Holy Culture Shock, Batman!

There are two questions I've been asked a lot lately; 

"Why did you leave Portugal?" and "What made you move back to Amsterdam?"

There is not one simple answer to these questions, living in Portugal for a year was an incredible experience full of ups and downs, it taught me many things especially things about myself, it gave me a thicker skin when it came to certain social situations, it gave me the opportunity to experience the frustrations and joys of a completely a different type of lifestyle and culture, and to wake up every morning to a gorgeous sunrise over the sea, none of this will be forgotten but what stands out the most is Culture shock and just how real it actually is.

cul·ture shock

Noun
The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.

Experiencing this came as a surprise because after living in several countries and traveling extensively I not only (very naively) believed it was something that I was immune to - me? culture shock? Yea right, I'm super cosmopolitan girl! but a part of me also believed it only happened to a select group of people who enjoyed a little whinge every now and then, people who like to compare everything to their home country, people who never really appreciated or wanted to give any other way of life a chance. But I realized culture shock is more than an attitude problem and it can hit you no matter how much of a seasoned traveler or how open minded you are. And culture shock hit me hard, I vividly remember the sunny summer afternoon I decided to read a little about it and found myself ticking off every single symptom, suddenly everything made sense; the constant judging and stereotyping of the locals, the complete and utter preoccupation with my health, the feelings of loneliness, powerlessness, the constant feeling that I was being cheated, overlooked, looked down on.

Things began to look up after this realization and some powerful advice from my husband;

"Whenever you're frustrated about something, rather than judge people, think about and ask yourself why they might do things that way"

The culture shock eventually eased away and I have been left with a longing to understand, explore, see, taste and experience more of this amazing country, but as far as living goes Amsterdam is where we belong in this stage of our lives, Portugal was an awesome, crazy ride for a year but it feels good to be back in lovely Amsterdam. 

Finding Social Mecca - And Then Moving On

This week we packed all our favorite things in a handful of boxes, and a little moving company came to take it all away. That's right folks, we're moving on from Amsterdam. 

As a Sydneysider targeted by the cities social incompetence I’d daydream about moving and living around the world, always finding a new exciting place to explore and if I was lucky enough, to call home. In the most exasperating times I swore I would never go back as I imagined myself in some rural part of Hawaii living it up with the locals (that turns out only existed in my mind, but that’s another story).

But as it did turn out, it was Amsterdam with its socially forward thinking, beautiful in its old town charm and lively yet relaxed in its atmosphere that gave me everything I was looking for. Amsterdam revolves around pleasant social gatherings. The Dutch have a word for this; “Gezellig” and there is no direct translation for it, the closest I could come to describing it is “cozy” but even that doesn’t really capture the feeling of Gezellig. Gezellig is enjoying the company of good friends over food and wine, it is sitting by a lake in the sunshine with your partner chit chatting as you watch the boats go by, it is sitting on the back of your partner’s or friends’ bike with your arms around their waist as you ride back home from the theatre. When you experience it you’ve essentially hit social Mecca.

And in the last few months, it was exactly this that had me asking the questions; is moving away the right choice? Will I find this in my next home? Why am I leaving the friends I love so much? Why am I leaving this amazing community I built for myself? Am I crazy? Spoilt? or just stupid?

But, there is one solid reason why I’m leaving Amsterdam, the lack of being close to nature and beaches that are so fundamental to my happiness, without them I feel lost and find it difficult to picture myself living a fulfilled, happy life in any place.

So our adventure in Amsterdam may be over, but the adventure itself continues. Lisboa let’s see what you have to offer!

Fitting In and Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

When I moved here almost 3 years ago I felt I slipped into Amsterdam so effortlessly that at times I wondered if I had lived here my entire life. I found the locals easy to understand and easy to deal with, I loved the sense of community that I felt all around me and I loved that women were completely liberated, independent and confident. 

And recently this all made sense when I learnt a little about Hofstede and his Cultural Dimension Theory, Hofstede identified several values (dimensions) that differentiate a country's culture and society form another; Masculinity, Power Distance, Individualism, and Uncertainty Avoidance.

So I ranked my home culture(s) using a really cool cultural differentiation tool I found online, and this is what happened:

Masculinity MA - The degree to which a country’s society supports the traditional male/female roles. 
Power Distance PDI - the extent of equality and inequality between people in a country’s society, low PDI scores point toward more social equality while a high PDI indicates inequalities of wealth and power. 
Individualism IDV - the degree to which a country’s culture values and supports the value of the individual over the group.  
Uncertainty Avoidance UAI - the degree of which a country’s culture accepts uncertainly and ambiguity. A low VAI indicates a societies willingness to accept change and consider new ideas whereas high VAI cultures try to minimize the amount of unknown situations, high VAI cultures also tend to be more emotional.    

All the things I hated and loved about growing up as a Greek in Australia were either toned down or toned up in the Netherlands; annoying, stifling gender stereotypes and crazy emotional reactions, gone, replaced by a better sense of community.

In fact the only thing I really struggled with in the Netherlands compared to Australia was power distance differences that I picked up on here in the work force, kudos to my fellow Aussies on that one!

Milan In Less Than 3 Days

I'd never heard much about Milan but reading about heavy discounts on designer clothes, markets with vintage shoes and cheap flights from Amsterdam it felt natural to do a girls trip there. So last Friday Amanda and I jumped on a plane and headed toward Italy. 

Unfortunately heavy discounts meant that instead of paying €4999 for an Armani (or; Dior, Gucci, Prada etc etc) dress you could pay just €1699 for it, and that vintage second hand items started at over €100. So there I was, shocked to find almost* everything was out of my budget.

Ok, so I wasn't going to shop on this trip but that wasn't the end of the world because Milan had so much more to offer. 

Tea and cookies in Art Nouveau Heaven at Zucca in Galleria located in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II just opposite the Doumo, completely over priced at €4.80 for a cappuccino but the cookies are to die for and in combination with the setting the tea and cookie option at €6 is totally worth it. 

Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele ll

A quick hop over the Piazza Doumo to the Museo del Novecento (the Museum of the 20th Century) is well worth a visit, on display is contemporary Italian art and it hosts several works of Umberto Boccioni and surprisingly some work by Pablo Picasso. Entrance until the end of February 2011 is free. 

Happy Hour in Navigli happy hour in Milan is unlike anywhere else I have seen, between about 6-10pm bars offer their take on the Italian aperitif (a glass of prosecco and some bar snacks before dinner) in the form of an all you can eat buffet with any drink/cocktail purchase (usually between €6-12), the buffet includes warm and cold snacks such as pizza, pasta, cured meats, cheeses, grilled and cured vegetables, salads, desserts… the list goes on and on and by the time you're done you're too stuffed for dinner anyway. The district of Navigli is a great area for Happy Hour, here canals are lined with some great bars and restaurants that all compete against each other when happy hour roles around, lavish buffets are on display in their windows. Guides will often advise you not to over indulge and state that treating the buffet's as a dinner is considered tasteless by the locals, however this does not seem to bother the locals we encountered who piled on the goodies and went for 3rd and 4th rounds themselves.

Happy hour!

Stroll through Navigli back to Milans canal district Navigli during the day is also worth a visit, filled with art studios and galleries, vintage clothing and antique stores, well stocked book shops, outdoor markets and cozy cafe's it is a great place to take a walk, pick up a bargain and enjoy a coffee and croissant.

Gorgeous bag found in a second hand vintage shop and still completely out of my budget

Breakfast in Navigli

Climb the Doumo Milan's Doumo is an incredible cathedral made of marble, the Doumo is exceptionally detailed with 3,500 statues, sculptured stories told on it's brass doors by different artists and beautiful stained glass windows. The inside is so special that even an atheist like myself can marvel at what man's faith is capable of creating, but to really appreciate it's grandness pay €5 and climb to the roof (or €8 for the lift), the detail on the 135 spires is stunning when viewed from the top.

The Doumo, view from the top and sculptures on the doors. 

On the top of the Doumo

Sample delicious handmade Mozzarella after climbing the Doumo treat yourself with a sundowner at Obika Mozzarella Bar. Located on the top of a lavish several story department store the restaurant has a gorgeous view of the Doumo spires and the sunset viewed here while enjoying a bottle of cool white wine was the highlight of my trip. Oh and the food is damn good too, Obika has a completely new restaurant concept and offers different types of mozzarella accompanied by delicious and fresh traditional Italian sides, yum!

Get cultured the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (WOW) is another of Milan's highlights, the library also houses a the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana (the Ambrosian Art Gallery) which displays some fantastic masterpieces including Raffael's "School of Athens" and works by Botticelli and Leonardo. The library section is also impressive with 30,000 manuscripts. My only wish is that we had more time so that I could really explore it, we did however see what we went to see and it was totally worth it, the current exhibit of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Codex Atlanticus, these sketches were mind boggling and seeing Leornardo doodles on the edges of the paper used for his designs was a great sight! We were lucky enough to get free entry that Sunday but the usual €15 entry would be totally worth it!

The Castello Sforzesco is also a must see, the caste has several museums within it's walls including an archeological and prehistoric museum it also has a great art collection which includes Michaelangelo's last sculpture the The Rondanini Pietà. 

Ah Milan.

*almost everything, except for these babies at just €39.95 from OVS Industry

Amsterdam Art City

Open Ateliers in Amsterdam
October (and some November) Weekends

One of the first things I noticed when I got to Amsterdam was the abundance of high quality, original art everywhere. And before too long I knew exactly why, Amsterdam is inspiring, it is for the free and it is an incredibly beautiful city, with water reflecting all around you, beautiful blossoming flowers everywhere, world class parks, trees lining the streets and canals, stunning architecture, a laid back atmosphere, several festivals and markets, Amsterdam is a city that is vibrant and alive.

And if you're an artist the best part is you live in a country where the government and society supports the arts. There are several world class art schools that attract artists from all over the world and several community programs that get people involved and encourage creativity, to add to this there are festivals, markets, galleries and exhibitions all year round that focus on the arts.

During October and some November weekends Amsterdam has a free open exhibition known as Open Ateliers where artists open their workspaces, it is the perfect opportunity to see how artists work and to see some of their works in progress as well as many of their completed works, best of all you can also meet with the artist and discuss their work.

Yesterday we went to open galleries in The Pijp, it was very eye opening for someone who dabbles in painting to see such a high standard of work among the local artists, probably higher than I have seen anywhere else. Some of my favourites included: Pieter Schmits who's nudes were incredible, with nice uses of colour and an interesting technique of letting thinned out paint flow on his canvas leading to beautiful flowing lines of the female form. Julie Dassaud (below) who had some very cool mixed media paintings with an industrial edge. 

 

John Paaijmans who works with Indian ink using syringes and drips to create some really funky drawings. And, Antonio Fuertes who's beautiful profiles (like the one below) and still life's had a classical style with a modern edge.  

  
If you missed it this weekend, then I really suggest you don't miss one of the other weekends.

Open Ateliers Locations include:

The Pijp - October 3 & 4 

Nieuwmarkt - October 3 & 4

De Baarsjes - October 10 & 11
Plantagedok Mogelijkhedenplaats - October 17 & 18
Hotdocks - November 14 & 15

 

 

I look forward to seeing more during other weekends!

My Truths About Amsterdam

Bill O'Reilly recently portrayed Amsterdam as a cesspool of corruption and liberal failure. In his attack he failed to refer to any sources where he found his information, because he didn't have any - not that this is surprising, when have we ever seen a right wing conservative use cold hard facts?

Here is the original video:


(I just love how she says "social tolerance" like it's a bad thing).

In response to this, two Amsterdam locals Robert and Elian, launched a video (and a website) showing the cold hard facts O'Reilly failed to mention.

Here is their video:



Their video gives the percentage of population in the Netherlands and in the US that has ever used cannabis (US: 40.3% Netherlands: 22.6%). More interesting though was a statistic I found on NationMaster - that Cannabis users in the US doubled those in the Netherlands;
US: 12.3% - Netherlands: 5.24%

What's more, it turns out that this crime infested cesspool of anarchy also has a fraction of assaults compared to those in the US;
US: 7.569 per 1000 - Netherlands: 2.689 per 1000

Their experimentation with "free love" that is also contributing to their liberal failure not only leaves them with a fraction of teenage pregnancies per capita compared to the US;
US: 1,671.63 births per 1 million people (highest in the world) - Netherlands: 172.061 births per 1 million people
but also with so few abortions that they don't even make the list;
US: 4.0945 per 1000 people - Netherlands: less than 0.113986 per 1000 people

(Statistics from from NationMaster).

Statistics aside, here are my truths about Amsterdam:

- I feel safe when going home alone in the middle of the night.
- I feel safe walking the streets of the red light district, which I can't say for any other place i've been were prostitution is located, and let's face it, it's located almost everywhere.
- I see happy people all the time. Happy adults and happy children (in fact according to UNICEF the happiest children in the world).
- Although I have easy access to it I still choose not to smoke weed.
- I feel safer here than I did in any of the suburbs I lived in in Australia.

What's your truth about Amsterdam?

Where are all the fun police that I'm so used to?

It didn't take long for Amsterdam to feel like home (of course, only after the initial shock of coffeshop after coffeshop wore off). The most obvious thing to me is the laid back carefree and friendly attitude. Coming from Sydney, where everything you do is governed by about 25,000 rules that are plastered everywhere, all over the streets, on public transport and in almost every commercial building, Amsterdam is a free mans mecca.

In Amsterdam on a sunny day people take their tables and chairs and sit outside on the footpath to soak up the yummy sunny weather. As we walk past they smile and say hello. I automatically think of Manly - Sydney, If this was to happen there, there would surely be an outcry of cranky people sending letters of complaint to the local council and the local newspaper, within a week there would be a sign telling you not to loiter on the footpath.

In Amsterdam adults use common sense. In Manly you're told by a big sign that you're not allowed to spike peoples drinks with GHB.