Rembrandts, Intoxicating Plants and Women with no Pants: A Weekend in Amsterdam

This past weekend was the first of two "academic excursions" to the infamous capital of the Netherlands. "Academic Excursion" means that the entire Castle of 85 goes to the city together and the activities that we do each day depend on the classes we are registered for. We were led to many different museums and sights and guided by our teachers while there. Most of the days were fairly structured, leaving little time to explore the city for ourselves but each night was left free for us to get lost on our own.

Upon arrival we were split into arbitrary groups and led around the city for a general walking tour to get some kind of a bearing. My group went to some pretty churches and then went ahead and dove right into the red light district. It's true what they tell you- there are some prostitutes there. On Friday afternoon we went as a big group to the Rijksmuseum and saw a lot of great paintings including Rembrandt's epic Nightwatch, of which I tried not to "talk shit" about (a recommendation I got from my Art History teacher Carrie Anderson last year while studying it). On Saturday I saw the Van Gogh Museum in the morning and in the evening went to the Amsterdam Hermitage (as it turns out, there is only one satellite branch of the epic Russian collection and it happens to be in Amsterdam. Who knew?). Seeing so many masterworks last weekend really made me rerealize the importance of seeing paintings in person. The experience is so much more fulfilling than seeing the same paintings on a Powerpoint presentation. Nightwatch was overwhelmingly enormous and Vermeer's Milkmaid was a little disappointingly small. But you know, now I know.

The night life was a different story all together. I suppose it was what I expected- really great. For some reason I had an idea of Amsterdam in my head of being this scary, ratty place with an abundant number sketchy (scuzzy?) people. Not so! I mean, there were scuzzdogs, sure, but the ages of history and culture pulse through its streets and canals like nothing I can describe. And I mean, yes, sometimes people pay money to have sex with other people, and yes, minds are altered and perspectives are changed here, but how different is that from any other major city? These people just don't have the shame to sweep it all under the rug. Bottom line- Amsterdam is amazing and I'll definitely be going back there soon.

On Sunday I was required (because of my screenwriting class) to take the train to Rotterdam and visit the International Film Festival Rotterdam to speak with an Emerson professor who was screening a film there. Rotterdam was interesting to visit; apparently it was nearly completely destroyed from bombings in World War II and so every building is built post-1945. Lots of skyscrapers in Rotterdam, a stark contrast to Amsterdam. John Gianvito (the Emerson filmmaker we talked to) was surprisingly interesting. He made a 4 1/2 hour documentary about the side effects of an unclean and abandoned US military base in the Philippines called Vapor Trail (Clark) (and yes, it is only part 1). We didn't actually watch the thing, we just talked to him when he slipped out of his own screening. He told us about his film and, more broadly, independent filmmaking in general. It was great.

All in all, a fantastic weekend in a couple of fantastic cities. Europe, I think you've brought up your game a couple points- Europe: 17, David B. Weaver... 18 (?!?!)

DBW