Good reflections & good food

Stamppot! A dutch word literally translating to mash pot. But also, a national Dutch dish comprising of mashed potatoes with variations of carrots, sour kraut, endive and a big meatball (sometimes a rookworst as well). We had this for dinner tonight and better yet, we made it ourselves!

We kicked off the day at the Amsterdam museum where we learned about the history of Amsterdam from a queer perspective by our great guide, Mirjam. She pointed out many artifacts such as paintings, model buildings, old fashion items and even an old little queer cafe that was built inside the museum the same way it used to look like many years ago that held great significance to the queer community here in Amsterdam. Although there were things to see and talk about, there were also times where we would walk past many items in the museum where Mirjam would not say anything. At first, this was strange but this was also part of the guided tour. She pointed out that the ‘silence’ of us just walking past various spaces represented the silences that are present about queer histories in many facets of Dutch society. Often these histories are erased or are not documented because of the discrimination that queer people faced historically. This made many of us reflect on how the past is always present today - even within the victories we have seen through things such as the legalization of gay marriage and transgender rights. The victories and freedoms that we either enjoy today or think of as just part of our societies actually represented many battles that have been fought for years and years. This was and still is something important to reflect on for many of us and was an interesting way to experience the museum space.

After the museum visit and having lunch together, we made our way to a houseboat museum. Houseboats are houses that are built on the canals of Amsterdam and although they are not really boats, nor look like them, they are very interesting to explore. There are around 2500 houseboats in Amsterdam and today it is known to be prime property in the city. Although the little museum was not a long visit, we did learn a lot about these interesting houses. We then explored a little bit of Amsterdam's city center and made our way to the cooking class where we got to make the stamppot I first talked about. Today was a lot of fun and we learned so much more, but what really stood out was the way in which we even got to know one another a little better.