Happy Mothers Day to all Amsterdam to Paris MOMS!!! :)
Today, we woke up around nine o'clock and got ready so as to enjoy the crepe styled pancakes that our shelter makes for breakfast. It's rather interesting when you end up spreading "syrup" aka molasses on your pancake with a knife because it is so thick. After enjoying our breakfast, we promptly leave for church a couple blocks down the road at the Christ Church of Amsterdam. However, we end up arriving in the middle of the service (minor error in the starting time). The church was an Episcopal Church which reminded some girls of their church back at home. I loved the message because it spoke on forgiveness. Ever find yourself sitting in church and saying, "wow did they just write this sermon for me?". Or, "how do they know?". I always enjoy listening to God when he so obviously speaks to me :). After the service, we went upstairs for coffee, tea, and coffee dipping sugar sticks (?). This time was really fun because we all got to either reconnect with each other or visit with people from around the area. You would think that because we are on a trip together in such tight quarters, we would have enough time with each other. However, you find yourself grouping off, going to different museums or stores, thus, you sometimes need a couple minutes to reconnect and talk about your day :). After the freezing walk back to our shelter, we got ready to leave for the Keukenhof Gardens (the famous tuplip garden).
The garden was absolutely breathtaking. It was about an hour total drive by bus and tram ride out to the countryside where fields lined with rows of tulips. There were 7 million different forms of tulips there, covering 40 acres of land. As you can imagine, it is easy to get a tad lost in the garden which is surrounded with ponds, shops, petting zoos, rows of flowers, and sculptures. We split off into two groups after grabbing a quick bite to eat and walked around the grounds, which had paved roads that twisted and turned around everywhere. After three hours we hadn't even walked everywhere, but we went home pleased with over a hundred pictures, if not more. I'm sure you'll all be super excited to see the gorgeous poses that we got with the scenery and flowers as our background, I know we were :).
After we met back up around 5:00 pm, we rode back to the hostel in our church clothes that we decided to wear all day. We thought it was better to sacrifice our warmth to get pretty pictures and for some it was worth it but by the end, we were all questioning why we decided to wear such little leg covering on such a freezing cold day (this is for sammie: We felt rather doe ba doe!). After we got back to the shelter, we went seperate ways and found food to eat for dinner. Some went to an Indonesian place while others grabbed food at the local grocery store (bread with salami and cheese). I, on the other hand, accompanied two of my girlfriends and took the easy way out, grabbing food at the local café in the shelter (which is priced really nicely). By the end of dinner, we had all met up and talked about our day in the café, reminiscing over our silly and cute pictures from the Garden. A few of us decided to make one last shopping trip at a nearby souvenir shop before calling it a night. Now, I am sitting in the café at our shelter, watching Sylvette read an Amsterdam book, Kate typing on her computer, Scottie and Stephanie writing in their journals, and the rest of the girls packing in their room and giggling. I am leaving you all now to go back to the room and enjoy the packing party :). Hope this is a fun update to read. Love you all and miss you very much.
This is Kendyl signing out ;-) (Star Trek reference for you daddy)
-Kendyl Tarbell
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Vincent Van Gogh Museum - FABULOUS!
On May 8th We went to the Van Gogh Museum. I was personally really excited about this because of studying many of Van Gogh's famous pieces. It was more of a surreal/emotional expirience to actually see Van Gogh's pieces in person.
The first level of the museum had pieces by many well-known artists that also followed in the same style and time period as Van Gogh. This was neat to see how Van Gogh appeared and was compared to other artists if the time. Some of the pieces that I really enjoyed were ones by Rousseau and Monticelli, becuause of the applied texture that was achieved by the way they applied the paint in the canvas.
On the second floor this was filled with many paintings throughout Van Gogh's life. I found this to be the best part of the museum. In most of Van Gogh's paintings you can see the applied texture and energetic brush strokes done all by many vivid fast brush strokes. On thing that you can't really tell from seeing the pieces in a text book is the contrasting color that he uses in almost all of his pieces. This is such a revolutionalry concept that makes so many paintings that much more powerful. I was so amazed that even in Van Gogh's period he captures so much more appeal when viewing his paintings by using the contrasting colors.
In many of the oriental flowers that are in his paintings for a period they seem to have even more built up texture than many of his others. This is so energetic and amazing to see in person. Being an art major i found going to this museum was my favorite so far. I feel i had a connection with these pieces and to see them in person is absolutley amazing and had to put all of my feelings into words. But if i am ever back i think i would come back to the Van Gogh museum because it is fabulous!
The first level of the museum had pieces by many well-known artists that also followed in the same style and time period as Van Gogh. This was neat to see how Van Gogh appeared and was compared to other artists if the time. Some of the pieces that I really enjoyed were ones by Rousseau and Monticelli, becuause of the applied texture that was achieved by the way they applied the paint in the canvas.
On the second floor this was filled with many paintings throughout Van Gogh's life. I found this to be the best part of the museum. In most of Van Gogh's paintings you can see the applied texture and energetic brush strokes done all by many vivid fast brush strokes. On thing that you can't really tell from seeing the pieces in a text book is the contrasting color that he uses in almost all of his pieces. This is such a revolutionalry concept that makes so many paintings that much more powerful. I was so amazed that even in Van Gogh's period he captures so much more appeal when viewing his paintings by using the contrasting colors.
In many of the oriental flowers that are in his paintings for a period they seem to have even more built up texture than many of his others. This is so energetic and amazing to see in person. Being an art major i found going to this museum was my favorite so far. I feel i had a connection with these pieces and to see them in person is absolutley amazing and had to put all of my feelings into words. But if i am ever back i think i would come back to the Van Gogh museum because it is fabulous!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
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
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
Friday, May 7, 2010
Amsterdam Day 2
On Thursday (the 6th), we got a lot of walking on. After a french toast breakfast, we were off to see the Ten Boom Home and were able to have a tour of the house. The tour guide lead us to the living room where to shared the Ten Boom's story. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the Ten Boom home and their history. The grandfather owned the watch repair business and when he died, the house and business was passed on to the Ten Boom family and Corrie, Betsie and their father lived above the shop. The family truly wanted to help everyone who needed the help during World War II. This Christian family were able to help many Jews and others who were having problems with the Nazi law. The Ten Boom house had a 'hiding place' in Corrie's bedroom which was at the top of the home. It was neat to finally see the place after researching and learning a lot about it. Both Corrie's father and sister died during the war but Corrie was able to survive after terrible experiences in the concentation camp. After the war, she was able to travel the world sharing God's love and forgiveness. Now, the Ten Boom still has a clock shop on the first level and the home is a musuem.
After lunch and a break, we took a train ride back to Amsterdam and then to a windmill. We learned all of about the process of windmills. There were differnt uses for windmills, not just for pumping out water. In the past, windmills were used to signal a wedding or if it was going the way, it signaled a death in the town. We were also able to climb all the way to the top of the windmill and saw an amazing view of the town.
The last big part of our day was a boat tour of the Amsterdam canals around the city. The tour guide said that there are about 1,200 different bridges in Amsterdam. The water is half salf and half fresh water also known as 'sweet' water. I personally really enjoyed the boat trip. It was so nice to relax and look at all of the cool and pretty sites from the boat view. Today was a good day in Europe but there is nothing like a good nights sleep after a busy day.
-Becky :)
After lunch and a break, we took a train ride back to Amsterdam and then to a windmill. We learned all of about the process of windmills. There were differnt uses for windmills, not just for pumping out water. In the past, windmills were used to signal a wedding or if it was going the way, it signaled a death in the town. We were also able to climb all the way to the top of the windmill and saw an amazing view of the town.
The last big part of our day was a boat tour of the Amsterdam canals around the city. The tour guide said that there are about 1,200 different bridges in Amsterdam. The water is half salf and half fresh water also known as 'sweet' water. I personally really enjoyed the boat trip. It was so nice to relax and look at all of the cool and pretty sites from the boat view. Today was a good day in Europe but there is nothing like a good nights sleep after a busy day.
-Becky :)
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