Research Day Four...it only gets better!

This morning began as a very very ugly day. I stumbled down to Mirjam's office this morning around 10a with my coffee in hand still in my pajamas. I guess I looked pretty well put together because no one said anything. I spent some time in her office with Ray, taking care of what I needed to do. Luckily for me, Mirjam was nice enough to get a hold of Esmee for me and we set up a time to meet at noon. I headed back to my room to get ready. Ray knocked at my door around 11:30a to check in with me cuz she was going to be following me today for her project. We looked at the map together only to realize that Esmee's street wasn't on our map so we had to trust Mirjam's direction and hope that there were people around our destination to ask if we headed in the right direction.

We headed towards the tram lines but decided that before this mission breakfast was a necessary so we stopped off at Spar. We grabbed some breakfast and headed out. To those interested Spar has some great crossiants! While we were walking, Edward joined us for a couple of minutes and then parted into his own direction at the world famous grogery store, Albert Heijn.

Prior to leaving the dorms, we consulted a tram map (the map that the program provided for us) but when we arrived at waterlooplein, we couldn't find the tram that was listed on the map. Luckily while I tried to figure out where I was going, a gentleman approached us asking us if we needed some help. He kindly pointed us in the correct direction. Luckily by this point it had stopped raining and was turning into a very nice day. We made it our tram stop, took tram 5 to just past Museumplein and got off. I had to stop and ask a couple of people where the street was that I was looking for. I went around in a big circle but then came to my destination, Esmee's apartment.

Her apartment was really awesome. Her and one of her friends were working on installing some laminate flooring. We decided to go sit at a cafe and chat for a little while. Esmee is really cool. She answered some of my questions. A couple of hours later, we parted, Ray and I heading back to the dorms and them heading back to apartment to get some real work done. While we were walking back, I started looking at gifts to bring home.

Later this afternoon, I met up with Shirley and May-Britt and headed towards our meeting with Juoal and a friend of his. The five of us sat at a cafe for about 2 hours talking about Islamic culture, rules and just about everything else. The guys were really resourceful and provided us an interesting view of the situation. The full dialogue should be available on the wiki shortly. I think it might have been one of my better sit-downs besides it being ridiculuously cold where we were sitting. At around 8:30p, we parted but we got both of their email addresses in case we want to contact them again. The sunset on the way back was amazing so I thought I would share it with everyone.

So I guess overall, it was another awesome day. I met with Esmee and she agreed to translate some stuff for us. And even better was the conversation we had with Juoal and his friend.

Next step, get everything transcribed and analyzed!

Research Day... 3.. (I think)

After completely sleeping through my alarm clock this morning, I woke up around 10a. I decided to finish what I had started the night before. I started transcribing my second interview. I guess I didn’t remember how long it was because I had spent three or so hours last night working on it and still hadn’t finished it. So I woke up this morning on a mission to finish it. I opened up my laptop and found the message from Clifford with the information about interested students from the crash course. I emailed the people relevant to my group and continued working on the transcription.

Around 11:30a, I finished it, jumped in the shower and was ready to get out there on the streets. Initially, Shirley and I had scheduled a meeting with Juoal for today at 2:30p but yesterday he called and rescheduled our meeting, so I guess I was really in no hurry while not wanting to waste the day away.

Last Tuesday, I stopped in a travel agency because I saw a Muslim woman while I was riding my bike. She told me that she works there everyday and it would be best for me to come back another day. I decided today would be the day to come back. I got on my bike, found out my brakes were out and my tire was flat, so I had to make a couple of stops before I could head out to Amsterdam West. I am really starting to know my way around here. I knew exactly where to go until I got to the Amsterdam West. I checked a map prior to my departure from the dorms, but somehow left the map there. So I was definitely without a map today!!! (It worked out ok).

I made it to the Travel Agency in about 20 minutes. When I arrived, the person I was interested in interviewing was with some customers, so I left the store and walked around the neighborhood. The street that the agency is on is called Witte De With(???)straat. As I walked around the neighborhood, I asked a passer-by if she could point me to the nearest supermarket (to get some water), and she said that she didn’t live in this neighborhood but would guess that it was in the opposite direction back towards the main streets. The neighborhood seemed very quiet. I generally saw mostly ethnic people, some men and some kids. Near the agency, I took a picture of what I believe is a Mosque. After deciding to not look for a store, I went back into the travel agency. The agent was almost done with her customers, so I took a seat to the side.

Within the next five minutes, she finished with them, and gave me her attention. I re-introduced myself as the girl that had approached her store last week and was wondering if this was an adequate time to do the interview. She tried to make some excuses about being the only one there, not speaking good enough English and having a bunch of work to do but I got her to agree to a short 15 minute interview. I think that’s plenty.

The interview went rather well. A full summary of the interview will be available on the wiki soon. The interviewee was born in Morocco and moved to Spain after high school and then moved to Amsterdam about 9 years ago. She seemed to be in her early thirties but I didn’t want to ask. But I do know that she is out of the range that we had initially decided to look at. I like talking to the older women because I feel like they are giving me more insight answers instead of telling me what I want to hear. The agent seemed very passionate about what she had to say. She told me about her personal choice to wear a Hijab. She told me that she started wearing one about 3 years ago when she felt in her heart that she was ready. She admitted to me that she was divorced with no children, and nothing besides her personal relationship with her religion had influenced her choice to cover up her hair. During the interview she also told me about all the struggles she has faced since she made her decision. She told me her opinion regarding the state of women in modern day and the lack of respect that they receive by society.

Overall, the interview went a lot better than I had expected. Unlike the people that I have previously interviewed, she really made it a point to tell me about the discrimination and segregation that she feels exists in Amsterdam, and for that matter all over the world. It was so interesting to hear this opinion because until now I had been told that this world exists as a nice fairly tale where everyone gets along. But now I know it all depends who you talk to .

About 25 minutes later, one of the male employees entered the office and we abruptly ended the interview. I am really grateful for having spent the time that I had talking to her. This might have been one of my favorite interviews thus far. They seem to be getting better with each try!!!

After the interview, I explored Amsterdam West a little bit. Straight from the Travel Agency, I headed to Bos Lem Lommerplein, one of my favorite markets so far. I walked through the market, stopped at a store to get some candy and water, and then sat at the front of the market just people watching. Most people were just going on about their day. It was very nice to see lots of Muslims in their more ‘natural’ environment. I overheard a variety of languauges. I heard some Dutch (obviously), some Moroccan and some Turk.

After sitting for a little while, I decided that I would head over the Paloma Blanca and try to make some dinner reservations for Friday for Shirley and I. I hadn’t brought my map with me, so before I left the square, I approached a couple of people to see if they could direct me in the right direction. Luckily I had brought my notebook with me so I could point to the address. Finally, the woman at the Albert Heijn store told me to head back towards Mercatoplen and ask someone down there. That’s exactly what I did. I headed back east to where I had started and just asked a couple of shop keepers if they could repoint me in the correct direction. While I was trying to find the street for the restaurant, I observed the neighborhoods through which I drove through. In one of the neighborhoods I found a really cool kids park. While I was trying to take the picture some guy started yelling at me in either Dutch or Moroccan. I think he was trying to tell me not to take the picture but I took it anyways and moved on. It was such an aweosme park. It was surrounded by buildings.

Finally, I made it to my final destination only to find that the restaurant is closed. I took down the phone number and decided I would give them a call later and just go there earlier Friday night. After that, I decided that I should head back to the dorms and see what Shirley was up and see if I could help her with anything.

I made it back to the dorms around 4p. I met up with Shirley and she said that she would be heading over to Albert Heijn to do an interview with one of the workers, but she was just waiting for one of the students from the crash course to arrive. I met with Ray, and some after Mirjam and Julie showed up too. I guess Mirjam had told Ray about an awesome neighborhood a little bit north of here on some islands that had some interesting architecture, so I invited myself (oops). Before heading over the Barcelonaplein, Ray and I walked over to the store right around the corner. We found the coolest laundry detergent. Tell me what you think...is it superhuman strong?

Around 5p, we got into Mirjam’s car and headed over there. Awesome place. I guess a bunch of squatters had taken over it in the 80s (please correct me if I am wrong), and most recently developers had built large glamorous apartments with canals to make it feel like Amsterdam away from Amsterdam. Interesting concept.

After all this excitement, I headed back to my dorms to grab some munchies and then head down to watch the movie “The Lives of Others”. Very good movie, if I may say!

Overall, it was another productive day!

Next step, one or two more interviews and conversations and then putting it all together. Shirley and I have not sat down to discuss our findings and conclusions. But, I know that it will get done. I am getting very excited with our findings and can’t wait to present them to the rest of the group!

Interview #2

Yesterday afternoon, I went on my second interview with a woman that works at a women's shoe store in Oost (my new favorite part of town). We had a nice break between 2 and 5p so I thought that was the perfect time to go out on this interview. Yesterday afternoon when Shirley and I met up, we strolled around Oost, stepping into the shoe store, and the woman working there said to come back the following day and talk to her sister.

So, I sprinted out of class, grabbed my computer, and got on my bike to head out there around 2:30p. I arrived at the shoe store a lot faster than I had expected, it must have been because I am so excited to be making progress.

I walked into the store. The woman was busy helping a couple of other ladies so I explored the store. The store is mostly a shoe store with various Moroccan clothes in the back. After she finished with the customers introducing myself and explaining why I was there. She was very pleasant. I asked for her permission to record the interview and she happily agreed saying she has nothing to hide.

So the interview began and soon it turned into more of a conversation than an interview. We talked about everything relevant to this topic. She explained to me that she chooses not to wear a hijab because she is not ready to do. This women is about 38 years old and says at some time in her life she will be ready but isn't now. She was very interesting. She was a first generation Moroccan that moved to Amsterdam 30 years ago. The details of the interview should be up on the wiki shortly, most likely once I return from Paris because Shirley currently has the recorder and is transcribing her interviews/conversations.

Unlike my first interview, I really felt afterwards that what this woman told was actually how she felt about the topics instead of telling me what I wanted to hear. It was awesome. I hope to come back and see her again, as well as her sister.

The situation about these sisters is interesting. The older one wears a hijab. She is probably around 45 years old, and the younger one (38 yrs old) doesn't. They both said that they made their choice on their own, and nothing but their heart influenced them. One of the general ideas that I got from this interview is that some younger girls wear it to gain freedom from their parents and older girls tend to start wearing it when they get married either as a request from their new husband or for personal religious reasons.

Awesome interview. It totally motivated me to do more research. I want to talk to more people because I am getting different opinions from different people!

Research Day Two - Amsterdam West+ & Oost (again)

Unfortuneately it has been a really busy week so this post is slightly late in being posted. Tuesday was such an awesome research day for our group.

This morning Shirley and I met with Julie to discuss the progress of our project. I think things are going well for us. We definitely haven't wasted any time.

A couple of the most current setbacks: The MSLM exhibition is on the road currently yet they have cancelled their trip to Amsterdam, so there is no way for us to see the exhibition. Our plan was to go to Rotterdam on Tuesday but because of this setback, we have changed our plans regarding Rotterdam. Another setback is that pretty much the entire academic city is on vacation. I tried to get a hold of a professor from UvA that specializes in exactly what we are interested but I got an automatic response saying that she is out town till the end of the month. The final set back is that Atef Hamdi (the Mosque guy) is currently out of town. Pretty much all of the contacts that were available to us are temporarily unavailable and it will be up to us to get this project put together. Oh well, this just allows for additional creativeness!

Julie gave us some suggestions. She recommended trying to talk to men as well as women, which should be interesting.

At 10a, I headed into the crash course classroom to accompany Julie, Paul and Clifford on introducing ourselves to the group. It was nice to hear myself sum up my project with confidence. After that experience, I really am confident that our project is going well. I am not stressed out at all.

After the brief presentation, I hopped on my bike and headed the Amsterdam Historical Museum to check out a fashion exhibition. The museum was recommended by the tour guide at the Jewish Museum. I arrived at the museum and bumped into Shirley. The exhibit that was recommended to us was not exactly what we were expecting. It was mostly focused on the history of fashion, textiles and fashion houses in Amsterdam from the mid 1900s through 2000 (?). Shirley and I walked through it finding nothing pertaining to our research. Then I approached the cashier at the museum store to ask her if there was anything pertaining to our topic in the museum. She nicely pointed out a book about Muslim fashion because there had been an exhibit there about 6 months ago and said that there might be a small section on the top floor. Shirley and I took her suggestion and headed to the top. We found nothing more than a summary about the Turkish workers that had come to Amsterdam.

I wish that I had had time to explore the museum but because of our drive to get some field research done today, Shirley and I left the museum. Shirley told me that on her way to the museum she had walked past a Moroccan Restaurant, so we walked back to it together. Unfortuneately, it was closed, so we parted at this point. She went back towards the dorms/Oost and I walked back to my bike at the museum.

While I was walking back to the museum, I found Julia parking her bike because I think she was thinking about visiting the museum. I told her that I was going to go explore Amsterdam West, and she decided to join me. So together we rode our bikes to the westside (LOL sorry). I brought a map with me but it wasn't a very good map. Irina had recommended to visit Mercatoplein and Bos Lem Lommerplein. Earlier in the morning, she had drawn for me on the map where they were but the map was aweful. It had not street names, so I decided to start asking people. It worked out well. People were really nice. First, Julia and I landed on kinkerstaart at the Market. It was pretty cool. We walked around, and I took lots of pictures!
Then from there, I was on a mission to find Mercatoplein so we left the market, and headed into the direction of it. On our way, I was looking into businesses to see if there were any Muslims women inside of them. I got lucky. I found a travel agency where one of the agents was wearing a hijab. I walked into the agency and asked her if I could interview her. She said that another day would be better for her, so I told her that I would be back next Tuesday.

Then we continued on our mission to Mercatoplein. While we were parking our bike a lady walked up to the bike racks so I double checked with her that we were at the right place, and we weren't. So she pointed in the direction that we wanted to go. Shortly after that, we arrived at a busy street that had a sign for mercatoplein on it. We parked out bikes and decided to walk around. I started going into shops and found I would have been better off if I had brought a voice recorder. In one of the shops that we walked to was a young girl worker. I approached her to ask her when I could find Muslim women to talk to. She said she was Muslim (but she wasn't wearing a hijab). I asked her if I could interview her on a future date and she told me that it was her last day working there. I asked her if she could possibly answer some questions for me and she told me she was too busy. But she told me that I shouldn't have any problems because everyone is the neighborhood is Muslim. So we walked around and I continued to take pictures. Then, we got back on our bikes and decided to head home.

On our way home, we stumbled upon the other market that Irina had suggested. We walked around the market for sometime. Julia tried to get some food at one of the fastfood Turkish restaurants in the square but she recieved really poor service so we decided just to head back.

We made it back to the dorms, took a quick little break. Then Julia and I headed over to one of the fieldsites that Mirjam had recommended for her project. We explored the island (I don't know its name but is just north of us to the right) for a while but she didn't find what she wanted so we decided to get out of there.

Julia had never been to Amsterdam Oost, so I suggested that we go there because she was still hungry and the kebab place is amazing. We got some doners and started walking through the market. We bumped into Shirley who told me that the interview hadn't worked out but she was still exploring. Shortly after that I decided to branch off on my own and go looking for people to interview. Luckily, I bumped into Shirley again and we decided to head towards Zeeberg back to the Islamic shop and possibly stop by the Moroccan girl who had asked us to translate the questions into Dutch and tell her that we would be sending those out to her shortly.

The best part of the day happened during this time. We stopped by the Islamic shop. The owner remembered us and so we stayed here for about two hours talking to him and another male customer/friend, while customers came in and out. It was nice to have the owner there because it made the customers feel safer answering our questions. It was awesome! We learned a lot.

Inside the store, there were two sisters, one of which wore a headscarf and one that didn't. We briefly asked them some questions but they weren't really interested in stopping whatever they were doing to talk to us. The male customer/friend that was there definitely had a lot to say about the topic so we talked to him until new customers came in. Transcriptions of what was said will be up asap. Also during this time, the owner gave us some contacts to other people that we could talk to, one of which is young man that had recently covereted to Islam. Oh yea, the men decided that it would be in our benefit if we tried on a hijab. We both did and took pictures of it. During this time, they both described to us how they find women that cover up themselves to be much more attractive than those that expose too much skin. Lots of interesting finds were found today. I definitely now understand that choosing to wear a hijab is a personal choice but no matter what the male friend had to say I think there are external factors that contribute to women's choice to wear it.

So it looks like the day was a success (again). Our group rocks!

Self Exploration into Undiscovered territory

Tonight was adventurous yet discouraging. Around 7pm, I decided that I wanted to take a bike ride out to a part of Amsterdam that Mirjam had suggested could provide me a good field site. I thought tonight would be perfect for that, I could go scope it out before I decided to devote an entire day to it. I invited Julia with me so that I could have some company getting lost.

We ventured out on Prins Hendrikkade towards Central Station, passed it and Maoz, continuing west. About 5 minutes past the train station, we took a soft left onto Haarlem St. We continued on this street taking small side trips on smaller side streets. This area was called Westerpark. It seemed to be purely residential, very discouraging. I tried to talk to some older guys that were sitting at a coffee shop and they told me that it was mainly residential.

At this point, I decided that it was be best for me to head back to the dorms and brainstorm some better spots to visit on Monday or Tuesday.

Ehh...one step back in research! Maybe tomorrow will be more insightful.

Brussels & Gay Pride Weekend

The last four days have been so busy and FUN!!! On Thursday afternoon, we left for Brussels. Once we arrived in Brussels, Sunil, Jon, Julia and I took the time that was provided (2.5 hours) and explored as much of Brussels as was possible. We think we did a good job! We saw most of the important sights. Pictures are available upon request!!!

Friday morning, we all very slowly headed our way to lecture enjoying the sun as we walked. At the end of the day around 4p, we were set free to spend the rest of the evening in Brussels doing whatever we wanted. A group of us headed over to Delirium. AWESOME BAR, the best in the World! Yes, I did say the World. They have approximately 2000 beers and a really awesome atmosphere!

Besides having a lot of fun in Brussels, I took some mental notes in regard to my project. While we were sitting at the Grand Square (I can't remember what it's really called), Jack pointed out to me a Muslim girl dressed rather sparkly. She was wearing white pants, a silver sparkly shirt and a white hijab. It was very bright and interesting. From her appearance the outfit to screen fashion statement, but I will not make any conclusions about it.

In general, most of the Muslim women I saw were in tourist groups. I say that most of them seemed to be tourists because they all travelled in groups taking pictures of everything (just like us). Most of the women were dressed much more conservative than those I had seen in Amsterdam. In general, most of the women in the groups were covered from head to toe, some of them even wearing a dress coat. Yet while I watched them, it was refreshing to see that maybe their attitudes weren't as conservative. Many of them were laughing and running through the streets like little children. I don't think that I saw many Muslims that seemed to be natives to Brussels, besides the one that was begging people for money. I think she would have been a very interesting person to interview but I didn't want to try. I am highly bothered by those that beg others for money.

Once we arrived back in Amsterdam Friday night, I headed to my room to sleep.

Saturday morning, I got up and wandered the streets with the rest of the group seeking out a spot to watch the float parade. There were soooooooooo many people on the streets, yet I don't think I saw one Muslim woman out there. Based on my understanding of the Islamic culture, I really think I wasn't expecting to see that many Muslims out enjoying the festivities, but I am going to jump to any conclusions. I think maybe there were just too many people out there to notice.

Overall, it was an awesome weekend.

Last Wednesday afternoon, I met with Mirjam to discuss with her possible places that Shirley and I should go check out. She recommended Amstedam West (Westerpark) and the area west of it, so now I am going to go check it out. A blog on my experience should follow shortly.

First Interview Results

Today, I went onto my first interview. After getting together with Shirley last night to refine our interview questions, I woke up ready to 'rock n roll'. I headed back to Amsterdam Oost with a small portion of our class.

Once I got to the market, I split off and headed off to my interview. I arrived slightly before 10a, and my interviewee was sitting in the same place she had been sitting at yesterday. Before I approached her, I took a mental note of what she was wearing. Again, she wore a headscarf, the same one as yesterday. Her attire seemed to go along with the black sheer headscarf, mostly dressed in dark. From what I could tell she was wearing black pants and a brown top with some sort of black top over it. Her make-up looked very similar to that of yesterday. She looked well put together.

I approached the counter, reintroducing myself. She told me her name but I would prefer to keep it a secret to mask her identity just in respect of her. Before I began the interview, I went through an explanation of who I was and why I am in Amsterdam. After all the information, I asked her if she would mind if I interviewed her while electronically recording her, and she agreed. So the interview began. First thing I noticed was that her English wasn't that great, leaving with a barrier to many of my questions. She answered them to her best ability but sometimes I would have to rephrase the question so that it could be answered with a yes or no.

From her answers, I learned that she is 21 years old. She lives in Amsterdam Oost and is working full time for her brother at his shop while he is on vacation. Usually she only works part-time and helps around her parents house. She let me know that she was of Turkish decent yet she was born here in Amsterdam.

As the questions progressed, she made me feel as though her choice to wear a hijab was a result of her family lifestyle as well as her religion. My interviewee explained (I think) to me that growing up she had seen her mother and grandmother wear a hijab in public so she grew up knowing that she would wear one too. An interesting thing she told me was that if her elders hadn't worn one then she probably wouldn't have worn one. From this statement, it made me feel that her choice to originally wear one was based on her families traditions more than based on the Koran's 'instructions'.

Another interesting topic was where she wears her hijab. The interviewee told me that when she is around just her girl-friends then she doesn't cover her hair but when she is around male friends, she always wears a hijab. This kind of confused me by combining the traditions of home, religion and culture into one. From this, I feel like the choice to wear a hijab is originally based on religion but then society lays down some rules about it. Kind of a complex influence, it could be said.

Moving onto the political and social questions. The interviewee really had nothing to say about this topic. She said that she felt like a normal citizen in Amsterdam with equal rights and opportunities. She said that she has non-Muslim friends as well. She does say that the rules the government is making are unfair yet didn't seem like she was actively doing something about it.

Based on this interview, I felt that maybe the issue isn't as controversial as the media has made it out to be. But, before I make that conclusion, I must seek more resources!!!

From here, the next step is to do more interviews and possibly speak to someone from Mama or MSLM.

After the interview, I met up with Shirley again. We walked together over the Zeeberg neighborhood. We walked up and down one street because we were running out of time before class. While we were walking around we stopped by a coat shop. Inside the coat shop was a young Muslim woman who was helping another customer. We waited till she was done and approached her to see if she would be interested in doing an interview with us at a later time. She said that she didn't speak English well enough to answer our questions, but said that if we could translate them into Dutch that she would happily correspond with us over email. Maybe we can get Esmee to translate it for us when she returns...hmm I will go talk to Mirjam about this tomorrow.

I feel like progress is going well.

Research Day One - Amsterdam Oost - Success

Today Shirley and I, with the assistance of Julie and Clifford, explored Amsterdam Oost. As Clifford refers to it, its the "area near the Windmill". Julie led us into an open air market. It was awesome. The first thing we all did was enjoy a kebab lamb sandwich while strolling down the center of the market. At half way, we turned and walked toward the cafe. At the cafe, Shirley and I decided that it woud be best if we split up and went separate ways and tried to get separate interviews. I took on the front half of the market and she took on the back half of the market.

As I walked back towards the market from the cafe, a couple of things happened. I walked into a bakery where a woman was standing behind the counter. She spoke very little English asking a man to come and translate. I asked them if they could point me in the direction of where I could find more Muslim women shopping. The man said he didn't really know where to direct me, but suggested that heading to Zeeberg might be a good start.

I headed out the store, still heading back for the market. I stepped into another shop, Modehuis Rafia Maatleding. It looked a men's clothing store but had lots of loose fabrics in the back. The woman that was attending to the store provided me with the same advice, to head towards Zeeberg.

While I sat on a piece on concrete outside of the clothing store, I approached 2 girls (one was wearing a headscarf and the other not) and asked them if they would be interested in being interviewing. They said that they didn't think their English was good enough and that they were in a hurry to get somewhere (uh huh right). I noticed a couple of things about the girl wearing the headscarf. It seemed as though she had thoughtfully put together her outfit that day. She was wearing black pants, and a black jacket. Underneath the jacket was a tan plaid shirt. Her headscarf was a thin orange material decorated in sequences. Yet she wore no makeup. I make no conclusions about her intentions just commenting on how I felt that her headscarf was the brightest part of her attire.

Anyways, I walked into the first half of the market. All of the shops were cheap (sorry no other way to put it). I saw lots of stands selling to women wearing headscarves, but I saw very few women actually doing the selling. It was mostly ethnic men. As I walked around, I saw a lot of older women. Many of them wearing a more traditional headscarf, one that flows to the shoulders while the few younger women I saw tended to wear them only wrapped around their hair, with a fabric "tail" on the shoulder. I tried to approach a few of the vendors and they seemed very unfriendly, so I moved on to the shops behind the maket.

As I strolled around, I didn't see anyone that seemed approachable, until I walked into a general store. I walked into the store and saw a young Muslim woman sitting behind the counter talking on a cell phone, I strolled around the store and hoped that she was going to get off the phone soon. As soon as she was off the phone I approached her. I told her my name and why I was approaching her. She said that yes she is Muslim and that she would allow me to interview her. I scheduled an interview with her for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10:00a at the shop that she works at. She told me that she is there 6 days a week. Yea Day 1---A SUCCESS!!!!

Ethnography Challenges

I don't know how but it looks like I somehow missed this assignment for last Monday, so here it is now. Sorry that it's a little later.

Shirley and I are very interested in the psychological choices that Moroccan men and women make in relation to how they dress. As much as I would like to say that I don't think about what I'm wearing, I do. I don't just wake up in the morning and throw something on, I make sure it matches and that it is appropriate for what kind of day I'm going to have. So I have come to the realization that fashion decisions are not as simple as I have made them out to be in previous times. Aside from my personal thoughts, I think that our topic is well designed and could possibly be answered in a variety of ways. I think, and Shirley might disagree, our biggest challenge will be staying focused on one technique and not trying to do too much in the short amount of time that we are allowed.

At this time, we think that our best technique will be to approach patrons at Moroccan cafes with a short questionnaire. Also we also hope to find someone to conduct a case study on.

Some of the challenges that I anticipate:
1. Being able to properly identify our patrons as Moroccans. Also, it might be difficult to approach them because as Miriam pointed out to us, they have been under watch for quite some time. They are the topic of research for many people. I feel like it might be difficult to establish the necessary connections with these people in the 4 weeks that we have.
2. Determining the most appropriate questions, ones that are going to get us answers while still not invading our interviewee's personal space.
3. TIME. I hate time, it just gets in the way.

Fashion/Religion Interview

The topic of the interview is the current state of fashion and what it is influenced by. I started the interview that showing Paulina my blog on fashion, and then linked her to some of the articles that I had used for my background information on the topic....

1. Interviewee Name: Paulina Zayko, a patron at the cafe that I have seen on numerous occasions, often overhearing her strong opinions on international topics.

2. Place and Date of interview: Sunday May 20th 2007 at the Cafe on the Ave during the University District Street Fair.

3. Demographics: Gender: Female; Age: 20; Education: Junior at the University of Washington majoring in Microbiology and Psychology; Ethnicity: White; Place of Residence: Seattle; Place of Birth: Russia

4. Religion/Politics: "Not a religion, but more of a relationship/lifestyle with God"; Moderately Liberal

Here are the questions that I asked her:

1. What made you decide to dress today the way you have? Is today different from any other day? How long does it take to you to decide what to wear?

2. How religious do you classify yourself to be? Is there anything on your body that you think says something about your religious or political position? Does your religion play a role in your fashion choices?

3. Please tell me what you think of when your hear this quote, "It is as though religious attire is often worn as a fashion statement, or an assertion of difference, as much as a sign of devotion" (Buruma, 123).

4. What is your opinion of the current debate in Europe over the right for Muslim women to wear their headscarves in public places?

5. Anything else you want to tell me relating to the topic of fashion?

Here are her answers:

1. "Today specifically, I was actually running extremely late for church and knew that I was going to be studying all day so my decision was based on what I could throw on the fastest that would also be very comfortable later on in the day to study in. Most days it takes about 1 minute to maybe 1 ½ minutes (today was probably more like 10 seconds). On days I go out to special events, maybe up to 10 minutes max."
2. "I don’t believe in the word “religion” simply because of how it is generally applied in Western nations in this generation. I would consider a faith or belief system to be a lifestyle, a commitment to and relationship with God. I have a wonderful relationship with God (the Christian God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) and live a lifestyle that my friends would say is consistent with my faith. So in that sense, I consider myself strong in my faith and would most likely be viewed as very “religious” by others.
No, there isn’t anything “on” my body that necessarily says anything about my religious or political views. I would say it isn’t what is “on” your body that is important, but what you do with it. As previously mentioned, I view my faith as a relationship, so in that sense there isn’t anything set in stone about what my attire should be. That being said, as far as my personal convictions and decisions go, I would probably be viewed as slightly conservative in how I dress but this isn’t directly controlled by my christian “religion” and is more my personal decision and choice."
3. "I completely disagree with that statement. As far as the Islamic religion is concerned, I don’t see their outward expression of faith in any shape or form an arrogant attempt to stand out. That being said, I can understand that theirs is the only religion that requires such an intense commitment in their attire and can also see why people would wonder why they should be an exception. However, I think if there going to be a freedom of religion, there also needs to be an open-minded population to all components of all religions. As far as what I think of the quote in terms of how it relates to my faith, I would say my attire is definitely not a distinguishing factor. I personally think that God is more concerned with a devoted heart, not a devoted dress style."
4. "Quite frankly, I don’t understand that debate. Even though in my faith attire isn’t what is important, I couldn’t imagine having that freedom taken away if it was. I have seen plenty of attire donned in public that I would personally think to be a far bigger problem than a headscarf, or sometimes “lack of” attire seen in public places or even the magazines over in Europe that should be by far more troubling. Where would it stop? Would it stop at trying to control the attire of one type of minority? Why isn’t this considered discrimination? Would it move on? Is the final goal going to be a high school list of proper attire in public? Again, I don’t understand a debate on the “right” of anyone to his or her attire. This is most likely stemmed from the wonderful freedom that I am used to in America, so I am probably biased in this view.
5. Yes. I feel the Western nations have finally reached an era where fashion is the sovereign right of every human and isn’t something that can or should be controlled for any reason, especially in nations claiming to have a freedom of human rights."

Response to Ch. 6 & 7 of Buruma

Having read Murder in Amsterdam in sections, my response to these chaphters are starting to resemble my previous thoughts, but now I have taken what Buruma says a little more personal about people's thoughts of themselves and others. I think that the general population in the Netherlands that are passionate about what happened to Theo Van Gogh and about the policies of immigration is confused about how they feel. Mohammed himself seemed to be a very confused man in the words of Buruma. Mohammed often correlated his actions to his religion, but I just learned he wasn't the religious man that I always thought he was. I think he had a lot of bigger issues that he needed to work through before being able to pose his ideas on other people, or in this case critisize others' opinion.

The internal conflict his murderer seems to be very prevalant in Amsterdam, as demonstrated through the lack of common resolution to the issue of how to honor the death of Theo Van Gogh. Some people felt that his presence was not necessary in Amsterdam, but having this belief goes against everything I have always thought of Amsterdam to be. What ever happened to the liberal tolerance that people on the outside still believe to exsist?


More to come....

A Moroccan's Opinion on Fashion

I think there is significantly more American influence on my Generation's fashion than ever before. I never saw more people wearing G-Unit (50Cents Hip-Hop Record Label) clothing in one place before I went to Morocco last summer. As far as religious clothing, I think it is now used more as of a fashion statement, especially from a musical taste point of view, than it is for prayer or religious holidays. The "Tagiyya", which is the thin bowl-likehead cap, can be a sign of Rock and/or Metal music influence; Whereas the"Jellaba", which is the long hooded shirt/dress, can signify Reggae,Gnawa, and/or Soul music influence.

Moroccans of my generation in general, across all economical and social layers, pay very close attention to fashion. In most cases, people preview each other under the perception of what you wear is what you are.So the more expensive the clothes, and the more famous the designer, the more highly regarded you are. There is actually a saying that "people can tell what kind of person you are by looking at your shoes".

My parent's generation I think is more religious in general and that reflects on the clothing. But I think also part of it is the lack of fashion options and awareness some 30 years ago.

As a recovering from occupancy 3rd world country (after 1950s) my parents generation was mostly poor; and the media infrastructure was not open and accessible enough to allow American and European fashion to leak in.

Currently, it costs a quarter of a dollar to spend an hour at a cybercafe in Morocco, so fashion access/influence is affordable by all.Also the number of Moroccan emigrants especially in Europe has increased dramatically. And most of them go back to the old country every take down their closets with them, and leave half of it to their cousins on the way back. So I see Morocco as a geographically strategic fashion consumer.

The higher society layers actually do most of their clothes shopping in Spain, Italy, and France (especially Paris).

Morocco is more famous for its Couscous than for its Jellaba so most of our fashion and clothing is imported.Right now the "Keftan" the modern women dress formerly worn in holidays and parties is fully exported to Europe (especially Paris) where it is taking part of "high couture" clientele’s interest, and is a big Défilée topic.

~~ZAK

New thoughts on our research...

I don't know what I would do without Shirley, I lack any computer brains, especially the ones necessary to put together a wiki page! So here it is...the revision to our question with the help of Julie and Jessica:

Moroccan Immigrants and Their Choice in Fashion

Intro

Our focus is on Moroccan youth and their choice in fashion. We feel that fashion can be a window into a variety of lifestyle factors especially cultural and social pressures. The following quote from Buruma is great food for thought:

"It is as though religious attire is often worn as a fashion statement, or an assertion of difference, as much as a sign of devotion" (Buruma, 123).

We would like to see how much of Moroccan youth’s dress is attributed to religious and cultural motives and what these motives may be. We are interested in seeing how changes in ethnic fashion can be a response to social and cultural forces.

Relating back to Buruma's quote, we hope to learn what kind of atmosphere Amsterdam provides in terms of leniency on dress. For example, strong negative pressures against headscarfs might develop a certain set of motives/responses in the youth culture whereas an indifferent or positive pressure may lead to another. But this dynamic interplay will most likely be unique to each city/region so our focus will be on Amsterdam.

Research Question

What are the factors that influence the dress choice (particularly focusing on the headscarf and skull cap) of 1st generation Moroccan women/men respectively between the ages of 18 and 22? How does this compare with the 2nd generation?

Background

Culturally speaking, Moroccans along with Turks are said to have greater assimilation barriers in relation to other immigrant groups. They also tend to continue living in ethnic minority neighborhoods through generations.

Studies have shown that girls tend to have more internalization problems than boys do. Family conflicts is a major cause. Girls who have a lower affiliation with their Moroccan background tend to have greater problems with internal assimilation.

Recently in France, the hijab was banned from being worn in a public setting. The Dutch also have legal capacity to do so, but it seems Dutch have not been condoning this type of response so far or wish to follow this example. A Dutch designer has created a line of trendy hijabs for athletic and casual wear.

Dutch commercial fashion is known to be individualistic and often reject mass branding and symbols of excess. Common themes that appear are sexuality and historicism. There is also often inspiration taken from urban settings such as alleys, drug use, or police scenes.

Methodology

Prior to departure:

We would like to research the fashion of Dutch natives as well as Moroccan natives.
1. We plan to look into designers' websites to see their most recent designs and what influences their designs.
2. We will also browse forums and online fashion magazines to see if we can get any knowledge pertaining to the fashion field.

We will also locate places of high density Moroccan immigrants for active observation.
This involves talking to individuals at these social centers as well as handing out questionnaires/surveys which will allow us to guarantee that the population we talk to is a Moroccan majority.

1. We will gather a list of indicators for Moroccans from friends/acquaintances which will also aid us in this endeavor.
2. We will create a simply non-identifying questionnaire that will include the following:
Age, gender, ethnicity, immigration status(generation), religious associations (based on a 1 to 5 scale in terms of their affiliation aka how religious they think of themselves), occupation, the questions "what influences your dress choice today?" (Multiple Choice) and "Does today differ from a regular day?" (Y/N/How?)

In Amsterdam:

1. We plan to observe Moroccans and take note of their fashion on a native Moroccan to native Dutch scale which we will develop after completing our prior-to-departure research.
2. We will collect and analyze quantitative data from our surveys.
3. We will attempt to interview locals and get a case study on a 1st generation Moroccan man/woman if we are successful.

As an aside, we think it will be interesting to talk to workers in clothing stores as well who have had contact with various people and understand the clothing business and popular dress in Amsterdam.

Resources

Articles

Variations in immigrant incorporation in the neighborhoods of Amsterdam (Logan JR)
Predicting internalizing problems in Moroccan immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands(Stevens GWJM, Vollebergh WAM, Pels TVM, et al.)
Predicting externalizing problems in Moroccan immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands (Stevens GWJM, Vollebergh WAM, Pels TVM, et al.)
The individual characteristics, ethnic identity, and cultural orientation of successful secondary school students of Turkish and Moroccan background in the Netherlands (Van der Veen I, Meijnen GW)
Sexual behaviour of second generation Moroccan immigrants balancing between traditional attitudes and safe sex (Hendrickx K, Lodewijckx E, Van Royen P, et al.)

URLs & Blogs
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0417/p07s02-woeu.html (Article on Trendy Hijab Designer) http://www.isim.nl/files/Review_19/Review_19-64.pdf (Fashion in Europe Project)
http://www.iconique.com/catwalk/afw2006/ (Amsterdam Fashion Week)
http://www.dutchfashionfoundation.com/ (Dutch Fashion Foundation)
http://dutchdesignevents.com/orangealert_fit.html (Intro on Dutch Fashion Style)
http://dir.blogflux.com/search.php?q=Amsterdam&search=Search (Amsterdam Blogs)
http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/marta/archives/000684.html (Marta from WA's Travel Journal)
http://fashion.blog.nl/ (Dutch Fashion Blog)
http://www.docbug.com/Pictures/Amsterdam-2004/index.html (Amsterdam Photos)

E-Research

As I had commented in class, I didn't really see the difference between e-research and the research that is currently being done in the humanities and social sciences. After Paul's explanation about e-research, I guess I understand why I have been so confused by it for so long. The whole entire topic of e-research is a broad explanation of the type of research that goes on during the interaction of technology and through the use of modern technology, such as the blogosphere. It makes the older methods of collecting and data sharing seem very ineffective. While the older methods tend to answer questions that are based in quantitative data collection, the newer methods of e-research will lead to answers regarding qualitative questions. I think it will answer the question why through the interaction of people and technology.

In response to how our group will utilize e-research to find the answers to our questions prior to heading to Amsterdam, I think we will have to find discussions on the Internet about fashion, through the interaction of fashion stylist and their suggestions. Much like the millions of fashion and gossip magazines available here in the United States, I think it will be possible to access those kind of things in Amsterdam. By accessing the types of fashion statements that are being made in Amsterdam, we will have a basis for what is popular and where. I also think we will have to find out more about what the religion says in regard to how women and men dress. I think of any type of bible (or the Koran) as being created by man instead of an all mighty power, so it would be interesting to use the Internet to find access to discusses of such things. I have also thought about using forums to set up my own discussion to see what kind of responses I will get back. I don't think the uses I have mentioned above necessarily involve the term e-research, more than they just involve the benefits of Internet access.

Response to the Readings

Both of the readings seemed to be interesting, yet the ideas from the book I felt I could relate to better. Looking back at the quotes that Julie pulled out for us to respond to I felt that the quote about Theo Van Gogh to be the most interesting. As Buruma describes that death of him in an ironic way, I think back to the end of Chapter Five where Buruma discusses the significance of Van Gogh not being afraid of being killed because of Submission because he felt that he wouldn't be seen as responsible for its production. Van Gogh argued that he had been there just to support Hirshi Ali while she put the eleven minute film together. I find that to be somewhat ironic. Theo Van Gogh was a very outspoken man yet felt that he would be threatened by anyone after Submission appeared. The description in the end of Chapter 5 matches the quote on Page 112 very well.

As having discussed with Shirley and Julie on Friday, the attire of 2nd generation immigration is a very interesting topic, so much so that we have changed our research question to explore it. Having not thought much about this issues until reading Buruma, I think the whole idea is rather complex yet fascinating. How do the younger generation immigrants make their decisions on what to wear? The quote about religious attire being there just as a fashion statement is a bold statement yet seems to not stray too much from the truth. Alongside this quote, Buruma illustrates some great examples about how women especially on Muslim beliefs are dealing with this situation. From what I understood, I feel that Buruma thinks that many of the women are not wearing their headscarves for the right reasons, or for any known reason. That whole idea really fascinates me, I wonder if the religion is creating the fashion choices or on the other hand, if by wearing the headscarves that religion just goes with it. It's a complex relationship in my mind.

The quote on rappers just make it want to role my eyes, because in general at least here in the United States, I see rappers to be confused individuals. They pretend to be something that they really aren't, in most cases. The quote on rappers playing in on murder only makes their lives in Amsterdam seem to be ironic. They are normal individuals living in a tolerant society yet making statements are very intolerant of others. It just doesn't make much sense to me.

Aside from Murder in Amsterdam reading, I found the article to really not be that interesting (sorry). I appreciated the explanation of what the Virtual Knowledge Studio is because I didn't really understand what it was all about until now, but I found it more to be a tool for dealing with the issues that Buruma mentioned more than them having something in common.

From the article, I took out the path that they are taking to making e-science actually mean e-research which it enlightens me yet to me it just meant that more parts of research would be used to come to a solution in humanities and social sciences. Yet it seemed ironic because while expanding the ideas of attaining knowledge, I felt that there was an overall idea that too much knowledge is not good.

Clothing is overrated!

Part I.

Subject: UW student in a seminar
Sex: Female
Age: Too young to be in the real world, well kinda.
Race: White
Religion: Couldn’t tell from the subject’s appearance.

Overall read: Average cloth student lacking sleep or style, couldn’t quite tell.

Clothing: The subject was wearing a wear pair of sweats that had absolutely no form to them, making one think that they were supposed to be worn by the male gender instead of a young woman. On top, the subject was wearing what looked like a black cycling long-sleeve shirt. The shoes were black and made by adidas. There seemed to be nothing of a sense of personality coming from the attire of the subject on Monday April 23, 2007. The choice of the subject’s clothing choice only seemed to me to be very boring. It’s as if she has no sense of style and chooses to get dressed in the dark.

Hair/Makeup: Again much like the description above, the hair style and makeup of the subject was boring. Her brown hair was up a messy bun, causing her to look like she had stuck her finger in an electrical outlet. The lack of consistency in her hair color was also somewhat strange. It looked like she might be trying to grow out some old color, and maybe just got a bad hair color job done. In any case, the color of her hair went from dark at the hairline to the ends being a much lighter color. In terms of makeup, I may have missed it but it seemed to me that she wasn’t wearing any. I guess the subject missed the memo that makeup is a must for the female gender. There was nothing about her hair or makeup that reminded me of the current generation’s tastes. It seemed to me that the subject had no intention in making either of the two features seem attractive.

Aside from the clothing, hair, and makeup choices, I saw nothing else on the subject’s body. I saw no visible tattoos or piercings, a further implication of the simplicity of the subject.


Part II.

The motivation behind the outfit that I picked out on Monday was based on desire to sleep in to the last moment before heading off to almost eight hours of class. Having spent the previous night dealing with a roommate situation, I woke up in the morning and attempted to put together an outfit that would only serve one purpose, to be comfortable as to not remind me of the lack of sleep. When I don’t get enough sleep, I am easily irritated by the simplest things, so my day tends to be a little smoother when I dress for myself. Aside from my choice in clothes, I didn’t do my hair or make up just for the simple fact, I didn’t want to. With hair that is as long as mine, it is difficult to have the motivation to do with it more than throwing it up at 7am, so this results in the electrical look almost every day. Because of the lack of motivation to put together a nice outfit, I felt that if I applied make up to my face I would look ironic (lol). Ironic in the way that I had time to apply paint to my face yet I present myself to society in a pair of sweatpants. I think it is necessary to make the whole image of the person match.

Though my outfit on Monday was a little extreme on the lazy side, I do tend to not focus too much on what I wear to school. On most days, I am only there to learn. When it comes to my appearance I am a very casual laid back person who is very content with jeans and a sweatshirt as an outfit. I find no desire to get dressed up to come to campus, nothing sounds more uncomfortable than putting some heels on to trek from the Old Fisheries building up to Mary Gates hall. Though I may look like I don’t care about the way I dress, I have a major shopping problem that revolves around jeans and shoes, yet I never seem to prance around in those on campus. I guess what people see of me from the outside is just what I am: a young simple college student just here to do what I need to do.

New thoughts towards a concrete research question

After much stress and confusion, Shirley and I feel that we have narrowed down our ideas into something that is researchable online before the trip and will be researchable within Amsterdam and surrounding areas. Aside from conducting interviews, we also hope to find locations that are saturated with certain immigrant populations so that we can observe their habits in public locations. Below is our general research question followed by our methods. Enjoy!

Does assimilation in Amsterdam discourage immigrants from openly discussing the issues of oppression and lack of access to equal opportunity while attempting to integrate them into society? It will be an attempt to probe into the views of the “less accepted” surrounding the way society deals with internal issues. Do people of non-Dutch descent feel that they are truly accepted into society or are they made to believe so for the benefit of the society?

The three ethnic groups that we are most interested in studying are: Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamesse. (They may/not be associated with the Islamic religion). We would like to have one group not associated with the religion, or even a family with multiple views. We hope to find them at Ethnic cultural centers, or find them prior to departure through contacts provided by Julie and Clifford. It would be most interesting to find a family that has worked themselves out of the lower class status, integrating into society with less oppression. To narrow the scope of our interests, we are most interested in the interpersonal relationships (psychological, social) between natives and immigrants. We would also have a viewpoint from the immigrants about their struggles and successes in integrating into society. Within the interviews process, we are also interested in seeing what the effect of new immigration policies are having on currently successful immigrants.

A Walk around the Block

The essay as written by Kevin Lynch and Malcolm Rivkin presented the physical experience of 27 people as they walked around and through a block in Boston. It was interesting that they chose the block that they did because it seemed to have a lot of things going on all at once. The location of the church, the park and the Ritz Carlton allowed this block to seem inclusive of the general ideas about the city, at least in my opinion. The main focus of the reading was on the physical descriptions that people commented on while they made their walk. It was interesting to see the different opinions people had of the same thing such as the New England Mutual building. Though some of the comments were rather description, there weren't as many comments about what all the people were doing. I felt like leaving people out of the situation makes it difficult to describe a place. A place is not a place without people acting on. In the essay, they discuss the area around the Ritz Carlton as an epitome of Boston, but its the patrons that have caused it to be this way. There were lots of comments also made on the bright looking things and also the lack of bright pretty things in the alley. People tended to focus on the two ends of the desirable spectrum while ignoring what was happening in between.

In relation to my experience observing pike place market with Shirley, I feel that though we really tried to observe the people, we became easily side-tracked by standstill observations. It's really difficult to observe interpersonal relationships when walking through a really crowded walkway. One of the comments from the reading that resonated in my mind while reviewing the article, was about the way that two worlds come together by the presence of the park and the city. I kind of saw that in the market, but in a more general way. It was interesting to see how everyone was able to come together to join something so simple. I wish the reading had included more descriptions of what people had been doing so that to understand how the different parts of the block were affected by the people, or what kind of people you would find where. Overall, I feel that though the reading gave me more insight on the need to pay close attention to observing the landscape, it does nothing for me when it comes to observing people. This is very evident especially when people have to tell about their experience after several days, and how they mostly discuss structural sights but include very little about the sounds or smells. This just shows how little people really remember about experiences.

Pike Place Market, the real international district...

After being presented with the assignment last Wednesday, we decided that in order for us to see an example of immigrants working together, it would be great to go "walk around the block" in the international district. I had never been there before but had always thought it was mostly Asians, so I agreed we would meet there on Saturday afternoon to do some exploration. Once we met in the international district, I realized that observing a variety of Asian populations would not give us to much information towards understanding the issues of immigration in Amsterdam, so I recommended we head down to Pike Place Market.Shirley had never been there, so it worked out great because she came into the situation with a completely naive look.

We met at noon and spent about an hour walking around. We started our walk at the beginning of the marker, and then ended at the world famous fish market.After that we took a walk around the block to see all the different shops that were open. We used photography as our method of documentation. I also took some mental notes of what was going on because it was so crowded that it was really difficult to have a notebook out.

We noticed that in general everyone just kept to themselves. It was kind of interesting to see all the different types of stands that were open, and the lack of chit-chatting between vendors. From personal experience, vendors in Portland tend to be much more talkative than the ones that I saw on Saturday.There were lots of different cultures that were coming together yet were not connecting with each other. On one side of the walkway were flower sellers, and they seemed to be chit-chatting with each other while selling their flowers. I noticed that there were signs over the flowers stating where they were from, and even if the vendors were from different parts of the state, they were still very friendly and accommodating to each other. I thought it was interesting to see how different how the two sides of the walkway are different.

In general, there were lots of different languages being spoken, and there were lots of families. People kind of blocked the walk way in groups, causing it Tobe difficult to get through. The older generations were nicer than some of the younger generations. A lot of the families with younger children made it seem like they had a priority in getting through the crowd. Maybe my view is slightly different from other observations but I felt that every individual in the group thought that they were better than the people standing around them.

My favorite part of the walk was observing the different kinds of people that were getting food from the French bakery and the Russian bakery. The people in line for these places weren't all of that culture, but everyone was coming together to enjoy some good food. Also, I noticed that these people tended to be very friendly to each other.

After taking this walk, I decided that it would really useful for us to take walk around a central area in Amsterdam, where all kinds of people get together.I also think it would be helpful for to us to talk to a counselor at an international community center (a real one, not one that just deals with the Asian population). Also during our walk, we thought it would interesting to attend a human rights lecture at the University of Amsterdam if one is available.

From this walk, we realized that just observing the general population may give us a false sense of integration. So we will need to find people to talk to that know about the issues that immigrants are facing.

This really isn't easy.....

I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find internet interaction about the topic of immigration. All I have found so far have been research articles giving me straightforward information instead of giving me a chance to see how people truly feel about the topic.

The sites that have interested me thus far:

http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/03/amsterdam-4-myths-of-moroccan-youth.html

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=1545

http://dir.blogflux.com/country/netherlands.html

This one has a couple of interesting links to people that are living the Dutch life as an immigrant: http://pinkieliefie.blogspot.com/

http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2007/03/15/dutch-anti-immigration-riots/

This one has a lot of really great links to lots of information about immigration but nothing about people's personal views or personal stories.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14185/dutch-immigration-kit-offers-a-revealing-view

This last one is definitely my favorite because it focuses around the new video that new immigrants are being forced to watch before they enter the country:

http://uaecommunity.blogspot.com/2006/03/peoples-daily-online-dutch-immigration.html

I feel like my research has gotten me nowhere. Any suggestions of better places for me to look???

Research Topic in its early stage...

With the overwhelming amount of topics that we are allowed to investigate in Amsterdam, I feel slightly confused, but more than anything I feel like a little kid standing at the counter of a candy store. I want to explore everything and know everything but realistically there is no way that I can do that. I have narrowed my topic down to immigration, focusing on several different aspects with the large topic, mostly on how immigrants cultures have changed within the Dutch culture (I hope that's right Shirley). Here is my outline as requested by the assignment:

A) After Wednesday's seminar, Shirley and I have decided to work together. We both noticed that Jonathon, Jana, and Jenny are also interested in immigration so it would interesting to work with them as well, if they are interested in possibly creating a large overall project with each of us focusing on one particular aspect (?).

B) Before heading to Amsterdam, we are interested in getting statistics about immigration to Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general. It would be interesting to understand where they are from, why they left, and where they first went after leaving. I am also interested in knowing the ages of the immigrants, to see if its more of an immigration of younger generations or older. Also, I would be interested in seeing how many family members left with the immigrants. I guess I just want to know everything quantitavelyabout the immigrants. Within these statistics, I would like to focus on the three largest groups.

Some of our larger questions will revolve around discrimination and oppression, and its opposites. We are interested to find out how the lives of immigrants change in the liberal environment of Amsterdam. I feel that no matter how liberal a society is discrimination will still exist, even in the slightest form. In such an assimilated society, I feel that many of the immigrants' opinions may not be heard so I would be interested to see where the roots for their lack of voice comes from.

Aside from understanding the roles of discrimination and oppression in these peoples' lives, we are interested in setting up family interviews with families consisting of at least two generations of immigrants. It would be ideal to find a family with a first generation grandparent, a second generation parent and maybe an adolescent third generation kid. I am interesting in seeing how their opinions of the tolerant society differs. I am interested in seeing how the views of the youngest generation differs from his/her immigrant culture.

C) International Engagement!!!!!! I am so excited to explore without a restricting structure!

D) We might have difficulties crossing language barriers but after having talked to some people that have lived in Amsterdam, I was ensured that most people speak English. I also think it might be difficult to locate families that are interested in doing a one-on-one interview with us. I don't know where to look to find this. I also think we might have too many questions to ask the immigrants, and might possibly get off-track.

Overall, this is just my ideas on paper, well kinda I should say "on digital paper".

Ideas, Questions, and Evidence: Children in Amsterdam

For as long as I can remember my main focus in society has been centered around children. During the application process while I discussed my research interests with Julie and Clifford, Julie brought my attention to an interesting article posted on BBC News discussing how UNICEF has found that children in the Netherlands are the happiest in the world. This discovery puzzled me. As I reviewed the article, I felt that it didn't completely the answer how? Some of the information provided to more of a "blanket statement".

While initially my research interests were going to be more based in racial diversity and its effects on the overall productivity of the Dutch culture and society, I think I will attempt to put together a way to determine how the Netherlands creates such happy children and how their happiness effects their productivity as adults.

Based on discussion of what the purpose of a research question is, I will try to understand the societal phenomenon of creating happy children.

IDEAS: Children is something I know a lot about as having spent most of my life completely fascinated by them. Their ability to learn is amazing, and often I feel their do not receive appreciation for their brilliancy. I will base most of my questioning about children on the article mentioned above. It claims that Dutch children are made to be the center of the home resulting in their happiness, but I think that there is something lacking in this because it creates a sense of selfishness.

QUESTIONS: Why are Dutch children the happiest in the world? With this sense of the power that is established within a child-centered society, what are these individuals like when they become adults? What can the United States learn from the Netherlands child raising methods in order to create happy children and a happy society? Though my question are generally broad, I think they will narrow down as I create the methods to my social research.

EVIDENCE: Because of the broadness of my research interests, I will try to be as efficient as possible with the places that I will search for evidence in order to find my answer to happiness. I think it will be necessary to examine the opinion of children from various people and how their ideas effect how they raise their children, as well as talk to children, college students and then grown business people and see what their overall opinions are. Because of our location being Amsterdam, I don't think I will have the opportunity to travel to more rural places to see how their views of raising children changes. I hope to find my answers in the schools, on the streets and at businesses. I hope to find multiple locations where I can discuss this topic with several people at once. Though it may not be correct to do so I hope to find my evidence in the form of discussion with some minor surveying.

So that's my research idea. Please comment/critique it as much as necessary because it is still in its early parts of development and will need a lot of work before it's perfect.