Thursday, May 24, 2012
Why Go Around The World? How do you decide where to go?!
Hey guys, I know I said I was going to keep you updated with my various excursions on the way to planning my Big Trip for when I graduate, my Round the World (RTW) trip. As I had a semester of school between the last time I posted and now, I haven't had a lot of time to plan my trip, therefore there was nothing new to report! But, summer is in full swing, and besides reading Tolstoy's War and Peace for class, relearning Spanish, and working/ finding a second job, I'm devoting all of my time and energy to figuring out the details of the trip - where and when I'm gonna go, what visas/ work permits/ whatever I'll need for my trip document-wise and what materials I'll need to collect (read: a super nice pair of tennis shoes!) and what I can borrow from friends (for example, I have a friend whose family is Pakistani Muslim and she has appropriate dress for a woman to fit in there that I can hopefully borrow while I'm gone). What I've found is this: even with my well-traveled friends and family, this is going to be a tough decision! The world is so big and every country is different.
I do, however, have one advantage over others completing this trip: I'm an international relations student with a lot of friends. This means I am surrounded by peers and professors who study and hail from all over the world. My last dorm roommate and current roommate are both going to Russia, and my FAVORITE history professor was born and raised in Moscow. I made a friend in a class last semester who just got back from his study abroad in China. I have a professor who studies sub-Saharan Africa. I have a friend from my guitar class who lived in Costa Rica and a friend from Peru. Additionally, I lived in Europe. When I did so, I met people from all over the world: Brazil, Belgium, The Netherlands, England, Lithuania, Italy, Russia, China, Australia, and Germany, to be exact. I am still in contact with many if not all of these friends and know they would give me recommendations as to where to go in their countries. Finally, I have a friend I work with at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment who just spent time in Ethiopia and another friend who is spending a few weeks of her summer leading a service group to Rwanda. All of these people will be able to give me ideas on where to go and what to do when I'm there.
Something you have to do when planning a trip like this is to have a focus. You could do an "alcohols of the world" tour, or a food tour, or something like that. Because I'll be doing this trip at the end of my college career, I'll have my focus on something historical. I study the Cold War, World War II, and the European Union, so I plan to make my "abroad home base" the wonderful city of Berlin. This is for several reasons - you can see the Cold War and WWII remnants there everywhere, it's a city I've been to a few times, and you can never grow tired of it. I also have a friend who lives there, and plan to speak German by the time I graduate. Germany is also relatively central in Europe, and it's pretty easy to get anywhere from there. It was a central figure in WWII, the "battleground" of the Cold War, and is crucial to the functioning of the European Union today. It's really easy to get to Poland, for example, where I know I want to tour Auschwitz. I'll go to the Ukraine, where I'll see the remnants of Chernobyl. On to Russia, where I'll see Moscow and St. Petersburg. I'll head south through China, and I hope to see Cambodia and Thailand. Hopefully I can do some community service over there working with young children who were forced into the sex trade, a large industry.
From Asia, I want to loop back around to the middle east. On the way, I want to stop in India. If I can, I want to see Afghanistan rebuilt by the people. I want to see Pakistan and Israel. I want to see Egypt, both the ancient civilization and their rebuilding after this weekend's elections. I'll travel south through Sudan and South Sudan, seeing the remnants of the destruction caused by the ethnic conflict. I'll see Kenya, a country AU Abroad takes students for sustainable development. I'll see Tanzania and Angola, two countries I studied in middle school for reports. I'll see South Africa and the changes made since Apartheid. I want to see Morocco, which I've heard is beautiful. I would travel all over Africa if I could, because all of the cultures are different and each has a story to tell.
I would go to Australia at some point. This might come after Africa but maybe just after Asia and before Africa. I'd visit with my friend Dan and see Sydney and Melbourne. I want to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef.
Back in Europe, I want to see more of the Balkans and Southern Europe. I want to see the rest of these war-torn countries and the countries on the brink of chaos. I want to visit Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece in that order. From Greece, I want to go to FYROM (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) whose only barricade to European Union membership is its name. I want to go back to beautiful Croatia, see Bosnia once more, and visit the free Kosovo before venturing back to Serbia. I will head to Romania where I have a friend and see what his culture is like. Once I'm finally done with my beloved Europe, it will be time to see South America.
I have heard South America is very Americanized, but if that's true, my best guess would be that it was made that way by the Cold War. In a desperate fight to ward off Communism in the countries closest to us, America tried to spread its influence in the form of wealth all over South and Central America. We opened the controversial School of the Americas and trained their militaries. I want to see how effective our influence has spread. I want to see Haiti, and do more service - this time rebuilding from the hurricane. By this point, whatever clothes I have will be good work clothes anyway! More or less because it's very difficult for an American to do, I want to go to Cuba. I want to see the Cold War history still very much alive in the streets of Havana.
Even in writing this, I'm realizing things I missed. Somewhere in there, I want to see the United Kingdom - particularly where I have friends in England and where I have some roots in Ireland. I'm currently finding the process nearly impossible to decide, but I have exactly two years to go! If anyone has any suggestions for any human rights/ EU/ WWII/ Cold War-esque places to go, do leave a comment and let me know! I want to hear your opinion of where I should go!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Au Revoir Belgique! and Next Steps
Hey there guys - I made it safely back to America on December 16 and have resumed study at American University in DC. I do hope to keep this blog updated with tips for travel and other useful information regarding study abroad, so if you have anything you would like to know, write it in the comments or email me at idontdoquiet22@gmail.com.
Thinking about study abroad? DO IT. It was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life. My life in Belgium really taught me a lot about Europe, but more than that, it taught me who I am.
I have decided that my next big trip will be around the world, so I will probably continue this blog as I prepare for that. I will be working full time this summer to save some money for that and will be happy to share my experiences in the planning process. Thanks for sticking with me, guys! Where do you think I should go?! Leave your suggestions in the comments, including why I should make that stop while backpacking around the world.
Friday, November 25, 2011
On The Road Again... TO THE BALKANS!!
It’s finally over, and it’s already over: the big class trip to the Balkans. As I write this post, I’m sitting on the bus driving from Bosnia to Croatia, and wow, what I have seen since I’ve been here!
The trip started November 16, when the bus left at 7:00 in the morning! The only thing we did that day was drive to Vienna, a long but not impossible journey. The next morning we had a meeting at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They talked about their missions to help areas recover from conflict. We were able to attend a session of the Permanent Council, made up of ambassadors from all of their 47 member countries, including America! We met an ambassador outside the meeting who exchanged contact information with Jerry (our professor) and invited us to see his office in Sarajevo. After that, we toured the United Nations offices in Vienna. We met with the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) while we were there as well. The presentations focused on the safe use of nuclear energy and the ways the CTBTO tracks nuclear testing around the world. The representative from the IAEA (who was American) explained how the IAEA monitors atomic energy and how countries could potentially use atomic waste for more malicious purposes.
The next day, we went to the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency. They were really interesting, and a note for mom and dad: I ordered a lot of (free!) information from them, and gave them our home address. I don’t remember how many documents I ordered, but if anything comes for me from the EUFRA, it’s not spam!! Thanks! They have a wide range of projects, ranging from remembering the Holocaust to gay rights to human trafficking prevention. Its research based approach is useful to empower the other European institutions to act on preventing the worst human rights atrocities in the member states. That afternoon, we drove to Budapest.
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST FOR AN IMPORTANT WARNING TO EVERYONE WHO WILL TRAVEL TO A PLACE WITH A CURRENCY LIKE HUNGARY’S:
I pulled out money from an ATM instead of changing Euros. Jerry had told us about the exchange rate, but when I’m trying to focus at the ATM and do the math, I accidentally did something wrong. So, instead of pulling out $50, or 10.000 Hungarian Forint, I pulled out roughly $500 - 100.000 Forint. I still have a vast majority of it. Thank goodness Forint can be converted back to Euro ,but it’s been difficult for the rest of this trip as it doesn’t seem it can be converted to anything else. So, there are two lessons here. The first is not to do that, to think and plan before you even set foot near an ATM, and the second is what to do if this happens to you. Don’t panic, but instead, offer to pay for your friends with the expectation that they will pay you back in another currency. I paid for dinner for five people and was paid back mostly in Euro, and one of the girls paid me back in Serbian Dinar so I didn’t have to find a place to exchange in Belgrade. It worked out, and while I have a lot of Forint left, I can convert it tomorrow when we are in Germany.
Now back to our regularly scheduled trip summary.
Budapest was beautiful. We got a tour of the city where we could see the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Ottoman influence. Budapest has one of the oldest Turkish baths still functioning as such in the world. Food was great, especially the goulash. Hungarian goulash is better than any I have ever had, even my Aunt Terry’s - and that’s saying something pretty significant right there. Aunt Terry, we are going to have to try and find a recipe for Hungarian goulash online and make it sometime. It’s that good. The market was cool, too. It was a big warehouse type building with any and everything for sale. I bought my brother a hand-carved chess set and board for Christmas. I was reluctant to leave Budapest, as it was so beautiful. The Christmas market was already out, and it filled the air with a little bit of cheer while we moved through.
Now, as we went through one moving from Hungary to Serbia, I’ll take a minute and talk about border crossings. (This is also relevant as I am writing this sitting at a border crossing into Croatia.) I am in a class of 27. Add a professor and a bus driver and you get 29. For those of you who might not know, the reason we haven’t had to deal with this until getting into the Balkans is because of the Shengin zone and the European Union. This guarantees borderless travel - no checks, no passport stamps, just a sign. Basically like the United States. So our first border crossing was into Serbia. The guard gets on the bus, collects our passports, and leaves. He or she stamps them and returns them in a stack to Jerry who distributes them once we get going again. But we don’t have long to go! We then go to the other border, over no man’s land, and do It all again. We are lucky, we are all American - but other minorities have a difficult time at the borders, as the crossings could take hours.
We stayed in a Soviet-era hotel in Belgrade, where people were allowed to smoke in the hotel. Everything was cheap, and I was able to get everything I needed on the few Dinar my friend paid me back, with coins left over for the collection! The next morning, we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We met with an official of the ministry regarding the state of Serbian affairs after the wars. Oh, forgot to mention - we had a lecture on the Balkan Wars ON THE BUS to the Balkans! Jerry taught us about the wars on the roads they happened on. It was the most engaging lesson I had ever had. We got to see more damage firsthand in Belgrade in between our appointments. We met in the afternoon with the Assistant Minister for European Integration about the steps Serbia needs to take in order to integrate and become an EU member state. We then got a fun tour of Belgrade from a local.
The next day we departed for Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We got another lecture on the war in Bosnia and the sad things that happened there. We went to the memorial in Srebrenica where we saw the scale of just how big the massacre was. It was disturbing to see, yet necessary. Driving through the countryside, you can see houses that are completely burned out next to perfectly normal ones - houses of Bosniacs vs houses of Serbs. We stayed the night in Srebrenica in a really cool little hotel where we took up all of the rooms. We hung out as a group and listened to Zack play guitar while we played cards, etc. The hotel staff loved us. The next morning we left for Sarajevo.
We had really interesting meetings in Sarajevo. We got a tour of the city by a Bosnian soldier named Muki who showed us where the Serbs and Bosniacs fought for Sarajevo. We walked through part of a tunnel used to transport goods into the city when it was surrounded. After that, we had a meeting at the American embassy with the Deputy Chief of Mission - basically the second in command at the embassy. He is an American University graduate who, in his own words, “took the foreign service exam, graduated from AU, walked down the street and joined the State Department.” More or less what I hope to do one day, except perhaps replace State Department with FBI. He talked to us about the United States’ role in Bosnian affairs and preparing Bosnia to function with the rest of Europe. He was really interesting and told us we might see him at our Thanksgiving dinner the next day. That night, we had a small tour of Sarajevo, including following the story of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
The next day, we had three meetings. We met with the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Office of the High Representative, and, thanks to our dialogues in Vienna, the OSCE. All had a similar message: the EU would be the best solution for Bosnia, but Bosnia is stuck with the current system and is failing to make much progress toward that solution. That night, we had Thanksgiving dinner at a local pub. They served turkey with local vegetables. And who should show up to eat with us but the Deputy Chief of Mission from the embassy! We had thanksgiving dinner with a high ranking diplomat! The group really came together then. We all went home happy and I relaxed and packed for the trip I’m on now. On the way to Zagreb now, where we will spend tonight and leave early tomorrow morning to go to Munich to finish off our trip together. I’m glad we got to band together before we had to go home. It’s unreal to think that three weeks from today I get on a plane and go back to the United States. I miss my family, but I don’t want to leave Europe!
The trip started November 16, when the bus left at 7:00 in the morning! The only thing we did that day was drive to Vienna, a long but not impossible journey. The next morning we had a meeting at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). They talked about their missions to help areas recover from conflict. We were able to attend a session of the Permanent Council, made up of ambassadors from all of their 47 member countries, including America! We met an ambassador outside the meeting who exchanged contact information with Jerry (our professor) and invited us to see his office in Sarajevo. After that, we toured the United Nations offices in Vienna. We met with the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) while we were there as well. The presentations focused on the safe use of nuclear energy and the ways the CTBTO tracks nuclear testing around the world. The representative from the IAEA (who was American) explained how the IAEA monitors atomic energy and how countries could potentially use atomic waste for more malicious purposes.
The next day, we went to the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency. They were really interesting, and a note for mom and dad: I ordered a lot of (free!) information from them, and gave them our home address. I don’t remember how many documents I ordered, but if anything comes for me from the EUFRA, it’s not spam!! Thanks! They have a wide range of projects, ranging from remembering the Holocaust to gay rights to human trafficking prevention. Its research based approach is useful to empower the other European institutions to act on preventing the worst human rights atrocities in the member states. That afternoon, we drove to Budapest.
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST FOR AN IMPORTANT WARNING TO EVERYONE WHO WILL TRAVEL TO A PLACE WITH A CURRENCY LIKE HUNGARY’S:
I pulled out money from an ATM instead of changing Euros. Jerry had told us about the exchange rate, but when I’m trying to focus at the ATM and do the math, I accidentally did something wrong. So, instead of pulling out $50, or 10.000 Hungarian Forint, I pulled out roughly $500 - 100.000 Forint. I still have a vast majority of it. Thank goodness Forint can be converted back to Euro ,but it’s been difficult for the rest of this trip as it doesn’t seem it can be converted to anything else. So, there are two lessons here. The first is not to do that, to think and plan before you even set foot near an ATM, and the second is what to do if this happens to you. Don’t panic, but instead, offer to pay for your friends with the expectation that they will pay you back in another currency. I paid for dinner for five people and was paid back mostly in Euro, and one of the girls paid me back in Serbian Dinar so I didn’t have to find a place to exchange in Belgrade. It worked out, and while I have a lot of Forint left, I can convert it tomorrow when we are in Germany.
Now back to our regularly scheduled trip summary.
Budapest was beautiful. We got a tour of the city where we could see the Austro-Hungarian empire and the Ottoman influence. Budapest has one of the oldest Turkish baths still functioning as such in the world. Food was great, especially the goulash. Hungarian goulash is better than any I have ever had, even my Aunt Terry’s - and that’s saying something pretty significant right there. Aunt Terry, we are going to have to try and find a recipe for Hungarian goulash online and make it sometime. It’s that good. The market was cool, too. It was a big warehouse type building with any and everything for sale. I bought my brother a hand-carved chess set and board for Christmas. I was reluctant to leave Budapest, as it was so beautiful. The Christmas market was already out, and it filled the air with a little bit of cheer while we moved through.
Now, as we went through one moving from Hungary to Serbia, I’ll take a minute and talk about border crossings. (This is also relevant as I am writing this sitting at a border crossing into Croatia.) I am in a class of 27. Add a professor and a bus driver and you get 29. For those of you who might not know, the reason we haven’t had to deal with this until getting into the Balkans is because of the Shengin zone and the European Union. This guarantees borderless travel - no checks, no passport stamps, just a sign. Basically like the United States. So our first border crossing was into Serbia. The guard gets on the bus, collects our passports, and leaves. He or she stamps them and returns them in a stack to Jerry who distributes them once we get going again. But we don’t have long to go! We then go to the other border, over no man’s land, and do It all again. We are lucky, we are all American - but other minorities have a difficult time at the borders, as the crossings could take hours.
We stayed in a Soviet-era hotel in Belgrade, where people were allowed to smoke in the hotel. Everything was cheap, and I was able to get everything I needed on the few Dinar my friend paid me back, with coins left over for the collection! The next morning, we went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We met with an official of the ministry regarding the state of Serbian affairs after the wars. Oh, forgot to mention - we had a lecture on the Balkan Wars ON THE BUS to the Balkans! Jerry taught us about the wars on the roads they happened on. It was the most engaging lesson I had ever had. We got to see more damage firsthand in Belgrade in between our appointments. We met in the afternoon with the Assistant Minister for European Integration about the steps Serbia needs to take in order to integrate and become an EU member state. We then got a fun tour of Belgrade from a local.
The next day we departed for Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We got another lecture on the war in Bosnia and the sad things that happened there. We went to the memorial in Srebrenica where we saw the scale of just how big the massacre was. It was disturbing to see, yet necessary. Driving through the countryside, you can see houses that are completely burned out next to perfectly normal ones - houses of Bosniacs vs houses of Serbs. We stayed the night in Srebrenica in a really cool little hotel where we took up all of the rooms. We hung out as a group and listened to Zack play guitar while we played cards, etc. The hotel staff loved us. The next morning we left for Sarajevo.
We had really interesting meetings in Sarajevo. We got a tour of the city by a Bosnian soldier named Muki who showed us where the Serbs and Bosniacs fought for Sarajevo. We walked through part of a tunnel used to transport goods into the city when it was surrounded. After that, we had a meeting at the American embassy with the Deputy Chief of Mission - basically the second in command at the embassy. He is an American University graduate who, in his own words, “took the foreign service exam, graduated from AU, walked down the street and joined the State Department.” More or less what I hope to do one day, except perhaps replace State Department with FBI. He talked to us about the United States’ role in Bosnian affairs and preparing Bosnia to function with the rest of Europe. He was really interesting and told us we might see him at our Thanksgiving dinner the next day. That night, we had a small tour of Sarajevo, including following the story of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
The next day, we had three meetings. We met with the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Office of the High Representative, and, thanks to our dialogues in Vienna, the OSCE. All had a similar message: the EU would be the best solution for Bosnia, but Bosnia is stuck with the current system and is failing to make much progress toward that solution. That night, we had Thanksgiving dinner at a local pub. They served turkey with local vegetables. And who should show up to eat with us but the Deputy Chief of Mission from the embassy! We had thanksgiving dinner with a high ranking diplomat! The group really came together then. We all went home happy and I relaxed and packed for the trip I’m on now. On the way to Zagreb now, where we will spend tonight and leave early tomorrow morning to go to Munich to finish off our trip together. I’m glad we got to band together before we had to go home. It’s unreal to think that three weeks from today I get on a plane and go back to the United States. I miss my family, but I don’t want to leave Europe!
Sachsenhausen.
On my last day in Berlin, I made the most important day trip I have ever made. I went to the work camp Sachsenhausen. Our guide was up front about the fact that the trip wasn’t meant to be enjoyable, that we would feel awful, and that it would be difficult. I thought I was ready - after all, I had been to the museum in DC and had been studying the Holocaust since I was twelve. I was wrong.
We took the train to Sachsenhausen, following the exact route prisoners took when they were incarcerated there. Our guide explained the story of who was in the camp, which was mostly a political dissidents/ Communists camp. He told us people in the surrounding community knew about the camp, but were told it was a few week program and prisoners would eventually return to their families. This was largely untrue. If the prisoners in the camp weren’t shot by guards, tortured, or put through the small extermination center, station Zed, they were starved or malnourished. Diseases spread quickly through the camp.
I should pause here and make the distinction now: Sachsenhausen was NOT a death camp. It was a work camp. Prisoners there were in charge of doing a lot of manual labor for the Nazis and were only exterminated if it was “necessary” - they fell ill or were too weak to work anymore. Sachsenhausen was also in charge of one of the largest successful counterfeiting operations in history. The nazis used prisoners who were formerly criminally charged for counterfeiting or related crimes and asked them to counterfeit currency such as the British pound. The German government then used these bills to buy munitions and other things from England and even America. The guide recommended the movie The Counterfeiters for those interested in that operation.
The barracks were small, dark, and cold. There aren’t words to describe the emotions I felt. What it must have been like for those who lived there! 400 men to a bathroom, all having to get up and ready to stand for roll call within ten minutes. Cold, thin cotton uniforms. No hair. The guards would shave a prisoner’s hair and give him a uniform and a number upon arrival. Uniforms were never the right size. They did all of this to dehumanize the prisoners, making it easier for guards to treat them as less than human due to their appearance.
There was a camp prison. The place existed for the sole purpose of having somewhere worse than the mainstream camp. People were tortured in the building, and their screams could be heard throughout the camp. The whole place was so exposed. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to be alone.
Station Zed was terrifying. Only the foundation remained, but I could still feel what it must have been like. This is what happened. Prisoners who were to be put to death were simply told they had to see a doctor for a checkup, which was a regular thing and no cause for alarm. A doctor would perform a series of tests, but all they were really checking for was gold teeth. If one had gold teeth, he was marked with a large X on his chest, so the nazis knew to pick his teeth out before cremation. After the exams, the prisoners were divided into different groups. One group was sent to the “showers” or the gas chamber. The chamber at Sachsenhausen was small, as again they were only a work camp. Once dead, they were placed in crematoriums. The other group were sent for “additional tests” in a small room. A doctor would measure their height, while on the other side of the wall a soldier with a gun shot each prisoner in the back of the neck. Gold teeth were removed and they were sent to the gas chambers.
I left the camp in a mixture of dull emotions under an overwhelming sense of numbness. It was almost as if I couldn’t feel because I had died to the world as these men had done. The emotions flowing under the numbness varied, from anger to sadness to grief to gratefulness at being alive. As an American Catholic woman with European ancestry I haven’t ever been discriminated against or felt threatened in the way I can imagine these people have been. If you travel to Europe, please, go to a concentration camp. You can read my account, you can go to the museum, but it will never hit home unless you walk in their footsteps and see what they saw. Going to the camp itself is free, tours are not expensive, and it’s an experience that will change your life and make you think differently about your neighbors all across the world.
We took the train to Sachsenhausen, following the exact route prisoners took when they were incarcerated there. Our guide explained the story of who was in the camp, which was mostly a political dissidents/ Communists camp. He told us people in the surrounding community knew about the camp, but were told it was a few week program and prisoners would eventually return to their families. This was largely untrue. If the prisoners in the camp weren’t shot by guards, tortured, or put through the small extermination center, station Zed, they were starved or malnourished. Diseases spread quickly through the camp.
I should pause here and make the distinction now: Sachsenhausen was NOT a death camp. It was a work camp. Prisoners there were in charge of doing a lot of manual labor for the Nazis and were only exterminated if it was “necessary” - they fell ill or were too weak to work anymore. Sachsenhausen was also in charge of one of the largest successful counterfeiting operations in history. The nazis used prisoners who were formerly criminally charged for counterfeiting or related crimes and asked them to counterfeit currency such as the British pound. The German government then used these bills to buy munitions and other things from England and even America. The guide recommended the movie The Counterfeiters for those interested in that operation.
The barracks were small, dark, and cold. There aren’t words to describe the emotions I felt. What it must have been like for those who lived there! 400 men to a bathroom, all having to get up and ready to stand for roll call within ten minutes. Cold, thin cotton uniforms. No hair. The guards would shave a prisoner’s hair and give him a uniform and a number upon arrival. Uniforms were never the right size. They did all of this to dehumanize the prisoners, making it easier for guards to treat them as less than human due to their appearance.
There was a camp prison. The place existed for the sole purpose of having somewhere worse than the mainstream camp. People were tortured in the building, and their screams could be heard throughout the camp. The whole place was so exposed. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to be alone.
Station Zed was terrifying. Only the foundation remained, but I could still feel what it must have been like. This is what happened. Prisoners who were to be put to death were simply told they had to see a doctor for a checkup, which was a regular thing and no cause for alarm. A doctor would perform a series of tests, but all they were really checking for was gold teeth. If one had gold teeth, he was marked with a large X on his chest, so the nazis knew to pick his teeth out before cremation. After the exams, the prisoners were divided into different groups. One group was sent to the “showers” or the gas chamber. The chamber at Sachsenhausen was small, as again they were only a work camp. Once dead, they were placed in crematoriums. The other group were sent for “additional tests” in a small room. A doctor would measure their height, while on the other side of the wall a soldier with a gun shot each prisoner in the back of the neck. Gold teeth were removed and they were sent to the gas chambers.
I left the camp in a mixture of dull emotions under an overwhelming sense of numbness. It was almost as if I couldn’t feel because I had died to the world as these men had done. The emotions flowing under the numbness varied, from anger to sadness to grief to gratefulness at being alive. As an American Catholic woman with European ancestry I haven’t ever been discriminated against or felt threatened in the way I can imagine these people have been. If you travel to Europe, please, go to a concentration camp. You can read my account, you can go to the museum, but it will never hit home unless you walk in their footsteps and see what they saw. Going to the camp itself is free, tours are not expensive, and it’s an experience that will change your life and make you think differently about your neighbors all across the world.
A City Once Divided Now Standing Strong... Berlin!
Fall break is finally here! I chose to go to Berlin, the capital of Germany. I expected a fun, historically interesting week. I got that and so much more.
I arrived Sunday night after a peaceful weekend of catching up in Brussels. The airport was Berlin Schoenefeld. If you are unfamiliar with the airports in Berlin, as I was, you wouldn’t know, as I didn’t, that this airport is about a half an hour drive out of the city. Buses and trains go there, but I wasn’t sure if they would be running at 23.00 when I got in. The cab took me to my hostel and helped me get my little bag to the door.
The hostel Die Etage East was cheap, and that’s why I picked it. The staff was nice and the facilities were clean and everything, but when the front desk has to draw an arrow off the side of the huge Berlin map you know you’re in the middle of nowhere. The people in the hostel I met the first night were cordial but not terribly memorable.
The next morning I decided to walk to the center of town. Here’s a tip for iPhone users: if you plug in your desired route on Maps before you leave a wi-fi zone, you can use the GPS to follow the lines on the map even if you’re outside internet. This proved quite useful for the hour and a half, 6,9 km walk. I went to the Jewish memorial and the Brandenburg Gate, and walked back. The Jewish memorial was interesting. It is a series of different gray blocks of varying heights. The artist wanted to leave interpretation up to the viewer. I got the most out of sitting in the middle of the monument where the blocks were twice my height and I could feel trapped. I liked the memorial overall, but didn’t like the fact that people are allowed to sit and eat on the blocks. It just didn’t seem right to stand/ sit on a memorial to those who were murdered for the crime of being Jewish.
The United States embassy was right next to the Brandenburg Gate. There were people outside, protesting America and our treatment of civilians in the Middle East. It’s interesting to notice that no matter how far you get from America, you can’t escape our biggest political issues. On the way home, I found the Komische Oper, the opera house I would be attending on Thursday night.
On the walk home, there were all sorts of cute little kids dressed up for Halloween. It made me a little homesick to be honest, for both Michigan and Washington. In Michigan, Halloween is our family’s favorite holiday. In Washington, we as students get to trick or treat at the embassies, which is one of our greatest cultural experiences of the year. Watching the kids go around as little witches and vampires made the long walk home a lot easier. I got home, took care of some stuff with reception (I had to check out and check back in the next day, and the reception was going to hold my bag so I didn’t have to carry it), and heard someone in reception playing guitar. I was glad to hear music - there’s someone on my program who brings his guitar to class trips, but we don’t always have time to sit down and listen. So, sit down and listen was just what I did. I can’t really describe what music does to me, but I was relaxed and peaceful at the end of that tough day. The guitar player stopped playing soon after I sat down and introduced himself in a heavy English accent as Alex. Before long, we were talking like we’d known each other for ages. Over a couple of beers from the store (which were only 50 cents! Thank you Germany!!!) we talked about our lives, what we were doing in Berlin, and anything you can imagine. We watched our favorite YouTube videos and shared our opinions on each others’ countries. He even mimicked what he thought an American accent sounded like - one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time. It was some combination of New York, Boston, and a southern drawl. All of a sudden, we looked at the clock, shocked to discover it was 6 in the morning! We just went to our rooms, got dressed, and ate breakfast while he showed me where I was going for my tour, hoping to see each other later.
The tour was fantastic. I thought I was going to be late, but arrived right on time - two minutes early at that! It wasn’t free like the other Berlin tour I heard about later, but I recommend Insider Tours for whatever you want in Berlin. They do a series of tours, including one of Sachsenhausen concentration camp and one of the Potsdam area. For more information, check their website. Our guide was delighted to discover my history major, and asked me to correct her if she got anything wrong. She was fascinating and easy to talk to. It felt like a personal tour, versus being with a group. Later, I took the tram back to the hostel and prepared my bags to leave. As nice as the hostel was, I didn’t want to have to buy U-Bahn/ S-Bahn tickets every day I was in Berlin to get anywhere in town. Alex offered to take me with him to the hostel he was moving to, downtown. So there we went.
Here’s another recommendation for you: the St. Christopher’s hostel group. They have locations all over the UK, in Prague, Bruges, and Berlin. If you stay once, you get a “beds and bars” card which gives you a 10% discount at the bar in the hostel and on additional stays. I ended up paying significantly less for the hostel than I would otherwise have done thanks to that card, which I still have. The hostel is safe, clean, fun, and really accommodating. Dinner was really cheap at a place close to the hostel - now that we were in Alexanderplatz, the center of the city. That night was quiet, listening to Alex play, eating dinner, and catching up on sleep we both missed the night before.
For the rest of the week, I saw most of the important things to see in Berlin. I saw the German history museum, which traced the history of Germany from the time of the Celts to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was fascinating to see how Germany has evolved! I spent more time around the Brandenburg Gate as there was a lot to see there. I walked around and noticed how different the two sides of the city really were. After the fall of the Wall, a lot of German money was spent restoring East Berlin. As a result, the former Communist section has better roads, buildings, and is less polluted than West Berlin. I also did a tour of Sachsenhausen that I want to talk about in a separate, detailed post. Stay tuned for that! At night, I’d listen to Alex’s guitar, we’d have dinner, and I would sit at the bar. Thursday night I saw Dialogues of the Carmelites at the opera. It was interesting, and at intermission the people sitting next to me asked me about my studies. I can tell I’m becoming more serious of a student every day, because that was one of my most exciting conversations of the week. I went back that night and sat at the bar, where I had a few drinks and talked to an older English man about living in hostels, music, and Shakespeare. Aunt Janice, if you’re reading this, I was even able to recite a few lines!!
Leaving was hard, but I found it necessary to go out with a bang! As I had to leave the hostel at about 4 in the morning, I decided there was no point in going to bed. Instead, Alex and I made a few friends and the four of us planned to stay out all night, at least until I had to leave. Here I want to give a shout out to Unity and Dan, from Canada and Australia respectively. You guys are awesome, and I was happy to have you and Alex along! We started in the hostel bar, where there was a live musician playing guitar. He offered to let everyone who knew guitar play. Several people went up, played a couple songs ranging from Wonderwall by Oasis to Britney Spears. Alex, with minor persuasion by the rest of us who knew how awesome he sounded on guitar, went up after most of the other people had gone. I didn’t think the crowd was ever going to let him off the stage! After the live music was over, the musician came over to us (as the bar was pouring us all shots of Jäger and Alex a huge beer - all on the house!) and pulled up a chair, talking to Alex about how impressed he was with his talent. I was talking to Unity, so I was only able to eavesdrop a little bit (but I did, sorry Alex!), but the performer offered Alex a shot at recording! As far as I know, they recorded this week (since I’m a bit behind on these posts, it’s November 25th. And Alex, if you’re reading this, leave a comment and let me/ my readers know how it went?). After that was said and done, we left in search of another bar.
To our delight, we found this really cool bar that was playing what I can only describe as “all the angsty music from the 90s we grew up with.” The place was packed, and everyone was on the dance floor. We were able to lose all track of time dancing the night away, screaming the lyrics to the songs at the top of our lungs. When we went back to the hostel, it was nearly impossible to say goodbye. But, armed with the memories of that week and the determination to keep in touch with my friends, I was able to walk out the door and leave that world behind.
I arrived Sunday night after a peaceful weekend of catching up in Brussels. The airport was Berlin Schoenefeld. If you are unfamiliar with the airports in Berlin, as I was, you wouldn’t know, as I didn’t, that this airport is about a half an hour drive out of the city. Buses and trains go there, but I wasn’t sure if they would be running at 23.00 when I got in. The cab took me to my hostel and helped me get my little bag to the door.
The hostel Die Etage East was cheap, and that’s why I picked it. The staff was nice and the facilities were clean and everything, but when the front desk has to draw an arrow off the side of the huge Berlin map you know you’re in the middle of nowhere. The people in the hostel I met the first night were cordial but not terribly memorable.
The next morning I decided to walk to the center of town. Here’s a tip for iPhone users: if you plug in your desired route on Maps before you leave a wi-fi zone, you can use the GPS to follow the lines on the map even if you’re outside internet. This proved quite useful for the hour and a half, 6,9 km walk. I went to the Jewish memorial and the Brandenburg Gate, and walked back. The Jewish memorial was interesting. It is a series of different gray blocks of varying heights. The artist wanted to leave interpretation up to the viewer. I got the most out of sitting in the middle of the monument where the blocks were twice my height and I could feel trapped. I liked the memorial overall, but didn’t like the fact that people are allowed to sit and eat on the blocks. It just didn’t seem right to stand/ sit on a memorial to those who were murdered for the crime of being Jewish.
The United States embassy was right next to the Brandenburg Gate. There were people outside, protesting America and our treatment of civilians in the Middle East. It’s interesting to notice that no matter how far you get from America, you can’t escape our biggest political issues. On the way home, I found the Komische Oper, the opera house I would be attending on Thursday night.
On the walk home, there were all sorts of cute little kids dressed up for Halloween. It made me a little homesick to be honest, for both Michigan and Washington. In Michigan, Halloween is our family’s favorite holiday. In Washington, we as students get to trick or treat at the embassies, which is one of our greatest cultural experiences of the year. Watching the kids go around as little witches and vampires made the long walk home a lot easier. I got home, took care of some stuff with reception (I had to check out and check back in the next day, and the reception was going to hold my bag so I didn’t have to carry it), and heard someone in reception playing guitar. I was glad to hear music - there’s someone on my program who brings his guitar to class trips, but we don’t always have time to sit down and listen. So, sit down and listen was just what I did. I can’t really describe what music does to me, but I was relaxed and peaceful at the end of that tough day. The guitar player stopped playing soon after I sat down and introduced himself in a heavy English accent as Alex. Before long, we were talking like we’d known each other for ages. Over a couple of beers from the store (which were only 50 cents! Thank you Germany!!!) we talked about our lives, what we were doing in Berlin, and anything you can imagine. We watched our favorite YouTube videos and shared our opinions on each others’ countries. He even mimicked what he thought an American accent sounded like - one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time. It was some combination of New York, Boston, and a southern drawl. All of a sudden, we looked at the clock, shocked to discover it was 6 in the morning! We just went to our rooms, got dressed, and ate breakfast while he showed me where I was going for my tour, hoping to see each other later.
The tour was fantastic. I thought I was going to be late, but arrived right on time - two minutes early at that! It wasn’t free like the other Berlin tour I heard about later, but I recommend Insider Tours for whatever you want in Berlin. They do a series of tours, including one of Sachsenhausen concentration camp and one of the Potsdam area. For more information, check their website. Our guide was delighted to discover my history major, and asked me to correct her if she got anything wrong. She was fascinating and easy to talk to. It felt like a personal tour, versus being with a group. Later, I took the tram back to the hostel and prepared my bags to leave. As nice as the hostel was, I didn’t want to have to buy U-Bahn/ S-Bahn tickets every day I was in Berlin to get anywhere in town. Alex offered to take me with him to the hostel he was moving to, downtown. So there we went.
Here’s another recommendation for you: the St. Christopher’s hostel group. They have locations all over the UK, in Prague, Bruges, and Berlin. If you stay once, you get a “beds and bars” card which gives you a 10% discount at the bar in the hostel and on additional stays. I ended up paying significantly less for the hostel than I would otherwise have done thanks to that card, which I still have. The hostel is safe, clean, fun, and really accommodating. Dinner was really cheap at a place close to the hostel - now that we were in Alexanderplatz, the center of the city. That night was quiet, listening to Alex play, eating dinner, and catching up on sleep we both missed the night before.
For the rest of the week, I saw most of the important things to see in Berlin. I saw the German history museum, which traced the history of Germany from the time of the Celts to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was fascinating to see how Germany has evolved! I spent more time around the Brandenburg Gate as there was a lot to see there. I walked around and noticed how different the two sides of the city really were. After the fall of the Wall, a lot of German money was spent restoring East Berlin. As a result, the former Communist section has better roads, buildings, and is less polluted than West Berlin. I also did a tour of Sachsenhausen that I want to talk about in a separate, detailed post. Stay tuned for that! At night, I’d listen to Alex’s guitar, we’d have dinner, and I would sit at the bar. Thursday night I saw Dialogues of the Carmelites at the opera. It was interesting, and at intermission the people sitting next to me asked me about my studies. I can tell I’m becoming more serious of a student every day, because that was one of my most exciting conversations of the week. I went back that night and sat at the bar, where I had a few drinks and talked to an older English man about living in hostels, music, and Shakespeare. Aunt Janice, if you’re reading this, I was even able to recite a few lines!!
Leaving was hard, but I found it necessary to go out with a bang! As I had to leave the hostel at about 4 in the morning, I decided there was no point in going to bed. Instead, Alex and I made a few friends and the four of us planned to stay out all night, at least until I had to leave. Here I want to give a shout out to Unity and Dan, from Canada and Australia respectively. You guys are awesome, and I was happy to have you and Alex along! We started in the hostel bar, where there was a live musician playing guitar. He offered to let everyone who knew guitar play. Several people went up, played a couple songs ranging from Wonderwall by Oasis to Britney Spears. Alex, with minor persuasion by the rest of us who knew how awesome he sounded on guitar, went up after most of the other people had gone. I didn’t think the crowd was ever going to let him off the stage! After the live music was over, the musician came over to us (as the bar was pouring us all shots of Jäger and Alex a huge beer - all on the house!) and pulled up a chair, talking to Alex about how impressed he was with his talent. I was talking to Unity, so I was only able to eavesdrop a little bit (but I did, sorry Alex!), but the performer offered Alex a shot at recording! As far as I know, they recorded this week (since I’m a bit behind on these posts, it’s November 25th. And Alex, if you’re reading this, leave a comment and let me/ my readers know how it went?). After that was said and done, we left in search of another bar.
To our delight, we found this really cool bar that was playing what I can only describe as “all the angsty music from the 90s we grew up with.” The place was packed, and everyone was on the dance floor. We were able to lose all track of time dancing the night away, screaming the lyrics to the songs at the top of our lungs. When we went back to the hostel, it was nearly impossible to say goodbye. But, armed with the memories of that week and the determination to keep in touch with my friends, I was able to walk out the door and leave that world behind.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Hold Up A Sec... Which Language Do I Say Thank You In Today?
So much traveling! We went by bus, as a class, to Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Strasbourg (France... for now), and Trier (Germany) this week (18 October through 23 October). Again, we were able to see several important institutions, and the week ended with a special personal moment for me!
We left on the bus on Tuesday night for Luxembourg. In case you didn't know, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a small country southeast of Belgium. It is one of the most wealthy countries in the European Union, and is home to the Court of Justice of the European Union. We were able to visit the court and view a case regarding copyright issues in playing music on European radio stations. Later, we got a tour of the beautiful town of Luxembourg. A fun fact: children in Luxembourg learn four languages throughout their schooling: French, German, English, and a local language: Luxembourgish. We also saw an incredible American military cemetery in Luxembourg.
We traveled from Luxembourg to Strasbourg on Thursday. Strasbourg is in the Alsace region in France. For those of you who may not know the history, the Alsace has been controlled by both France and Germany many times over. The resulting culture is fascinating. Strasbourg is the place where the European Parliament must move once a month to hold plenary sessions, a move that sparks a lot of controversy within the European Union. It also hosts the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, two institutions we were able to tour.
After one night in Strasbourg, after our tours at the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, it was back on the bus headed for Trier! Trier, Germany is a city with a long and fascinating history. Its claim to fame is the Roman-era Porta Negra, one of the ancient Roman city fortifications. It was by far my favorite city, as there was a different era of history at every turn. The cathedral was spectacular - it incorporated the four major movements of architecture into one building! We spent two nights there and then headed for home.
On the way home, we made a few stops. The first was a stop solely for me. I had asked my aunt Janice if she could tell me any of our family history and where I might find our family history. She discovered the following: Jacob Nafziger, son of Joseph Nafziger and Magdalena Weisz, was born January 18, 1844, in Echternach, Germany. He came to America with his family when he was 2 years old. He married Mary Rychener in 1867, and they had nine children; the youngest was Charley, who is my dad's grandfather. I relayed the story to Jerry, my professor, with the added discovery that Echternach is actually in Luxembourg, not Germany. As it turns out, Echternach was directly on our way home! They allowed me to stop in front of the sign and get my picture taken in the town, literally on the border with Germany, that my great-great-great grandfather was born and raised. It was surreal to see. After Echternach, we stopped at a museum dedicated to the Battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) and toured. We saw important battle sites and an enormous monument constructed to the American soldiers who fought, built and donated by Belgian citizens near Bastogne. Finally, we walked through a German military cemetery from World War II. The differences between it and the American cemetery were striking - the Germans were buried six to a headstone, and it looked like an ordinary graveyard. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of unknowns. It was tragically fascinating to see.
We left on the bus on Tuesday night for Luxembourg. In case you didn't know, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a small country southeast of Belgium. It is one of the most wealthy countries in the European Union, and is home to the Court of Justice of the European Union. We were able to visit the court and view a case regarding copyright issues in playing music on European radio stations. Later, we got a tour of the beautiful town of Luxembourg. A fun fact: children in Luxembourg learn four languages throughout their schooling: French, German, English, and a local language: Luxembourgish. We also saw an incredible American military cemetery in Luxembourg.
We traveled from Luxembourg to Strasbourg on Thursday. Strasbourg is in the Alsace region in France. For those of you who may not know the history, the Alsace has been controlled by both France and Germany many times over. The resulting culture is fascinating. Strasbourg is the place where the European Parliament must move once a month to hold plenary sessions, a move that sparks a lot of controversy within the European Union. It also hosts the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, two institutions we were able to tour.
After one night in Strasbourg, after our tours at the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, it was back on the bus headed for Trier! Trier, Germany is a city with a long and fascinating history. Its claim to fame is the Roman-era Porta Negra, one of the ancient Roman city fortifications. It was by far my favorite city, as there was a different era of history at every turn. The cathedral was spectacular - it incorporated the four major movements of architecture into one building! We spent two nights there and then headed for home.
On the way home, we made a few stops. The first was a stop solely for me. I had asked my aunt Janice if she could tell me any of our family history and where I might find our family history. She discovered the following: Jacob Nafziger, son of Joseph Nafziger and Magdalena Weisz, was born January 18, 1844, in Echternach, Germany. He came to America with his family when he was 2 years old. He married Mary Rychener in 1867, and they had nine children; the youngest was Charley, who is my dad's grandfather. I relayed the story to Jerry, my professor, with the added discovery that Echternach is actually in Luxembourg, not Germany. As it turns out, Echternach was directly on our way home! They allowed me to stop in front of the sign and get my picture taken in the town, literally on the border with Germany, that my great-great-great grandfather was born and raised. It was surreal to see. After Echternach, we stopped at a museum dedicated to the Battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) and toured. We saw important battle sites and an enormous monument constructed to the American soldiers who fought, built and donated by Belgian citizens near Bastogne. Finally, we walked through a German military cemetery from World War II. The differences between it and the American cemetery were striking - the Germans were buried six to a headstone, and it looked like an ordinary graveyard. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of unknowns. It was tragically fascinating to see.
Den Haag and Amsterdam, a.k.a. my future home
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't written in awhile, but as you'll see over these couple of posts it's just been one thing after another!
This is the first of three new posts I am going to write this weekend. These events took place 12 October through 16 October.
Wow, was it COLD this week! Note to self: ALWAYS bring a coat with you when you go to the Netherlands. Even if weather.com says it's going to be in the 50s and 60s and sunny. However, despite being cold, The Hague (Den Haag) was beautiful! It's a historic old town in the Netherlands and for a peace and justice nerd like me, it's where everything is happening. We toured EuroJust, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). We met with several important members of these organizations and were privileged to watch part of a court case at the ICC! I made the decision that I wanted to work for EuroJust when I am out of school, which is an organization that helps European Union member states cooperate regarding organized crime cases - like the human trafficking cases I hope to tackle one day.
After Den Haag, we had a long weekend where most of us went to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I was quite sick and had no voice for the whole weekend. We did, however, get to see a lot of Amsterdam. We did go through the Red Light District, which was remarkably open and easy to stumble upon. My friends considered me strange for wondering about the lives of the women in the windows. Where did they come from? Did they want to be here? Did they get to keep their money, or does it all go to someone else? Do they have families? Children? Do their parents know what they have to do? What are their dreams? My friends just shook their heads and reminded me that it doesn't matter in their profession. If you agree with me, however, then I have three book recommendations for you. Chicken: A Self-Portrait of a Young Man For Rent is a book written by David Henry Sterry about his terrifying experience in the sex trade in southern California. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is an anthology of stories of professionals writing on life, love, money and sex. It was put together by David Henry Sterry as well. Finally, Working Sex is another anthology by Annie Oakley. They are great books and are all true. One work of fiction that is also quite relevant is called On Black Sisters' Street.
Also in Amsterdam, we saw the Amsterdam History Museum. Amsterdam's history of economic wealth and tolerance was astounding! The museum was in a building that had been used as an orphanage until the museum opened in 1975. It was impressively modern and interesting. My hostel in Amsterdam was the Flying Pig Beach Hostel, located about an hour outside Amsterdam right on a beach. It was great fun and a nice facility. Overall, the trip to the Netherlands was a fascinating experience.
This is the first of three new posts I am going to write this weekend. These events took place 12 October through 16 October.
Wow, was it COLD this week! Note to self: ALWAYS bring a coat with you when you go to the Netherlands. Even if weather.com says it's going to be in the 50s and 60s and sunny. However, despite being cold, The Hague (Den Haag) was beautiful! It's a historic old town in the Netherlands and for a peace and justice nerd like me, it's where everything is happening. We toured EuroJust, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). We met with several important members of these organizations and were privileged to watch part of a court case at the ICC! I made the decision that I wanted to work for EuroJust when I am out of school, which is an organization that helps European Union member states cooperate regarding organized crime cases - like the human trafficking cases I hope to tackle one day.
After Den Haag, we had a long weekend where most of us went to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I was quite sick and had no voice for the whole weekend. We did, however, get to see a lot of Amsterdam. We did go through the Red Light District, which was remarkably open and easy to stumble upon. My friends considered me strange for wondering about the lives of the women in the windows. Where did they come from? Did they want to be here? Did they get to keep their money, or does it all go to someone else? Do they have families? Children? Do their parents know what they have to do? What are their dreams? My friends just shook their heads and reminded me that it doesn't matter in their profession. If you agree with me, however, then I have three book recommendations for you. Chicken: A Self-Portrait of a Young Man For Rent is a book written by David Henry Sterry about his terrifying experience in the sex trade in southern California. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is an anthology of stories of professionals writing on life, love, money and sex. It was put together by David Henry Sterry as well. Finally, Working Sex is another anthology by Annie Oakley. They are great books and are all true. One work of fiction that is also quite relevant is called On Black Sisters' Street.
Also in Amsterdam, we saw the Amsterdam History Museum. Amsterdam's history of economic wealth and tolerance was astounding! The museum was in a building that had been used as an orphanage until the museum opened in 1975. It was impressively modern and interesting. My hostel in Amsterdam was the Flying Pig Beach Hostel, located about an hour outside Amsterdam right on a beach. It was great fun and a nice facility. Overall, the trip to the Netherlands was a fascinating experience.
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