Strippenkaart

The words! the words!

2008-04-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

I started this whole thing and in the last few posts I have not added dutch words of the day:

So here is an extended round of Dutch words:

Gesloten: closed
Groeten: vegetables
Pikant: spicy (this word needs some qualification: in theory pikant might mean spicy but that is just not how the Dutch do their food).

ISP this!

2008-04-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have mentioned this before, but a major part of the Macalester-Maastricht one year abroad(not really for me) extravaganza is this monster called the ISP (Independent Study Project). For the last 4 months I have been here I have pseudo-worked on this project. Initially I was really excited...I was going to write about minority language rights. I had already written two papers about language politics in classes last semester - I was really enthusiastic about it. No, seriously I felt that I had found my academic calling. I emailed professors at mac for advice, researched EU laws and such. Then sometime around February my advisor told me that I was ignoring my location. I wanted to write my comparative globalization paper about the EU and the US. The advisor said that I should focus on this place in the Netherlands called Friesland (which apparently has its own language that is not Dutch). Now this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I mean I like the Netherlands, i think its wonderful, great even, but somehow comparing the US with Friesland did not sound exciting to me. So my advisor and I reached a compromise and now I am studying Belgium instead. Again, not exactly what I had in mind but at least there is more to read and write about.
The problem is that in the last few months (I don't know why) I have lost the will to work on this project (I mean I should be doing that right now, but I am blogging instead). I am supposed to turn in an introduction with a research question, with a detailed outline, a preliminary conclusion and key sources to the advisor tomorrow.

Problem 1: With the exception of the conclusion I turned in a document very similar to what I just described to him 3 weeks ago. The page limit for this assignment is 3 pages (I turned in 4 last time).

Problem 2: I don't really have a conclusion. I barely have some research.

Problem 3: He/Mac (I am not sure who to scapegoat for this) wants us to do interviews with people. Apart from the fact that I do not know whom to interview (after taking a few stats classes, talking to some students from Belgium does not seem to be a very rigorous methodology), I can't really speak French, and obviously Flemish is out of the question.

Problem 4: I have really stopped caring about this project. It is strange because in the end this whole thing is just a twenty page paper. I know I will be able to write it so it isn't very scary, but somehow this project that I was so excited about in January is the least exciting part of my study abroad now.

Problem 5: (Which I am in serious denial about,) we have to present our papers come June 5th at a "symposium". Send me good wishes ... I will need them.

Thief

2008-04-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

So my wallet got stolen a few weeks ago from our kitchen. I think it was the shady friend of the cleaning lady ... but who knows. A few days ago though I got a call from the building security and they/someone found my wallet in a parking lot. The money was gone (thanks asshole), but in the meantime I canceled my atm card and stuff.

Eurocentrism

2008-04-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Since getting back from a trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest, the 9 mac people and I have started regular Universiteit Maastricht classes with other students. I am enrolled in two classes right now. So recent events in these two classes have really bothered me. Maybe its just me being too sensitive, but the general consensus here seems to be that everything good basically came from Europe. According to one of my profs no one used to think before the greeks, i.e., the Greeks invented philosophy. In the same class people also decided that human rights come from Germany and Christianity, and that the real issue in the globalization debate is how to export modernity from the West to the rest. Basically, before the enlightenment, humanity lived in a pre-modern era without reason, human rights etc., and modernity from Europe will save us all.
The worst moment so far was when one of my professor basically said that social Darwinism and eugenics make sense, because according to him there is some truth to the idea that some races are inherently superior to others. As evidence he pointed out that a large number of nobel prizes have been won by Jews, and also that the Germans, come closest to the language and philosophical tradition that the Greeks had. He also said that National Socialism makes sense when you think about it, and that there was "some truth" to the idea that Palestinians have taken up the "Jew-hating" previously espoused by the Nazis.
The rest of the people from Mac and I have been talking for a long time about how so many ideas and inventions were thought of in the "east" a long time before the "west", and how it is important to bring up the non-western origins of these ideas for a variety of reasons. These classes have just confirmed this for me. I don't think Macalester is perfect, but it is definitely not as America-centric or Westcentric as these classes are with Europe. Case in point: One of the classes that other mac stuents are taking here talks about how Eastern Europe is basically backward, and Huntington and the Clash of Civilizations is actually correct. I was discussion leader in class one day and one guy was talking about the Arab world is very relativist (i don't want to take up space with his argument here), but when someone asked him what he was defining as the arab world his response was: Well that whole region from Morocco to Iraq and Iran. I was so pissed at this point that I cut him off and said Iran is not really the Arab world. But this is what a lot of our class discussions are like. We read these texts about hybrid and multiple identities, and how just the idea of the Muslim world is flawed, and people still come to class and make sweeping generalizations about everything, including Europe (or Western Europe, because the eastern part is clearly very different).
I don't want to come of as being whiny, but while shit like this is common, you don't expect to hear it in classes and definitely not from the professor. So now I am trying to get a hold of this book by Amartya Sen called "The Argumentative Indian". He discusses, in that book, examples of ideas thought as western/european/modern that originated in India. We are also reading parts of Orientalism for one of our classes next week. I wonder whether that will change anything about our discussions.

Half way

2008-03-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

So I realized all of a sudden that I am about half way through the time I have on Study Abroad. It is kind of incredible that I have already been here for 2.5 months. Now that I do not have that much time left here, I am going crazy making travel plans. I went to Brussels for a day during easter. Then I am going with 5 other mac people to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, with a small stop in Bremen after we are done with classes for the first block. Then I also want to go to Paris, Barcelona, and Rome and that will probably happen later in April and May. Kabir came back from Rome the other day and said: Urvashi, you have to go to Rome ... it is like India! So obviously I have to go.

Brussels was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was snowing! That was a huge surprise to me. Apparently this part of Europe experienced its coldest easter in 40 years. So when I started walking to the bus stop on the 21st morning, and i say huge white chunky things falling to the ground, for a while I was convinced it was hail. I could have turned around and gone back to my dorm, but I was being optimistic and hoped that Brussels would have better weather. Turns out I was wrong. It seemed like every time I left a building it would rain harder or start snowing. But I still managed to get a lot of sight-seeing done. I went to the Grand Place (that is what is in the first picture), which is this amazingly beautiful square, but it is very very touristy. It was just full of people with cameras, taking an insane amount of pictures . I went to the Cathedrale des Saints Michel et Gudule, stumbled onto some other pretty churches, went to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, and a bunch of different palaces. I also made the horrible walk to the EU area and got to see the EU parliament (2nd picture) from the outside.

I also ate some belgian waffles and fries and bought some chocolates. Despite the weather, I was glad to be in Brussels, because I think I really needed to be in a louder and bigger city. Even though I know I am not from a big city, Agra feels bigger than it actually is because of the crowds and the loud people, and I miss that sometimes. Also, walking around in Brussels I also overheard someone on the street say the following sentence: "We have just been walking around this place like donkeys". But it wasn't in English, it was in Hindi and that made me really happy. I also got to speak some French while I was there. Somehow I managed to not look like a tourist, because a bunch of people came up to me and were asking me in French where the entrance to the museum was, or how to get to place X,Y or Z. That was exciting, and I just responded in my horrible French that I did not know. I got back from Brussels completely drenched and freezing that evening. It was still a great trip.

All of the traveling that I am doing right now is with other Mac people. For whatever reason we all tend to hang out with each other more than anyone else. Samatar, when he was here in January, said that we were a really "cohesive" group. Actually so far most of the friends I have made here are either mac people or people in my hallway C4.00 (who are all great), but I don't feel the urge to really extend my social circle here for some reason . I think its partly due to the fact that coming to Maastricht wasn't really about getting to learn about Dutch culture. So it is hard to say that I have learned a lot about the Netherlands in the last 2.5 months, if you can actually learn a lot about a place in that much time, but I have realized some stuff about Europe. One thing I like about being here is that you can relax, and not be ultra-competitive and stressed out 99 percent of the time. So even though we have quite a bit of work, its nothing compared to Mac.
What else? I cannot really think of anything profound I have to say about Europe right now. Also in the last week of my class I got to learn that India is world's largest producer of bananas and mangoes and the second largest producer of sugar. Now, I knew about the mango fact, but the other two - I had no idea. I don't know why. We did this project on the international trade of bananas, and it was fascinating. If you 45 minutes to spare you guys should check out this npr interview. Its about bananas:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19097412

Apparently if nothing is done to stop it, the panama disease might destroy the main type of bananas, which is currently the only banana suitable for export. So you in Europe and US might not be able to eat them. Scary, isn't it?

So Dutch Words: this time I have two because I didn't have one last time-

Koekjes: any guesses? - Cookies
Alstublieft: This word along with dankjewel (thank you very much) is the dutch word you will hear the most in this country. Literally it means : There you go, but it is sort of similar to s'il vous plait. It is pronounced: ashubleeft.

Koln Koln Koln

2008-03-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

Not a lot apart from classes has been happening in Maastricht over the last few weeks, and so I haven't really had much to write about, but last weekend I went with all the mac people here to Cologne (Koln) for a day. This is one of the best things about being in Maastricht; I can get to Germany, Belgium, and if I leave my stingy ways, Paris, in about the same amount of time it would take me to get from Agra to Delhi, or as from Saint Paul to Crosby, MN. I know that the globe that I have had since freshmen year makes it pretty obvious that Europe is not that big area wise - but I am realizing now just how small it actually is. One thing it is not, however, is cheap.
The Euro is a pain and every time it appreciates a little bit more, a part of my hopes for a grand European adventure dies. But I have finally decided to bite the bullet, and I am making plans to go to Prague, Berlin and Italy for the 2 big breaks we have from classes during the semester. This, along with other short weekend (and hopefully cheap) trips to places close by, will hopefully not leave me completely broke.

Now to what I really wanted to talk about - our mini trip to Koln. Since most of us were getting a bit stir crazy here in Maastricht, we went to Koln for a day last Saturday. The original plan was to leave at 8:30, but we actually only left the guesthouse at 10:30. It took us about 3 hours to get there, which included a 40 minute stop while switching from a bus to train in Aachen, Germany, a city about the same size as Maastricht just across the border. The first picture is of this weird sculpture thing we found on the street, in Aachen, with dinosaurs, and strange crustaceans.

In Koln the first thing we did was to go to the Dom Cathedral, right outside the main train station. It took about 600 years to build this cathedral and it is pretty spectacular. We walked in and around the cathedral for a bit and then began our treacherous climb up one of its towers. I don't remember what the exact height of the tower was, but we climbed over 500 steps, and it was painful. It was also a spiral staircase, and so for the most part I was completely dizzy. But we did finally get to the top and the view of the Rhine and Koln from there was great. We also got to see the largest working bell in all of Europe. The picture on the left is only one part of the cathedral, and you cannot see the tower that we climbed. The second picture is the view of the Rhine from the top of the tower, taken through the mesh that prevents people from falling to, what I imagine would be, a very painful death.

Apart from that we went to a few German beer halls, walked along the Rhine, and went to the Chocolate museum and got back to Maastricht before midnight.
There is one more thing I have to say - I do feel a little cheated by my study abroad program. One of the big reasons for leaving Macalester this semester was because I wanted a break from all the mac-stress, but I am now in this class called "Globalization and Inequality", which I think has been made harder for us on purpose. Or maybe Maastricht is just a harder university to study at. Either way, I am pretty sick at this point of our weekly projects which involve a group presentation and paper. Doing group projects once a semester is stressful enough, but one every week is really pushing it. And so right now instead of reading up on Amnesty International's position on an EU arms embargo on China for their violations of human rights, I am doing what I do best - procrastinating. I have convinced myself that what I am doing is still something worthwhile and productive. I mean catching up on the fourth season of Lost is very important for my mental well being.

Carnival and the Superbowl

2008-02-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

So since the last time I wrote a lot has happened. First there was carnival - a three day Catholic fest of drunkenness and partying. Then I watched an American football game for the first time in my life and actually enjoyed it.
Carnival is an interesting time here in Maastricht. It is only celebrated in the southern part of the Netherlands in the two Catholic provinces. The people from the North-west (Amsterdam, the Hague and Rotterdam) think of the southerners as farmers and a lot of the students we met at the Hague were surprised that we decided to live in the "boring" part of the country. But for Carnival Maastricht was anything but boring. I have never seen so many people dress in such weird costumes ever in my life. There were a lot of fuzzy tiger suits, clown outfits and some not very politically correct costumes. Dressing up as Indians (not my kind) and wearing black face is not a very big deal at all. I also saw some "Jamaicans" dressed up in camouflage. All ten of us dressed up in costumes and went to the main city squares to watch the parades and the raising of the moosweif (or market lady). Fed at the last minute decided to wear one of Eleni's dresses as a costume and got hit on by a couple of men. By the last night of Carnival the entire city was littered, and there was broken glass everywhere. We spent the night club hopping and also dancing along to some weird music coming from a float from the parade that was being driven around the city center.
On Sunday night, which was also the first night of Carnival, we went to a bar and watched the Superbowl game. Since Eleni is from New York, I wanted the Giants to win, but I surprised myself by how into the game I got. I still don't understand any of the rules, and barely understood what was going on, but it was still great. So oddly enough after spending 2.5 years in the US, I finally got into football in Maastricht. Jack and Eleni told me that games are usually not as exciting as this one was, but for now I think its great.

Apart from that all I have done recently is class work since we had a paper to write for Samatar. Since we only have one actual class for the first half of the semester, I really want to go and travel a bit, but Europe is expensive! I know I am going to be broke by the end of this thing and my tax refund could not come at a better time.

The picture there is of the Markt Square, on of the main squares in the city centre.

Sinasappel = orange (the fruit)

One Month, 4 Countries, 7 Cities, 3 Continents

2008-02-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

January was an intense month of traveling. But the whole story really starts on December 19th. That is when I booked my ticket to go to Chicago the next day to give the Dutch embassy my passport so that I could finally get that visa that I almost did not get. December 19th was also the day that I finally turned in my metrics paper, and since it was finals week I had not slept for more than 3 hours for about 4 days. You might have heard this story already but I am going to tell you all about it again anyway. I was ambitious and thought that I would leave to catch my 7am flight by taking the bus at 4:45 and save money on the cab ride. So I set my alarm for 4am but did not go to sleep till 2 taking care of all the forms and documents I had to take. I woke up the next morning with bright sunshine outside, and my cellphone in my hand, and it was already 8am. I panicked, called the study abroad office/former mac friend Aditi and then called a cab as I brushed my teeth. Somehow I got to the Dutch consulate 5 minutes before it closed. Then I spent the day walking around Chicago, met Suma and left for the airport for my flight back. There I found out that my flight was canceled, and so I spent the night in Chicago.

For the rest of my travels I have had similar luck. But I will get back to that later. I got to Amsterdam on the 2nd, and walked around the red light district and other places with Ben for a few hours and then left by train for Maastricht. At the Eindhoven station, where I had to switch trains, I ran into Andra, one of the Mac students going to Maastricht. The most frustrating thing about being here so far is that while everyone can speak English, people tend to assume that you know Dutch. And so on the trains, at the grocery store people come up to me say something in Dutch and I stare back at them, feel completely stupid and ask them whether they speak English (which pretty much everyone does). The point of this whole thing is that because of the language confusion Andra and I almost went to Germany instead of getting to Maastricht, because we did not know that the train splits at Sittard and the front goes to Maastricht and the back goes in the direction of Aachen, Germany. Then, my second day here I fell really sick, and missed a day of Samatar's class and was completely exhausted everyday after classes from 9-5 for a while. So for a few days I really wished I wasn't in the Netherlands, but back home in India, relaxing and doing nothing.

But everything changed once we got to the Hague (or Den Haag in Dutch) for our first "educational excursion". We went to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and got to sit in on a trial of seven Serbs accused of genocide in Srebrenica. We had been given packets of information about the case and at one point I realized, from the pictures on the handouts, that all the accused in the case were sitting in a row in the courtroom. It was a little strange to realize that you are sitting so close to these people accused of committing horrible crimes, and they were sitting there, a little bored, and a little amused at the attention they were getting from us. We also got to talk to one of the prosecutors at the ICTY, later that day. He talked about the difficulties in first proving that the genocide actually happened, and then trying to apprehend the people responsible. The two main accused for the Srebrenica massacre are still fugitives and are hiding in Serbia, but the ICTY does not have the ability to arrest them without the help of the government there. The visit to the ICTY is probably one of my favorite parts of this program so far. The ICTY is scheduled to close by 2010, when the last case is supposed to be done and all the appeals complete.

The next day we also went to the International Court of Justice, which is located in this building known as the Peace Palace. The Peace Palace itself is this magnificent and extravagant building, and apparently ridiculous amounts of money was spent on building and decorating the place. The palace is full of gifts given by various heads of states since 1899 when it was built (like curtains from the Shah of Iran). What I couldn't help thinking was that when Europe was celebrating "peace" (the peace palace was an idea of the Russian Czar and the Dutch queen at the time), the Dutch ran one of the most brutal colonies in Indonesia. It just all seemed like a huge waste of money and very fake. We also spent some time in Hague at a Karaoke bar one night, getting drunk and singing Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys songs. We also got to meet members of the Somali community at the Hague. They invited Samatar and us for a reception and a dinner. They gave him a painting of himself as a present, and the older Somalis and Samatar spent the whole night singing Somali songs. The ten of us spent most of our time talking to the Somali students about the Netherlands, and politics there about immigration.

Our classes with Samatar ended on the 19th in Amsterdam, and so I went back home for 9 days to India. But on the way there my flight from Heathrow was delayed by about 15 hours and therefore I actually got to leave the airport with a 24 hour landing visa and now I can say that I have been to London (maybe). So that is the story of my horrible travel luck.

I have been really bad at taking pictures, and I think right now I have just one of Maastricht. Tomorrow is the day that Carnival starts here, which is similar to Mardi Gras in the states apparently. I am unfamiliar with both of them. Everyone dresses up in outrageous costumes, and if you don't you will be yelled at. It also involves a lot of drinking and face paint. So next time I might have pictures of Carnival, and thoughts about Amsterdam.

Dutch word of the day: Dankjewel : Thank you very much

I finally have wireless

2008-02-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

This took a long time, but I finally managed to get internet working on my computer again. And so I decided I am going to start my own study abroad blog. I don't know how often or what I am going to write about, but I would love to get comments, so that I know you are all reading. Obviously you all have nothing better to do than read about my adventures in Europe. I have been here for a month already and so there is a lot to talk about and I don't know where to start.

Strippenkaart is the first Dutch word I got to learn, which is the ticket you get to travel on buses and trams in the and for some reason I decided to name my blog that. Also I finally figured out the difference between Holland and the Netherlands. Holland is just a province. Netherlands is the actual country.