Nerdy History Toys, cont.

It's really a toy for mom, but still nerdy and historical . . . a cathedral cookie cutter.

Check out other nerdy history toys we've enjoyed by clicking the link, "Nerdy History Toys" located on the right under LABELS.

Pre-K Impressionism

I just love this.

Reese's class created a large painting "à la manière de Monet," using sponges to make the sky and the tines of a fork to create the tulips.  Reese and his two favorite gal pals worked on the sky and the pink tulips.  Hard to tell, but the painting is pretty big.

I so want to take Reese to Giverny.

Obama in Town

President Obama was in Amsterdam this morning for a whopping 90 minutes.  http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/03/us_president_obama_pays_90_min.php

The visit may have been short, but it was historic, as this was the first visit to the Netherlands by a sitting US president.

Obama met with the PM of Netherlands and mayor of Amsterdam, and then he toured the Rijks Museum, which you can see in the background of the video.

The preparations were intense, and Museumplein, where he spent those 90 minutes, was completely shut down and blockaded all the way around.  All three of the museums on the square were closed until afternoon.

I have to admit to being part of the spectacle (there was a huge crowd).  After all, it's only five minutes from our house, and I pass by Museumplein on my way to drop the kids at school.

Living in DC, I'd witnessed the presidential helicopter brigade more times than I can count, but it was pretty cool seeing it in another country on such a famous square in Amsterdam.

Secret Service on the roof of the Van Gogh Museum:

Obama in front of Rembrandt's "The Nightwatch."

Ex Pat Travels

The contents of Doug's suitcase when he came back to AMS from Seattle last week:

Alaskan Travel Critter

A friend of mine from the US asked if I could do her a favor and help out her niece on a school project.  Her niece is in the second grade, and each student in her class sent a stuffed animal critter on an educational trip to see friends, family or acquaintances around the world.

The critter, called Elim, found his way to Amsterdam last week.  Here's the letter we sent back to the second-grade class in Alaska with some fun facts about the Netherlands (even if geared for an eight-year old!):

Dear [   ] Second Grade Class:

Elim arrived in Amsterdam on a warm, sunny March day.  It rains a lot in Holland, so everyone was taking advantage of the great weather by playing in the park, eating and talking at outdoor cafes, and riding their bikes.

Did you know that there are more bikes in Amsterdam than cars?  It’s like no other city in the world because of the number of bikes. Once, someone counted them all up and figured out there are over 600,000 bicycles in the city.  Wow!

Elim was so amazed by all the bikes, the first thing he wanted to do was jump on a bike to visit the canals.  Here’s Elim with Abby and Reese, his hosts for the week, in a bike called a “bakfiets.” It has two wheels and a cart for carrying kids all around town.

It’s easy to bike around Amsterdam because it’s so flat.  In fact, the Netherlands is the world’s flattest country, and much of the country is actually below sea level.

If the land is lower than the sea, what happens to all of the water? 

To prevent the country from flooding all of the time, there are lots of dams and dykes to hold the water back and divert it away from the farms and towns where people live.  And sometimes the water is carefully sent through the cities via canals, like in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has the oldest and some of the most beautiful canals in the country.

 

 

Here’s Elim, jumping up for a snapshot of himself, on Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal), one the first three canals dug in Amsterdam a long time ago during the seventeenth-century. Along the canal you can see some of Amsterdam’s famous gabled houses.

For his next stop, Elim really wanted to check out the world-renowned Rijks Museum.  

The Dutch (that’s what you call people who come from Holland, and the language they speak) were really good at painting during the seventeenth century, and many painters from around the world tried to copy the technique of these “Dutch Masters.”

Rembrandt is the most well known of the Dutch Masters, and at the Rijks Museum you can see his amazing painting called, “Night Watch.”

All of Amsterdam’s art museums, like Rijks and Van Gogh, are located around a big green park. In the summer, kids can wade in a grand pool; and in winter, there’s an ice skating rink.

Do you know the story and paintings of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh?  He painted with bold colors and created striking paintings like “Starry Night” and “Sunfolowers.”

 

Elim also really wanted to see the tulip fields, another thing for which Holland is famous.  However, the tulips usually don’t bloom until mid-April, so Abby and Reese drew this picture for Elim to take home with him. 

Can you spot the windmill?  Windmills are everywhere in Holland because they were used to help drain water away from farmland many centuries ago.

Thank you for visiting us, Elim!  We had a grand time showing you the sights of Amsterdam.  Hello to your entire second grade class!  

Sincerely, Abby & Reese 

Satzmans.Ski.Norway

I promise this is it.  Had to set it to music.

From Skiing in Norway, All the Way to Hip Hop's Akon in STL

Our brief visit to Oslo, along with a week at a Norwegian ski resort, did not necessarily give us deep insight into local culture.  Nonetheless, there are always little bits to glean, and we were immediately struck by the number of Swedes working in Norway.  Many of our ski instructors were Swedish, as were the hotel staff and restaurant and shop workers.

At first glance, I suppose this doesn't seem too unusual; Norway and Sweden are neighboring countries and part of the same historical and cultural-linguistic region of Scandinavia.  It's not far-fetched to assume that there's a back-and-forth movement of people within the region.

However, we soon learned that the migration of workers is pretty much one-way:  Sweden to Norway.  It is estimated that there are close to 100,000 Swedes working Norway, and the Swedes make up over 10% of the population in Oslo.

The combined effects of a Norwegian oil boom (oil was discovered off the coast of Norway in the 1960s), and the entrance of Sweden into the European Union (Norway is not part of the EU) has reversed an extremely long-term relationship between the two countries in which Sweden has typically been considered superior.

Norway is now one the world's wealthiest countries, but its population is only five million, which means workers are lacking.  Sweden, on the other hand, is facing pressure on its core industries, like steel, and is heavily reliant on exports to a shaky EU.  It is therefore increasingly hard to absorb those seeking jobs.

With unemployment in Sweden at an all-time high, young people are encouraged to go work in Norway, where they can make double the salary, mostly in the service industry but also in the industrial sector.  The majority of Swedes return to their home country within five years, all the more better-off.

Meanwhile, the Swedish government has opened up its doors wide to Syrian refugees, often to the frustration of the Swedish population which doesn't understand how the economy can support the influx or how the refugees can be successfully integrated culturally.  To date, Sweden has accepted more than 15,000 refugees (of the 2.1 million total refugees); the most of any EU nation other than Turkey which borders Syria.

I heard a lot about all of this from my Swedish cross-country ski instructor who lambasted the Norwegians for having so much money and being too cheap to spend any of it to salt the snow and ice-covered roads (we hiked on these roads for thirty minutes each way to my lesson), but also criticized his own country for doing too much and also too little for its own people and for the Syrian refugees.

The Syrian War just hit the 3-year mark, and renewed calls to action can be heard around the globe, particularly for Europe to open its doors to take in refugees who are crushing the borders of Syria's neighboring states.

One of the more poignant PSAs to come out in recent weeks is the video above, which follows a year in the life of a young girl whose world is destroyed by war and violence, much like so many of the Syrian child refugees.

From this vantage point, one can only admire Sweden's efforts.  The renewed focus and imagery of the humanitarian crisis is a sad reminder that WE need to do SOMETHING.

On a lighter note, my ski instructor was also quite interested in my background, and we had plenty of time to swap stories skiing around cross country fields.

When he learned I was from Saint Louis, he actually knew it was a city in Missouri.  He also knew the city sat on the Mississippi River and was therefore in the middle of America. 

I know a lot of east-coasters who don't even know this much about US geography, and so I was quite impressed that my Swedish twenty-something ski instructor knew so much about a small, Midwestern town.

He also knew that hip hop artist Akon is from Saint Louis, which of course could explain how he knew anything at all about Saint Louis.  But still . . . .

I played it cool, but I didn't even know that Akon was from STL.  I can at least say that I was familiar with Akon.  And in my own defense, while Akon was born in Saint Louis, he spent most of his life in West Africa country of Senegal (yep, looked that up when I got home).  Even Akon says he's Senegalese.  Seriously, who really knows Akon hails from STL?  Just sayin'. 

Weekend in Edinburgh

Views from Edinburgh Castle:

Looking out onto the Firth on Forth.

View to New Town, built across the river after the plague ravaged the original city in the 17th century.

Reese, after walking the drawbridge over the old moat . . . wondering if dragons still exist.

Canon balls, 17th century.

This next dude is King Charles II, the guy who ruled England in the second half of the 17th century.  Much of my graduate work focused on the effects of his socio-religious policies on the "regular" people.

Lots of folks fled England during this time. Think witch hunts and heads rolling.  

Charming, isn't he?

King and Queen.

The Streets of Edinburgh:

Gothic monument to author Sir Walter Scott, a hero to the Scots.

Statue of economist Adam Smith, also a Scottish hero. 

Edinburgh Castle from below.

North Bridge.

George Street in New Town.

Giles Cathedral.

Giles Cathedral.

New Hunter rain boots, how Edinburgh is that?

Edinburgh Castle bathed in purple up-lighting.