Still braving the land of Nether- Part 2

Eleven Weeks into this experiment I am finding the weeks slipping by quickly. I have had the opportunity to travel to some really wonderful places. At the end of October I went with three of my musician friends- Megan (my flatmate), Ben and Mark, ventured in a bit of a round about romp through Europe. We started with Dublin, Ireland, then braved the "wrong side" of the road with a car and explored the County Wicklow countryside, then flew to Milan, Italy (my favorite was the huge castle/fort surrounded by the city, which I am certain is secretly run by cats), and then from there made our way to Stockholm, Sweeden. My favorites were definitely the Irish countryside and Stockholm- a vibrant, clean, colorful and COLD city (that alliteration was unintended I swear :*) I also got to do a little experiment with temporary homeslessness- spending a total of 31 hours in a Swedish Airport- yeehaw!

Just this past weekend my program (IES) took us on a field trip of sorts to Belgium. We went to the quaint, nostalgic Brugge and Antwerp, which we got to spend more time in to get to know. I actually got to visit Jan Henderikse, the husband of Idi, the woman I worked with this summer at St. Bart's Soup Kitchen for the Homeless. He is a Dutch artist with quite a large follwing in Europe. I met him at his studio in Antwerp- in the top floor of an stately old warehouse. He was so kind and showed me around his work (www.janhenderikse.com) , had some gunpowder tea, gave me a bag of random art trinkets of his, perused through his IPOD- the afternoon was an overwhelming success :*).

I've been taking a rowing/crew course. Every Monday evening me and my team (four Dutch women) take to the Amstel River. I've really enjoyed this course so far. I am thinking about joining a real team in the spring perhaps- we'll see how it goes. It's hard work and more about listening and balance and coordination than strength really- because once you put those pieces together you have a collective strength that enables you to soar on the water. Two of the women on my team will actually be studying in St. Louis this spring! It's a small world--

School has been a interesting challenge- the pace here is so different from back home. Most of my classes meet for concentrated hours once a week, which has taken some getting used to. I have classes with almost all international students, and of those mostly Americans and Canadians and Austrailians. Kind of interesting composition that I wasn't expecting really (honestly a little disappointing too, sometimes there's a bit of a bubble here with the international students, I try to avoid it and the "american ghetto" that is my apartment and the IES kids). It makes interaction with actual Dutch people something you have to be compeltely intentional about. I am continuing to work in investigating and understanding what legalized prostitution means in the Netherlands in the human rights context. It has been a challenging experience so far trying to contact and meet with organizations. I am continually looking for a place to volunteer as well (no luck as of yet!).

Last weekend I celebrated St. Martin's Day with the Weiss family (and American family living in NL who I sometimes go to church with) and a family they are great friends with who are Dutch. It's a lot like our Halloween except the kids run around with paper lanterns from door to door singing a few specials songs in exchange for candy and clemintines. They even sang at a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood and received some Chinese treats! It was so much fun corraling this lively group of kids scream-singing the songs and eating Dutch pankoeks afterwards with the whole family. I got to test out some of my Dutch on some of them (which prompted some uproarious laughter, haha, I'll have to keep working on that!) To have the chance to spend time with in a warm home with kid chaos and animals and family's with good humor was such blessing and really memorable.

Sinterclaus comes to Amsterdam this Sunday! (Similar to Santa Clause, but make no mistake, Sinterclaus has some exclusivly Dutch attributes...oh yes) I may get to go to the arrival festivities with another Dutch family whose au pair, Drea, I met through the family I babysit. She helped me fix my bike today...Wilhelmina has been a bit tempermental recently... it's kind of funny/alarming when bits of your bike suddenly clatter behind you on your way around the city, heh. But I did get to meet one of my neighbors, a bookbinder across the street (when I stepped inside the shop I felt like I had gone back in time to the 1930s- it was kind of magical), who lent me some tools and told me the secret soap ingredient the Dutch use to wash bike oil off their hands.

That's all for now (I know I have missed some things but alas, they'll have to surface in some other post). Take care~