STAN'S BLOGS

Along with John Schot, IFOR's Director, I recently spend five days in Oslo, Norway. The week began with a planning meeting for a conference, co-sponsored by IFOR and UNESCO, and a dinner served by our local hosts at the University of Oslo (HIO). We assisted IFOR's NVE program director Eva Fussinger, co-ordinator of the four day conference on "early childhood education," facilitated at Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, and attended by a majority of Norwegian and Swedish educators. I'm involved in organizing a subsequent publication on the program with Eva, a publication which is fully supported by a grant and John was additionally responsible for doing a presentation. John and I ended up with a fifth day in Norway when our flight from Oslo Lufthavn was canceled due to a snow storm at Schiphol in The Netherlands. That day was no fun, I can assure you, as we tied desperately for over an hour in -12c weather to find a bus that would take us to our assigned hotel. Oth

An interesting but kinda' funny thing happened the other night. It was around 7:30p at the library and a friend, Diek, asked me if I would like to go to a "boeklezing" (book lecture/study) with him. He wanted me know that it was located at a church and asked if I was religious or had a problem with that, although the group was open to anyone. Of course, I said no problem and, sure, I would like to go. I then asked Diek if he was religious, still just a bit curious, and he quickly said "nee." A tall, lanky man with a good sense of humor, Diek is a retired, although still part-time, school teacher. We've chatted from time to time over the last two years, gone out a few times for drinks at a local kroeg (pub), and enjoy talking about Alkmaar history. Once we read a German newspaper together, just for fun, when he saw me trying to read it and finding the language similar to Dutch―he teaches German. Diek also knows that I've been reading some Dutch novels,

On Saturday a few friends I encountered in the neighborhood were excited, telling me about a "must see band" called Darmstädter Hübsch. The group was appearing the next day on Sunday, 25 October 2009 at the FEELGOOD FESTIVAL 10 JAAR, the tenth year anniversary of a music festival and benefit held each year at a popular nightclub in Alkmaar. The proceeds are then channeled into local charities and non-profits, making everyone feel good. The well known club, VICTORIE , is located in the Binnenstad at Breedstraat 33 and it frequently draws large, mixed crowds, especially on weekends. Their website says that VICTORIE, "In the heart of Alkmaar, is a place where everyone goes wild on the dance floor, stories are shared and exaggerated in the upstairs café, talent is developed and performed, and above all, there is a feeling of musical freedom that you can share with friends." In short, it's an entertainment extravaganza! My friends said I really should see this gr

I was looking through our collection of books in the apartment last week, hoping to find a new book (in Dutch) to read. Sure enough, I quickly found one, the same one I'd passed up many times. It turned out to be a BookCrossing.com "release;" yellow ID labels plastered on the outer/inner covers, an official BookCrossing bookmark included, and more numbers inside. I immediately got interested, not as much in the book as in what this BC thing was all about: "BookCrossing is the act of releasing your books 'into the wild' for a stranger to find, or via 'controlled release' to another BookCrossing member, and tracking where they go via journal entries from around the world. Our community of passionate, generous book-lovers is changing the world and touching lives, one traveling book at a time." Here's the journal entry I wrote at BookCrossing's website: My name is Stan Morris, I'm the Communications Officer for the International Fe

A few weeks ago Arjan (on left in the photo), IFOR's Accountant and a friend of mine, took three of us volunteers from the office in his car for a tour of an area in 'Noord Holland' where he grew up. We stopped first along the way to show Pauline and Aktuigun, two young interns that were here from Africa and Asia for six weeks to work with our WPP program, several large windmills on the polders (low areas surrounded by dikes and pumped dry of water). Then we went on to visit three nearby, historic, small towns (de Rijp, Graft, and Volendam) and de Beemster polder . De Beemster polder is well-known world-wide and is where all that famously exported Gouda cheese is produced, the cheese sometimes displayed in food-stores in the shape of large, yellow wheels. While in the area, we also met Arjan's parents, who live in the village of MiddenBeemster. Wonderful people, kind and thoughtful, they were so welcoming and had much to tell us about their lives in the village. Arj

A few weeks ago I received a per-arranged and most welcomed visit from my sister Vicky. She arrived right after AZ Alkmaar, a football (soccer) team in the small city where I'm living, won the Dutch League championship. The wild, loud, and several days long AZ Feest ( see YouTube video ) took place soon after, while she was here. We're in the crowd standing on top of a five story parking garage and chanting "kampioen, kampioen!" It really was "wild!" AZ (pron: aaa-zet) won the national championship for the second time this year, and it had been a long time since the first win. As you probably know, football is huge in Europe, it's all sports fans talk about. I have put some photos up on Picasa of Vicky's visit that I received from her and my BVS Director in Europe, who was also here for the first two days of the visit. An acquaintance of mine, Aggie, actually lives in and operates the photographed windmill, and there are probably ten such mills

We also have Monday off for Paasdagen (1st and 2nd days of Easter). I had some time on my hands, so on the Web I found the Geert Dilling Wandeltocht 2009. This morning I biked over to this annual Alkmaar event and registered for the 10 kilometer. A "wandeltocht" is a walking tour or hike through nature areas, forests and dunes along the seaway, and we have many all around us. It was sunny and warm, and I even found a few people to walk with to practice my Dutch, ha! Sunday I went for a run through Kennemer Park along the canals, everything is bursting out and smells wonderful. I had to stop a few times just to sniff some of the bright yellow and white blooming bushes. Baby ducklings are everywhere, following their mamas through the reeds, it's all quite cute. Thought I'd see a film on Saturday evening, Grand Torino with Clint Eastwood didn't look interesting at first, but turned out to be terrific. Clint taking the "active nonviolence" idea to the extre

Yesterday John and I went to Amsterdam for the evening, as our Musicians without Borders friends invited us to their 10 Years Celebration. The event was a concert featuring six individual performances and the music of Sarajevo, Balkans, Mexicaanse, and Holland's Mitrovica Rockschool. On the map I thought the venue looked familiar, then realized I had visited this area over a year ago with Marion, the acquaintance I've mentioned from Austria. This section of the city "you will want to see," as it hosts some of the most historic names in Holland, the Dam , the Royal Palace, AEX (stock exchange), Gothic Nieuwe Kerk, but most importantly the Begijnhof , one of the oldest and most beautiful inner courts in the city and an enclave with a very interesting religious history. And strolling through Amsterdam on a Saturday night is always a magnificent and exciting experience! Well, we arrived at the Begijnhof a little early, so John and I thought we would find a nearby café a

A few weeks ago we hosted one of our annual office "borrels," very similar to cocktail parties in the US. This particular borrel was the IFOR New Year's get-together, done by our staff so that friends and associates have an opportunity to see the office and meet our team. We provisioned the event with a wide assortment of Dutch drinks and snack foods and provided some entertainment for the quests (usually all from North Holland). I may have mentioned that I have been learning a new song, like I was doing while in Rochester, NY, but this time as an effort to study the Dutch language. An acquaintance of mine at the local library, Hein, suggested the song, a classic Dutch "lied" called  Ode aan Maastricht , as he has been learning a new song in English by Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald.  So, I took the challenge. My musician friend Srdan Kekanovic in the adjacent office found out about this and talked me into singing the same song with him playing the