Riotous Rotterdam

My stomach must have spent time in girl guides

2011-11-30T21:19:00.000+01:00

The date for my defense is ticking closer and I'm made ever more aware of it as I meet with my Canadian supervisors for a 'mock defense' and send my poster to the graduate coordinator in order to advertise my public lecture.

I awoke with a knot in my stomach yesterday morning with the realisation that the culmination of the last four and a bit years of my life (longer depending on how you look at it) was but a week away. Oh, how dramatic, right?

Regardless of what happens, I'll be calmer in a week's time. Here's hoping that the drinks after are celebratory! The only unfortunate part is that my defense is early in the morning (9-11) and so QueenB and I will have to go to lunch first before we cheers or commiserate over the day's events.

Flip goes the stomach. That's why I think my stomach spent time in the girl guides as I don't recognise these knots it's producing...granny knot, reef knot, overhand knot...

After a long hiatus...

2011-11-24T14:04:00.000+01:00

Last post in April 2011...wow. So it's been a while and things have of course changed. I did return in April to Liskwartier and Bergpolder and through the help of friends and family there, I was able to give a short lecture (40 minutes or so) in DUTCH!

I think my previous Dutch instructors would be quite proud but really I have to thank my editing team (one in particular J.O)who did their best to make my thoughts comprehensible in Dutch. Again, I thank you.

I've been working hard since then, getting my first draft of my PhD dissertation ready by September 1st, 2011. While I would love the luxury of thinking over my 500 pages of field notes, 70 + interviews, and reading more of the literature out there, I'm no longer being funded as a PhD student by my institution and so - the race to finish is on.

Luckily for me, my supervisory team (they've expanded) and I have made the deadline to graduate this fall semester. My dissertation is submitted after many hours of grueling work of which I'm sure had the effect of my supervisors having sworn off any new students in the future. I defend on December 8th and give a public lecture on the 7th.

At this point, I haven't started preparing for my defense. Last week I had the pleasure of attending the AAAs in Montreal and gave a paper on urban gardening as a means to identify belonging and non-belonging in Rotterdam North. This was a very small part of my research really but it made a great short presentation. In the coming weeks, I'm going to describe each of my chapters in turn on the blog and of course, provide the link to my dissertation once it's defended and any final changes are made (thinking positively of course!).

Following that, I'm still trying to keep my head above water teaching a class (my first class) in Business Anthropology - the explanation of which is for another blog - and working my part time job on campus, which is not related to the anthropology department at all. Which reminds me, I'm going to be late.

After a long hiatus, well, it's nice to be back.

Returning to Rotterdam

2011-04-23T22:12:00.000+02:00

It has been quite a long time since I've been back in Canada. I've busied myself with writing, reading, and teaching these past two semesters. I've just finished the second semester at school and it's now a race to finish up my writing before September. I'm still on track to have my first draft finished by August but will be paying one more semester's worth of tuition so that I can defend my thesis some time between October and December.

In all my planning for this year, I thought for sure that I would have been a bit further along by now but the truth is, there is always something else to do(and I don't just mean watching terrible television or enjoying a weekend up north)! One thing that I've been busy with is my impending trip back to Rotterdam!

You heard me! I'm off to Rotterdam for a return trip from May 16th to the 31st. While it's only two weeks I'm going to try and fit some interviews in there, visit with lots of friends, and give a lecture to the community that I worked with last year. It's not for sure yet when or where I'll be able to give this little speech but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out.

Luckily for me, I've been keeping my Dutch up throughout the year with my friend the photographer. We speak about 6 hours a week in Dutch! Hopefully this will mean that my lecture...which will be in Dutch!...will be understandable.

For now, I will start thinking about what I need to pack, what presents I need to buy and of course, what things I can write about on my return trip!

Lekker Koffie!

2010-10-28T23:41:00.001+02:00

When I was in the field, where did I do the majority of my interviews? Well that's simple, Nika Cafe in Oude Noorden.

When in the field, it was always a question that I asked right after someone agreed to an interview. If their first inclination was to invite me over for coffee then I accepted. However, if they preferred to meet out in public (I would guess about half of my interviewees did) then I would ask, "where would you like to meet?" If they had a suggestion then I would always agree (after all they are doing me a favour). If they did not however, I would typically suggest Nika! The interesting thing was is that despite the proximity of this cafe, located within the adjoining neighbourhood- my interviewees almost always had never been there before.

Side note: it took me quite a while to understand that when I said, "let's go to a coffee shop" that I was saying something that had a completely other meaning than to what I was referring to. I always found it a bit annoying to have to say 'place for coffee' but eventually I fell into step with the locals and just said, 'wil je een kupje koffie?' 'Want a cup of coffee'? (Place inferred...)

Nika cafe was first introduced to me by my friend Rev. We met there and chatted as the cars, bikes, trams and people whipped by us. Despite the busy, and somewhat dangerous, intersection - the shop itself brings a sense of tranquility. Although it has yet to expand it's menu, Nika Cafe is always ready to give you an array of drinks and a piece of their apple pie. I may sound like I'm working for the owner, Nihat Kaya, but in truth, I miss my coffee hoekje.

In addition to the warm atmosphere, the owner and his family were extremely nice. I think I became somewhat of a known entity there as I would sometimes have up to three interviews in one day (yes, all at Nika). I bought so much coffee from them, I wonder if they've decided a seat to me? Hmmm.

I think everyone still in the Netherlands should go have a coffee at Nika and say hi from la Canadienne.

Hiding Out

2010-09-22T14:52:00.002+02:00

I've had no posts for a long time. I feels as though tasks over here are taking twice or three times as long as they did in Rotterdam. For example, although I wrote last time that I was planning on working with seniors to better my Dutch...this has yet to happen! I was told that I need a police check in order to work with this group of individuals. Fine, but to do this I need a letter from my volunteer place about the activities and that I will be doing. Still no problem. And before I go back to the police station, I need to have my London address on my drivers liscence.

This would have been an easy task two years ago when I had a car but now that I'm using public transportation (which although is good for the size of the city I live in here in Canada, is laughable compared to Rotterdam's system) - a small task takes all afternoon. Couple that with my other responsibilities here at the university at the moment and I'm running around all over the place. Time spent on my blog is now spent waiting at the bus stop or walking 5km to my destination. So although it looks like I'm hiding, what I'm really doing is RUNNING!

Take home message of the day: I miss my bike!

Te verbeteren mijn Nederlands

2010-09-05T19:46:00.002+02:00

I've been home in Canada now for 2 weeks as of yesterday and each day I can feel the Dutch dripping slowly out of my head into oblivion! The words aren't coming as quickly when I try to form sentences in my head and as I read the Dutch newspaper, I find myself using the Dutch translator more and more each time. Since I've decided to give a small presentation this coming May about what I've found during my year in Rotterdam, the gradual dissipation of my language is more than just a little worrying!

To combat this I've contacted more than a couple of seniors' residences this week concerning whether or not they have some Dutch residents who might have some extra time on their hands to help a girl out. Luckily it turns out that they do. After getting permission from their families and getting myself a police check, I'll be chatting away in Dutch again to some new Dutch friends here in London, ON. Hurrah!

I think it will be very interesting however to see what kind of Dutch I'll be speaking when I come back to Rotterdam next year. The people that I'll be practicing with here are my mother (who left Limburg province with her family in 1954), and these Dutch residents. My question is, will I be speaking 50s and 60s Dutch? How will that sound? This time-capsule Dutch will have me singled out more for the old fashioned words than my Canadian accent, at least. Ah well. Some practice is better than no practice at all, I guess.

All in the name of bettering my Dutch (te verbeteren mijn Nederlands)!

Relocated (at least physically)

2010-08-25T17:18:00.004+02:00

I'm back in Canada now. It's amazing; I feel as though I'm here for a two week vacation as I was back in April 2010. I'm sure reality will set in but as of yet, it hasn't.

Coming back to Canada was both a wonderful and sad experience. I never realised how deep the connections I made 'in the field' were until it was time for me to leave. In addition to the genuine life-long friends that I made, the people I met through my research made me realise how my time there affected them. I blame them for 180 Euro surcharge on my suitcases for my return flight, which charged for all the excess weight and baggage. They were wonderful at providing me resource material and Dutch paraphernalia so that "I wouldn't forget them or the Netherlands". Well people, I couldn't if I tried.

Although this blog was originally developed as a field blog, it will now follow my adventures as a thesis writing PhD student in Canada. I will at times include posts from the last couple of months when I was a bit too caught up in life to write (my apologies!). It will also resume its proper role as a field blog when I return to Rotterdam in May 2011. You heard me correctly, I'm returning for about 3 weeks in order to face the music. By facing the music, I mean that I will be giving a very short presentation in Dutch (be still my racing, palpitating heart...speaking Dutch still makes me extremely nervous as I'm sure it will do for many years to come) concerning what I've learned throughout my year in Rotterdam Noord. This is a time where people who participated or who would like to participate in my research can tell me what they think about my ideas and conclusions. I expect to hear a mix of "that's nice but have you thought of this point?" "Wow, I've never thought of it in that way before, I think you're right/wrong/confused/crazy etc." - I expect to hear many different things, many of which will end up, in some form, in my thesis. We'll see how it all works out, but that's the plan anyway.

For now, I sit on my living room floor typing at the computer (we're still in need of some furniture) physically being in Canada and mentally being somewhere half way across the Atlantic.

Changing Places

2010-08-07T21:17:00.005+02:00

I'm sitting tonight booking hotels for my mother and I, for when she arrives next Friday to spend my last week in Rotterdam with me. It appears that my time as a researcher/explorer in Rotterdam is quickly coming to an end.

It's almost unfathomable to think that I'm wrapping everything up, that I'll be leaving this way of life here just when everything got rolling! (or so it seems)

I have been thinking about this for a long time now - that I very much appreciate the Dutch PhD system where PhD Candidates start out Year 1 on their projects so they can make their connections, learn their languages, etc. To do this, one must apply through a specific professor or their project and not apply to an institution, with their own project, as I did in Canada. The down side to the Dutch system (this may be true for other European universities but I am not sure) is the potential lack of creativity for one's own ideas for research and that one's project might have to stay closer to their university in order to facilitate their research project (i.e. Dutch students living and working in the Netherlands or surrounding countries). Having said this, there are researchers who spend a couple of months in the field on and off but there doesn't seem to be any year long stints in which researchers venture out in the great wild yonder to bust their learning chops in the field, so to speak.

I'm sure both systems have their advantages and disadvantages and I see my leaving the research portion of my PhD in the same 'pro and con' light. Pro: going 'home' to see my family and friends after an extended period of time. Con: having to keep up and better my Dutch languages skills from afar. Pro: having one whole year just to write up my dissertation. Con: being very far away from my research field and my contacts. Pro: McMuffins with Peameal bacon and maple syrup. Con: Lack of authentic Hagelslag/stropwaffles/dropjes, etc. The list is endless!

But unlike my list, my time here is limited. Very soon, I'll be changing places once again.

Making the hard decisions

2010-07-30T22:31:00.004+02:00

As my Ms. QueenB has stated, nothing much has changed at home and being back in Canada, where we will begin our last year of school together, will be like stepping back in time. It will be as though we've never left...eerie! Sure a building or two has changed, your neighbour has a new pet, or that one annoying pothole has become even bigger; but in other ways, things are very much the same.

Chatting with some of the government representatives this week, I've come to realise how very different my expereince of Bergpolder and the neighbourhood centre (where I spent 4 days a week for the majority of this year) could potentially be. Why you ask? Due to the economic crisis and the changing of the guard (that is the members of parliament who might not think programs that set out to better the atmosphere of neighbourhoods and the relationships between neighbours to be so important), there might not be enough money for the programs at the centre or for the services that are currently provided through neighbourhood organisations. Nothing is written in stone and in fact, it's business as usual until otherwise told, but I can't imagine what a different experience I would have had, if it were not for the centre and the connections I made through various neighbourhood activities.

Although I've made it clear in other places, my working with the neighbourhood was not so much a choice but one of my only options when looking to see the daily interaction of individuals who come together in public places. Through the interest groups, the educational activities and the space itself, this centre and other neighbourhood communities have this local community buzzing! These busy bees are doing a great job getting people out of the house and into the streets, starting sustainable projects and generally making bergpolder a rather pleasant place to be.

So what will happen if the funding goes away? Truth be told, I find the activities to be quite luxurious and I was always a bit surprised at the amount of help, both financially and otherwise, that these centres and the projects of different individuals, acquire. I must see if the city of London, Ontario carries a similar approach but something tells me...probably not. Seeing how well it works here however, I can't imagine not having this network of hopping individuals and thriving groups.

I'm certainly glad that those hard decisions are not up to me. I'd probably make the city broke by approving everything that came across my desk! I guess only time, and the wavering Euro, will tell.

A step to the left, a step to the right...

2010-07-28T01:12:00.002+02:00

Take a step to the left (Pars Plus!) then a step to the right (Shake hands with the devil!), stand up, sit down, fight fight fight!

At least that's what all the newspapers are calling for with the upcoming discussions between the liberal VVD, Geert Wilders' PVV, and the CDA. With the disintegration of talks between the possible Purple party coalition (this name comes from mixing the red and blue of the left PvdA and right VVD wing parties, which makes purple. The plus (+) comes from the little extra parties thrown in, GroenLinks and D66), the VVD has put together this new possible coalition in hopes of creating a ruling cabinet so they can start, you know, potentially running the country.

However, like the last match, the newspapers are skeptical of this new pairing since the parties have much ground to make up in order to reach a level playing ground. For example, the CDA is absolutely for the freedom of religion and is positiviely against a head scarf tax as proposed by Geert Wilders' and his PVV party. But of course, this is just one example...

As it stands, Harry Potter (sorry!) Jan Peter Balkenende continues his role as the acting head of state as the rest of the country's steering group plays match maker. The Queen is supposedly becoming more and more frustrated as she continues to request different 'catalysts' to help push the process along. But she's not the only one getting a little frustrated.

It feels like we've been in political overdrive since March when we had the municipal elections, then the fall of the Dutch government, the national elections and now this ongoing speed dating trials between the various parties to see who can kiss and make up a cabinet that will hold for some time. I'd write 'hold a full term' but this hasn't happened in the last 4 governments so why ask for more?

I think many people, and myself included, are weary of a coalition with the wild Wilders' factor. I wouldn't mind waiting a little longer for an answer to the coalition question if it meant that we could return to something a little more purple, and a lot less ... bewildering.

The Sunny Side

2010-07-26T23:11:00.003+02:00

I just love these new templates available at Blogger. This drippy page represents the current weather here as I finish off my last official week of research in the Netherlands. You read me correctly...following this week, I will be on my way to Hungary for 10 days and then back in Rotterdam for only 3 precious days of research before my mother comes to visit me here for my final week in the ol' Netherlands.

This trip for my mother is very special because it has been 17 long years since her last vacation here. Some might ask why it was that I decided to choose the Netherlands, of all places in the world, to do my research and the answer to this question could be found in my family tree. My mother and (the majority of) her family were born here in the Netherlands (everyone can collectively say 'ah ha!'). They moved when my Opa recieved packing orders from his work, the cement company Ainsi in Maastricht, to relocate to Canada with a couple other Dutch workers (and their families). After organising things in Canada, my Opa collected up the whole family (only 7 children at this point) and brought them to the french speaking province of Quebec where they stayed for two years.

Many nights I've been regaled with stories about the immigration of my mother and her 8 brothers and sisters. Like some of the migrant individuals and families that I meet here, their stories were often about finding oneself in a new place and learning a new way of life. For example, when my mother and her siblings would march to the store in their small French Canadian town, they would chant :'Un pain blanche, un pain blanche' so that they wouldn't forget their order on their way to the bakery.

When the company moved my mom's family again to the english speaking province of Ontario in Canada, they were again affected by language, changing social networks, and the task of getting used to their new surroundings. Although Oakville, where she lives to this day, was outfitted with 'Dutch stores' I am now only starting to imagine how tough these moves would have been for both the children and the adults. I learn more everyday about the toll of immigration and its subsequent introducation and (subjective) integration into new cultures and langauges must have been like from others', as well as my own, experiences.

After some time (and this also seems to be the case with the people I meet here), I find that the story of immigration to a new country is often retold in a positive and optimistic light. Instead of seeing the rain, it is often the sunny side of experiences that is told. While I haven't experienced too much inclimate weather in my immigration experience, I can only imagine how I would tell my own story up to this point, if I weren't going back in less than 30 days.

With my impending departure, I've come to reassess my experiences here and have decided that they will always be different from the majority of immigrants around me because I'm english speaking, I'm temporary, mobile and for the most part, educated. My own experiences and learning the migration stories of others has definitely given me a new depth of understanding to those articles that I used to read in Canada about immigration. Wow. That's all I can say - Wow.

Going Green

2010-07-20T00:43:00.005+02:00

All the changing of the blog might be a bit silly but what can I say, I find myself moved by the colours of my research as of late. The season has changed and I'm going green...

Today I was lucky enough to meet the man with a plan over making Rotterdam Noord more sustainable when it comes to eating it's own food. As the leader of 'Transition Town Rotterdam (Noord)', the Green Avenger (from here on known as G.A.) is busy in the city creating community gardens. These gardens feed many and teach even more, with lessons such as how to grow ones own vegetables, how to maintain one's garden (did you know covering exposed earth with straw helps keep the soil moisturised and allows the soil to remain nutrient-rich?), and importantly a little bit more about your neighbour.

These photos are of the Bergweg garden project where G.A. coordinated gardening help from the local seniors' residence and continues to hold projects there, for example, having youth from the next neighbourhood partner up with a senior to be taught about gardening and sustainable food choices.

Why is it important to bring neighbours together? I asked him today as we sipped coffee and tea at my favourite interview spot, the Nika Cafe in Oude Noorden. G.A. said something to the effect of 'It's important for two reasons. One because it helps people get to know their neighbours which supports the project itself so that it can be more easily maintained. Secondly, it's important to bring new neighbours together because they will in turn make their network grow bigger as their bring their own personal connections into their neighbourhood projects'.

This is wonderful! I said. For the first time I could really put my finger on the point of why it is that everyone around here is trying to get their neighbours involved in neighbourhood projects beyond the goal of working toward one's personal interests (e.g. I like green things, let's go gardening!). Like the roots that grow from trees to the soil, G.A. was able to show me that the sustainability of projects and of one's connection to their physical space, through social networks and the physical space itself, was of utmost importance.

Not rocket-science? I know, but as I said to QueenB today, sometimes it's good to have things said in a different way because they tend to shed more light on the subject. They make things grow...

Nothing rhymes with Orange

2010-06-28T23:08:00.005+02:00

The Dutch football team has made it to the quarter finals and people here are going wild!

During any of the games, I don't even have to watch the games in order to know how we're doing. I put it on the television and sit at my desk doing other work until I hear the cheers and the horns from outside. I toss on my glasses and take a look at the replay that is playing on the tele and then hup, back to work. It's a great ethic! I work and never miss an important part of the play.

What else is interesting is to see how the colour orange has taken over space in the Netherlands.

You have people showing their support by decorating their houses:

You have people showing their spirit on their cars and bicycles

You have neighbourhood centres showing their allegiances as you walk through their door:

And my favorite window from one of the local business owners who went to lengths to show their spirit and provided a wonderful mix of cultural ideals through their own eyes:

I don't know if you can see what is here in this picture but it's a Moroccan traditional outfit that is made with orange colours. The hat is complete with red, white and blue trimming and pom pom. I think it is also quite interesting to see the contrast between this oranje man and the more scantily dressed Hollandse meisje.

For the very un-nationalistic Dutch, this display of nationalism is very odd!!! When asked about it, I often get the answer, yes, well, this is the world cup! Fair enough. At least we've got something to cheer about! Way to go boys!!!!

A Bump in the Road

2010-06-28T16:06:00.002+02:00

This morning was supposed to be our ~ Picknick in Het Kralingse Bos! As a group, the ladies who volunteer and participate in the friday morning bicycling lessons agreed to meet at the buurt centrum to cycle to a nearby nature area to have a picnic and enjoy one anothers company before vacations took us all away from one another's company. This event was also a celebration for those who had completed their cycling lessons and advertised to those who had already learned to cycle through our program and any of their cycling friends who would like to join.

Participants were asked to bring 'wat lekkers mee' and to 'neem liefst een eigen fiets mee' translated as 'bring good tasting things with you' and 'come with their own bicycle', in order to participate. We also had 8 bicycles in reserve for those that wanted to come but had no bicycle of their own.

The other volunteers and I arrived at 10 am, one half hour before our departure time, in order to prepare. We decided to have some coffee and wait for the participants to show up so that we could decide how many bikes we had to get out of the bicycle shed and how many drinks we should bring. We waited...and waited...and waited...and waited.

I guess you could say that besides the nice morning chat over coffee, the picknick was a bust! No one showed up! I wasn't too surprised since last Friday some of the participants mentioned that there may be some setbacks in our original timing. That is, some of the women had new appointments booked since we scheduled back in late May/early June. In other cases, a few participants were hustling to get ready for extended trips away or that Monday mornings didn't seem to suit their schedules at all.

Either way, whether it was a case of scheduling, or our advertising method, or possibly the feel of summer that made everyone play hookie, unfortunately our picknick...picked not.

Goodbye Friday

2010-06-25T11:49:00.004+02:00

I've become accustomed to my weekly routine in the neighbourhood centre.

Monday's I attend a conversation circle with other women out of the neighbourhood.

Tuesday - I have my inburgerings course (citizenship lessons) at the centre with my teacher Fleur.

Wednesday mornings are various and might include a women's breakfast meeting or a schouw (a walk around the neighbourhood to ensure safety and cleanliness). Typically however it's not until 1pm that I show up at the centre to help out with the homework lessons there.

On Thursday I don't go to the buurt centrum but I miss it all day ... just kidding.

Friday is a good day because I go to the buurt centrum to help out with the biking lessons, which I've been doing since fall of last year.

But today is Goodbye Friday as all of these buurtcentrum events are coming to an end with the start of the summer vacation. I spoke to many women today who told me that they were going away to various vacation spots (Turkey, Morocco, Kosovo, etc.) to spend their summer. Some were going for 4 weeks, others 5 weeks and even a few said 6 weeks. Amazing! I'm envious!

So it's with sadness that I say goodbye to all of my buurt centrum activities which are on hiatus until after the summer vacation. I am also saying goodbye to all the people whom I was able to meet with regularly because of these activities. While I'll still be here the first week that these activities start back (I believe it's the third week of August that school starts again) and will be present for this week, it will be a fleeting visit as I'm going back to Canada on the 22nd of August (mark your Calendars ;) ).

Ugg, my time here is definitely wrapping up! Goodbye Friday, hello summer time.

A lesson in Methods

2010-06-24T17:01:00.005+02:00

I had a meeting today with a Wijkpastor concerning a tool that he and his staff uses when serving the community. 'Exposure', as it is called, is a method by which people working within the local community can become better aquainted with their surroundings. There are two types of exposure one can have. First, one can take an active approach, which is walking around and looking for things in the area that are of particular interest to oneself and one's work. Second, to passively take-in what the neighbourhood has to offer. This means that you'd find yourself a nice place to sit or stand and wait for the life of the neighbourhood to come to you. These approaches are best done together as the active approach has more your own agenda involved and the passive approach allows for others' agendas to come into play.

There are some further steps to think about when doing an exposure. You must absolutely, as part of a process, keep your eyes and ears open. You should take notice of the smells and sounds around you and the feelings that you feel due to any and all activity. Another necessary step in this process is to write down everything that you've seen and felt during your outing. It's upon this reflection that you'll be able to better explain why certain things affected you and why you find them interesting or not.

In our meeting today, the Wijkpastor mentioned that he’d received an account concerning one man's exposure experience. As this man walked through the neighbourhood he saw two instances of graffiti written on a wall. One said "F*ck the Moroccans" and the other said "Seks is lekker" (sex is delicious). The man who was writing the exposure turned in his report and wrote an exert on the first case of graffiti, which had made him extremely upset as he thought there was an unfortunate increase in racism against Moroccans. However, he did not reflect on the second comment that seks is lekker. The pastor asked the man to reflect on this graffiti and also on why it was that he mentioned but did not reflect on it. In doing so, the man was also asked to question his own position as a person in this space and in this society, e.g. what does he think of such words as a man/father/citizen in public space?

The pastor told me that exposure, for himself and those he works with, is a necessary step in order to help and interact better with the community.

For myself, this discussion also made me think about how little passive time I put into viewing the neighbourhood. I am always off to a meeting or activity somewhere. In order to get there, I always take my bike and typically leave at a time when I have to hurry in order to make it. Starting tomorrow however, I'm going to dedicate some time to walking around the neighbourhood, as well as sitting and spending time just ‘in’ the neighbourhood. It’s brilliant! Let others come to me!! It sounds wonderfully relaxing and truthfully, I can't think of a better way to spend my time in this wonderful weather we're having!

A Space for Religion - Part Two

2010-06-21T00:05:00.004+02:00

Hmmm, as I sometimes do, I re-read over some of the blogs that I've written to ensure that there are no spelling mistakes or awkward phrasing. I posted a blog yesterday that discussed lions (how exciting! maybe you should read it for yourself!) and another about the religious spaces that I've found in the neighbourhood.

At one point I write: In general, the majority of literature about the role of religion in the Netherlands concludes that religion is no longer important in this seemingly secular society. But is this in fact the case? Does religion have to be within the doors of the church, and vice versa, that is do things that happen within the church have to be religious?

Upon re-reading this, I was struck by how different this opinion - that is how the role of religion has decreased in Dutch society- sounded in opposition to the other blogs, for example the blog I wrote about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, concerning the role of Islam in Dutch society.

How was this possible?!?

1. I was extremely jetlagged and lacked a considerable amount of sleep in order to perform the function of write properly. I wish blogger had a 'you're-too-tired-to-blog-at-this-moment-so-please-return-after-a-good-night's-sleep' button.

2. Although it was previous thought that Dutch society experienced a considerable decline of Christianity in the Netherlands (the Netherlands is historically a Protestant and Catholic country), more recently, the literature on religion discusses how Christianity in its formal sense might be dwindling (such as church attendance) but that the concept of religion itself is no less important than before. This is exactly what I see myself demonstrating in the previous blog - the presence of not-so-religious-religious spaces in the neighbourhood or as I just thought of - a more 'softcore religion' in daily life. Sounds catchy (hopefully in a good way)!

I guess what was so interesting to me about my own writing was that I could compartmentalise Islam and Christianity into such different categories that when I began to discuss the specific church spaces in my own neighbourhood (of which there is a Mosque and an Islamic University), I was able to forget the presence of Islam in this area.

What does that say about how religion is felt in everyday space in my neighbourhood? And of course the harder question, what does that have to say about how I'm conducting my research?

Most of my days here are spent with wonderful women who also happen to be Muslims. There are some Muslim women who help out with some of the same activities that I help with and there are many Muslim women that attend the same activities that I do. Yet, when looking at the participation of the local institutions for religion, I seem to have a blank space in my research! Hmmm. This is something that I will look into further.

The question of religion as seen through the eyes of the neighbourhoods is a tough one because in order for one's presence to be seen (at least in the way that I'm conducting my research) it typically has to follow standardized avenues. From my experiences, these avenues are generally supported by the municipal government and/or using the knowledge and experiences of established members of this neighbourhood who might better know how to negotiate the Dutch system. Thus, maybe I have not had many experiences that include Islamic institutions in everyday life, in my particular neighbourhoods, because I tend to spend a lot of time within a certain network of people. This is not to say that I have no contact with non-mainstream activities since my participation in daily events leads me off the beaten track through the lives of friends and acquaintances. However, this is an area that I should look into during my final months here in Rotterdam!

ORANJE FEVER!!!

2010-06-19T22:02:00.006+02:00

I think some of you may have noticed the change in appearance to my blog. I'm trying to show my Orange coloured support for the Dutch team who are kicking some butt (!!) in the FIFA World Soccer Championship in South Africa (like I need to be telling any of you!?!).

The streets are lined with orange streamers and flags are hanging outside of houses just like on Koninginnesdag. It is definitely a festive time as bars have opened their doors early to accommodate the schedule of the cup. People are wearing orange jerseys or shirts, hats, braids, Bavaria dresses (ooo, the scandal!) and any other piece of orange they can get their hands on. Although I've heard that donning blue, white and red is also okay, it's not done as frequently. Horns (that can be bought for quite cheap at the Bas and other grocery stores - all of which have stands with orange paraphernalia during this time) loud cheers and chants can be heard in the middle of the night.

The Netherlands beat Japan today in a solid 1-0 defeat and they will play again on the 24th (if I remember Cananon's schedule correctly) and will definitely make it through as one of the two teams that gets to go on from our first pool (again, if I'm remembering everything correctly).
Here are the two songs that I've learned as a good little Dutch soccer fan:

Hup, Holland, Hup, Laat de leeuw niet in zijn hepjes stand! Hup, Holland, Hup!
Hooray Holland Hooray! Let the lion not stand in his undershirt! Hooray Holland Hooray!
-note, the spelling of 'hepjes' might be wrong-

And this one:
Holland! (Clap, clap, clap) Holland! (Clap, clap, clap).
Ummm, you don't really need a translation for this do you?
-note, the spelling should be correct in this one but the clapping might be off timing-

Finally, not that I have to bring everything that I write on this blog back to my research but I did read an article today (given to me by Cananon - thank you!) concerning how the Dutch soccer strategy, called 'Total Football', is all about the use of space on the football field and how Dutch players are thought to think about football strategy in spatial ways. According to the author of the article, 'this came naturally' to the Dutch players because the Dutch have been playing around, creating, demolishing, and mastering space in their own country for so long.

Enough, I'm off to dye my hair orange and my eyebrows red, white and blue

A Space for Religion

2010-06-19T21:04:00.005+02:00

Throughout my time here I've met and spent some time working with the religious leaders here in my neighbourhood and the neighbourhood of Bergpolder. We became acquainted through their work in the community. On various afternoons and evenings, I've attended their church to participate in environmental awareness nights, cultural podiums, theatre productions, lectures concerning the fate or the future of the Hofplein line (the train line that runs through Bergpolder), author debates, bicycling tournament centres, spanish guitar performances, among other things.

Sorry, what did you say? No, you heard me correctly, these are events that took place at the two churches in my area...not a local community centre. But I find that these churches are just that, they are local community centres. These events are diverse but they still do not encompass the community work that is supported by these congregations or their pastors. For example, one of the pastors sits on the local Krachtwijk committee and the other spent many long months, with myself, on the 5th of Mei celebration organisation committee.

It may be my lack of participation in the religious community in Canada but I was frankly taken-aback to see how much a part of the community, these two churches and their adherents are. When I asked Berg (one of the pastors) why he was so active in the neighbourhood he simply said that "he was trying to be a good neighbour". He elaborated by saying that although religion was one of the reasons why he took part in the community, it was only one of the many reasons.

In general, the majority of literature about the role of religion in the Netherlands concludes that religion is no longer important in this seemingly secular society. But is this in fact the case? Does religion have to be within the doors of the church, and vice versa, that is do things that happen within the church have to be religious? The line of secular and religious becomes a bit more fuzzy when you see it in every day use.

Interestingly enough, there is a debate going here in the Netherlands right now concerning the role of the church here in Dutch society. The debate is between a religion sociologist named Gerard Dekker and a historian named James Kennedy. Dekker argues that (my translation) "the core business of the church is dealing with God and His Word. If the Church interferes too much with social life, then there is a chance of major adjustment." Therefore Dekker is arguing that the church must keep a religious instead of social function in greater society.

Kennedy however is arguing exactly the opposite. He argues that the church can remain a contrasting community as Dekker wishes but that it needs to go out into the community in order to survive. "... the church also has a task for the outside world, which is reflected in the care for the homeless or residents of a nursing home (for example)". From what I understand, Kennedy would like the church to work within secular society as something that individuals can to look up to and not remain an aloof bystander as Dekker argues.

Dekker believes that potential extinction of the church as a religious institution (and not a social institution) is better than loosing its quality of religion. He worries that the church will take on too many negative connotations, such as the role of the church in Apeldoorn after the Queen's Drama and the location of the church in the Social Support Act. Would you like more info? Please click here.

As I said above, seeing the work of those connected with the churches here in everyday life has brought these individuals (and the churches themselves as buildings in my perspective) into greater consciousness as I'm sure it does for those who live around and attend the events as I've done. Maybe I should make note of the fact that none of the events that I've attended so far have made me feel like they were fishing for converts. :) So, as far as I'm concerned, the churches here and their workers are doing their part to be a good neighbour to the surrounding community.

What do you think?

Rings of Understanding

2010-06-02T08:48:00.002+02:00

I've always been fascinated at my own understanding of the city and as a new immigrant, how this knowledge mimics the use of Rotterdam (and Rotterdam Noord) by other new immigrants.

On my second day in the country, I made it my business to go for a walk. I took a walk around 3 blocks. I used the main roads around me because the names of the streets were too long to remember. Although Pdot (remember him? He'll be making a come-back to the blog and the Netherlands around mid July! Very exciting!) had picked up a map of the city centre for me, it did not cover Rotterdam North where I live. I kept to the main roads and low and behold, I found the Islamic University. I walked in, spoke with a couple of people and then walked home. What a fascinating first walk! I said to myself.

At this point, it was extremely hard to make myself leave the house. Why? Because everything was foreign and I felt unsafe! I was learning very quickly that my preparation in the Dutch language was no where near enough and everything I came across was new and confusing. It was exhausting even to go out for bread, milk and eggs although I had no choice. When the cashier asks you if you want your receipt or a bag and you say in your perfected practice Dutch-Canadian garble 'Can you please say that again?' and then you don't understand it the second time, well, it's troubling to say the least. I won't go into details at this point but not being able to speak someone's native language garners different reactions. Some people try and help by switching to English, some people think you are stupid and speak louder to you like you're deaf. There is a wide range; these are only two of the options.

In December when I had my first visitor Luke here, I was able to show him where I liked to go in the city. Although I probably didn't realise it at the time, a lot of these places were Pdot's places that he liked to go because he'd been the one acquainting me with Rotterdam. I did however have some of my own places. By this time I had included a neighbourhood centre in the neighbouring wijk, had a couple interviews with the workers from the neighbourhood organisation (one block away from my house but whose presence was unknown to me for around a month or two), and learned how to navigate the metro system so as to get to my various jobs teaching English. Local shopping districts had become some of my favourite but I knew where the 'koopgroot' in the centre of Rotterdam was along with some very interesting museums.

By the time I was making my trip home to Canada in the last weeks of March my rings of understanding in the city had definitely changed. Pdot had been gone for almost two and a half months and my destinations of choice and by design were becoming farther apart and more varied. I typically used my bike because it was faster than public modes of transportation. My English lessons were now being given in other cities rather than other neighbourhoods of Rotterdam. I'd walked the streets not only to get to a specific destination but on neighbourhood walk-abouts with groups looking over areas of interest and areas with perceived security issues. Certain places within public spaces in an around the neighbourhoods where I researched had layers of meaning instead of just acknowledgement of their existence. The plein beside my house was the future spot where we were to hold the 5th of Mei celebration. It was a place run over by children from my street and an area of concern at night for those in the neighbourhood who saw the lack of lighting and the tendency of young teenagers to hang around after night to be a security problem. I cut through this plein every time I was going to a meeting at the local neighbourhood organisation and a place where I could see mothers sitting and talking on benches and heated football competitions playing out.

When I came back from my short trip home my knowledge of the space around me grew. I'm no longer afraid to go to the grocery store and I take short cuts to the places I frequent the most. I am recognising people in space and they, me. My last visitors my aunt Peg and uncle Frank were treated to my most knowledgeable tour around Rotterdam yet. Sites of interest included the 'ethic street' close to my house - Zwart Jan Straat, which is seen by others as a dangerous street but is somewhere where I feel most comfortable. In the city centre we walked by historic buildings, visited interesting architectural phenomena and photographed the crazy art in the city...yes, including the famous Santa Buttplug...don't ask.

My rings are moving into fields of understand and the way that I traverse space between places and the means and methods by which I do this are also more diverse and practiced. I'm creating my own sort of topography of the city :).

Ayaan Hirsi Ali making a splash in Toronto, Canada

2010-05-30T11:28:00.005+02:00

I've set a link up on my 'checker board' but I think it's worth mentioning my thoughts on an article in the Toronto Star entitled 'Islamic fundamentalists seem to be haunted by the female body?'.This story is about Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was a major player in Dutch politics and who for a time, greatly influenced the treatment and understanding of Islam here in the Netherlands.

In my opinion, Ali's writing is quite biased at times against Islam and its followers and in her latest book she is advocating that Muslims should leave their faith for what you could call 'safer religious outlets'. In my opinion, arguing that any one religion should be banned is unjust because there are many different forms and followers of Islam. While I heartily agree with her objection to female genital mutilation and do not envy her as an crusader against such phenomenon due to all the ethical dilemmas, I do take offense to how she's dumped certain negatively viewed practices on the WHOLE of Islam and ALL of its followers. While I think Ali is welcomed to her own points of view, I wish she could be more specific (although this categorisation would also come up very short and is also wrought with just as many unacknowledged nuances) so that one could have a more balanced reading of her point of view.

I think her position as a once-follower of Islam makes 'Western' journalists position her story as more credible because she's been to the brink and back. I do not wish to question her experiences of Islam or render judgement on her personal point of view however, I wish people covering 'her story' did a better job at giving an even perspective.

How can we do this? I ask myself why aren't I hearing more stories in the news about women who feel that Islam supports them? Is there an opportunity for this and would the Toronto Star take up this offer? Why am I not hearing stories about Christian or other religions and their potential faults in particular contexts? I also questioned why Ali was being featured in the Toronto Star and for what purpose at this particular point in time? I found out the answer to this question, apparently it has to do with the release of her latest book in Toronto. Should Ali make an appearance here in the Netherlands -where she's had quite a turbulent and infamous past- I think her appearance would seem a bit untimely if not out of place. It is my understanding that her kind of politics paved the way for the current rather negative view of Islam and Muslims here in the Netherlands but that her (and Wilders') theatrics are something no longer welcomed by the majority of the Dutch.

Ali's writing is at times very one-sided as I believe much, although not all, of this article from the Toronto Star is.

Anyway, see what you think yourself.

Photo credit goes to Tony Bock at the Toronto Star. The picture was featured with the article.

Hup Hup Holland!

2010-05-29T17:25:00.004+02:00

Soccer mania is almost upon the Netherlands as the World Cup in South Africa slowly comes closer. To get ready for this event and also because of recent government works in the neighbourhood, Bergpolder celebrated the opening of the new soccer field by hosting a feest today!

Everyone in the neighbourhood was invited and news of the event was spread through word of mouth, distribution of fliers, articles in the local paper, and posters hung in windows of houses and neighbourhood organisations. The celebration organisers had rented children's games (including sumo wrestling, golf, and limbo), gave out free drinks and things to eat, and hired one of the players from a professional soccer team here in Rotterdam - Sparta! - to do a demonstration and then help host a soccer tournament! How exciting!

Despite these great activities, the turn out was not as big as it could have been. There were quite a few families there and the organisers were happy with the turnout but there was definitely room for more people to join.

While watching the football demonstation, a short break from my position at the drinks stand, I overheard a comment said to one of the volunteers at the feest, 'you don't see many Nederlanders here, do you? I wonder why not?' This comment was not new to me. I've been told that certain kinds of festivities tend to attract certain groups of individuals. By this I do not mean families and young children because the majority of event goers did fall into this category (maybe all except for the volunteers and the chess players who set up a large as well as small board. I bet my Chess teacher back home in Brampton, Ontario would have mopped the floor with almost everyone. I say almost everyone because we have a Chess Master living here in the neighbourhood and I think it would be a good game between them, however I don't know who would win). Instead, these comments are typically refering to a difference in 'allochtone' and 'autochtone' presence.

I think it's important to acknowledge that in my experience of three different festivals here in and around my area, I have noticed that there is typically more minority individuals (5th Mei, today) or majority individuals. Is this important?

Other questions that might be of interest are: If this is happening, then why? Does it have to do with the advertising of the event? Is it the type of event? (Obviously not as each person in the Nederlands is somewhat interested in soccer! sorry Football!) Why are there events, that seem to attract 'different groups'? In my opinion, I think it is the fact that people are noticing and discussing this phenomenon that is most important. In any case, it is a group of questions that I'm still working through in the last season of my field research here in the Netherlands.
Back to the playing field!

Shiver, shiver, shiver

2010-05-29T01:25:00.004+02:00

In an article from the nrc.nl yesterday there was a discussion about how the different political parties (for the upcoming June 9th election) weighed in on the issue of immigration. I find the results a bit frightening and instead of posting it on the ‘checker board’ that I’m sure only some viewers get to see, I thought it important enough to include below. I apologise if I’ve misrepresented anything, the transcription was done to the best of my ability. Please see original link for more details:

In terms of where the parties weigh in on the issues of immigration and integration to the Netherlands, it was found that all of the election programs of the five parties went against European Union laws of immigration. According to professors migration law Thomas Spijkerboer (VU) and Kees Groenendijk (Nijmegen) the realization of the plans of VVD, PVV and SP would even be possible only after withdrawal of the Netherlands in the European Union. The SP platform calls for reintroduction of work permits for workers from Eastern Europe. This would be contrary to the free movement of EU citizens, which is one of the pillars of the European Union. The VVD wants integration seekers who fail the exam the Dutch language to be denying their right of residence. This is partly contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The PVV wants a quota set for asylum seekers to the limit of one thousand people per year. This contradicts the so-called "Dublin Regulation", which determines which countries are responsible for the recording of any asylum seekers. (one sentence omitted. Finally), the VVD would like these rules changed. Failing that, it would Netherlands through a so-called opt-out to take away a part of the Lisbon Treaty.

What else I took note of was the picture that the author and the
NRC used to signify this 'type' of immigration. Regardless if the women pictured in this photo are in fact the largest group(s) of migrants coming to the Netherlands (although from what I can tell the CBS does not analyse immigration in terms of religious identity) it is obvious from the association of the photograph which type of migrant that the leaders of political parties would like quash. This photo is, in short, very suggestive even if the political parties stop short of stating what this photo summarises in one snap shot.

Photo taken by: De inburgeringsplannen van vijf partijen stuiten op EU-wetten en -regelgeving. Foto NRC Handelsblad, Vincent Mentzel.

While I have no doubt that the above photo displays the kind of immigration that the leaders of the political parties are referring to (as evinced from the general context), the reader has no choice but to accept 'these types of migrants' in the photo as those migrants who the leaders are referring to. This is a bit of a simple observation I know but I feel the need to be critical of such an association since no such comments appeared as centre stage as this article did in yesterday's newspaper.

In my opinion, what I also think is important here is the fact that there is a very small likelihood of any of these immigration plans coming to fruition - if it means breaking ties with the European Union (EU). Breaking ties with the EU would (I'm guessing here...remember I'm an anthropologist and not a financial wizard) probably be much too expensive than any supposed solutions these policies would bring. I would also think that at a time of economic recession, breaking from the EU is not high on the Dutch populace's agenda.

My question is then, why are the parties even bringing these ideas into the public realm? Is this not just a cheap trick to get more publicity for the party? If so, I think that it is those who are, for example, pictured in photos concerning unwanted immigration to the Netherlands, the biggest losers in this political game; a game that from what I can tell, is taken from Wilders' play book. Counting the effects of both the conscious and unconscious messages that this article (and the election programs of the parties themselves) portrays, I believe the result will be an idea of a more separated instead of unified Dutch community. Is this really what elections are supposed to be about?

Okay, I'm done. I'd like to remind everyone (as I shiver in front of the computer, not from the cold but from this article) that this blog is a subjective work and as the author, I have the right to rant and rave every once and a while. Thanks for listening.

You said what?!

2010-05-29T01:10:00.003+02:00

Just a quick note to say that I've begun conducting interviews in Dutch and funnily enough, am understanding what is being said to me! Don't get me wrong, I am very far still from understanding everything that is said to me and very, very far from being fluent in Dutch. In fact, I spent the larger part of last week being made fun of by my family for my pig-Dutch as I've come to call it!

Yet, despite this, there are certain topics that I am now able to understand, and able to make myself understood. These topics are themes in my research and other related information from people's everyday lives. Get me talking and listening to discussions about gardening or the cosmos and I am NOT your woman! Happily however, I find myself following along on those coffee appointments at my favorite cafe (Cafe Nika in Oude Noorden), asking questions in response to answers and yes, referring to my dictionary only twice an appointment, instead of twice a sentence.

It has definitely taken me a bit longer than I had originally planned in my initial outline (!!) but at least I've gotten to this point and still have a couple of weeks left (between 10 and 12 since I haven't yet bought my ticket home) to use my new skills.

Politics

2010-05-27T08:14:00.007+02:00

Over the last week and a bit, I've taken notice of how the coming national election (on June 9th) is rearing its head in the public space. Walking to the train station, or along a busy road, one can seen election posters on billboards as well as televised or printed debates featured in the newspaper. While the Dutch haven't gone to the lengths of the US, where campaigning starts at least one year before the election, it seems the Dutch put a year long campaign into approximately 3 weeks. This timing of course has to do with the untimely fall of the previous cabinet but in terms of public 'buzz' the election was only present in the past couple of weeks.

I can't vote in this coming election because I am not a Dutch citizen. However, in De Pers today there was a two page long piece about how Mark Rutte, the leader of the VVD, could possibly become the next MP if the results from the latest polls would be correct. Although these are only polls, the prediction of Mark Rutte from the VVD becoming the next PM could have serious consequences to how people live their everyday lives here in Rotterdam. Rutte is finally out on top of the electoral pack despite appearing to loose his party's seats since 2008. He was unfavoured in parliament and public debates because he was seen as the harbinger of economic death, telling everyone that there would be an impending economic recession that other political parties assured the Dutch public, would not be as devastating as Rutte predicted. As it turns out, Rutte came out looking like a genius and all other parties have stuck their tails between their legs and backed Rutte's plan for economic recovery plans.

I ask myself if having Rutte's party, the VVD, in parliament would be a bad thing? It wouldn't be if you agree with having a right-wing party (by Dutch standards although it technically falls into the liberal category), which advocates for a smaller government and champions individual freedoms. This doesn't sound that bad, does it? However, while this party tends to be relatively progressive on the social front by believing in a firm separation of church and state for instance, it is also a party that supports tough immigration legislation. When looking at the choices, the VVD is probably the safest right-wing party that could come to stand if the election garnered the right-wing more support than any of the other three more liberal parties that held onto the majority of seats during the last election.

If asked for my personal opinion, I would vote in a left-wing party (and that's all I'll say) to provide the next PM of the Netherlands. The government is notoriously split which is why I say 'providing the majority', not that left-wing parties can be counted on to push the same agenda, all the time. The reason for this is because I think the other more right-wing parties would definitely change the way that everyday life in the Krachtwijk/immigrant dominant region of Rotterdam Noord would occur. Less spending on community projects, more focus on integration that at the same time could be curbed or the bill footed solely on the immigrant themselves, would definitely change life here in the neighbourhood as I know it.

For a brief overview of each of the parties (in English) click on the following link from the nrc.nl website. This is also the article where I got most of the above information concerning individual parties so please check it out if you'd like more background on this post or to see where I recieved my information from.

While I can't cast my own vote and I try to refrain from giving my opinion too much I would be happier knowing that whatever decision people make, it's an informed decision.

The alternative is having the example that I had today at my biking lessons. After two and a half hours of hard work on the bikes the participants, the volunteers and I were enjoying a quick coffee before heading off to our other appointments of the day (my new coffee addiction that has come about through this fieldwork is a topic for another post). As we looked through the papers, which is where I found the article on Mark Rutte, we began to chat about who was able to vote and if able, who would choose to vote. One of the participants piped up and said that she would be voting for the VVD because they were going to give money to programs such as ours and that those with less money, would receive more (I'm sure picturing such families as her own family that moved to the Netherlands). This is unfortunately not what the party stands for (the exact opposite in fact) and while my colleagues explained this to her, I wondered how the turn out of this election would fall.

I'm guessing only time will tell.

Playing Dirty!

2010-05-18T11:54:00.006+02:00

I'm sure the inhabitants of Amsterdam are breathing sighs of relief as the streets are cleaned and refuse workers are going back to work after reaching an agreement with their employers. I have to say, I never realised how clean the streets of the major cities in the Netherlands were until, well, they weren't. Walking around last Sunday with QueenB we literally had to negotiate our way through bags of garbage and refuse strewn everywhere over the streets, sidewalks and bike paths in Amsterdam.

One might think that delayed garbage service is nothing more than a small inconvenience. However, for those who lived through the garbage strikes in Toronto last summer, they know that something like garbage, which we take for granted and can seem invisible in our daily lives, has a way of making its presence known (and smelt!) when things work less than smoothly. This is especially the case in city centres, such as Amsterdam, which is a major trash…oops, I mean tourist hub.

QueenB and I began our stroll through the Red light district since I wanted to show her that the women in the red light district stop for nothing (!) or so I'd heard. This district is well known as one of the hot-spots for tourism all over the world and after a weekend full of revelling, the small cobble-stone streets were filthy with fast food wrappers, putrefying food scraps (there were many happy birds mind you, it's lucky that there are no raccoons here!), condom wrappers, and general junk. I took pictures of it because it was unbelievable, the difference a couple of days of garbage makes. Note: Refuse collection stopped for 24 hours on Queen's Day and between the 6th and 15th of May.

As we winded our way down toward the floating flower market we walked around a larger van that had just stopped on the side of the road. A man got out of the driver seat, opened up his trunk and began unloading bags of garbage onto the side of this small, out-of-the-way canal road. This didn't strike me as odd at first. I assumed that the man was a shop owner who was unloading his garbage in the appropriate space provided for his shop. Both QueenB and I continued past the car without much thought.

Just then a window slapped open and a man popped his head out from across the road. He began shouting at this man, telling him to "stop leaving your garbage here! I can see you! I'm going to call the police!" His cries brought other neighbours to their windows and out onto their balconies. More than one neighbour made a move to come down to the ground level to see what was going on. The man who was unloading his garbage said one or two things quickly (so I did not catch them) but instead of stopping what he was doing, he proceeded to speed up 'delivery'. By the time QueenB and I were at the bottom of the street the man in his newly-lightened truck drove away and the shouting had stopped. This early morning exchange got me thinking about all the small details and services that are necessary for a harmonious existence within city centres, where the roads and pathways are literally crawling with people and the things that they produce (like garbage).

This also had me thinking about the idea of proximity, that is, how closely people live and interact with one another, and how seemingly insignificant processes can influence the interaction of people in large ways. From the exchange above, it appears as though the garbage situation affects inhabitant's living arrangements and the interaction between individuals. One can also see that the demarcation or protection of space differs or is noticeable through such circumstances. In the dirtier parts, I wondered how the local inhabitants were feeling about all the tourists and their production of waste. Can they argue the benefits of tourism for the economy during such delicate times as a garbage strike?

While I did not read about any fist fights or slimy food wars happening in Amsterdam, I wouldn't be surprised if they did. The accumulation of stinking, dirty piles of refuse doesn't put anyone in a good mood and the connections and bonds between inhabitants are most likely strained during this time. Not to mention, as I saw from the trucked in garbage man above, some people are willing to play dirty!!

International Exchanges at Home

2010-05-10T11:32:00.005+02:00

The streets are busier despite the colder weather as QueenB and I discovered during her four day trip here to the Netherlands. As some of you may remember, I visited QueenB in Poland back in November and now it was her turn to come and visit me. We had a wonderful time strolling through Amsterdam, Delft, Den Haag, and Rotterdam and we made the most of our four days by visiting churches, museums, libraries, markets, cloisters, shopping districts, and harbours. We documented all of it by taking oodles of pictures of canals, historic buildings, canals, monuments, canals, some canals, and a couple more canals. If I never see a canal again...just kidding. It was a whirlwind visit which I labelled 'vacation time' in my agenda but I couldn't help but learn some new things about my project.

On the first day, QueenB and I met up with some of her Dutch colleagues here in the Netherlands. QueenB had met these colleagues through their work in Poland when she helped them navigate through the wilds of her own field site for a couple of days. The perspective of these colleagues was quite intriguing and new to me since they were both photographers and looked at space and place solely from a visual standpoint but whose projects included a social twist. Not only did I learn about the importance of depth when taking a picture along with some other technical “know-how” (including how to fast-walk while holding a ladder); I also learned some very interesting ideas about the creation of physical space here in Rotterdam.

As 'The Lens' said (and I do not quote him directly since this discussion took place over rose bier in a bruin cafe): Space in Rotterdam is typically renovated at a faster pace than other city spaces in the Netherlands because there is less history of, and thus less connection to, the landscape. The Lens was initially referring to the fact that the Dutch create land out of nothing through their polders which is reclaiming land from the sea. However, this discussion moved into the politics of city place and specifically to Rotterdam.

Rotterdam's landscape (here I mean buildings, skylines, waterways, and areas dedicated to nature) was levelled after bombs were dropped on its city centre during the Second World War. After the war, instead of re-creating the buildings that were destroyed, city-planners decided to build the city anew starting with streets and continuing into its buildings. Thus, the physical history of Rotterdam before the war, while not lost, is not always visible today. Following this, there is less stress placed on the preservation of the physical aspects of Rotterdam and more emphasis put on the constant betterment of city workings (vehicle and pedestrian transportation, waterways, economic pathways). This is not to say that there are no historical heritage projects here in Rotterdam, in fact those buildings that predate the war and such projects like the Hofplein lijn are quite furiously defended, but that space here in Rotterdam is somewhat more flexible and can be seen as an open-palette with which to make and re-make, create and re-create, to no end. I myself have noticed the constant rebuilding and upgrading processes here in Rotterdam and marvelled at the different levels of instigation over change to physical aspects of space and was happy to see my thoughts supported by others.

It was truly an international exchange of some sort in my home space. What a fruitful vacation!

Come on, Let's Celebrate!

2010-05-06T01:22:00.005+02:00

It has been a busy couple of days here in the NL with Queen's Day celebration on April 30th, Remembrance Day on May 4th, and Liberation Day on May 5th. I participated in of them, snapping pictures and taking in the scene as I tried to understand who celebrates national holidays here in Rotterdam (on a city and local level) and how.

To begin, if I have to make one observation about Queen's Day as it is celebrated here in Rotterdam (I experienced both the central festivities along the Coolsingel and Blaak Maarkt - i.e. the main arteries of the city centre- as well as local festivities here in my neighbourhood) is that it's focus may be the Queen but it's goal is to sell, sell, sell! From the wee hours of the morning, rommel maarkt (flea markets) dot the sidewalks on all the busy avenues in the city. Vendors can rent a small stall (Kramptje) or they can lay out a blanket or sheet and display their wares. I imagine haggling over prices must be one of the favourite things to do on this particular day; in addition of course to wearing Orange and painting your face. This is my observation at least for the majority of families. For those who did not have, or are not themselves children, the streets were alive with party-goers as "Queen's Day is an excuse to DRINK!" as I was told by one person on the street. I failed to see any orange beer (like our St. Patty's day green beer) in the crowds so maybe this is something I'll have to try and introduce for next year's celebration!

Following Queen's day is the Remembrence Day dedicated to the Second World War on May 4th. The service in Dam Square in Amsterdam was, if anyone saw the news last night, a bit more eventful than what the organisers had originally planned. News brief: half-way through the two minutes of silence, a man began to scream very loudly which panicked the surrounding crowd and made many people run in fear. This resulted in some injuries and much ado. This is a very interesting reaction to something as 'natural as a scream'. By natural as a scream, I mean that he didn't say anything in particular, just screamed, which is an odd and out of place reaction but at the same time, this man was not brandishing a gun or shouting threats. In my opinion, the crowds' reaction highlights the kind of fear culture that has possibly griped Netherlanders (as with many countries) today. I am going to write a future entry on this particular reaction to this example of asocial behaviour in public space at a later point in time, therefore I will not get into it here. Needless to say, Remembrence Day was observed and many ceremonies were held across the country some of which were more lively than others.

Finally, today was the celebration of the Dutch liberation from Germany during the Second World War, which was celebrated on the plein next to where I live. This year was chosen to be a national holiday, which only happens once every five years, and which I think added to the busyness that I witnessed today. Proceedings began with another rommel markt (left over things from Queen's Day?) and moved into a very lively Drum band, DJ, historical theatre, model show, tai kuan do presentation, children's games, karaoke and much more. It was interesting to see people from the immediate vicinity and from further afield come together to celebrate the liberation of the Netherlands (with help from the Canadians don't forget!). I should not discount however that people could be celebrating the free popcorn that was given out by the local housing corporation.

Whatever the case may be, the end of April and beginning of May period is quite busy with public events that seem to attract much response and participation in public places. These types of gathering have definitely been absent in the winter months and is a welcomed return to public life!

Mind Your Manners!!

2010-04-28T11:18:00.005+02:00

I volunteered yesterday in coordination with the 'Week of Good Manners' program that was hosted by one of the local schools here in my neighbourhood. It was my job to sit and wait for 10 different groups of children to come to where I was stationed and upon their arrival, act out a misdemeanour in public space so that they could politely offer advice on how I could act more appropriately in public space. My particular naughty characteristic was speaking too loudly on my cell phone. Fun! So as I ranted and raved about the game last night and how I lost money on a bet, the students got my attention and gave me advice on my behaviour that ranged from very polite to hilarious. In general, I was told that I should be more respectful of my public surroundings because it is being used by more people than just myself. I also however received such reactions as "There are babies sleeping here! They can hear you!" and "Not everyone wants to hear what you have to say, you know!" and my personal favourite: "Hey lady, you're crazy!" It made for a fun day.

With respect to my research, it was interesting to see which manners were identified as being important enough to highlight by the organizers. While I understand that certain manners were chosen because they could be immediately identified in a public space in order for the game to work, this kind of activity can provide some idea as to how people should use and how children at taught to comport themselves in public areas.

I was only 1 of 10 volunteers that were placed throughout the immediate area surrounding one of the local neighbourhood centres. Although my character spoke loudly on the phone, the children had to do the following when seeing other asocial behaviours:

1. Telling someone that leaving their dog's poop in the middle of a walking bridge was unacceptable
2. Helping someone who has dropped their groceries pick them up (without laughing at them first - not laughing was actually a requirement!)
3. Stopping someone from littering
4. Stopping someone from crossing the street on a red light
5. Helping someone cross the street who is unsure of how to navigate the bikes, cars, trams, etc.
6. Stopping someone from riding their bike on the sidewalk
7. Stopping someone from vandalising the bus shelter
8. Helping someone who cannot speak Dutch very well
9. Being treated to candy as long as they were able to act nicely and politely greet you

As you can see, the themes of the manners ranged from safety in public streets (crossing the street), to criminal acts (vandalism), to public nuisance (dog poop and speaking too loudly) in addition to helping those who cannot speak the language (I thought maybe I should have requested this one...the role was made for me!). I also noticed some underlying themes such as respecting your elders and helping those who are less fortunate.

From my post I could tell the children had fun and since today is the last day before a two week holiday here I could tell they were super excited to be out in the sunshine. Thus, in addition to working hard at being loud, I also worked on my tan sitting in the beautiful playground next to my place. Just look at my view!

Minding my manners was never so much fun!

Accounting for Biases

2010-04-26T23:16:00.007+02:00

This entry began as a thank you note to my absentee housemate P.dot for his kind thought of forwarding me an article from one of the most popular newspapers here in the Netherlands called the NRC. This article is entitled ‘Absence of ethnic violence in the Netherlands explained’ and as promised, this article tries to explain why the rise in immigration and tensions accompanying it, hasn’t led to an explosion between different 'ethnic' groups here in the Netherlands. The author uses research undertaken by teachers with the public order and threat control at the Apeldoorn police academy to support its claims. The result of the research and the conclusion of the article is that the police are actually to thank for the absence of 'ethnic' riots here in the Netherlands.

I began to look at the Netherlands as a potential site for research because in general, the portrayal of interactions between individuals of different backgrounds (this word is problematic and very quickly, and in an unsatisfactory way, I understand 'background' to be a term that incorporates one's ascribed and assumed identities) by the media was very negative. For example, allochtonens (people who are foreign) have one set of ideas and act a certain way while autotochonen think and do another (also very problematic terms – read Geschiere). Further, if there is interaction, discussion or meetings between these groups it is often mismatched and hard to come by. However, during my time here in the neighbourhoods of Rotterdam, I have learned that this perceived disconnection is not always the case and I have also learned that while Dutch society is not devoid of racism, it is much more complex than any large media corporate could possibly convey in any one article.

Thus, just for fun, let's look at a most recent example (today) of how different ethnic groups are portrayed as being (forever) different and apart. The article P.dot sent me today discusses research done concerning why there has not been an 'ethnic’ riot as there was in the Banlieues of Paris in 2005. To start with, in my learning as an anthropological student, labelling people according to 'ethnic' groups is not productive. One's ethnic trait becomes a genetic trait, which also has the connotation that this particular attribute, behaviour, or way of thinking can never be changed...but I digress, let's get past the title.

Although I've gone through the article and selected only a few quotes, I believe them to be representative of the overall feeling created by the article. I’ll start with the bolded summary sentence placed under a photo of the police taking away a rioting Moroccan youth in Amsterdam, “While other Western countries have been the scene of ethnic riots, the Netherlands remained quiet. According to one new study, the Dutch have their police to thank for it.” From this we can ascertain that the Netherlands represents ‘Western’ countries and their way of life and that those whom they’re having problems with are from ‘The East’. There is no go-between each of these categories but instead they’re displayed as being separate entities. This of course does not happen in real life. It also leaves each category wide open to ascribing certain identities and stereotypes to particular groups – describing them and packaging them off as you’d like e.g. Netherlanders-good, Others-bad.

The author goes on to explain that there is an “...importance of knowing what lies behind the absence of ethnic riots in the Netherlands (...) because some have warned they could happen at any moment” (my emphasis). This sentence does a good job of creating fear about The Other. At ANY MOMENT we could have an ethnic riot!!! My goodness! Run for the hills there are going to be riots in the streets! The article goes on to say: “‘With reason’, Adang (the researcher) said about this alarm. ‘In a heavily polarised society, riots can easily break out’." the author does not explain what this reason is in addition to assuming that everyone will understand why it is that people are not able to get along (understood from the polarised society); I also think that you can surmise a bit of vindication within this sentence. After all, the polarization between groups is ‘with reason’.

The author goes on to explain how tensions are a historical fact here in the Netherlands: "In Amsterdam's Slotervaart neighbourhood, emotions ran high after a Moroccan-Dutch man was shot and killed by a police officer in the same year after he had stabbed both her and a colleague. Earlier this year, confrontations between youths of Moroccan and Moluccan descent rocked the rural town of Culemborg. The list of ethnic incidents goes on." People of Moroccan heritage living in the Netherlands are mentioned twice in this particular paragraph and although Moluccans are only mentioned here once, there is another reference to their troubles back in the 1970s…please read up – google: Moluccans, Netherlands, train.

The author continues to describe why it is that the Netherlands has staved off the almost inevitable attack from within (Eek!). How you ask? By the police’s good relationships with the community: "Officers invest time and effort in their contacts with local residents and social organisations. They get in touch with mosques and social workers; they know the local priest and participate in neighbourhood meetings occasionally (says me: good on the author for not just mentioning mosques as the only religious body of concern to the police). In this model, police officers also uphold the law, but only through targeted action (says me: are we talking about preventative searches now? See previous entry for more about the treatment of certain groups of individuals about the police or if you’d prefer a more ‘objective’ voice via the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance please click here…and the quote resumes). Police officers are familiar with the peculiarities of ethnic groups, allowing police to respond adequately to problems." This approach is in addition to a “repressive” model which I suppose is the bad cop style versus the earlier mentioned good cop method. I also want to raise just one small question at this point that I think every reader should be asking themselves, is no one else looking at the fact that researchers who conducted this study are connected to the police!?! So is it really a surprise that the heroes of this very sensitive topic in Dutch society end up being the police of all people?

***Please note that although my writing may have adopted a bit of a sarcastic tone, I do not want to insinuate that the police are not doing well at their job to keep the peace within the Rotterdam (as it is what I know) community. I’m sure that this is the case and I want to acknowledge that my position as a leftist, bleeding heart is placed conveniently of to the side of the realities of policing in everyday life. I am however interested in how relationships within Dutch society are portrayed to the general public and how the researcher and author have portrayed the results of the study (science is always very convincing isn’t it?).

Nearing the end of the article there were a few more scare quotes thrown in: "Some experts he (the researcher) interviewed said they could not rule out ethnic riots from taking place in the Netherlands in the future." From this you might start to think that an eruption between communities (note she does not write ‘among communities’ which is very important, this kind of language separates one group from another and leaves little room for access across these boundaries) is very near. But do not worry, the author fights for a more balanced perspective in the very last paragraph (which has unfortunately been considerably outweighed by the rest of the article that comes before it): “But addressing people based on their group-membership instead of their behaviour doesn't work well. A police officer busy writing tickets and meeting targets can only spend part of this time maintaining relationships. The sense of balance is lost." The problem here, Adang said, is that there is no direct pay-off. "Connections only become valuable when trouble arises." So, did this last ditch effort work for you? Not me personally, the trouble arises sentence reminds me that certain people…Moroccans according to their high rate of occurrence throughout the article…are likely to remain a problem for the police and greater society for a while yet to come.

Hmmm. It could be that I’m reading way too much into this piece or not fairly portraying what the author intended; on the other hand, maybe I’m not so far off. I hope I have been able to highlight some of what I believe to be the underlying assumptions by the author and the ammunition that one can gather from such writing that can or may not bias an audience toward certain narrow perspectives of whole ‘ethnic’ groups living in and amongst one another in Dutch society today. I apologise if any of this is not coherent but I believe one biased piece deserved another.

Dear Mom....

2010-04-25T10:21:00.007+02:00

I haven't been as good with updating my blog as of late. It seems that one entry per week is not good enough according to my mother who was one of the first to take notice. "I keep going back to the blog and all I see is that 'Bing, Bang, Boom' one! I've already read it!" Well, yes, sorry Mom, you're right, it's time for a new entry.

Let's start with things that my Mom might be less than impressed with. Audi and I have decided to 'walk the beat' through the "mean" streets of Rotterdam every Thursday night. We're doing this because we've decided to take a closer and harder look at security measures throughout particular areas of Rotterdam, for example, the occurrence of preventative searches in Oude Westen. As I have mentioned before, preventative searches are unprovoked searches conducted by the police, typically on non-native Dutch people, for the purpose of confiscating illegal or dangerous objects. Although Audi and I have JUST begun (last week was our first time) we are going out again next week because we believe that there are things which need to be (better) acknowledged.

One of these things happens to be the seemingly double standard of those who are chosen to be preventatively searched. If you are a white female or sometimes even a white male, there is typically less of a chance that you will be searched. For those non-Dutch speakers, the woman in this cartoon is saying: "Hey Mr. Policeman, must we also be searched?" What is important to highlight here, I think, is the implicit understanding that these women will never asked to be searched by the police in such a way. They are (economically) consuming females who look quite glamorous and affluent in addition to being, I assume, native Dutch citizens. These are of course only my interpretations, feel free to impart your own. **Thanks to Audi for finding this cartoon.**

For some, these searches can be transgressions into their privacy while in public life; for others, (from what little we've experienced at this point) these searches may have become a normative part of one's public life. So how as anthropologists should we approach this situation? (well, okay fine. An anthropologist and a political scientist...but I swear she's an anthropologist on the inside!) It is not just these searches that we're trying to understand more about, but why it is that certain groups may or may not be targeted and what has led to such an approach by the police and the government. As I say, this project is only in its infancy but I will keep you updated on our Thursday night jaunts.

Moving on to things my mother might be more comfortable with, I'm off to my Aunt and Uncles anniversary celebration tonight. It will be great to see family who lives here again. After my trip home to Canada I got used to seeing a lot of family all the time so it will be nice to do a little bit of it again. The only trick, finding a flower shop open on Sunday...I'm crossing my fingers for a place open in the centre of town!

So thanks to my Mom for the words of encouragement, it was definitely time to send some post.

Bing, Bang, Boom

2010-04-15T23:34:00.004+02:00

Although it felt as if I was coming out of a long sleep, it did not take me long to be back in action. I arrived after a very long trip to Rotterdam - my 7.5 hour plane ride followed by a 6 hour lay-over in Heathrow that was then followed by an hour flight to Amsterdam, an hour's train ride to Rotterdam, and then a 30 minute wait/ride to my house. I had only one hour to wait before I hopped on my bike and cycled to my Dutch language courses. I’m sure I was speaking Greek to everyone, which was not productive considering this was our exam class for the second level. Never mind, I passed and will begin the third course this coming Monday evening.

As I cycled home I couldn't help but feel exhausted as I had not had time in the plane or the solitude in the airport to have a nap. Unfortunately, my body had other plans. I stared at the clock until 4 o'clock in the morning and when I finally drifted off to sleep I was harshly awoken at 8 am for my 9am Inburgerings Curses (citizenship classes).

I arrived and must have looked positively loopy as my lovely teacher Fleur asked “are you doing alright?”. I responded “Oh yeah, sure!” in a much too giddy voice and decided not to say more as my Dutch was still rusty coming off a two week hiatus. However, luck was with me as our class watched a movie about the German occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. I went grocery shopping after class and then struggled home wondering why my bike was weaving so much (exhaustion)! Thankfully I crashed for a couple hours and got some of my energy back. I woke up and literally sent 15 emails out. These emails varied from the inevitable "I'm baaaaack" notices, to my applying for a conference in Sweden, the due date of which is tomorrow.

I went to bed at a more reasonable hour that night and then it was up early again to keep working on my ever-expanding "to-do" list and to also work off a bit of the ‘welcome-home weight’. Apparently the way to welcome someone home in Canada is to drink wine and eat dessert at almost every meal - this is time well spent of course. Early that afternoon I attended my homework help session and then scooted off to my 5th of May celebration committee. I decided to drop by the Bergweg station after that to see how plans were coming for the upcoming weekend film extravaganza – check it out here. Since there were still things to do, I found myself handing out over 300 anti-nuisances notices (this is my term but essentially these letters told the surrounding community of the upcoming event in hopes that it would forgo any complaints to the police but also to promote the event).

While I was out flier-ing I happened to hear a very loud bang-bang-bang-some yelling-bang-bang-some screaming and thought “What is this?”. As I came to the end of the street, I looked up and saw a girl standing on her balcony facing the road and talking loudly on a portable house phone. In her other hand was a hammer that she was using to break in the window on the door to her balcony. I can only assume that she had gone outside to talk on the phone and then unwittingly locked herself out. She had borrowed a hammer from the neighbour who was also on her balcony looking up at the sight in horror at every crushing but seemingly ineffective blow. Once this woman began to get an audience she made a bit of a show smashing the window and calling out to passerbyers while laughing loudly. I stopped, mouth agape, and when she looked down and saw me she said "oh don't worry, this is my own house." I laughed and moved on to the next mailbox but I was really struck by the oddity of the event. Firstly, she responded to me in English, which took me a couple of seconds to realise. Second, well, there is a woman hooting and hollering on her balcony giving all she's worth to the glass on her balcony door. Need I say more?

All I can say from the experiences of my past couple days is that I'm definitely back in Rotterdam – watch out!

Laying Low...And loving it!

2010-04-06T01:35:00.003+02:00

It's been a week so far and boy have I been busy! I'm currently blogging from a friends house in London, Ontario - where my university is based - hanging out with some fabulous friends and letting the time pass by. I'm catching up on some very important things that have occured since I left in September - my good friend Lily has opened up a wedding cake business called Lavish Cakes that everyone can see at lavishcakesonline.com. It's a bit of unabashed advertisement but you should see the cakes! They are really good! My how things have changed!

It's only been 6 months but I feel as though I cannot recognise certain areas because of all the change. New buildings have sprung up and new people have come into existance. My family has recently increased by 1 this past tuesday since my sister gave birth to a health and happy ... and very quiet!...little girl. It's fabulous to be home although I'm still thinking about the Netherlands. I'm off tomorrow to have meetings with my supervisory committee and will go over some of the things I've learned thus far. This trip away will regenerate my batteries for the following four months and truth be told, I'm getting excited to come back. As it stands, I must go as my friend Chris and partner Luke unpack the Pho that has arrived by delivery. It's good to be home.

Show Me the Way to Go Home

2010-03-23T00:34:00.005+01:00

I'm very busy. Why? I’m taking my first trip back to Canada at the end of the week. Never mind that I'm flying BA and there is a potential for serious delays (although my flight is booked in between the strike dates), my mind is filled with questions of what I should bring home in my suitcase (all the pamphlets that I've collected and winter clothing for sure!), what presents I need to buy before I leave (tulips, Dutch tea, chocolate, tulips, liquorice, tulips...), and asking myself why I made myself so busy the last week before I left.

I booked myself solid this week because I think I was trying to pre-empt the worries that might come with being so far away from my field site. I think I felt that if I was super busy right up until the end then I would feel less restless (like I needed to be doing more) when I was too far away to be doing any hands-on researching.

Now that the week has finally arrived, I'm thinking to myself...geez, I wish they had 24 hour shops open here so I could do some of my shopping at night! Anyone know where I can get black tulips? Or something to hang on a wall that is 'typically Dutch'? Or where I can find soft and salty black liquorice?...they seem to be all out at the local grocery store! Ah well, despite the hectic pace my excitement is winning over. I'm going home (notice the use of this word...hmmm...ever the anthropologist)!!!!!

Walking the Invisible Line

2010-03-22T11:18:00.004+01:00

According to some of the people that I've been speaking with, there is a difference here in the Rotterdam between streets (straat) and lanes (laan). Those that live on the lanes are usually more affulent than those living on a street. I happen to live on a street which comes off of a lane. When comparing the outward appearence of each of these areas, I notice right away that the lane has much more greenery, a diversity of large and diverse housing with more decorative items, as well as higher priced cars and motorised vehicles. Although my street includes a playground there is no grass or trees. Don't get me wrong, there are a few trees on my street but they are small and look quite stark when compared to the aged trunks of the trees that shade the lane in the summertime. This separation apparently also translates into the kinds of shops that are present in streets versus lanes. If you shop in a store on a lane you can expect to have better quality items for a higher price than if you shop at a store located on a street. I asked if this division was something that could still be seen today and indeed, I was told that this tale rings true even now. While I can see the contrast between the outward appearence of the streets versus lanes I'm not sure that my experiences of shops measure up quite the same. However, it is interesting to have understandings of certain places explained to me from someone who has lived here longer than I.

It was also mentioned that there is an invisible barrier separating my neighbourhood from the more affulent area above me. Although geographically very close, the area just across the highway from me has much more expensive housing. What this means is that I'll also find a different group of people living there. That is, there is a possibility that I might not find as many first or second generation immigrants there and that I may potentially find more double income couples. While our neighbourhoods are very close geographically, our neighbours are very far apart/removed from us. The invisible lines of division and I'm sure at times combination are an interesting area to pursue in my research. I'm also left wondering where 'ways' and 'avenues' are supposed to fit in the mix...

Mr. Rogers would be proud!

2010-03-17T11:53:00.004+01:00

Oh man is it beautiful outside! I mean beautiful! The sun is shinning! The birds are singing! (yes, even here in the city although I think it's a chorus of pigeons) Even the cars don't sound as loud and polluting as the trundle by the flung open windows of my apartment. It's just a great day to go out and see the neighbourhood.

From the tenor or maybe the pitch of my little local space, I am not the only inhabitant to welcome this weather. As I came back from my grocery shopping last night I was amazed at what I saw! There were at least two hundred children playing on the playground beside my building. There were hundreds of them!!! With just about as much noise as you can guess...These kids were going nuts, running around, laughing, some crying and all enjoying their freedom outside. I've never seen the playground this full, never!

What was interesting in all of this was that I pinpointed one of my new friends from my conversation circle on monday mornings and I walked over to say hello. She was there with her children who had been enjoying the playground, that was until they encountered some difficulties with one of the other children there. They had decided to cut their time short and were on their way home.

Although this is not something that I took from this particular experience, I have run into other parents who had made comments about 'how to' and 'how not to' play on the playground. These weren't your 'No running!' or 'No screaming' requests but more thoughts about how one should play on the playground - these included proper behaviour on the playground (understandably no hitting, pushing or stealing things fits into this section), the idea of supervising one's children (I have been told that certain groups of individuals do not get enough supervision), when children should be playing on the playground (never after dark!), and other such things.

I think there is much one can learn about the social norms about raising children and acceptable behaviours in public space just by looking at the local speeltuin (playground)! There is so much other stuff to think about with this topic but I think I'll leave it there. It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, won't you be my neighbour?

Shaken not Stirred

2010-03-16T13:02:00.003+01:00

On the 12th of March, last Friday, the NRC handelsblad (newspaper) website reported that the PvdA was/is still the largest party here in Rotterdam following the municipal elections on March 3rd. If you'll remember, due to some inconsistencies at the polling stations and the extremely slim margin that the PvdA took office over Leefbare Rotterdam, our mayor Aboutaleb ordered a recount of the votes in order to quash growing discontent as led by members of the Leefbare Rotterdam Party. The result is that the PvdA is now 0.3 percent in the lead over Leefbare Rotterdam as oppose to the 0.2 percent in the original count. This of course does not change the fact that each party will have 14 seats in the newly formed Rotterdam government. It also has spawned many stories concerning the inability of these parties to work together. I guess that Rotterdammers will get used to stalemate politics over the next couple of years...how dreary!

On the same day, it was made known that the Dutch labour party leader (PvdA) Wouter Bos would be stepping down as the head of the upcoming election for familial reasons (why is it that whenever I hear that family is the reason for a politician to be quiting their political roles that I tend to be suspicious? hmmmm, nevermind). In his stead he would like Job Cohen, the present Mayor of Amsterdam, to take up the party's reigns for the June 9th national elections. Cohen heartily accepted and immediately resigned his post as Mayor. Cohen was then replaced yesterday by Frank de Wolf.

These stories were sandwiched in between the death of a founding member of the D'66 (a middle of the road party that did well in the municipal elections) on March 11th and the stepping down of a female minister from the second kabinet, Ms. L. Griffith from the VVD party (right-wing rather nationalism party...but not Wilders' PVV) today. Speaking of Wilders' it was reported yesterday that he fell ill in Germany and sought medical attention. He later sent an sms to let everyone know that he was 'prima!' and so he will continue as a political force.

It appears that politics is rather rocky these days in the Netherlands as people are falling like dominos from their various positions and only sometimes finding new roles. Although it hasn't been hit by a physical earthquake as other countries have recently experienced around the world, the Netherlands is dealing with a political earthquake, where the major event was the falling of the government (the epicenter was in Den Haag) and with the aftershocks being felt in Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam, and on and on.

Whatever it is, the politics these days are definitely shaken rather than just stirred.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-03-11T15:34:00.003+01:00

One more thing...I've been here 6 months as of today. Instead of getting too worried and caught up in what I still have to accomplish, I'm going to celebrate this day by attending a lecture tonight by Frank Lechner - whose work I became very grateful for and very reliant on during my comprehensive exams - and then I'm going out! It's time to CELEBRATE! ... but not too late, I've got cycling lessons in the morning...

I think we just like counting, is all...

2010-03-11T15:00:00.001+01:00

With all the hoopla that went on around here last week during the municipal elections, I think the people of Rotterdam were feeling a bit let-down at the thought of not having something exciting coming up in their immediate political future (the national elections are now scheduled for June 9th). So what is a Rotterdammer to do? Why have all this fun all over again it seems!

Rotterdam's Mayor has ordered a recount of the 220,000 votes cast during the municipal election last Wednesday, March 3rd. This recount (hertelling) is happening because there are allegations of irregularities in some of the polling stations. These irregularities include the possibility that individuals were allow to vote without showing their passports and where more than one person entered into a polling booth at the same time, both of which is also against the rules. It was also found that some votes for Leefbare Rotterdam were not originally counted (at least 100), that there is a possibility that some of the ballots could have been stolen, and there are rumours that voters were solicited at certain polling stations. Although the murmurings of discontent were relatively quiet in the day following the election the central government has bowed to popular and other party discontent (headed by Leefbare Rotterdam of course) and ordered the recount.

In last week's election the Labour party, the PvdA, won over the local populist and right-wing party Leefbaar Rotterdam. The margin however was extremely thin with PvdA succeeding to majority status by only 651 votes. I have to wonder how much this recount will change things considering both the Labour and the Leefbare Rotterdam party have 14 seats apiece on the 45-seat council. While I do not have a political science background, I can guess that if the parties remain at 14 seats each, that there will be some close debates throughout the next four years as these parties try and comprise their way through governing Rotterdam.

This recount is also seeing quite a lot of national attention because whoever turns out to be the winner gets to take the initiative in forging a new governing coalition. As the NRC website reports: "(a) tight race is then expected between some of the same players (at the national level), and the fractured electorate will make it extraordinarily difficult to forge a governing coalition at the national level". Thus, there is much at stake at this local election in both local and national fields.

The results of the recount will be made available in two days however there remains some doubt as to what this recount will in fact prove. The recent events have some calling for a return to the polls by Rotterdammers but I think this will depend on the outcome of the inquiry. For more information concerning the recount please see this link, the information from this particular post was taken from it.

Keep tuned to find out what happens with the recount! I wonder what we'll get up to next! Talk about keeping it exciting!

Eureka! I see the LIGHTS!

2010-03-07T13:37:00.000+01:00

I went to an Escher exhibition last Saturday with the girls and I have to tell you that I had a fabulous time! The exhibition began in 2007 at Het Paleis which is located in the historical part of Den Haag. Although Escher and his work did not disappoint, there was another exhibition there - 15 chandeliers created by Dutch sculptor Hans van Bentem. According to the website these chandeliers were created to compliment Escher exhibition at Het Paleis. Van Bentem chose topics that related to Escher’s work, such as the chandeliers in the shape of a fish and a bird. Other works however have nothing to do with Escher’s work, such as the skull and crossbones pictured below. What I personally like the best is the contrast between these light instellations and the rooms in which they're housed. The Palace is decorated in a classical style - it did used to be a royal palace after all, while van Bentem's work is anything but! It gave the art a very 'Banksy' feel because it did look out of place. It was if the artist came in during the night and replaced all the regular 100 watt bulbs with skulls, and umbrellas and iron maidens...oh my!

Vrijwilligerswerk - So much to do, so little time to do it!

2010-03-07T10:16:00.000+01:00

Over the last week I've turned my attention to the questions of who volunteers and why. This past week I was told that some individuals who received financial assistance from the government must in turn volunteer a certain number of hours per week as a stipulation of this assistance. This is not a requirement in all cases and nor are all volunteers receiving financial assistance from the government; however, I thought this stipulation - of giving back to society through volunteering - to be an interesting one.

I assume that this stipulation has created a larger volunteer pool from which agencies in need can access willing volunteers. I think this has also created somewhat of a volunteering industry here in Rotterdam as there are even companies that distribute volunteers to other companies or causes in need. For example, if you have a one-day event planned and you need volunteers then there are services that will 'lend' out their volunteers to your cause. There are also funds provided by the government to facilitate the distribution of volunteers - such as Participatie Fonds here in Rotterdam. Thus, there is a bit of competition and some money to be made in the volunteering business (although I'm not sure of how much money there actually is to be made, or whether or not it's evenly distributed, or what regulations go along with the provision of this funding, etc.).

Which volunteers do what is a matter of interest, availability and knowledge that such events are indeed happening. I think that the themes of this blog hark back to the previous entry where I mused over who uses the neighbourhood centre and why. A lot of it boils down to whether or not people have the want and the need to volunteer their time or take part in a neighbourhood activity. The volunteering however has a bit of an added incentive which is something that I must also keep in mind when looking at who is participating in the community in everyday life, here in Rotterdam. It would also be interesting to learn how government funds are distributed and what regulations there are, that influence the dealings within the volunteer industry. So much to do and so little time!

Museum Nacht

2010-03-06T12:35:00.000+01:00

I'll be walking late into the night with my Aunt and Uncle who are visiting me from Gouda. Tonight is museum nacht here in Rotterdam which means the museums are open until 2am in the morning. I'm reminded of the Open Doors event that we have in Toronto, Ontario, Canada once a year where (parts of) buildings that are normally off limits in everyday life are open to the public on this special night.

This of course makes me think about the openness of Dutch space. The majority of my work has been centred around the semi-public place of the buurt centrum, the meeting places of the neighbourhood groups that I've joined, as well as the time I've spent with workers from government institutions who while accessible to the public albeit by booking an appointment during work hours. In my original research design I had focussed on accessing "public spaces" and these spaces have turned out to be those places where residents of the neighbourhood or individuals interested in a particular neighbourhood may go. The buurt centrum where I spend my time is an open (after the doors are unlocked by a scheduled host) and accessible place (to those who know where the building is, who are interested in it's chosen activities for the day and who are available to come out during the day). The point I'm trying to make is that although I'm using the semi-public places within a neighbourhood to understand how people from seemingly different backgrounds are coming together in everyday life, the activities that I am learning about and from are still only available to a certain number of people. Whether it is one's job schedule or the fact that their interests lie outside of the neighbourhood, trying to identify who participates in neighbourhood projects, interests and who doesn't, is not something that is easy to determine.

Fieldtrip!!!

2010-02-28T19:53:00.001+01:00

This past Thursday I packed my bags and set off for a day trip to Arnhem. Arnhem is a little city 97 kms east of Rotterdam, which takes approximately 2 hours to get to by train. I was in Arnhem because I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with the Director of Volkshuisvesting, which is a housing corporation in Arnhem. How, might you ask, did I land a meeting with the director of a very successful housing corporation? A corporation that has approximately 13,000 units in Arnhem alone? Well, I was lucky enough to have an inside source, we'll call her Bird, who was able to snag me an appointment with the big man, Mr. B, himself.

I arrived in the early afternoon and we began our visit with a short interview. I was especially interested in a project that I know as 'the Mediterranean (housing) project'. This project is quite unique in that these houses were designed with input from women who immigrated to the Netherlands. This project began when an architect connected to volkshuisvesting interviewed a group of women (who would be considered 'allochthonen') in order to learn more about what an ideal family home would look like from their perspective. Why, you ask, would a housing corporation go to such lengths to research/design/build an accommodation for a particular group of individuals in their renting population? It was thought that the preferences of this group in particular had yet to be accommodated for in building house(s) practices. I personally found this project to be unique in its conception and approach (holding numerous focus groups...why it's damn near anthropological (!) although I cannot make any comment on the questions asked at the time since I was not present at the meetings). I also learned that it was only one of many ideas by volkshuisvesting which sought to create a dialogue between the corporation and its renters for the purpose of what I came to understand as 'better housing practices'. If individuals are happy in their homes and their surrounding neighbourhoods, then they make better renters and a better place or neighbourhood to be. At least, this is my general impression. I was in awe that a housing corporation did not just care about the physical housing. Most of the emphasis was put on the individuals in the houses in addition to their social connections to other renters, to their neighbourhoods and to their city.

But it was not enough to have a chat about these things. Mr. B (in his nice suit and shoes) and I hopped on a pair of bikes and cycled to the neighbourhood where the Mediterranean houses were built. It was interesting to see the buildings and their surroundings as it gave you an idea as to how different they were from the other houses but not in an 'out-of-place' way. The results from the focus groups identified a couple of areas where the design of the house could be changed. These included: a closed separation between the kitchen and living room; creating a larger distance between the main bathroom and the living room; the ability to park one's car close to the house instead of in the street. From this photo you can see that at least one of these suggestions was accounted for (with the possibility that all were accounted for however, we did not go inside). While these were not the only findings from the research, and those that I have provided, are from memory so please take this into account, I found the whole process of taking renters thoughts and preferences into account when building houses, to be very positive.

My fieldtrip to Arnhem is not the only experience that I've had with housing corporations. Housing corporations are becoming important for my research because their housing and neighbourhood projects have quite a significant impact on how people come together in the neighbourhood. Most housing corporations have 'visions' for a particular neighbourhood that could result in a neighbourhood being torn down and rebuilt in a different fashion, or having buildings renovated to change the occupancy or doing something as simple as painting the outside frames of all the windows to make things look nice. It also includes building playgrounds, doing landscaping, creating parks, many things that are possibly outside the scoop of a housing corporation. From what I've heard, experiences with housing corporations are not all positive but depend somewhat on the vision of the neighbourhood held by the corporations and by the other inhabitants. While I came away from volkshuisvesting with quite a positive feeling, I will follow up with housing corporations here in Rotterdam in order to better understand where these money-making businesses figure into the scheme of things in the neighbourhood and in between neighbours.

Just as an ending note, I've personally been living in an apartment owned by a social housing corporation here in Rotterdam and have had no issues to date. A very positive personal experience here as well.

Slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww

2010-02-23T10:04:00.000+01:00

This week is going to be a little slow. As there are rainy seasons and dry seasons, winter breaks and summer breaks, so too is there a short, one-week vacation for all children in grade school and high school here in the Netherlands. What does this mean for me? It means that I'll be taking a break from my usual weekly activities in the buurt centruum (neighbourhood centre) because all regularly scheduled activities have been cancelled for the week. This fact has made me take notice of a couple of things. First, the majority of people who attend the activities and use the buurt centrum are women (typically with young children). While this may have appeared obvious to anyone who has previously walked into the place, it's something that I have taken distinct notice of, during this week (she says as tumble weeds blow through the doors of the neighbourhood center. There is literally no one is around!). Second, the majority of activities at the neighbourhood centre are directed at adults rather than children (there is at least one recent exception to this as a group has started children’s identity workshops). Although I thought that the majority of women would bring their children to the centre for their usual activities, this appears not to be the case. Instead, activities for children have been moved to a different location (see below).
photo

As for myself, I'll be changing scenery and joining my volunteer group at the Bergweg station (in the Hofbogen lijn) for 'Villa Zebra', which is a series of children's activities for two to three hours held in the morning and again in the afternoon. The first day that I'm scheduled to work is this Wednesday and I'll be interested to see whether or not the same women that use the buurt centruum will attend the children’s activities in the station. The difference between these two activities (in addition to the ones noted above) is that the buurt centruum provides services free of charge, whereas one must pay to take part in these children's activities. Parents must pay per child in fact. While the cost is still quite low, it will be interesting to see how this difference affects who is able to participate and who is not.

Overall, this vacation has affected the pace of the neighbourhood reminding me of the weeks leading up to the Christmas season here. I usually look outside my window in the early morning, where I can typically see mothers and fathers hoisting their children onto their bikes and cycling off to school and/or work. This morning, my street was a ghost town as I suppose both parents and offspring enjoyed a later wake-up time. While it is not yet time for me to take another vacation (but it’s coming up…) this shake-up to the weekly scheduling is a nice change.

Government...scmovernment. The Dutch do it their own way!

2010-02-22T14:36:00.000+01:00

As many of you already know (if not all of you), the Dutch government fell in the wee hours of this past Saturday morning due to a rift between coalition parties. In what is reminiscent of divorce proceedings, the parties split due to irreconcilable differences over whether or not the Netherlands should extend their military presence and participation in Afghanistan until 2011. The supposed hard-liner was Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos of the Labour Party who refused to accept any further extension of Dutch troops despite NATOs written request to the government early in the term.

The fall of the government did not come as a shock to most who follow Dutch politics, especially after the results from the independent Davids commission were released in early January. The Davids commission was an independent body which analysed whether or not the Netherlands' support of the invasion of Iraq was illegal or not (it was found to be illegal). When this report was released, Jan Peter Balkenende (the Dutch Prime Minister) shrugged off the results as unimportant and very-narrowly missed toppling the coalition then.

One might also be less than surprised at this happenstance considering this is nothing new to the Dutch politics. This cabinet was Balkenende's fourth and it was also the fourth time that Balkenende has failed to bring a coalition government to the end of the full four-year term. In my opinion, I think it would be more shocking if the government lived out their full term at this point! (but I digress…)

As one might guess, the government’s dissolution was a hot topic at the going-away party that I attended last Saturday night after the news was reported earlier that day. A friend of mine, we'll call her Farsi, is going home to Iran for two months for a vacation. She has not been back to Iran in over a year and was quite excited to return. When the topic came up, she told me that when she had heard the news about the Dutch government falling, she asked her vrindt (boyfriend) something to the effect of: "What does this mean? What will happen? Is their going to be a revolution in the streets?" To which her vrindt responded, "No, this just means that there will be another national election in three months." While his response seemed quite a bit less extraordinary than what my friend's original interpretation and expectation of the situation had been, I agree with some of the news reporters who are weary of the outcome of another election at this time.

Although there may not be mass protests in the streets, this next election will come at a time of instability and growing exasperation and lack of trust held by the voters for traditional politicians and their parties. Many of the recent news stories covering the dissolution of the Dutch cabinet have also trotted out the shocking and sudden rise of Pim Fortuyn's right-wing politics back in 2001. They believe that Fortuyn’s rise may have paved the way for other right-wingers such as Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing political party PVV. According to popular opinion, Wilders’ is manoeuvring into a position to take up Fortuyn's legacy.

I agree with other commentators out there when they surmise that Wilders will most definitely profit from the current unstable political climate and exasperated voters. In what has been deemed 'the Wilders' effect', some reporters have been guessing at which parties will flop toward Wilders' extreme views and which against, but all agree that Wilders will be a formidable force in these coming elections. Another conclusion is that, the major parties which constituted the last cabinet will not be able to make-up much of the ground they've lost and have been loosing for quite some time with the Dutch voters. The Dutch electorate itself is quite fractured as is evinced from the fact that no one party has held a majority in recent history. There are typically about eight parties that share parliamentary seats, this last government housing eleven different parties in parliament. Although you might think that this would mean that the ideals of a party like Wilders' PVV would then be held at bay due to the numbers, he would only need about 20 seats or so in order to make an impact on policy and Dutch society.

If the Netherlands is entering a period of political instability then this has quite a lot of meaning for my research. Wilders is famous for his tirades against Muslims and Moroccan immigrants. Much of his policies seek to lessen non-western immigration and to see that more assimilative policies are put into place for immigrants already living in the Netherlands. These national party politics and all the hoopla that goes on during national elections will definitely affect how people come together in everyday in somewhere as local as my neighbourhood. How will this affect the activities that I'm currently participating in (for example, the inburgering classes, the fietsles (biking lessons), and the conversation circle)? How will this affect how neighbours view one another and their place within larger society? These are questions that I continue to follow in my daily excursions into the Dutch wild. Seeing as we'll now have both municipal and national elections during the course of my research, it appears that my research has now become a little more political than I originally intended.

If you'd like to read more about the topic please follow this link. I found this site to be most helpful when writing this particular blog, my thanks to Mr. Tyler for his well-written and comprehensive piece.

Inburgering (Citizenship) Lessons

2010-02-17T11:28:00.000+01:00

After a failed attempt last Tuesday, I was thrilled to receive an email from the inburgering lessons' teacher ‘Fleur’ on Monday night letting me know that I was welcomed to join the lessons the following day. So at 9 o'clock in the morning I biked through the ice and snow to the neighbourhood centre to have my first class. As mentioned in my last blog these classes include Dutch language instruction and learning about Dutch history and current affairs. They also involve learning more practical information that can help individuals get along in every day life (for example, what to do/say when visiting the apotheek which is our version of the shoppers drug mart), in addition to providing a safe space for practicing this knowledge. These particular classes used to be housed in the Moroccan mosque just across from the hofbogen lijn (from what I understood however, I'll have to double check this point) however due to an opening in the neighbourhood centre, the classes were moved to its present location a couple of months ago. Since this time Fleur has been busy giving lessons at the centre, three days a week, to women who are on a 3, 6, 12 or 18 month plan to complete their inburgering certifications.

The inburgering process in the Netherlands was developed to help immigrants integrate socially into their host society in addition to allowing other members of Dutch society to recognise them as full citizens. The end goal of inburgering courses is to have immigrants fully-participating in Dutch society. Although this process is chiefly aimed at new immigrants, not all of the women at my inburgering class were in fact “new”. As a matter of fact, the majority were what the Dutch call Oudkomers or ‘old comers’. This label does not refer to their age but to the amount of time that they've lived in the Netherlands. There were even a couple of women who had lived in the Netherlands for longer than they had lived in their native countries however, they had been asked by the government to complete these courses. In order to take these courses (and have them paid for by the government) one must receive an invitation from the government. However, maybe invitation is the wrong word maybe since one only has a certain amount of time to complete these courses if they wish to receive permanent status. Oudkomers are those individuals who came to the Netherlands before these inburgering courses were in place (before 2007) and have been asked in retrospect, to complete these courses. For more details concerning who and under what conditions individuals must take these courses please follow this link.

The course itself is quite interesting and in my opinion, extremely practical and helpful. Although I continue with my Dutch taal curses (language instruction) every Monday night I found myself learning a lot in just one session. The example of the apotheek that I used above was something that we covered in addition to discussing the latest news stories from the weekend (Sven winning the gold in Vancouver! And the tragic train crash in Belgium). Fleur also went over the different political parties that are involved in the upcoming March 3rd municipal election. This was especially topical since the leaders of the parties had been on television the night before having a debate over current events and issues in the Netherlands. During the debate Geert Wilders had claimed something to the effect that Moroccans and Muslims were the greatest problem facing the Netherlands because they were refusing to integrate. I wonder if being in my Tuesday morning class would change his mind…I’d like to think so.

Overall, I'm pleased that this activity is very informative toward my research as well as being a really great way to supplement to my other learning!

Let's Play a Game

2010-02-14T01:32:00.000+01:00

I bet you'll never guess how any of these fit into my research...They're all pictures that I've taken or have been taken of me over the last month...can you guess how these could possibly relate to my research?

I'm a Dancin' Machine!

2010-02-14T00:45:00.000+01:00

I've just arrived home from one of the most pumping parties here in Rotterdam! I spent the night drinking, eating, and dancing and I had a fantastic night! This party boasted many forms of entertainment including a live band (I cannot believe that this band played from 5pm until 12 midnight - practically straight through!), a fashion show, a traditional dance demonstration, and numerous raffles for some great door prizes! So how is this research? Only Turkish women and their guests (like me) were invited. I bought a ticket with the woman who I work with at the buurt centrum, and the two of us met two of her friends there. The importance of this party for my research was seeing how people in my neighbourhood come together. In between eating and drinking (my new favourite drink is espresso and hot chocolate!), I began thinking of how people who were not at this party, might perceive it. Would it be seen as an example of integration (due to the organisation of such an event which included applying to the local government for a subsidy), or the exact opposite (is holding a Turkish party an example of not being connected to the host nation)? While I know that any individual belongs to more than one group identity (Dutch, Turkish, artist, etc.), and that these groups do not have to be mutually exclusive in order to belong - where would this party fit in terms of community (you can pick one) belonging?
It’s a question I’ll have to follow up on as I was one of the lucky ones to be inside.

The event itself was held in a rented hall that was located under the hofbogen train line (another neighbourhood project of mine). The hall had a large dance floor, bar area, and enough room to seat up to 500 people. I would estimate that there were approximately 300 women and children there tonight. My friends and I had a wonderful time learning Turkish dances, listening to great music, and sampling home cooked food. Although the small group that I arrived with were not a part of the Turkish community per say (and we weren’t the only ones), we were warmly accepted. This included having food shared with us, dances taught, and all the Turkish translated into Dutch throughout the night. Although this was the first year for this event, I think it was a huge success because it drew a very large crowd with people coming from all over Rotterdam. I was told by one of the women that she recognised other guests whom she knew to live in Rotterdam south. (A trip from the south of Rotterdam can take over a half an hour which is quite far by Dutch standards!) Despite the distance and the cold (the hall was a bit cold except when you got dancing), the place was hoping! I had a great time and knew that I was out of my partying-league when I saw one of the women from our table actually dancing on the table. I was humbled!

Although this didn't seem the right time to ask my questions, I felt the night was very successful in that I made some new connections with the other revellers. Otherwise, I had a lot of fun and that has to count for something, doesn't it? I think the overall lesson to be learned here is that no one should say that partying can't be field work. Ever!

Out in the Cold

2010-02-09T10:00:00.000+01:00

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).

Festivals in the City

2010-02-07T15:50:00.001+01:00

Since this film festival has taken up much of my waking hours the past two weeks (from the 24th of January until tonight's last hurrah!) I feel as though I should give a little more detail about what the festival meant to the city in my eyes.

The festival itself, while concentrated in the centre of Rotterdam (North), was visible through all of Rotterdam. Last Saturday, I travelled toward Rotterdam South in order to meet up with another English teacher for some preparatory work for my English lessons. While there, I noticed numerous posters of the iconic 'tiger' face were plastered everywhere! Rotterdam's mascot for the festival is a tiger. These fuzzy faces were not only in my tram but also littering the pleins (open grass areas), tram and bus stops, and hanging-up on the sides of buildings. In the area where I live in the north, I also saw these posters and was handed one of the variously designed postcards in the local cafes announcing the arrival of the festival. However, it's not just advertising however that makes the presence of this festival felt.

Photo - Although it's hard to see, these are flags with the festival's tiger on them that are surrounding a central fountain (Hofplein). I saw these a week before the festival started. They are on my way into the city.

In and around the centre one has a hard time finding a cafe to sit in or an empty seat in a square (weather depending of course). While walking around the festival last week, I was able to step out for a quick bite with some of Pdot's friends, Ddot and his wonderful girlfriend Rana. As we had only a short time we tried to find a place close by however, we ended up walking in and out of four places due to their busyness before finally settling in the Selexy-Doner (the Dutch version of Chapters or Indigo).

On the streets, one can feel the accelerated pulse of the city as it beats faster with all the international as well as national visitors. Malt, my cousin, came to no fewer than four movies during the festival and I think this is typical of the intensified vibrancy that seems to have suddenly gripped Rotterdam. Cinemo actually said to me, on our only coffee break (we were working very hard during the festival!), 'Rotterdam portrays itself as a festival city, in order to attract tourists'. While I've heard that Rotterdam has begun to loose its reputation as the place to party in the Netherlands, no one can dispute the popularity of the festival that seemed to reach quite far into the boroughs throughout the city and beyond.

Instead of hanging around in the neighbourhood bars, more people came to the centre of town to watch a movie and then come to the after parties (of which there were many to choose from). The festival itself had its own Rotterdam section where people from Rotterdam were able to showcase their work. For the first time ever there was a focus on African Cinema which most likely spoke to certain Rotterdammers over others. The festival, while not directly linked to my research question, affected people living in my neighbourhoods just the same.

Where have you been?!?

2010-02-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

Where have you been?!? This is a question that I feel like I might get a lot in the coming week or two. Since last Sunday, January the 24th I have been helping out at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. I am lucky to be an assistant to a very big name in the field and we have been working night and day (literally) trying to bring all the right people together since the festival began. While I was told that I would have a special position that would necessitate a bigger time commitment than most other volunteers, nothing could prepare me for the 81.5 hours that I've worked since last Sunday. Now some would think, this sounds like a normal North American work week (and a half) and they'd be right in some cases. However, I've tried to maintain my schedule of volunteering that I do for my research-such as the English lessons on Sundays, and now Mondays and Thursdays. The volunteering I do on Wednesdays (and now Monday's) for homework help, Fridays with the biking lessons still and Monday's for my own conversation circle with the ladies from the area. I also have my own language classes still, the bi-weekly meetings of the neighbourhood organisations and meetings to do with upcoming celebrations. I'm definitely as tired (and I've actually had a bad cough during the entire festival) as this schedule sounds and although it may sound ungrateful...I can't wait for the festival to be over on Sunday!

However, despite my weariness, there are some wonderful highlights from this past week and a half that I would never had had without participating. At the festival I was able to meet wonderfully talented film makers, directors, actors and producers all of whom were puzzled as to why I was involved but who welcomed me nonetheless. I shared a lunch with the delegates from a local Embassy. I was so very close to meeting the mayor Abutalleb and telling him all about my project! So close! I met a political analyst who will be filling me in on the current political climate from her perspective in the coming weeks. I have been fed and watered for the last week and a half for free (something which is good for the budget!). I had an article written about me in the daily volunteers magazine detailing what I do at the festival. I was able to receive an award on behalf of a couple of co-directors who were no longer at the festival - it was only in front of 400 people (ack!) and I was featured in the newspaper. I experienced all these things in addition to meeting some great people, which has made this week a fabulous memory.

Anti-aging Field Work

2010-01-28T20:49:00.000+01:00

I've come to discover that most of the people I meet here tend to think of me as being a lot younger than I actually am. Although I'm 30 years old now, people have said on many occasions that they thought I was in my early 20s (the youngest to date is 22 - thank you Joy!). While this is fabulous for my ego (!!!) I've begun to wonder what it is that makes this happen.

After thinking on it, I've decided it must be one of three reasons:
1. I actually look 22...just kidding
2. I'm not married and I live on my own which makes me appear younger to certain people (see earlier blogs for more details)
3. I don't know the language very well and I cannot articulate myself as well as I would like to (or sometimes at all). Thus, I often use simple words which can make me appear younger regardless of how I look.

In my opinion, I think the last possibility is the most probable. When someone learns that I cannot speak the language very well I receive different reactions including sympathy, annoyance or sometimes dismissal; for the most part however, people feel the need to try and help me. Being unable to speak the language very well, I constantly feel like a student of the language with everyone around me -regardless of age-being my teacher. It's an interesting position to find myself in. While I don't mind being a student (I've been one for over 10 years now) I wouldn't mind growing up a bit in the eyes of others. I can't wait until I can skilfully converse in meaningful ways. But hey, if I ever get too frustrated I should just remind myself that doing fieldwork is good for the appearance...at least that's what everyone's telling me!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2010-01-20T11:24:00.000+01:00

Walking back from the grocery store the other day with Pdot and Miami, a comment was made concerning how nice and how much effort was put into certain parts of our neighbourhood. The specific area that was being referred to is located one or two blocks away from where I live. As you can see in the photograph here, lining the sidewalk in front or 5 or 6 houses is a row of potted plants, benches, flowers and knickknacks. If I remember correctly, it was Miami who said something to the effect of: "Really though! In other cities and in other neighbourhoods plants and nice pots like these would probably be smashed. But here everything is respected". Pdot concurred that there is a lot of respect in our neighbourhood for personal property. This 'respect' only seemed strange to us because of the preconceived notions about living in a big city like Rotterdam; a city that also boasts the most problem neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. My neighbourhood is not one of the supposed 'achterwijken' or bad neighbourhoods here in Rotterdam. It is instead categorised as ‘moderately positive’ however, I have been told that my own street (just two blocks away) is bordering on the moderate to moderately negative status. So what does this say about the process of categorising neighbourhoods along the spectrum of good to bad? There are certainly effects from having one’s neighbourhood categorised as problematic: one’s property value goes down, there is more policing in the area (this is debatably a good thing), and the neighbourhood undoubtedly receives a negative reputation, which can also affect how one might view the inhabitants of such an area (destroying personal property could be an example of asocial behaviour thought to be found in such areas). And while I don’t want to infer that a bunch of ‘intact potted plants’ lining one street should be taken to mean that our neighbourhood is free of all problems, I think it makes one think twice about the categorisation of neighbours as positive or negative spaces. For example: what standard is used to determine whether or not a neighbourhood is problematic? How many neighbours from that area were consulted? Can one standard be applied to all neighbourhoods throughout the Netherlands?

Whatever the case may be, (I intend to delve deeper into this question) the idea of problem neighbourhoods, the process of their categorisation, and the effects of this process, is something that should be taken seriously. For now, I will take examples such as these potted plants as signs of the importance of one's neighbourhood in everyday life and as a material connection one can make with their local surroundings. Besides all of this, these green areas are very nice to look at when you walk by! As Miami said, “Even the parking metres are gezellig (cozy)!” (see photography to the right). It might even make one feel better when they pay for park or if they get a parking ticket, how thoughtful...

Things that make you go....hmmmm

2010-01-14T23:40:00.000+01:00

The evening before yesterday, I hopped back on the tram (I really must get my back tire fixed...yes, I have another flat...boo!) to the centre of town for a meeting with a new group called 'Welkom in Rotterdam'. This group is dedicated to bringing 'new' Rotterdamers in touch with 'old' Rotterdamers. In the latter category refers to "enthusiastic people who are already rooted in Rotterdam" (this statement and the following statements in this paragraph are taken from their website and translated by myself - so be warned, there is likely to be a margin of error in the translation!). Whereas 'new' Rotterdamers are local residents who have lived in Rotterdam for a short or long period of time and who want to get to know their city better and to practice Dutch. As the website states, 'new' Rotterdamers are often those people who are following an integration course. Welkom's services wishes to provide an opportunity to practice the Dutch language and to make newbies feel more at home in Rotterdam. The only stipulation is that all new Rotterdamers must have taken at least one semester language classes before attending any events so that new and old Rotterdamers can communicate with one another.

This beginners group is where I fit in. I showed up last night and probably had the worst level of Dutch in the entire group of Rotterdamers. Since I've moved here, I have been continually impressed by the diverse number of activities available to new inhabitants (or 'new' inhabitants that may have lived here for quite some time) in order to help them feel at home in their new city. As my Dutch teacher, we'll call her ‘Coach’, has told me, services for inburgering/welcoming has turned into a booming industry here in Rotterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands.

As for last night, I walked in and was greeted by volunteers from the Welkom Rotterdam organisation. I was offered coffee, tea, and sandwiches and asked to take a seat wherever there was a yellow sheet of paper (to denote 'new' Rotterdammer; there were blue sheets for the 'old' Rotterdamers). Another newbie and I sat with two other oldies and chatted away. I listened more than spoke as I'm beginning (very slowly) to understand more of what is said and I continue to struggle with my sentence structures. We chatted until we were told the purpose of the evening was to find a partner who would take us around Rotterdam, 3 times in 3 months. We would meet that partner at a museum, coffee shop, or another place of our liking in Rotterdam to practice our Dutch and get to know our new city better. We were paired up with an oldie of our choice that we choose as a result of 4 minute 'interviews' with one another. I was impressed by the whole process and touched by the fact that there existed individuals who wanted to volunteer their time for us newbies. The oldies ranged in age, life histories, and ideologies, yet all agreed on the fact that making us new Rotterdamers feel at home, was an important activity.

The 'Welcome to Rotterdam' websites states that it's activities attempt to build bridges between different people and different cultures and so an event like this, while not linked with a neighbourhood, falls within my area of interest - of understanding how people of different backgrounds come together in Rotterdam. The question as to why any of us chose to participate is also very interesting for me. I chose to participate because this activity was intriguing from a research perspective but also because I wanted an opportunity to speak Dutch, meet new people and learn more about my city from 'an insider'. When I came across this group back in September 2009 (at the Seeds of Change Festival – see earlier blog) I was a bit put off by the fact that there were any requirements at all (i.e. having beginners Dutch) to take part in this service. Isn’t enthusiasm enough? But at the time, I hadn’t thought through all the specifics yet. I realise now that it is not the job of the oldies to teach newbies the Dutch language (although one improves through interaction alone) and that it would be very difficult to try and matches languages of partners if Dutch was not a requirement.

This activity brings the idea of integration to the forefront. It took me two days to get this post out because there were so many questions that have come to me as I try to understand the processes of integration...so instead of waiting another day (or two) I'll leave it here. What is integration? When is it applied and to whom? Who does it benefit? Who does it not benefit? How does it change? Are there processes in place that allow for 'checks and balances'? Things that make you go...Hmmmm.

Researching en Route

2010-01-11T17:13:00.000+01:00

I had a meeting at the Erasmus Universitiet today and decided to forgo cycling and take the tram instead. I hopped on the number 4 using my OV-chipkaart that is a pass for all transportation - metro/tram/bus - here in Rotterdam. I changed at the Weena stop to the number 7 tram which ends up at the university. As I boarded tram 7, I again checked in my pass and took an empty seat. Looking around, I could see that there weren't any tram cops (tram cops is the term I use for those people who walk up and down the tram checking riders' passes to ensure that they've paid). According to Pdot, these tram cops were instituted three or four years ago to stop people taking public transport for free (just hopping on and off without paying) and to lessen the occurrence of disturbances on the tram. This is interesting in itself as certain behaviours are expected in public transit spaces. What are they and who decided upon them? Anyway, back to the story, so I sat in my seat going over what I wanted to go over in my meeting when a plain-clothes man walked up to my seat, flashed a badge at me, and asked for my tram pass. This was the same man that I had seen not five minutes ago as I'd entered the tram. He was sitting on the box across from the doors that the tram cops usually sit on...aha! wait a minute! As I handed over my pass I asked if he spoke English, and then asked him if he were part of the stadswacht (city guards who usually walk the streets to ensure safety, etc. see earlier blog) and where his regular 'tram cop' uniform was? He replied that he works for the RET (Rotterdam Transit) and that the 'tram cops' were dressing in 'civilian clothes' today.

I'm not sure if this will become a common occurrence or if this was just a one-time thing but it left me with two feelings: 1. How ingenious! Yes, a bit of me is impressed by the creativity of the RET to foil the attempts of those not paying for public transit. I guess this is still a problem here in Rotterdam. 2. How shady! I also found this approach to policing the semi-public space of the tram to be over the top/too much. Shouldn't policing of the transit be done in a public manner? Is it really necessary to send in under-cover agents to catch people red-handed? I'm sure there are reasons for supporting and denying these actions. I guess I'm a bit of both right now although I’m left wondering how much further these under-cover measures will go? It can be a slippery slope, can't it?

On the Flip Side

2010-01-10T17:51:00.001+01:00

In my blog I usually write about my positive experiences with my research or at least instructional experiences that I’ve had while living in the Netherlands. But this is a skewed and rather rose-coloured view of my life here since not all of my attempts at research are fruitful. This blog will be about an unsuccessful attempt at fieldwork - there are many more, trust me. Getting back into research this week one of the events on my to-do list was to attend a New Years party for the people living in Liskwartier (my neighbourhood) and Bergpolder (the bordering neighbourhood). I found out about this party through the neighbourhood newspaper and decided that I would go. This party began at 5pm and went until 8 so I intended to show up around 5.30 pm to be 'fashionably late' and make it home for a late dinner around 7.30. Having figured out where the party was located, I started off on foot and slipped and slided my way to the street. On the way I practiced some of the Dutch phrases that I thought I would use: "Hallo mijn naam is Jen en ik ben een onderzoeker uit Canada. Mijn onderzoek gaat over ‘hoe mensen in buurten komen samen in het dagelijks leven’." (Translation: hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a researcher from Canada. My research is about how people in neighbourhoods come together in everyday life).

Upon arriving, I walked down looking for the number but I couldn't find it. I walked north and south to see if the street continued which it did not. 'Think Jenn', I said to myself, 'it's got to be the biggest building on the block because they invited everyone out who lives in both neighbourhoods' and so I walked into my only option, the swimming pool. And there, tucked away behind the receptionist counter was in fact a small party! Mission accomplished, I had found it!

I walked up to join the group but right away found myself feeling a bit awkward and out of sorts. Although there were a lot of children playing, there were only a few adults and those adults who were there, were chatting in small groups of 2 or 3. Skirting the rambunctious children, I saw a man handing out what appeared to be a news letter. As he came around he skipped giving me one and so I followed him and asked if this was a letter about the New Years party? The only problem was (and this happens quite often) that he didn't understand me and deferred me to another woman standing beside him. She asked if I was looking for the New Years party and then proceeded to tell me (very quickly so I only caught half of what she was saying) that the majority of people were in another room listening to a presentation but that they would come back to the party after. I thanked her and went over to deliberate at the bar where there was a woman standing behind the counter looking a little less than enthused at the noise that the children were making.

I stood there not really knowing what to do next. Should I wait for the presentation to stop? The only problem was that I didn't know how long that would be. Did I know anyone there? Should I introduce myself to someone? I looked around to see if I recognised anyone from the activities that I've been volunteering for but I couldn't identify anyone. It must have taken me no longer than 30 seconds but it was then that I decided that I'd had enough and that I would go home, and so … I left.

It took me another 20 minutes to walk home that had more to do with the fact that it was treacherously icy terrain than the distance itself, and all the while, I was beating myself up for not making more of an effort to get out there! I did think about turning around and going back but then I thought how silly it might look if people from the presentation came out and I still did not recognise anyone. Although having more people in the room would allow me to blend in and mingle a little better, I guess I just wasn't up to finding out how long it would be for that group to join the party. So there you have it, it was a less than wonderful experience. I found out later that I would have known someone at the party since it was mentioned by one of the women I work/volunteer with during Friday bike lessons.

I’ve told myself that this experience has taught me to be a little more patient with my outings and I have promised myself to spend at least 10 minutes somewhere before I decide that I’ve had enough. Although this entry was about a less than thrilling account of my life here in the Netherlands, I think it shows that I have positive, negative, successful as well as unsuccessful experiences while living abroad. There’s always two sides to the coin, although I’m starting to think maybe there is still more sides to this yet!

Announcing the "Official" Ms. Long

2010-01-06T14:53:00.001+01:00

Late last week I received a letter from the Bureau of Immigration and Integration stating that: at my convenience (during their open hours of course), I could collect my identity card! That's right! I am official allowed to camp out in the Nederlands until September 29th, 2010!

If you'll remember the last time (http://riotousrotterdam.blogspot.com/2009/10/proper-viewing.html) going to the Immigration office is not a lot of fun; yet, I had quite a different experience this time. I literally breezed through, first asking the reception for a ticket to ensure that I got to the correct counter on the first try. Walking over to the set of benches at the end, I saw to my utter disbelief that I was first in line to see the clerk. After about three or four minutes of waiting, she called me up, issued my card lickety-split, gave me a 'how-to' pamphlet in Dutch and English, and sent me on my way. The whole trip took me about 10 minutes.

My shiny new identification card is high-tech with textured photo imaging and if I might say, rather beautiful with all its colours - pinks, reds, greens, blues, and white. How does this card make me feel? Unfortunately, I feel no more at home (in the sense of belonging) than the day before because of the card's purpose. Until now I've been walking around the streets without the 'proper' identification according to police standards because they ask that I carry around my passport everyday, which I'm not willing to do (I loose things too easily). Thus now, if ever asked, I can whip out this official card which proves that I've been allowed to reside in the Nederlands.

Does it strike you odd that people might ask you for identification while walking down the street? When I was in Poland, QueenB also mentioned that she walked around with her passport (her Polish one) in case she was ever asked. As far as I know, this is not something that Canadians are requested to do. In fact, if we get pulled over whilst driving by the police, we have up to 24 hours to produce our licence! Hence, I can only guess that requests for identification are a European phenomenon. During the 4 months that I've been here, I have never once been asked to show my identification. Alas, this is not the case with everyone living here.

In Rotterdam (I'm not sure if this occurs elsewhere in the Nederlands), there are such things called 'preventative searches' conducted by the police. What this entails is that those individuals selected by the authorities "at random" (although there is a feeling that only young males who appear to be of 'foreign' background are targeted, I even think that there is a lawsuit currently pending) are frisked and their identification checked. If I have not already mentioned-these searches, to my knowledge, are conducted for the purpose of locating concealed weapons, drugs, etc to PREVENT future crimes. I know people who have been subjected to these searches and I was left with the feeling that those who had been searched felt violated to varying degrees (from greatly influenced to feelings of indifference). I find the fact that these searches are done in public, on a street corner, to be quite...how can you say it without offending anyone…f*#!ing invasive (pardon me). The idea of security is something that I will continue to pursue in the future.

I recognise that I might not have been asked for my identification to date because of where I live and where I frequent. However it could also be contingent on the fact that I am a white, educated, Canadian, female. My immigration experience in addition to these preventative searches have made me question the use of, and the need to carry, these identification cards. More information is needed from both perspectives of this situation: those who are asked for their id and those who request it.

Jumping Back on the Wagon!

2010-01-02T20:47:00.000+01:00

Whoa Boy! It's been a bustling three weeks and I'm well rested and eager to resume my work here in Ro'dam. I've spent the last week in England visiting Horsham, Brighton, and London where Luke and I (and then just I) toured such places as the Brighton Pavilion, Aquarium, and the Floundry Pub on Floundry Street in the North Lanes of Brighton (great pub and even better company - I highly recommend it to any and all visitors!). We drove to Stonehenge (in Barbara Bender's honour of course) and we took a special trip around Parliament in London. We trotted along a Jack the Ripper walk around London's East End and spent an afternoon at the Natural History Museum to see their permanent collection as well as their annual Wildlife Photography contest, which was most impressive! We watched the semi-finals matches in the Ladbrokes.com World Championship Darts tournament where I dutifully cheered for the Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld or 'Barney' who will most likely meet 13 time world Champion Chipmunk Taylor in the finals (I’ll be watching Tats!), and I joined the 10 million other English viewers watch the last Dr. Who episode (with this particular Dr. Who) on the tele. Cescarina treated us both to a long walk in Hampstead Heath and I also spent hours walking in Richmond Park (this park features herds of deer roaming amongst the herds of visitors) on New Years day. While I did feel a bit guilty about being so far away from my research, I thoroughly enjoyed my time and mollified myself by picking up opinions concerning my research and at times similar discussions around my main themes from a United Kingdom context.

Immigration and integration are very important topics in the United Kingdom as in the Nederlands at this point in time; the importance of these topics has grown over the last 35 years. From my latest personal experience, London proved to be comfortable in its diversity and welcoming yet I could still make out murmurings of malcontent concerning the ever-increasing levels of immigration in addition to sadness held by many of my friends over the ever-present racism that seemed to follow it. The idea of migration and the possibility of climate refugees in the coming years seem to have many worried at the current begrudging approach to these migrants and the role they played in society, which also helped me to understand the usefulness of a project such as my own.

I also felt security was an important theme. This I noticed during my walk in East London. As we learned about the gruesome details of the Jack the Ripper case, Luke and I noticed all the cameras set up on buildings where we were taking this tour. Throughout the 19th Century, London’s East End became synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality. It was the borough of choice for many generations of migrants and while thought of by many as a harbinger of all things indecent, the radicalism in this area contributed to the formation of the Labour party through the unions there and the eventual enfranchisement of women (thank you Wikipedia). Yet Luke and I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of security measures taken in this area by business person and home owner alike. Over the last decades this area has become a hot spot for gentrification projects and many young elites are now buying up refurbished properties and slowly changing the status of the area (in predominantly economic manner) and so in this way security can be seen as a feature of a renewal project in terms of protecting one’s investments or maybe as a way to begin edging unwanted people or behaviours out. The idea of security was further emphasised by the recent and highly publicized bombing attempt of a plane flying into the United States (from Amsterdam) on Christmas day. Another event, the attempt on the life of the Danish cartoonist who became famous for his vilifying cartoon of the Islamic Prophet, has also been widely reported on and so, security remained a prominent feature in my trip as well.

As all of these threads come together, I think it high time that I jump back on the band-wagon of research and get back to the grind. That, and because my mother told me that I had had fun and it was time to get back down to business.

Off the Tourist Track

2009-12-21T18:26:00.001+01:00

Luke has been here for a little over a week now and so we're now doing those lesser known activities for visitors to Rotterdam, which include:

Trying to stay warm while walking through new neighbourhoods in Rotterdam North:
Little bit of ornithology. Many of the avian wildlife were in cramped quarters starting at the beginning of this week since much of their canal and lake spaces have frozen over. It made for good photo shots though!
Well, this is still a bit tourist. Luke and the windmills (and if you look closely, me in the glasses reflection).

Watching the national waterpolo finals! Our team won - thank goodness, and apparently we're all famous because we sat in the V.I.P section (thanks to Malt) and were right behind where the teams were sitting. While I felt important, the coach made a better door than a window.

Our inclusion in the V.I.P area also won us some new shoe attire! Luck us! This is me and Vespa looking gorgeous as you can see.

Winter Quiet in the Neighbourhood

2009-12-21T17:41:00.001+01:00

As a researcher of space and place it is interesting to note some of the differences around life in the neighbourhood, when something like seasonal weather changes take place. I was finally getting use to all the daily screaming and racket produced by the children on the playground located next to my building (I know, I sound like the grinch), but since the heavy snow fall, I’ve heard hardly anything at all. As a child growing up in Canada and as someone who is use to the quiet that winter snow can bring, I am a bit surprised to find the same kind of quiet here where I was sure that such a large and uncharacteristic snowfall, coupled with the fact that today is the first day of winter break, would bring children out in droves! Yet, there were hardly any children to see. In fact, the only ones that I did see were being pulled around by their parents on sleighs (there are no hills in our area to speak of but this also looked quite fun). This is not to say that playing in the snow doesn't exist. Numerous snow-people, snow families, and at times just big snow balls have popped up over night along our sidewalks so it seems as though the engineering spirit still abounds.

Another notable of the seasonal changes are, as mentioned in an earlier blog, the Opzommer trees that are now fully adorned with ornaments (some made out of cardboard and foil while others are replete with thin board cut-outs of the Opzommer symbol that I assume were provided by the same bunch). An interesting detail to these Opzommer projects is that most of these trees have lights in them and that one house nearest the tree must take the responsibility (and the charge?) for lighting it each night. I'd be interested to learn who does this and why? At the very corner of my street, the doctor's office is paying for the lights. This tree however does not appear to be for the residents of my street but for the lane that we come off of.

Finally, and with Luke's insight, it has now become apparent to me that this level of snow has be somewhat debilitating for travelers in Rotterdam. While there are less bikes on the roads, there are still those brave enough to cycle. Even this is tough as the snow creates slippery roads and decreases the speed of one’s trip. Most of cars here are snowed into place and many get stuck on the smallest of inclines due to their rear wheel drive systems or lack of snow tires. Luke and I helped push one car out of it spot today and felt sorry for many others. As I write, Pdot is currently stuck in Utrecht where he went on Saturday because the trains were and are sporadically running (the NS website asks that passengers try not to take the train for today) and Luke and I check on the status of planes at the Schiphol airport every so often since we leave for England in just a couple days. Even with all the setbacks, Luke and I watched cyclists, pedestrians, drivers and trams narrowly avoid one another as they traversed an intersection bursting with snow and activity today while sitting in the Nika Coffee Corner.

So in reflection, I think it's a bit of both. My neighbourhood seems to be full of business and activity in certain commercial areas and somewhat devoid of it in the more residential areas. It's my impression that the people of the neighbourhood are spending more time getting together at private parties and gathering with their families. As it stands, most of my neighbourhood group events are scheduled to start up again in January and even those events planned by the city appear to be waiting until at least New Years to begin anew. So from this, I get the feeling that Rotterdam has only slowed and not stopped. Either way, it makes for a nice bit of winter quiet.

Giving Credit Where It's Due

2009-12-21T17:28:00.001+01:00

So the people of the Netherlands can all thank Luke for the wonderful weather he brought over with him. I guess he thought that he might miss the white stuff over Christmas as he left Canada for Europe and as it turns out, Father Winter felt like obliging him. To lend evidence to this point, I've included two pictures take of my street from my balcony window. Would you care to note the difference?

This is the usual scene when I live here:

This is the scene yesterday, days after Luke's arrival:

Ships Ahoy

2009-12-18T14:37:00.000+01:00

Luke and I walked down to Wilhelminaplein yesterday which is one of the areas around Rotterdam's harbour. In our snow gear (because it's still snowing and cold here), we walked out onto Wilhelmina Pier to take in some of the extremely interesting architecture like the raging red Luxor Theatre, KPN's 'Piano' building (this 98 metre tall office building has a front facade that tilts away from the building at an angel that matches the suspension cables of the nearby Erasmus Bridge or the Swan Bridge as I noted in an earlier post), Las Palmas (which is the Foto Museum that we both thoroughly enjoyed, especially their 'This is War!' exhibit), and Hotel New York that once used to be the headquarters of the Holland-America transatlantic shipping company is now both a kitchy hotel and restaurant. In the midst of these sites we stopped for a coffee at the Cafe Rotterdam, which is a cafe located in the Terminal Building for the Holland-America Line that although ruined during the 1940s bombing was restored to an impressive concrete structure of six shell roofs and floor to ceiling glass walls. Yet, none of this most stunning architectural feats really impressed Luke. Instead, he was impressed by the ocean liner that was docked at the harbour that was as grand as it was huge. Working cranes, men walking around in hardhats and steel toed boots occupied our conversation while we sat and sipped our strong coffees. It was like we were back in Sudbury watching 'Big Machines' on the National Geographic channel except we were getting a much more up front view. As long as we were both dazzled at something, my abilities as a tour guide remain intact!

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-17T20:49:00.000+01:00

To date, Luke and I have spent a couple days in Amsterdam trying to avoid large crowds (quite a feat but if one tries to avoid the Damrak their chances are higher), one day taking in the sites of Gouda during their annual Christmas Tree Lighting festival with my family, one or two days in Rotterdam showing him where I live, the places I go, and introducing him to the people I spend time with here in Rotterdam (and beyond). Yet, with all this crucial planning, there were two events that I just could not plan for...the bitter cold and the snow. Now you'll say, "why would two Canadians have an issues with either of these?" Well, it probably wouldn't be as much of a problem if Luke had been able to come prepared. But days before he came I said to him over the phone, "Just so you know, it hasn't really dipped below 11 degrees during the day so I don't think you need to bring your big winter jacket. Seriously, you won't need it." And what happens? On the very first day that he arrives the temperature drops, the wind picks up, and then we wake up to this scene this morning:

I know, it looks more beautiful than horrible, but the point is that I'm still dragging Luke around to see the sites of Rotterdam with only his leather jacket, no gloves or toque (hat for non-Canadians), and with only one sweater to warm him. Oops. I'll take responsibility on this occassion (it's probably good that I'm somewhat publically declaring this).

In any case, my research concerning Rotterdam neighbourhoods has not stopped (although it's definitely declined somewhat). Just yesterday Luke and I were walking about our neighbourhood taking pictures of the Opzommer trees. What are these? During the month of December, the local government has been advertising for different communities to take advantage of government funds to decorate their neighbourhoods for the Christmas holiday season in the form of large pine trees. These trees are then decorated with ornaments and lights by residents living on a particular street. The importance of these trees is that, from what I understand, individuals or families from one street must get together and request this tree. This action in itself is showing a certain amount of community belonging among neighbours. It might also be the case that local schools or neighbourhood organisations also request trees and hold events to decorate these trees so there is a chance that these trees have less to do with the surrounding neighbourhood. After it is requested, the tree is then decorated (although I haven't seen this in action), but this event is also a means by which to bring people together (regardless of the requesting insitution) and just one of the many events that the Opzommer money (government money) funds throughout the year. This activity has raised some questions for me.

For example, what sort of community networks and feelings of belonging exists on those streets without trees? Is there no tree because there was a lack of resources? Was it because of the choice of decoration and the particular holiday (Christmas) that made certain residents not participate? Was it the method of advertising (ads in local newspapers and bus/tram stops)? For whatever reason, there are some streets with beautifully decorated trees (or trees at all) and others without. In any case, this is something that warrents further attention. At least the snow at this point is spread around equally.

Guess who's here?!?!

2009-12-13T19:08:00.001+01:00

Yep, it's been 3 months and 1 day since I've seen my partner Luke and it's been tough. Actually, after the first week or two (maybe three) away you get back into the mode of being by yourself and living life according to your own rhythum - marching to your own drum beat. This feeling builds and although you miss one another, life goes on. I noticed that in the weeks before we saw one another again, I started to feel the pangs that I felt in the first few weeks. I realised just how much I had missed him as I waited anxiously at the gates in Schiphol for him to arrive. To the left is a picture of a very tired looking Luke after a 12 hour trip from Toronto to Chicago to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, he sat beside a lovely woman who had some sort of deep chest cold that kept him up most of the night.

Although I gave him a coffee the minute he touched down and have proceeded to fill and re-fill him full of coffee during all day light hours, he's still in the process of conquering jet-lag as is evinced from the photo taken moments ago on the right.

Bridges of Rotterdam

2009-12-08T23:45:00.000+01:00

Picture taken from : http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/images4/212vm_WillemsBridgeRotterdam.jpg
Willemsbrug was built in between 1975 and 1981 to accommodate more traffic in between Rotterdam North and South. Its deck is held aloft by a system of tie rods attached to two V-shaped steel towers the colour of red lead (Historical information was taken from Architectuurgids Rotterdam that was a present from Audi on my birthday! Thank you Audi!) .

Picture taken from : http://www.archi-europe.info/Archinews/032006/2portrait.jpg

The Erasmus Brug built between 1990 and 1996 as 'a bridge for the 2000s' and was dubbed the Swan on account of its white colour and because of its angeled pylon that can be conceived of as a swan's neck.

Finally, in October there was an event put on by 'YourCity09' in Rotterdam Zuid called 'I Bridge You'. I have found another blogger that has covered this event impeccably. Please visit: http://observatoriumrotterdam.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

Questioning One's Interest

2009-12-08T16:24:00.000+01:00

Often in the field I am analysing the direction of my project, which at times can lead to my questioning the entire purpose of my project! All of this is actually good in my opinion because it allows me to tweak it or its direction when necessary. I try not to be obsessive over it for fear that I'll never get anything done but when, for example, explaining my project to others, certain things tend to peak my interest in ways I have yet to come across. Yesterday was one of these times.

I met with another scholar yesterday who asked if I would provide him with a quick run-down of my project, something which I have done many times before and so I began: 'Well, my project looks at how individuals interact, connect to, and have an interest in certain public places. I've decided to use the neighbourhood as one means by which to understand how unique individuals connect with one another. So I will be looking into why certain connections happen in the neighbourhood? And why that is. What interests there are, etc. etc.'.

My answer prompted another question from him: 'But what then is the difference between places and spaces?' Oh, well...'In my usage of the terms, places are specific areas that are involved with human understandings, experiences, or are connected to humans in some way. Spaces are those areas that have no immediate connection with particular or group of individuals. Those in-between or container areas'. I then explained that I was also interested in learning how public places and the understanding of what proper behaviour within these places were (as conceived of by those in positions of authority). And that I also wanted to understand how these places were used in accordance with or contradiction to these more official understandings by different and unique individuals. Finally (I swear), I also wanted to know how the physical make-up of places affected one's use, and understanding of that space, as well as how and when this usage changes. For more theoretical background see Henri Lefebvre's 'Production of Space'. If you can't tell already, I had many exam questions on this topic. If it makes your head spin it's alright, I still don't have it all worked through either.

This however, brought up another question in my own mind: how can I know whether or not the people that I speak with from the neighbourhood are actually interested in their neighbourhood or just involved because of their proximity to activities that happen to fall within neighbourhood jurisdiction? Is the neighbourhood important? If it is not, does that matter? Right away I thought that there are some people, like those who belong to the neighbourhood association, who are pretty easy to peg in terms of their preliminary ideas about the importance of the neighbourhood. They're heavily involved in the administrative activities of the neighbourhood because they're interested in its outcome/future. But what about others?

So I decided to look up the definition of 'interest' to see whether or not my new lens (that of the neighbourhood) would stand a test of importance. Is the neighbourhood important in its own right?

The following are different definitions that I received from dictionary.com with examples and explanations from my fieldwork.
1. Interest: the feeling of a person whose attention, concern, or curiosity is particularly engaged by something. For example, she has a great interest in the affairs of her own neighbourhood. Yes, I've met some people like this, genuinely interested in the future of their own neighbourhood whether it be for personal or other reasons.
2. Interest: something that concerns, involves, draws the attention of, or arouses the curiosity of a person. It is true. The idea of ‘neighbourhoods’ and the categorization of certain neighbourhoods as either good or bad, has produced more discussion about neighbourhoods in the Dutch media. Supposed 'problemwijken' have become a matter of debate (in terms of what to do about them) since a list of those offending neighbourhoods was leaked to the press in early 2009.
3. Interest: a concern. The fact that there are newly instituted Stadswacht which is a security group that walks around problem areas, who are not the police, but are in charge of the moral order and with providing security and atmosphere on the street (but are only present in certain neighbourhoods) is an interesting example where interest turns to concern (although I'm sure this can be interpreted differently).

So to answer my own question, yes, I believe neighbourhoods are becoming an important topic in the Netherlands. As a physical place, many unique individuals come together through different interest programs which allow me to look into processes of interaction between individuals and groups within places and interaction between individuals and their environment. Now does everything that individuals living within a certain neighbourhoods do, constitute as something 'of the neighbourhood'? Certainly not! But as a lens, the neighbourhood and different interests (whether personal or group) within and concerning the neighbourhood are one avenue by which to understand use of place and ideas concerning belonging and involvement.

Not that any of this is concrete as of yet. Ask me next week and I’ll probably give you another take on the matter. For now, I’ll continue to think about it.

Sounding of the Alarms

2009-12-07T12:10:00.000+01:00

On the first Monday of every month, an alarm sounds from towers strategically placed throughout Rotterdam to warn of an impending threat whether it be from a chemical spill in the wharf, the failure of a dike, or an air raid from a neighbouring country (this last reason is of course a bit dated). Now if this alarm happens on the first Monday of every month then it's just a drill. Schools and related emergency programs get to practice their emergency procedures and life is allowed to return to normal.

For someone who has not been brought up with this knowledge, the siren is frightening! What first came to mind the first Monday in October (I arrived in mid September) was an air raid. I was so confused! Through Second World War movies, I had been trained to recognise this sound (or at least imagine this sound) and as the siren wailed, I walked through the apartment and looked out the windows for the sight of panicking people and flashing lights in the streets. I also began to wonder what the emergency numbers (the 911) of the Netherlands are and why I hadn't thought it important enough as of yet to learn any. I racked my brains about what this alarm was trying to tell me to do, do I run and hide, just run, just hide? Eventually it stopped and after some time I returned to my work convinced the school next door was having a fire drill.

Pdot returned home for a trip yesterday and was home today, the first Monday of the month, when the siren when off. 'That siren! That's it! What does it mean?' I asked. I had tried to describe this siren before to him with no avail. 'Oh that!' he said and started laughing. After explaining the possible threats (see above), he told me matter of factly that if I hear this sound on another day besides the first Monday of the month that should 'get inside somewhere, lock the doors, close the windows...and turn on the radio'. He said it just like that. 'The radio?' I thought, turn on the radio as oppose to turning on the computer, television, or mobile phone with internet capabilities? From my understanding, this siren was created during the Second World War to warn of the very real threat of bombing attacks on Rotterdam (Rotterdam city centre was in fact leveled during WWII) and the procedure continues to be reinacted today, on the first Monday of every month. Although it has morphed to include other threats such as environmental disasters, its history remains pertinent through how Dutch children are educated about the sirens and of course through the history of the city that one can see in its post-war architecture.

Just an interesting point to ponder as a stranger living in another country. Past histories are not always lying low waiting to be uncovered but get up in your face and bark loudly. Here's to hoping that a natural disaster (or national emergency) doesn't happen on the first Monday of the month...yet another question unanswered!

Growing Up, Out, and Beyond!

2009-11-30T01:04:00.000+01:00

Well, today is officially my birthday. I'm turning the ol' dirty thirty today and in truth I couldn't feel happier. Having spent only 2 and a half months here in the Netherlands I was happy to learn that I could fill a table full of friends in a new place for my b-day dinner, be sung birthday songs in more than one language (thank you to Cananon and Luke for this), and to be able to 'virtually' open my gifts as enabled by the wondrous Skype. A little bit of shameless plugging, tonight they deserve it!

I've just got off of the phone with my twin sister who will also (in a couple of hours) be celebrating our birthday. While it is only the second time in our lives that we will not be together for our birthdays (and the second milestone birthday in my opinion) it was also exciting to evaluate where we were in our lives in terms of the places and stages we thought we’d be at and the achievements we thought we would have earned.

I have to say, I was pretty pumped when I thought about the fact that I'm living in the Netherlands, that I have an opportunity to learn a new language, and that (in my opinion) am succeeding at my research project. All these things (and the fact that my English group today told me that I looked much younger than my 30 years, thanks girls!) made me extremely satisfied with my life assessment.

Besides growing up or rather older, I also feel as though I'm growing out (not width-wise hopefully although birthday pie doesn't help) in terms of making connections and being in places where 'it' is all happening. Friday I had the pleasure of joining the first ever VISOR conference at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. This conference was dedicated to the subject of Islam in/and of Europe and it was the place to be because some really 'big names' were there, giving their papers, and debating all the hot issues. Not 9 months earlier I was quoting these great minds, analysing their research as I was struggling to survive my comprehensive exams. Now here they were right before my very eyes! No one has to worry, I contained my yearning desire to collect autographs ;) .

In addition to growing old and up, I'm also getting the sense that I'm growing beyond. I’m talking (writing) about the fact that my research project is growing beyond its original boundaries and concepts. This is of course expected considering I created this project from my study in Canada using secondary resources however, upon evaluating my project today (as I'm doing with many things) I found that I really enjoyed the direction that my research was going! So even though I'm still looking at space and place and how people use neighbourhood areas to interact (or not) I'm now also interested in such areas as access, security, and those physical aspects of the public domain. It's all so fascinating and it's so hard to follow every lead that intrigues you!

Thus, despite missing some key figures in my life who I wish were here with me today, I’m having a very happy birthday!

Once Upon a Time...

2009-11-25T11:20:00.000+01:00

Before my posts return to the Netherlands I wanted to take one last opportunity to blog about some of the very interesting legends that I learned while I was away in Krakow, Poland.

One of the first stops that QueenB and I made in our tour of the Old Town was St. Mary's Church. This gothic basilica was built between the 13th and 14th Centuries. A bugle call is played from the taller tower every hour and the first time that I heard it I thought there was something odd about it. 'Do you hear the bugle, do you hear how it breaks off in mid-tune?' asked QueenB. And I did. She went on to explain that this call is cut off deliberately because as the story goes, back in the 13th Century or ‘once upon a time’ the Mongols were coming to invade the city. As was then the tradition, a call was played from that tower to warn all the towns people as well as the guard. As the bugler sounded his call on this particular attack, a Mongolian arrow flew threw the window and pierced his throat in mid-song and the bugler was struck dead. Today, this tune is re-enacted at every hour when the plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter. It was and remains the practice to sound out the call of distress through all four different windows of the tower to ensure you were heard in all directions. Standing in the square below, it is eerie to hear the close and distant calls of the bugle cut off in mid-stride. The noon-time call (or hejnał) is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station.

Another legend I learned was about a painting of Madonna of Częstochowa a replica of which I saw in St. Adalbert’s Church. This church was built in the 12th Century in the Romanesque style and was converted to Boroque style in the 17th and 18th Century. The Madonna of Częstochowa is a depiction of the Madonna with two scars on her cheek. The legend concerning the two scars on the Black Madonna's right cheek is that the Hussites stormed the Pauline monastery in 1430, plundering the sanctuary. Among the items stolen was the icon of the Madonna. After putting it in their wagon, the Hussites tried to get away but their horses refused to move. They threw the portrait down to the ground and one of the plunderers drew his sword upon the image and inflicted two deep strikes. When the robber tried to inflict a third strike, he fell to the ground and squirmed in agony until his death. Despite past attempts to repair these scars, there has been great difficulty in covering up those slashes as all attempts usually sloughed off (artists have found out that the painting was painted with tempera infused with diluted wax). In commemoration of the attack, depictions of the Madonna of Częstochowa have been recreated by honouring the slash marks in the Madonna’s cheek.

Lastly, QueenB and I visited the Royal Castle (Wawel) where there is a figure of a dragon associated with the castle and even a tour of the Dragon’s Den during the summer months (alas, we were too late). A popular version of the Wawel Dragon tale takes place in Kraków during the reign of king Krakus, the city's legendary founder. Each day the evil dragon would beat a path of destruction across the countryside, killing people, pillaging their homes and devouring their livestock. In many versions of this story, the dragon especially enjoyed eating young girls, and could only be appeased if the town folk would leave a young girl in front of his cave once a month. The King wanted to put a stop to that awful situation, but his bravest knights fell to the dragon's fiery breath. When it finally came time to sacrifice the King's daughter’s life, the King promised his beautiful daughter's hand in marriage to anybody who could defeat the dragon. Great warriors from near and far fought for the prize and failed. One day, a poor cobbler's apprentice (or as I heard another version - a poor Tailor) named Dratewka accepted the challenge. He stuffed a lamb with sulphur and set it outside the dragon's cave. The dragon ate it and soon became incredibly thirsty. No amount of water could quell his stomach ache, and after swelling up from drinking half of the Vistula river, he exploded. The apprentice married the King's daughter as promised and they lived happily ever after. When QueenB first told me this story she was of the opinion that the reason why a lowly Tailor was able to suceed when no other nobility could has to due with a possible communist twist put on the tale. Either way, it’s entertaining and the dragon’s tale wins the hearts of many (when we were walking along the passage way in the mine our guide informed us that the dragon was so large, that his tail reached the mine and there in front of us was a replica of a dragons tail built into the wall).

I was enthralled with these legends. I have always been interested in folklore as my original degree was going to be Classical Mythology and Literature. It’s something missing here in Rotterdam and I’m wondering if it has to do with the fact that many of the old buildings here in Rotterdam were bombed away. Does one need the space of history and the past in order to have legends?

Hangover

2009-11-24T22:48:00.001+01:00

No, this is not what you think. It's not a hangover from alcohol but from my vacation. As readers will know, I spent from last Wednesday to yesterday night in Poland with QueenB and I loved every minute of it! It wasn't just that I got to see the many sights of Krakow, which happens to be a beautiful and historically rich city, but that I was able to hang out with a good friend and not feel the pull or hear the nag of research left undone. Leaving the country highlighted the fact that I spend each day trying to meet people and make sense of my research questions, struggle with learning a new language, organising my schedule, and fighting an ever-present and ever-loosing battle with money. While most of these tasks are rewarding (hint: I'm not talking about the money part) each bring a degree of stress and level of obligation with them. While I wouldn't trade this year in the Netherlands for anything, it was nice to leave and be taken care of; it is the only way I can put it.

I think subconsciously, I had decided that it time for a little relaxation. This was proven by the fact that I walked out of my house in the wee hours on Wednesday morning and left for my trip without my glasses. Now, I'm not blind by any stretch of the imagination. I can see large objects but would have a hard time reading signs or seeing distinct features on peoples faces at a distance. As I cycle the streets of Rotterdam to get groceries or go to my Dutch classes, my glasses are on and I'm looking for potential research ideas. Since I left my glasses at home, I was relieved of having to take charge and just went with the flow. It made looking at beautifully articulated church ceilings tougher, but for those areas where I was able, I took a picture with my camera and zoomed in to note the detail (a regular MacGyver solution minus the duct tape if you ask me).

All in all, I had a wonderful time in Poland and I was taken care of like a Queen! In fact, Grandpa decided to give me a Polish name (as Jennifer's are not common there) and we chose Jagoda. The short form sounds somewhat close to my name in my opinion and also, Jagoda is the name of one of the most famous Polish queens. Hence, from my truly royal treatment...I have a hangover adjusting to life as a mere pauper again back in my native borough. I'm sure there is some part of me excited to get back to work (I'm still searching...) and it is good to get back to Nederlanders. But as of the first day back, with my glasses secured firmly in place, I'm suffering from a mild hangover.

Mine Life

2009-11-22T09:42:00.000+01:00

Friday day, QueenB and I drove with a friend up to the Wieliczka Salt mine located 8km outside of Krakow. The tour (which we took in Polish because it costs extra to go on an English tour!) begins with descending 56 flights of stairs into one of the mine shafts. From there we commenced walking 2 of the 300 kms of underground passageways that have been made available for tourists. This mine has been worked for approximately 900 years and continues to produce small quantities of salt today. As one might guess the working standards of the mine now are much improved from those hundreds of years ago. In previous times, prisoners sentenced to death had the option of being put to death or working in the mines checking for methane gas. How was this done? Methane gas when put into contact with open flame, explodes. These prisoners would crawl along the mine shafts with a torch attached to a long pole to ensure that the shafts were free of gas for the other workers. Of course if they found methane gas...their service and sentence was completed. If the prisoners made it through a couple of years without being blown up, they were free. The mine has been used as a tourist attraction since the mid 18th Century. Thus, our tour like Pope John Paul II's tour (he's a big figure over here) covered 2kilometers of the undergound maze of passageways and included a trip to the subterranean museum that explained a lot of the geology involved with mining salt. One of the most interesting stops along our way was the 3 of the original 17 chapels found underground. Miners, being superstitious and religious observes (1 out of every 10 miners used to die) created a network of chapels underground for easy access during their work day. The largest and most ornate of course being dedicated to St. Kinga, the patron saint of miners. This chapel is cavernous and replete with salt figurines, chandeliers, alters, and staircases. The mine has many of these areas with huge vaulted ceilings and beatifully carved salt pieces. Weddings take place underground and there is actually a sanitorium for asthma and allergy suffers located at the 135 meters deep mark. Although I'm not an allergy sufferer, my trip down the mine was invigorating! A wonderful mixture of sweet saltiness!

Break Time

2009-11-19T09:55:00.001+01:00

Speaking with my mother the other night I was told that I've been slacking on my blog and she's right. Almost a week has gone by and no new post! It's not like things haven't been happening in fact, the opposite it true. Last Saturday I made my way down to Schiedam a small neighbouring town to Rotterdam where I watched landing of SinterKlaas. I will write about this later as I have pictures to include.

Sunday I had a great time at my Engels Les at the Bergpolder Centrum. Monday I was back again for a mini private bike lesson with two of the women from Friday's bike class and that night I was off to my second last Dutch lesson of the year. Tuesday night I attended the neighbourhood block meeting (very informative!) and yesterday I spent the entire day at the airport and in transit.

I'm writing this post from a different country than the Netherlands. I am currently visiting QueenB in Poland, taking in the sites of the city and being wowed in general by the beautiful landscapes, wonderful food, and by the sounds and smells of Krakow. I'll have more to report later but for now, I'm off to have a little break from my research to be a tourist. We're leaving right now to get a better look at Mariacki (St. Mary's Church), the Wawel castle, and to sample the local hot chocolate, pastries, and a communist Milk Bar!

It's time for a break!

Friday the 13th

2009-11-13T16:07:00.001+01:00

After posting the previous blog, I realised the date...it's Friday the 13th! Every Friday the 13th in Ontario, the province where I come from in Canada, thousands of motocyclists converge on the small town of Port Dover, located in South Western Ontario. This event started in 1981 with 25 bikers met at a pub in Port Dover. Chris Simons (the founder) and his friends had such a great time that year that they decided to make meeting in Dover an annual event. Since then, this event has grown into the thousands as bikers from across Canada (and the United States) coming together in Port Dover to eat, drink, and be merry. Vendors booths pop up on the streets, local restaurants buy stock by the case, and the red carpet is rolled out as this sleepy town turns into the place-to-be over night. Click here for more info: http://www.pd13.com/origins.html

In other respects, certain people feel as though Friday the 13th is filled with either good or bad luck. In the year 2009, there have been 3 Friday the 13ths. The next year to have 3 Fridays land on the 13th day is not until 2015. That's special isn't it? As far as I know, there is no superstition here in the Netherlands having to do with Friday the 13th. But if anyone knows better, please write a comment!

Come Rain or Shine

2009-11-13T15:52:00.001+01:00

I got up this morning to volunteer at the neighbourhood cycling lessons (now a weekly event in my agenda) and looked out the window at the grey sky and rainy weather. Brrrrrr. I walk into the kitchen to put on the coffee ask Pdot if he thought that the cycling lessons (fiets les) will be cancelled because of the weather. 'Oh no', he says, 'this is the Netherlands and people go out in all types of rain unless it's storming. That is the only time that people will cancel things'. Thus, despite signing up for this activity one warm sunny morning (at least that's why my memory serves) a couple of weeks ago, I found myself climbing on my bike under three layers of clothing to cycle the couple blocks to the buurtcentruum.

Indeed, there were 10 - 15 women who came out for the lesson despite the rain. We even had 3 new participants who were coming to try it for the first time. When I spoke to Luke later and told him that I was surprised at the number of people who came, he made the point that learning in the rain was probably a good thing for those who will be cycling in this kind of weather more often then not. So apparently I was the only one who was a little fearful at the idea of riding in the rain. You'd think I was afraid of melting in it!

In the end it was good that I went since I will be away for next Friday's lesson. Another good thing to come from this morning is that I've made an appointment to meet some ladies from our fiets les on this coming Monday afternoon so I won't miss my cycling lesson afterall! It remains to be seen how the lesson will all turn out since my Dutch (and some of their Dutch) is still in the learning stages. Regardless, I'll be there come rain (but hopefully not! I don't care what anyone says...rain is never better!) or shine.

For Remembrance Sake

2009-11-11T20:28:00.001+01:00

Remembrance Day (in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom) is a day to remember people who fought and died in the World Wars. Today, November 11th is the day chosen in these countries to remember the end of World War I on November 11th in 1918. Remembrance Day was started in 1919 by King George V from the United Kingdom. As a demonstration of respect, many people in Canada wear a fake poppy during the month of November and on Remembrance Day. The poppy is a symbol to show that these individuals remember the wars, and the soldiers who fought in them. Poppies were chosen to be a symbol because they often grew in battlefields after the soldiers stopped fighting there.

So far in the Netherlands I have not celebrated the typical Canadian holidays such as Thanksgiving (although I was treated to dinner by Cananon - see earlier blog), Hallowe'en and now, Remembrance Day. I just wanted to write a small note on Remembrance Day to mark the fact that I am remembering all Canadian soldiers while here in the Netherlands - one of the most important to me being my grandfather - L.C.E. Long.

In relation to research, this day has also peaked my interest. As I've mentioned in my earlier blogs, QueenB is currently researching the longevity of memory and history in Poland (at least that is one part of it and one way to look at her project). Although I have not specifically focussed on the act of remembering in my research, the history and one's memory of the neighbourhood influences how individuals and groups perceive the neighbourhood and their role within it. For example, many of the renovations occurring in my neighbourhood right now feature holding onto historical buildings and architectural features of the area, so as to preserve the past. Thus if nothing else, this day served as a reminder of the importance of the past as it is used as a tool of the present.

A Comedy of Errors

2009-11-10T22:58:00.000+01:00

So I was running a bit late leaving for my English teaching lessons tonight. Who me late? Yes, I know - what a shocker. As I was running a bit late, I forgot my map, ran back upstairs to grab it, relocked the door, sky-rocketed back down the 3 flights of stairs, grabbed the other bike and moved it out of the way; at times it feels at times that I'm working through a life-size jigsaw puzzle trying to figure out which bike of the four stored down below is mine. After taking the first bike out of the way, I grab my umbrella out of my bag because it has begun to rain very hard, shove my way outside, jump on my bike, and cycle down the street. For the first time that I can remember I hear a thwap, thwap, thwap. 'What is that?' I think, 'it must be my lock knocking against the tire cover'. Thwap, thwap, thwap. God, that's actually quite loud. I stop take a look; don't see much because it's pouring rain. ‘Man, I have to get going!’ is all I can think so I hop back on the bike- thwap, thwap, thwap- and stop at the next red light. 'Seriously what is that?', I say to myself and take one more good look at the back tire that has just revealed itself to be ... completely flat.

Oh no.

So I jump off my bike, hop onto the sidewalk and start walking down the road with my limping bike at my side. Plan B, hop on a tram to get to the metro and then it's off to Gramma's house (I am going to English lessons here; I'm just making a reference to Little Red Ridding Hood that you all should have picked up on). The problem with owning a bike does not have to do with the maintenance for upkeep or the possibility of spending an entire morning wearing soaking pants and boots after riding in the rain. The problem is becoming dependent on quick travel times by using your bike in between point A and B. For example, I left at 20 minutes after 6pm to be in Rotterdam Zuid (South) in 40 minutes time. On a bike I can do this no problem. On foot, using the tram, and then the metro, I cannot. So I make the best of what I can, I lock up my bike to a pole next to the tram stop and wait the 5 minutes for the tram.

The tram goes to central station without issue (I've been on a tram that has dropped us off 2km from the station due to electrical failures) and I think to myself, ‘Ah, I'd better top up my travel card (used in buses, trams, metro stations here) because I'm getting low'. I walk past the first booth because both its line-ups are out the door. 'That's a significant amount of people', I think to myself, 'lined up on a Tuesday night after dinner'. I think it will be quicker to go downstairs and use the automatic tellers, and so I go. I arrive downstairs to see a line-up just as long if not longer. 'What is going on here?' I try to squeak through the doors with what I have left on my pass and it's a no-go. So I join the line and then think, 'there has got to be another machine around here'. In fact, there is a huge sign saying 'two other machines located that way'. Hopping out of line I search for the other machines and find both with an out-of-order sign taped to them. I go back to the line where I wait for the next 15 minutes for my turn. It appears that this machine, although working, is only taking coins at the moment and nothing else. No debit, credit cards, large bills, nothing. Just coins. Yet everyone in front of me still has to try regardless so as to determine whether or not the machine will work for them especially or maybe just to prove or disprove what the person in front of them had told them - that the machine wasn't working. Hmmm, wooden shoes, wooden head....

It's finally my turn and I bumble through the buttons and throw in enough coins to get myself to Rotterdam South and back. It's now 7pm on the dot which is the exact same time that I'm supposed to be walking into class (if not greeting my students looking cheerful and ready to learn). Instead, I am running down the stairs to catch the next train to Slinge that will drop me off at Rijnhaven where I can walk to Afrikaanersplein, which is where the lessons are located. My hair is wet and a mess, the wool scarf I'm wearing has shed more than its share of 'hairs' that are in my mouth and on my wet glasses, my bag is soaked and I'm hoping not my lesson book, but no matter, I'm on the metro! My last method of transportation there!

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Rijnhaven station. The tram has barely come to a halt and I'm waiting, poised by the doors, pressing incessantly on the 'open' button of the doors. Then suddenly I'm freed and I start on a run down the ramp, out of the stalls, through the doors, across the street, down the way, over the bridge (I'm not kidding), up the lane, across the plein, into the building, up the stairs, through the glass doors (well not through it but pushing the handle walking into the glass doors...you know what I mean) and home free. At this point I am 18 minutes late.

All this and it's only 7:18. I have two more hours of comedy and fun as the girls and I chat about things in their lives and role play potential scenarios for when they visit English speaking countries. Although the money I made tonight will only defray the costs of getting a new tire on my bike, I'm still happy that I made it in one piece with only my bike worse for wear. Besides, I get to learn a new phrase:

Mijn fietsband is plat. Kunt u het alstublieft repareren? (Thank you Marbles)

The Potential for Spontaneous Combustion

2009-11-08T09:01:00.000+01:00

I'm sure I've read somewhere that there comes a time during an anthropologist's ethnographic experience where they do things or become involved in certain events that at first thought appear to be against their nature in some way. This morning at 10 o'clock, I'll be going to church for the first time in a very long time. Yes, you read me correctly, to church. While there has been 'many-a-joke' concerning the potential for my body's spontaneous combustion following my arrival in and through the doors of the church, I hope that my presence there will be quite a bit less theatrical.

This week I was able to meet with one of the local ministers to discuss the church's role in neighbourhood events. Due to history, politics, finances, and local social state of affairs (essentially the dwindling of numbers and hard financial times), churches have had a harder time staying afloat in this globalised world of diverse loyalties and the churches in Rotterdam are no exception.

However, I visited this church a couple of weeks ago when they played host to a discussion between an author who used to live in the neighbourhood (who also happens to be a Moroccan and a Muslim writing about immigrant experiences) and a 'Christian representative' from close by. From the layout of the event, one can conclude that the purpose of the dialogue was to begin a discussion between faiths on areas where these faiths come together and potentially in areas where they do not. It indeed proved to be a lively discussion which despite not understanding the majority of what was said, I could understand the dance of quick voices that were at times a bit heated (and of course from the synopsis that I received a little later on). The author made a lovely presentation actually; he was graceful in his responses, and always listened to opinions. Overall, the activity was a success precisely because attendees were engaged and I was quite interested in the fact that a church had brought on this event and spurred on such a discussion.

Thus, I was happy to have the chance to meet with the minister this week to discuss like events and the churches role and involvement with the community (which happens to be quite a significant contribution). At the end of our discussion, I was asked if I'd like to come to this Sunday's service, to 'see them in action', to which I said, yes, thank you I think I will.

While attending this event might seem a bit out of the ordinary for me, to my knowledge, in every anthropologist's life, a little difference must fall. Mine just happens to fall at 10 am on a Sunday morning which reminds me...I should go. Who'd of thought hey, Aggie and Ella?

Local Wild Life

2009-11-05T00:53:00.001+01:00

Meet Mr. Jibbs. Mr. Jibbs was sitting on a roof of a car along one of the canals in Amsterdam. I would never dare to get this close to something with such beady eyes, but Cescarina did when she was here...brave, brave lady.

Meet Macho. If I were to ever cheat on my own cat (never going to happen) it would be with Macho here (Spanky is also in the running of course). Why? Because she's a female cat whose name defies all gender boundaries and who has a weakness for water straight from the shower drain. She likes to live dangerously!

Finally, the goblet-eyed-drink-sipper. This specimen is especially rare here, only coming out on 'girls nights' and only after rare beverages such as French champagne and Elvish mead are consumed.

Model No. RR-US750

2009-11-05T00:44:00.000+01:00

I'm not a gadget girl. I'm not especially technologically inclined. Although I don't believe that I've been passed down the genes of my mother (who for some reason has the effect of the Black Plague mixed with Ebola on all computer life forms) I would say that computers and I (and the majority of other electrical and mechanical objects) have a civil relationship at best.

Enter the need to learn how to use my digital recorder in preparation for my first interview. This was a test to find out whether or not computers hold a grudge and have passed on the word that I’m less than technologically inclined. This experience prompts me to do a ‘first’ in my life. Yes, I do the unthinkable…I read the manual, or at least parts of the manual (which is probably half the reason why I have problems with machinery and appliances in the first place). It was a painstaking process. I first read about which button did what and where it was on the device, then about how to power-up, and then about how to charge the battery from its comatose state. Following these thrilling entries I took a break for 2 hours (not solely by coincidence as it also took two hours to recharge the batteries). After a quick meeting with my English lessons colleague at the Turkish restaurant Sofra on Zwart Janstraat, I returned to my flat to read about the hold function, the recording settings, and the process of recording itself. This reading brought me up to page 10 and I was still not out of the ‘basic operations’ section.

The problem is that I know this machine works. And it works well. I received it from another good friend of mine - Shelly-bean- who used it during her Masters research. This means that there are no excuses! If it doesn’t work…it’s me and not the machine!

Sitting at the kitchen table with my computer in front of me, manual in one hand, digital recorder in the other and a blank look on my face, my thoughts briefly scrolled through the list of potential help-mates to weight in on this venture. On Dutch programming, they have a commercial that shows a couple in the process of buying a new flat screen television and satellite cable package (or something of this sort) from a store. As the couple turns around to approach the cash register, another worker wheels out a dolly with a 6 foot tall man packaged in a box. This man is suppose to be the free gift that comes with the purchase of the system as he will install the cable (or whatever) when they get home. Seeing as this was a second-hand product and the warranty has probably expired, there were no gift-wrapped knight in shining armour for me (much to Luke’s appreciation I’m sure).

No matter, with all this ado, I happily report that the machine worked perfectly following its and my first test drive. Voices went into the machine just as they were supposed to and I breathed a sigh of relief. I learned how to save the folder to my computer (more reading!) and then I could listen to the excerpt from my computer. It feels as though I’ve jumped another hurdle, not gracefully, but with lots of coaching and enhancement products (manual). Mind you, I have yet to understand how to play it back on the machine itself…baby steps I tell myself baby steps.

Running Around In Circles

2009-11-01T22:54:00.000+01:00

My arms, shoulders, back, legs and but muscles are very, very sore. Why you ask? Two days ago, on Friday morning (yes, they're still sore), I volunteered at my first 'Ladies bike riding lessons' available in the Bergpolder. This event runs every week and is overseen by neighbourhood volunteers/organisation. Its purpose is to teach women (only) how to ride a bike as well as teach riders the rules of the road and the signs that all bikers should understand and abide by, which is something that I benefitted from personally. This event appeals largely to women who have immigrated to the Netherlands and who come out to not only learn a new mode of transportation but to understand more about this typical (and uniquely so) Dutch past time.

Since the lessons start at 9.30 in the morning, I showed up a couple of minutes early to introduce myself to the convenors and to the women attending the session. After coffee and cookies, the entire group trouped out to the square located adjacent to the community office. The bikes are rented from a local shop and the women can take turns riding their bikes through the square (riding in circles, cutting diagonals, hitting trash cans, benches, other bikes, the grass...don't go in the grass! No one picks up their dog poop!). In addition to the cycling activities in the square, one of the convenors Tol, takes the more experienced riders on a short circuit around the neighbourhood so that the participants can gain experience riding in traffic and paying attention to the different road signs. Overall, there is lots of laughing, lots of people saying 'watch out!' and in general, there is much fun being had.

Although it was my first time out, the ladies in charge put their faith in me and set me straight to work as I was paired with a woman who had only been out to this event once before and was still in the process of learning how to keep her balance while riding. As neither of us spoke very good Dutch, body language and tips from friends got us through the 'theory' part. Though she was good at getting the bike going, she (and the bike) would eventually tip to one side and it was my job to lean her back up straight and keep us both going. I'm happy to report that we made it quite a few times around the square and by the end of the session she was doing it by herself! The morning went on and I was able to run laps with her (a couple of times actually since riders have to take turns on the bikes) and other beginners as well as taking a turn riding with the traffic group.

It comes as no surprise that these activities took a toll on my upper body which usually receives the hardy work out of typing on my computer and carrying groceries home from the store. Yet despite spending the morning running around in circles, I didn't feel unproductive, and I was extremely grateful to be trusted and allowed the opportunity to participate as I had. I will return to the lessons next Friday to have another upper body work-out, for another dose of fun, and to have another go at running around in circles as it proved to be one of the most productive activities of the week!

Extra, extra, read all about it!

2009-11-01T19:56:00.000+01:00

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon at Vespa's work - a local news paper office. Insight into how the news is delivered (one of the many mediums through which people receive information concerning local and regional events) is important to my research as I am interested in how different shared opinions are disseminated and understood.

I arrived just before lunch time so that Vespa could give me a brief tour of the building (a beautiful office replete with skylights, wood furniture, leafy plants, and a cozy coffee space) and have a quick coffee before our lunch date. Just as we sat down to sip our coffees we heard an AAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEE! from the adjacent room. As it happens, one of Vespa's coworkers had had the misfortune to sit on a mouse that was hiding under one of the seat cushions of the wicker chairs set out in the main meeting room. There in followed much ado about what to do with the mouse remains and cleaning up procedures. Needless to say, these events did not whet our appetites for the impending lunch date.

No matter, when 12:30 rolled around Vespa, her coworkers and I trudged out the doors and down the main street to central Gouda where we had lunch at the Best Burger. The majority of us ordered groote cheeseburgers (actually 'cheeseburgers' not translated into 'kaas') and munched on mash potato fries and mayonnaise while we waited for our meals. There were trash mags on all the tables for our reading pleasure and we had fun trying to decipher (and translate) one another's horoscopes. Mine proved especially difficult but I should have guessed as much, not only was it colloquial Dutch but the message also came from the beyond! After our lunch we all walked back and Vespa and I got settled into teaching/learning the ins and outs of how the local news is created and delivered in a weekly newspaper.

As I found out, the entire process is quite intense as the journalists, columnists, graphic artists, photographers, layout managers, and advertisement sales staff work like dogs for the first three days of the week (this paper comes out every Thursday). The next two days are spent playing catch-up and preparing the following week’s edition that starts-up full speed ahead on Monday morning. Vespa and I spent our Thursday afternoon editing and ‘word-smithing’ a piece on her special print software. The rest of the afternoon was spent shooting down and cleaning out nagging leftovers hanging around under the press that week.

All in all it was an exciting and extremely insightful day. I learned that the local readership has a lot of say in what goes into their newspapers. The editors, writers, and photographers often use the news tips and stories sent to them and so the readers often set the tenor of the paper through their own participation. The more involved the readership, the more representative the stories. This surprised me a bit as I thought the readers would play a more passive role when instead, they played a more active role. While it probably doesn’t work this way at national or at all local and regional papers, I thought it was an interesting divergence in my usual foray into the science of neighbourhoods.

Jennifer, the Imported Popcorn Connoisseur

2009-10-29T01:16:00.000+01:00

I've begun to approach my research questions as of late, by looking into how different communities see and project their ideas onto the neighbourhood in concrete ways. That is, how do neighbourhood community members create and influence their own neighbourhood? What role do they play in its creation? Here in Rotterdam, reconstruction seems to be a way of life. When one walks around the city streets there are many, many construction projects, renovation crews, and men in hard hats playing around with noisy yellow construction vehicles. Rotterdam seems to be in a constant state of make-over! It is no different in my surrounding neighbourhood. One of the tramlines, the Hofbogen which runs into the heart of our district, is going to be shut down in January and now local residents are trying to decide what to do with the abandoned station and tracks.

Today I had to fortune to meet with a young and inspired entrepreneur hoping to open up a multicultural cinema (film house) here in Rotterdam North in the old Hofbogen station. There is a need for this enterprise as the old film house (a cinema that goes above and beyond the boring 'blockbuster' flicks) is moving addresses and relocating in Rotterdam South. So after years of deliberation (the local residents here are very aware and notably active) it was decided that another cultural centre was needed and one that preferably catered to the diversity that lives in and amongst the area known as Rotterdam Noord.

Hearing about the entrepreneur’s projections (yes the pun was intentional), I was truly inspired, enough so in fact, that I actually applied to be a volunteer at the upcoming International Film Festival held here in Rotterdam in January 2010. While it's too soon for the Noorder Bioscoop (the tentative name given to the local project) to play a role in these events, I thought that my enthusiasm for such projects would support this local venture in one way or another. For those who are interested, if I see any famous people while popping the popcorn (they have both salty and sweet variety here) I will work hard to get an autograph. I say to them "Just make it out to Jennifer, the Imported Popcorn Connoisseur, all my love, BNer".

P.S. For those outside my present zipcode, 'BNer' is the short form for famous Nederlander, a Dutch celebrity

Barbequing in late October

2009-10-28T00:07:00.000+01:00

I volunteered at my first English lesson tonight and it went very well. As mentioned by my esteemed colleague QueenB, English seems to have a certain currency in some countries throughout Europe, in Poland, and in the Netherlands as well. English is spoken by almost everyone living here yet most are interested in practicing and improving their abilities (keeping in mind that they usually speak two other languages besides English, I tell you, it's enough to make you feel thoroughly inadequate!).

Located in Rotterdam Zuid (South), the class is held in the area of the city that is seen to be more residential, to be industrial around the harbour area, and to have 'bad' neighbourhoods. The intention was to be a bit late as the teacher started with theory first, but I ended up being later that I had wanted to be (but still earlier than I was expected) because the trams weren't working. After walking to Centraal Station I made it down on the subway (metro) and through the woods, over the hills (now I'm kidding) to a very busy community centre (they were celebrating Hallowe'en early with a Hallowe'en huis or haunted house).

Someone directed me the correct room and I sat down to enjoy an hour and a half discussion that consisted of rapid fire questions mainly about my personal life. As I answered question after question, the teacher explained any words that they had not yet covered in the course. The questions themselves ranged from 'how cold does it get in Canada?' (they were amused to learn that my brother has to plug his car in at gas stations and grocery stores in Winnipeg during the dead of winter for fear that the engine block won't turn over again) to 'how much UGG boots cost in Canada versus the Nederlands?', to 'why hasn't your boyfriend proposed to you yet and when do I think we were going to get married?' (I swear they could have been working for certain members of our families with this last question!). Anyway, the teacher said that I didn't have to answer this last one and suggested that one of the women continue our discussion by asking me something else about the weather in Canada. I think at this point the teacher really began to notice that he was the only guy in the room! :)

Overall, I found the experience extremely rewarding. And despite being grilled, I had a good night in the hot seat. BBQ anyone?

Spatial Patterns of Birthday Parties

2009-10-23T22:04:00.000+02:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to the birthday party of one of my relatives here in the Netherlands. My family here has been so nice, wonderful, and welcoming since I've arrived. I will always be so thankful for this.

Birthday parties with my immediate family (I'm talking about the family living back in Canada now) are really quite...how should I say this...loud. The following is a typical birthday event at my home in Canada: the siblings and their significant others converge on my parent’s house which is located in the suburbs of our childhood home. I think we're one of the few families who remained in the same household during our entire youth (both my parents still live there now). The dinner begins at about 3 pm with a fight over appetizers (typically the fare is shrimp and warmed brie cheese and red pepper jelly over crackers). Usually my older sister brings a dish (always very delectable), which she makes in our relatively small kitchen during the time that my mother is attempting to finish up the night's main dishes (which my mother loves, by the way). We chat, have a couple drinks, and get caught up on one another's lives in either the appropriately named 'family room' or in the back porch if it's warm enough. My mother calls (just like when we were young) and the troupe marches over to the dining room where we begin the feast (my mom used to be a short-order cook for the army...at least that's what one would think if they sit down at one of our tables). The whole meal takes about an hour. There is much teasing, laughing, and teasing...did I mention teasing? After the meal, we clean up a bit and bring out the cake. We sing not one, but two birthday songs (one in English, the other in Dutch - thanks to our Dutch roots) cut the pie/cake/tart and serve. Presents are distributed, opened, and the thanks doled. From there, it is tea time and everyone moves back into the family room for games, a bit of TV watching (if there is a game on) and then around 11pm, those Toronto-bound revellers say their good-byes and leave the sleepy hollow.

I experienced a different type of event at the Dutch birthday party that I attended this past Wednesday.

I arrive at the house at approximately 5:45 and am greeted by the immediate family (including the mother, father, and brother of my aunt). I speak Dutch for most of the night (poorly) as my family is helping me learn (it's tough love and I need it!). I think I sweat a bit because I find speaking in another language quite hard but the audience is wonderfully receptive and encouraging (well, besides Malt who continues to laugh at my accent - ha!). From there we sit around the table, serve dinner and converse about this or that. Both my aunt and my uncle (whose birthday it was) wait until everyone else has served themselves and have begun to eat before they turn to their own plates. Throughout the entire meal, both my aunt and uncle are getting up to serve us more wine, water or anything else we might desire - talk about being put to work! After the table is cleared and the dishes are washed by my cousins (a very efficient process) we are all served ice cream and mousse (homemade by Oma). The entire affair was delicious!

After our meal, we move to sit on the couches in the living room area. As we sit down I look around and see that a circle of chairs has been placed out. Just as I'm about to ask Vespa what the chairs are there for, the door bell rings. In steps a set of neighbours (it's 7:30). The neighbours say hello to my uncle wish him a happy birthday and then come and greet all of us who are already sitting in the living room with 'feliciteerd' which means congratulations. 'Uh...what do I say back?' I ask Vespa, 'Oh, the same thing', she says, 'feliciteerd'! This ritual happened with each of the 20 to 25 guests that showed up that night. Every single person that came into my aunt and uncle's house greeted everyone in turn and then sat down to join the circle. Very cordial!

After dinner but relatively early in the evening (we were there until 11:30pm) my other cousin Soda (again an amalgamation of her name and area where she lives) came by and asked what kind of cake I wanted. 'Cake?' I said, 'Haven't we already eaten dessert?' 'Oh yes' she said 'but in Holland, you have dessert with dinner and then you have pie when everyone else comes over to celebrate. You can't really say no, it wouldn't look polite' she finished with a grin. Trust me, it didn't take much prodding. I agreed (with both arms twisted behind my back) to a piece of traditional Limburg rice cake. It was scrumptious! Apparently, in Germany, a guest must have 2 or 3 pieces of cake at a birthday if they do not want to be offensive to the host. As I sat on the couch all night in between Oma and my translator (Vespa) I watched as my aunt and uncle catered to all their guests. I kept finishing my glass of water or wine or whatever and not a minute later, they were there asking, 'Jennifer, can I get you something?' If I said 'oh, no thank you', they'd reply 'not even water?'. Wow! 5 star restaurants would be put to shame in this joint and my uncle was the guest of honour, no less! Vespa told me the secret, 'at Dutch birthday parties, you must keep a little bit of drink in your glass or else you'll be asked if you want something else to drink'. Dually noted. But it wasn't just drinks that were flowing and ever present - food also came from every which way and while I thought I was full (and I was), I decided to try the appetizers...one after another... smoked salmon, tapas, crackers, cheese, sausage, you name it.

As the night went on, each guest would chat to the individual on either side of them. If someone got up to go somewhere, another person would come to sit down and start a new conversation. When people began to leave, each attendee would make a round around the circle, shake everyone's hand and say 'Tot ziens!' - see you later! Wow!

Wow, because I can't believe that you have to take care of everybody else on YOUR birthday! (QueenB understands this totally) and wow! because I thought our birthdays back in Canada were quite an event!

Thus (put on pompous old professor's accent), although I have observed the 'spatial patterns' of both Nederlanders and Canadians in their natural environments...it has become apparent that while their patterns are of 'flocking' and 'circular' structures, they both know how to party!

Check, one, two, three, check...

2009-10-23T20:15:00.000+02:00

It was a beautiful crisp and sunny day today as I cycled down from my apartment toward a coffee shop in the South West area of Rotterdam to meet a fellow researcher, Audi. We enjoyed our ‘s ochtend koffie (morning coffee) while discussing our mutual interests and bouncing ideas off one another concerning out immediate future plans in Rotterdam. Man, it's always great to have someone to play your ideas off of, to have a sounding board!

Speaking of sounding boards, I met with another individual on Thursday morning, who was/is supremely connected within the Turkish community here in Rotterdam, to discuss the possibility of becoming a volunteer for his organisation. As we sat down in a newly renovated Turkish restaurant along the Zwart Janstraat near my apartment with steaming cups of Turkish tea laid out in front of us, he asked me to describe my project and my intentions. So I began with the usual spiel but went on in further detail and then began debating the politics of the current social and political conversation, and so forth, because this man was an inspiration! This might sound a bit dramatic but our meeting made me fall in love with my topic all over again! This is something quite special since not two days before I was (temporarily) a bit disenchanted with it, after having to write it into a neat little two-page bundle that striped it of all its interesting bits (both for myself and the reader, most likely). Needless to say, this man was excited at the prospect of my research, confirmed that he too thought that my research was topical and important and that he might be able to put me in contact with some of his community. Hurrah!

As I look back on our meeting I have a feeling that if this man went for Prime Minister of the Netherlands he would be elected unanimously because he's the kind of person who could whip people up into a frenzy - but like all good leaders (in my opinion, which is based on hearing Nelson Mandela talk and he's a 'whipper') into a frenzy of inspiration! He had me more convinced of the importance of my project than I think I've ever been (I think this is something all outsiders using secondary resources would think about their research before stepping into the field. You think it’s important but to have an ‘insider’ think it’s important is a totally different thing). I've always thought that the issues involved in my project were important, but when he said, oh boy, did I believe it!

In conclusion (ha), the sounding boards were sounding great this week. Lots of good feedback (think Nirvana-style feedback, where feedback is actually the goal) and some really productive sessions (I'm suddenly transported back into the home studio at C&G's house). This one’s for you Hoofie. ;)

Can I get a sound check please!

From Separation Anxiety to Anxiously Awaiting Separation

2009-10-20T23:08:00.001+02:00

I received some sad news yesterday, my old car Gaston was finally sold. This car was my first asset (if you could call it that). My first vehicle that got me from 'A' to 'B'. The first thing of value that I could (practically) call my own!!! If I look at it rationally, Gaston was getting on, he was in need of some expensive repairs (although his stalwart frame remained formidable), and there was not much point letting him sit for a year in the garage while I was away. So, calmer voices prevailed and he was sold off to the highest bidder. When Luke broke the news to me I found myself wanting to pass on the quirks and personality traits that I had given Gaston to the new owner. I guess so that 'Gaston' as I knew him could live on! Naturally Luke declined the offer. We (Gaston and I) spent quite a lot of time together, thanks to Luke and I's habit for moving far distances from one another. And they were good times, so I don't think it's hard to believe that I suffered from a little separation anxiety at the thought of loosing an old friend!

Being this far away, I still could not escape from the yearly scholarship run where poor students spend days agonising over relatively few sheets of paper trying to fit every last detail into the assigned margins without making their work, marginal. Although I'm not through with scholarship applications forever (not by a long shot) I am now done with scholarship applications as a PhD candidate! In this case, I am anxiously awaiting separation from the task of rewriting my project into one or two itsy-bitsy pages (with 3/4 " margins).

Feeling Complimentary

2009-10-20T01:06:00.000+02:00

I had a wonderfully busy day today as I met with some people from my local neighbourhood association. Both contacts shared their knowledgeable ideas and learned experiences with me. To top it off, even my (wonderful, talented) language teacher mentioned that she might have some contacts in her neighbourhood that she could introduce me to! Why yes, please, I don't mind if I do! But, it doesn't end there. I also had a confidence building day in the language department. Not only were my classmates complimentary concerning my capabilities tonight (they must have been mixing alcohol into their coffees) but the man who I buy my meat products from (at a shop called SAHAN just at the end of my street) also took the time to tell me that I was definitely making progress! 'Oh, you've improved so much!' he said 'One word every day and you'll know 365 by the end of the year!' It is sound advice in my books. I found his words inspiring, and in a way, a bit funny considering our dialogue revolves around ordering ground red meat or chicken filets. But hey, I'll take any compliment I can get on my Dutch.

All the happiness and gaiety of the aforementioned events today is starting to sound like one of those annoying inspirational posters that first-year university students use to wallpaper their dorm room as provided by the travelling poster sale that visits all campuses during frosh week. The very same event which ensures that all first year students have exactly the same amount of unique individuality that can be summed up by cliché pictures and canned sayings plastered to their white walls screaming in unison and in ubiquity... "I am different!" Hmmmm, this dish tastes kind of funny; I think I went over board with the sarcasm and that dash of cynicism in the final thought.

While my recipe to balance out the day (as an ecstatic researcher followed by curmudgeon) may be a bit off-kilter, it's nice to add good days to the jumble of days lived here. Today’s events compliment previous experiences and seek to challenge/question those in the future. Feeling complimentary, contradictory, and imminently conflagatory (not really a word), I'm outta here!

Riding High! (No coffee shops involved)

2009-10-19T01:45:00.001+02:00

I had my first friend pop over from abroad this weekend and it was great! Everyone I've met so far has been so wonderful, helpful, and welcoming but sometimes you just need to see a friendly face from the past to give you a sense of hominess in your new land.

Cescarina came on the 8:30 night train from Schipol airport to meet me at a cafe near Rotterdam Central Station. I sampled the Caprese salad and a glass of red as I waited for her arrival. We were eating and chatting by a quarter past eight, munching on bread and sipping on soup. Our meeting spot was a cafe close to the train station, called Cafe Engels. From its name one might surmise that this café caters to internationals and this is true, this cafe is even attached to the VVV (tourist information) and at any time of the day one can hear spoken English at many of the tables. One might think that since it was Cescarina's first trip to Rotterdam that I'd have wanted to take her to somewhere more 'authentically Dutch'. I found the idea that I had to show her the best places or the typical places of Rotterdam (so that she'll know my experiences and have a true understanding of Rotterdammers) really interesting from a research prospective. To show her Rotterdam in one evening ‘as the Rotterdammers do’ is an impossible feat of course (because it would be hard to know who would like to be labelled Rotterdammers and to compile an understanding of their knowledge and experiences as such, there it is - anthropology at work for you!), but something that I felt compelled to take a stab at anyway.

From the cafe I took her out to the most famous bar (see review in earlier blog) in Rotterdam, the Witte Ape, where I've been before with Malt and Pdot. We had a great time getting bumped and jostled, chatting about the number of English people in the bar on a Friday night, and ended up dropping by a quieter place a little closer to home for one last drink. The grey goose and vodka earned her a headache in the morning but it went well with the salty peanuts and jazzy music.

The next morning we got up early and took a train to Amsterdam where we met Cananon. The three of us walked through the Jewish district through markets, over bridges and around buildings through the cold but sunny day. We stopped and had a late snack at a rustically beautiful restaurant (complete with resident Cat that was very cute and cuddly as it walked over peoples tables toward their cream desserts - you've got to love how the Dutch flaunt their flippancy toward what most North American restaurant's would perceive to be a health/cleanliness violation). After walking back into A’dam centrum we bought groceries for our huge vegetable pasta and a bottle of red wine from Argentina. Cananon and I (well maybe it’s just my doing) are choosing our wines as of late according to the label on the outside (I know, we’re regular connoisseurs). This one was a Malbec and had a beautiful tree on the outside.

After dinner, the night was still young and so we trekked out again (very close to the Dutch verb vertrekt meaning to leave) to enjoy the festivities of ‘Kermis’ which is a travelling carnival here in the Netherlands. The spectacle of the carnival was amazing as the flashing booths and glittering rides lit up against the night backdrop of Dam square. At their full height, the rides of Kermis rivalled the spires of the old Palace and roof tops of Madame Tussads Wax museum (buildings flanking the square). The three of us had all agreed that we wanted to ride the Ferris wheel however both Cescarina and Cananon wanted to ride 'Around the World'.

Now, we have travelling carnivals or fairs at home, yet this concoction of rides, games, and food would put any of those back home to shame! I tried to find out how tall the Ferris wheel was on line but it doesn’t give specifics (probably so as not to scare away any potential clients), but let me just say that it’s huge! I’d wager that at the top of the Ferris Wheel, you are 60 – 70 metres above the ground. Don't believe me? Check out this link to YouTube from another rider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJA-vOKZKuI
Back at Canada’s Wonderland (theme part in Southern Ontario, Canada), they have a similar ride to 'Around the World'. The ride consists of a centre column which lifts you up in the air (maybe 3 metres) and then rotates a plate on the top of the column around in a circle. Attached to this rotating plate are swings where people sit and are lifted up (3 metres) and then rotated around with the machine. It’s like swinging at a park but without having to do any work with your legs to stay in the air. At Canada’s Wonderland this ride is for younger children and nostalgic adults. This is not the case however with the Around the World here in the Netherlands.

This ride is built like the one back home but instead of going up 3 meters, you rise up 60 -70 meters! I’m not kidding. Picture yourself swinging (or being rotated at a fast speed, which joyously makes your seat rise even more) 60 meters above the ground in nothing more than a swing. As the ride started I grabbed Cananon’s hand (yes, Cescarina the brave, brave, brave soul went by herself). I was scared at the 20 meter mark, the 30, etc. but it just kept going higher! As we went up and up I kept saying (in between my high-pitched squeals, there was no dignity left at this point) ‘Weren’t not going higher are we?’ ‘How long is this ride going to go on?’ ‘Oh my god, when does this thing end!?!’ I actually managed to take one shot at the top before fear solidified all the muscles in my body. There we were overlooking Dam square - picture this - at the same height as the surrounding roof tops of the buildings, in nothing more than a bench with a single bar holding you in, with my feet dangling out into the black abyss, in the cold, windy night, for what seems like an hour (the ride went on for quite a while for those interested in having mild heart attacks)! I was FRIGHTENED TO DEATH the entire time, I mean literally, the entire time and it’s been quite a while since I’ve been this scared!

After, when Cescarina and Cananon and I were on the Ferris wheel (yes, we all survived), we took pictures from inside the safety of our cabin of the swings and found that the swings went higher than Ferris Wheel. And while they both felt very high, they have unequal feelings of safety as you’re warm and relatively safe on the one, and on the other you’re letting it ALL HANG OUT!

Needless to say this was the most frightening/death-defying experience that I’ve had since my arrival. However, back home in Rotterdam in the safety of my own bed, I think ‘Around the World’ should become a metaphor for how I conduct myself during fieldwork: living life at unexpected heights, on full-throttle, which at times may create feelings of being unsupported (being out there!), but knowing that after its all done, I will be happy at having succeeded (and having a great story to tell!).

Sniff, sniff, Cough, cough

2009-10-16T01:37:00.001+02:00

I think I've heard something, somewhere that if you tire yourself out to no end (lack of sleep) and then push yourself hard while adding a nice, healthy dollup of stress - you'll have the perfect recipe for...a cold.

I have heard quite a bit of negative news related to other's health lately so I'll minimise the amount of complaining I'll dish out over the nasty thing brewing in my ears and my chest; however, on a day like today I can't help wishing that I could pay off a government official to import my mother as quickly as the oranges seem to arrive and have her flash back in time to when I was 6 and she thought that my whining was still a touch cute. Now that I think about it, the importation process of my Mother would probably be simplified for her considering at one point she did hold Dutch citizenship. I could probably take her advice on legal matters and have her vouch for me if it came to character witnesses for my residency permit (yep, still waiting).

As I type this it is almost 2am my time. I have no idea how and why I end up staying awake this long but you can be assured...it's partly the reason why it feels like a I have a small child sitting on my chest...at least it's not a mystery. I'll stop while I'm ahead maybe, since I have yet to receive my residency permit and I don't want to appear to any immigration officials as a health risk to the country (past Canadian outbreaks not withstanding).

Hi ho, hi ho, i'm in need of work, I know....

2009-10-13T15:52:00.000+02:00

Work, work, work, it's all I ever think about! As I wait for my So-Fi (tax number) to come in (you need one of these if you're going to be hired anywhere in the Netherlands - legally), I reflect upon my rapidly dwindling savings account and ponder the fate of my research and my life here in the Netherlands if I am unable to find a job. My ability however to acquire gainful employment rests on my capacity to speak Dutch in most situations so even when and if I do obtain a So-Fi number, I will also have to look a little harder so that I can find a job that will take me in all my English-ness. But life goes on and I need to eat, pay rent, and buy new scribbling books so that I can continue jotting down my ideas while on the train, at a coffee shop or when I meet someone in the street. I'm not in red flag zone yet, and hopefully I'll have something that helps pay for food soon enough, it's just something niggling, nagging and prodding me constantly in the recesses of my mind. Always lingering like a festering sore eating away at the silver lining of my days here in the Netherlands. A bit too melodramatic? I know, it's not a life or death situation. But it makes doing fieldwork at home or in a place where one can barter for food/work a little more appetising. I wonder if someone here will barter for maple syrup…hmmm.

Carrying on Tradition

2009-10-12T10:22:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a friend in Amsterdam, I can't seem to remember if I've already given her a pseudonym but we'll call her Cananon (a mix of her place of birth and name), to carry on the Canadian tradition of Thanksgiving. Some of Cananon's roommates were remarking that they were surprised to hear that Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving as they thought it was only an American holiday in November. When asked the inevitable, why do Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving? I was surprised to find out that my understanding of Thanksgiving is actually the AMERICAN version! gasp!!! Not Cananon though, she was right on the money according to the ever-knowledgeable encyclopaedia...Wikipedia. Does everyone know why we celebrate Thanksgiving? Am I the only ignoramus?

The following is taken from Wikipedia ‘Thanksgiving (Canada)’ article with a couple of inclusions from me:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (in French Canadian: Jour de l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada, with the exception of East coast provinces. While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three-day weekend, though Sunday and Monday are the most common. While Thanksgiving is usually celebrated with a large family meal (I was told to wear my eating pants yesterday and felt immediately nostalgic), it is also often a time for weekend getaways to observe the autumn leaves (really?), spend one last weekend at the cottage (I think this piece was written by a person from Ontario), or participate in various outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and hunting (yes, and we all wear plaid fleece jackets and have pet polar bears). Canada's top professional football league, the CFL, holds a nationally televised double header known as the "Thanksgiving Day Classic." (This is news to me).

Various First Nation groups in Canada had long-standing traditions celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops (this is more in line to what I thought Thanksgiving was about...except there might have been a couple of Pioneers involved...ugh, I know... I'm ridiculous). Canada's First Nations and Native Americans throughout the Americas, organized harvest festivals of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. The history of Thanksgiving in Canada also involves a connection to the explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (the only provinces out East to celebrate Thanksgiving apparently), to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations by Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.

Well, while my Canadian history teachers are probably wagging their fists at me or rolling over in their graves (just kidding, they're not that old), it took me leaving my country to learn more about its history. I always knew it was about giving thanks (yep, I’m a regular ol’ Sherlock, it’s probably all those hours I’ve spent watching Murder She Wrote) but I was wrong about ‘what’ I was to give thanks for. Regardless of my previous misunderstandings, I think I carried on the Canadian Thanksgiving in fine form as I could give thanks for having somewhere to carry on a thanksgiving tradition, for new friends to share it with, and for the food I was eating (harvest vegetables no less)! In certain ways this meal was also dedicated to ‘coming home’ whether this can be interpreted as a nod to my mother’s heritage or finding myself a place here in the Netherlands, I’m sure both count.

Turning Bun

2009-10-10T16:16:00.000+02:00

I met Bun again last night for our weekly language exchange (I learn Dutch from her and she learns English from me). She's still fantastic at English and I continue to struggle in Nederlands but we chat on anyway - over tea, coffee, water, and apple juice about anything or anyone that comes to mind. Last night was our third meeting so we've already discussed topics such as who our significant others are, where we/they work, her pregnancy, our families, the shops we've gone to, the city of Rotterdam itself, etc. Needless to say the topics of our conversations become more diverse the more time we spend with one another. Last night she told me how fun it was to learn little catch phrases that she could 'shock' her husband with. Well, this whole process started off quite tame, for example, a week ago I taught her the meaning behind 'wing-it', as in "Oh, I'm just going to wing-it!" She said that she'd use it when cooking dinner the following night when her husband would ask her what she was thinking about cooking. Well, since then we've slowly gone down hill.

In my defense, I've had quite a few people trying to teach me naughty Dutch words ever since I arrived! For example, on one of the first days that I arrived Pdot taught me: "Hij/zij is lekkerding". This means "Oh, he's a tasty morsel" as in good looking man or woman (Note: I only use it when I'm looking at my picture of Luke in his new suit, trust me, hij is lekkerding!). On another occassion, my cousin Malt (an amalgamation of his real name, the place where he lives here in the Netherlands, and also a descriptor of his favorite drink) taught me what to say when I go to a video store looking for an action flick. "It's easy" he says with a sly grin on his face "All you have to say is: Hi! I'm looking for a film with skeeters, titters, and helekopters". 'What does that mean?' I said. "Oh, you know, shooting, tits and helicopters". Nice, and that's my family!

So last night I think it's more the fault of my previous language instruction than anything else, which made me feel the need to teach Bun the words and meanings behind "scatterbrained" (not too bad), "poo vs. poop" (getting worse - this started off as a technical question), "the crapper/pisser" (in my defense this one was related to the previous topic) and I'm sure what will become everyone's favorite: "knocking boots". We had a good laugh about the last one, she was practically rolling on the floor laughing that was made even more funny by her current roundness.

Despite the fact that I may be turning Bun for the worse at least we're having fun trying to learn the language. Besides, we're just keeping it interesting...now whose the one with the sly grin on her face ;)

Meer Meertens (English translation: More Meertens)

2009-10-10T02:32:00.000+02:00

Living in Rotterdam it's nice to be able to pop on the train and see the likes of Amsterdam in just over an hour (on the slow train). As I've written about previously, I've been lucky enough to have the priviledge of being a guest researcher at the Meertens Instituut. Since I've temporarily been alloted a desk (in the absence of another PhD researcher...one rung at a time people!) I decided to put it to good use and this past Thursday as I went to hang around in Amsterdam and more specifically the Meertens Institute. As I might have mentioned previously, I'll check the archives later, this institute is located in an old Coca-Cola warehouse and still holds some of the original architecture. By this I mean to say that the Meertens library looks quite a bit like a distribution centre with its high ceilings and grated decor (stairs, floors, some wall space are all made of grates so it has some influence on your fashion decisions - wedges are a go, stilettos are a no). Although many of the office areas have been redesigned, one can still pick out the theme left over from its predecessor: the red, white, and black signature colours.

Although the staff and the archives are the most important resource Meertens has to offer, from Monday to Thursday the institute runs a canteen (cafeteria). I'm sure many people have experienced cafeteria food whether it was during grade school or high school, or perhaps more recently working for a corporation, etc.. Needless to say, there are probably many people who have experienced varying degrees of corporate or institution-run food dispensing facilities. I have to say, the canteen at the Meertens is one of the best that I've ever experienced!

On this particular thursday, I started my meal late as many of the other staff had gone off to a meeting and were late getting back. The issue here was that the canteen is only open from 12 - 1. They must folow strict timelines because such greatness is hard work. So at around 12:30 I pop to the canteen to peruse the merchandise. The customer (me) had the option of soup, salade, broodjes (sandwiches) that are either hot or cold, or hot meals that were available included little fish nuggets and herring. But the greatness did not end there. On each of the tables there were teeny-tiny packages of brown chocolate sprinkles and small bottles of Maggi on all the tables (I grew up with these). In addition to these food choices there was also a choice for drinks along with treats and healthy bits and bites. There were of course too many options for me to pick from so instead, I picked probably the most unsatisfying lunch of bread and ham and cheese! It as too much pressure I tell you! Too much!

So I'm going back this week or next because I have work to do but more importantly so that I can return and order appropriately - fish nuggets here I come! (they don't sound appetizing the way I'm calling them but trust me, they are!) Ja, ik will graag meer Meertens austublief. I'd like to order some more Meertens please, yes, Meer Meertens.

Wanted: Lessons from Mary Poppins/Lance Armstrong

2009-10-06T21:05:00.000+02:00

As I biked through the rain today, I tried to pretend like all the other Rotterdammers on the road that it was not in fact raining and that I was warm and dry instead of freezing and wet. Actually, I wasn't really freezing until I stopped to take pictures of my destination since when I bike I work up a sweat (I was trying to get my errand done as quickly as possible and get back home to dry clothes)!

As I've guessed, and read about, been told, and now experienced, riding a bike is second nature for many city dwellers here in Rotterdam. I've seen riders cycle along nonchalently with no hands on the handlebars, while texting friends, and weaving in and out of traffic with an astute knowledge of the bike/car/pedestrian laws on the roads here. There are of course no helmets worn here and no safety gear besides blinking lights that are mandatory after dark (and heavily enforced by local police officers). Not everyone might know this but the Dutch are forced (well maybe forced is too strong a word) anyway, they take a bicycling test at the age of 12 years old to ensure that they are safely able to traverse the roadways (at least this is what I've read). However, this special knowledge evades me and as little 8 year-olds ride circles around me (not literally of course) I'm often envious of their bicycling wisdom that appears to be doled out at birth in Dutch delivery rooms.

Of course, riding on a bike with no hands, while talking on your cell phone, balancing your parcels on the back of your bike, and baking a cherry pie, all at the same time is no match for the Dutch here in Rotterdam. Yet, it is truly humbling to see them cycle when it's raining. In addition to the death defying acts mentioned above, the cyclists here will also ride while holding an umbrella... while talking on the phone, weaving around parked and swirving cars, etc. etc. etc. So it is no wonder that I've put out an ad for riding lessons from Mary Poppins/Lance Armstrong. I could go for the less classy option of riding in the front of a 'Babboe Bakfiets', which is a bike sold here in the Netherlands with a large wooden bucket/seat contraption on the front for children to sit in. The only problem then would be how to convince Pdot to agree to ride around on this bike with me in the front basket. Here is the link so that envisioning me in this contraption will be easier: http://www.babboe.nl/

The next time it rains, I think I'll wait by the phone for Julie or Lance to call or leave the cycling up to the professionals and take the tram :)

What time is it? Hoe laat is het?

2009-10-05T16:20:00.001+02:00

Did anyone else know that Dutch clubs are open until 5am here? Well, they are. Ladies, I'd like to recommend flats when going out dancing.

Saturday night I met up with my cousin's girlfriend, who I will call Vespa, in Gouda. She made us a wonderful Dutch dish (mash potatoes mixed with lettuce covered by curry flavoured ground meat and onions, topped with cheese, all baked to perfection! yum!) before heading out to watch my cousin's water polo match in another area of Gouda. I'm happy to report that they won (9-8) and it was a thoroughly entertaining time because of all the drama that ensued: one red card, the need for a 20 minute intermission because a player of the opposing team was hit/kicked in the head and then fell down on the pool deck after he got out, general pandemonium maintained through excessive pushing, shoving, scratching, screaming, etc. It's the Netherlanders version of hockey...except that their water is not frozen and their uniforms leave a lot less to the imagination.

From there we made our way out to a place called the Salmon (I believe) for a few drinks before heading over to 'the only club in Gouda', called Woodies. This establishment caters to a wide variety of listeners of all different ages and musical tastes. What this statement means is that people who were getting down to house and hip-hop one minute were doing a hoe-down the very next. Hoe-downs are reserved for those cherished Dutch classics which reminded me of earlier years spent in my Oma and Opa's basement learning the 'chicken dance'.

It was also cool to see revellers dancing on the bar as they stepped gingerly over drinks and succeeded in avoiding the transactions going on at the bar. The dancers gyrated on as money, glasses, lemons and limes were passed under their legs from bartender to client and back again. As far as I could tell no one kicked over a glass and none of the staff felt the need to enforce 'safety regulations' as they do so often in the clubs back in Canada.

And so the night went on in blaring harmony but I began to feel that it must be getting late. It occurred to me at one point that the DJ was in danger of running out of available material and that "it had be getting close to 2 am, any time now!" I should briefly explain that all the bars in Canada shut down by 2 or 3 am (unless you're connected enough to be locked-into an after-hours party). So when I asked a newly acquired friend, hey, what time is it anyway? he showed me his watch and I was astounded!!! 4:45 am. Well, no wonder my feet were killing me! With 15 minutes left, Vespa and I teetered out to our bikes (due to our sore feet and nothing more) and rode home. This was also in fact extremely treacherous, in my mind, as the paths we took home are flanked by slotten (narrow canals) on either side. Yet, fuelled by the need to take off our heels we successfully rode home and had a bit of coffee and crackers before falling off to sleep. Overall, I'm impressed by the individual responsibility that the Dutch allot their inhabitants (not yanking the dancers off the bar because they're worried about class-action law suits when one of them slips and falls off or the general proximity of canals to the bike paths). I'm also impressed by how late the Dutch dancers in Gouda were willing to stay up and party on. I'm not sure Canadians are ready for 5am closing times, well maybe we are, the Dutch in Gouda last Saturday night were a tough crowd to keep up with! And trust me, I was far from the oldest one there! So maybe instead of saying "what time is it?", I should be saying "how old am I?"

Justifiable Tourism

2009-10-05T15:59:00.000+02:00

On Thursday of last week I was lucky enough to snag the last available spot on the Meertens Instituut's yearly excursion. After getting up at 6 am, I made my way to the station for 6:42 and was there before the bus left at 8:15. The Meertens Instituut is a research facility dedicated to ethnology (ethnography), folklore and linguistic phenomena (see their website for an official declaration), and so we were taken on a guided tour of the traditional (and very touristic) Volendam, Marken and Monnickendam area. Packed tourism and Dutch identity at its best! We started off our tour in the Spaander Hotel where we ate traditional Dutch cakes with coffee (I had a slice of mocha cake at 9:30am, a very good start to the day) and received an explanation of the style, art and architecture of the hotel. This hotel, like much of Volendam and Marken, is decorated in what is called the 'traditional' Dutch style with white and red wooden shutters, green or dark blue exteriors and orange tile roofs. The rooms are decorated with many plants, blue and white ceramic tiles with ships and clogs painted on them, portrait paintings, circular plates mounted on the walls, and furnished with large circle wooden tables covered by red and white tablecloths (a nightmare for the cleaner in charge of dusting!). From there we walked around the town and received a history lesson in the importance of smoked eel to the Volendam community. Eel is a politically sensitive topic at the moment because the Dutch government (and European) has just enacted a 60 day ban on Dutch eel fisherman from October 1st to November 30th, the height of eel fishing season. Eels are being protected because their numbers are dwindling due to over fishing and other ecological factors such as consumption of eels by protected bird species. This topic remains controversial as many eel farmers and whole communities like Volendam are worried about the state of their livelihoods.
After lunch and more tourist activities (yes, we dressed up in traditional Volendam ware and had our pictures taken) we took the local ferry to Marken across the way. I'd already been to Marken last year during my preliminary trip and decided to forego the trip inside the church so that myself and a couple other colleagues could walk around the village a bit more. After our quick jaunt, we made our way to the parking lot to catch the bus to our next destination only to find that our bus had in fact left without us (there were three of us in total)! I'm a magnet for this kind of stuff I think...no matter, my colleague quickly got on her phone and requested that the bus turn around to pick us up. Normally, this would not be an issue but Marken is in fact a former island that is now connected to the mainland by a land bridge or, more accurately, a 2-kilometre dyke that was built in 1957 (Yes, Kath, this is what we cycled along). The dyke runs from the town of Monnickendam, located just north of Amsterdam. And thus, turning a big bus around on the dyke was not an option.

So as we waited for the public transit to come and find us to bring us to Monnickendam (where the rest of the group were enjoying spirits and bitter ballen) we cheers our cola-light to the weather as it was warm and sunny instead of rainy and cold. We eventually made it to Monnickendam and even ate bitter ballen (a Dutch delicacy the ingredients of which are better left unknown) and then all the way back to Amsterdam in one piece (and as one group) on a day of justifiable tourism. This tourism was justifiable in my mind because I was not a single tourist on holiday from Canada but a member of a large group coming from a Dutch-based institute on a day of relaxation and fun. That, and we had bitter ballen at the end, what more justification does one need?

A Proper Viewing

2009-10-02T11:10:00.000+02:00

This past Tuesday, I had the "pleasure" of having my interview with the Immigration and Naturalisation Department (IND). My appointment took place at Rotterdam's city hall building, which is a gorgeous construction of pre-war architecture in Rotterdam as this was one of the few buildings to survive the bombardment that devastated the centre of Rotterdam during the war. I would have liked to enjoy the beautiful vaulted ceilings, stain glass windows, and ornate wood work if it had not been for the nerves and bureaucracy that sullied my experience of the view and kept my stomach in knots. The following is the schedule of my morning:

8:00 am - get up, jump out of bed (I know right now everyone who works a 9-5 is scoffing at my 8am wake up time. Note that I fully acknowledge that I am spoiled to be able to sleep so late), have coffee and toast, admit to Pdot that I'm nervous.
8:35 am - confirm my nerves by pacing the apartment and being indecisive about what outfit to wear for the interview...something with a collar to look professional, pair it with jeans to look like a student...???
9:00 am - leave house by bike to meet Pdot at the Centraal Station
9:15 am - realise that I've gone the wrong way because I'm not paying attention to where I'm going, turn around and meet Pdot at Centraal Station, a little more sweat but overall not in too bad of a shape
9:30 am - walk into social housing office (Pdot's landlords) and officially register with them as a leaser of the apartment (a requirement of my immigration application). Take stamped and signed sheet with me.
9:45 am - walk bike over to City Hall building and in doing so see the huge building looming before me, tell Pdot that from my position, this is a metaphor of my feelings toward my impending interview. I believe Pdot said something about me being melodramatic but I can't be too sure, the morning is a bit of a haze now
10:00 am - Pdot comes with me and into the City Hall to make sure that there are no problems with the residence part of my application and is as usual, very helpful, as he selects a choice for me and takes a number while we sit down and wait for our number to be called

* Side note * As you walk into the city hall you're greeted by a huge room, a mass of people and a cacophony of noise. In front of you are 3 computers on stands where you are to choose the purpose for your visit that day (people use the city hall to get parking permits, acquire drivers licences, pay fines, or have interviews with the IND). Once you have your number you sit in one of four large bench sections (maybe about 250 seats in total?) and wait among the masses for your number to be called. I should mention two things that kind of turned me off of this process: first, the computer choices are only available in Dutch (thank you once again Pdot for being there to save the day); second, the constant dinging of the bell which notifies people when one of the 40 desks is ready for the next customer. This dinging sound is almost constant and its pace is further emphasised by the people who sometimes have to cross half the length of the football field (I kid you not) to get to their appointed desk (that's if you started at one end and had to go to the other). It appeared that no one wanted to miss their call as you'd be put at the back of the line again and who knows when you'd surface again next....

10:20 am - our number is called and we reach our desk in time (Pdot who has been there before knows to wait in the middle so that you can actually get to your desk in a reasonable amount of time without having to trot like a horse) when we are told that we're waiting in the wrong area, that we should instead be at desk 20 or 21 and that we do not have to wait in line or have a ticket number
10:30 am - wait for the woman in front of us to be done with her business at desk 20 (there is no one manning the station at 21) and approach. We are in fact helped right away and spend the next 30 minutes officially registering with the City Hall (not the same as registering with the social housing group)
10:35 am - our attendant found a problem with the second authentication of my long-form birth certificate and suggested that I send my birth certificate back to Ottawa to have it stamped again...not conducive to my interview which is in less than three-quarters of an hour. I protest, she goes to ask someone else.
10:45 am - our attendant comes back and has determined that my second authentication is indeed okay and that I am now official registered with the City Hall. I need to go to the cashier and find out if they take cash, which they don't, so I have to go and get my fee of 41 Euros out so that I can pay the IND people when I have my appointment
10:50 am - wandering outside for a bank machine, ING does not work with Canadian bank cards for everyone's information, find a bank, get money, walk back to the city hall
11:00 am - Pdot searches through the computers at the front of the hall again and finds me the correct appointment listing. He leaves to get to the stuff he needs to do, and I sit down and wait to be called in the dinging, noisy, crowded set of benches at the very back of the hall.
11:01 am - waiting for my appointment
11:02 am - waiting for my number to be called
11:03 am - waiting for my number to be called, made hairy eyeballs at the crying child next to me
11:04 am - you get the picture...
11:15 am - called for my appointment to a girl sitting behind a desk who is much, much younger than myself. She asks for one or two documents while she begins to type things into her computer and insists on calling me 'Miss'. I will take this not to be an insult (as I am older than she by about 8 years) but a glitch in translation. Whether intentional or not, the label makes me feel a bit annoyed and aware of the power imbalances present in this entire process. The whole 'interview' had little to no discussion except for when she had a problem with my not having a return ticket to Canada. When I tried to explain that I had instead printed out my bank statements proving that I could afford a ticket home (yes, I promise to leave the county!) and that I only didn't have one at this point because I couldn't buy a ticket that far ahead she stated that not all of my print outs had my name on them. "Yes", I said, "for security reasons (I had already noticed this fact and worried about it) I'm sure but if you'd let me pull up my account on your computer right now, I can prove it to you". She looked at me, sighed, and said that she would accept it now but that 'they' might have a problem with it and that 'they' will contact me in that event, AND that this ruling could take up to 6 months as they were legally afforded this much time to make their decision. "Okay", I said...and left it at that since I didn't have much choice in the matter anyway.
11:45 am - walking out of the building with my temporary resident's permit affixed to the inside of my passport. Although I'm allowed to stay and work once I receive my So-Fi number, the temporary status reminds me that the bureaucracy is not yet over. As a Western migrant I got off easy I’d say. Just imagine if I was from somewhere that necessitated me to have tuberculosis shots, among other things!

I want to stress however that I find the Dutch immigration procedures to be no worse than those of the surrounding countries and probably much nicer/easier than some of the experiences that I could have had elsewhere. I would also assume that any and all experiences of immigration are difficult in that they make the migrant feel uncomfortable and powerless in some way.

What I do know however, is that I must go back to the City Hall on a different occassion for a proper viewing when I can actually notice and appreciate my surroundings.

Trying to Sample All the Right Food Groups

2009-09-28T23:52:00.001+02:00

My friend Mer introduced me to some of his colleagues from Erasmus University today. Over lunches and coffees we discussed my area of research and I was provided with wise advice, new intriguing ideas, and came away feeling that there was a general interest in the outcome of my project. Needless to say, if enthusiam by academics were the method to which my thesis would eventually be judged, then I think things in the field would be going quite well so far! Finding one's niche in the academic world or the need for one's project in society is unquestionably a necessary step when focussing a PhD topic. I am however, starting to feel as though I'm living on a restricted diet. So as not to misinterpret what I'm trying to say here, I'm proud to say that I've made a few fantastic connections in the academic community here and that each and every one of these connections are very important to the outcome of my research. In short, I could not do it without them. Yet, I'm beginning to hanker for a vegetarian as oppose to meat dish, a fish delicacy instead of a salad, mash potatoes instead of fries (hold the Mayo, alstublieft). I'm hungry for sustinance of a different food group, as in, I would like to hold an interview with a real, live participant! Of course when this comes up in conversations, as it almost inevitably always does, I'm told the major hold-up in securing my first interviews is my inability to speak more than a simple conversation in Dutch. I have to say that I absolutely agree, the Dutch language is key. So for now, I will study hard everyday and wait to sink my teeth into something a little more tantilising in the future; these alternative dishes have become more tantalising not only because variety is the spice of life but most probably at the count of 18 days and running, I'm already getting restless!

The Ol' Three in One Play

2009-09-27T18:52:00.000+02:00

I went to three festivals today, yes, three in one...talk about packing it in! First, I walked down Zwart Janstraat close to my house where they were holding the 'Route Noord' festival. This consisted mainly of shop owner's wares being brought out on the street in addition to other vendors selling things from blankets laid out on the ground. There were carnival rides, large RV-like vehicles selling food and drinks from open windows, and booths set up to demonstrate the magical powers of Oxyclean and squeeze mops. I was floored by the difference that this festival made to the regular Sunday tenor that I originally associated with this street. I remarked in one of my first posts after moving here how dumbfounded I was to find that all the shops on Zwart Janstraat (except for certain food and fruit shops) were closed on Sunday. I since learned that this is the case only in the smaller areas of town and that if one walks into the city centre, it is busier than on any weekdays. To walk down this normally sleepy street on this particular Sunday, you felt as though you were walking in the middle of town as people passed by, shoulder to shoulder, yelling out deals, with the smell of food wafting into the air. Everyone coming together.

From there I rode my bike down to the Blaak Maarkt where they were having a Boek Maarkt just outside the library. It was interesting to see the incorporation of the literary societies into the normal mix of market wares on the Blaak. This area was a little less packed but since it was bordering the city centre it still enjoyed a healthy group of people.

Off again, this time to a 'Seeds of Change Festival' at the Laurenskerk, which incorporated groups for peace, groups for social change - reduction of discrimination, and welkom groups for new individuals to Rotterdam. There was a band playing live salsa and other latin music on a stage and many people were dancing along on the cobbled stones, regardless of age or partner. These festivals were set against a beautiful backdrop of a sunshine and cloudless sky, remarkable in my opinion for such a late day in September, and I and the city revellers seemed to melt back into summer.

Strangers who are Less than Strange

2009-09-27T00:35:00.001+02:00

During the last 17 days of living here in the Netherlands, I am often surprised at the number of times I have flouted one of my mother's most sacred rules that she bestowed on me as a child. That rule was: Never Talk To Strangers! Yet, I find myself searching the internet for them, handing out my contact information, and setting up dates to meet them at places that I've never been to before. This is not to say that I'm meeting up just any Joep, Toon, or Albert (good Dutch names!) in dark alleys at quarter past midnight, no. Instead, I've most recently set up a meeting with persons who have the same needs as I do - the need to learn a language!

Yesterday, I had my first meeting with Bun (I call her Bun because she has a bun in the oven). Bun works for a bank and would like to widen her English vocabulary and improve her ability to converse quickly. Her capabilities at English greatly outweigh my own at speaking Dutch however, we met over coffee and spent the first hour speaking in Dutch (most of the time I spent sweating...apparently the part in my brain used to speak a foreign language is connected to my perspiration glands), and the next hour in English. While we've only met once we've agreed to meet again this coming week and will do so until we find ourselves fluent, or more likely, until she has her baby.

I have to say, that overall, those people with whom I've met in person, only after conversing over email, have all turned out to be really positive encounters. This includes some of the odd meetings on the streets and happenstances that occur with no preconceived plan (like the Welkom Bag neighbour in the last entry). And although at times these meetings feel like a shot in the dark and were not a part of my originally proposed methodology, they have been more than valuable to my overall time here in Rotterdam. As the ever-wise QueenB said to me the other day, If you're not up for meeting strangers (every once and a while), then you shouldn't be doing fieldwork, and I agree. Strangers don't always have to be strange but don't worry mom, I'll still use the ol' common sense!