ALMERE 2008

OUR EXPERIENCES OUR IMPRESSIONS

OUR MEMORIES

THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT• The thing that I was more surprised with was, without any doubt,

was the red light district. I think that the people in Holland are very free because if we had this street at home, it would be very bad considered, but for the people in Amsterdam it was very normal. I also thought that the red light street would be a marginal street because there would be a lot of drugs, prostitution, etc… and for this reason, I thought that there would be a lot of fights and discussions but there aren’t many. For me all the things that the people sold were very strange…and another thing that I was very surprised at was the way that the prostitutes stand behind the glass window, and that there are a lot of coffee shops, very near to each other, and the people weren’t embarrassed.

• I also was very surprised because I thought that the red light street would be dirty , old , dark and ugly, but it wasn’t.

• The sight wasn’t ugly; there were a lot of trees ,bridges, canals with small boats, and very narrow, but beautiful houses.

• Carmen

• I am going to explain an anecdote that happened to me on Saturday afternoon. With my Dutch family, we went to a little town called Volendam. It is a little town near Almere (50 kilometers) where some areas are under the sea level so there are a lot of dikes. Well, we left the car next to the sea and then we walked along the main street. There were a lot of souvenir

shops and, the most impressive; a lot of photo shops where you can put on typical Dutch clothes and then a photographer takes pictures of you. We walked for a half an hour and then, suddenly, we went into one of these photo shops. My partner’s parents told me that we were going to be taken some pictures with the typical Dutch clothes so we had to put on the

typical Dutch clothes. First, I had to put on something like a bib, but with flowers on it. Then, I had to put on a long striped skirt and a black waistcoat. Later, I put on something like a blue scarf and an apron. Then, we went inside the photo studio and there we to put on a pair of clogs (wood shoes). Finally, the three women had to hold some flowers and an old book and the two men had to hold an accordion and a

pipe. Then, we sat in front of a typical Dutch house set and the photographer took some pictures of us. It was a really great experience. Now, I won’t be able to

say that I have never worn a typical Dutch dress!

My family weekend

• A really unforgettable day!!! I thought it was a day like any other day but I was very, very wrong. We had gone to Amserdam and then home for dinner. Erik told me that we were going there for a while. We took our bike and went out.

I saw that we were going towards Bego’s house, so I asked him if we were going to collect them like other times. He replied we were, so it wasn’t strange.

•I began to suspect when he said that we should lock the bike and he pulled the key because they always came out quickly. But I didn’t give any importance to it.

•I began to see that something strange was happening when I saw Alba running to the house and Wouter told me to wait there, until I could go into the dining room.And…. suddenly ... I saw all the people on the exchange singing happy birthday to me!!! It was my birthday but I didn’t expect anything. It was increbible! There was food, music, presents for me ... I was so happy!!!It was an unforgettable day!!!Really! Thank you! Thank you for everything!

• Mireia Serra  

• The most amazing thing for me from Holland was the houses, because all the houses are terraced houses and in the inside they are all alike. All of them have three floors; on the first floor, we can find the kitchen and the dining-room together, and always a little bathroom. On the second floor, all of us had the bedrooms and a big bathroom. And finally on the third floor there is the attic. The garden is small, but really nice. Hanneke my mummy from Holland explained to me that all the houses were like this because the land in Holland is very expensive so all the houses are the same size to be cheaper. This is the strangest thing I’ve seen in Holland.

• Bego

• A thing that caught my eye, because I didn’t know they were used to do that in Holland but in other places, was the fact that when they got into their houses they took off their shoes in the hall. It was impolite to have your shoes on inside the house. The first day I had no idea of that and I walked through the house with the shoes on but the second day my partner’s parents showed me the place where they put their shoes to make me realize it was better to go barefoot. I was very surprised because I hadn’t imagined before that they had that habit but since the moment they told me I took off my shoes every day.

• Andrea Pey

• When I went to Holland there were many things that were really different from Catalonia. For example, the food, the timetable or the school. The thing which shocked me the most was the town-planning. The quarters were really organized, the streets were parallel, all houses were identical in the same street... But the thing that shocked me the most was that there were many big gardens in the street and a big forest. Usually there were three big gardens in a street: one on each side and one in the middle. Of course, in Rubí we have also gardens in the street or a forest but not as big as in Almere.

• Ester Clua

These days in Holland have been unforgettable for me and I think that for rest of the group too. As we know, every place has its own ways to live, and there I saw lots of them. On the one hand, they use the bike to go to all places, only sometimes they

take the car. But the strangest thing for me was the bathroom. In my house, they didn’t have

curtains for the shower. It was really strange for me, because I though that when I had finished my shower, the entire bathroom was wet, so I asked to my partner,

Stefan, how they kept the bathroom dry. And what he answered to me was that if I didn’t dance while I was having a shower, the bathroom wouldn’t get all wet, so I

said OK. The next morning, I was going to have a shower, and when I finished, the whole bathroom was really wet, so I decided to go and get dressed and then dry the

bathroom, but while I was getting dressed, someone went into the bathroom and had a shower, and when he finished, the bathroom was all wet again!

So it means that all of them do the same thing, and they don’t mind if it gets wet, but it was very strange to me because at home, if my bathroom got wet while I am having a shower, my mother would be very angry. So it is my story, this is the

reason why I began to think that we are very different.Paula

• BIKES, BIKES EVERYWHERE• When we arrived in Holland, I saw a parking area with a lot of bikes, but I thought

that perhaps it was a place where people hired bikes. Then, when I arrived in Almere, I saw more, and more, and more bikes: bikes in the streets, in the houses, a lot of parking areas full of bikes. The first day that I went to school I saw a big yard with a lot of bikes. Most people go to school by bike; all the students have a bike, and some teachers too. One day we went cycling with the school, we did a tour around Almere, and there was a van where we could get a free ice cream.

• Near the station there was a place, a small house, where the tourist can rent one. I know that because my partner only had one bike for himself, but he rented one for me.

• Vanessa Checa

• One of the things that surprised me the most in Holland was the amount of bicycles that you can see, and the fact that they have their own place to run together with the motorbikes. It seems to me one very good idea because in this way there is not so much pollution, besides, motorbikes don’t pollute so much because they are not allowed to run very fast. I think that it would be a great idea if we did the same thing in Spain. It would be good that everybody or almost everybody cycled around -that would save us many of the problems that we now have, like pollution. We also have to bear in mind that bicycles are much more economical than cars and finally, when people ride them, they are doing sport; in this way, cycling to school or to work would improve people’s health.

• Sara

Something that was very odd to me in Holland was that everybody went everywhere by bike: to the centre, to school, to their friends’ and… to the disco!It’s strange because the street was very calm and quiet and there weren’t a lot of cars. Also, there were a lot of ways especially for bikes and that’s very different from Spain. I think that it’s nice, it’s a little bit tiring but it’s relaxed and funny. Besides, there are a lot of parking areas for the bikes: in every street there were small parking lots and in the school there was a very big one - and that was shocking to me. And in Amsterdam too, we saw a big parking area in the centre of the city full of bikes, it was very strange.Elsa Cerezo

During all these days in Holland I’ve seen a lot of interesting things, but one thing that I’m going to remember is the Red Light District. We went to this district one of the first days and it was a strange street. We saw two different streets; one was really narrow, and in this street we could see a lot of beautiful girls, thin and with small bikinis. In the other street, we could see older women, some of them were fat and not really beautiful. The difference between these two streets was really strange.

Marta Miralles