Sex and the Tulip City

Sex Education, as my classmates and I have learned from discussing our personal experiences, is a very loose term in the United States. Some people watched a movie in P.E. class, some were told by their parents that sex would leave them alone or dead, some were told that sex is only between a man and a woman, and some seemed to come out of sex-ed with pretty useful knowledge. No matter the case, sexual education in the United States is extremely different from that in The Netherlands, and we received a crash course over the past two class sessions! As described by our guest speaker, Yuri, on Monday, Dutch students receive a comprehensive sexual education. In this case, comprehensive means that the material being taught is age and culturally appropriate, are based on human rights and science, and is respectful of young people and their needs. Comprehensive sex-ed in The Netherlands begins in primary school with conversations regarding relationships and physical touch (who is and is not ...

If you ask someone from the United States to describe the culture in the Netherlands, it is likely that they would say something along the lines of "open", "accepting", or "liberal." While today these descriptions may hold truth, we must consider how our current understanding of The Netherlands has been shaped over time. It is unlikely that the everyday American would be aware of the Dutch involvement in the slave trade, prosecuting inter-faith/inter-racial marriages, or the anti-immigration sentiment in The Netherlands.  On our first day of class, Chantal- the IES Center Director- gave us a run-down of how the Netherlands originated and developed throughout the years. Coming in with barely any knowledge of Dutch history, this has proved useful both in understanding our class, but also navigating Amsterdam more generally. Amsterdam's proximity to the water made it a prime location to facilitate trade, resulting in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) ris...

Getting ready to depart for Amsterdam has made me think a lot about what this experience is going to entail. I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad last summer, and there are certain aspects of that experience that led me to want to study abroad again. Navigating new cities, trying new food, making cultural comparisons, and making new friends are all parts of studying abroad that had a huge impact on me and inspired me to come to Amsterdam. However, I also learned a lot about travel and what I don't want to replicate.  I tried my best to go with the flow and join others in pursuits they were in charge of rather than take charge myself. In addition, I did not do a lot of research on the cities I went to beforehand. I think having a deeper knowledge of what tourist sites are worth it/what to avoid, and having a context of the history of a city would make studying abroad a richer experience through and through. While my experience last summer was incredible, I want to take matt...