Potatoes in the Air

First of all, apologies for the lateness of our second post, it has been a hectic few weeks of preparation for our first Heritage Hunt in Antwerp. We’ve had many things to keep us busy in the last 3 months but this was the first big event that me and the other members of The “Dream Team” have had to organise. What is it you may be wondering? I like to think of this as our version of a guided city tour just with a fancier name. But as the name suggests, it is a quest of a city, delving into various stories of the past. With Antwerp, we focused on the theme of the word, the poor, culture and heritage. The places we visited held some significance of Antwerp’s past in one of these themes. For example, the Grote Markt (Grand Market) holds the Town Hall and the Brabo statue which is very important historically, where the Rubenshuis plays a
great significance culturally.

Second item on the agenda, we should all get better acquainted. If you’ve read our last post, made by the lovely Assgthiek, I’m sure you would now have a pretty good idea of who we are and what we do, right? Anyhow, I’m Paul, one of the 9 interns here at Atlantic Bridge and I will be working along side Asgthike and Hadi, taking you along with us on our journey. Talking about journeys, living in London meant that it was very easy for me to travel here, although even with the short distance there’s nothing easy about living in another country, especially for such a long duration. It’s not so much the culture shock as most people would assume with travelling or living in overseas that I find difficult, definitely not for my case as I can say that I have not felt a culture shock. It does help that everybody here speaks English and also the fact that I’m living with a group of other internationals, so I suppose in away the culture doesn’t really creep in as much as if say, you were to live in Dutch family and speaking (or trying to speak) Dutch only, and eating Dutch food. Having said this I have learned so much about the culture already and it was a good surprise to discover that my perceptions of the Dutch were way off. In all fairness, it has been a smooth transition to come here, although I will never get used to living somewhere with only 4000 population and of course, the lingering smell of potatoes in the air, but hey, how else would you know you’re home!

From bike crashes to piano lessons

It has been only two months that the nine of us moved in De Vierslag and we already feel at home here. So many things have happened during these last two months that it is hard to choose which one to share.

Hi, let’s get to know each other. My name is Astghik, but some of the other volunteers find my name hard to pronounce, so they call me Armenia and I don’t mind it at all. As you can guess I come from Armenia.  For the coming 8 months I, Paul and Hadi will be taking you along our journey in the Netherlands. Why the three of us? Because we are the members of the promotion team of the Atlantic Bridge. Paul is from London, England and he studies in Oxford. At the moment he is gone for jogging as it is his New Year’s resolution. And Hadi is back to Israel for couple of weeks. That’s why I’m the first one to write our blog. And actually they expect me to write it well, because I have worked in a magazine an editor, but it is my first time writing about my life experiences instead of Hollywood celebrities and fashion. As you read along, we will introduce ourselves and the others.

When I found out that I was coming to the Netherlands, I kind of panicked, because maybe it is embarrassing to say but I didn’t know how to ride a bicycle. So the first thing I did to get prepared for my journey was to ask some of my friends to teach me to cycle. But still I was not very good at it, when I got here, and the first month was full of bicycle accidents and I was always involved in them. That was the main difference of the lifestyle between here and Armenia.

The next big change was to come to live in such a small village from the capital of Armenia. Sometimes I feel like me and the other volunteers are the only citizens of this village because it is so quiet. But eventually I started liking it. I love living with the others in the same house, they really became a big part of my life. We were here for only one and a half month, and then we had two weeks of Christmas holidays. Some went home, some went to travel in different parts of Europe, I myself went to travel in Germany, and during this time I realized that I miss these guys even more than I miss my friends back home.

De Vierslag is a like a world house and we created our own world in it, sharing everyday life with each other. Sometimes we realize that we have done nothing but studying Dutch, watching movies, chatting and cooking together during the previous few days. We have already celebrated two birthdays together and the third one is Diego’s. Diego lives in Canary Islands, Spain, and I wish the Netherlands had the same weather. The thing is that when we were sharing the dates of our birth during the first week, we realized that he is the only one that didn’t have his birthday during these ten months, so we chose to celebrate his fake birthday in February as we had none in that month.

Now I need to go to my second piano lesson, I actually started learning it here. Matt, my teacher, is a music teacher from Canada living with us in De Vierslag. He is an intern in Atlantic Bridge unlike the other 8 of us being EVS volunteers. And he volunteers to teach me to play the piano. Hope to share more stories with you soon.

Living together

When Klara, the administrator of our blog, told me to write a text about us living together during the last months, I knew that it would be one of the most difficult tasks I have done here.

How should I express this experience in words?

Five different people from five different countries and cultural backgrounds living together for 8-10 months.

Maros and I arrived in the beginning of November here in Kruiningen.

I would live two months alone with him before the other EVSer arrive.

My first thought: Why should they put the youngest girl (20) and the oldest boy...or better man (his age is a secret) together to live two months alone? I admit that I was very skeptical in the beginning. It seemed that we have a lot of differences. And that was true, but we concentrated on our similarities and after all we were depend on each other. 

Until the other EVSer came in January, Maros and I already experienced a lot together, he cooked his healthy food for me and we started becoming a very good team.

This team of two people became a strong group when the other EVSer arrived.

Not only at work we had to function well as a group, it was even more important to function as a group during the everyday life in the “Vierslag”.

Everyone had his own role in the group.

We cooked together, played games, made music, celebrated birthdays and had parties, played volleyball and visited different cities. We learned from each other.

The aspect that we all come from different countries makes it even more interesting.

For example Noel from Galicia taught us how to cook tortilla and Klara from Croatia taught us how to play a Croatian card game (to which all of us got addicted).

In every single situation you learn something about different cultures and there were not few evenings, where we discussed how one aspect, e.g. corruption, influences our different countries.

When we played a game called “Dixit”, where you have to know the other players very well, with a person from outside, this person had no chance to win.
Of course there were also difficult situations and some arguments.

Who doesn't clean enough? How much money should we spend for shopping?

But this is simply part of it.

After a few weeks, many of us were on vacation, visiting the family and friends. Most of us

experienced how much we miss the others.

I for my part have after these 10 months a second family.

This is my best way to express it in words.

Wietje, Germany

Trip to Tholen and North Sea Flood Museum

As a part of the Water Project , we visit different water facilities and places connected to water.  Our first trip was to the island of Tholen. First of all, we went to see the sea locks and learn how they work. When a boat wants to pass from salt water to fresh water, it has to go through a lock in order to prevent the salt water intrusion. The fresh water intrusion is no problem as the fresh water comes to the salt water anyway when it rains. After seeing the lock from a close distance, we climbed a tower to see the locks and the whole area from a high spot.

In the afternoon, we visited the North Sea Museum. The museum tells the story of the huge flood in 1953. We could see the documents about the flood and a large number of chronicles with pictures taken during the flood. There are many objects people used that time or got as material help. Those who understand Dutch could listen to the life stories of individuals who lost their lives in the flood. Another interesting thing to see was the way the Netherlands deals with the water nowadays. There is still danger something could happen again but the country has developed its water policy a lot since the mentioned flood.

As the last, we went for a walk to a nature reserve. The weather was nice and we could enjoy the nature which we don't see so often in the Netherlands. We saw many different kinds of flowers and some animals, especially birds. 

At the end of the day, we took a picture of our group and shared our experience with the others. 

Markéta, Czech Republic

Rotterdam City Safari

Every EVS volunteer in the Netherlands, and I assume in other countries as well, has to participate in two trainings organized by the Dutch National agency. The first one is called the on-arrival training and the second one the mid-term training. Noel, Marketa and I had our mid-term training last week in The Hague.

On the first day of training we got to meet our EVS friends again, see how they’re doing and how their projects are developing.

The second day of the training was reserved for something called City Safari. The only thing we knew about this safari was that it was going to take place in Rotterdam. Our trainer was very mysterious and refused to give any additional information. So, the eight of us and the trainer left for Rotterdam to meet two people who were supposed to tell us all about it.

The meeting happened in one of many Rotterdam restaurants.

The concept of City Safari was created some 15 years ago. The idea was to get the tourists away from the usual sightseeing places and to offer them the opportunity to meet local people, hear their interesting life stories and feel the cultural, ethnic and religious diversity of this beautiful city.

They split us into two teams, and gave each team detailed instructions what do to and where to go. As soon as we read the names of the places we were supposed to visit, we knew that this would turn out to be one very interesting day.

Radio Stanvatse

The first place we visited was Radio Stanvaste. This radio station started off as a pirate radio station some 20 years ago. Its founder was a Surinamese man living in the Netherlands who wanted to create some sort of media meeting point for other Surinamese immigrants. The word about the radio soon spread out and as its audience increased, the radio went legal and nowadays has more than 80 employees. Well, calling them employees is not really correct because none of them gets paid for their work.

Assistant to the director took us around, showed us the offices and finally the studio. A children show was going live at that moment, and they asked us if we want to say anything or talk to the children. EVS-er Maria from Austria talked to the children in Dutch about Queen’s day and the monarchy, and afterwards the rest of us also spoke to children in our very limited Dutch.

It was time to leave and find our next destination.

Noel the Craftsman

The second stop was Remi Glass Studio. The Studio is run by Dutch brother and sister, both of them in their seventies. The brother told us how he started the business many years ago, showed us all the different machines and explained what they’re used for. They gave each of us a glass with a paper sticker on it. Our job was to carve out the pattern on the sticker. After that, the man took the glass, put it in one of the machines and each of us left with our own hand decorated glass. 

The third and final place to visit was the Mevalana Mosque. Two guys were already waiting for us to show us around. Everything started with the well known Turkish hospitality – a warm cup of tea. After that, they took us around the mosque explaining what each of the rooms is used for. Then we went to the most sacred part of the building - the prayer room. Beautifully decorated in Arabic calligraphy, this room was simply breathtaking. The guys told us about all the ceremonies and prayers that are obligatory for all the adherents, but also about the optional ones. They were really nice and tried their best to explain the main concepts of Islam to us.

So many questions, so little time.

I wanted to stay longer because there were still so many questions I wanted to ask, but it was late and the others were already waiting for us at the restaurant.

Prayer room wall decoration at the mosque

During the dinner we exchanged our experiences with the other group.  They visited different places and met different people, but were just as impressed with the City safari as we were.

We spent the next day back in The Hague at an event organized by Platform Spartak. There were some interesting performances, but I spent most of the time in the art-workshop, painting and pretending I know what I’m doing. 

My work of ''art''

Klara, Croatia

Bevrijdingsdag in Vlissingen

Last Sunday it was Liberation Day in the Netherlands. Dutch people celebrate every year on 5^th of May the end of the occupation by the Nazi Germany during World War II. We planned to go to Vlissingen, where the “Liberation Day Festival” took place.

But our day started in different churches in Walcheren, the region where Middelburg and Vlissingen are located.

Klara went to a church in Middelburg, Maros went to one in Veere and Markéta and Noel went to one in Vlissingen. I went with Klara to Middelburg, where Wim, his wife and their three children picked me up. They brought me to Vlissingen-Souburg, where their church lies.

Before it started, Wim warned me about a service, which lasts two hours. In Dutch...of course.
But the service started with very nice songs, the atmosphere was warm and many people danced and clapped.

After the preaching (I noticed later that it was the piano player who preached), I participated for the first time in the communion.

When the service was finished, we had coffee, tea and lemonade. A lot of children were running around and Wim told me proudly, that a lot of families attend this church and the number of church members is increasing instead of decreasing.

Then we went to their house to have lunch. While the parents prepared lunch, I played with the kids. They taught me a game and we had a lot of fun. Of course everything in Dutch, because only the oldest one could speak a few words in English.

The lunch was... guess what? Surprisingly bread and soup. But it was very tasty and we ate in the garden, because it was beautiful weather.

After lunch we went to Vlissingen. The Festival already started and the other EVSers waited for me.

I said goodbye to the family and hoped that I will see them again. Especially the time with the children I enjoyed a lot.
After I left them, we saw some bands, ate fries, went to the sea and enjoyed the sun.

Wietje, Germany

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

“Are you seriously going to Amsterdam on Queen's Day??? Good luck surviving it.”
This was the general response we got whenever we told people that we're going to go to Amsterdam on Queen's Day. But, nothing could discourage us from spending this historical day in the capital.

We left Kruiningen VERY VERY early in the morning because someone (read: our fellow Dutch volunteer Marc) told us that if we don’t take the first train, we won’t be able to get into Amsterdam.  However, the train was almost empty and, of course, Marc had to take jokes about this the whole day. 

Article in PZC (center picture)

A journalist from PZC was also on the train looking for people who were going to Amsterdam to find out why they decided to spend this day there, what they think about the royal family, how important the Queen’s day is for them and so on.  Since there weren’t that many people in the train, eventually she found us, and the next day – we were in the newspaper! 

After arriving in Amsterdam, we immediately went to Dam Square. A big crowd was already there. After less than an hour, the abdication was broadcasted on two big video walls. After that, the royal family came out on the balcony to greet their loyal subjects. After some ten minutes of royal hand waving they went back inside to continue with the formal ceremonies and Amsterdam turned into one huge party. We decided to visit the flea market in Vondel Park first. 

Now, that was one unique experience. Seems like this was the best day to sell any kind of junk you had stored in your house; most of it was just old clothes and shoes, but also jewelry, video games, DVDs… But, there were also some less conventional attempts to make money. There were people to whom you paid certain amount of money; they would give you a box of eggs, put safety goggles on and it was up to you to aim and throw. Also, parents whose children had any kind of talent brought them there to sing, dance, paint…you name it.

After that, we walked to the Museumsplein, and then back to the center, trying to find a party with the kind of music we like.

It’s really difficult to explain the atmosphere of this day. I have never experienced something like this in Croatia, except maybe only after we win during some football championships.

Klara, Croatia