Day 22:

Fourth of July for me was au revoir to France. To Holland I arrived by train, with weary eyes from a fast last night opened wide for the new candy of Amsterdam. Hallo: brick buildings and big windows, bicycles, canals, big sky and people that make it obvious they're tourists. Of course these words don't do much justice. This city's first impression left me with a promising feeling I can hardly try to describe. All I knew was that I had to get to lecture.

I was late [aware, from the reader, that the Dutch take punctuality seriously], and it wouldn't be my last time. About thirty minutes into the first lecture, I found Bungehuis and room 3.07. I caught some nods. Professor Dewulf shook my hand then resumed lecture to explain gezellige. I carry around with me a Dutch phrasebook, and on the train that morning I stumbled upon the word. Quoting Lonely Planet:

"Taking this book with you will open the door to a truly gezellige (khuh-ze-li-khuh) travel experience. If you want to discover firsthand the true meaning of this quintessentially Dutch word ('convivial' just doesn't do it justice), then don't leave home without this little book!"

I wondered what the Professor would think about this loose likening of gezellige to "convivial" - lecture made its meaning seem to be in some other direction, towards the word "cozy." Perhaps these two words find common ground in the term; in any case I'd like, as my phrasebook tempts, to truly discover the meaning of the word. I figured it has something to do with depth of character, as it has been said that to "impress a Dutch girlfriend or boyfriend" you must, for example, have a home of meaningful, characteristic posessions. I'm good at that, I thought to myself.

Off to the Van Gogh Museum. And what an odd time I had in its premise. Stepping suddenly into such an extreme social situation was a bit unnerving, especially after 21 days alone, so I went for a solitary to reflect on the end of my independent travels (on a date none other than Independence Day). Little did I know, my watch was several blocks of time behind, so my walk was too long. I found a sack of marijuana on the pavement, and three minutes later, a sack of hashish, then a rolling paper blew onto my leg. I laughed at the irony of this happening upon my arrival in Amsterdam. Returning from these unrelated notes, the Van Gogh Museum was a beautiful collection, and understanding van Gogh's development as an artist makes his life and work all the more interesting and admirable. Hoping I won't go crazy, I can, to some meager degree, relate to his artistic ambitions. Making art from nature yet inspired by the mind is what I strive for. That night I took blurry photographs of the canal and wondered what a post-Impressionist would have thought of them. Would he sense an excitement tempered with care, impassioned by beauty?

The walk from Centraal Station to Bungehuis was hurried - aside from stopping to talk to a kind and desperate Irish beggar who I could not help - and the walk after lecture was a sudden, shocking intake of socializing, so that it wasn't until after checking in to the hostel, dropping off my luggage, and boarding the canal tour that I really got to take in Amsterdam at a slow [boat's] pace. It was wonderful. Much of my attention was on the rows of big, open windows, which make a fascinating feature in a culture that frowns upon anti-social privacy. Of course, many curtains were drawn, but others were not, and inside you could watch their owners do household things like sit in front of their laptops or have their supper. I think most Americans, like myself, are uncomfortable in the presence of anonymous surveillance. Voyeurism is treated differently here.

Isolde took us through the red light district that evening. I was excited to have my colorful imagination shattered and sobered - because reality was that the place was just like any other street along a canal, except red fluorescent bulbs hung over certain panes of glass through which shameless women seduced lonely men. Otherwise it's a tourist hub for pickpockets, cheap rent for up-and-coming designers, ethnic restaurants and synagogues. Afterwards, a handful of us went out for coffee.