Hi. It's been too long. Sorry that I've not kept you updated on my travels and adventures, but school-work and play-time has kept me busy. I'll start this update by saying that I love this city. As the sun is starting to come out, Amsterdam is waking up... and there's so much to do! I've been enjoying getting lost on my bike and finding fun stores and other gems. My new favorite place here is a non-profit squatter restaurant/venue. My friend Stephanie introduced it to me. It's a whole building of squatters and they opened an organic, vegan restaurant/bar on the first floor from which they serve dinner three times a week. The cooks and bartenders are volunteers and you serve your own food. Last time I was there, a bearded, dread-locked guy was passing out oily raisins that he got from a Hare Krishna alter and claimed that they were natural ecstasy.. yeah, it's that kind of place (don't worry mom and dad, I don't eat raisins from strangers). They also have giant drum circles and offer classes such as trapeze and breakdance. I really want to start going to the breakdance class! I've also been going to my share of concerts here. Most notably, I went to a "Girltalk" concert (a DJ who mixes other people's songs). The concert was in a club that's a renovated giant church. It started at 1 am and lasted until 5 am and was basically a rave. There are so many things I've been up to - for the sake of ease and organization, I'm going to make a little list:
1. Paris - I visited Paris in March (feels like forever ago!). I stayed with a friend, Ashley, who's studying there, and she guided me through the city. We walked all over and visited many of the must-sees. I ate a lot of pastries and had a really good time!
2. Dublin - I was in Dublin during the weekend before St. Patrick's Day. It was insane. I stayed with a friend from home and GW, Carolyn Kerchof. While I was there, I met up with Hannah Rosenfeld and some of her friends who are studying in Barcelona. One of her friends had a cousin visiting her from GW who I knew.. small world. Anyway, on Saturday we took a train to a coastal town called Bray and went hiking up a small mountain. It was beautiful - definitely the picturesque landscape that I had imagined Ireland to be. SO sunny and green! On Saturday night, we met up with another friend from elementary school, Hannah Kuzniecky, who's now studying in Paris. I also saw what I felt was like half of GW in Dublin. It's fun meeting up with old friends on the other side of the world.
3. Berlin - two weekends ago, a friend from my program and I ventured to Berlin. We found a super-cheap last minute train and decided why not. Berlin is an interesting city. It's huge! My favorite part was all of the Graffiti... a lot of it was political and a lot of it was just for fun. The history in Berlin is all so recent, so it was crazy to be there and actually see it. At times, walking through the city was kind of creepy - the Nazi architecture of cement slabbed buildings leave the city with a creepy feeling of lingering structure. I wish we had had more time to experience Germany... We arrived in Berlin at 4:30 AM Sat morning, woke up for a 5 hour bike tour at 9 AM saturday, finished up some sight-seeing in the afternoon, stayed out until 4AM on Sunday morning, and were on our train back to Amsterdam by 8 am Sunday morning. We had 28 hours in Berlin and managed to stay awake for 21 of them. I'm proud of us.
4. Ashley visited me last weekend from Paris. We went to an Amnesty International film festival called "movies that matter." It was super interesting. I saw 6 films and each one encompassed prevalent human rights issues such as the death penalty in the US, resource exploitation in the Congo, media censorship in Burma, Iranian refugee struggles, free speech, etc. After each film, there was a Q and A session with the director. My favorite film was a film called "An Independent Mind." It presented 8 stories of individuals who had been denied freedom of expression. One of the cases included was David Irving, a well-known Holocaust denier and Anti-semite who was arrested in Austria for promoting his ideas to students. I thought it was interesting that Irving was included in a series of stories on individuals who had been oppressed/censored for expressing ideas promoting generally positive causes (democracy, etc.). During the Q and A, the director revealed himself as a Jew, which added another interesting element.. and made it ok (I don't think a non-Jew could have included this guy in his/her film without huge repercussions). And I agree that arresting Irving was a violation of his human rights, and shouldn't have happened.
Tomorrow, I am going to Istanbul, where I will be staying for a full week. I am staying with a Jewish-Turkish family and two of my best friends from GW (last year I was supposed to live with 3 of my friends but, alas, i was in Bolivia. My friends got placed with a Turkish, Jewish exchange student who they loved and now, since we're in Europe, we will be reuniting and staying at this girl's house.) I am looking forward to experiencing Passover in a Turkish setting.
On that note, as Passover is rolling around the corner, it's that time of year when I start to think about freedom and its many meanings/ what is freedom/ does it exist? As I go through waves of ups and downs and sideways's of trying to process my life within the past 10 months or so, I continue to contemplate the freedom that has allowed me to experience over six countries, several worlds, and many separate realities. I think of the freedoms that have dissolved after having inherited the responsibilities that are leftover from life's experiences and I remember those who lack basic and simple freedoms. It always boggles me that the the word seder literally means "order," while its celebration is centered around freedom (order = freedom?). Who is free, who is not free, and what are the different levels of freedom? Just some thoughts for contemplation...
I hope everyone has a great Passover and/or Easter and/or spring awakening. Keep me updated on your lives and enjoy.
