Yesterday I went with two of my friends to a sauna that is run by anarchists here in Amsterdam. The facility was about a half hour bike ride from my dorm (actually it's just around the corner from Yitka's house). I agreed to go to this place knowing in the back of my mind that this would probably mean a bit of nudity, and although I wasn't completely sure that I would be comfortable in the situation I was getting myself into, I decided that it would be stupid to allow my slight discomfort to stop me from enjoying this wonderful place. After all, I'm naked all the time at Onas, the only real difference with this place was that I didn't really know anyone there, except the two friends I went with. Despite my slight discomfort, I made myself go, and I am extremely glad that I did so, I plan on going back at least a few more times before the semester is through.
At 6pm after my Dutch class ended, my friends Jenna, and Natalie, and I hopped on our bikes and headed over to the sauna. We got there and upon entering were given a locker in which we could put all of our belongings for the time that we were there. We quickly stripped down into towels (which were soon removed) and started to venture into the various rooms that the sauna had to offer. There was a steam room in which I sweated more than I think I've ever sweat in my entire life. A sauna, that was probably the hottest sauna I've ever been in in my life. An outside area with a cold shower, which felt really amazing if you went in right after coming out of the hot sauna. There was also a freezing cold bath (which also felt amazing after coming out of the steam room), and then the upstairs was lined with mats for people to go lie down on and relax between sauana/steam room/cold bath-shower trips.
I stayed at the place for about two hours getting my fill of everything they had to offer, and it was extremely relaxing. It also made my skin feel incredibly smooth, and it still does. Apparently sometimes they have a massuese there, so I definitely want to go back at a time when I can get a massage. It was definitely an awesome experience and I'm really glad that I made myself go, despite my initial discomfort.
Well, that's all for now, hope all is well with everyone reading.
-Ruth
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
October Begins!
As I look at the date I continue to be amazed that I've already been here for almost six weeks. It's really crazy to think about it, but just this afternoon I was going through the weekends here and it seems like there's barely enough time to fit in all the things that I have planned for the next 2 months. At least half of my weekends from now until December are already booked with various trips to Vienna, Lille, and other parts of the Netherlands. And on those weekends that aren't spent leaving Amsterdam, I feel like I will still find myself with so many things to do, because that seems to be what always happens in this city. I'm really enjoying that about living here. There is almost always something exciting going on in this city and rather than searching for something to do, I find myself trying to decide what to do from a multitude of options.
The first week in October has gone by quickly with a few exciting highlights. First of all, on Wednesday night, I got together with
a group of my friends from my program, and we had an italian themed pot luck. My friends Mike, and Natalie, and I attempted to make a pizza, but since we didn't have a baking pan to bake it on, it ended up getting turned into a calzone, which was actually quite delicious. This is a picture of Natalie, Erika, and Scott enjoying the pot luck... Not a very good photo, but I was trying to get a candid shot.... I failed slightly. The rest of the week was extremely exciting because Wendy (a friend from camp who is living in France until April) visited me for the weekend.
On Thursday night I made my way to Centraal Station to pick Wendy up (her train got in at 11:05pm). Unfortunately, Centraal Station is extremely large and although we had picked a meeting point, since Wendy had never been to the station before, we had a lot of trouble actually finding each other. Also, since Wendy's French cell phone didn't work in the Netherlands, we couldn't even call each other. Eventually Wendy went to an information desk and they let her borrow their cell phone so we got in contact with each other and finally managed to find each other, which was pretty miraculous. We were going to go out dancing that night, but by the time we got to the place it was almost 1am and they were closing up for the night, so we decided to just head home and ended up talking for a few hours in bed before actually going to sleep. It was really awesome to have such a close friend from home here just to talk to and reminisce about the summer and so forth.
We spent the next two days enjoying the (unusual) warm weather and cloudless sky by visiting both the Turkish Market near my dorm and the Waterlooplein market, which is also quite close to my dorm. Wendy purchased a few random articles and I got myself a big cloth hanging to put
up in my room. Now all I have to do is figure out how to hang it up. Unfortunately my walls are concrete, so I don't know if I'll be able to hammer anything into them... But I'm going to try. This picture was a warning by the hemp bracelets that a vendor at the Waterlooplein Market was selling... priceless. When we got back from the market I decided to rearrange my room to make it a little more comfy and homey, and also to
create a good spot to put my new wall hanging. I plan to put it over in the corner by the bed is I can ever manage to get it into the wall. Otherwise I'll just have to save it for my room in Oberlin next semester. Here is a picture of both my room as it is now, and the wall hanging, so you can imagine the wall hanging going into the empty corner over my bed. I hope it actually happens.
Later
that night Wendy and I went over to Yitka's house and cooked dinner for all of us and also for Taryn (the girl Yitka lives in her homestay with). It was a delicious meal with Couscous and stirfry vegetables. All in all a pretty laid back night, but also very enjoyable. Today Wendy and I got up slightly earlier (for me at least... It was about 10:30). After puttering around for a little while we headed over to Centraal Station and sat by the water chatting for a while before Wendy had to get on her train back to France.
I spent the rest of the day doing homework and napping, and then this evening my dorm had a "Neighborhood Potluck." Each floor was supposed to cook a dish from a different country and we all got together at 5pm and had a delightful dinner together. I was a little skeptical that anything would actually happen, because the RA's had just put up these posters randomly advertising this event in the middle of this past week, but no one from my floor had spoken about what we were going to cook or anything like that. But two people on my floor ended up being wonderful and getting it all organized so that we didn't seem like the moochers floor that didnt contribute anything to the dinner. There was lots of good foods from all over the world, including Vietnam, Romania, Italy, Camaroon, and many more that I just can't recall right now. I ate a whole lot and got nice and full and then spent a few hours sitting on our terrace by the canal and talking to friends, lots of fun.
Tonight my floor is throwing another party so within the next hour or two there will probably be a large number of international students roaming my hall and kitchen area with lots of alcohol and loud music... It should be a grand old time. That's all for now, I'll be sure to update if there's anything exciting to tell you all about, and as always, I would love to hear from all of you. You can also write me letters, as I have recently purchased stamps and will be sure to write back to you (eventually) in either letter or postcard form, just make sure you include your address somewhere on the letter. My address is:
Ruth Allanbrook
c/o ISHSS
P.O. Box 26
1000 AA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
I look forward to hearing from anyone motivated enough to write to me!
-Ruth
The first week in October has gone by quickly with a few exciting highlights. First of all, on Wednesday night, I got together with
a group of my friends from my program, and we had an italian themed pot luck. My friends Mike, and Natalie, and I attempted to make a pizza, but since we didn't have a baking pan to bake it on, it ended up getting turned into a calzone, which was actually quite delicious. This is a picture of Natalie, Erika, and Scott enjoying the pot luck... Not a very good photo, but I was trying to get a candid shot.... I failed slightly. The rest of the week was extremely exciting because Wendy (a friend from camp who is living in France until April) visited me for the weekend.On Thursday night I made my way to Centraal Station to pick Wendy up (her train got in at 11:05pm). Unfortunately, Centraal Station is extremely large and although we had picked a meeting point, since Wendy had never been to the station before, we had a lot of trouble actually finding each other. Also, since Wendy's French cell phone didn't work in the Netherlands, we couldn't even call each other. Eventually Wendy went to an information desk and they let her borrow their cell phone so we got in contact with each other and finally managed to find each other, which was pretty miraculous. We were going to go out dancing that night, but by the time we got to the place it was almost 1am and they were closing up for the night, so we decided to just head home and ended up talking for a few hours in bed before actually going to sleep. It was really awesome to have such a close friend from home here just to talk to and reminisce about the summer and so forth.
We spent the next two days enjoying the (unusual) warm weather and cloudless sky by visiting both the Turkish Market near my dorm and the Waterlooplein market, which is also quite close to my dorm. Wendy purchased a few random articles and I got myself a big cloth hanging to put
up in my room. Now all I have to do is figure out how to hang it up. Unfortunately my walls are concrete, so I don't know if I'll be able to hammer anything into them... But I'm going to try. This picture was a warning by the hemp bracelets that a vendor at the Waterlooplein Market was selling... priceless. When we got back from the market I decided to rearrange my room to make it a little more comfy and homey, and also to
create a good spot to put my new wall hanging. I plan to put it over in the corner by the bed is I can ever manage to get it into the wall. Otherwise I'll just have to save it for my room in Oberlin next semester. Here is a picture of both my room as it is now, and the wall hanging, so you can imagine the wall hanging going into the empty corner over my bed. I hope it actually happens.Later
that night Wendy and I went over to Yitka's house and cooked dinner for all of us and also for Taryn (the girl Yitka lives in her homestay with). It was a delicious meal with Couscous and stirfry vegetables. All in all a pretty laid back night, but also very enjoyable. Today Wendy and I got up slightly earlier (for me at least... It was about 10:30). After puttering around for a little while we headed over to Centraal Station and sat by the water chatting for a while before Wendy had to get on her train back to France.I spent the rest of the day doing homework and napping, and then this evening my dorm had a "Neighborhood Potluck." Each floor was supposed to cook a dish from a different country and we all got together at 5pm and had a delightful dinner together. I was a little skeptical that anything would actually happen, because the RA's had just put up these posters randomly advertising this event in the middle of this past week, but no one from my floor had spoken about what we were going to cook or anything like that. But two people on my floor ended up being wonderful and getting it all organized so that we didn't seem like the moochers floor that didnt contribute anything to the dinner. There was lots of good foods from all over the world, including Vietnam, Romania, Italy, Camaroon, and many more that I just can't recall right now. I ate a whole lot and got nice and full and then spent a few hours sitting on our terrace by the canal and talking to friends, lots of fun.
Tonight my floor is throwing another party so within the next hour or two there will probably be a large number of international students roaming my hall and kitchen area with lots of alcohol and loud music... It should be a grand old time. That's all for now, I'll be sure to update if there's anything exciting to tell you all about, and as always, I would love to hear from all of you. You can also write me letters, as I have recently purchased stamps and will be sure to write back to you (eventually) in either letter or postcard form, just make sure you include your address somewhere on the letter. My address is:
Ruth Allanbrook
c/o ISHSS
P.O. Box 26
1000 AA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
I look forward to hearing from anyone motivated enough to write to me!
-Ruth
Sunday, September 30, 2007
a long entry for a long week
Wow, I guess it's been almost a week since I updated on what all's been going on in this part of the world. Where to begin? Well, obviously I've been going to classes. A little bit on that note: My classes are all really interesting. For those that don't yet know, I'm taking Beginning Dutch, Russia and Europe (a history class), Intro to Sexual Studies, and Social Trends, Social Problems, and Social Policy of the Netherlands. My Dutch class meets twice a week and the others all meet once a week for three hours each time. As of now I would probably say that my Russia and Europe class is the most interesting to me. The class is basically Russian history since about 1900. Last year I took a history class on Central European history from around the same period, so it's nice to take this class with that background because I already have some knowledge of the subject and it's really interesting to get more of a European perspective on the historical era. We're about to start discussing the Cold War, so that will definitely be nice to learn about in a classroom outside of the United States. That's also my only class that assigns anywhere near as much reading as my classes at Oberlin ussually do. Until this week we were reading about 150-200 dense pages for each class, this week it's only 60. My other classes are all pretty interesting as well, but I don't want to go into detail aout them, so if you have any questions just feel free to email me and ask.
So, what's happened in the past week...? On Monday night it happened to be one of my floormates birthdays, so I got together with my whole floor (there are 9 of us, well, technically 10... but I'll explain that in a minute). We had some birthday cake and then all decided that it would be cool for our floor to host a party later that week. The floor I live on is the biggest in the building I'm in and we also have the largest kitchen/lounge area, so with that we have the ability to host parties. As a result of this conversation, on Wednesday night my floor got together again for a marvelous dinner party followed by a pretty crazy late night party that went way into the morning (which was slightly unfortunate since I had a 10am class the next morning). So, that party was my Wednesday night activity (along with some homework of course).
But now about the extra person on my floor. This is actually my neighbor. I live in room G3, and the room next door to me, G4, does have someone who lives there, BUT I have only actually seen him once, and after talking to my floor mates it appears that most people have never even seen him at all. The one time I did see him was when we were both entering our rooms at the same time, this was about a month ago, shortly after moving in. Since I hadn't met him yet I took the liberty of introducing myself by saying, "Hi, I'm Ruth, I live next door to you!" He stared at me blankly for a few seconds before nodding and entering his room. No introductions, no hellos, just a nod, it was strange. Since then I havent actually seen him at all. I hear him in his room sometimes, and I see a light under his door when I go to the bathroom at night, so I know that he's there, but he manages to avoid all contact with everyone who lives here. No one has ever seen him in our communal kitchen, so we're not sure what he eats, I've never had the problem of him being in the shower when I wanted to use it... so I really just dont know what to make of the whole situation. I think he will just remain the infamous G4. Oh and one more thing, we looked through the mail that comes to our floor as a whole and of the three things addressed to him, one was a letter from the university, and the other two were from the police! We're not sure what to make of it.
In other news, the last few days have been filled with a mix of scrabble, late nights, and lots of dancing. On Friday I started out the
day by going with my friend Mike to the nearby Turkish market. I wanted to get some cheese for cheap! We walked around the whole market, I bought some yummy cheese (I'm not sure what kind) and I also got a new bike lock because my old one was starting to rust beyond the point of being useable. Mike bought some
apples and a beard trimmer. I think that short list of purchases can give you an idea of just how much you can get at this market. After we left the market my bike got a flat tire! My second flat tire of the week actually. Bikes are extremely convenient in this city, but also a real hastle when you continuously have to get them fixed. So, right now my bike is currently in the shop getting a new tire. I'm bikeless and it's unfortunate.
After the market Mike and I walked through the city in order to meet up with Scott and Claire (these are all people from my program, I dont know if I've mentioned them yet... Mike is from New York State and goes to Pace, Scott is from Minessota but goes to U of Santa Clara, and Claire is from Seatle, but goes to Vassar... Scott and Claire are in the picture). We were going to go check out NEMO which is the kids science museum, but we realized
it was closing soon and wanted to wait until a day where we would have more time to explore the museum since we were going to have to pay
for it. Instead we decided to play scrabble! If you know me at all, then you know that scrabble is probably my favorite game in the world. We went to a nearby cafe and got some cappucinos and sat around for a few hours playing that wonderful game.
Later that night I went out to a club called You II. Alanna and I ended up staying there dancing until about 4:30am, it was quite fun, and they actually played some pretty good music... Not just techno. I find that a lot of the places we end up going play a lot of techno music, and I really dont like techno that much... It's too repetative, and I find myself getting bored dancing to it. The next day Alanna and I went on an all female boat cruise, which was a very interesting experience. The crowd on the boat was a range of women
from as young as us, to as old as 50. We spent the night dancing and trying not to feel too sea sick, but I think we both were glad to have gone, because how often do you get the opportunity to go on a boat cruise in the North Sea? Let alone an all female one.
Since I've been on foot for the past few days, I had the opportunity to take some pictures of all the bikers. I got held up at one of the canal bridges that
was up to let a boat through, so I took some pictures of all the bikers waiting to cross. Maybe it's just me, but I just find it really cool to see about 20 bicyclists waiting at a red light and then zooming off as soon as it turns green. They're just like cars, except better, and more environmentally friendly!
Alright, that's all for now... My plans for the rest of the day include more Scrabble! And of course homework, the Sunday afternoon activity of college students everywhere.
So, what's happened in the past week...? On Monday night it happened to be one of my floormates birthdays, so I got together with my whole floor (there are 9 of us, well, technically 10... but I'll explain that in a minute). We had some birthday cake and then all decided that it would be cool for our floor to host a party later that week. The floor I live on is the biggest in the building I'm in and we also have the largest kitchen/lounge area, so with that we have the ability to host parties. As a result of this conversation, on Wednesday night my floor got together again for a marvelous dinner party followed by a pretty crazy late night party that went way into the morning (which was slightly unfortunate since I had a 10am class the next morning). So, that party was my Wednesday night activity (along with some homework of course).
But now about the extra person on my floor. This is actually my neighbor. I live in room G3, and the room next door to me, G4, does have someone who lives there, BUT I have only actually seen him once, and after talking to my floor mates it appears that most people have never even seen him at all. The one time I did see him was when we were both entering our rooms at the same time, this was about a month ago, shortly after moving in. Since I hadn't met him yet I took the liberty of introducing myself by saying, "Hi, I'm Ruth, I live next door to you!" He stared at me blankly for a few seconds before nodding and entering his room. No introductions, no hellos, just a nod, it was strange. Since then I havent actually seen him at all. I hear him in his room sometimes, and I see a light under his door when I go to the bathroom at night, so I know that he's there, but he manages to avoid all contact with everyone who lives here. No one has ever seen him in our communal kitchen, so we're not sure what he eats, I've never had the problem of him being in the shower when I wanted to use it... so I really just dont know what to make of the whole situation. I think he will just remain the infamous G4. Oh and one more thing, we looked through the mail that comes to our floor as a whole and of the three things addressed to him, one was a letter from the university, and the other two were from the police! We're not sure what to make of it.
In other news, the last few days have been filled with a mix of scrabble, late nights, and lots of dancing. On Friday I started out the
day by going with my friend Mike to the nearby Turkish market. I wanted to get some cheese for cheap! We walked around the whole market, I bought some yummy cheese (I'm not sure what kind) and I also got a new bike lock because my old one was starting to rust beyond the point of being useable. Mike bought some
apples and a beard trimmer. I think that short list of purchases can give you an idea of just how much you can get at this market. After we left the market my bike got a flat tire! My second flat tire of the week actually. Bikes are extremely convenient in this city, but also a real hastle when you continuously have to get them fixed. So, right now my bike is currently in the shop getting a new tire. I'm bikeless and it's unfortunate.After the market Mike and I walked through the city in order to meet up with Scott and Claire (these are all people from my program, I dont know if I've mentioned them yet... Mike is from New York State and goes to Pace, Scott is from Minessota but goes to U of Santa Clara, and Claire is from Seatle, but goes to Vassar... Scott and Claire are in the picture). We were going to go check out NEMO which is the kids science museum, but we realized
it was closing soon and wanted to wait until a day where we would have more time to explore the museum since we were going to have to pay
for it. Instead we decided to play scrabble! If you know me at all, then you know that scrabble is probably my favorite game in the world. We went to a nearby cafe and got some cappucinos and sat around for a few hours playing that wonderful game.Later that night I went out to a club called You II. Alanna and I ended up staying there dancing until about 4:30am, it was quite fun, and they actually played some pretty good music... Not just techno. I find that a lot of the places we end up going play a lot of techno music, and I really dont like techno that much... It's too repetative, and I find myself getting bored dancing to it. The next day Alanna and I went on an all female boat cruise, which was a very interesting experience. The crowd on the boat was a range of women
from as young as us, to as old as 50. We spent the night dancing and trying not to feel too sea sick, but I think we both were glad to have gone, because how often do you get the opportunity to go on a boat cruise in the North Sea? Let alone an all female one.Since I've been on foot for the past few days, I had the opportunity to take some pictures of all the bikers. I got held up at one of the canal bridges that
was up to let a boat through, so I took some pictures of all the bikers waiting to cross. Maybe it's just me, but I just find it really cool to see about 20 bicyclists waiting at a red light and then zooming off as soon as it turns green. They're just like cars, except better, and more environmentally friendly!Alright, that's all for now... My plans for the rest of the day include more Scrabble! And of course homework, the Sunday afternoon activity of college students everywhere.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
one reason why the netherlands is amazing
Government takes a stand - against cars
21 September 2007
THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch government has taken a trend to promote eco-friendly cities a step further than its European neighbours by announcing firm measures to discourage cars and driving.
The plan was outlined in the 2008 budget presented this week, and the capital Amsterdam -- a leader in the drive -- and other Dutch cities will use a "no car" day on Sunday, an annual event, to press home the message.
In the traditional address from the throne read out by Queen Beatrix, the centre-left cabinet said it would raise taxes on diesel fuel and vehicles using it. Laws are also being drawn up to make taxes dependent on how much pollution a vehicle emits: the more polluting, the higher the fee.
Unhappy, the Dutch car industry association RAi is trying to rally car owners to protest plans, which are sure to have majority support in the country's coalition system. RAi says the government measures will cost drivers EUR 500 million more per year.
But a number of cities, like Amsterdam, want even stricter action against cars. Among these are Eindhoven, The Hague and Leiden which have ignored drivers' complaints and joined Sunday's "no car" day.
On Sunday, streets inside the ring road that circles Amsterdam will be closed for incoming cars and open only to cyclists and pedestrians between 9 am and 5 pm.
The capital hopes to show out-of-towners that they can leave their cars outside the city and travel in via public transport or taxis, which will still be running Sunday.
Amsterdam, where half the residents do not even have a car, is also hatching other plans to clean up the air and unblock congested roads, including a tax on sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Jeeps and other big cars that run on diesel fuel.
Parking meters will be connected to vehicle tax records and drivers will have to punch in their license plate numbers. The price of a space will be calculated on how much pollution the car creates.
"The technology is available," Tjeerd Herrema, Amsterdam city council member in charge of transport, told the Het Parool daily. He wants to introduce the system in the course of next year.
To back the measures, Amsterdam will build large car parks inside the city for residents and just outside the ring road for visitors, linked to the city's "park-and-ride" public transport system. Plans call for doubling spaces in the outside lots to 2,300. At the moment, visitors pay EUR 5.50 per day to park and get two free public transport tickets, which the municipality wants to increase to five per car.
Inside Amsterdam it now costs EUR 3.90 an hour to park in the city centre from 7 am to midnight everyday, except Sunday morning during church service hours, but prices are set to go up.
The city also wants to improve public transport and increase the number of green spaces in the centre, and Herrema is pushing for trams and buses -- which now stop around 1 am -- to run all night.
The move to go "greener" has seen several European cities like Paris and Lyons in France, Barcelona, Geneva, Oslo, Stockholm and Vienna stock the streets with city-owned bicycles for cheap rental -- a step behind bike-friendly Netherlands which pioneered the idea of bicycle sharing in the late 1960s.
But Amsterdam has not forgotten its numerous cyclists, who are almost as much of a tourist attraction as the 17th-century canal houses. The city is setting aside EUR 70 million for the capital's bicycle riders over the next four years to pay for improving bike lanes, creating more bicycle parking spaces and cracking down on bicycle theft. [Copyright AFP 2007]
I just read this article and had to post it. I wish the US could make some steps even remotely close to this in order to cut down our pollution. I can't wait until no car Sunday!
21 September 2007
THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch government has taken a trend to promote eco-friendly cities a step further than its European neighbours by announcing firm measures to discourage cars and driving.
The plan was outlined in the 2008 budget presented this week, and the capital Amsterdam -- a leader in the drive -- and other Dutch cities will use a "no car" day on Sunday, an annual event, to press home the message.
In the traditional address from the throne read out by Queen Beatrix, the centre-left cabinet said it would raise taxes on diesel fuel and vehicles using it. Laws are also being drawn up to make taxes dependent on how much pollution a vehicle emits: the more polluting, the higher the fee.
Unhappy, the Dutch car industry association RAi is trying to rally car owners to protest plans, which are sure to have majority support in the country's coalition system. RAi says the government measures will cost drivers EUR 500 million more per year.
But a number of cities, like Amsterdam, want even stricter action against cars. Among these are Eindhoven, The Hague and Leiden which have ignored drivers' complaints and joined Sunday's "no car" day.
On Sunday, streets inside the ring road that circles Amsterdam will be closed for incoming cars and open only to cyclists and pedestrians between 9 am and 5 pm.
The capital hopes to show out-of-towners that they can leave their cars outside the city and travel in via public transport or taxis, which will still be running Sunday.
Amsterdam, where half the residents do not even have a car, is also hatching other plans to clean up the air and unblock congested roads, including a tax on sports utility vehicles (SUVs), Jeeps and other big cars that run on diesel fuel.
Parking meters will be connected to vehicle tax records and drivers will have to punch in their license plate numbers. The price of a space will be calculated on how much pollution the car creates.
"The technology is available," Tjeerd Herrema, Amsterdam city council member in charge of transport, told the Het Parool daily. He wants to introduce the system in the course of next year.
To back the measures, Amsterdam will build large car parks inside the city for residents and just outside the ring road for visitors, linked to the city's "park-and-ride" public transport system. Plans call for doubling spaces in the outside lots to 2,300. At the moment, visitors pay EUR 5.50 per day to park and get two free public transport tickets, which the municipality wants to increase to five per car.
Inside Amsterdam it now costs EUR 3.90 an hour to park in the city centre from 7 am to midnight everyday, except Sunday morning during church service hours, but prices are set to go up.
The city also wants to improve public transport and increase the number of green spaces in the centre, and Herrema is pushing for trams and buses -- which now stop around 1 am -- to run all night.
The move to go "greener" has seen several European cities like Paris and Lyons in France, Barcelona, Geneva, Oslo, Stockholm and Vienna stock the streets with city-owned bicycles for cheap rental -- a step behind bike-friendly Netherlands which pioneered the idea of bicycle sharing in the late 1960s.
But Amsterdam has not forgotten its numerous cyclists, who are almost as much of a tourist attraction as the 17th-century canal houses. The city is setting aside EUR 70 million for the capital's bicycle riders over the next four years to pay for improving bike lanes, creating more bicycle parking spaces and cracking down on bicycle theft. [Copyright AFP 2007]
I just read this article and had to post it. I wish the US could make some steps even remotely close to this in order to cut down our pollution. I can't wait until no car Sunday!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
remembering
My mom just sent me this article from the Mills College newspaper, I put it on my wall, and I'm putting it up here because I think everyone should get to see it. I hope it's somewhat clear.
Monday, September 24, 2007
pannekoeken escapades
Yesterday I went on a very exciting journey with Alanna, Yitka, Taryn, Martina, and Rebecca (those last 3 people are Yitka's SIT friends). We had heard from Yitka's host mom that the best pancake house in Amsterdam was located in the Amsterdam Woods which are
on the very edge of the city, right near Schiphol Airport. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to venture out into the wilderness on our bikes in order to find and enjoy these delicious pancakes. It wasn't long before we really knew we were in the woods, because shortly after our bike ride began we ran into a Bison! (or some animal of that sort, none of us were quite sure). Yitka spotted it from her bike and so we all hopped off so that we could get a few pictu
res of the wild animal. We kept biking and eventually reached the ferry that would take us over closer to the pancake house. (We found out on the way back that it's actually much faster to just bike the whole way and avoid the ferry, but I think we all wanted a fun boat ride. Unfortunately, Alanna, Martina, and myself made it onto the first ferry and then there wasn't enough room for Yitka, Taryn, and Rebecca. 
We decided that we would just wait for them on the other side before continuing our bike ride. The ferry was really cool... It's a medium size boat that can hold up to 100 person and also a fair number of bikes. One of these pictures is of all the bikes packed onto the ferry. Everyone just stands in line to get on the ferry and the driver piles the bikes on one by one. Because of this, everyone has to exit the ferry in the same order that they got on, we were the last people on, so we got to get off first. 
The ride itself was probably only about 7 minutes accross the water, but I think it was more about the experience of being on a boat in Amsterdam than anything else, and we all really enjoyed that.
After everyone had gotten over the crossing we hoped back on our bikes and really got into the woods. We followed a few more bike paths before
coming accross a big field with horses and goats and other animals roaming around, and then the pancake house was right next to this field. At first the whole establishment was a bit overwhelming. None of us could figure out where to order or what to order because there were so many different pancake options. 
We finally figured it all out and placed our orders. After a few minutes our numbers appeared on the screen and we found ourselves with 6 amazing pannekoeken, Heerlijk! (That means Delicious!). After we all thoroughly enjoyed our pancakes (we finished everything on every plate) we decided to get some ice cream for dessert. 
At this point we were all thoroughly stuffed and we decided it was time to head back to the central city, but before we did so we made sure to stop and see the deer! Martina bought some feed and fed one of them, it was very exciting. This place would definitely have been really amazing to visit as a little kid. They had deer to pet, and playgrounds, and all these cool toys to play with, I know I would've loved it even more than I loved it today.
Our day didnt end after our bikeride back to the city though... For those who I haven't told yet, I got my eyebrow pierced yesterday! (I hope you like it mom).
Anyway, Yitka, Taryn, and Alanna were nice enough to come with me, and Yitka held my hand while Taryn and Alanna documented the whole thing on film. I don't have any of their pictures yet, but I do have a picture of the final product.
Later that night we all went to this place called Trut, which is a gay and lesbian underground party that only happens on Sundays. We all had a blast and there was a lot of SIT-CIEE mixing which was lots of fun. Now I'm up because I was planning on doing some homework, but instead I'm posting this entry. Now to work!
on the very edge of the city, right near Schiphol Airport. It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to venture out into the wilderness on our bikes in order to find and enjoy these delicious pancakes. It wasn't long before we really knew we were in the woods, because shortly after our bike ride began we ran into a Bison! (or some animal of that sort, none of us were quite sure). Yitka spotted it from her bike and so we all hopped off so that we could get a few pictu
res of the wild animal. We kept biking and eventually reached the ferry that would take us over closer to the pancake house. (We found out on the way back that it's actually much faster to just bike the whole way and avoid the ferry, but I think we all wanted a fun boat ride. Unfortunately, Alanna, Martina, and myself made it onto the first ferry and then there wasn't enough room for Yitka, Taryn, and Rebecca. 
We decided that we would just wait for them on the other side before continuing our bike ride. The ferry was really cool... It's a medium size boat that can hold up to 100 person and also a fair number of bikes. One of these pictures is of all the bikes packed onto the ferry. Everyone just stands in line to get on the ferry and the driver piles the bikes on one by one. Because of this, everyone has to exit the ferry in the same order that they got on, we were the last people on, so we got to get off first. 
The ride itself was probably only about 7 minutes accross the water, but I think it was more about the experience of being on a boat in Amsterdam than anything else, and we all really enjoyed that.
After everyone had gotten over the crossing we hoped back on our bikes and really got into the woods. We followed a few more bike paths before
coming accross a big field with horses and goats and other animals roaming around, and then the pancake house was right next to this field. At first the whole establishment was a bit overwhelming. None of us could figure out where to order or what to order because there were so many different pancake options. 
We finally figured it all out and placed our orders. After a few minutes our numbers appeared on the screen and we found ourselves with 6 amazing pannekoeken, Heerlijk! (That means Delicious!). After we all thoroughly enjoyed our pancakes (we finished everything on every plate) we decided to get some ice cream for dessert. 
At this point we were all thoroughly stuffed and we decided it was time to head back to the central city, but before we did so we made sure to stop and see the deer! Martina bought some feed and fed one of them, it was very exciting. This place would definitely have been really amazing to visit as a little kid. They had deer to pet, and playgrounds, and all these cool toys to play with, I know I would've loved it even more than I loved it today.
Our day didnt end after our bikeride back to the city though... For those who I haven't told yet, I got my eyebrow pierced yesterday! (I hope you like it mom).
Anyway, Yitka, Taryn, and Alanna were nice enough to come with me, and Yitka held my hand while Taryn and Alanna documented the whole thing on film. I don't have any of their pictures yet, but I do have a picture of the final product.Later that night we all went to this place called Trut, which is a gay and lesbian underground party that only happens on Sundays. We all had a blast and there was a lot of SIT-CIEE mixing which was lots of fun. Now I'm up because I was planning on doing some homework, but instead I'm posting this entry. Now to work!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Decemberists! (and other happenings)
Tonight I had the pleasure of going to see The Decemberists playing live. The show was at Paradiso which is a nice concert venue in central Amsterdam. Kellan and I made sure to get there a bit early so that when the doors opened at 7 we were able to get to the front of the concert hall and secure ourselves a spot FRONT ROW CENTER! It was really awesome. For the entire show I was looking right into the lead singers 
/face (I would say Colin, but I always think it sounds wierd to refer to band members by their first name when I obviously dont actually know them). They played an awesome show including many songs from The Crane Wife and then a few from random other albums. At one point they divided the audience into teams and Colin leaned down and asked me and Kellan and the people around us to come up with a good name for our side of the audience... Kellan came up with "The Deceptacons." Oh yeah, and she also got his pic when he threw it into the crowd, she was pretty excited about that. I also really liked the opening band that played. They were called Land of Talk and I wanted to buy their album but by the time I got to the merch stand it was sold out... I'll have to find it somewhere else. All in all it was a pretty amazing show and I think Kellan and I were very pleased that we went.
In other news, last night I had a few more adventures to tell you all about. To start the night, I went over to SIT where Yitka's program was having an event so that all the students could show their photo essays about different Dutch cities that they had visited on solo excursions last weekend. Yitka invited me to come see the projects and also so that I could finally meet the rest of the SIT folk, so I went and had a great time drinking wine and eating snacks and meeting new people. The night moved on and me, Yitka, Alanna, and Taryn and Ellen (Yitka's friends from SIT) went out and met a bunch more people from CIEE. First we went to this bar called Vive La Vie where Alanna immediately made friends with a table of older South African lesbians. Somehow they got to talking and we ended up spending the rest of the night with these three women. In the hour or so that we were sitting outside of Vive La Vie, about 10-15 police officers formed a sort of blockade of the road we were on. They started stopping every person that walked by in order to pat them all down. The one person that was actually from Amsterdam in the group we were sitting with told us that they were most likely searching for weapons. What was most interesting about observing all of this though was that no one seemed particularly annoyed or even felt that they were being violated in any way. In America, any type of attempt at a random search on a public street would cause an uproar because of the violation of constitutional rights that would occur. Here, many of the Dutch that were being stopped found it almost exciting. We heard more than one person exclaim in Dutch, "Oh, what fun!" when they found out what was going to happen to them. After the blockade had been in place for about twenty minutes a large group of about 20-30 people marched through in an obvious form of protest because they made it so the police would have no way of searching all of them at once. But even these protesters didnt seem particularly upset, in fact they seemed rather light hearted and excited about their night. It was interesting to observe such a thing, and just another thing to add to my list of extreme differences between this culture and the one I am accustomed to.
After we had been at Vive La Vie for awhile we decided to head over to Cafe Sappho where it was womens night. We spent the next hour dancing at Sappho until the bar closed and we had to leave. At that point we were all really hungry so we decided to go get some falafel before calling it a night and heading home around 4am. Another night full of adventure! It seems that spending time with Alanna is a sure way to meet a bunch of random people who she finds herself randomly talking to at all the bars we go to, I enjoy it.
Tomorrow Yitka and I and some other friends are going to try and take a long bike ride to a pannekoeken house on the outskirts of the city that you have to take a ferry to! I'm really excited because Yitka's host mom, Cinta, said that they're the best pancakes in Amsterdam and it's supposed to be really beautiful out tomorrow, so it'll be a nice long bike ride on a wonderful sunny day (or so we're hoping). Well, I'll write about that adventure in my next post I'm sure. As always, I'd love to hear from anyone who's been reading!
-Ruth
/face (I would say Colin, but I always think it sounds wierd to refer to band members by their first name when I obviously dont actually know them). They played an awesome show including many songs from The Crane Wife and then a few from random other albums. At one point they divided the audience into teams and Colin leaned down and asked me and Kellan and the people around us to come up with a good name for our side of the audience... Kellan came up with "The Deceptacons." Oh yeah, and she also got his pic when he threw it into the crowd, she was pretty excited about that. I also really liked the opening band that played. They were called Land of Talk and I wanted to buy their album but by the time I got to the merch stand it was sold out... I'll have to find it somewhere else. All in all it was a pretty amazing show and I think Kellan and I were very pleased that we went.In other news, last night I had a few more adventures to tell you all about. To start the night, I went over to SIT where Yitka's program was having an event so that all the students could show their photo essays about different Dutch cities that they had visited on solo excursions last weekend. Yitka invited me to come see the projects and also so that I could finally meet the rest of the SIT folk, so I went and had a great time drinking wine and eating snacks and meeting new people. The night moved on and me, Yitka, Alanna, and Taryn and Ellen (Yitka's friends from SIT) went out and met a bunch more people from CIEE. First we went to this bar called Vive La Vie where Alanna immediately made friends with a table of older South African lesbians. Somehow they got to talking and we ended up spending the rest of the night with these three women. In the hour or so that we were sitting outside of Vive La Vie, about 10-15 police officers formed a sort of blockade of the road we were on. They started stopping every person that walked by in order to pat them all down. The one person that was actually from Amsterdam in the group we were sitting with told us that they were most likely searching for weapons. What was most interesting about observing all of this though was that no one seemed particularly annoyed or even felt that they were being violated in any way. In America, any type of attempt at a random search on a public street would cause an uproar because of the violation of constitutional rights that would occur. Here, many of the Dutch that were being stopped found it almost exciting. We heard more than one person exclaim in Dutch, "Oh, what fun!" when they found out what was going to happen to them. After the blockade had been in place for about twenty minutes a large group of about 20-30 people marched through in an obvious form of protest because they made it so the police would have no way of searching all of them at once. But even these protesters didnt seem particularly upset, in fact they seemed rather light hearted and excited about their night. It was interesting to observe such a thing, and just another thing to add to my list of extreme differences between this culture and the one I am accustomed to.
After we had been at Vive La Vie for awhile we decided to head over to Cafe Sappho where it was womens night. We spent the next hour dancing at Sappho until the bar closed and we had to leave. At that point we were all really hungry so we decided to go get some falafel before calling it a night and heading home around 4am. Another night full of adventure! It seems that spending time with Alanna is a sure way to meet a bunch of random people who she finds herself randomly talking to at all the bars we go to, I enjoy it.
Tomorrow Yitka and I and some other friends are going to try and take a long bike ride to a pannekoeken house on the outskirts of the city that you have to take a ferry to! I'm really excited because Yitka's host mom, Cinta, said that they're the best pancakes in Amsterdam and it's supposed to be really beautiful out tomorrow, so it'll be a nice long bike ride on a wonderful sunny day (or so we're hoping). Well, I'll write about that adventure in my next post I'm sure. As always, I'd love to hear from anyone who's been reading!
-Ruth
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