Category Archives: Study Abroad

So last night we decided that we’d go check out the local movie theater, called The Movies. We’ve heard that the Dutch moviegoing experiance isn’t wonderful, with comments like “it’s expensive”, “there’s talking during the movies”, “getting a seat means you have to push and shove”, etc.

We figured it’d be exactly like seeing a movie in Union City

I’m pleased to say it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were told. We originally wanted to see Babel, but since the movie has multiple languages in it we were told it would be tricky to watch (the subtitles would be in Dutch, not English). We decided on Al Gore’s An Inconveinient Truth instead.
Tickets were €16 (about $20), so they’re similar to prices at home. We already looked like tourists because of the whole subtitles-thing, so I asked “Do you guys sell popcorn here?”. I got a funny look and an “umm, no”. We rushed to the movie, which was great, and it didn’t involve any rude behavior. Horray.

After the movie, we noticed that Dutch movie-going is a much different experience than that in America.

Everything here is compact and old, so the theaters, lobby, and hallways were small and had some history to them. Instead of a kiosk selling expensive soda and popcorn, the cramped lobby had a full bar with sofas, chairs, and tables. You can get relatively inexpensive beer, spirits, snacks, or even food, and are encouraged to take your beer bottle or martini glass with you into the theater. The cinema also shows classic films (like Taxi Driver) after midnight on some nights.
It seemed like most customers showed up early for their show and had a drink to warm up from the cold, saw the movie, and then spent some time socializing and talking about the film. There were absolutely zero children, not even a group of rowdy teenagers, so prominent at U.S. theaters. I wish I could take pictures because the atmosphere is totally different than the cold, modern megaplexes back home.

I do miss the popcorn though :/

The unusually beautiful weather here was already starting to change, so we decided to go check out the nearby beach (and town) of Zaandvoort. Of course, it’s October here, and the beach is on the cold North Sea, so we weren’t expecting to surf and sunbathe.

Apparantly we arrived on race day. Well, “qualifying day” is more like it. A major A1 race was set for the next day, and everybody was headed to the race track to watch the cars qualify. Unfortunately, tickets were too expensive to get in on the action.

The beach was fun, mostly because it was not like the beaches back home. There was one sad, lonely palm tree.

The sand was soft, though, there were cafe’s on the beach, and surfers in the cold water. I guess it’s pretty crazy in the summer, with hundreds of colored tents on the beach and topless sun-bathers. Alas, no such luck today.

Where the bech lacked palm trees, it made up with shells. The beach was covered in them. Lyss had a hard time keeping her eyes off the ground during the entire stroll. Here’s a nice shot of the beach and water.

The beach was relatively empty, with the occasional
kid playing in the water or couple walking their dog. We stopped for some very tasty calimari from a stand just off the beach.

We then strolled around the cute beach town, which was all decorated for the next day’s race.

From there, we headed off to Haarlem. The American Harlem was named after this place, mostly due to it’s proximity to New Amsterdam (now New York). Our first stop was the Grote Markt (big market). It’s the town’s main square, located just in front of the very impressive Grote Kerk (big church). Being saturday, there actually WAS a market in the Grote Markt. We perused the goods and picked up a cable so I can steal my neighbors TV

We then walked around the Grote Kerk and went inside. As we stared at the massive organ I leaned over to Alyssa and said “you’re standing on people’s graves!”. She jumped up and looked around, but there was no escape. The entire floor was paved with stone tombs. It was pretty funny, although it took me about 10 minutes to pry her off a bench and start touring around again.

Thankfully I brought my Rick Steves book, since the church pamphlet was pretty worthless. We saw the grave of Frans Halls (whose works are in a museum in Haarlem), the beautiful wooden ceiling, the dog-whippers chapel (gotta reward those dog-whippers!), and the massive church organ.

It’s no wonder that both Handel and Mozart were impressed by the loud and ornate pipes which dominate one end of the church. Thankfully there was someone playing as we entered, and it definitely gave some extra ambiance to the place. Here’s a very short video clip of the organ in action (click here).

We then stopped for a beer and coffee at Cafe 1900, a very old turn of the century style bar with leather-strap-driven ceiling fans and some very interesting bathrooms. After that, we wandered around town and discovered that it feels a lot like a miniature, more laid back Amsterdam. There is even a Red Light Disctrict that we strolled through, and it can only be described as “cute”. There are maybe 5 windows for girls to sit in, and one of them was empty, so lyss took some (usually forbidden) photographs of the rooms.

Then we took off for home. You can click any of the above photos for larger versions (as usual), and also browse picture’s of the whole day’s exploits here.

I thought I’d lay out what my days are like so everyone can get a little taste of European life. Your results may vary.

Wednesdays are my crazy day, because I have two rather intense classes to get to which are on opposide ends of town.

At around 7-8am I get up, take a shower in my “Water Closet”, which really is closet sized and includes both a shower and a toilet. Click on any of these pictures for a larger version.

I then hop on my bike and ride to a cafe in the center of town, where I get a cappuchino and a pastry of some kind. I usually spend the time there preparing for my class, or reading the paper.

Shortly ater 10am I head to my first class, Populism and Nationalism, which is a few yards (err meters) away. It’s in this beautiful building on a canal.

For a more immersive experiance, I’ve also included a shot from the other side of the canal. My bike’s here in the front, and if you look closely you can see the orange bike (from above) across the canal.

After several hours of intense debates with mostly Dutch students (and numerous cups of coffee), I head off to get some lunch. It’s 1pm, and I’ve got about 4 hours to kill, so sometimes I just ride around looking for a nice cafe I’ve never been to.

Last wednesday I sat outside, had a beer, some amazing tomato soup, and some fries. I also caught up on some reading for my next class, which is a seminar on Conflict and Negotiation.

I headed across town to Prins Hendrikade, a major street on the northmost part of town. There, in an old building, is the International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (my faculty). The inside is suprisingly modern and is wired with all the latest technology. I kill some time in the computer lab by checking my mail and sketching an outline for a paper.

After my seminar starts (and ends) I wrap things up and bike across town to meet Alyssa at our place. I bike past central station and down some nice streets, and arrive home at about 7:30 or 8:00.

Just a quick random rant.

I go down to the lobby of my faculty (department, really) to purchase a reader for one of my classes. It’s five euro, which is pretty nice. Only thing is, they don’t take money. All I have is a twenty, and they can’t break it. No big deal.

I ride down the street to a “super” market, which is about the size of a small 7-11. I don’t expect them to just change money for anybody, so I go to buy a coke, which is 65 euro-cents.

“Do you have any smaller change?” the attendant asks (in Europe, change includes 1 and 2 euro coins). I say no and explain that I need to break this €20 bill so that I can purchase something somewhere else. I even offered to buy a bag of chips. I’m not sure if the idea that I really didn’t need to buy something from her angered her, or what, but she said “I’m sorry, you’ll have to go somewhere else.” I stuck around to wittness the next transaction and she clearly had plenty of money (and change) in her drawer.

It took trips to two more shops before someone would break the bill. This brings the total to 3 places of business (school and shops 1&2) which would not take my money in exchange for goods. This isn’t a freaking 500- or 100-, or even 50-euro note here, it’s a 20. I understand not having change, but no place in the states would actually refuse business because of change-making annoyance.

Another odd, and slightly annoying, practice is that of not giving out actual change. Euro coins come in €2 and €1 flavors, along with 50, 20, 10 (gold) and 5, 2, 1 (copper) euro-cent coins. Frequently, stores don’t hand back the copper coins, even if you are supposed to get that change back. Purchase something for €1.95, and you’ll be lucky to get a 5 cent coin back. If it costs 1.96, you’ll almost certainly get nothing back. On a mass scale, this is pretty serious inflation.

The worst part is, it’s always against you. I can understand (although I still think it’s wrong) to round up a cent. but if it’s 4 cents (or worse, 9) you should give me back a 5 or a 10, certainly not nothing.

Done with the rant.