Hey everyone! It is currently 11am on Thursday morning. It is officially my weekend as I only have classes Monday-Wednesday. Mairead was here last Thursday-Tuesday and we had a GREAT time. We went to Van Gogh and all of the outdoor markets which she really enjoyed. On Tuesday, we did the Anne Frank house. It was almost surreal knowing what went on in there. They have the diary on display. The walls of Anne's room are exactly as she had left them (with the pictures of famous people). We were able to go behind the bookcase into the secret annex and see where it all took place. That was very cool. However, my favorite part was the end. They have a video that described when Otto (Anne's father) returned from Auschwitz to find out that he was the sole survivor of the family. At first he was unaware of the fate of his two children, but then a woman came to him with a declaration of their deaths (which they also have on display). Shortly after Otto discovers his daughters diary and offers his reaction to it in the video. It was just so bizarre knowing that all of this happened right on my street.
In my Dutch Social Policy class on Monday morning we had two trans-gender people come and give a presentation to our class. They represented an organization called "De Noodles" that works to put pressure on politicians with their main focus being health care and legislation. I'm not going to comment too much on this, but one thing that is worth noting is that the Dutch health care system will pay for sex reassignment surgery, should one so desire (no joke).
The future for me consists of my family coming Wednesday, John and Dave coming Nov. 1 (and Bryan?), I'm going to Prague November 6 to see Mairead, Florence Nov. 13 to see Bryan, and hopefully Paris the last weekend of November. Basically I'm trying to travel as much as I can while I'm here. There's not much else going on, it's the same old Amsterdam. I'm going to watch last nights debate now to feel somewhat connected to what's going on over there.
That's all for now, thanks for reading.
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2 comments:
Hey Brian,
I love your blog entries although I'm looking for one since your parents are there. I'm sure you're having a great time.
Send more blog. Your fans are waiting.
Grubin and I are going to Paris the last weekend in Nov (the 27-30)---just letting you know. You'll probably be going a day earlier though, as we have class on Thurdsay and are leaving that afternoon.
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