More than the City...

So far Amsterdam has been an interesting place to live. There is a lot of hustle and bustle here; the streets are always busy with pedestrians and bicycles, tourists and students, businesspeople and construction workers...Amsterdam is a hot spot! People commute here for work everyday, and until the tourist season dwindles, the souvenir shops always have business. I like living here in Amsterdam, but when I visit other places, that is one of the things I notice: "This city seems a lot quieter."  I visited two places this past weekend and they were great: Enkhuizen and Utrecht! Enkhuizen is a small fisherman's village in the north that is very quaint and quiet! The streets were practically empty except for the occasional person going for a tea break. The buildings here were not very tall, but they were beautiful. In the Netherlands everyone adds -tje or -ke to the end of a word in order to make is smaller. For example,  een potje (little pot) or een biertje (little beer) or even Annemarieke (little Annemarie). Well Enkhuizen should be called Enkhuizentje because every thing is small but happy.

The houses and building are not tiny but just so beautiful and efficient with no wasted space! We went to the Zuiderzee museum while there and they had a lot of great art, but part of the village was part of the museum. Everything was "preserved" as if it was still the fisherman's village of way-back-in-the-day. They even had men doing "jobs" like making fishing nets and long ropes by hand.

We got to walk through the whole town and see how people lived back then. So COOL!We went into an old school house and sat in the desks, and bought candies from the little general store, and saw how clothes were washed (in big barrels that spun), and played old, traditional, Dutch games! It was very fun! We also stopped at a cute cafe for an afternoon coffee and cake (not part of the museum). The inside was really happy and the walls were covered in delft blue tiles!  I had a delicious piece of applecake with whip cream and a hot chocolate; It was a great treat for the misty day and a wonderful town to visit!! Utrecht was also fun but not quite as "cute."  We took the train and passed a lot of farm land, which was good to see after being in a city.

My main reason for visiting Utrecht was that there was a swing dance thing there that I wanted to join. Saturday this group of swing dancers had a workshop where they learned some Jazz dances--like the Shim Sham and the Jitterbug stroll--and a Lindy routine. The next day (Sunday) they were going to perform these dances at the Uitfeest, which is a festival that Utrecht was having. So I went to these workshops and had so much fun dancing and learning. They spoke in Dutch (except for the occasional English explanation) but it was easy to follow since dancing is an international language! I was pumped about Sunday and the performance. I felt so alive I wanted to go back to the hostel and practice the jazz steps! However, my enthusiasm turned to nervousness on Sunday for several reasons; the first was that I didn’t fit in. I happened to see my partner from the previous day walk through the crowd and I followed him to our performance location. When I got there, he was sitting and socializing, and the teacher was dancing with a girl I had not seen before; she was good too. My first thought was that she couldn’t make it yesterday but still wanted to dance, so they were quickly teaching her the steps and she was going to dance with my partner. I could no longer approach the swing group. I was afraid of rejection. I didn’t want to impose on their performance; I was an “outsider” after all. Secondly, there seemed to be a color scheme that I was not aware of.  The ladies had black pants on and the men had white pants on, but I had a blue skirt on with black and grey leggings underneath! Now I really stuck out! I lost all enthusiasm and started backing down. If it wasn’t for my friend’s persistence in me dancing and another girl coming up to me and telling me that I should dance, then I probably would have walked away right then! I wound up dancing with my partner from the previous day and I felt really good about our Lindy hop routine. I am very glad that I went to this event! Even staying at the Hostel was entertaining! We stayed in "dormitory beds" in a room with like 20 other people and the lady in charge told us, "if you don't eat, we kick you out" because meals were included in our 20 euro fee for a night! YAY! They even had a "music corner" with lots of instruments and a giant chess board outside that we played!

After visiting these other two towns that were less busy, I could really see how Amsterdam was a big melting pot. There are a lot of international people here that speak Dutch and all but they aren't the typical tall, blond people one might expect. It was great going to the smaller towns and I plan to visit many more! I may even bike to the Haag this weekend, especially now that my bike should be all better...I wound up getting another flat...and spent some more euro on a new inner and outer tube, so now my bike should be happy!!

 

Comments

[amsterdamize]

Good to see you're enjoying yourself and appreciating all the 'little' differences...verschilletjes ;-p.

The traveling Lindy Hop group is great, I specifically like their old bike, speakers included. I think I can interest you in this post of mine, having spotted (photographed and filmed) them on Leidseplein.

http://amsterdamize.com/2008/08/21/things-i-saw-while-cycling/

Cheers & happy riding,
Marc

[Luke & Emma Henning]

Dictated by Luke's (6 yrs old) typed by Kelly:

Hi Annemarieke...How are you doing? I saw your pictures. I really like 'em. I miss you and that is all. Mommy is going to try to send you two pictures of me and Emma. Bye Luke

PS - Kelly talking :-) Rich and I miss you soooo much too! I love reading about your trip and seeing your awesome pictures. I can't see to attach the pics of the kids so I am going to email them to you directly. Let me know if there is a way to attach them to future comments!! LOVE!!! Kelly & Rich