Red Lights, Bicycles, and Beers, oh My!

First off, I have missed a few days due to laziness and lack of reliable internet.  So the next posts may jump out of order bur for now (Sept 19) I am in Amsterdam.

Friday 18 September, Saturday 19 September

After a morning meeting with another hydro/flood researcher and 2 coffees (I love this place!) in Den Haag where the parliament and queen are, I am back in Amsterdam today and my friend Ben from school just came to meet me for the week.  We’re renting a really cool studio flat on Prinsengracht  Street in the same canal house building as my new friend Bonnie (she and her husband are expats, and is a friend of my friend Jess who lives in San Francisco).  It’s a really cute quirky basement studio flat complete with cool boards/planks overhead, a bathroom in the middle of the studio, cow lights, a fireplace, fake plastic tulips, and a patio with a neat garden with a “water feature.”  It is really cool,has a lot of character, and is on a quiet street in the center of town. Lovely.

Parliament in Den Haag

I regret I have no pictures of the following events…

My first bike ride on my first dutch bike!

It was fantastic , but LOOK OUT!  This is no job for sissies (thanks Wim for putting that word back into my vocabulary).  There are tons of people on bikes and it’s everyone for themselves.  I only almost got hit once by a Dutch girl on a mow-ped. I apologized with my best “I’m sorry I’m a silly tourist” face and she actually glared and growled at me.        !!!!!!

After dinner (delicious pizza) last night, Bonnie and I went through the notorious Red Light  District. (gasp!?)  Yep, that is what I said. 

The RLD has been on my list of: “things-that-have-always-made-me-nervous-in-a-way-that-compromises-my ethics,-morals,-and-innocence,-and-therefore-I-never-intend-to-pursue-but-about-which-I-have-also-always-been-slightly-curious… “

Also on that list?

Las Vegas, the Mob, Spam, Skydiving,  tv show “Perfect Strangers”, Andy Gibbs, cats, Hipsters, Dubai, Swiffers, and voting republican.

Actually the District wasn’t as creepy as I thought.  I think I anticipated some similar feeling to Bourbon Street, New Orleans, circa 1998.  But I have read that the women and men  involved are actually quite organized, protected, and clean. There were a lot of tourists there and some of it seems like it was for show. It’s not for me, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable like I thought I would.  Until Bear asked me if I would take him back there, but that likely won’t happen. It would compromise his gazellig-like character.

For those of you who don’t’ know, its called Red Light because the “shops” in which you can see the women “advertising” all have red-lights over the door-steps as identifiers (as if the scantily clad dame isn’t obvious enough).

Midway through the walk, I wondered if anyone has ever tried independent red-light contracting. 

Like, is it legal for me to just put on my cutest swimsuit, my camping LED headlamp with the red-light setting, and walk around ringing a bell and an aluminum can like the Salvation Army guys at Christmas, or hot-dog vendors at football games?  

HIGHLIGHTS of today and yesterday (sorry again, no pictures)…

-A woman in high-heeled shoes wearing MC Hammer Pants at the Den Haag Centraal train station

-2 cats on a leash.  In different places.  As in, there are 2 or MORE people in Amsterdam who walk their cats on a leash.  I thought I had seen everything.

-A mowped with one woman and 4 little blond dutch 5-year old girls. 

You know there is some little 5-year old boy in rolled up jeans and a ripped white t-shirt on a scooter somewhere in Beckley, West Virginia whose dreams just came true. (no offense to southerners… my family grew up in Beckley  somewhat and I just could picture it fittingly)

-Watching 4 people hoist a futon out of the 4th floor of a window down to the street  (along a canal) using a huge rope… there was quite a scene, including a strange man pillaging the dumpster underneath said suspended futon, completely trusting in the ability of the owners to lower the futon

Additional Commentary:

I have noticed since I got here, as a strong contrast to the Bay Area, how few homeless people there are.  They are not standing outside airports, living under the train tracks (at least not visibly), in the alleyways, busy streets, or the train station yelling at you, talking to themselves, or asking for money. I'm not painting a bad picture or knocking on the homeless, but this is how the scene is in the Bay Area and many other cities in the US and world and a stark contrast from here.  I have been told that the Dutch government takes care of their homeless and through some program, they are able to offer the homeless to something by the way of 600 Euro/month until they can get back on their feet.  I would definitely be interested in learning more about this fact and why the policy here is as such.  I suppose there are pluses and minuses to this approach, but it has a noticeable effect anyway.  

Incidentally, at the Den Haag Centraal Station yesterday, I was approached by the first homeless person since being in Holland and he asked me for money.  Guess where he was from…

The United States.

(yes I gave it to him. I'm a sucker okay?)

Den Haag Hollands Spoor Train Station

My 2 cents…
One struggle here is treating Euro money like real money (which it is of course and even worth more than USD)… but there is a certain part of it all which feels like monopoly play money! Especially the 1 and 2 euro coins!  This is dangerous !!  On the other hand, converting to dollars in my head every time I go to purchase something is sobering and depressing (come on US economy!) .  I am slowly but surely finding a balance.

The last side note of the day??

The people here are incredibly friendly.  Really.  So many people here have gone out of their way to help me even if they didn’t know me, whether was at the train station setting down work on their lap top to walk around with me and find the right platform, walking me to the central station despite being in a hurry, missing work to take me to windmills and flood defence barriers, cooking dinner, coffee…  My greatest appreciations to the people here.   And for you family who worry, I’m being taken care of quite well.

Well thanks for joining me so far… I will try to be more on top of my updating, so you don’t get them all at once like this time.  I am still having a great time and now looking forward to a week of touring this beautiful city. 

OH, and it’s Saturday… so… GO BLUE!  I am of COURSE wearing my Maize and Blue shirt today.

Buh bye then…