Never a dull day in Amsterdam

You know when you're walking along in your own thoughts, listening to some music, and contemplating what to make for dinner tonight, and then suddenly you see a a guy lying in the middle of the street blowing flames? No? Well, I do:

Job!

Like mentioned in a previous post I have lately been looking for work. And now I actually have a job. I start on Monday. It's a job in customer service for TomTom, where I'll probably be helping people in both Norwegian and English. I'm a little nervous about it, but the company seems nice, and I hope that once I get into it the job won't be too technical for me to do. It's also incidentally the first job I've interviewed for since I got here, so I'm rather pleased that I got it.....

Last night boyfriend and I celebrated by going out for sushi. Mmmmm..... unagi. Being the perfect boyfriend that he is, he also came home with a box of Puccini and some really beautiful flowers... :)

So, everybody wish me luck for Monday!....

Amsterdam bike city

As you probably all know, bikes are a major means of transportation in this country. In cities like Amsterdam that's probably because there are a lot of narrow and one way streets, as well as limited parking. So biking is rather practical, also because of course it's so flat.

It is also quite common to get your bike stolen, so you need to have a very good lock (alternatively get a really old bike, so that the lock is actually more expensive than the bike itself), or - like Boyfriend - a folding bike that you can keep inside. Sometimes people steal bikes to use or to sell, but other times (drunk) people just seem to find it fun to throw bikes in the canals. They have boats that go through the canals specifically to pick up bikes from the bottom of them. I saw one outside our apartment once, and it picked up three bikes within a few metres distance... Here's some pictures of such a boat that I saw the other day:

Cheeky pigeon

This in not the first time I've seen a pigeon inside Albert Heijn,but it is the first time I've seen one behind the cheese counter, pecking away at the old cheese.

Wandelen in de Vondelpark

Thursday I was again not feeling the city love when I woke up at 7.something because the airplane traffic had been redirected over our house, so you could hear the planes quite clearly, and all the time. Our next door neighbours were being noisy with hammers, and across the street builders were throwing metal plates out of windows with loud metallic bangs. I went to seek refuge in the Vondelpark, which turned out to be a good idea. It is one of the largest parks in the city, and although it's not exactly free of noises and people, you do still feel the serenity of nature. It was nice to see and smell the trees and grass (not so many flowers any more, this time of year), feel the wind on my face, and hear the birds chirping. After having somehow gotten myself into the area of the park that was under renovation (well, there was a small path next to the fence, how was I supposed to know I shouldn't go there?...), getting out of there again by going through some stinging nettles and almost falling in the water, I turned out to be on the opposite side of the park from what I'd wanted. And when I got home again I'd been walking for three hours and was far too tired to be upset about anything. :)

Some old geezers trying to catch fish. Though the water seemed pretty still and fish free to me.

A statue of the Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel, after whom the park is named. I would not have known who he was if it hadn't been for the fact that he was mentioned in one of the Dutch exercises I recently did. Now I also know that he was born on the 17th of November, 1587 (Joost van den Vondel is op zeventien november vijftien zevenentachtig geboren).

A willow tree that I naturally had to climb out onto. It was quite nice to sit there for a while. I can imagine it would be a nice place to write..

On my way home I came across a chocolaterie that had camouflaged itself as a fish/shoe store. I didn't even buy anything. How strong am I?..

Last days of summer

Summer seems to be drawing to a close here in the far south (for a Norwegian like myself...), and last weekend we probably had the last warm days of the year. Lately I've been feeling, on and off, that Amsterdam is a little to busy and noisy, but last Saturday was one of those perfect Amsterdam days that made all my concerns disappear.

When I was standing outside the Nieuwe Kerk in the sun, waiting for Victor to arrive, the first scene of what may become a movie sort of fell into my head. I am currently in the process of developing the script (very early stages still), and am quite enjoying it. (Incidentally, does anyone know of a disease that is detectable in a foetus before it's 3 months old, a disease that is potentially harmful but also possibly also not? I have an alternative already, but I wouldn't mind some more suggestions... Yes, I know, my writing sounds cheerful, doesn't it?).

Anyway, when Victor arrived we went to see the Black is Beautiful exhibition inside the church. The exhibition focuses on the representation of black people in Dutch art throughout the ages, accompanied by interesting facts about people and history. There were some really nice paintings, and there were also little monitors placed around the room, which offered background stories on paintings and painters. It was very interesting and well done. Though the lighting was sometimes unfortunate, since it reflected off the glass in front of some paintings, so you had to stand in really weird angles if you wanted to see the work properly. Among the interesting things I learnt while I was there was that Moses was apparently married to an Ethiopian woman before he married a second white one. Since this has later been deemed improper it was edited out of the Bible, but there still remain paintings of it (since I am not terribly familiar with the details of the Bible and it's history, I can't vouch for the truth of this, but am merely relaying what was written in the exhibition). I also learnt that in the late 1800's there was an exhibition of Surinamese people on Museumplein. They actually imported Surinamese people to stand around and be ogled at, like animals in the zoo. Though at the time I suspect they thought nothing of it. But the Surinamese people were apparently not happy with the way they had been treated, and had been given certain promises that were not fulfilled. Interestingly, I recently read an article about a similar situation in Norway, but then with Sami people, and as late as the 1930's. They were basically paid to act like the stereotype Sami so people could look at them, and then when the show was over they got to go back to their normal life. It seems strange to think about that this was an acceptable thing to do at the time. It's one of those things that makes me wonder what people are going to object to in 100 years that we find perfectly normal now..

Anyway, the exhibition is on until the 26th of October, and is highly recommended for anyone who might have the chance to see it.

After the exhibtion we headed home, for some of Boyfriend's super yummy pancakes, which I think all our previous house guests have been treated to. And later we went out for a little drink around the corner, at the Wynand Fockink proeflokaal. A charming old bar that serves a large variety of liquors in small glasses that they fill up to the point where you have to bend down over the bar to take the first sip before you can lift the glass up. Some of my previous guests are probably familiar with this bar as well. :)

In the evening we went to the movies to see The Dark Knight. The movie was good, and Heath Ledger did indeed pull off a very convincing crazy, though I still don't think the movie was all it has been cracked up to be. Then again, I wasn't expecting it to be.

It's so nice to have interesting exhibitions, nice bars and movie theatres in the immediate vicinity of our apartment. And when we were walking back from the theatre, the little bridge lights and the lampposts were reflecting their light on the water of the canals, and I was completely in love with Amsterdam again....