The Last Day

Sorry that it has taken me awhile to update our GIEU blog! Although it has been awhile since June 7th, the last day of our program, it was still one of the most memorable days of not only the program, but my life.

We met at 9:45 a.m at the SIT center to discuss our final projects. I was extremely excited to see all of the ideas that people would protray.

Alex Raphael concentrated on the theme of sex education in the Netherlands and how it compares to what they teach us in the United States. What she discovered was that in the Netherlands they focus more on the clear cut facts. They don´t focus on abstinence only education like in some parts of the United States.

Stephanie focused on prostitution in the Netherlands. She interviewed a former sex worker about how her life was while she was working.

Alex Yu found out more about the Dutch view of global warming. It is very important in their culture because of the fact that most of Holland is completely under sea level. It is estimated that it could be completely under water in about 50 years.

Another important part about daily life of the Dutch in Holland is biking. On one of our first days in Holland Sophie was intrigued by the fact that so many people used bikes as opposed to cars or public transportation. She discovered that the Dutch feel that it is silly and ignorant that most American children expect to get cars when they turn 16 years old.

One of the most unique projects in our group was Niel´s. Instead of focusing more on another culture that we had learned about while on the program, he did a project on self reflection to realize why he thinks in a certain way.

Jacqui focused on the COBRA art movement of World War II. This was a movement by multiple artists. The paintings were childlike and simplist. She also passed around a visual display of the art that was in the museum.

Voni focused on the importance of graffiti in the Dutch culture. She noticed that there were very elaborate designs covering the entire city. She told us the difference between people who were actually trying to send an important message compared to people who just tag the same thing over and over again.

Lucia was interested more in the aspects of the coffeehouse culture. One of the interesting things she realized was that marijuana is actually illegal in the Netherlands. However, it is tolerated in small amounts which is why coffeehouses are able to exsist.

Andrew focused on the aspect of the welfare system in the Netherlands. When immigrants come to the Netherlands it is easy for them to obtain 2000 euros per month to survive on. This is a huge debate between citzens and immigrants.

Kate did her final project on the parks and peoples´ rights to have open spaces. She interviewed people in parks and found out how relaxed and wonderful they thought the parks were. She also compared them to American parks and realized that they were cleaner and had more bodies of water.

Jessica, Adam, and I focused on the immigrants and minorities in the Netherlands. However, we all focused on different aspects of their lives. I focused on the Dutch view of the immigrants. I found that although they tolerate them in the society. They cannot be fully integrated and accepted in the society. Adam focused on how Muslim immigrants integrate into the society. Jessica focused on how minorites (who are usually immigrants) struggle in the Dutch society.

Max surprised us all with his fabulous singing skills with a song that he wrote based on a famous Dutch hit.

Overall, all of the presentations were amazing.

After taking a small break, we went on a tour of a wooden shoe factory, windwills, and small villages. We all enjoyed it.

To end our trip we had a delicious dinner and said our goodbyes. Overall, I loved the GIEU experience and all of the people I have grown close too. I hope you all have great remainders of the summer and see you in the fall!!!!

MINNA :)

The 4th of June, Amsterdam

Today we walked fromt he dam to the ´homomonument´. It was built to remember the homosexuals that had died during World War II. We sat down on a pink triangle that hung over the canal. Pink triangle patches were used by the Nazis to identify the homosexuals from the rest. There were 3 triangles and the sides pointed to references such as the Anne Frank House, and a War memorial. While we sat on the pink marble, we discussed logistics concerning our projects. After that, we were able to disperse to forgoe our own project endeavors. My project topic involves how immigrants feel when they arrive in Holland. So, I thought it might be interesting to get a perspective on the influence of media in the Netherlands. After I had grabbed some lunch at a cafe nearby, I headed towards the University of Amsterdam (UVA). I was in search of Brad Bushman. Dan had mentioned to me about how Brad is a UM communications professor currently in at the school here as a guest lecturer involving violence in Dutch media. However, nobody at the university actually knew who or where he was. But just when I was about to give up, a woman was just stopping by and recognized the name and said he was a collegue of hers. But even after that little sliver of hope, Professor Bushman was still MIA.

I sat down at the Stone Cafe and started to rethink my project topic. Since it now seemed that my original idea would be too difficult to finalize, I thought that I could use the conversations I had with people I had met along my trip. Then things started to come together. I realized that I had already done the research. I had spoken with people from Ethiopia, Turkey, Belgium, Holland, etc.

This was the first day that the group had a majority of the day to do what we wanted. It felt nice not having a schedule, but the group still made arrangements and deadlines, which I thought was interesting. I hope that our GIEU crew still makes time to hang out with eachother when we return to the states. After today, I feel like this won´t be a problem... except the possibility that I might be a little late. Catch you all back in the homeland, peace. Adam a.k.a punshki.

Our June 6th in Amsterdam

So today we started bright and early. A little too early because the sun and warmth was apparently not ready to come out yet. So we shivered as we met up at the Homomonument, awaiting our tour appointment at the Anne Frank House. Although it is the most visited museum in the world, we were still able to squeak by in our group of 17! We were all excited for the museum, and agreed that it was really wonderful in our debriefing afterwards. A commonly held sentiment was that it is so amazing to see so much hope, talent, and light in a young girl during such devastating times. We're in awe!

Then we split up to continue/start/finish our individual projects. But of course, in true "us" fashion, we ended up randomly going to the same place for lunch, minus only a couple of students.

Well, i'm not quite sure what every person did today, and my day wasn't too eventful. Alex Yu and I went to the market while Lucia did her research. Then we went to city hall, which for me was unsuccessful. And i ended my day by going to the World Press Photo Gallery in the Old Church, which was incredible! But i wont go into any details...

I hope everyone else had a great day! I think its safe to say that we're all a little upset to see out GIEU trip slowly coming to an end (only two days left), but we're definitely excited about our country side tour tomorrow! peace. sophie.

Today was rather uneventful, since all we did as a group was take a train from Antwerp back to Amsterdam, so I'm going to follow Jimmy's advice and do a little reflecting on the things we did in Antwerp. To start off with, I'm suprised with the sheer amount of activities we managed to get into two days of Antwerp. My favorite event out of anything (maybe even througout this entire trip) was meeting with the Muslim youth yesterday. Wissam and Tissam far surpassed my expectations of Muslim women (I had originally thought they would be more conservative and reserved thant they really were) and thier friends Mouni and Abraham were so fun! It surprised me that with all the differences we had in our cultural backgrounds, how well we got along and how similar some of our interests were, and I can't help but wonder what their reactions to me and the rest of my GIEU collegues were. One activity that stood out the most to me was how I first began communicating with Mouni, who didn't speak English but understood it. Between the two of us, we exchanged German (me), Dutch (him), and English (me) words in order to communicate. It ended up turning into a game to see which words were similar in which language. It was jolly good fun and very interculture... Ok, well, that didn't turn out to be as reflective as I meant it to be, but yea, today was a pretty uneventful day. I just wanted to fill in more about yesterday's activities, since yesterday's activities (for me and a few other people from GIEU) *did* extend into early morning of today.

- Jacqui

June One, 2007

today, friday, june 1st (ok its really tomorrow- saturday june 2nd, but procrastination is expected in europe), we had quite a packed day. under the guidance of omar we arrived at 'Atlas,' an immigration center in Antwerp which aids in the transition of newcomers to Belgium. with the slogan 'integration, not immigration,' Atlas is just one organization that promotes the diversity of Antwerp.

next, we arrived at a buddhist temple just a few blocks from Atlas. Here we learned a bit about the basics of the buddhist religion, witnessed luis' uncanny ability to understand all languages, and observed the limitlessness of worship; for a seemingly ordinary house had been transformed into this beautiful temple.

as this house had become a temple, we next visited the most amazing church. about 9 years ago this church was squatted and has been successfully held by the squatters since. the monastery attached to the church now houses immigrants and refugees, while a back room of the actual church serves as a make-shift bar once a week.

finally, we walked down to the pink house where we had lunch and learned about the organization. the pink house gives presentations, to different religious groups in particular, concerning the awareness, complete acceptance and integration of the lgbt community.


the above is a short summary of the logistics of the day. as for the gieu group itself...

we are doing quite well.

i apologize for the lack of creativity in this post, but will blame this on the mess of a keyboard on which i am now typing, for just wrtiting this has taken about 45 minutes.

well for now, signing out from this side of the ocean...

gieugieu.

LUCIA~ Travel from Utrecht to Tilberg, museum visits

Today we left Utrecht, and took a train to Tilburg. It was a bit of a hectic ride for a few of us because we fell asleep on the way there and barely made it off the train in time. As soon as we got off the train, we did our usual count-off to see if everyone was there (like I like to call it, Vontrap family style), and made sure everyone was well and accounted for. Youssef's wife Raquel took her first day off from being a new mother and showed us around the city by taking us to three art galleries and museums. The first was a glass gallerie, which exhibited various beautiful pieces. Everyone, of course, was a bit fearful that Sophie would possibly knock something over, but she happily and thankfully proved everyone wrong. When we left the gallerie the owner gave us all little glass beads that had little intricate designs in them, which were nice little momentos of the experience.
After that, Raquel took us to a textile museum and working factory. It was kind of funny because some of us felt like we were a high school home-ec class that was interested in knitting and sewing. But all in all, it was very interesting because it was an interactive museum in the sense that we could touch all the pieces. We saw everything from carpets, curtains, and wallpaper, to how wool is converted into thread with huge machines that we got to see. It was an interesting experience, because I dont think any of us had thought much about textiles before this, and now we all thankfully know what a negative printing technique looks like on sheets and tablecloths, and can compliment our mothers on their excellent taste in textiles in our homes (and maybe look at sheep in a more appreciative manner as well).
Lastly, we went to an amazing modern art museum. A few of the displays were really striking, and we spent about 20 mins just looking at one that had boxes layed out all over the floor, depicting various fazes of life. Another display that a lot of people liked was a dark room, but unfortunately I can't describe that one too well because I fell asleep (I got very little sleep the night before).
We finally made it to Antererp, and after dragging our bags through streets that were undergoing major reconstruction (and strikingly resembled a war zone), we made it to the International Youth Hostel. After getting settled in, we went to dinner to a plaza a few blocks from our house. Some kids were playing soccer, so of course this tempted our boys to go get the infamous culturally connective ball, Optus. They played a friendly game while we waited for our dinner, and proudly defeated the five year olds. Good job guys.
After an extremely long day, it was nice to finally settle in for a coparatively extended period of time, and all be living together again after having lived in seperate homes in Amsterdam (and for some of us, Utrecht).

~Lucia

Festival, Education, and Dar es Salaam - Sophie (6/2)

So today was quite the full day. We started a bit later than usual and met with Omar in front of Antwerp's city hall, which was the sight of their annual festival- started in order to bring the people of the city together. The manager (at least i deduced that he was the manager?) told us the purpose of the festival and some other community organizing programs that have been started in Antwerp that are designed to further unify this extremely diverse city. The weather was perfect for a day of hot dogs, music, and some crazy handle bar mustaches that are apparently famous here; who knew!?

After our hour hanging out there we moved on to our next location, which was Royal Atheneum Antwerp, an extremely picturesque high school with a unique approach to learning. Their policy and mission is to have a diverse makeup of students in order to provide a strong intercultural and tolerant environment. As the head master and some other teachers emphasized to us, their goal is to provide the students (who are mostly under-privileged and under-funded) with self-confidence above all else so that when they leave the school they feel comfortable and capable in the real world. The intercultural school introduces the students to issues of sexuality, religion, and respect, combined with a more standard curriculum in order to recognize and eventually elliminate the "isolating forces of differences." They want to avoid raising children in an atmosphere which denies diversity- a quote that i really enjoyed was what one of the teachers said- "an intercultural society is not a choice, its a factual existence; its not something to be avoided." i thought this was a great statement. its a school with an educational task, but more importantly, a social one.

Then we went to Dar es Salaam, the first women's association that brings women together in a space that allows them to talk and spend time with each other. The center provides them with activities and trips that help to bring the women of the Muslim community together. i think we all enjoyed this time; there were a lot of questions answered and stereotypes broken about Muslim women that many of us were happy to learn. We were told by Tisam, Wisam, and Abraham about the power of a Muslim woman being the "interior of a house and the man's is the exterior" but the power is equal. This was a great thing to learn because as the three told us, the American media has portrayed Muslim women as v. oppressed and subordinated; this session helped us to see that this is not the case everywhere, and instead women have much more power than we had previously thought.

I wish i could write more but the internet cafe is closing, unfortunately. I didn't break anything or make too much of an ass of myself, besides the shoe thing. So all in all id say it was a great day. Sadly our last in Antwerp. But i think we learned a lot here; about integration, religion, and community. We had to say farewell to Omar, but im sure we'll see him again in the future!

Next stop- AMSTERDAM!