All Things Amsterdam

My Dutch friends told me that it's been fun to see their world through my eyes over the past few days since it's easy to not notice certain things about your own culture if they've always been there.  Here are some of the fun facts I've noticed about Amsterdam/Holland since I've been here.  I've been here almost 10 days already so I'm completely an expert in Dutch culture now. Feel free to reference me in any scholarly articles:

1. It is not impolite to ask for the "toilet" as the toilet and bath/shower are actually in separate rooms.  If you ask where the bathroom is to relieve yourself, people will wonder what kind of uncivilized person you are to pee in the shower (or at least to admit to it)

the toilet room

2. There is quite a bit of diversity here for such a small place.  The main immigrant groups are Turkish, and Moroccan.  There are some similarities with marginalization of the groups to immigrants in the US, but in my limited opinion, not as extreme. *As a side bar, being the cultural studies nerd that I am, I've had several interesting conversations with my Dutch friends about discrimination, integration, etc. and trying to compare and contrast immigrant status in the USA to Holland.  Especially in lieu of the recent US school shooting and why the US seems to be so much more violent and dangerous.  I've heard theories over the years that much of the violence in the US has to do with our vast diversity (which I don't necessarily agree with), and while I know our numbers are way higher than here, I still see a much more peaceful existence here.  I never once felt threatened here, and honestly would feel safe walking alone at 3 in the morning (which I saw several girls doing)---this is something I have NEVER felt, anywhere I've been.

3. People are quite helpful and friendly.  I know some of my friends will disagree with me here, but at least in my experience, everyone has been quite pleasant.  Even the man we flagged down on his bike at 3:30 am to help us find the apartment.  First of all, he actually stopped, which was shocking enough to me.  Then, he pulled out his smartphone to help, and then rode off on the bike and came back to confirm it's location.  I mean, who doest that, really?!

4.  The roads are tiny and shared by EVERYTHING--bikes, cars, trams, pedestrians.  There's an intricate system here that everyone adheres to and the tourists mess it up as I've been so lovingly reminded every time my friends saved my life from walking into a head-on collision with a bike. "Don't be a tourist!"

5. Most dogs walk along without a leash and do so quite well, even on trams and restaurants--inside!

6. You must have a "Pin" to be able to use a credit/debit card in a store and some restaurants.  This means, it must be in the Dutch banking system.  Otherwise, you must go to an ATM and get cash.

7. Eating a chocolate-sprinkle sandwich is normal.

8. Holland also has an area known as the "Bible Belt"-- more conservative parts.  I was warned about this when heading north to Zwolle and such.

9. English is spoken everywhere, written material is bilingual, and tv/movies as well. Speaking of tv, they have all our shows: family guy, modern family, scrubs is REALLY popular here for some reason, plain jane, etc.

10. STAIRS--there are lots of them, and steep ones!

11. If using crutches, people use the kind that go around your wrist, not under your arm like we typically use. 

12. And it goes without saying that bikes are EVERYWHERE! Still can't figure out why they still use them, in winter, rain, and all and haven't graduated to motorbikes like the rest of the world.  I'm not complaining, I love it! Just a curiosity.  And of course, with bikes come unique dutch gadgets--kid seats, kid carts, fun back-tire locks, lights, baskets, etc. (see my facebook album)

I AMsterdam

I AMsterdam.  It seems to be the current marketing slogan that I see everywhere here.  I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to mean, but someone thought it was grand enough for a national campaign so I figured it was cool enough for the title of this post.

It's Tuesday, December 18, 2012 and today marks a week ago that I arrived in Holland.  Since then, it's been a great time filled with friends and new adventures.  As I mentioned in the last blog, Tuesday night was spent catching up with everyone at a Turkish restaurant and Wednesday day I walked around all of Amsterdam with Steven.  At night, I met up with Peter and spent Thursday catching up on much needed sleep while he went to work (sucker).  We had a nice evening dinner and then I returned to the Dutch boys for a movie night at home.  We "watched" (I fell asleep) the Bodyguard in honor of Steven and my love affair with Whitney Houston that dates back to Laos.

Steven and Jo have 3 other roommates, Alex, Hugo, and Derek (known as Merv).  All of them are SUPER nice and have welcomed me into their home with open arms.  They are all students studying at University and I can't help but notice how strikingly different their lifestyle is compared to the typical American college-dorm lifestyle experience and I think they are much more mature and responsible for it.  Almost every night they grocery shop, cook, eat, and cleanup all together as a group, planning it around each other's schedules.  I love their sense of community!

On Friday, I headed north to the city of Zwolle.  It took about 2 hours door to door and was quite easy. The tram/train system here is easy to navigate, and it helps that everything is written in both Dutch and English and everyone speaks nearly perfect English as well. (We had a conversation about why this is last night, compared to other countries, and concluded it had something to do with the fact that all the tv sitcoms and movies here are shown in English, rather than translated.  Could be.)  Anyway, Jo had helped me figure out the train route and I made it no problem (except for my first train getting delayed en route, causing me to miss the 2nd train).

Gert and Bert demonstrating how the "Piss pole" works

Kiddie carrier bikes in Holland

Site-seeing in the local park with a very cold, stoic, Peter

Cheering on Steven at his games

Hanging with Jo

So, I arrived in Zwolle about 45 minutes late and asked some guy to borrow his iphone so that I could contact Bert and Gert, 2 Dutch friends who I met in Australia.  We were all meeting in Zwolle for the day.  The 3 of us met up, along with Gert's friend, and enjoyed a day walking around Zwolle catching up, taking in the sites, eating yummy food, learning about Dutch culture, and photographing unique bicycles.  I really appreciated them taking the time and traveling to meet up.  It was a great day and I only wish it could have lasted longer! The only thing I did not enjoy was spending half my budget on bathrooms.  They charge you, even in the train stations, and some restaurants.  Granted, it's only about 50 euros but when you have a bladder like mine, that adds up!

Friday evening the boys cooked dinner and we all ate and then enjoyed some "after-tabling" conversation, as they call it in Dutch.  Watched movies and then around midnight, Steven and Jo and I went to a local bar where Alex works for a visit.  My sleep is still a bit off for now--they are 6 hours ahead of EST and I haven't really kept to a schedule which isn't helping.  Saturday I went to the supermarket with Steven and Alex and on our way home, found Peter and Andras waiting outside the door.  I went to lunch with them at an Italian/Turkish place, La Dolce, across the street and had a fabulous 4 cheese pizza.  After lunch, Peter and I walked around the city a bit and enjoyed some drinks downtown.

It was evening by this time so we stopped at Andras' apartment to see it (very nice) and then met up with all his Hungarian friends at one of their apartments.  We didn't head out until around midnight again (pretty common here) at which point we went to a small bar.  After a little bit, we "decided" to go to another club near Rembrandt Square, De Kroon.  The dj was pretty good so we had a nice time dancing.  It was interesting to strip off 5 layers of coats, gloves, hats, etc. once inside and then to bundle back up afterwards.  Peter and I left before the others, stopped for a quick bite, and then took a taxi home to Andras apartment.  Unfortunately, the taxi driver didn't know exactly where the building was so he dropped us off in the general vicinity and we had to wonder around at 3:30 am to find it.  Luckily, we were in Holland where people are generally friendly (except for bathroom attendants and little old ladies who literally push you out of the way when crossing the street) and it's super safe so when Peter flagged down a guy on his bicycle at 3:30 am, the guy happily stopped, looked up where we should go on his iphone, and then even rode ahead and back to confirm it was the right way!

I couldn't fall asleep until around 7:30 am so I was not very well rested the next day.  Peter and I went to breakfast and then I went home to hang with the boys until heading with Merv to watch Steven's hockey game.  My first time watching a field hockey game ever, and especially for men.  He plays pretty high up there, even getting paid so it was a great competitive game to watch!  He played 2 games and won both.  I also met his parents, sister, and her husband and adorable son.  Peter also showed up and he, Merv, and I got some dinner on the way home.  Merv drove us in his car so I've now taken almost every form of transport in Amsterdam except a bike!

Yesterday, Monday, I had a lazy morning at home.  The boys all have exams and Peter is working during the days so it's a good time for me to rest a bit.  I did manage to go running with Merv in the afternoon, through the city and a local park.  It's fun to see all the dogs everywhere without leashes and yet under control.  They are even allowed in the train and restaurants! I cooked dinner for the boys last night and made a Thai pineapple fried rice dish.  It turned out great and was enough to feed 5 hungry boys--thanks goodness! After dinner, Peter and I went to the Festival of Lights; a walking tour of Christmas lights and light art shows around the city.  I also got to try Gluven (sp?), the warm sangria-like drink.  It was pretty good.  We stopped for dessert on the way home and then caught a train from Rembrandt square.

I had been buying 1-hour tram passes all week (at 2.70 euros a pop) and didn't realize until the other day that you are supposed to swipe them in to activate them. So....turns out I have a bunch of unused passes to now use and save me a bit of money.  Decided to test the theory out last night and...the first one didn't work, but the 2nd one did! The trams here are like Singapore in that you swipe your ticket in and off at your stop because it charges by distance (unless you have a single 1-hour pass like mine which you can just use as many times in an hour that you need).  The only time I had a problem was on some of the older trams when there was no attendant on the train to buy a pass so I just had to ride without paying (sorry!)

So, it's Tuesday afternoon, I'm laying in bed being lazy again and will get up in a minute to continue doing the same.  No plans today other than to head to the local market for a souvenir.  Catch up at the end of the week when I head to Hungary!

Amsterdam-Part 1

Amsterdam has been great so far! I arrived around 6pm local time the day after leaving MD so I had somehow managed to lose almost an entire day in travel.  Since I had carry-on luggage only, I walked straight to the arrival hall and was greeted by two friendly faces from my Asia travels, Jo and Peter! I had been warned about the cold and while it is a bit chilly, it’s not as bad as I had anticipated.  I think it’s made worse because you are walking/biking outside all day in it instead of getting into a nice heated car to get around town as you would at home.

I’ve only been here 2 nights, but it’s been a blast with so many friends already! The first night, I had dinner with Peter, Viktor, Andras, and Dani (Hungarian friends of Peter who I had met in Asia as well) and my Steven!! It was a bit surreal to be eating in a Turkish restaurant in Amsterdam with Hungarians and 1 Dutchman whom I had all met in Asia.  I love globalization! : )

I’m staying with my friends Jo and Steve who are Dutch but I met in Laos.  My first day was spent touring around AMS with Steven.  He was a trooper and braved the city by foot with me when our attempt at scoring me a bike for the week didn’t pan out because the Greek bike-dealer we visited informed us he’d be heading to Greece for 3 weeks.  Turns out Peter used to live on the same street as Jo and Steven and knew all the same shops, places, etc. Small world!  So, when the bike deal stuck short, Steven and I decided to walk the city running his errands and checking out the sites along the way.  It was fun for him to be a tourist in his own city : ) We even stopped at the Anne Frank House to see where she hid and wrote her diary during the war.  It was a fascinating experience. 

The 3 Musketeers of Laos reunite in AMS!

I had been to Amsterdam about 12 years ago and had only a few vague memories of it.  This was before the currency converted to the Euro and the dollar stretched a bit further.  This was also when I used cash instead of debit/credit cards so I did not remember that I can't seem to use my cards here : (  Of course I did remember the kindness and great English of the Dutch, but my main memory was of the STEEP stairs here--Nothing has changed! I’ve almost killed myself a bunch of times on the boys house stairs : ) Their house is really nice and right downtown.  All of their roommates are nice and have made me feel very welcome.  We’ve had dinner together each night and watched local Dutch shows like Scrubs and Modern Family together.  They’re also working on getting me addicted to their local soap opera they watch : ) And so far new things I've learned are: pizza is pretty good here, ice cream is fabulous, and eating chocolate-sprinkle sandwiches for breakfast is normal.  I’ll write more when I’m not busy having fun!  

A Whopping Order of Anxiety, Please

The past few weeks have been crazy busy and stressful.  While it's been mostly for good reasons (prepping for this European holiday trip, followed by a move to Guatemala a few days afterwards), it's nonetheless caused my anxiety to rear its lovely head again.  My symptoms typically include a rapid heartbeat and the sensation that I can't get enough air when I breathe in (good times).  This time, however, it's decided to manifest in my stomach.  While also not fun, I'll take an upset stomach any day over hyperventilating into a full-blown panic attack.

Although my flights to the west coast were successful, I found myself wrought with anxiety as the days approached this long flight to London.  At one point, my anxiety was so bad, I seriously considered canceling the trip.  Okay, maybe only for a mili-second, but the fear was real.  I tried rationalizing with myself, "You have flown a million times, what's the big deal?" "You made it 5 hours to Cali so what's an extra 2 to London?" "You're flying at night so you can just sleep."  The problem with rationalizing with anxiety is that your brain is wired to always search for the one in a million chance that the ending will be different this time.  Luckily, my therapist is amazing and the day of my flight, she gave me a few pep talks and reminded me that the goal is NOT to NOT feel anxiety but to just deal with it when it appears--Welcome it in when it shows up. Say, "thanks head for making me aware of those things! Yes, I can feel my heart beating exceptionally fast, but that's okay because I know it will eventually end."

The idea of going on such a long trip also started stirring feelings in me that I had in Singapore, not necessarily connected to the flight, but more just a feeling of being so far away and “stuck.”  The panic attacks happened to me there and since I didn’t know what was happening at the time, I just felt so trapped and not able to get home.  The thought of this long trip was starting to make me remember those feelings.  Now that I’m here, I’m happy to report though, that this has not been the case.

As I've mentioned before, I personally try hard not to take medication--for any reason, including anxiety.  I think it's an individual decision that everyone must assess for himself or herself and I don't judge others, but for me, it's not my first choice. Yesterday, however, as I weighed the pros and cons, I was leaning towards taking something. Not only was I dealing with the anxiety of the flight and life stresses but also my sciatica decided to flare up again the day before.  This causes me to have a stabbing and excruciating pain radiating up and down the entire right side of my body and lower back.  The only relief is to lay flat on my back on the floor and even that isn't entirely pain-free, it's just a bit less. The pain is aggravated and at it’s worst when sitting.  So the 7-hour flight and I were not going to be best friends. I rationalized with myself that taking something for the anxiety would help both that and my back and that it didn't mean I would need something for every flight but that on this particular day, I needed some extra help. 

So, I packed my meds in my carry-on, as I always do just in case, and decided I would take one right before the flight.  As I sat in the airport, I felt fine so I thought I’d wait until I felt I needed it.  All was calm until we began to board the plane.  That’s when the anxiety kicked in and I almost grabbed a pill.  But, I decided to push through it and once at my seat, was fine.  And then, I hadn’t even sat down yet when the flight attendant offered me an empty 3-seat row so that I could lie down for my back.  Turned out to be a great flight in the end (except for the small aircraft with the world’s smallest overhead bins, crummy tiny tvs that wouldn’t turn, and the bad food, but I’ll take 3 seats over movies and food!)

In the airport in Baltimore, I had debated mentioning my back condition to the check-in counter because I wanted to have my luggage as carry on. I learned the hard way that the trick to this is to check in online and not to go to the counter to ask questions with your bag because then they will weigh them and/or make you check them. I managed to avoid it again this time by leaving my bags for a minute while I informed them of my back injury at the check-in counter.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful as well.  Arrived in London at Heathrow airport and had to change airports for my next flight.  I had purchased my National Express bus ticket online for 1.5 hours after my arrival to allow me time through customs, but turned out “customs” was the easiest thing I’ve ever been through and I was at the bus stop in 10 minutes so I caught an earlier bus.  The EU passport side at customs was super long and the non-EU passport side had no one.  I literally walked right up and out.  Then, there was no form to fill out for customs, just an honor-system area to walk through where you picked your door “nothing to declare” or “declaring goods” (there was also a 3^rd door for EU peops) As far as I could see, there was no one working at any of the doors so I walked right through. I even turned around to walk back and make sure I hadn’t made a mistake since there was no control.  Just hoped I wouldn’t have problems at the next airport when they would tell me “um, miss, you have to go back to the other airport and get your stamp.”  Luckily, after an easy, comfortable 45-minute bus ride to the Gatwick airport, that didn’t happen. 

Gatwick was interesting.  The boarding gates are not posted until about 20 minutes before each flight so everyone waits in one giant departure waiting area around the shops and restaurants before dashing to their gate last minute.  It allows for great people-watching. 

I give mad kudos to London airports for their bathrooms—they are all GIANT stalls that allow your suitcase cart (which are free and also appreciated) inside no problem, and for the food options, of which included many gluten-free and healthy vegetarian options in supermarkets (I had a lovely 3-bean super food salad).  The flight from Gatwick to Amsterdam was a quick 1- hour flight.  Also not full and had an empty seat next to me.  Seats were extra big and leather and luxuriously nice as well.  Flight was over before I knew it and I was ready for my fun in Amsterdam to begin!

Thanks, Thanks, and more Thanks!

I'm not always the best at keeping up with writing on here.  It's easy to brush it off when things are going well or I'm super busy and don't feel like making the time for it.  Then I get a "thank you" from someone who reads the blog and it makes it all worthwhile.  It reminds me of why I started the blog in the first place--to help others feel not so alone.  In the past 2 weeks, I've had several people write me out of the blue just to say "thanks" for writing the blog and that it has helped them.  Here's to YOU, and all of you who read this, to say THANK YOU--it means the world to me that you enjoy "this happy place" and reminds me that we're all in this life together! : ) 

Whoopi Goldberg and her dog, Joe

I enjoyed soaking in an apple-cider vinegar bath last night.  Sounds weird, but it actually felt silky-smooth-great! And didn't smell bad, like I had anticipated.

Earlier in the day, I was enjoying the 70 degree sunshine (and LOVING it!) at the lake.  After a short run, I decided to just sit and enjoy the sun when a friendly 12-year-old German Shepard mix came up and starting smelling his way into my  heart.  Of course, that meant I had to talk to the owner too.  She was a friendly middle-aged woman who looked like a younger version of Whoopi Goldberg.  We got to talking about life, as I could do with a wall, and she started telling me her life story. She had just moved here from PA, a city near my father's hometown. She was fixing up her uncle's house, etc.  Then she mentioned something that made my ears perk up a bit more---she is a massage therapist! I couldn't help but thank the Lord as I sat, leaning against the fence post, trying to alleviate the back pain I had been having for the past week or so.

I asked her her thoughts on the hot/cold treatment approach as I've heard varying opinions from medical professionals throughout the years.  Some say to use hot to dull the pain, while others warn against it saying it causes more inflammation since my issue is chronic.  Her opinion was to do both.  Cold for no more than 20 minutes, then heat, as long as it is WET heat, like a warm towel or bath.  She also had a few other suggestions, including the Baltimore School of Massage (where I will be enjoying a $15, 50 minute massage this weekend--normally $25 and I found a $10 off coupon!).  And, as Joe started pulling her away, she mentioned apple-cider vinegar.  "Don't forget to soak in apple-cide vinegar," she yelled, "it naturally pulls out the toxins in your body and will help with muscle pain."  Sounded sane enough to me coming from Whoopi Goldberg and her 12-year old pup so I popped on over to Giant, bought me a huge $4.99 gallon of vinegar and enjoyed a nice toxic-releasing soak in the tub!