Storm in Amsterdam and Our Last Day

Hello! I am Geneva Stockton, and I will be writing the blog today. Yesterday unfortunately there was a really bad storm, which caused us to stay inside and play card/ pool.

Fortunately, it cleared up, and we all when to Beth's house to have a farewell party with some of the speakers we listened to throughout the week. On top of that, there was a special group of three girls who are around the age of 21 who spoke about the movements they created to support a sustainable future.

A fun treat at Beth's house was her adorable and very soft cat!

Today is July 6th and it was a warm sunny day. In the morning we all got together and reflected on our trip

This was a great way to remind everyone of what we have done throughout this long trip. This meeting went from 9-11:50. The rest of the day was free! Shortly after groups went their own ways to get lunch. My group was Sonia, Bennett, Hakuto, Lukas, Jackson, and I. For lunch, we all went to a hotdog stand and got chicken hotdogs and chocolate muffins.

While eating the hotdogs we saw interestingly colored pigeons.

Shortly after we visited the Van Gogh Museum! This happened all thanks to Jaskson getting tickets. I was surprised to see more than just his photos and also learn about his life in all. I never realized how much thought he puts into each art piece he has made. This next photo is what you see when you walk into the limited-time exhibit.

These are some of my favorite paintings that were in the museum.

After the 2-hour adventure in the Van Gohn Museum Hakuto, Lukas and I walked around the city. We ended up stopping at Albert Hein and getting peppers, Nutella dip snack sticks, bread, gummies, and some drinks with the leftover money we had in the cards we were given.

This was surprisingly close to the Centraal Station so we walked over to the feer and ended up seeing some friends on the way back.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed until it was time to leave for dinner. Hakuto, Lukas, Harris, Shivam, Vivek, and I all got Indian food. Although expensive, it was great! Unfortunately, I was unaware of the attire for the dinner so I showed up to a suit-quality dinner in socks and sandals.

Although this was the last day of our trip it was one of the most fun days of the trip. Tomorrow we are flying home and I am very excited to see my three cats again. I think everyone enjoyed their time learning and traveling, but I know for sure that some are ready to go home. Thank you for reading my blog!

City of Amsterdam Municipality Offices & Zaanse Schans

Hello, this is Vivek Patel, and I am the writer for today’s post. Today is the 16th day of the trip and our 7th day in Amsterdam. In the morning, we woke up early and left the hostel by 8:20. We then made our way to the City of Amsterdam Municipal Office where we heard presentations from speakers on the topics of sex work, air quality, and substance and drug use. We went out on a short walk pertaining to the topic of substance use and looked for signs of any use in the public. After this, we had a quick snack/lunch break at the Central Station. A lot of us grabbed food from Albert Heijn. Next, we headed over to the town of Zaandam. There, we visited Zaanse Schans, a heritage village from the 17th, 18th and 19th century. It holds many windmills and buildings such as green houses, warehouses, and trades. It shows the first industrial area of Western Europe.

Plastic Whale and Thrifting

Today is the 15th day of the trip (6th day in Amsterdam). We had an early breakfast and left the hostel by 9. We arrived at plastic whale (an organization that is dedicated to cleaning the canals of Netherland), where we were split into three boats/teams. Each boat was tasked to pick up as much plastic as possible and to create a story with what they called special objects (i.e. suitcases and raincoats). In the end the red boat, with Sophie’s amazing narrating, won the story telling contest while the pink boat barely scrapped through the red boat to win the most trash picked up. Below is a picture of the group and all the trash that we were able to pick up.

Next up was lunch. We had the freedom of choosing our own lunch, so we divided into groups based on what we wanted. My group went to a bakery where we ate muffins, croissants, sandwiches. Other groups went out to get burgers and other food. The afternoon activity of the day was thrift shopping, where we went looking for clothes at an outdoor market. We had free time soon after. During this time many of us went to a big market that we went to on Friday and looked at the many things they were selling. The group I was in got Boba tea, and got food at a Japanese stand. We also looked at clothing, pottery, and rings.

Dinner was chicken skewers and rice, which we ate at the hostel. We also celebrated Alex’s birthday (which was yesterday) with a cake. After we winded down to rest. Some of us played pool and got hit by a pool ball that Dion shot (Shiv), some of us went to a tower nearby that overlooked Amsterdam, and some of us did their laundry. Today was a great day as other than the morning we were able to go at our own pace and enjoy being in Amsterdam while thinking about sustainability. Everyone’s looking forward to the last 3 days in Amsterdam and are ready for the final stretch of the trip. by Hakuto Higuchi

Vondel Park and Energy Junkies

Hello! We had another really fun day in Amsterdam! We started the morning with breakfast and started a little later than usual. Then we took the tram to Vondel Park where we had time to explore. The park was originally private and owned by the wealthy people in the neighborhood, but was then donated to the city and became a public park. It is named after a Dutch poet. One unique animal inside the park are these bright green parrots.

There were many people biking, running, and walking all around the park and it's many paths. We ate lunch inside the park and afterwards played some frisbee! After that we took another tram to see the Energy Junkies exhibit from the NEMO (Amsterdam's science museum). There we learned more about energy use habits and ways to decrease our energy use. It was an interactive experience that makes people aware of their energy usage and explains why it's detrimental to the environment. Something I learned about was the idea of having a carbon budget and deciding what energy consuming activities to spend it on. Afterwards we ate some ice cream and sang happy birthday to Alex! We had free time for the rest of the afternoon so we split into groups to do different activities. Today I walked around the city and then stopped at Albert Heijn to pick up some snacks. Then we walked to get some boba. Afterwards we went to the Lego store which had many very cool sets! There were even some famous paintings made out of legos!

We then went back to the hostel to rest before going to eat ramen (which was delicious!) for dinner.

Other groups used the time to go shopping and eat dinner. Some other dinners were Japanese food, and Thai food! We went back to the hostel and played some pool before going to bed to get ready for an early morning tomorrow! It was another really nice and relaxing day! ~ Grace Flikke

Visiting the Rijksmuseum and evening Canal Cruise

My name is Sophie, and I’m writing today’s blog. Today we had a slow start, as we were awoken by heavy sheets of rain outside. Unfortunately, the rain hindered our plans to go to small markets in groups, but we were able to go to a large market as a group for forty five minutes at noon. There were various shops selling handmade items such as jewelry, clothing, glasses, as well as many stands selling different kinds of food, like produce and meals. Many people in our group enjoyed crepes from a stand at the market. At 1:45, our large group split in half to explore the Rijksmuseum. The museum had four levels, each showcasing various eras within Amsterdam’s history. On the first floor, we saw intricate models of ships, many treasures left behind after wrecks, different types of pottery and paintings, weapons, as well as historical clothing pieces.

The second floor showcased artwork by Van Gough, sculptures of clay and marble, and many other relics from between 1800 and 1900. On the third floor, there were beautiful pieces of furniture carved with patterns and decisions made of materials such as wood and marble. The third floor also had an expansive library with large walls and high ceilings completely filled with books.

Finally, the fourth floor displayed many items from the early 1900s, my favorite of which was a Javanese fighting plane, called a “bantam” or FK 23. From 5 to 8, the groups split up to wander Amsterdam and get dinner. Sonia, Geneva, Jahnvi, and I combined with another group to explore shops before splitting off to eat dinner. At 8:15, the group got back together to enjoy a night on the canal cruise where we learned about Amsterdam’s history.

I especially appreciated looking at the beautiful scenery and infrastructure of the city. An interesting thing that we learned on the cruise was about the history of houses in Amsterdam that are painted black. These houses were painted black to label that the residents were at some point infected with the black plague.

At the end of the night, we walked back to our hostel and enjoyed time in our communal spaces before heading to bed for the night. Overall, I enjoyed connecting with our group as we walked around exploring and learning about different places in Amsterdam. I also appreciated that we were able to develop our own interpretations of the art forms showcased within the museum. Signing off, Sophie.

Fashion for Good, Smart Cities, and the Van Gogh Museum!

Hello, this is Lauren Armstrong, and I am the writer for the blog post today! I am so excited to tell you all what we did on our FIFTH day in Amsterdam! We started the day off by heading to the Fashion for Good museum. Our guide showed us around the various floors of the museum, which were designed consecutively to show the past, present and future. To start our tour around the museum on the first floor, our guide showed us a brief timeline of the history surrounding fashion from the late 1700’s to present day. The timeline focused on the ways in which fashion has evolved from necessary clothing, to an expression of oneself, to the overconsumption and fast fashion culture that we face today. (See image below)

The next room on that floor was focused on the manufacturing of clothing today. We got an amazing presentation with visuals and numbered steps to fully reveal the process that showed how clothes are made. The process revealed many discouraging factors, such as the harsh working conditions, as well the overarching idea of sustainable challenges that the textile industry of clothing faces.

The next floor, also known as the present floor, was focused on the present day steps that some companies are taking to be more sustainable. An example of this was a clothing brand that took fast fashion and used clothes from the global “North” and turned it into something expensive and creative, so that the money went to the Ugandan textile industry which recently collapsed due to global “North”. Another company used pre-consumer waste from factory and warehouse floors and turned it into clothing. These companies were not the only companies present in the museum, but these two stuck out to me the most. These innovative ideas and changes that they made are exactly what we need to make a more sustainable environment in the world.

Finally, the last floor was focused on the future. The future solutions that different companies had invented were amazing and beyond creative, ranging from “apple leather” to an Australian developed app that could help someone identify if their clothes were sustainable/not fast fashion. (This app is called “Good On You”)

Next, we ate lunch! My friends and I ate poke bowls in a cool Amsterdam alley. Next, we met Tom Van Maur, an architect based in Amsterdam. He showed us around a few different stops that each showed how Amsterdam is becoming a “Smart City”. Cameras were implemented to scan and identify the amount of people in a certain area, as well as identify faces. There were other innovations, such as a boat called “Roboat” (which was literally a robotic boat). It could serve as a moving bridge or a trash collection vehicle.

Then, we went inside and explored the different ways that a smart city could be created, anywhere, at any time. Then, I went to the Van Gogh Museum with a few friends. I spent time journaling and drawing. I am super excited to get back home and paint a Van Gogh inspired image of Iceland or Amsterdam.

Overall, today was a 10/10. I enjoyed the diverse activities that we did throughout the day. Art, sustainability, and fashion!! Such a cool combo. Signing off, Lauren

Urban Farm and the Anne Frank House

Today we had our first big test on the bikes and went from the hostel on a 45 minute bike ride through the city center and much of the inner city to a city garden. This was a community garden in the middle of many apartment flats and other buildings, built kind of smack dab in the middle. The goal was to induce community by making a space for people to gather and eat, talk, and farm. We talked with Martin, the man who started the project, and he gave us an overview of the goals and ideas of the farm. Next we talked with a professor named David about the commons and social movement. As small groups we worked through some social commons problems. For example my group worked on the problem that many of our lakes are no longer usable, another group looked at common spaces within the school back home. And we proposed a solution that didn't require a governing body, it was a social movement by the people for the people. Our solution for the lakes was to popularize bee lawns and more sustainable, less fertilizer hungry plants in our lawns. Then we had some free time, I took an amazing nap, and gathered as a group for dinner at the hostel. After the meal we headed over to the Anne Frank museum by foot and walked through this amazing display of her experience of the Holocaust. We walked room by room scanning our personal audio tour devices and listened to the presentation. At the end the real diaries were on display. Finally we gathered for a final trek to the hostel for an end of day meeting and some free time, which is when I am writing this. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow! by Bennett V