the US have and can live on less material things and yet have greater intangible sensations (happiness).  There are very few things to worry about here, that could be that I am a student living abroad with very few things to worry about, but just talking to people and hearing their stories (which I LOVE, by the way) has been most refreshing to not listen to complaints but rather adoration for their country. We may be home of the brave and a land of the free, but somehow the US, in all its free glory dragged a bunch of crap into the mix. I am not bashing the US by any means—one is critical of what he or she loves as the saying I think goes—and the Netherlands sure has its problems too, like religious issues. Ill post more about this another time…

Burgermeester might have the best salmon burger I have ever eaten.

Amsterdam’s famous brown bars are incredible.  The scene is exactly how you imagine. Dark stained walls (probably aided by tobacco smoke from long ago) people sitting within close proximity of each other and enjoying everyone’s presence and the cold great beer and munchies. The hole in the wall place one dreams about when wanting to have an intense philosophical conversation about the meaning of life. Awesome. 

Presentations in class- Each professor requires individual presentations…I think that’s a Dutch thing, how important it is to present information well in a public domain.  Next week I have a debate (more like a presentation) on whether the political system in America can change—that’s for my Obama class.  The professor, for this class, by the way, ended our heated discussion this past week on personal interests (like why Obama wrote The Audacity of Hope and such) by saying that there were no personal political interests and then said “class dismissed” and stormed out. It was quite funny, as he intended it to be.  He’s an old guy with a young heart who just LOVES the US.  I also have a presentation on colonialism, militarism and prostitution with an emphasis on ethnicity for my class on prostitution. 

There is a joke in Amsterdam that clogs are obsolete, Crocs are the clogs of the 21^st century.  I thought it was pretty funny, considering that nobody here wears clogs and that perceptions of the Dutch are slightly skewed in that regard.  

"Can't wait for Copenhagen"/ "I am running to catch my flight" Love,

Syd

Pictures from yesterday and today

ool graffiti on SpuistraatCoco'smy first attempt at cooking...not too shabby!

The bike situation, football, classes

A lot has happened since I last posted (before coffeeshops).  

I'll work backwards starting with today. 

Mondays and Tuesdays I dont have class--yes it is very nice--and I thought today would be a great opportunity to personally get oriented with the city, to finally figure out how this thing called "navigating" works.  I am quite lonely without the map feature of my iphone. It sounds obnoxious, but seriously I appreciate the iphone in ways I never knew...guess the "dont know what you got till it's gone" slogan comes into action here.  I attempted to go to Waterlooplein market to buy some things to brighten my insane asylum-esque room and white walls, but that was a failure.  I was riding bikes with my friend Steve and a car came up right beside mine and I always get freaked out when cars drive next to me. I spazzed and fell over attempting to go over a large curb onto the sidewalk that my granny bike was/is clearly unable to successfully accomplish. This isnt the first time this has happened. Unfortunately my steering got messed up so I had to take my bike in to the bike doctor. The guy fixed it, but I have no idea if Granny will make the entirety of the semester, especially with me riding her in my strange spazztastic ways.   I grabbed an incredible cup of coffee at Schuim, the cafe with the cool walls pictured a few posts earlier to temporarily ease the pain in my knees.  I think I actually have a bruise the size of a softball now that I fell a second or third time in practically the same spots as I previously fell in, but thats a whole other story.  

Anyways, I watched the superbowl last night at a bar/restuarant called Coco's. It was basically the only place in Amsterdam showing the game so all the Americans piled into the place to watch with a sprinkling of European football lovers.  Personally I am not a football fan, but I had such a great time watching the game in Amsterdam. It was a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by, just for a brief period, Americans singing the national anthem and cheering for their favorite teams.  A bunch of friends and I camped out at Coco's from 9:30pm onward to make sure we got comfortable seats.  Between 9:30 pm and 4 am I met a ton of people and met a PhD philosophy student who goes to University of Michigan who is taking time off from Mich to get a degree at UvA in Logic and knows one of my GSIs (graduate student instructors).  Unfortunately, the situation got incredibly awkward when this guy emailed the gsi from his phone in the bar  telling him that I said hi. Well, intro to philosophy wasn't my hottest class--in fact my worst--and that particular gsi and I ended not on the best of terms.  Whatever. He ended up paying for my friends drinks because we gave him one of our prime seats.  I guess Michigan connections have turned out to be really good...      When the Saints won, the guys I were sitting next to picked me up  and the whole place went crazy, especially since people were following the beer is cheaper than water rule. Great fun.

On our way back home at like 4-4:30AM I attempted to do what the Dutch do when one person forgets to bring his or her bike along--hop on the back of someone else's.  This takes incredible skill--a running start and mad steering strength.  Failure, but not a long walk home thank gosh. 

Classes

Classes began last week. the end.  I was quite sad when classes started--to be bound to a schedule where each class lasts 3 hours and the need to do homework became inevitable. I have to read two books by this week and write a little paper among other things. I totally was not expecting this much work and thought that after working really hard for two and a half years, this was going to be a breezy time.  Not so much.  I will work hard, just not that hard if ya know what I mean ;)   Plus, grades dont really count--passing does. Never thought I would go with this mentality, but it happens. When you are put in a great city full of adventure and fun, why would one spend time cooped up in a room studying?

My professors all seem legit. Two are from Germany and the other two are from the Netherlands.  The classes are all taught in English, but the profs. English is pretty broken which makes it difficult to understand everything. When its difficult to understand everything, one can get a little sleepy. So you give them a cookie, but if you give them a cookie then you need to give them a glass of milk! Just kidding, wrong story.  Sorry mom and dad that I slept partially through the first classes. 


I am taking "Change We Believe In": What has happened in Obama's First Year, Regulating Cultural and Religious Diversity in the Netherlands, The Local and Global Complexity of Prostitution, and the Social and Cultural Climate of Cities: The Case of Amsterdam.  The cities class is cool because each class we spend part of the 3 hours taking a walking tour of a particular area of the city to see what we discussed in class with layouts and social constructions, etc.  The religious diversity class is pretty interesting because it focuses on the issues the Netherlands and particularly Amsterdam has with its Muslim population and the faith itself.  The class on Obama's first year will be great because it is my most diverse class consisting of many dutch students and many european students with only a few American students. We are going to have debates about perceptions and such.  My favorite class so far is *huge shocker!* my class on prostitution. It is relevant to the area and the rest of Europe as well as the world.  My assignment for Friday is to knock on a prostitute's door and try to talk to her in addition to checking out the Red Light District from an academic standpoint and not in a sleazy way.  Everyone couldn't believe the professor when she said to wait till some guy comes out from a door in the RLD to see his expression and if he went with friends, what did the friends do when he came out after they waited for him,  among other things in the RLD (she even said to go to a peep show and do an intense case study on the colors and structure of the place--shout out to my AmCult 350 buddies back in Michigan). A very social science-y experience I guess. Nothing like I have ever done or imagined doing before. In this class, there will be a guest speaker nearly every week including but not limited to: a prostitute/sex worker, a sex worker union leader, a client, and lawmakers from the city. Should be quite interesting!

Anyways I gotta run to do some skim reading.  

"I hope the red light district experience goes well" Love,

Syd

More Pictures

(my room)(the pop-up urinals that are brought out at night)(the view from my room)(the view from my room)(the view from my room)(the outside of my building)(sitting area connected to kitchen)(my room)(kitchen and dining area I share with 7 other people)

Impressions: Coffeeshops

First impressions continued... A slight delay

The inevitable topic: Coffeeshops, Drugs, Culture, Tolerance, and Regulation vs. Deregulation

I haven't quite figured out how to discuss the coffeeshop (where they sell marijuana and hash) experience(s) yet in this blog (I actually probably won't go into too much personal detail as I am applying to grad schools or getting/attempting to get a job soon), and feel free to comment as to how to explain it, but now I will discuss how the shops are integrated into culture. Most people think weed and hash among other "soft" drugs including mushrooms and herbal powders and pills are legalized by the federal government.  They are not.  However, coffeeshops and smart shops (where they sell shrooms, marijuana seeds, herbal powders and such) exist because "soft" drugs are tolerated. "Hard drugs"--cocaine, heroine, LSD, etc.-- are socially forbidden and outlawed because of the enormous possiblity for addiction contrary to "soft" drugs. Tolerated means police dont care and "turn the other cheek" when "soft" drugs are present or an issue.

One can be walking around with a decent amount of weed and the toleration still continues; it is when you are smoking or taking other drugs and creating a ruckus or (significantly) stocking up on drugs when trouble can ensue.  This is an effective system because police spend their time doing more meaningful and useful things for Netherlandian society and not waste money and time on the petty things like smoking a single joint. Mushrooms and weed are being slightly more regulated now because of the tourist incident that happened not to long ago when some french tourists took 'shrooms and thought they could fly so they jumped. 'Shrooms were outlawed in 2008, but are still easily accessible which I am still confused about...maybe they are fading them out of the shops?  But, that is a rarity and one hears of very little incidents regarding drugs in Amsterdam or the Netherlands. I recently talked with somebody about the tolerant policy and she said that as a Dutch citizen, it is especially fascinating to see the Netherlands crack down on what it has been so tolerant of and known for (to some extent) and seeing the US become more liberal in the things previously prohibited--take California and its weed policy that seems to be changing/evolving every day into something that eventually might become the decriminalization of marijuana.

Tolerance only opens the eyes of its citizens and thus leads to greater toleration if not acceptance and support in other realms such as gay marriage and euthanasia--and pretty much every other controversial hot topic in the United States. And because these soft drugs are regulated, it means for healthier drug intaking if one chooses to do so since lacing would be nearly impossible/people wouldn't really have the desire to lace or stretch drugs. The US should decriminalize soft drugs in addition to the economy boost it could provide as well as creation of more hemp products--like hemp grocery bags--and then eliminating plastic bags, which in turn could provide a healthier and greener (no pun intended) USA. There are also plenty of health related benefits to the pronged green leaf--a stress reducer, a natural pain reliever from headaches to chemotherapy, and a natural anti-depressant/anxiety reliever among other things.  As you can tell I am not very liberal in my social policy beliefs. Just kidding.

**As of today, I learned that 'shrooms were replaced by truffles...I guess thats how the Dutch get around prohibition of certain things--by finding something identical and declaring it different?

In coffeeshops, people grab a cup of coffee and just sit, read the newspaper, chat with others in the shop and enjoy a smoke or whatever they choose to do and since tobacco isn't technically allowed. It is tolerable/enjoyable to sit and do the very things mentioned in a chilled out way without the threatening scent and effects of tobacco and cigarettes. Everyone is friendly and willing to share any information about the city, such as favorite places to hang out or go, see and do.  If one is just looking for coffee, snacks and food/more meal-y items one goes to a cafe, not a coffeeshop although in coffeeshops the employees definitely want you to buy a drink (non-alcoholic--no booze is served in coffeeshops for safety reasons) in addition to marijuana if not in place of.   

My First Week In Amsterdam Part II. -- Impressions

Some things I forgot to mention the last time I blogged...

My next door neighbor, Anoop, is from India. He has already been here for 5 months, so he already figured out living in Amsterdam and knows  helpful information for losers like me who cannot find anything. We also had a great conversation over dinner tonight (2/2) about American politics, planning of cities, comparing places we both have been to, the cost of things/living/education, Africa and Apartheid...a rare mix of topics that was great to hear what someone from outside the US thought.  Nicoletta from Romania joined in a little later.  Anoop made fun of me for my cooking skills or lackthereof.  

I also just learned that my dorm is in the exact area where a lot of wealthy Jews used to live before the war--the portuguese and russian synagogues are around the corner because of that very reason.  I also just found out that the zoo nearby has WWII connections as well. The zookeeper at the time of the Holocaust was a righteous gentile. He built a giant rock structure in the monkey cage and hid Jewish children behind it to save them from the Nazis.  The zookeeper was friends with the german soldiers monitoring the area and he gave them gifts to ward them from entering the zoo. He was worried that whenever the nazis would come into the zoo they would see the monkey constantly looking back to where the children were hiding as the monkey got slightly irritated with others sharing its space.


Below, I give my impressions of Amsterdam culture. They are random and may not cohere...

Here, and it could be a European thing, electricity is not as strong so if you want to microwave something it takes a flippin' long time.

Also, when I got dropped at my dorm for the first time, I saw someone moving in to an apartment. The only way he or she could move his or her's stuff into the apartment several floors up is to basically forklift it through a window in the apartment.  Quite a site seeing a dangling fridge and sofa. Pretty crazy.

The food-
The food in Amsterdam is interesting. I dont know if I can say it is delicious or not because there are many kinds of foods. Amsterdam has a lot of indonesian restaurants, but at the same time sushi places and burger joints (friends have recommended Burgermeester or the Burger bar) with thick potato-y fries. When I tried these famed fries, I asked for ketchup.  Little did I know that I was charged! Can you believe it?? I was charged for ketchup. I guess this makes up for the times where I have taken too many Heinz packets from restaurants.  Payback. Any condiment is not gratis, but 50 cents extra! That is a whopping ~65 cents in U.S. money!

Also, the Dutch sure do like their pork products be it pork from a can--like spam--or delicately laid over the top of broccoli or a chinese noodle dish. It looks sort of random when you first see it, but it is the norm here.  I don't eat pork so this has been mildly difficult to find stuff without the oink in it. There are these panini sandwiches called tostis which are fantastic and cheap. Those two adjectives are key when looking for food here or anywhere in the EU for that matter.

Lastly,  everyone should try a stroopwafel at some point in their eating careers. Two thin waffle-y cookies crammed together between a thin layer of carmel-y syrup. DELICIOUSNESS! Lay that baby over a hot mug of tea to melt and let the euphoria begin.

Drinks

Well, to put it plainly, beer is cheaper than water here.  No joke.  It costs 25 euro cents for a Grolsch at Albert Heijn, the Jewel Osco of the Netherlands, and 65 euro cents for a bottle of water. Go figure.  And, that is the mentality in Amsterdam. Everyone drinks beer nearly all the time and there are 1200 pubs to quench the residents and tourists' thirst for the hops.  As much as it seems that everyone is an alcoholic, it is just a different way of life.  The Dutch love to go out and sit in a cafe or a bar/pub to converse starting at a very young age.

Grocery Stores

While grocery stores may at first seem to be the one place of cultural same-ness, they are not.  A) you have to bag your own groceries B) you must do so in an efficient/timely fashion, otherwise other peoples stuff comes flying down the collection chute.  C) While paying, which is only with cash since Amsterdam is a cash oriented city where credit cards are not commonly used in places like grocery stores in the US,  one receives coveted futbol cards with futbol players from all the different teams. Little kids will wait outside the grocery store to ask if they can have them, and some times the check-out person will ask if he/she can have yours. D) One needs to bring his or her own bags, otherwise one is stuck paying 25 cents for a bag. Definitely an eco-friendly system that the US should institute!! Some stores are doing that in the States, like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but not nearly the same way.

Directions

This city is really REALLY hard to navigate as it is constructed on a semi circle and to get anywhere you have to maze through bridges over canals to take you further to the interior and vice versa to get to the exterior. Some canals have the same names as streets. When one crosses a bridge one may see that there are two sides to that street, one on the interior of the bridge and on the exterior.  Hard to explain in text, hard to figure out in actuality. Also, when I got lost the other day, I called someone who was near a computer to google map us to the right spot. Well, the street names can be 30 letters long and multiple words--for example: Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal is just one street name and then when you are spelling that through a crappy cell phone it can be quite the feat.

To be continued...
Alstublieft

A few pictures

(Felix, the feline) 

(this is inside a great cafe where the artwork on the wall is incredible and artists come in to change it every month or so, an active piece of artwork that many can contribute to)

(a large graffiti outside a squatter home)

(graffiti sign outside of a squatter home, more on that later)

(A stunning view of Amsterdam)(David and I on the bus right after landing at Schipol)

(my bike...the black one...seriously impossible to find your bike in a busy area)

 (Leidesplein square(?) )