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!