Community Life

I have finally returned to Florida, the Sunshine State, which is ironically in the middle of one of the wettest summers on record. But I still have a backlog of posts about life in Amsterdam to get up. So for the time being this blog will continue. Thanks so much to everyone who has been reading!

I thought that people might appreciate a pictorial glimpse into the day-to-day life of the OZ 100 Community in Amsterdam, and it's surrounding environs. I can provide that! My last few weeks in the city I made a concerted effort to photograph some of the ordinary, every day bits that you normally take for granted, living there. Now that I have returned home and had a chance to go through my pictures, I realize there are some huge gaps in the pictorial record. But we'll just have to do the best we can with what we have.

(For more, check out this post for pictures of the canals, markets and more street pics, and this post for some shots of our chapel)

The open window was my room. I had a small room which didn't lend itself well to be photographed and was in a state of perpetual chaos, so there are no extant pictures of the inside. Actually, though, it was one of the best rooms in the Father House. It was certainly large enough for my needs, it had its own sink, and most importantly, as you can see here, it faced the inner courtyard and not busy and loud Oudzeijds Achterburgwal, where the drunken football fans never sleep.



We continue our tour down the spiral stair and into the courtyard. These metal steps are a source of fascination for one particular Oudezijds toddler and thus a source of endless terror for his mother. 'Bove' (bohv-uh) is the Dutch word for 'upstairs' and not coincidentally one of the first two syllable words this small explorer mastered.

You can tell it's summer because someone has stashed their canoes in the courtyard. If we could tilt the camera slightly downward we would also see a profusion of tables, chairs and benches, perfect for barbecues on warm summer evenings.

Down a flight of steps from the courtyard lies this long corridor. It serves a number of purposes: wood storage, access to the workshop and bike shop, tool depository, entrance to the KruisPost Medical Clinic, and...

...as the all important fietsenstalling. Basically, a garage for bicycles, which one can roll out the door, up the ramp, and onto Oudezijds Voorbergwal.

Out on Voorburgwal we find the front entrance to the KruisPost.

The KruisPost serves a heady mix of tourists, uninsured immigrants and homeless people. I occasionally worked in reception there and it was always an interesting experience. Our visitor book, which lists nationalities of the patients, reads like a roll call at the United Nations. I actually learned the existence of a couple of nations I had previously had no idea of while working there.

The kauit, or common room, is another room that is difficult to photograph. It has a low roof and quickly becomes crowded when there are people in it, which they usually are. For all that it is the place that visitors first enter, many of them people off the street looking for the coffee and tea we serve mornings and afternoons (and maybe a warm place to sit as well!).

Scott and Katy came to visit me in March. Here I ply Katy with some hot tea.

This is a slightly historic picture. It may be one of the last photographs of the old chairs in the Kayuit! They had a lot of personality, by which I mean they were very uncomfortable. The new orange ones are a great improvement, plus they are from Ikea (naturally!).

Before we head out on the street, I had to share this with you: a rather informal attempt at drying some extra laundry on a sunny day! This was not, I should note, my laundry.

This street runs perpendicular to Oudezijds Achterburgwal and Voorburgwal (literally, 'first wall' and 'second wall', the two main thoroughfares of the Red Light District). It runs straight down to the Dam Square. As you can see here, the Dam is often host to a small fair, complete with rides.

Almost home! This rather seedy looking corner is how I knew where to turn for my house in the middle of the RLD.

It's not just a pretty name: the street does feature plenty of red (and pink) neon. But if you want to see it at its best, you really have to see it at night.

The lights are on, the crowds are noisy and the girls, of course, are in their windows. It's a crazy scene, like something out of a fevered dream.


The storefront with the red awnings is actually a prime window location for several girls. But what do tourists stare at? The swans in the canals, mostly. Maybe they just don't know what else to look at.

And to be fair, the swans are beautiful.

Next post: What's so great about living in a community anyway?

The Red Light District

A woman with bleached-blond hair just road down the street on her bike singing at the top of her lungs.

Saturday morning there was a guy standing in the bridge over the canal in only his underwear, holding up a cardboard picture frame that had 'object' written on it.

Things are never dull in my neighborhood, I tell ya.

At The Park

I stole an hour during lunch and explored the Oosterpark today. Lucky you, I took a camera!



Like most parks in A'dam, this one is very bike friendly. Typically you ride around until you find a likely spot, then chain your bike up behind the nearest park bench.



No, not litter. This is my lunch! $3 Subway Club, special of the day. With spicy sauce! Eat fresh, baby.



I put my back against a tree and enjoyed the view while I ate my sammich. Plenty of ducks were sailing by.



Along with the occasional dog.



Have you ever seen such blue skies?



I was far from the only person enjoying the perfect weather.



Some people might ask, "Why make a statue of a boy riding a goat?" Here in The Netherlands we ask, "Why NOT make a statue of a boy riding a goat?"



It's about 18 degrees Celsius today. In Florida, that means it's time to roll up your long sleeves.



In Amsterdam, that means it's time to put on shorts and a t-shirt and catch some rays.

In fact there were many folks decked out in swimwear.



The fences keep the city out.



Hope you enjoyed this trip to the park almost as much as I did!

In posts to come - visits from friends and some more exploration of the city.

Good Heavens! Water From the Sky!

Growing up a Florida boy, I admit that snow is a bit of an alien phenomenon to me. Sometimes it takes me a moment or two to realize when it's happening. My brain is geared to automatically chalk any precipitation up to the warm, heavy tropical rains I grew up with. So it takes me a moment or two sometimes to categorize the slower, denser, fluffier stuff coming from the sky as 'snow'.

The Amsterdam winter makes this categorization harder still.

I have heard a joke that in Amsterdam they get all four seasons in one day. In fact it's worse than that. This morning I went out in the rain, returned to find the rain frozen, which then turned to snow as I biked home. This grim meteorological behavior does not preclude the sun coming out later, either, and shining for all its worth amid blue skies. Such is winter in Amsterdam.

It does make planning outings slightly difficult.

---

In other news, Br. Luc and I have been working on updating the Oudezijds 100 website and he has uploaded several videos. For the most part it won't do you much good, since it's all in Dutch, but I thought I'd this news report about the children of Oudezijds 100 with you. It's a few years old, and it is of course in Dutch, but it should give you some nice visual ideas of what life is like here.

It should be pointed out that most of the children depicted are now considerably older. But there are new children now, and things are much the same.

The Return

Apologies for the extended silence around these parts. Catching up to my life and all that. But it's good, I'm here, I'm alive, I'm thriving.

I have to admit, I had some trepidation about spending Christmas in Florida. It would be warm. It would be familiar. What if I didn't want to come back?

Well, it was all those things and it was definitely a blessing to see friends and enjoy twenty degree weather and sunshine, in spite of a bout of intense bronchitis. But as I prepared to board the plane back to Amsterdam on a Friday afternoon, it occurred to me that I was really looking forward to getting back. I missed people.

Two long flights, a short train trip, and then the joy of dragging all my luggage across half a mile of brick pavement. I was exhausted when I put my finger on the bell at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 100. But Margeet opened the door and let me into the kauit (common room) and relief swept over me in a wave.

I really was home.

It's of course the dead of winter here in Amsterdam. The trees are bare, the wind is icy, and some mornings we are greeted by chunks of ice cluttering the canal. But I've been enjoying being back in the community so much. I've really felt it impressed upon me in the last month that this is where I belong right now. I have no idea what the future holds (just one of many things I need to work on in the next five months!) but I'm very certain about the present.

And that's a good thing.

I want to re-extend my invitation to people back in North America to come visit me here. It's a lovely city and you shouldn't miss it. Nor is the experience of eating a meal or two in the community to be missed! All are welcome, so come on out! I'll be here until the end of June.

Expect more posting in the coming week, probably language related. It hasn't been very nice weather for going out and playing in the city lately, so there aren't really any new pictures. Today is nice, though, and we're gonna try and make the Van Gogh museum. Lekker!

Fall

Sinterklaas's arrival is nearly upon us, but we've already had a holiday with a distinctly Dutch flavor: St. Martin's Day.

Now from what I understand, St. Martin's Day is not celebrated equally in every part of the country. It's kind of a protestant thing, and so the southern parts of the Netherlands where Catholicism predominates doesn't really get into it. But it cosmopolitan Amsterdam it is definitely celebrated.

The first and most exciting part of the evening (to those of us who aren't kinderen) is pannekoeken. That's Nederlands for 'pancakes', in case you hadn't picked up on that.

Plates heaped with pancakes were brought to the table. The Dutch way to eat pancakes is to cover them in powdered sugar, jelly, or stroop (A sort of thick syrup. It's not exactly maple syrup, and it's not exactly NOT maple syrup. Either way it's yummy.). Then you roll them up and eat them with a fork.

Some pannekoeken may also have cheese or ham baked into them. Both are delicious. The whole affair is basically one big salute to culinary hedonism.

I was somewhat bemused when they served dessert.

I didn't participate in the next part of the festivities, but I did snap some pictures. The kinderen parade through the streets with lanterns and go door to door asking for candy. The kids may also dress up in costume. Yeah, it's kind of like Halloween, but who stole what from who depends on who you ask. I will note that the Wikipedia page says nothing about 'dressing up'.



In this neighborhood the kids don't actually go door to door. But OZ 100 is big enough that they make several stops at the main house alone. The adults escort them to friendly doors in the neighborhood.

The end result is candy. In case someone hadn't had enough sugar that evening!








The lanterns are mostly constructed by the kinderen with a generous portion of help from grown-ups. They buy little lights hanging from sticks that you put inside.

---

That was Tuesday. Today is a cold, gray day, but that didn't stop Anne and I from exercising our Museum Cards. Today we went to the Jewish Museum, which we got into for FREE NINETY-NINE. Sweet. But on the way I thought I would snap some shots of the buurt (e.g. the neighborhood).



And this is Oudezijds 100. Well, I've cut off a bit of the building on the right, but you get the idea. The windows at basement level are for the kitchen, and are a convenient way for passing tourists to stare in in surprise around dinner time.



Jorene and Eric kick back and enjoy the warm morning (which lasted, I believe, for about five minutes).




The window girls don't appreciate being photographed, but they aren't out and about until late morning. These ARE actual windows, although Anne is not an actual window girl.



Waterlooplein! Hosts a thriving market where you can get, among other things, clothes. The prices are quite reasonable, and occasionally you can even talk them down. There are also 'snack stands'. I tried yet another burger at one, but once more I get some sort of wurst between two buns. What's up with that? Well, it was better then the one on Damstraat.



And this is New Market. It's only a block over from the District, but it has much nicer cafes. In spite of being called "New Market," it's a fairly small market and sells only only flowers. That big castle thing in the background was once a weighing house for merchant goods.



A gray day in Amsterdam. It's windy. The leaves lie in drifts along the sidewalk and the trees have skeletal reflections in the canal. But it's still a beautiful city. And sometimes? The sun even comes out.

bikes and castles

It's raining now. Back to the usual Autumnal Amsterdam weather. But this weekend we had a couple of glorious days. The sun showed his face and thinks perked up considerably around here. We even took a bike trip!

Saturday we decided that we would bike out to the village of Muiden (pronounced, roughly, Moy-den). So we saddled up our horses and hit the road.





It actually was a great day for riding, but it was quite windy. Well, that's Holland for you.

Our merry crew was comprised of Margreet, Marco, Anne (my counterpart - the other year-long volunteer, this time from Germany) and Hans.



Taking their biking obsession to its natural extreme, the Dutch have built this, the longest bike bridge in Europe, across the Amstel river.



Anne actually snapped most of these shots, so credit where credit is due. Here we are riding along a wide open landscape of hills and water. According to Hans, an authority on local history, most of this land is artificial.

Part of the reason Hans knows the area- that house in the middle used to be his.



But, you want to see castles. Okay!



Muiden is named after Muiden Castle, which is one of the largest in the country. The Netherlands actually doesn't have so many castles compared to, say, Germany, but this is a nice, large, picturesque one.

You had to buy tickets. Anne and I both procured Museum Cards, which should allow us discounted access to a lot of local museums in the future. I'm pretty excited about that. In the meantime, Marco and I posed for a photo op.



Marco is German, but grew up a Missionary Kid. He's spent some time in both Americas, and speaks English with a flawless American accent. He also digs some classic American films, so he's got a lot going for him in addition to the beard. If you haven't noticed it already, I've got a link to his blog over there on the right.

Inside the castle you find pretty much everything you'd hope for - a courtyard, a dungeon, suits of armor, and lots and lots and lots of stairs.







You'll also find at least one thing you didn't expect - video games?!?



Yep, there are several interactive video games in the castle. Most of them involve flinging boulders, flaming arrows and swords at wicked castle invaders, rendered to look like figures from medieval tapestries.



But what you really have to hear, and what I sadly cannot produce here, are the sound effects - the 'eeks' and 'ahhs!' as yet another invader is squashed, sliced, or sent hurtling into the moat.

Oh, that reminds me, someone had put shark fins in the moat. The local historical society certainly has a theatrical touch.

We couldn't stay long. Evening comes quickly at this latitude. We clambered back onto our fiets and took what was supposedly a more direct route. We passed through the center of Muiden village as we did so, and I really wish we had paused to snap some photos because it was rather picturesque.

Even so, by the time we found our way back into the outskirts of the city, it was getting pretty dark. The problem was that while all of our bikes had the mandatory lights - few of them worked. Mine, for instance, which I had ridden to a party near Museumplein the night before with a functional headlight, had gone dark and could not be revived.

Technically you can get fined for biking without a light, so we were on the alert for cops. Before very long a passing biker warned Margreet that there were some ahead. We dismounted, but saw no sign of them. We were just about to get back on when we spotted them - walking right toward us! Hans lead us down a sidestreet which lead more or less in the right direction, but they turned the corner and followed us!

At that moment we paused so that Magreet could use her cellphone. As we stood around casually on the darkened street corner, leaning on our bikes, the three police ambled past. They said nothing. They weren't long gone before we were back on our bikes, heading in the correct direction, pedaling for all we were worth.

I'm not sure exactly how far we went, but we put in probably three hours steady biking total, and at good speed too. Maybe about 30 km total?

Not too shabby.