A Day to Rethink Life

cheese farm...
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Our wake up call at 7am was in order to get us up and ready for our organized tours. We started the morning at a cheese factory where we got to witness how they make, age and preserve cheese, as well as SAMPLE it. It was so good that I shipped some home to my dad for Father's Day, and he got it just in time (they told us it was safe). At the same farm we then got to watch the art of wood shoe making which was much cooler than it sounded to us at 9am. A man carved one out in about 3 minutes, it obviously needed to be cleaned up, but the basic shape was there and done all by a saw and drill! So we go into the shop and get to try them on and play around in wood shoes (apparently the Dutch traditionally where them for farming and to get married in...).

wood shoe try ons...
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After the gloriousness that was all you could sample cheese and dancing in wood shoes we were taken to the town of Edam, The Netherlands where we rode bikes for about an hour. The cool thing about Edam is that it's where world famous Edam cheese comes from, but I didn't get to sample any this time. We got our bikes and headed out in groups. The town was so incredibly adorable. Children were being pulled in wagons, a construction worker yodeled to us, and we saw a wedding party leaving the church- it seemed like the perfect little village. The coolest part though was that we found one of the huge wind mills that from pictures of Holland you would think would be everywhere, but there's not really that many. We all took individual and group shots with our bikes lining up against the fence outside of it. We continued through the town and sung songs as if we were five and didn't have a care in the world, the music turned out to pretty much only revolve around songs from The Sound of Music. It was just such a perfect and carefree morning where it seemed like nothing in the world could be bad.

A perfect and carefree morning where it seemed like nothing in the world could be bad...

Dutch bobsledding team...
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After our group expeditions we were dropped off in the city for a free afternoon until a boat cruise and then dinner. A lot of people went to the Heineken Museum and some others went to art museums and a few others hit up the coffee shops again. However, myself and about four others wanted to visit the Anne Frank house. I couldn't come to Amsterdam and pass up something so historical and life changing. The line was shorter than I was expecting (apparently our tour guide always gave us the worse case scenario for line waits...) and we got in in about thirty minutes. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel going into this as I have a strong connection with the Jewish faith and so much respect for people of a religion who have been constantly persecuted. We went in and it was silent- obviously not a fun and joyous museum. It didn't really hit me where I was until I saw the bookcase that blocked the stairs to the annex. This is apparently the actual bookcase from when they were there. We ventured through each room, none were tiny, but the place itself was very small considering it hosted eight people for two years- and they never got to leave. In Anne and her sister's rooms the cutouts from magazines were covered with glass on the walls, these were the celebrities and people Anne dreamed about while being confined to this attic. The colors were slightly tinged from aging throughout the years, but it was so weird to think- Anne Frank, a girl millions of people understand the cruelties of the Holocaust because of, was right here, right where I am standing. In the kitchen markings of the children's heights were still on the wall- crazy to think they grew that much and were never allowed to leave during any of it. As we made our way back down another ridiculously steep stairwell we entered an area that was more like a museum. There were documents, videos, other recollections of the Holocaust and at the end of it, there it was, Anne's diary. A diary of a young girl, writings that have been translated into hundreds of languages and read by millions of people, a girl's thoughts and feelings which will forever stand as a symbol of the importance of human life and the hells of genocide. Anne's story had affected me drastically when I read it for the first time when I was in sixth grade, however, being here next to it made me reevaluate my life all over again. How could people believe in something enough to give their lives for it? How could others hate so much they could take lives without a care about the individual or the suffering? How could the world just let this happen for so long that almost ten million people died? How come there is still genocide and we just turn our heads and live our lives like nothing is wrong? Anne should be an icon to us, a symbol of life and it's preciousness- her story should influence us all to make a difference and take a stand...

Dutch windmills...
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From the sound of what I wrote it was a depressing museum, but it wasn't. The history is devastating, and the story of Anne's hope and yet despair is heart wrenching- but the museum in reality should be viewed as a symbol of change. Respect the past by using it to change the future... let this influence us all to make changes in our lives and to stand for what is right in the world, even if it's not easy.

For the rest of the day I really just wanted to take time to examine my sea of thoughts. However, we had to meet up with the group. Most people were tipsy after their Heineken experience and took naps on our boat cruise which made it a perfect time for me to stare off into space and try to look back in time into Amsterdam. The canals and architecture throughout the city are very old-fashioned with gardens throughout the waterway lined town, but this town's history was all that was on my mind.

Anne Frank House...
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We ended the night with an Indonesian dinner which was much better than it looked. I got the vegetarian option and had a lot of different types of marinated tofu and bean medlies over a huge scoop of white rice. I enjoyed it so much that I'll definitely try to find something similar when I get home- as well as make other necessary changes in the way I live life.