Out in the Cold

Brrrrrr. It's in the negatives here again in Rotterdam and I realise that I've become acclimatised to the weather and find it to be very cold. This is especially the case as I whip along on my bike between A and B. I believe cycling adds wind chill on top of the expected wind chill! Would this be considered exponential wind chill? No, it's probably not that dire but it's double wind chill levels at least!

This morning I decided to drop in on the inburgering lessons (integration/citizenship/participation sessions) that are given three times per week at my local buurt centrum (neighbourhood house). The buurt centrum is extremely diverse in its activities and these inburgering sessions are one of the latest editions to plethora of activities one can find there. In these sessions alone, one can practice speaking and writing in Dutch, have lessons on the computer, receive training for their inburgering exams, and learn more about parenting and children as well as issues of health and social skills. I would like to understand what each of these subjects entails as I think it could be very important to my research.

Yet, as I crawled out of bed this morning I questioned whether showing up unexpectedly was really a smart idea and chewed it over in my head as I chewed on my porridge. The Dutch, ahem, are known for their love of organisation (this process has even garnered a name - the 'polder model') and their dependence on their agendas to plan social gatherings. During my many hours of reading before coming to the field, I also learned that it was uncouth to show up unexpectedly at someone's house for dinner because there is typically only enough meat for the people who are expected to be at dinner, and that one should never take more than one cookie from a proffered cookie jar during tea (a mistake that I made all too often last year in my preliminary trip). While I have no way of knowing the veracity of these claims, I still felt weary of showing up this morning and changed my mind twice before setting off to arrive early in order to ask if I might join the group.

Having locked my bike up to one of the metal stands, I waited outside the doors of the centrum for the teacher to arrive - mon dieu, was it cold! One, then two and three students showed up for the course and the four of us stomped our feet in unison and commented on the weather together. Whether by design or luck, one student had our teacher’s number and called her to determine her location as oppose to our own. Alas, the teacher was sick and the student was told that she would be well enough to continue for the next session. Although left out in the cold, I think I'll try this method again as it has not yet been proven, to not work. I think I'll call it the surprise method...or better yet, ninja ethnography (just kidding). I hope that the next time I try it, I won’t be thwarted by extenuating circumstances and that next week I might be able to come inside (in more ways than one).