Travels & Amsterdam

View of Addis Ababa

2010-07-05T17:44:00.000+02:00

I'm enjoying a beautiful evening at the cafe at the top floor of my hotel in Addis. See all of the scattered development? New buildings next to slums next to fancy hotels. This city is fun and quirky, but the poverty is also obvious and they're in desperate need of a land use policy.

Weekend in Ireland

2010-06-27T22:55:00.003+02:00

Just back from a long weekend with the parents in Ireland... We had a great time seeing the beautiful nature, crashing family reunions (of our own [extended] family), tasting whiskey, and drinking Guiness.

Mom and I, at Bushmills:

And Dad and I, at Giant's Causeway, where we met some very charming, and very drunk, Swiss-French old men, who were the epitome of jolly and could really carry a tune!

World Cup Spirit - Dutch style!

2010-06-14T22:25:00.001+02:00

No one could ever blame the Dutch for a lack of team spirit... But
isn't orange toilet paper taking it a bit far?

Foods I have Known in Morocco

2009-10-18T16:09:00.002+02:00

Now, to turn to my favorite topic... eating.

On my first day, I enjoyed a delicious tagine with lamb, prune, and onions. Woah, lots of onions. But it was delicious. Finger-licking-I-can't-even-tell-you delicious. It was at a suspiciously touristy looking rooftop overlooking the square... and you had to write down your own order... but it was GREAT.

After a big meal like that, you need some mint tea. I don't know if they thought I left without paying, or if they were just really in a hurry, but when I got back from the bathroom they'd cleared all my things away. So, I left and went elsewhere for tea. Ended up at a lovely riad, Dar Timtam. There, I drank some lovely tea. Splendid!

I know you're curious what I ate at that stall on the market... well, here it is:

Clockwise from top left: spicy salsa-type-stuff, mild salsa-type-stuff, olives (I almost liked them), traditional bread, lamb sausages, and the best eggplant in the entire world. Now, I think eggplant is okay. But this eggplant was AMAZING. How could a simple eggplant taste so good??? I have no idea. It is worth the struggle to emerge from the booths single just to taste this eggplant. Mmmhhh...

At Jardin Majorelle I enjoyed a very unique and strangely spicy drink: ginger, mint and pineapple juice. Yum! Very refreshing for a warm day.

At our cooking class (see the previous post), we learned three dishes: Moroccan salad (this does, contrary to how it sounds, involve cooking), chicken with lemon and olives, and pancakes with 1,000 holes. I think I will have the most success replicating the pancakes, but all three dishes were delicious, and since I have plenty of Moroccan shops in the neighborhood where I can get "authentic" ingredients, I think I'll give them a try.

Here, you see the early stages of chicken with lemon and olives:
For some reason, I figured that after the conference started, my culinary adventures would end. Oh how wrong I was...

One day, we arrived at the congress center to see these taped up:

Ah, of course, the dinner that the King ordered. Awesome. It started out slowly, with a pastilla big enough to fill us all completely. Fortunately, I did not know how much more food was coming, and ate a good amount of this. I say fortunately because it was really the best course in my book. Flaky pastry filled with sweet and cinnamon spiced chicken (not pigeon, they said):
Yum! But then, things started to get worrying. The next course arrived:

"Do you think that's a whole lamb?" one of the women at my table asked. No one could tell her for sure. It surely wasn't a small part of one... was it a half lamb? Who knows. What I do know is that we were sitting at a dinner for 2,600 people... so either way, a lot of lambs ended their lives for us.

Then, I was surely full. Which explains the next course:

How many chickens? Three? Four? For TEN people? I can't remember. The excess was alarming. After this, I could no longer take pictures. I was so full that I could barely move. Certainly I could not think. But, lest you be concerned that we still had not eaten enough, you will be happy to know that this was followed by:

Couscous with vegetables and chicken
Chocolate cake
Fruit

Seriously? Insane. And we had another feast that nearly replicated this quantity on the last day of the conference. So, let's just say that they didn't let the conference participants go hungry!

All in all, I was a big fan of Moroccan cuisine, and hope to be able to make some soon in a kitchen near you.

And then there was Morocco

2009-10-18T15:49:00.004+02:00

Next in my saga of "amazing places that I've gone for work": Marrakech!

To be honest, I wasn't as in love with Marrakech as I expected. There were busloads of (Dutch) tourists at all of the major attractions, and when I escaped the tourists I was assailed by offers of goods and marriage. Now, not everyone behaved like this, but it was enough to get on your nerves. Still, for the two days that I had to wander around before the meeting started, I tried to make the most of it.

First, I was off to the major tombs, palaces, and markets. This is the Saadian Tombs. They're particularly cool because they've been in the center of Marrakech, just around the corner from a major mosque, and for 300 years they were completely forgotten. That gives you an idea of how twisty the roads are...

The rooms are all decorated with brilliant geometrical patterns, and there's now a lush garden in the center. As soon as you elbow your way through the hoards of tourists, it's quite nice!

When I came out of the tombs, I was excited to get away a little bit. I thought I would take a shortcut to the next palace. Well, that clearly will not work. I had a very nice wander through some streets where there were neither tourists nor people trying to sell me something nor men trying to marry me. In fact, it was quiet, and almost tranquil. This, I suspected, was the part of Morocco that I liked. I said hello to some women (the extent of my Arabic...), asked a man for directions... it was lovely. Look at the doors:

So, I'm looking forward to more of this in Fez at Christmas, only then hopefully my Arabic class will have had enough effect that I can move from "hello" to "how are you?". I have high goals, I know. But really, I think this is the way to see the "real Morocco".

When I finally found my way out of the twisting streets, I found another palace... I can't keep track of which was which. They all have colorful, beautiful patterns... wow!

This one had the good fortune of a view on a stork's nest. This is supposed to be good luck, and is a very cool thing to see. These are not small nests...

Then, by sunset I headed over to Place Jemaa el Fna, the main square in town. Here you can see the hustle and bustle on the square as dusk fell.
After dark, it's a nice place to be... if you're an Arabic man. I guess that the storytellers were telling nice stories, and for sure there were some very interesting musical performances, complete with drag-queen belly dancers. But mostly, this is a place to find single Western women and ask them to marry you. Apparently.

At least there's also food there. I did (on another night) eat in the stalls... good food! Crazy atmosphere! More marriage proposals!

The day after my adventure in the center, I tried out the new part of town. This was much calmer, less salesmen, and less marriage proposals. Thank goodness. Also in the new part of town is the Jardin Majorelle - the most beautiful part of Marrakech.

Yves Saint Laurent was the most recent owner of the garden, and upon his death it was opened to the public. What a beautiful place!! Cacti, bamboo forests, and lots of deep blues, greens, and oranges. It was a very calm and peaceful place of beauty.

Finally, on Sunday morning before the conference started, I went for a cooking class. The class was held in a villa outside of Marrakech, and just to satisfy those demanding photos that prove I was actually there, here's one of me by the pool in this little slice of paradise.

Now, on to the next post for my favorite thing - food!

In September, off to Riga

2009-10-18T14:48:00.002+02:00

After a few relaxed weeks at home in August, I was off to Riga in September. While the real purpose of my visit was to attend a conference, I managed to arrive the Friday before the meetings, to catch up with my friend Wendy and see the town of Riga.

To be honest, I had low to no expectations for Riga. I hadn't had time to do any research, and figured I would just see how it was when I got there. After all, my hotel had a bathtub, so in the worst case I could always stay in and take bubble baths with glasses of wine.

Unfortunately for the bubble bath plan, Riga was a brilliant surprise. Not only were the people incredibly friendly, but the town itself was the perfect combination of old and new, city bustle and quiet town.

Foremost amongst the city's attractions are its Art Nouveau buildings. Little did I know that Riga has the most Art Nouveau buildings of any city in the world. This one is one of the gems:

It's impossible to tell in this photo, but the whole facade is covered in faces, bodies, animals, and symbols. Even though it was pouring rain on the day we decided to discover Art Nouveau Riga, it was well worth getting wet.

This is one of the others that I particularly liked... it's really in disrepair, but somehow that gives it its own character and charm. I love how the elaborate decorations mix with the dilapidation. Beautiful contrasts.

While we did make an effort to see the sights of Riga, Wendy and I had both prioritized relaxation above all other goals. This led us to a great discovery: Riga is the town of tea houses. Amazing, unique, not-to-be-missed tea houses.

This one was perched in a park... the patrons sit along a platform upstairs, on cushions and pillows, shoes off, sipping their tea while watching the river or the pedestrians pass by. I cannot wait to build my own tea hut modeled after this one!

Another of our favorites, Goija Tea Room, was quite the opposite. Dark and quiet, it lent itself to long conversations and contemplation.

I won't admit how many other tea houses we went to... let's just say that we spent most of Saturday and Sunday either drinking tea or walking to the next tea house.

Riga, all in all, was a lovely town. In fact, even the meeting room for our conference was lovely:

So, I would highly recommend it as a destination. In the end, just before I had to catch a taxi to the airport, I discovered a very cool second hand shop upstairs just around the corner from my hotel. There, I got a green jacket, a brown fuzzy jacket, a white lace shirt, and a pair of shoes for something like 15 euros. Not a bad way to use up the last of my lats!

August in Amsterdam

2009-10-18T13:16:00.005+02:00

August was mostly spent at home, aside from a lovely weekend in Cologne with Albert and Daphne.

We took the train there, feeling extra classy with our cheap beers.

We had great, sunny weather while we were there.

This seems to have encouraged Daphne to make us climb the church tower... unfortunately, Cologne is not a beautiful city when seen from above. But it was the best exercise we got during the trip. The top of the tower itself is quite beautiful.

We also discovered that Cologne still has phone booths. Yellow ones. Amazing. What a place to receive life-changing news!
Finally, as we were about to depart, Daphne met her new lover. Look at the adoring way she stares into his eyes... it's only too bad that he's so... cold.

Another notable event in August was the development of our lettuce tree... I have honestly never seen lettuce grow quite like this before. Starving for light? Yeah, that might be it. (Unfortunately, said lettuce tree has since become dinner for millions of aphids.)

And, of course, the most fun part of August - Albert's birthday! We again went to the lovely pier restaurant behind central station, and had a delicious dinner with a beautiful view.

Welcome Albert!

2009-09-13T10:29:00.002+02:00

Instead of starting his own blog, we thought it would be nicer if Albert joined me in posting on Travels & Amsterdam. Hopefully this will help us post more than once every three months!

and, finally, the Alps...

2009-07-13T19:18:00.002+02:00

You would think that after all that, I'd be ready for some rest. But no! Fear not! I then proceeded, after 36 hours in Amsterdam, to Geneva. First for a bit (2 days) of holiday with the family, and then for ECOSOC meetings.

Here, you see Albert and I standing inside of a glacier. Yes, inside. Yes, a glacier. Why? Because someone thought it would be a good idea to drill a cave into a glacier so people could go inside. Clearly. It was... cool. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

And here we are, outside of a glacier! Actually, the glacier is in the valley below; you can't quite see it. But, if we'd been there 100 years earlier, it would be poking up where the greenery ends on the mountainside behind us. It was truly alarming to see how quickly the ice is vanishing. Not that drilling caves in the glaciers helps much...

Finally, in the last stop on our Alpine adventure, we stayed in a charming town with charming cheese, both called Abondance. The only thing not charming was the fact that during dinner the river turned green. Not just a little green, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles green. For a while, no one knew why. So, we went on an expedition to find out. Still, we did not know why...

The next morning at breakfast, we were told it was a "test, water source test." Or, at least that's what we think they said, since our collective French is still not excellent. So it remains a bit of a mystery.

After that, I got to go back to work, at the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review. ECOSOC, by the way, is a UN body comparable to the Security Council whose mandate is to oversee all the economic and cultural bodies of the UN: WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNESCO (you know, World Heritage sites?)... all those agencies that are in the news all of the time are overseen by ECOSOC, the Economic and Social Council. The meetings were fine, with some good language about sexual health and rights included in the final declaration. It was a good experience, and gave me some things to think about for future years.

Now that I'm back in Amsterdam, I think I'm ready to stay (mostly) put for a while. Maybe a side trip to Cologne, but otherwise sticking around here until the EuroNGOs meeting in Riga, Latvia at the beginning of September. It promises to be a relaxing summer!

Off to Kenya

2009-07-13T18:59:00.005+02:00

After I got back from holidays in the US, it was time to go to Kenya for work. Although we did do a lot of work in Kenya, we also had a very nice time.

Kenyans are still pretty into Obama (see top left, the sticker inside a taxi we took). I heard it was much more pronounced around the election, but it's still a big topic of conversation. Also, you see people wearing (and selling) Obama shirts, lots of cars with Obama bumper stickers, etc.

The place where we gave the workshop, at Lake Naivasha, was absolutely gorgeous. Here, you can see one of our giraffe friends wandering around.

This is Lake Naivasha. It's a bit hard to make out in this picture, but the photo shows a cart next to a pier that leads to the lake. Due to flower farming in the area, and a lack of rain, the water level in the lake has fallen dramatically, and they keep having the extend the pier.

The cart itself is actually quite ironic - every morning and evening, they hitch a donkey to the cart to bring it to and from the lake. What does it carry? An engine, for the tour boat that goes out on the lake. Nothing like modernity to get you donkey carts hauling engines...

This is one of the naughty monkeys that came into our conference room and stole candy off the tables. They really like to get into trouble. They are also not at all afraid of people, though still not terribly friendly. This little one was sitting on my balcony railing, less than an arm's length away.

Mid-week, we played a soccer match against the hotel staff (when I say "we," I mean the workshop participants...). It was great fun, and thanks to the staff lending us some star players, the game ended in a draw, 2-2. I think my cheering helped a lot.

This is our workshop room, and on the left, the coffee break tent. It was a brilliant place to give a workshop, except that in the middle of the day the sun beat on the stone building, causing it to become extremely hot. And monkeys stole our candy. Other than that, it was perfect!

First Harvest

2009-07-13T18:53:00.003+02:00

Well, there are a few new posts coming. I've been traveling like crazy - at one point I was on three continents within 5 days. But first, a look in our "garden," i.e. the pots on the windowsill.

The first harvest brought radishes and lettuce. Unfortunately, I don't like radishes, and these were particularly strong and also a bit woody. But, pretty to look at!

The lettuce, on the other hand, was tender and delicious.

Then the second harvest, which was really exciting. Tiny, amazingly sweet tomatoes, and really nice sweet peas. Let's just ignore those radishes.

Unfortunately the garden did not particularly like being left alone for over a month... so we'll see what more we can coax from it. Maybe it's not too late to start some new peas? We'll see.

Little Garden

2009-05-02T23:36:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, we planted a small garden for our balcony/windowsill. Since we have no outdoor space, I got to do this in my living room. Unfortunately, the planters featured "make your own" drainage holes...

We got a tomato plant and transplanted it into a bigger pot...

Our basil, amazingly still alive (this is the kind you buy at Albert Heijn for one euro and kill it all to make pesto... except I left a few plants living and they've grown really well!), got bigger pots and new soil.

I finally got around to planting the cactus seeds Katie got me for my birthday years ago... I'm not too sure they'll germinate because they're a bit old, but hey, I'm hopeful. The green guy is a poinsettia - also from Albert Heijn - who was looking completely dead for the longest time, but I forgot to throw him away, and once the days started getting longer he exploded into leaves. So, I guess he gets to stay.

Oh, and here are my sweet little Petunias... presents from Jetze for our housewarming, and one is actually blooming now! How exciting! It has these adorable little pink flowers.

In the big pots and troughs (is that what you call them?) we planted two kinds of lettuce, sweet peas, carrots, and radishes. So... let's see what happens. For now all we can do is wait!

Queen's Day

2009-05-02T23:14:00.003+02:00

As you may know, April 30 is Queen's Day in Holland, a day to celebrate the birthday of the former Queen (and the day the current Queen was crowned)... primarily by wearing orange, consuming street food and drink, and buying lots of things you don't need from all of your neighbors all along the street. Basically, all of Amsterdam turns into a giant orange street fair/party/flea market.

Of course, I just wanted to fit in:

Unfortunately, though, I had no orange pants. Albert, on the other hand, donned a beautiful orange cape, and earned enough money playing flute to buy us two sandwiches!

Here's our booty: Krissy's roller skates (€3), Albert's roller skates (€9), two Asterix books and a Mongolian hat (€9), knee pads (€1.50), Krissy's roller skates (€0.50), two pairs of shoes (€4).

Oh, but we also managed to get some free booty: a Condomerie t-shirt, an Ann Rice novel (I didn't want this! But a guy was selling delicious chocolate-cherry cupcakes that I did want, and refused to sell me a cupcake unless I also took a book. In the end, I got two cupcakes for €1.50, saving 50 cents by taking the book.), golden coasters, black & orange balloons, three psychadlic ties, a sweater-dress, a leather purse, a paisely scarf, and a cute green t-shirt. Total for these: negative €0.50 (from what I saved on the cupcakes).

All in all, a very nice Queen's Day. Well, except for the tragedy with the crazy guy running people over, but... personally, I had a nice day.

Relaxing in Spa

2009-04-18T14:33:00.005+02:00

Albert and I recently took an excellent trip to Spa, Belgium. The impetus for the weekend was to attend the EUU spring retreat, but we decided to go down a day early to enjoy the full relaxation that Spa has to offer. As the birthplace of Spa water, not to mention the word "spa," it is truly a place you can get used to spending time in.

Fortunately, the weather was great... because to get to Spa from Amsterdam requires about 4-5 hours and 4-5 trains. But, with the sun shining and no deadlines to meet, we moseyed our way down, stopping along the way for waffles and beer. Yum! Above you see me enjoying the sun in our last stop before Spa, Pepinster.

Above you see a delicious kind of Belgian beer, made with peaches. It's a bit sweet for normal drinking, but it's perfect for sitting out on a terrace in the sun and watching the people pass by. As we learned in the Belgian Beer workshop at the EUU retreat, it really is made with peaches, and ferments using "wild" yeast - whichever yeast happen to drift by as the beer is being prepared. Sounds gross... tastes great!

On the other hand, the water in Spa.... not so much. There was a reason they called it medicinal water, and not "delicious and fresh" water. At least that's true of the spring in the center of town, where the water was so heavy with minerals that it was almost impossible to drink. Think rotting egg mixed with copper, and you'll be close. The good news is, it only cost 20 cents to sample this rare treat.

I really wanted to try this water, from another spring that we happened upon while wandering the hills of Spa, but there was a sign next to it that said it was not suitable for drinking. I'm not sure I believe it, but I decided not to risk it. It still looked and sounded beautiful though, like most of Spa.

We also took a nice stroll through the graveyard that was next to where we were staying. The grave above is my favorite one - it looks just like a random, weathered stone that someone found and propped up. This was in contrast to most of the others, that were much more regular and predictable.

On the way back one day, we saw this super cool old Bentley. Now, what makes Spa really great? The spa itself of course! On Thursday night, after traveling through the Netherlands and Belgium, we paid our 15 euros for three hours in the spa. They have huge pools both indoors and out, and also saunas, Turkish steam rooms, hot tubs, cold tubs, foot soak tubs... basically, anything you can do with water, they do. And it was *great*. The perfect way to start off a long weekend!

Spring!

2009-04-18T14:20:00.003+02:00

Spring is finally here! It has really been wonderful weather the past two weeks, and I've been outside enjoying it as much as possible. I've tried to remember to take some pictures, which I'll post here for your pleasure...

First an old one - from around Christmas time, when we went up North to an old manor house. This is Albert standing next to an old piano-type-thing. It was really elaborate and beautiful, especially with the sun shining in on it.

Then, to fast forward to last weekend (I'll post a bit of the middle in a minute), we decided at the last minute to have an Easter Brunch party... because here in Holland you get a 4-day weekend for Easter - Good Friday and Whit Monday included! So, what better way to celebrate an extra holiday than with mimosas, egg hunts, French toast, and egg dying? Unfortunately the natural egg dyes I made (with turmeric, red cabbage, spinach, and beets) didn't turn out quite as well as their artificial counterparts... but they did result in some nice pastel colors, and it was still good fun.

It ended up being a very nice party, with at least five nationalities present (Dutch, American, Canadian, Peruvian, and Japanese) and sharing in the common delight of food.

The weather is really way too nice to sit inside anymore... but I'll make a quick post about our trip to Spa, Belgium, which was super nice.

Maastricht!

2009-01-31T20:38:00.004+01:00

Albert and I had a weekend away in Maastricht last week. Despite trying to recover from the flu that is plaguing the Netherlands, I still had a really great time.

On the way there, we stopped in another small town for lunch. Here's Albert standing in front of our cafe... an incredibly old, wooden building that somehow survived the series of town fires that destroyed everything else. Let me tell you, the food was delicious! They served bowls of soup that were so huge and filling that we couldn't even finish them. And we noticed... as you go south, the price of bitterballen goes down. Excellent!

This, unfortunately, is not the hotel where we stayed. However, it is next door to the hotel where we stayed. It was listed in Albert's castle book as a "kasteeltje," a small castle. While castle is clearly not exactly the right word here, it was still a great building.

Maastricht in general is a very neat, very old town. Depending on who you ask, it's either the oldest or second-oldest town in the Netherlands. In either case, it dates to Roman times, and there are still some ruins around. The city wall behind us was a youngster, dating from only the 1600s.

Maybe the coolest part of the trip for me (but there were a lot of cool parts) was the trip to the St. Pietersberg Caves. These are man-made caves, dating from the time of the Romans, but continually expanded throughout the centuries. They've been mining rock there for ages, and you can even see some really old graffiti that was left behind. During World War II they briefly used the caves as shelters, even having a hospital, bakery, and chapel all underground. Apparently there was even a baby born underground. And you get to see all of this on a small group tour, only lit by the lantern of the guide. Super cool, and totally worth a visit!

The other great thing about Maastricht is that they're great at repurposing old buildings. The one above is a cathedral-turned-wine-bar-hotel. Yes, you read right. It's, err, a bit pricey, but really pretty great. I suppose that the fact that a Bentley was blocking my shot of their innovative entryway is an indication of the clientele. I couldn't get any decent pictures of the place, but their website shows it all: http://www.chateauhotels.nl/default.aspx?sc=7&taal=en.

Oh, you though we were done! But no! This is how I think all bookstores ought to be treated...

Yes, that's right, the cathedral was converted into a bookstore. Of course this is great for the bookstore - lots of space, beautiful location, etc. But it is also great for the church - there is no better way to view the gorgeous painted ceiling than from the third-floor bookshelf. It lends a whole different perspective to the church, which was fascinating enough in itself. Considering that I could also buy books, periodicals, and coffee there... well, I'd say I was in heaven, but that may be too cliche.

There was also a third converted cathedral in town, a music venue. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit that one... and still, with all of that, there are plenty of churches that still function as churches to more than fulfill the spiritual and touristic needs of those in Maastricht.

In short, I'd highly recommend Maastricht. If you need more suggestions on where to go and what to do... you know where to find me.

Dreaming of Spring

2009-01-31T20:10:00.002+01:00

Let's face it... I'm not very good at keeping a blog. On this last day of January (yes!!) I realized that I had not yet posted anything this year. Alas. Since there are still many cold, dreary months ahead (drat!!) maybe I will be a bit more conscientious about it.

Some observations from a Dutch winter:
- Dutch people are happy when they can go ice skating. No, that's an understatement. Dutch people are elated when they can go ice skating. To the extent that Ministries close the office so people can go home and skate on their local ponds. It's really quite a phenomenon - suddenly, all of the water in the country is turned into a giant playground, with skaters on literally every body of water in sight - from the tiny pond in the mid-city park to the big lake out at the edge of town.

- In a month, it will be light out when I get up. That's not to say that the sun will rise before me, but at the very least, twilight will have broken by the time I get to the tea kettle. This is such a drastic improvement from the last two months that it is worthy of celebration. (I shouldn't tease you by telling you that in June, the sun is up from 5:15am until 10pm...)

- Everyone is desperate for spring. You can tell, because all over the office, pots of bulbs just beginning to break into flower are appearing. Never mind that it will be three months before they do this outdoors... we can pretend it's spring by bringing a little brightness inside with us.

Okay, that's all for now... I'll post again with pictures from our excellent trip to Maastricht!

New Publication

2008-12-12T10:54:00.005+01:00

(The doorhandles are shaped like elephants!)

December is a busy month for me, as I imagine it is for most of us. At work, we're wrapping everything up for the year and preparing annual plans for 2009. This has led me to start referring to 2009 as "this year," a somewhat disturbing habit. Despite the busy-ness, it is still good fun, and I think there are many good opportunities and interesting events planned for the next year.

(Me at work.)

In other good news, an article that I wrote using research from my thesis has been published in the first issue of Amsterdam Social Science. This is a student journal for Masters and PhD students. While it is the case that I sit on the editorial board of the journal, I didn't get to pick my own article, but from that perspective it was a great joy to see the first issue make it to the press. You can read all of the articles (and some press coverage of the journal launch) at www.socialscience.nl. Or, if you just want to read mine, click here for the pdf.

I will spend the second half of the month in the US, first in Cleveland and then around West Palm Beach. A little sun (and snow?) should be nice, as it's been pretty cloudy and rainy here. Plus, the day is getting all too short - the length of day today is only 7 hours and 45 minutes! Of course we will make up for that in June with a nearly 17 hour day, but that seems pretty far off now. So, I'll try to soak up as much as possible in Florida, to make it through the next few months of winter!

Busy & Good!

2008-11-08T23:58:00.002+01:00

Whoops, somehow I missed October! And, most of September... how could that be? Oh, yes, perhaps that was the new job. I am happy to report that it is going very, very well. While my overall work is at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), I work on two different projects. I work 2.5 days per week running Share-Net, the network of Dutch NGOs working on sexual health and HIV (www.share-net.nl).

I work the other 1.5 days on the platform for Health Insurance for the Poor, HIP. We're talking really poor here, like the poorest populations in Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda. So basically, if you want me to work for you - you've got to be Dutch and a network or platform.

Now, if you're doing your math correctly, you'll realize that this only adds up to 4 days. Brilliant! Four days at work and three days off is *really* a good way to live. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

So, what else have I been up to?

At the beginning of October I went to Lyon for a conference as part of my Share-Net job. One night the conference organized a dinner at Lyon's Hotel de Ville... and boy, it was fancy! Here's me, in the slightly ornate room:
I've also been doing a bit more getting out into the countryside. Albert and I realized that we now live less than a half-hour's cycle from a really pretty park (and a generally rural area), so we will go there more often. But, sometimes it does get dangerous... like the time we met a cow smack in the middle of the bike path:

We're having other good adventures too... Germany last weekend, a visit to the pig farm where our bacon came from, and a trip to a big forest near here next weekend for my birthday. I'll try to get some more pictures up soon...

New Position

2008-09-06T14:17:00.003+02:00

Well, it has certainly been an exciting month here for me. I've completed my Dutch course, moved in to my new apartment, and been offered an exciting and challenging new job! The job - coordinating the Dutch network of sexual health, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS organizations - is hosted at the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute. And I must say, they have one of the most beautiful buildings in Amsterdam.

Check out their facilities website for a few more photos.

Of course, I wouldn't want to get straight into work without taking time for a nice vacation, so Albert and I are currently having a delicious holiday in Spain, outside of Alicante.

View Larger Map

Here we are in Denia, atop of the old castle ruins.
And, perhaps the best part of it all is... the apartment where we're staying is directly between the mountains and the Mediterranean. When I look out of the balcony to the right, I see this:

And to the left:

Now, that's something you just can't beat. So, lots of new beginnings, lots of excitement... but right now, above all, LOTS of relaxation! In fact, I think I ought to get back to that right now...

Nieuwe Huis!

2008-08-07T21:26:00.005+02:00

Well, this month has been busy indeed! The search for a new apartment, which has been going on for the past three months, has finally yielded results! And what wonderful results they are! Last night, Albert and I signed the lease for a new, sunny apartment close to the center of Amsterdam. Here are some pictures:

This is the nice, sunny bedroom, overlooking a grove of trees. (Okay, it also overlooks the train tracks... but it's a new building with a special design to insulate it from the sound of the trains. We saw two going by and didn't hear anything.)

The dining room, nicely situated on the corner of the building... note the floor-to-ceiling windows on both walls?

The SUPER fantastic kitchen! Really, this kitchen is AMAZING. First, for Amsterdam, it is HUGE. Second, it has unheard of appliances. An oven! A dishwasher! A freezer! Honestly, these are very rare commodities in this town. I am excited for the return of whole grain berry muffins!

And, last but not least, the living room. There is a big space between the building and the road, where they are currently building a moat, and allowing lots of nice plants to grow. A moat? Well, yes. The building is called "the castle". Hmm...

So, the place is ours as of 15 August! I am SO excited!

Other than that, everything else in life is also fabulous. I'm taking an intensive Dutch class, which is really fun and an incredible amount of work. It's four hours of class per day with about three hours of homework. But, I'm learning quickly! Soon spreek ik heel goed nederlands.

My internship is also going along very well. The abstract proposal I wrote for the International AID Conference in Mexico was accepted, and my boss and a colleague are there now presenting our Call for Action - the connection between HIV and violence against women. I've also been offered a very nice, exciting job... more details when the contract is officially signed, which should be by the 20th of August.

Tot ziens!

Endings and Beginnings

2008-07-11T09:34:00.003+02:00

This has been an excellent month for me in many ways. Here's a few:
- Getting into the swing of things at my internship at WGNRR.
- Discovered an awesome boat where they serve amazing food with live music - only on Sundays.

- Received my thesis grade - 8.5 - which means that I will graduate with honors.
- Received notification from the International AIDS Conference that the proposal I wrote was accepted. Thus, WGNRR will give a poster presentation at the upcoming conference in August.
- Got to see Liz, who's in Amsterdam with her parents. Even got to go to Texel Island with them. Texel is home to sheep and beer. We even saw fields of "beer" growing on the island (one field had a sign that said it would make 400,000 glasses of Texel beer!).

On the way to Texel, we were viciously attacked by flocks of seagulls.

Some things are coming to an end: grad school (graduation is 29 August), my internship, student life...
But others are just beginning: new career, apartment, Dutch class, vacation in Spain

I'm in the middle of the sometimes exciting, sometimes draining process of looking for apartments, looking at apartments, looking for jobs, applying for jobs, interviewing for jobs... but I know that at the end of the summer, I'll have a nice house to live in and a job that will pay the rent. And, of course, all of the work that's gone into it (Amsterdam has one of the worst rental housing markets in the world) will make it sweeter in the end.

More on all of that as it develops, along with pictures from Lithuania! If anyone knows anyone with an apartment to rent to me in Amsterdam, don't hesitate to let me know!!!

Thesis is Done!

2008-06-25T16:08:00.003+02:00

Summer has come, and with it, good news! I officially submitted my thesis last week, bringing an end to working on my Masters degree. I must say, it feels good to be done.

Until the end of August I am interning at the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, where I've been a volunteer since April. I will continue working with them on integrating HIV-related issues into their current work.

I am also actively engaged in a job search; primarily within the Netherlands, specifically within the non-profit sector. The apartment search is also still ongoing... the next few months promise to bring many changes to my life!

On June 15, Albert organized a performance in some castle ruins near town. It looked like this:

It was great fun, with a good turn out and a magical transformation of the day from one of rain to one of sun. Hopefully we will see more like it in the future.

Also, I just got back from Lithuania yesterday, where I had a great time visiting and traveling with family. I hope to go back soon, and will post some pictures here before too long.

Hitting the Books

2008-05-21T14:26:00.003+02:00

While I am sad to note that the weather has turned slightly cooler and rainier, I'm glad to say that I've taken full advantage of the great indoors and turned my attention fully towards my thesis. I've wrapped up my research and am heading into the writing phase. Things seem to be going well - I have some good theories, strong evidence, and (of course) new research. It has felt good to be productive, even if it means that this is my most frequented environment:

Fortunately, the weather broke last Sunday and provided an environment suitable for the World's Largest Book Market. Albert and I spent 7 hours browsing and still only saw about half the market. Even then, we looked, for the most part, only at English language books, which only about 10% of the books were. Here's a little peak at the market:

The market was part of the programming around Amsterdam being named World Book Capital for 2008. You can read more about both here: http://www.amsterdamworldbookcapital.com/

It looks like I will spend another year here in Amsterdam, which means I am looking for both my dream job and my dream apartment. I have a few leads for each, so I feel very optimistic about my chances at the "dream life" next fall. Plus, for the first time in my adult life I won't be a student, which promises to be a very welcome break. If you have any leads on jobs or apartments in Amsterdam, don't hesitate to let me know!

Summer is Here!

2008-05-11T14:19:00.005+02:00

I've had a fun few weeks here in Amsterdam... It's been week after week of holidays and long weekends, complemented by wonderful sunny weather. For the last 10 days it's been 75 and sunny... wow! Great!

Before Queen's Day there was a Ferris Wheel set up on the Nieuwe Markt... but this wasn't just any Ferris Wheel. It was (according to the sign) the world's smallest turning cafe. That's right, you get on, order food or drinks, and enjoy them as you spin around. What a great concept!!
Needless to say, Albert and I jumped on, and I think we stayed on for more than a half hour... good times. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us, so here we are in front of it the next day:

Also, I couldn't resist posting another picture from Keukenhof. What a beautiful place!

Then, yesterday was National Windmill Day AND National Cycling Day, so Albert and I went up north to Alkmaar, rented some bikes, and saw a bunch of windmills. The first one we stopped at is still a functioning mill, so we bought some wind-milled pancake mix and ate delicious homemade cake. Yum!
Here's Albert in front of part of the milling contraption:

And me, cycling through a field of flowers:

And, of course, some windmolen. These particular ones were not mills, but instead were used to pump water off the land into the higher dykes. This is how a good portion of the Netherlands was reclaimed from the water.

Then, finally, we finished up our windmill day back in Amsterdam, at Brouwerij 't IJ, our local windmill/brewery. This was exciting enough in itself because the place is always packed with people from the neighborhood - they have a great patio and tasty, cheap beer. However, things got even better when Johnny & the Gangsters of Love pulled in:

They look just like that, and they're a three-man band in '67 Pontiac Bonneville: "the fastest band in the world". I would highly recommend watching their trailer and/or movie on their website... it was just great! They pulled up, parked on the sidewalk, in a minute had their whole stage set up, jumped on the hood, and started to play! The perfect ending to such an exciting day.
(If you want to see more pictures from Windmolen Dag, click here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0BbNnLRwyYsnMw&notag=1)

Keukenhof Visit

2008-05-05T22:33:00.002+02:00

Some people commented that my last post had too many words and not enough pictures. For them, this is a post about Keukenhof, which is all in pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kmferris/KeukenhofHasLotsOfFlowers

Two for One

2008-04-22T18:06:00.001+02:00

Whoops, it seems as if I've missed March and most of April! Alas, things have been going well... busy, but fun as ever. At the end of February I started a Flamenco dance class that will go through May, which has put my high heels to good use. It's a really complicated form of dance, but it's also very fun. The main problem is that your arms are always doing something completely different from your legs, which is hard to wrap your head around. I also started a Lindy Hop swing dance class with Albert at the end of February, which is much less complicated and more fun. Lots of twirling around in circles! It's a relatively popular dance form here and every month or so there is a dance (last month with a live big band) that's open to the public. So, dancing has been a good distraction from academic work.

On 29 February Katie, Albert, and I hosted a "Quixotic" dinner party, which was amazingly fun. Email me if you want a more in-depth description and/or pictures. We're hoping to have some more strange parties soon... we'll see how that works out.

The week of March 3 the Netherlands held a "Restaurant Week" where yummy places offer 3-course menus for €20-25. I had a good but unexciting dinner at Brasserie Prins-H, and then another more exciting meal at Pollux, a restaurant on an old ship. By the time I found out about the restaurant week many of the most exciting places were booked (think castles on little islands), but hopefully we'll do better next time.

After that, my brother Alex came to visit for a week of Spring Break, and we managed to do lots of really nice eating and relaxing in Amsterdam, not to mention a trip to visit the Pancake Pirates at the beach. Then, immediately after he left I flew to the UK to meet up with Katie. We spent a day at her house, a day watching the women's Oxford-Cambridge boat race, and then a few days in Oxford. All of this was very enjoyable and relaxing, a perfect ending to a week of relaxing with Alex.

In April I got back to work a bit more, writing and rewriting thesis proposals until it is now (I hope, I'll find out tomorrow) ready for approval. Amazingly, I am still writing about the Ugandan publication Straight Talk, which you can see a link to in the post below. There have been some theoretical kinks to work out, but I'm hoping that all of this preliminary work will lead to smoother sailing when it comes to actual thesis writing.

Most recently, last weekend I went to the Spring European Unitarian Universalist retreat, which was in Spa, Belgium (the source of Spa water). This involved some inspirational talks from Charlie Clements of the UU Service Committee about their work defending human rights around the world. I also spent an afternoon soaking in Spa's legendary water, which was thoroughly enjoyable in itself. Finally, no UU retreat is complete without late nights spend chatting, playing guitar, and singing, all of which were present in great quantities last weekend.

So now I have finished my last university course of the immediately foreseeable future (Monday was the end of Research Methodology) and am off to focus on thesis writing. I also recently became involved as a volunteer/intern here in Amsterdam at the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, where I will be working on integrating HIV/AIDS issues into their current work. I am also exploring the possibility of staying in the Netherlands a bit longer, perhaps another year. Of course I'm still open to the idea of finding my dream job elsewhere, but barring that, Amsterdam is a place I'm happy to call home. Of course there are many details to work out still, but for now I know for certain that I will stay at least through 15 July, which is when my present lease ends. From then on.... we'll see!

I hope to be a bit more frequent with these updates in the future; at least one a month does not seem like a lot to ask. I hope to see many more of my friends vacationing in Amsterdam in the near future!

Brussels and Thesis

2008-02-24T12:09:00.000+01:00

February has held many fun activities for me, foremost among them a weekend trip to Brussels with Albert and Katie. We engaged in typical Belgian activities - eating (way too many) waffles, drinking Belgian beer, and sitting outside as much as possible during the glorious sunny weekend. Along the way we even came across the smallest house in Brussels:

and encountered a building that was missing its insides:

There were more fun pictures from Brussels, but unfortunately they're on other people's cameras. At any rate, it was great to see Scott and Vicki (whom we stayed with) and to meet Gregory. Brussels on a sunny and warm weekend provides the perfect environment for wandering around and exploring.

Besides adventuring, I've also been working on my thesis, which has changed its topic again (a bit). Because the newspaper I wanted to analyze was not readily available in this part of the continent, I decided it would be better to analyze something that I could refer to while designing my research. (This avoids the problem of me showing up in London in May only to discover that the insert of the paper I want to analyze isn't included in the archive, or something similarly horrifying.)

Thus, I am now going to do a discourse analysis of the Ugandan youth newspaper Straight Talk, which is nice because it specifically focuses on HIV prevention. This one has an online archive and the people who run it in Kampala are willing to email me additional issues, which I am very grateful for. So, barring any other methodological considerations, the plan is to stick with this subject matter and move onward from here. I'll keep you posted...

Thesis - really!

2008-01-31T22:21:00.000+01:00

Ahck, the point of both excitement and dread has come... the time to concretely settle upon my thesis question. As many of you have noticed, I have taken the usual twisting, turning path towards deciding on a specific topic. Ultimately, though, I am becoming quite committed to this topic:

How is safe sex represented in the Q&A column of Nairobi's Daily Nation Saturday Magazine? In particular, how has the discourse changed over the last 5-10 years?

Here's a brief explanation of the logic behind each of the component parts:
representations of safe sex - media discourse often is a major influence on popular perceptions
Q&A column - this Q&A actually consists of real questions by individuals, which are answered by professionals. Thus, it provides some additional insight into the popular thinking.
Daily Nation's Saturday Magazine - this is a very widely read publication; the leading one in Kenya
shift in discourse - this is the really interesting part. No one has studied this so far, yet engaging the media is a technique that is growing in popularity among public health workers. Is this evident in the paper itself? Also, knowing the current status of the media portrayal will help with future collaboration between the public health and media fields.

Of course, there are still hundreds of other topics that I am interested in and enthusiastic about researching. But, I am coming to terms with choosing just one (at least for this masters) and addressing it in depth. In particular I am sad about not pursuing the role of religion in safe sex, but I have the feeling that it is something I can look into more in the future. Also, I had a debate about whether or not to do field work, but ultimately decided that I should maximize my time here in Amsterdam while I have it. By analyzing a Kenyan paper, I feel that I am still working in another context, but I can do so more or less while living in A'dam. (I will probably need to travel to London to access the Daily Nation archives, but after making copies I can return here.)

I welcome any questions or comments you have!

Birthdays and Adventures

2008-01-31T22:06:00.000+01:00

The second half of January has proven to be just as fun and exciting as the first half. Katie's birthday came in the middle of it, which provided a good excuse to go on many adventures. Notably, we took her to a fondue/raclette dinner in Haarlem, at a wonderful and old little place, 'in 't Goede Uur':

There, we ate so much cheese we thought we would burst. But it was well worth it!

Further, on Sunday we took an adventure out to Apeldorn:

View Larger Map
to go on a pea-soup walk and see some free range monkeys. This was also incredibly fun. First, there was a nature hike through the forest. In the middle of the forest, the park employees set up a table, where you could get a stamp. This stamp entitled you to a hot cup of pea soup at the end of the walk. It was so nice to get out into the countryside and walk amongst trees instead of buildings.

Then, we went to the Apenheul, which is a primate park where many of the monkeys get to roam free among the visitors. They were only open one day all winter - in honor of the pea soup walk - so we were lucky to be able to go.

I have also kept up with my share of cultural events... everything from two operas in one month - Daphne and Snow White - to jazz dinner concerts to films. Now, classes are starting again on Monday, which means I have a full weekly schedule - Research Methods on Monday, Yoga on Wednesday, and Flamenco on Thursday. Of course, the idea is that I must use the rest of my time to work on my thesis... but more on that in the next post.

Where did December go?

2008-01-14T11:36:00.000+01:00

If you're anything like me, you may be wondering what happened to the glorious month of December. Looking back at it, I would say that my December was characterized by a strange combination of writing papers, good food, visiting friends and family, becoming violently ill, and returning to Amsterdam to start the year off with some good, old-fashioned relaxation.

This picture does a good job describing the first half of the month:
(notice all the papers, books, laptop, dog-on-head indicating need for vacation...)

Whereas this photo is more characteristic of the second half, and the new year:
(needless to say, the Escher museum in the Hague is really, really fun!)

Now it seems, with the opening of a new year and a Masters thesis ahead of me, that it's time to head back towards picture number one. I am quite excited about the challenges and potentials this next year holds... who knows where in the world I will be at this time next year!

In the Meantime...

2007-11-24T10:29:00.000+01:00

I realize I've been a bit delinquent with these posts. But, not without good reason, I assure you! Here's a brief overview:

Drinking from coconut shells with Joel & Katie at the African restaurant around the corner provided a valuable cross-cultural feeling to the month.

Having High Tea with Katie, Albert and friends was another type of cultural experience. While it was totally foreign to me, Katie commented, "this is just like what I do every Sunday!".

Then, mysteriously, around November 12 I received *18* cards in the mail! What? Happy early birthday to me!

On my real birthday, Katie cooked me dinner while Albert conducted. This was hard-core cooking, they even had a schedule. And, it was deeelicious! Good work.

Later I received another bunch of birthday cards, adding up to 21 from my family and a few assorted ones. What a nice family! Wonderful friends also came over to enjoy the birthday evening...

Then, for the weekend I went to Geneva to visit Sam and the UN. The UN was closed, but Sam was there!

We went up a "mountain" and found a winter wonderland at the top! I'm pretty sure that it doesn't qualify as a mountain by French/Swiss standards, but compared to Holland, and considering that we were above the clouds, it was definitely mountainous. It seems likely that this will be the most snow I'll see all year (certainly more than in Amsterdam).

Then I watched a man jump off the mountain. This was slightly terrifying, but once he was properly off the mountain it looked relaxing and fun. At least it did, until I saw the notice posted that indicated that you must be sure to descend quickly, so as not to get in the way of the airplanes.

The Alps! If you take an unmarked snow-covered path upwards for a while, you get to a beautiful vista with a little cafe on top. The French think of everything.

Here is Sam, caught in the "snowfall."

Later, back in Amsterdam, Katie, Albert and I tried out for the Dutch East India Company. I'm pretty sure they would have rejected us, but we were nothing if not enthusiastic.

Captain Katie searches the horizon for... the library? Or is she looking at Central Station?

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the short story of what I've been up to. Of course, I've also been doing some work... although I don't have wonderful pictures to illustrate that. I do have a much more narrow thesis question now, which is:

How has pleasure been incorporated into the Christian discourse of HIV prevention in Africa?

In order to answer this, I am in the process of looking for an NGO that has incorporated pleasure into their Christian discourse of HIV prevention and would be willing to let me come and study what they do and how they do it. While this does not seem to be a big focus of many Christian groups in the US, pleasure is increasingly becoming an important focus in many African communities.

I hope you will excuse the brevity of this summary, but I must get to the market and write a few papers. If I haven't heard from you in a while... please get back in touch!

Vacation Week

2007-10-31T10:42:00.000+01:00

I just got back from a wonderful week away in Milan & Bergamo, Italy and Munster, Germany. Italy was beautiful and scenic, as you can see:

This is the view from the hotel window, down a beautiful little Italian side street. The hotel was just a block from the street car stop, which was perfect.

This is my friend Tony, looking cool in another random little street of Milan. We did a lot of wandering around. Also, lots of eating. Because, really, you must eat when you're in Italy.

This is the view from the very top of Bergamo, a little city by an airport of the same name in the foothills of the Alps. It was even more gorgeous than Milan, with amazing views of other little towns and, of course, the mountains.

For more vacation pictures (but not too many more), look here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kmferris/Italy

After Italy I snagged a few hours of sleep and then was off to the European Unitarian Universalist Fall Retreat, where Rev. Dr. Bill Schulz was speaking. Needless to say, I had a fantastic time and it was great to connect with new people. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that fine event, but perhaps some will come soon.

Until next time...

Dappermarkt

2007-10-18T17:16:00.000+02:00

For most of the time we've been here, Katie and I have been going to Dappermarkt on Saturday morning to do our weekly shopping. It's much cheaper than the grocery store, more fun, and people will let you practice your Dutch with them.

The market is conveniently marked with these streamers, making it easy to find.

Flowers, flowers, flowers! For the last few weeks, there has been a booth selling 20 roses for 2 euros, and other amazing deals. This is one of the "expensive" flower booths.

Of course, you have to have a nut stand. Here, you can also buy dried fruits and some grains.

This is the bread shop. While it looks rather temporary, they have their own ovens there and you can buy bread still hot. They make excellent brown bread that looks so healthy with greens and tomatoes. Here, you can see the difference in the front row. The loaves on the right are what we would call "whole grain" and the loaves on the left are the delicious amazing bread. It even has little seeds in it. Yum!

In case you were wondering where you could buy men's underwear in many colors... Dappermarkt is the place!

Here is Katie, on our adventure to culturally integrate more completely... by eating raw herring from a street vendor.

Yum... the sushi of the Dutch. Actually, it's nowhere near as frightening as you would think. Even the bits of raw onion are tasty. Perhaps not the best food before a date though...

The fabric vendors at the market are amazing! You can buy beautiful fabric for 2-6 euros/meter... and to give you an idea how cheap that is, the cheapest pretty fabric at a proper store costs about 10-12 euros/meter.

Of course, it's important to have a selection of several hundred watches.

Mhhh... this is where we buy most of our fruit & veg. Notice... one euro for a bag of bean spouts, or a bag of carrots, or a bag of peppers. On the right you see hunks of pumpkin. They also have yummy fruit for cheap. It's great!

If you wanted to buy nuts in a prettier setting, you could go down to the other end of the market. This guy also has a wider selection of dried fruits. On the right you can see fresh mint, for making mint tea. This stand is attached to one with an amazing selection of olives and other Mediterranean fare.
The view of the market... it was a beautiful day!
Ah, and of course, life would not be complete without hot peppers straight from the bush. In this case, the 1.80 you pay gets you the whole bush. What could be better?

Then, after all of our other shopping is finished, we stop by the cheese shop. It is an *amazing* place. The man and woman who run the place are super sweet, and they give you a little taste of all of the cheeses you are interested in before you buy them. They also have a great selection, and they know everything about cheese. We even found a blue cheese that both Katie and I enjoy... As a consequence of this shop, we eat far too much cheese.

Then, after buying cheese, it's time to celebrate with Turkish pizzas. It's basically a big pita with some kind of tomato/vegetable sauce on it, cooked in the oven. Then, when it's nice and toasty they add a creamy sauce, a chili sauce, tomatoes, and lettuce. Finally, it's rolled up, wrapped in foil, and if you take it "eet op" you can eat it right then.
(I'm not sure if that's a proper Dutch phrase or an adaptation by the Turkish guys who work there. It's funny going to a shop where you don't share fluency in a common language.)

Finally, on the way out you see this building that has writing on it in all sorts of different languages. Here, you can see (if you look closely) that it says "Perfectly happy in Dapperstraat." We think that maybe this used to be a bad neighborhood and this building was a government campaign, but again, this is a completely unsupported hypothesis. For Katie and I, at least, life on Saturday morning is perfectly happy on Dapperstraat.

Bits of Dutch Life

2007-10-18T17:07:00.001+02:00

Last weekend there was some kind of rowing contest. It was like crew, except with fat boats. We decided it was Viking rowing... though this remains unverified.

This is what the parking lot at the grocery store looks like. Sometimes it's hard to find a spot and you have to park nearly 30 paces away! This must convince you that the US should switch to bikes.

Also, the other day I was cycling home and noticed a car's bumper stickers. Later, I saw the car again - as I whizzed past it. Biking is much faster than driving a car in this city.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

I've been musing more about my thesis recently. After some deliberation, I've realized that I have about 25 pursue-able interests, but I only need to write one thesis. So, it's time to work on narrowing down, narrowing down, narrowing down, until I have something super-tiny and thus manageable.

There are several ongoing debates for me at the moment - work in the US, which I know vs. work in Asia/Africa, which have statistically worse epidemics; Christian vs. Muslim vs. interfaith (other religions don't have a major presence yet); ABC prevention vs. comprehensive/life skills prevention; "human rights" discourse vs. "cultural relativism" - to name a few. I appreciate all of the input I have received so far. It is good to get all of the options on the table now, and it is so very helpful to talk through my ideas. Again, I welcome any other input you may have.

And, last but certainly not least, the upside of insane Dutch weather is... rainbows! This one appeared shortly after I woke up this morning. I think the end of it is at the public library... or at least that's my interpretation.

Moving House in Amsterdam

2007-10-12T20:38:00.001+02:00

On a beautiful day in Amsterdam...

you might find yourself wanting to move house. But how will you ever get that piano down the steep, steep staircase?

Well, you hire a man (or two) with a big mobile elevator...

They hoist the piano out your window...

...

And down it goes!

Towards a thesis question...

2007-10-07T18:23:00.001+02:00

This week, unfortunately, I don't have any exciting pictures to show. We've had the most wonderful weekend - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all full of sun and blue skies!

What I have been doing, although it's rather un-photogenic, is thinking and talking about my upcoming thesis. I've had several very thought provoking conversations, but my ideas are still vague.

I started off thinking that I would do a case study of an Islamic or interfaith HIV/AIDS organization to see how it balanced religion and theology when dealing with such a contentious topic. However, this presents several challenges, including: there aren't too many of these organizations; when they do exist they often have not been formally evaluated (so I couldn't say that *this* is an approach that "works"); and many of the Islamic or interfaith efforts to prevent the spread of HIV have been conducted on an ad-hoc basis (so there's no formal organization to examine).

So, this led me to consider doing something more theoretically focused, but still practically applicable. In a conversation with Georges Tiendrebeogo I considered an Islamic "how to" for abstinence, for which I could look at writings on Islam broadly and also consult interviews with specific Islamic sources. The idea here is to go beyond abstinence as a prohibition and into a positive construction of it within the religious community.

That got me thinking about approaches to HIV prevention in general, which today tend to focus around the "ABC" model - abstinence, "being faithful," and condoms. Condoms, of course, are the traditional sticking point for religion (although some Muslims have advocated condom use), but "A" and "B" are often easily promoted by religious figures. An interesting thing about Islam is that it (in most readings) supports sexuality, within certain constraints. So that's where I've ended up for now, contemplating writing about some aspect of Islamic sexual ethics in the era of HIV/AIDS.

Obviously, as you can tell from the three paragraphs it took me to explain where I am now, I need a point of focus. Fortunately, I still have time. If you have any feedback, please either leave a comment or send me an email!

Amsterdam Underground Festival

2007-09-29T19:57:00.000+02:00

This week's festival was the Amsterdam Underground festival. Not, as you might think, a collection of art from the metaphorical underground, but rather an art festival that actually takes place under the ground. We went to two venues today, and it was nice that they were underground because it allowed us to (mostly) escape the rainy weather.

First was a tour of the tunnel that goes under the IJ (pronounced "eye"). The "tour" actually consisted of an audio guide on an MP3 player, and you walked the entire length of the tunnel alone. Apparently, if I spoke enough Dutch to understand more of what the tour said, it would have provided me with a mixture of information about the tunnel and the fictional story of someone trapped in the tunnel looking for help. As it was, it was just cool to see a place that is not normally open to the public... the dingy maintenance tunnel that goes under the automobile tunnel that connects North Amsterdam to the city center.

Next, we went to the "sunken cathedral." It is a huge cement space... this is what the Amsterdam Underground website says:

Caisson 1 is the shaft from which the drills for the new North/South subway line will depart. The caisson was built above ground, and then literally sunk into the earth. It lies at a depth of 24 meters. In 2008, both tunnel drills will be constructed at this location and drill their way to the Rokin, Vijzelgracht and Ceintuurbaan stations. During the Amsterdam Underground Festival, this enormous new space will be exclusively opened for figurative art, lectures and a theatrical performance. It’s now or never for visitors: this is a one time only chance to descend into this enormous concrete space with its cathedral-like acoustics. Soon there will be subways raging through it.

Pretty cool, huh? Well, it's even more cool considering they were playing video art on the HUGE walls. See pix:

This was another installation... because it is an active construction site (they're just taking a break for this weekend) it's open to the sky above... and thus was rather soaked in water. It was certainly intentional, though, since they gave us all very attractive rubber boots and hard hats at the entrance.

Here you can see some well-outfitted folk viewing the video art.

The other half of the space was flooded, with lights and lots of electrical cables still running through it (this would never have worked in the US), and it was VERY fun to splash around in the water.
The view from the very back of the room, looking over the flooded area towards the video art. On the right you can see a very industrial swing... but it has a blanket on it, to add that touch of home.

In between video pieces, they played music with the lights. It was pretty cool... although it did sort of make you wonder if there was some major hazard of mixing electricity and water so completely. But, we all came out in one piece (or, rather, each of us came out in one piece), so all is well.

Library and Blogger

2007-09-23T18:46:00.000+02:00

So, I think that for the sake of time and energy, I'm going to move my blog over here. While I have the feeling that learning HTML really is a good use of time... it seems that it might actually be better to use that time studying the things I'm in school for. Oh, and enjoying the endless festivals of Amsterdam.

So, about the library:

This is looking up from the main entrance. Ahh, the seven glorious floors of wonder.

The view from the entrance hall... the area down below is the children's section, complete with climb-able bookshelves!

Here's Katie, sitting in some very unique furniture.
And, a room surrounded by CDs with color-changing walls!

Strange space-pod, in case you need to make an unexpected journey to your home planet.
Even the shelving is cool! They use special lights to make all the books look shiny.
But, not to worry, there's still an antique section, with writing desks that overlook the city.
And, of course, no library is complete without a piano!
And here... well, I'm not sure about this room, but it certainly is strange. Just lots of space-age chairs with some giant jacks overhead.
A random little reading room, with shiny wallpaper. Why? I have no idea!
Ah, and of course, the little room with rounded glass walls. Everyone needs a room with glass walls.