When in Rome

May 4-7, 2011-  May 4 marked the beginning of my 6 day trip to Rome and London with Matt Wever.  The plan was to fly to Barcelona, Spain where I would meet up with Matt since we had different flights and once we found each other, we would try to get some sleep in the airport.  The finding Matt part was easy as Matt found me trying to sleep on the ground, the sleeping part proved difficult.  We eventually found a table to rest our heads on and got a couple hours of sleep.

In the morning our flight left for Rome quite early which meant we arrived in Rome around 8am, a perfect time to begin our day.  We bought some Roma Passes which allowed us to take the subway and buses all over Rome and began heading downtown.  Our first stop was Saint Peter’s Square located in the country Vatican City.  

The line to get into Saint Peter’s Basilica was enormous and it turns out Pope John Paul II had his beatification earlier in the week.  The large number of people was probably due to this major event.  Despite this long line, we decided to jump in line which actually went very fast.  We were in Saint Peter’s Basilica in no time.  

I should point out that I have been to Rome before on a trip with my family four years ago.  This was the second time I went in the cathedral and it was just as impressive as the first.  The cathedral was huge and had statues everywhere.  But since I have already been there, my main desire was to climb to the top of the cathedral and look over the city since I did not do that in my previous trip.  After a very long climb to the top of the basilica, we finally arrived.  The view was absolutely breathtaking.  We could see the Vatican Gardens and also the whole city of Rome not to mention a great view of Saint Peter’s Square.  If anyone goes to Rome in the near future, I would strongly suggest paying the 5 Euros and climbing to the top!

Next on the agenda was a trip to find some pizza!  Since we were close to a huge tourist attraction, the prices were outrageous!  So we walked around and eventually found a good place where we bought some pizza.  Seeing that we were in Italy, it was only proper to eat pizza for every meal and it was delicious each time.  After we had our fill we went to the Vatican Museum.  I had forgotten how large this museum actually was.  We worked our way through massive halls filled with statues of people or halls where the whole walls and ceiling were filled with paintings.  

We eventually made it to the Sistine Chapel and saw The Last Judgment and The Creation of Adam, both masterpieces of Michelangelo.  These paintings were huge and covered the whole wall.  The whole chapel was amazing!  To finish off our day, we bought some gelatos and sat right outside the Colosseum enjoying the fact we were just chilling outside the Colosseum in a city that dates back thousands of years.  It was amazing!

The second day started off as a complete disaster!  It turns out the public transit system was shut down from about 9am to 3pm due to a strike.  Naturally we went to the cheapest hostel in Rome which was located way outside the middle of the city.  Despite the public transit of Rome was shut down, there was one bus line which was still working.  We eventually made it to the Colosseum at noon where we saw a demonstration pass by.  

We discovered a couple days later from a British couple we met that were on our same flight to London that Hilary Clinton was in Rome the same day.  Strange.  Anyways, we decided to give up our plans to visit another city nearby Rome for the day and instead decided we would see the Roman Forum and the inside of the Colosseum.  Those plans also failed as the line for tickets closed 5 people ahead of us due to the strike.  Apparently that strike completely put Rome on hold.  So after a quick change of plans, we started walking around the city.  The first place we arrived was the Circus Maximus.  

Matt and I decided to take a nice job around the dirt track just to say we ran on the Circus Maximus.  Next we found a nice gelato place and continued walking on the west side of the city.  We saw some sites attempted to find a statue, but instead got kinda lost.  We found ourselves walking alongside a road that had sideway with only two feet on the side of the road where we could walk without being in the street.  

But we ended up finding a really cool park that we otherwise would never have.  This park seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but was massive!  

The park was beautiful and we relaxed there for a while.  After relaxing, we started heading back into town.  Once there we walked around and saw the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and huge government building where a celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the Italian Army was taking place.  

A bunch of military vehicles including a helicopter was there which was pretty awesome!  Also, on our way to the Spanish Steps we stumbled upon some Lamborghinis!  The 2012 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 was on display along with two other Lamborghinis.  This made my whole day complete, especially after the rough start.

Day 3 in Rome was quite relaxing as all we really had left to do was see the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.  However, the line to buy tickets moved at a snail’s pace while standing in the brutal sun.  The line took us about 3.5 hours to get through but we eventually made it.  The Roman Forum consisted of many destroyed buildings from ancient Rome.  

Just imagining what the buildings would have looked like in the past made this a really cool experience.  Also the inside of the Colosseum was really cool to see.  The massive size and the knowledge of what used to take place there made the trip to Rome complete.

Koninginnedag!!!

April 30, 2011- Today is April 30 which means it is Koninginnedag, or Queen’s Day!!!  Queen’s Day is the largest national holiday celebrated in the Netherlands.  It celebrates the queen’s birthday, although the current queen, Queen Beatrix, has a different birthday, the Dutch people still celebrate her birthday on that day.  April 30 was chosen because it was the Queen Juliana’s birthday, the previous queen of the Netherlands.   This day consists of people all over the Netherlands traveling to Amsterdam and essentially having a huge party with everyone wearing orange, the royal color.  Also, the canals were completely filled with boats, each blasting music and partying.  

I went downtown with a couple other friends to also celebrate.  We just walked around the city for most of the time.  The streets were filled with people all wearing orange.  

They were so filled with people that there was only one way to walk, with the current.  This current of people stretched from Dam Square, to Rembrandtplein, to Leidseplein, to Museumplein.  I actually got separated from the rest of the group at a concert in Rembrandtplein.  

I made the mistake of trying to walk through a massive group of people at the concert…oops.  Once I escaped I walked around the city seeing everything that was going on and looking at various shops.  I eventually made it to Vondel Park.  Although Queen’s Day consists of a ton of people drinking and partying having a good time, it also consists of street vendors having “garage sales.”  Vondel Park is the place where children are allowed to sell all of their unwanted items and also perform a certain talent.  

I eventually made it back to Museumplein where a huge concert was going on.  

I actually ran into some friends in the giant crowd and walked around the city with them also.  But after a long day of walking around the whole city, I was exhausted and started heading back at around 8pm.  By that time, the whole city was completely trashed!  Broken beer bottles and trash completely filled the streets and it was disgusting.  I feel sorry for the people who had to clean up afterwards.  Queen’s Day was a lot of fun even though I didn’t participate in any of the partying.  Just walking around the city seeing everything that goes on was a great time.  I would say Queen’s Day is the epitome of Dutch culture.

Working in the Netherlands

Over the past several weeks, I have had the opportunity to visit an engineering company, called Intralox, located near Amsterdam.  I received this opportunity through my next door neighbor back at home who works for this company in Grand Rapids.  I visited a total of 4 times, doing a different thing each time.  Intralox is a global manufacturer specializing in conveying technologies creating conveyor systems through thermoplastic technology.  Many of these conveyor systems are used in the food industry in order to transport food in many different ways.  Since this is a global company, they deal with customers from all over the world.  The company is centered in New Orleans with its European headquarters in Amsterdam, where I visited.  Over the times I visited, I was able to learn a lot about this company in all aspects, not just the engineering side of things.  I also learned about the manufacturing, customer service, and technical side to this company.  I first listened in to customer service dealing with English customers.  I also worked on the factory floor physically building the belts with my hands.  I also worked on a computer in the technical engineering section of the company.  I was given a problem that I was to solve using an engineering software program.  This was a great opportunity to learn more about an engineering company and how things work in the workforce.  Although I technically worked for free, Cornel, the lead engineer who asked me to visit Intralox also offered to have me over to his house for dinner.  This was very nice of him but what was even nicer is the fact he gave me a VERY nice sweatshirt that was orange that I could wear for Queen’s Day considering I had no orange clothing.  I was very happy and I was very glad I received this opportunity to visit an engineering company in the Netherlands.

The Port of Rotterdam

April 25, 2011- Today I went on an excursion to Rotterdam, a huge port city in the Netherlands.  This was the final place I had on my list to visit in the Netherlands, and I was happy that we could go.  For those of you who may not know, Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and 3^rd largest in the whole world.  In 2009, 387 million metric tons of cargo went through the Rotterdam port.  This port is huge and we were able to take a boat tour through the channel to see the huge cargo storage areas and massive cranes. 

It was really cool to see how large of an operation they have running there.  Rotterdam has always been a huge place where boats could access a large part of Europe.  We saw some of the maritime history of the city by going to the Maritime Museum.  This museum included an old coast guard ship called the Buffel that we could walk through.  Inside this ship, we were shown what life was like living on a ship of that size and also how the boat functioned.  

The actual museum part also showed more of the shipping industry in Rotterdam.  Models of ships and a huge model of the whole port of Rotterdam were really cool to see.  There were many interactive learning stations in the museum which were cool.  I thought the museum was really interesting.  The city of Rotterdam is a relatively new city due to the WWII bombings of the Germans which completely destroyed most of the city.  Because of this, when the city was rebuilt, most of the buildings are very new looking with a more contemporary style.  An example of this is the Kubus houses.  

These houses look like giant cubes where people live.  They were quite strange.  After looking at these houses, we jumped on a train back to Amsterdam.  This excursion was really cool and was one of my favorite excursions yet!  It was really cool to see such a different city and important city in the Netherlands.

Easter Day

April 24, 2011- Well as you may know, April 24 was Easter this year.  This was my first Easter away from my family and while I was sad not celebrating it with family, I was very happy I could spend it with friends.  I went to Vineyard, a church located in downtown Amsterdam in the basement of a canal house.  This church is quite small consisting of about 50 people which create a greater sense of community.  But Easter in the Netherlands is quite similar to Easter celebrated in the United States.  After church everyone was handed some chocolate eggs which we hid all over the room for the children to find.  I think the main difference of Easter compared to the US is that a lot less people celebrate it in Amsterdam, which I believe is due to a lot less Christians living in Amsterdam. After church we started riding our bikes to a park but took a detour to Dam Square once we noticed a giant Ferris wheel and other rides there.  Dan and I decided to go on the ride Maxx Blaster!  This ride is basically two giant arms with seats on each side and spins around a central point.  This ride also made you go upside down!  

The view from the top was amazing as it was about the highest point in all of Amsterdam.  I was very happy I decided to go on the ride.  Afterwards we went to Vondel Park and played Frisbee while enjoying the beautiful weather.  For dinner the whole group went to Professor Zylstra’s apartment and ate another amazing meal cooked by Jane.  It was delicious!  I can never pass up a great Dutch meal!

Tulips, Tulips, and more Tulips

April 23, 2011- As I noted earlier, I was going to write more about the tulip fields.  Seeing that the Netherlands is known for its tulip fields during the springtime, a couple guys and I decided to visit the fields to get a better look.  Tulips are such a big deal in the Netherlands that people come from all over to see the massive fields.  Even Holland, Michigan celebrates this time in the spring!  So we set out on our bikes in search of the tulips.  The trip was quite enjoyable, but very long.  It took us a while to find the tulip fields since everyone we asked where the tulip fields were pointed us in a different direction.  But after several hours of biking, we eventually arrived at the fields.  The tulips were beautiful with flowers as far as the eye could see!  

Tulips of all different colors lined massive fields creating a beautiful display.  We ate lunch on the side of the road overlooking a huge field of red flowers.  

After lunch we continued on and saw a couple more fields and began our LONG trip home.  Normally the trip would not take as long as it did, but we ran into some problems that set us back an hour.  Matt Warren’s bike decided to get a flat tire, which we had to fix ourselves.  

But after that inconvenience, we were able to continue.  The path we took followed several canals.  I found the bike ride to be quite relaxing and enjoyable, especially when biking alongside the canals.  

When all was done, we biked a total of 80 kilometers for the day, which actually did not seem too bad when biking, but I was deep tired so I crashed on my bed as soon as I got back.  Overall an awesome trip!

Concertebouwe and Park

April 20, 2011- Today I took advantage of the opportunity to go to the Concertebouwe for a free concert.  Every Wednesday around noon a free orchestra performance is given to whoever makes it through the doors.  The performance was very good but it seemed more like a practice session for the orchestra, which it probably was.  The building itself is quite impressive.  

Performances from composers such as Bach and many others performed in that concert hall, which was made me appreciate where I was even more!  Afterwards, Dan, Andrew, and I decided to get some ice cream since the temperature reached around 80 degrees today!  Once we had our ice cream, we decided to walk through Sarphati Park, located just south of the Albert Cuyp street market, and enjoy the sun.  Apparently everyone had the same idea because the park was full of people enjoying the sun.  

It was a very enjoyable way to enjoy an afternoon!

Palm Sunday and Tulips

April 17, 2011-Today was Palm Sunday and I decided to go to Vineyard church in downtown Amsterdam.  I went there with Dan, Matt Warren, and Anna.  The service was very different from what I am used to.  The church was very small and located in the basement of a building alongside a canal.  This church was very small with only about 80 people who attend.  It felt like worshipping in a living room, which was really nice.  The whole service was done in both English and Dutch.  The preacher would say a sentence in English and another person would translate into Dutch which took a while to get adjusted to.  

Later that day, we went on an excursion to see the tulips.  While driving to the fields, we first drove through a town where everyone seemed to drive super nice and old cars!  

We drove by the tulips fields and saw all the different colored flowers.  

It was very beautiful!  A couple guys and I decided we wanted to come back and bike through the fields later.  (More information on the tulip fields will come in a later post)  We continued on and went to Amsterdamse duinwaterleiding, or the Amsterdam Dune Water Supply located in Zandvoort.  This place currently holds much of Amsterdam’s drinking water and also serves as a wildlife preservation park.  

This park is made up of approximately 8600 acres of woodlands, paths, dunes, and water collection and treatment areas.  This water is pumped to Amsterdam for use there.  This park is a good way to collect drinking water for Amsterdam as the process of collecting water is natural.  Also, this area is a great place for wildlife and for hiking.  The park currently holds enough water to supply Amsterdam with enough water for several months.  This is a great system for collecting, holding and distributing water.  The Dutch definitely know how to work with water!

Defense Systems

April 16, 2011- Today was our excursion to the Delta Plan in Zeeland in the southern part of the country.  The Delta Plan is basically a system of levees, dams, locks, dikes, and sluices that protect the Netherlands from flooding and storm surges.  The different barriers to the sea are located throughout the delta region and each has a different function.  Some of the sluices are only closed when there is a storm surge.  Others protect the fresh water from the salt water.  Another is only used during a high storm surge.  This barrier is known as the Maeslant barrier which is closed approximately once every ten years.  This barrier is two massive metal arms that swing out into the water when in use.  The arms first float to the closed position through letting air inside the structure and when in position, the air is released and the arms sink to the bottom.  This structure is a huge engineering feat as it is the largest movable structure in the world!  From an engineering standpoint, these barriers were very cool to see and how they worked.  Like the Oosterscheldekering, or Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge Barrier, where we were able to walk inside one of the structures and see how everything worked.  During the construction of these sluices, large specialized boats were constructed in order to place these sluices in the correct place with great accuracy.  Throughout the course of the day, we saw many different types of barriers to the sea, each with their own design and purpose.  Water defense is an ongoing battle and the Dutch have learned ways to work alongside the forces of the sea.  The Dutch are definitely the best at controlling water.  

Family Day 2

Continuing on from the previous post:  Upon arriving in Goor, I met Sascha’s parents, Alex and Mary.  They are very nice and talkative people who like to have fun.  As it so happens, Alex was going to turn 50 years old on Sunday, April 10.  This is a huge birthday in the Netherlands filled with several traditions.  The main tradition is for family and friends to make “puppets” and put them in the person who is turning 50’s garden.  

These “puppets” are life-size representations of that person with key characteristics that accurately portrays the person.  The “puppets”, which are called “Abrahams” for men and “Sarahs” for women, are a Dutch tradition dating back many years.  The tradition obviously gets its roots from the Bible as Abraham and Sarah are key characters.  Along with the “Abrahams”, mustard is also given to man turning fifty.  I asked Sascha and Mary how the tradition of placing an “Abraham” and mustard in the garden originated but no one knew.  This was a very strange tradition to me and Sascha felt the same way, but I guess traditions are like that.  Alex received three different “Abrahams,” one from Sascha and Mary, one from his larger family, and one from his neighbors.  Most of these “puppets” had a reference to his favorite soccer team, GFC.  During the course of the night of April 9, many of his relatives arrived at his house to celebrate.  Once the relatives started leaving, I headed to bed.  I slept in the attic (which was finished and had a room). 

In the morning on April 10, I had a nice breakfast of bread with chocolate sprinkles and tea.  These chocolate sprinkles are a very Dutch thing to eat on bread.  The morning was very relaxed as the party did not start until 1pm.  Once that time came, we all piled in a taxi and drove to a very nice country club.  This country club had an old English interior with seating outside also.  

Since the weather was very nice, everyone stayed outside to enjoy the sun.  Champagne was served and waiters walked around giving people whatever drinks they wanted.  

As the friends and family of Alex began arriving, I stood next to Alex, Sascha, and Mary.  While standing there, I quickly noticed another Dutch tradition.  This tradition was the people would not only congratulate Alex for his birthday but would also congratulate the family and close friends.  Since I was standing with the family, everyone also congratulated me which I thought was very strange.  I actually learned about this tradition in my interim Dutch class but forgot about it up until now.  Well the party had about 80 people in attendance, all family and friends.  Everyone sat in the sun and talked and enjoyed themselves.  Since I only knew a few people, I mainly just stayed by them even though most of the people there could also speak English.  The birthday party is quite similar to the style we have in the United States except no one sang happy birthday to him and he opened his presents as people arrived and gave the present to him.  Other than that, the party was just like a normal birthday party.  At around 5pm I left with some people and they dropped me off at the train stop and I began my long trip home.  Since I was only a couple miles from the German border, it took a relatively long time to get back but made the trip in 2 hours.  Overall, a very nice weekend with a lot of different cultural experiences!