Amsterdam

My last journey was to Amsterdam, Holland, in the Netherlands.  Talk about a nice cold journey up north!  I met up with a few new friends who are studying in Barcelona, Spain with Cameron.

We didn't really have much of an agenda, but we did get a chance to visit Anne Frank's house. Inside, we were able to see the original bookcase, stairs, and rooms (left unfurnished) on where she and her, her family, and friends lived.  If you haven't read The Diary of Anne Frank, I strongly suggest you do so.  What a sensation walking through the same rooms and halls that she lived in for over two years.  I almost got a strange feeling as I was walking through because there were memorable quotes posted. Where she would write a passage, you would be standing and looking exactly at what she was writing about.  You could literally see what she looked at back in 1943.  Believe it or not, the house/annex was much larger than you would imagine.  It was essentially a whole house, but smaller.  A small apartment, really.

Inside of the museum was her actual diaries.  Yes, she had multiple.  Literally hundreds of pages of her thoughts and feelings on boys, family, and what was going on in the world.  Let me tell you, she had some of the most beautiful scripted handwriting that I have ever seen.  She had multiple diaries (or journals) that consisted of movie/book quotes that she thought were memorable, some short-stories, and also some poems that she wrote out.  One part that caught my attention was when she wrote about when Peter received a board game for his birthday being the Stock Market board game.  They had on display the board game that he received.  The passage is, "Yesterday was Peter's birthday.  At eight o'clock I went upstairs and looked at the presents with Peter.  He received a board game, a razor, and a lighter."  That shook me, staring at the board game that she once did.  I'm very glad I got to visit this house.  It fit well with the history that I learned in Poland about Auschwitz.

So, I'm sure you've heard that Amsterdam is full of some good ol' coffee shops and the well-known red-light district.  You've heard well my friends!  But, smoking isn't really as big as you would think...it's more just the college-aged kids running around the city.  Locals aren't really into that kind of stuff, and believe it or not, they think it's gross (which I agree with).  So walking into cafes and restaurants was no problem, as they were all smoke-free :).  But it wasn't uncommon that you would walk past a coffee shop and get a strong smell of the gross smoke.  

Then there's the red-light district.  We won't get into much detail about this particular area, but let's just say that it was...well, interesting.  The picture is actually the Amsterdam Flag, no pun intended*

The Dutch people are extremely nice and can speak English pretty well.  Talking to locals was a no-brainer.  Just think as though you're talking to a normal American, but they have a nice Dutch accent!  Funny.  The food really wasn't all that much different than American food, but a lot of burgers, french fries, soup, and meat-like dishes.  I will say that they LOVE their french-fries.  Why?  Great question.  We couldn't figure that one out.

The canals were beautiful and full of boat homes, row houses, and bridges on every corner!  This is very much a walking city, as there were little-to-no cars driving through the streets.  They actually had a designated bike-lane.  As a matter of fact, we almost caused a couple of accidents in the bike lane because we kept forgetting about it!

I would have to say that this overall experience in Amsterdam was quite memorable.  Would I come back here again?  Probably not for a long time.  Aside from the couple of museums and beautiful outdoor sites, there's not too much to do.  At the same time, this city is expensive, in addition to the USD being so low in price compared to the EUR.  The experience was great, I had a great time and met new friends, at the same time had a wonderful experience visiting a Dutch country.  

Adapting to a New Culture

3 Months.  It has been over 3 months since I've first arrived here in Italy and it seems as though the time has gone by almost to quickly.

As Carl Sandburg once said, "Time is the coin of your life.  It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent..."  In other words, only you have the power to choose what happens in your life, and only you can determine what happens in it.  Essentially, we are the authors of our own stories and it's up to us to write it out.  We can feature people and events, but we can never erase the past because you'll forever be writing in a sharpie marker.  So, make it a good one!

One major thing that I've learned while studying abroad in Europe is that if you're given an opportunity of a lifetime and you're on the fence about it, you should just go for gold and do it.  You won't regret it.  Life always is throwing curveballs, tests, quests, questions, and adventures that should be explored!  Life shouldn't have to be lived in fear.    Sure, not everything turns out to be the most positive consequence of an event, however, that's the perfect opportunity for your to use it as a learning experience.  They say that when you make a mistake or something negative happens, only you can determine whether it can build you or break you.  (Anyone seeing a theme here?)

I bring this up because I waited so long to do something so amazing in my life.  My mother would always tell me "go, go, go!" and I would always just put it off and not think about going abroad.  I thought I knew it all.  The perfect opportunity in which my family and friends would support me and back my decision to study abroad.  Thinking of it now, if I didn't take the opportunity and grasp the experience while it was right in front of me, I would probably be kicking myself in the butt right now.

I've learned so much from my experience here in Italy.  One of the major barriers that I've come to accomplish is living in a new environment with not only different cultures, and lifestyles, but also different personalities.  I found myself being very close-minded often around others, not paying much attention to how or why something was to be done.  However, after having to do some reading and talking to some people, something changed.

For example, Italians get very frustrated with all of the tourists that come into the city.  I can see why, because Florence is Europe's version of America's Disney World.  So how would you feel if you had to deal with international vacationer's every day who barely spoke your home language, at the same time making no effort to learn?  So, something that I learned (obviously) was that the Italians really appreciate it when you attempt to speak their own language and fit in.  I found myself talking to the locals more, and the them saying "ciao" every time I walked by their store front.  They would continue the conversation in asking how my classes were, and would even teach me some more Italian language while we spoke...in Italian.  I learned how to adapt.

Think about it, when you're at home and people aren't willing to adapt to a new environment or culture, they get put off and aren't appreciated.  In other words, they're "outsiders."  Yes, there are the "hipsters" that try to not be like everybody else, but we know and they know that they are their own cult and are like everybody else of their culture.  See how this is working out?

Take this picture for a minute.  This is the adapter I had to use while in Italy in order to use my electronics.  Without the converter, my electronics wouldn't have fit, or, they wouldn't have worked.  Well, same concept.  The European outlet wouldn't have accepted my power cable.  Thus, I had to adapt and change some things in order for it to work out in my favor.  Adapting, being open-minded, listening and not just hearing, and accepting other people's opinions are key when not only going abroad, but in any situation where you're new, different, or not familiar with.  It's almost as though people aren't accepting to other people's values, because we're brought up in a world (generally, not everybody) where we get so comfortable with doing something one way, we just think that's the only way.  We won't get into politics, religion, or economics.

Being abroad and living with people from different cultures and lifestyles has really helped me become more able to adapt to new environments.  Rather than seeing somebody doing something strange to me and thinking, "Well that was stupid," I'm starting to think more on the lines of "I'm interested to know why this person did that, and what was their mindset?"  After all, we will never be able to extract a message from somebody's head because it's not ours.  Remember that we can't control other peoples thoughts, feeling, or actions.  We can only control our own.