Red Light Tour, Chupitas, Cookout, and Dutch Politics

First, I would like to note SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!

Tuesday night our Dutch Society and Culture class took a guided tour of the Red Light District. The tour was given by a former prostitute who has since  established the Prostitution Information Center in Amsterdam and is currently the leading prostitution advocate in the Netherlands. She entered the prostitution world at age 16 of her own free will in order to buy a dog, two days later she ended up buying a Mercedes. Among her many interesting stories and tidbits about prostitution in Amsterdam was a story about a woman who started working as a prostitute when she was 72 after husband died. She worked until she was in her mid to late 80s. Now that is a second career. In addition to showing us around the Red Light District and explaining the history of prostitution in the Netherlands, we got a chance to stand in a brothel window.

Wednesday I conducted my first interview for my research project on drug education in the Netherlands. I interviewed the Senior Health Education Officer at the Jellinek Institute (one of the main drug abuse prevention and treatment organizations is the Netherlands). My project is comparing drug education strategies in the Netherlands with drug education strategies in the US to determine which is more effective at preventing substance abuse.

Friday night a bunch of us went to Chupitas which is a shooters bar. Their specialty is crazy mixed shots (aka shooters). There is a list of nearly 100 different kinds of shooters; all with funny, bizarre, and often vulgar names. Some they light on fire, while others are served with slices of fruit, spices, or other garnishes. The catch is they don't tell you what is in the shot unless you specifically ask. Below is a movie of their Chemistry shot. It kind of tasted like liquid menthol. Kelly tried the Apple Pie which came with a topping of whipped cream and cinnamon.

Sunday a bunch of us put together an IES cookout on the balcony at the top of our building. Unfortunately we couldn't get the grill going so we had to cook the burgers in peoples' rooms. In the end everybody had a good time and we ended up with some delicious burgers. 

Now for some notes on Dutch polotics. The political system here is quite unique and can be confusing to the foreign eye. It is a democratic society that has a somewhat powerless monarchy. There is a parliament with two chambers, the lower and upper houses. The lower house is voted for directly by the population, while the upper house is elected through a system of indirect elections based on the number of seats a party earns in the lower house. To make it even more confusing, as a voter you do not vote for a single person, but rather a whole list of people designated by a party. Once it is determined which party has the most votes, it is up to the party to choose who fills what positions. How it works exactly is still lost on me. 

Political parties are another confusing aspect of the Dutch political system. There are LOTS of political parties, each of which is guaranteed at least one seat in parliament (including the party for animal rights). Because there are so many parties, no one party wins a majority of seats in any election. This means that the strongest (strongest meaning having the most seats) 2 or 3 parties in Parliament must create a coalition in order to have a functional government. This forces parties to compromise with one another, often at the expense of their campaign platforms. While there are many parties, there are only 3 or 4 that consistently have enough seats to be part of the ruling coalition. 

In recent history the Dutch government has been made up of more or less liberal/center coalitions. Recently, however, there has been a trend towards more conservative coalitions mainly in response to the large influx of Muslim inhabitants. 

Drag Bingo, St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl, and Enter the Void

Lots of catching up to do....

Last Tuesday a bunch if us went to Drag Bingo, which is basically what it sounds like. Two drag queens hosting bingo at a gay bar. It was quite entertaining, especially if you called a false, bingo because then you got to watch some poor soul get embarrassed in front of the whole crowd by the host. Both one of my friends and I called false bingos and had to endure the torture. He only had to do the chicken dance, but I had to dance to a Beyonce song with two gay guys. Very entertaining.

Last weekend Kelly's friend/roommate from school was visiting so we mainly did touristy things with her. We did go to the Melkweg, another of Amsterdam's more famous clubs. Definitely my favorite thus far.

This past week was our last week of Dutch class which finished with a final test on Thursday. In order to celebrate having Thursdays and Mondays free for the rest of the semester and St. Patricks Day, a bunch of us went on a not so well organized pub crawl Thursday night.

Friday night a few of us went to see "Enter the Void" at a funky local independent theater. The movie was extremely intense, edgy, disturbing, trippy and LONG. I would not recommend it for the faint of heart. It essentially chronicled a souls journey from death to reincarnation, but using groundbreaking filming techniques. The preview can't really do it justice:
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/enter-the-void/trailer

This weekend is gorgeous and really feels like Spring has finally arrived. Hopefully it stays this way! Below are some additional random pics:

A view of our neighborhood and Amsterdam at night from our building's roof.

A tattoo car in front of the Tropenmuseum.

One of the parrots from the local population.

Dutch Resistance, Friday's at the Van Gogh, and Carnaval

Hard to believe another whole week has passed...

This past week was quite eventful. On Tuesday night Kelly, myself, our roommates, and some of our friends had a delightful taco dinner. It was a nice change of flavor from our typical meals.

A typical dinner for me.

TACOS!

 On Thursday we went with our Dutch Language class to the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) where we were given a great guided tour. The museum explores the predicament Dutch citizens were in after being invaded by Germany in World War 2 and the tough choices they had to make.

In many ways the Dutch experience during World War 2 was unique. The Netherlands was invaded and conquered in 1940 within a week of Rotterdam being bombed, even though they wished to remain neutral. After surrendering, the Dutch were not immediately effected by the war. Life basically went on as normal, at least for a short while. Because the Netherlands was not near any front lines, everyday citizens rarely came into contact with German soliders and the horrors of war were not at all visible. It wasn't until 1942 the horrors of the Nazi occupation really began to come to light. Around this time is when the Jewish round-ups began, and the Resistance really started to get organized. In 1944 the Allies managed to liberate the south, but they could not break through to the north. This led to the infamous Hunger Winter where 20,000 Dutch died due to starvation and malnutrition. By the end of the war only 30,000 of the 140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands would survive. This is the highest percentage of Jews lost by any nation (including Germany) during WW2. Much of this was due to the fact the Dutch government had extensive records on all of its citizens, which allowed the Nazis to know exactly who was Jewish and where they lived.

The museum itself is awesome. It guides you chronologically through the war, but instead of focusing on what was happening in the war at large, it focuses on everyday people and how they chose to ride out the war. Did they collaborate, resist, or merely try to survive? Of course looking back it is easy to say they all should have resisted, but what the museum makes very clear is that at the time individuals choices were not necessarily dictated by morals, but by survival instinct.

On a lighter note, here is a modified bike from WW2.

Thursday night Kelly and I were treated to a delicious, homemade Dutch meal at Martin and Peter's house (family friends who live here). Friday night we went and checked out Friday Nights at the Van Gogh Museum. Every Friday night the Van Gogh museum stays open until 10PM and turns into a modern lounge complete with comfy couches and chairs, mood lighting, a live DJ, and a mini-bar. There is also generally some kind of special event. Currently the special event is a choreographed dance that was inspired by Picasso's paintings of circus freaks and takes place amidst these paintings on display in the temporary Picasso exhibit. It was very cool. 

On Saturday Kelly and I went to FOAM, Amsterdams photography museum, where we saw a great exhibit of W. Eugene Smith's photoessays. We then went to explore the Albert Cuyp Markt, another one of Amsterdam's big open air markets. We got some delicious fresh fruit (3 mangos for 1 Euro!), some amazing chocolate, and spectacular fresh waffles with warm chocolate on top. YUMMY! 

We also had the opportunity to watch a really fun street marching band make its way down the market. 

Saturday night we took it easy because we had to get up early the next morning to make it to Carnaval! Carnaval is the Dutch equivalent of Mardi Gras, and this weekend was the final hurrah. Unfortunately it is really only celebrated in the south, so we had to go to Den Bosch. Traditionally Carnaval is a Catholic holiday (thus why it is only celebrated in the south) that allows everyone to go crazy before Lent. 

In modern times it has become a huge, crazy celebration mostly for the sake of celebration. People get dressed up in crazy, colorful costumes and roam the streets drinking until they fall down. The streets are packed, and beer is flowing from every window and store front. There is still some traditional happenings, including the unveiling of a cartoonish statue in the city square, but the significance is lost on me. Regardless, we had a great time which was made even better by the weather (which until yesterday has been cloudy and cold). 

We didn't plan well enough to have costumes, but Kelly saved the day with her awesome mascara face-painting skills.

Last but not least, here is a picture of me and my bike for those of you who have been pestering me for one.