Sneaky Cops

On May 7, 2010 the group visited the Rijksmuseum. This museum is most famous for it's Rembrandt pieces. My favorite was "The Milkmaid" by Johannes Vermeer who painted a woman pouring milk with yellow and blue paints, which were very expensive in his era. Vermeer is also well-known for having square objects in the backgrounds of his paintings that run off the end of the page. In the paintings we saw, windows, maps, and pictures in the background of his paintings ran off the edge of the canvas. Willem Claesz Heda was my personal favorite because of the intricacy of his still life paintings. His detail on the metal pitchers, glass gilt goblet, and even the fruit was astounding. One thing peculiar that I noticed was that during the Renaissance era, the rich preffered to be depicted as slightly overweight withvery pale skin. Being overweight indicated the wealth of the individual and light skin indicated that the person was wealthy enough to avoid working in manual labor outside. The Rembrandt pieces were also incredible, and I am amazed at his ability to create evenly proportioned people in life size paintings.

Next we visited the Tropenmuseum which contained many foreign items collected by the Netherlands during colonial times. The most interesting part for me was the music and clothing. Typically when I think of times hundreds of years ago I imagine that life was too difficult for excess activities and luxuries. Yet during the colonial eras all civilizations had costumes which were excessive and very decorative, used merely for ceremonial purposes and not simply for daily life. The civilizations had enough leisure time to be able to practice musical arts.

As we have experienced this beautiful country with it's canals and tall, skinny buildings, we have also learned of some of its downfalls. The number one traffic law is essentially to look out for yourself and avoid being hit by a bike, car, tram, or bus. One cop warned us to keep our cameras put away if ever they weren't in use because many cameras are stolen by someone on a bike riding by, swiping it and riding off. The next day some cops demonstrated how easily it is for someone to steal a tourists bag when it is sitting on the ground. The first cop, dressed as a civilian, pretended to trip, creating a diversion while the second cop swooped up the bag without the 6 of us noticing. He then explained the importance of keeping valuables close by.

All in all, everything is going well. Most small bumps we have encountered have been easily smoothed over. And some of the girls sang "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz at Open Mic night yesterday at the hostel. We are having no trouble finding entertainment and enjoying ourselves! =]

Samantha