This past weekend I went to visit my friend Lenore from Amherst studying abroad in Amsterdam and although we didn't "pass that Dutch" like the Missy Elliot song, we still managed to have a great time. Amsterdam is a pretty city full of interesting surprises, like the fact that its 10% Black!
When I disembarked from my plane at Schipol Airport I saw Black folks blithely walking about jabbering along in Dutch. I wanted to ask them what they were doing there. But instead I decided to exercise some home training. I later found out that Black Amsterdammers are mainly from the Antilles, Surinam and a few East African nations. After meeting up with my friend and hopping on the train (which looked like they were straight out of NYC circa 1986), we arrived at Centraal Station and walked to her neighborhood Jordaan (the Dutch love a double A). Jordaan is like the SoHo/West Village of Amsterdam. I was practically faint from not eating since the morning we went to a pancake house. Waffles are to Belgium as pancakes are to Amsterdam. There are about 500,000 pancake spots in the city, but this place blew my mind, it was that good. So good that I brought some pancakes when I got back to London, unfortunately they don't even hold a candle to their Dutch counterparts.
We spent the weekend hitting up the cultural landmarks: Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum (which is like their MET), the Anne Frank Huis and the Red Light District (which really has lingerie clad women standing in windows lit by red lights! Too much for my little Episcopalian heart). The Anne Frank Huis was very heart-wrenching, walking through the tiny annex she lived in with her family was surreal. In this most unromantic of places there was a couple making out in the section with pictures of concentration camp victims. Europeans never cease to surprise me...
But now I'm back to the grind in London, armed with pancakes, Dutch chocolate and instant coffee as I attempt to tackle my papers. It is study abroad after all.
