Dutch Jordan

Judgment Day

2007-12-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

This is my last week at the Tribunal, so it’s fitting that today the court announced the judgment on my first case. During my first two months in The Hague, I worked on a prosecution team in the trial of the general who oversaw the siege of Sarajevo in 1994-1995. This morning, the court found him guilty of murder, terror and inhumane acts and sentenced him to 33 years in prison. I attended the court session and sat about twenty feet away from the defendant. The session was a little anticlimactic, and it’s strange to look someone in the eye with the knowledge that you helped send them to jail; but, knowing all that he’s done, I can’t think of anyone more deserving.

I don’t have much time to write, as I’m trying to finish my final paper for the semester. It’s been a good week this week, though. My trial team had a Sinterklaas/Hannukah party, and we’ll have a going away party in my honor during work on Friday. I also went on one more bike ride, this time to see the International Criminal Court. I went to a great international conference this week, where I heard speeches from one of the UN nuclear inspectors of Iraq, the head of the UN inquiry into Darfur, one of the judges of the International Court of Justice, and lots of other speakers. The Hague is a pretty good place to find these conferences. I found it interesting that multiple speakers commented on the grossly unfair and one-sided nature of the UN human rights inquiries into Israel. It’s refreshing to hear that from people who aren’t Jewish or American; it’s nice to know that others notice.

This week has many fun things ahead, including plans to hit the town with a Dutch water-polo team this weekend. (Long story...) My friend Isaiah arrives tomorrow, and then the two of us are off to Ireland and France. Woohoo! As such, this may be my last post, unless I somehow have a chance to recap our travels on the way back. I’ll be in LA on the 25th; it’s been a great few months, and I can’t wait to see everyone soon!

(P.S. I don't know why my font is being weird...)

Peace, Peace, and There is No Peace

2007-12-05T11:55:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I went with several other externs on a tour of the Peace Palace (Vredespaleis), home of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and Permanent Court of Arbitration. To answer a question often asked of me, the ICJ is the court that condemned Israel’s security barrier, not my court. That aside, the Peace Palace was an amazing place to walk around. Every room was filled with marble floors from Italy or tapestries from Japan or a hundred other priceless gifts. My personal favorite was the elephant tusks from the King of Siam, which probably wouldn’t fly as a gift these days. The main courtroom was called the “Hall of Justice,” though it disappointingly was not the home of the Justice League. I especially liked a room where every nation’s ambassador had his own chair with the seal of his country sown on the back. The building was beautiful; since we were prohibited from photographing the interior, the attached picture is the best I can do.

Last weekend, my court held its annual party for the staff in Grote Kerk, the oldest and largest church in The Hague. We had fun, though I’m not sure it was the best location. First, the interior was so massive that it felt empty even with 1,000 people dancing inside. Second, it was a little strange to be partying in a church, even if this particular church is apparently no longer “sanctified.” There were professional dancers strutting their stuff on platforms, and the bar stools were placed over sections of the floor that had people buried underneath. Ironically, I think the non-Christians found more disconcerting than anyone. At any rate, at some point I left the party and ended up hanging out with a bunch of random Germans in another bar. It was a strange night.

The next day, I went wine tasting in Breda, which is in the Dutch province of Noord Brabant, close to the border with Belgium. Breda was a charming little Dutch town, and it was fun to be somewhere different. I went with a group of friends, one of whom knew the owner of the wine store; he let us sample wines from all over the world and gave an explanation of the background and taste of each one. (Though I noticed none of the wines were from Holland; I guess Holland is too cold for good wine.) Afterwards we had some fantastic Indian food (I had a meal that included five vegetarian entrees), and headed back home.

Last night was the first time I’ve stayed home for the evening in a long time, due to my family visitors and due to the fact that everyone is starting to realize that the end of our time is near. On Monday night I went to an Italian restaurant for my first goodbye party for a friend. It was fun, but I can’t believe we’re all leaving Holland in less than two weeks... Madness! Anyway, happy Hannukah! (And happy Sinterklaas tomorrow!)

Antwerp & Amsterdam, Alstublieft

2007-12-02T14:14:00.000-08:00

On an administrative note, please be aware that I no longer have my American phone number as of Tuesday. I can still be reached at 0031-617697163 or by email for the remainder of my time abroad.

On to other matters: this week my parents were here, so it’s been fun having family two weeks in a row. On their first night here, we went out for rijsttafels, an Indonesian dish that The Hague is famous for. (You get all sorts of fun food when you colonize other countries; it’s a great deal.) The meal is basically rice with a ton of different small dishes to mix in. It’s good stuff.

The next day, we went to Antwerp, Belgium, which is amazingly close by. The greatest sight in Antwerp is the Cathedral of Our Lady, the largest gothic church in the Low Countries. A German student gave us a free tour, highlighting the massive Rubens paintings that hang throughout the cathedral. We also saw the Steen, a castle from 1200 that sits along the river.

After we’d seen enough crucifixes in the center of town, we walked to the Jewish quarter, where they have the largest orthodox population in Europe. It’s a little incongruous to see ultra-Orthodox Jews speaking in Flemish; I’m not used to seeing them in Europe. We bought salami and had a fantastic kosher meat dinner (yay stuffed veal), so I was happy. The restaurant had no menu - you just went up to a counter and pointed out all the things you wanted. It was amazing.

After my parents spent a couple days in The Hague, we traveled up to Amsterdam on Friday. Some highlights of the day include: Dutch pancakes, the Rijksmuseum (state museum, best known for Rembrandt’s Night Watch), and the Filmmuseum (not much there, mainly just an exhibition by a Hungarian video-artist).

On Shabbat, we went to the massive Portuguese Synagogue, and we were invited to lunch by a family in the congregation. The father of the family had a fascinating background: he was raised going to a Catholic school in Suriname (though he was Jewish), learned Kung-Fu and cooking from his Chinese father, spent ten years studying to be a ninja in Japan, and moved to Israel and met his wife before coming to Holland. His wife showed us around the old Jewish neighborhood, including where the Nazis deported all the Jews and where signs of the pre-war Jewish life can still be found on some buildings. There are still many Jews in Holland, but certainly nothing like there used to be.

I went back to The Hague Saturday night, and the rest of the weekend was fun as well. It was so much fun that I’m too wiped out to write about it now, so I’ll post again soon about the rest of it.

Well It Must Be Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in the Netherlands (no wonder the Pilgrims ditched this country...), but I took off a few days and had a very nice weekend nonetheless. On Thursday, my brother David became the first person to visit me in The Hague, and I took him around the neighborhood. Here are some of the things we covered:

In The Hague, we took a tour of the Ridderzaal, the 13^th century knights’ hall that was the first building in The Hague. Unfortunately, little of the original building remains; but the Queen still opens Parliament there every year, so it was an interesting place to see. We also saw the Mauritshuis, supposedly the best small art museum in the world. It’s best known for housing Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” That night, we had our Thanksgiving dinner at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in Scheveningen. Once we figured out how the ordering worked (which took us a while), it was great. The fish was good quality, too; it probably helps that the restaurant was a block from the North Sea.

On Saturday night, we returned to the center of town, where we had pizza at an Italian restaurant and mojitos at a Cuban bar. I felt that would be fairly representative of what Dutch cuisine had to offer.

In Amsterdam, we went to the Jewish Historical Museum, which had a lot of interesting things to see. (And its café was my first kosher restaurant in the Netherlands! It was dairy, but you have to start somewhere.) I always find it a little strange going through Jewish museums in Europe; it feels like I’m learning about some extinct culture (especially as they took a school group through the museum). This was thankfully mitigated by the knowledge that the Jewish community has rebounded, including at the Portuguese Synagogue next door. We also went to Anne Frank’s house, though I decided to wait in the café rather than go through the museum again.

That night, we went out for pannenkoeken (Dutch pancakes), which were delicious as usual. We also went to a concert of a couple alt-rock bands from Oregon. As happens surprisingly often, I liked the opening band better than the headliner, but they were both pretty good.

We also spent a day in Leiden, home to the most prestigious university in the Netherlands. It’s a nice place to walk around and has a medieval fortress at the center. It’s also where the Pilgrims lived before they left for the new world, so it was a little bit Thanksgiving-themed. We were there on the day of the “Arrival of Sinterklaas,” so we got to see a few “Black Petes” rappel down the side of the town hall. I’m just glad that I had someone with me to witness the little kids running around in blackface; it’s a sight...

On the way back from the train station this morning, after my brother departed, a police car pulled in front of me in the bike lane. Before I knew what was happening, a second squad car pulled up behind me. (That’s never a good sign.) They kept asking questions about my bike, and it took me a few minutes before they told me why they were detaining me. Apparently, they saw me on the security cameras at Central Station and thought that I picked the lock and stole my bike. I’m not sure how that happened – perhaps my forgetting where I parked my bike made it look like I was scanning for a bike to steal. At any rate, eventually they just took my information and let me go. They were very polite, and I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, but still a strange experience...

Dutch is Life

2007-11-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

It’s been a good week, especially at work; I’ve been assigned to an investigation (to research what crimes we can charge), so that’s been fun. Yesterday, I watched a parade go by my apartment in honor of Sinterklaas. Though they celebrate Christmas in Holland, the bigger holiday is Sinterklaas, held on December 5^th. I didn’t take the attached picture, but that’s him in his bishop’s hat, along with his assistant Black Pete (Zwarte Piet). In fact, the entire parade was made up of men in blackface. I do believe it was the first time I’ve seen blackface when it wasn’t meant to be ironic; some of them were playing instruments and dancing around with jazz hands, as if straight out of a minstrel show. For a country that’s so progressive in so many ways, it was rather jaw-dropping to see how the Dutch think nothing of this practice.

Besides that parade, there wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary. Rather than recap the week, I thought I might note a few idiosyncrasies about life here in The Hague:

- I was on a roll for a while of getting in trouble every time I went to the supermarket. One time, I didn’t know you had to weigh your own fruit, so I held up the entire check-out line while someone ran back to do it for me. Another time, security surrounded me because I took a grocery bag without paying for it (as apparently you have to do here). I think I’m getting the hang of things now, though.

- The biggest difference about the Dutch grocery stores is that the food has no preservatives. Everything is probably healthier, but everything also goes bad very quickly. It’s already happened a number of times that I try to pour milk on my cereal and it comes out in chunks. Lovely. One time, I was eating a tuna sandwich, and a mealworm crawled out. I was so hungry that I almost finished the sandwich anyway, until someone convinced me not to.

- We don’t have a fire alarm in my office building. Instead, a woman’s voice politely asks over the loudspeaker for everyone to head outside. I’m pretty sure if that were our fire alarm in California, we all would have died a long time ago.

- “Cool Ranch” Doritos are instead called “Cool American.” (Do they not have ranch here?) The movie “Live Free or Die Hard” is called “Die Hard 4.0.” (I guess they didn’t appreciate the New Hampshire reference.) A few other things are tweaked like this, but not many.

- I am a big fan of the cheese here, and my favorite snack is a stroopwaffle. It’s basically a sandwich made out of waffles filled with caramel. So delicious...

- Every one of the interns must go through two rights of passage: first, everyone at some point falls down the stairs, since Dutch stairs are absurdly steep. (As of yesterday, I’ve fallen down the stairs three times, which my landlady tells me is a new record here.) Second, everyone at some point gets their bike tires stuck in the tram tracks, since for some reason they are the perfect width to fit in the track. (Everyone also gets their bikes stolen – a booming industry in the Netherlands – though thankfully my bike is too much of a piece of junk to steal.)

Amsterdam: Take 2

2007-11-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, technically last night was my fifth time or so in Amsterdam, but only my second time going out there for the night. And it was the first time I hitched a ride there with friends and didn’t have to take the train, so that was exciting. Squeezing six people into the car seemed like a good idea at the time, until we remembered how small the Dutch cars are. Even my civic would have been a step up. But hey, we got there.

Nothing too crazy happened last night – first, we went to a club where a friend was having a birthday party. (Always fun to have your name on “no cover charge” list.) The club was not very exciting – very expensive drinks, bad music, and a bunch of strange Dutch people who kept hitting on all my female friends (and asking me which of the girls were mine). We didn’t stay long. The second club was a little better; I think it’s a movie theater that turns into a club late at night. Each room had a different theme to it – one was hip-hip, one was karaoke, etc. It was a little more of a young tourist crowd (maybe the first time I’ve ever felt old at a club) and the floor was so sticky that I had to pull my feet off of it, but we still had a good time.

After the clubs, we went to an Irish bar, for the benefit of the Irishwomen in our group. (And I was getting myself acclimated, since I just made plans to go to Dublin!) Then we went to some Arab falafel store as an end to the evening. It was a fun evening out; the only time we entered the Amsterdam Central Police Station was to use their bathroom, so that’s always good. (I’m still not a big fan of the street-urinals.)

The most amusing moment of the night for me was when a Dutch friend suggested that we meet someone at what sounded like a “kike shop.” I was fairly certain he wasn’t aware of the slur, but it took me a good five minutes to work out that he was saying “kijkshop,” a tchotchke-catalogue type store. Good to know.

In The Hague, we’ve been hearing weather advisories all week. This weekend was apparently the worst storm in the Netherlands since 1953. Winds here have been about 60 mph (which makes biking to work take a lot longer than usual). So, we’ve been staying indoors a lot this week, but at least it’s getting me prepped for Chicago winter...

What would you buy if you were bored? Uh... a jar of calf's foot jelly.

2007-11-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

First, my news: I have a job! In the fall of 2008, I’m moving to Chicago! I’m going to be a staff clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. (Basically, I’ll be helping to write case opinions in concert with the judges.) I’m really excited about the job, and I think it’ll be good to be back in the Midwest. I’ll miss California (in fact, this cold I have from biking in the rain is making me miss it right now...), but I’m pretty excited to see what comes next.

I found out about the job while I was in England for the weekend, and receiving that email definitely added to the fun. I went to England to meet up with a couple of friends from the states and crash on their hotel floor, which was surprisingly comfortable. Some observations from the weekend:

- We visited the Tower of London, where I ended up running into one of the other interns from The Hague. The tower had lots of fun stuff from famous people who were locked up there, many of whom carved on the walls in desperation 500 or so years ago. Across from the former cells, we saw the crown jewels and some of the largest diamonds in the world. It’s an interesting contrast.

- In further contrast, we also went to Windsor Castle, one of the queen’s official residences. (I live down the street from an official residence for the queen here, but Windsor was somewhat more impressive.) The castle was the home of all the monarchs who locked their family members in the Tower of London, so it provided a good balance to the day.

- Everything in London is absurdly expensive. The price would be normal if listed in dollars, but of course it isn’t. For example, a beer at the pub was 4 pounds ($8). On the other hand, the beer was called Old Speckled Hen, so at least it was funny.

- We went to the British Museum, which had a lot of amazing artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone and other items pilfered from all corners of the globe. It was pretty amazing, except that unfortunately the Holy Land section was closed. (Just like the British to keep us out of the Holy Land...)

- We went to see a show in a West End theater, which was fun. The show was called “The 39 Steps,” a comedic spoof of the classic Hitchcock film. It was a very British sense of humor, very tongue in cheek. I can’t say it’s the best play I’ve seen, but it was a unique cultural experience.

- We kept looking in the wrong direction when we crossed the street; the British system takes some getting used to. I definitely almost walked in front of a double-decker bus a couple of times, and you’d think I would’ve seen those coming. On most of the street corners, they’ve written “Look Left” or “Look Right” in front of the curb. It kind of makes you wonder what the pedestrian mortality rate had to be in order for them to write that everywhere. (Or it makes me wonder, as I’m just that morbid.)

- We found a vegetarian Thai all-you-can-eat buffet. I’ve never been so happy. (Finding out about the job made me happy too, but mainly in the sense that now I’ll have money for more buffets.)

The trip was much easier than my previous international travel. I flew out of Rotterdam airport, which is closer to me and only has a couple of gates. The flight was literally a half-hour; they played an episode of “Friends,” and then we were in England. This is the first time I’ve even been on an international flight that didn’t either land or take off in the U.S. or Israel. I was literally the only non-EU person on the flight. When we arrived at passport control, every single person from the plane got in one line except for me; I walked straight up to my own counter. It pays to be an American.

I Accidentally Shot Myself in the Face (Twice)

2007-10-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the best I could come up with for Halloween; I was never very good at this stuff. Interestingly, I did not see a single other person in costume outside of my friend’s party, so I got a lot of strange looks when I went out last night. I would have thought there’d be more celebrations in a city with 40,000 expats, but apparently not so much. After the party, we tried to go out on the town, but we were rejected from all the clubs because my Dutch friends’ water-polo uniforms didn’t meet the dress code. Even on Halloween, the bouncers had no sense of humor... ah well.

I’ve spent most of this week recovering from my brief trip back to the United States. My journey to the states didn’t start so well, but it got better from there. First, while I was waiting for my flight in the Amsterdam airport, the brakes broke on my plane, and I was placed on a different flight three hours later. Then my delayed connection in Detroit was kept in a holding pattern for so long, the pilot actually started flying back to Detroit because he was afraid of running out of fuel. Eventually I made it to Chicago, only to get trapped on the metro between stations due to a mechanical problem. Later on, I got stuck in a rainstorm while waiting for a cab, as well as a freak hailstorm with ice the size of marbles that sent everyone running in panic. Chicago seems like a lovely town.

Anyway, things picked up from there – I was in Chicago for a job interview, which hopefully went pretty well. (I’ll find out in a week or two.) I interviewed with four sets of people (for one job), and each time, the first question was “Are you in the Netherlands right now?” So, I think my flying in from abroad scored me some points. Still, it was only my first interview of the year, so we’ll see. I stayed with a friend near the University of Chicago, and it was good to catch up. It was also kind of fun to look out on Lake Michigan from my friend’s apartment, after looking out on the North Sea from my office the day before. Life is strange sometimes.

After my day in Chicago, I headed up to Minnesota to be in my friend’s wedding. (Congrats, Joel!) The wedding was a lot of fun – everyone was genuinely excited, and kept up dancing for much longer than is probably physically advisable. I even jump-roped with a person as the rope, something I don’t normally get to do. Being back in the states to celebrate with my friend reminded me that my life is over there (or in Israel), and that I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again when I return. I even saw some old Camp Ramah friends and ate lots of Kosher meat – all in all, a successful weekend, and I’m very glad I was able to make it back.

This week thankfully hasn’t been too crazy, as I’m just trying to get back on Netherlands time before I fly off again this week (to England). We just changed our clocks this week, and I know that change hasn’t happened in the states yet, so that’s going to mess me up. I made it back to shul this week, though pathetically few people were there. (It took us until 10:30 to get enough people to start services.) In fact, the Jews were outnumbered by all the Sufi guests who came to observe us. I talked to one of them for a while about Sufism, which I don’t really know anything about; it focuses on embracing the similarities between religions, or something along those lines.

Just now, I returned from an afternoon in the city of Delft, which was quite nice. The center of town is full of canals and a historic square, and it’s just a pleasant place to spend a day. (It feels like a mini-Bruges...) At any rate, I’m fairly exhausted from the day, so I think it’s time to sign off...

Homer, that's not God, that's a waffle that's stuck to the ceiling.

2007-10-16T13:15:00.001-07:00

I’m back from my weekend in Belgium, which was amazing! We had Friday off of work, so I headed down with another intern to Brussels for two days and Bruges for one day. (We got Friday off for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, yet didn’t get any days off for High Holidays. Gotta love the UN...) There’s a direct train from The Hague to Brussels, so it only took us about two hours to head down there. Traveling to and within Belgium is incredibly cheap if you’re under 26, so we took full advantage. I figure if I still have to put up with looking like I’m 19, I might as well reap the benefits, too...

Our hotel in Brussels wasn’t terribly impressive, but the location could not have been better. We were a block from the train station and a block from Grand-Place, the central square of the city. Over two days, we covered a lot, including: the Atomium (kind of like the Eiffel Tower of Brussels, if it were a nerdy science project), the Royal Museum of Army and Military History (with both Napoleonic and Nazi artifacts, and not much transition between the two), Arcade du Cinquantenaire (a giant arch that we climbed), the European Union headquarters (we work in international law, so we had to stop by), and much, much more. Mainly, though, we just strolled through the narrow streets in the center and hung out in cafes. The street-side cafes were definitely my favorite part of previous trips to Europe, so I was quite content to frequent them again for the weekend. We also found a bar called Delirium Tremens, which had 2,500 types of beer available (and matching glasses for most of them). I tried some very random beers, including cherry (kreik) and grapefruit, but I’m still not a fan of the taste...

Everywhere we went, the food was excellent. We didn’t each much traditional Belgian food, but had some very good Italian, Greek and Asian. Also, there were chocolate shops everywhere (literally every other store), which were quite lovely. And we bought a few waffles on the street, which were fantastic – they tasted like donuts in waffle shape. See above picture for one of the happiest moments of my life.

Everything in Brussels is written in both French and Flemish, two languages I should understand but don’t really. (Flemish is almost exactly like Dutch, but sounds more refined – like British English vs. American English.) I’m not used to seeing things in two languages and having neither be English, but between the two I could generally figure things out.

Bruges was one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. All the medieval streets looked too picturesque to be real – it was hard to keep in mind that it was all hundreds of years old and not created for tourists. We climbed the belfry in the middle of town as soon as we arrived, where we could see the whole city laid out. We also took a boat tour through the canals with our trilingual tour guide and saw a few of the catholic churches. One church had a Michelangelo piece (the only one to leave Italy in his lifetime), and another had a vial said to contain the blood of Jesus. It was an interesting town. Mostly we just sat out in the sun and tried not to think about returning to work the next day.

The trip back was not so easy, as we had to take four trains to get back from Bruges. On one train, there was a little kid in front of me who kept screaming and throwing things at me, while the bells on the train rang incessantly. We just kept cracking up, as the experience was so ridiculous. At any rate, eventually we made it back, and now I’m off on another trip on Thursday. Hello Midwest!

Llama lo?

2007-10-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the Jewish holidays are over, which means I can finally start traveling on the weekends... Over the course of 24 hours, I made arrangements to travel to Brussels, Bruges, Chicago, Minneapolis and London all within the next month. Can’t wait!

Simchat Torah was not very impressive over here. It basically consisted of people standing around in a circle and singing hava nagilah. But at least they tried. Work wasn’t very exciting this week either, but I just got assigned to a new case (currently in pre-trial), so hopefully there will be exciting developments ahead.

Last week, I attended a one-day conference on international criminal law at the Royal Netherlands University of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam. Some of the speakers were a little dry, but it was kind of amazing to see some the best minds in the world in this field come together in one room. For example, there was a panel focusing on a specific law that’s been causing some confusion. At the end of the panel, they gave the microphone to a man in the audience, who then stood up and explained what he had in mind when he wrote that law. It’s kind of fun to be working in a field that’s relatively new and relatively small... we’ll see where this takes me...

By far the highlight of the week was biking to Wassanar, a small town about 15 km (about 9 miles) from The Hague. On the way there, we biked through the forest, which was absolutely beautiful, filled with canals, ponds, and the occasional secluded residence. We also passed a number of grazing animals along the way, such as cows, sheep, and what appeared to be llamas. The town of Wassanar itself is a quaint little town that slightly resembles Newton, Massachusetts, if Newton were built around a historic windmill. It has more American expats than anywhere else in Holland, and has a lot of expensive stores to cater to that crowd. We stopped off for bagels, which took about two hours (Dutch service is not terribly impressive), and walked around for a bit.

On the way back, we biked along the ocean; apparently, the bike path goes the entire length of the Netherlands coastline, and can be traversed in about two days. We biked through dunes (who knew they had dunes?) and stopped at a number of scenic points. As I biked along the trial, I passed a couple of horseback riders galloping through the sand next to me. It was a bit surreal, but a beautiful scene. And it was sunny all day, quite a rarity around here. I regret that I haven’t explored more of the Dutch countryside, but we’re already planning to do another bike trip to the town of Delft sometime soon. There’s so much around here I haven’t yet seen – but in the meantime, I have a few other countries to explore as well. It’s going to be an interesting month...

Oh, and my most exciting achievement of all this week: I finally found pulp-free orange juice here! Yay!

Zeven Dagen Soekot

2007-10-02T12:56:00.001-07:00

Well, another week, another Jewish holiday. This week is Sukkot, where we eat all our meals in little outdoor booths. A family nearby has been letting me use their sukkah this week, which has been nice of them. (I had meat again!) Unfortunately, it’s been too cold and wet to eat any meals outside, so we’ve only been using the sukkah to say blessings. The liberal shul found a good way around this problem: they built their sukkah in the lobby inside the shul. True, that kind of defeats the point, but the congregants seem to love it...

It’s been a fun week outside of the holiday as well – my first attempts at going clubbing in The Hague. The first time I went out with all interns/students from the U.S. and Ireland, so we ended up at the popular expat clubs. They were kind of sad – in one, there were only about four people on the dance-floor when we walked in, and they were all making out with each other. Meh. But it started to get better after we arrived. Plus, our group consisted of me and five women, so I can’t complain. On the second try, we went to a local bar that brought in a DJ for the night. The average age was around 50, including the DJ, and it felt like I was back at a bar mitzvah in 1994. (The most recent song they played was probably “What is Love” by Haddaway, which led me to fond memories of high school.) While it was amusing to see people my parents’ age going crazy at 1 a.m., I don’t know that it was exactly my scene. Thankfully, we had some Dutch people with us that night, and they led us to a local club that was probably the most fun place I’ve found in the city so far.

I’ve also been exploring The Hague during the day, including going to Chinatown, trying a couple more restaurants, and biking along the coast for a couple hours. This coming weekend, I’m planning to go on a bike trip for a day to a nearby city in the Netherlands, most likely Delft. We’re making it a “rain or shine” trip, as probably both conditions will occur over the course of the day. And the next weekend: Belgium! My first visit to a neighboring country, should be exciting...

Work, meanwhile, was insane last week – we were finishing up the closing brief, and I would get a new assignment approximately every five minutes. Still, being part of that rush to the end was kind of invigorating, and we’ll see what they put me on next. The court delivered a couple of judgments this past week, including a few sentences relating to a massacre in Croatia. A lot of people were very upset about how lenient the sentences were, especially everyone in Croatia. My Croatian roommate’s (who also works at the court) family kept calling her and playing the national anthem over the phone. I wonder what the sentence will be in my case, and what the reaction will be then. It’s strange to think that entire countries are focused on the outcome of what we’re doing here.

As a side note, I’ve noticed that ever since I began keeping a blog, I’ve started narrating events in my head as they’re happening. Is that normal?

Yom Kippur in the Red Light District

2007-09-26T09:54:00.001-07:00

My internet’s back! To celebrate, here’s the post I wrote last weekend:

On Friday night, I headed back to Amsterdam with another intern (I found more Jews!) to attend Yom Kippur services at the historic Portuguese Synagogue. The synagogue was built in 1675 and was the largest shul in the world at that time. Services were held in the main sanctuary, which is kept in its original state, including no electricity or heating. This meant that the entire room was lit with thousands of candles, both hanging from massive chandeliers and affixed to the back to seats. I was certain that at some point someone’s hair would catch on fire from the candles, but we made it through the service incident free. No electricity also meant no microphone, so it was a little hard to follow at times, especially in the traditional Portuguese melodies. In fact, the Dutch men around me kept looking to me to find out what page we were on, but that’s probably because they were all talking nonstop throughout the service.

Thankfully, the sermon was in English. The rabbi welcomed the Dutch Minister of Justice and the Mayor of Amsterdam, who were both in attendance, and talked about how Amsterdam welcomed the Portuguese Jews after they were expelled 500 years ago. When I’m in these historic settings, I like to think about what it would have been like to attend services there in the past. In this case, it wasn’t hard to picture, since it looks like nothing has changed in the last 100 years – all the men were wearing top hats and tuxedos, chanting by candlelight in front of a massive ark. It was an amazing sight to see, and one that will be hard to match in any future Yom Kippur.

Afterwards, we ended up having to cut through the red light district on the way back from the synagogue. It was my first time seeing it at night, and it’s even more gaudy and ridiculous then – like one giant bachelor party. Perhaps Yom Kippur’s not the best time to stroll through, but what the heck. The rest of the holiday was fairly uneventful, and we even made it to a break fast at the end.

Work, meanwhile, has started to get pretty intense. This week is the last week before the closing brief is due, and I think that deadline is only now becoming real to people. Consequently, we’re going to be running around like crazy. I have had to opportunity to write paragraphs of the brief, but most of my assignments consist of “somewhere in the trial someone mentioned this, see if you can find the quote.” I think this week the whole team is mostly going to be checking cites to make sure our facts are correct. Since I basically spend all my time at UCLA cite checking, this should be relatively second nature...

Everything else is going well. I went to “trivia night” at a local bar for the first time this week. All the questions about US pop culture were absurdly easy (e.g. in what city was Rodney King beaten?), but it was a bit trickier when they asked about the rest of the world (e.g. who was the coach of the 1978 Argentinean football team?). Even though my team was mainly comprised of non-Americans, we still were pretty well walloped. We’ll have to try again another week...

I may have to kill something

2007-09-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all-
My internet has been down since Thursday morning, so I am not yet able to blog nor have I had access to my internet phone. I'm on my roommate's computer, which just started working again today, where I discovered I have 16 unheard voicemails. So, if you tried to reach me, I am hoping that the internet situation will be resolved by the time this next holiday is over (i.e. this weekend). Argh! I'll post a real blog as soon as I am able,
Jordan

The Holiday Formerly Known as Prinsjesdag

2007-09-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received a Dutch identity card, making my stay in the Netherlands official. (It even has a hologram of my face on it! Neat!) That same day, embracing my new adoptive country, I trekked to The Hague’s city center to see Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands ride through the streets in her golden carriage. All of the kids were out of school for “Prinsjesdag” (Prince’s Day), when the Queen rides from her palace to the parliament, where she addresses the government from her throne. Thousands of people lined the street, where we watched waves of soldiers in progressively fancier uniforms march by on horseback, interspersed with military marching bands. One band was actually on horseback as well, which was pretty impressive. Then came a number of carriages, including the golden carriage, which looked like they came straight out of the 17^thcentury. It was a sight to see. Interestingly, no one in the crowd clapped, cheered, or displayed any kind of enthusiasm. They merely took pictures and waived politely. If this were an American parade, I don’t think that ever would’ve happened. (And they would’ve been throwing candy...)

I also found the excursion notable because it was the first intern event that I initiated. I wanted to see the festivities, so I emailed a few other interns and suggested a time to meet. My email then kept getting forwarded, until eventually it was sent out to the entire intern email list. After inviting five people, thirty showed up. I was pretty happy with that.

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent Saturday night in Amsterdam with a group of intern friends, and had a great time. Some notes from that night:

- We started the night at Dam Square, which is at the heart of tourist Amsterdam. We knew all the pubs were expensive, so when drinks were listed at about $8 each, we weren’t surprised. Then we noticed that we’d all been charged an additional $4 for sodas, even though none of us ordered soda. Eventually, we put figured it out – a sneaky way for an expensive spritz of coke for my mixed drink. The next place (which was not a tourist place, but more of a Dutch dive) also charged separately for mixers – but there at least they handed me a full bottle of coke, which we could split among us. I had never heard of such a practice, but my European friends tell me it’s quite common.

- A friend got us into a major club, so long as we had a girl with us when we went in. Thankfully, there were a lot of girls in our group, so we didn’t have to worry about it. The basement of the club was pitch black, except for thousands of light bulbs lining the walls and ceiling that created pulsating waves of illumination along with the music. It was one of the hippest places I’ve ever been; I’m not quite sure how I ended up there. Still, I had a lot of fun, and even ended up dancing for a while.

The upstairs of the club had walls and floors that were all backlit, almost like a disco floor (but only one color). They had all these long red couches that were low to the ground, where I accidentally fell asleep for 20 minutes. But, thanks to that power nap, I managed to make it until the club closed down, at about 4:30 in the morning. (When all the lights came on, it was not a pretty sight...)

- On the way back to the train station, we stopped in a McDonalds. (We couldn’t resist the poster out front, advertising “a full menu and toilet!”) There were a surprising number of people wandering the streets at that hour, as well as a surprising number passed out cold in the McDonalds. We didn’t think there was another train to The Hague until 6:40, so we took our time eating, only to discover that we missed a 5:42 train by a minute. So, we hung out on the steps of the train station for about an hour, and headed on home. Unfortunately, the train we caught took us to a different station in The Hague, so I had to take a taxi back to the other station so I could retrieve my bike. And biking home, after not sleeping all night, was really not as much fun as it sounds. (I do still love my bike, though...) Anyway, it was a fun night, and now I’m hoping to head back to Amsterdam this weekend for Yom Kippur. I’m sure it’ll be a similar experience...

Rosj Hasjana

2007-09-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Well, my first ever yontif (holiday) outside of the US or Israel actually went pretty well. On the first night, I was invited to a large dinner at an Israeli family’s home, which was very nice though unfortunately not kosher (probably the first time that’s happened to me at a yontif meal). Besides the non-kosher food, the other odd thing was that the meal was videotaped by a cameraman for Dutch TV. Apparently, the local station is putting together a piece on the holiday and sent someone over to get footage of the meal (since they were denied access to film in the synagogue). Throughout the meal, the cameraman kept asking people to explain on camera what the holiday means to them. I politely declined to be interviewed, but I’m definitely in the background of a lot of shots. Someone please set their VCR...

I had already met many of the people at the dinner from the couple of times I’ve been to synagogue, and many of them were American or Israeli expats. I was the only 20-something at the dinner, and there were more little children then there were adults. Normally, I would find this scenario roughly equivalent to the third circle of hell, but it actually wasn’t bad. In fact, one of the kids – a three year old adopted from Ethiopia – kept calling me “Uncle Jordan” and asking me to read to him. It had been a while since I’d read to someone, but as long as he wasn’t picking the Dutch books, I was happy to oblige.

On Thursday, I went to services at the liberal temple; there were between 100-200 people there, so it was pretty packed. They did have a choir, but the members sat among the congregation and only sang a couple of songs. The service did leave out a couple parts, but it hit most of the important things, and I actually enjoyed it a great deal (except perhaps for the sermon in Dutch). I probably liked it because it’s surprisingly traditional for a liberal synagogue (it’s apparently the only non-egalitarian liberal synagogue in the world), so it pretty much felt like a Conservative service.

That afternoon, I went to Kijkduin, another beach in The Hague. It’s less commercial and less touristy, so I liked it immensely. There was almost no one there and the beach was quite clean, so it beats most LA beaches in that regard. And I was there almost a full hour before it started raining – very impressive for the Netherlands! That night, I was invited to a smaller dinner hosted by one of the lawyers at the ICTY. And most exciting of all – I ate meat for the first time in a month!!!! Yay! They served jambalaya, and it was wonderful. Apparently the only kosher butcher in The Hague is closing this week, and probably won’t be replaced until after I’m gone. Boo. But I was pretty happy that night – and after I ate meat and drank wine, port, and some kind of Kenyan liqueur, I could have curled up and fallen asleep in my chair. It was quite tempting.

On Friday, I tried the Orthodox shul for the first time. It’s in a chapel in the back of a nursing home in Scheveningen and was not the easiest to find. If I hadn’t run into someone outside the shul, I could’ve been wandering for quite a while. I was surprised to find that there were barely ten men there. (I couldn’t guess how many women were in the balcony.) The service was a lot of chanting, not much singing, and went on forever with both the cantor and the congregation repeating every single word out loud. I was not a particular fan of the experience. Plus, the men kept snorting tobacco during services, which did not look terribly appealing. Afterward, the rabbi (a Chabad rabbi) invited me back to his house for lunch. And there was more meat!!! Yay! The rabbi seemed like quiet man with a sense of humor, and it was one of my more enjoyable Chabad interactions. There were only a few people at lunch (besides the rabbi’s six small children), and the meal was over in about an hour. Such a thing is usually unheard of at a Chabad house, and I was quite happy to forgo the hubbub that often takes place. I probably won’t be back to Chabad very much, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I get another meat craving soon.

Anyway, that’s enough blogging for now – I didn’t get back from going out to Amsterdam last night until 7:30 this morning, so I’m a bit tired. I’ll definitely have to write about that night, though, so I’ll post again in a day or two.

The Other World Cup

2007-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last night, I watched a professional rugby game for my first time, in an Irish pub in The Hague’s city center. It was the US vs. UK, so it was fun to have someone to cheer for – though since I didn’t know until yesterday that there was a Rugby World Cup or that we even had a national team, I can’t say that I was terribly emotionally invested. Still, it was a fun experience. I was amused how an injured American player would be dragged off the field every five minutes or so (yet it never happened to any British player) as well as by watching the commercials on Irish tv. The US never came close to winning (the sportscaster called the game “the world champions vs. one of the minnows of the tournament”), but they held up surprisingly well and lost by the lowest margin ever against England. Way to go, guys...
This week has been incredibly busy; it figures that I set up my phone numbers as soon as I’ve reached far enough in the semester where I’m never around to answer the phone. Still, it’s nice to have a phone available. This week included a few more trips to the bars (I’m really not sure why everyone loves beer so much; I have been hanging out with German/Scottish/Irish friends this week, maybe that’s part of it...), as well as attending a potluck thrown by some of the interns. Though I’ve been to potlucks almost every week since I moved to Los Angeles, apparently such a concept is not known in Europe. I heard them trying to explain it to each other: “Everyone comes together and brings some kind of pot...” (I intervened in the conversation before I found out if she was referring to drugs or cookery.) The meal appeared to come together pretty well in the end, so that was always nice.
I don’t have anything exciting to say about work, but it's going fine and hopefully I’ll be on a new case in a week or two. In any event, I’m missing half of this week anyway for Rosh Hashanah. This will be my first time experiencing the fall holidays abroad since 1988 (and that was in Israel, so that’s not quite the same). The current plan is to spend all the holidays in The Hague besides Yom Kippur, when I’m hoping to make it back to Amsterdam to go to the historic Portuguese Synagogue. We’ll see how it goes... Shanah tovah! (Happy New Year!)

Phone Numbers!

2007-09-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

For anyone who wants to reach me, here's two big steps forward in my communicative abilities...
First, I have an American phone number: 310-594-3891. It's a Skype account, which means that it will only reach me when my computer is on, so your best bet is to try me in the evenings (6 hours ahead of the east coast). If you email me to let me know you plan to call, that would always be helpful.
Second, I now have a Dutch cell: 0031-061-769-7163. So if you want to be sure to get ahold of me, you can always call that number. (Unfortunately, the phone directions are all in Dutch, but I'll figure it out...) Be in touch!

Sunbathing on the North Sea...

2007-09-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

I finally made it to the beach a couple times this week, which was a lot of fun. The North Sea is just a couple miles from me, so it was easy to bike down there with a couple of friends. (See, the bike is already coming in handy...) The beach near me is called Scheveningen ($10 to anyone who can pronounce it), and apparently it’s the most popular beach in the Netherlands. There are lots of open air restaurants, a casino, a pier, and other fun stuff. It’s not the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen, but it’s at least as nice as those in LA. The only downside is that it was only about 60 degrees when I was there (and occasionally drizzling), and this is about as good as it gets. Still, we had a nice brunch and walked along the water – very relaxing, and not too crowded.

When we went to the beach last week, we were all having trouble reading the menus and asked if the restaurant had English menus (many places here do). When they brought the English menus, I couldn't help but notice that all of the food was about three times more expensive than on the Dutch menu. So, I’m trying to get a little better at reading the menus in Dutch – mainly, I’m trying to learn the words for foods I have to avoid. In general, my Dutch skills have been progressing very, very slowly. Surprisingly, the language that’s been the most helpful to me so far has been Yiddish, since the few random words that I know are pretty much the same in Dutch (since Dutch is very similar to German). It’s been especially helpful with street signs (e.g. verboden = forbidden), so I’m grateful to have a few words I can read...

I also went to a few new bars this week, so I’m learning the city. I haven’t been feeling well lately, so all I drank at the bar was tea. (I’m just that cool.) I’m getting to know the other interns a little better, and there’s about 25 more people starting today, so it’ll be good to have some new people. (Many of the summer interns left on Friday – now I’m one of the more seasoned interns, after two weeks...) Not sure how much I can say online about work, but hopefully I’m getting transferred to a new team soon, where I’ll have a bit more to do.

Oh, and random note: For two days in a row, when I’ve told people that I’m from Ohio, they’ve asked me if I grew up near Des Moines. And twice now people have thought “Jordan” was a girl when I emailed them. Crazy Dutch...

My Man in Amsterdam

2007-08-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

First, my most exciting news – I finally have a bike! This may not seem like a big deal, but Dutch people go just about everywhere on bikes, so I’ve really been wanting one. Bikes have the right of way just about everywhere, so they’ll mow you down if you’re not careful... At any rate, now I have a rickety, rusty piece of junk ladies bike – but someone gave it to me for free, so I really can’t complain.

My first real weekend in the Netherlands was a good time, which kicked off with drinks on the ICTY terrace after work on Friday. It was a lot of people drinking beers and blasting Donna Summer – I'm sure it's exactly how you’d picture working for the UN... The next night, I went out to a pub with a bunch of other interns. It was a random group, including a German, a Ugandan, an Irishwoman, a Lebanese-American, and another UCLA student. We ended up having a lot of fun, and ended the night at a nearby bar where a lot of Dutch foreign ministers and reporters hang out.

I spent the next day in Amsterdam with another intern, and it was a great time! Here’s what we did:

- Van Gogh Museum: Pretty impressive, I really liked how clearly they laid out the place. It was kind of surprising how a lot of his paintings don’t seem that great, but what do I know; I probably need to see a few more art museums before I’m allowed to have an opinion.

- Flower Shops: Not my idea to stop by there, but some of the flowers were quite interesting. I’d never seen orchids quite like that, so that was nifty...

-Heineken Brewery (see above picture): A major disappointment. I felt like we were in a US frathouse the whole time, and I probably would’ve gotten more out of ordering Heinekens at a pub (or perhaps doing something else entirely).

- Ann Frank House: I thought it was very well done and extremely moving, though seeing it after the Heineken Brewery and before the Red Light district gave the day a very strange emotional progression.

- Red Light District: A small, seedy area packed with men and sex shops. And a lot of prostitutes in the windows trying to get you to come inside, which was a strange experience. I’m glad we went – there’s definitely nowhere else like it – but I can’t really say I found it terribly sexy. (For example, instead of port-o-pottys, they just had these open urinals for use on the street in full view. Awesome.)

- Food: Dutch food isn’t terribly exciting (the French and Italian guys at the office hate it with a passion), though we did find some good cheese. We also tried fries with mayo (meh, too bland – and they drown the fries with it, just as Pulp Fiction warned) and Dutch pancakes (which were awesome – they’re thin and gigantic, like crepes).

Anyway, it was a very full day in Amsterdam, so I slept very well at the end of it, and now it’s back to work...

Punching Out War Criminals

2007-08-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

It’s been a full week, so I’ll just mention a few new developments:

Work: I started work on Monday, and it’s going well so far. I’ve been assigned to a trial team for a trial that’s currently in progress, so I’ve been watching the proceedings on the intranet each day. There’s not a whole lot of work I can do right now, as I haven’t actually been trained on any of the software yet, so it hasn’t been anything too exciting. I did get my first assignment today, so it’s good to have something to do. I share an office with a few investigators (ex-cops) and analysts (ex-Yugoslavians), so it’s an interesting atmosphere. It’s a bit more exciting to be working at the trial level, unlike when I worked in appeals over the summer. Also, over the summer I worked on cases such as vehicle burglary, whereas now I’m trying someone for a massive campaign of thousands of deaths. So, it’s an interesting change of pace.

Social: I started work with about 14 other interns, though there are also a few dozen interns already working at the tribunal. They seem like a good group: mostly American, and almost all the rest are from Western Europe. We all went out last night to a square in the city center – next to the Dutch Parliament - where there are a lot of bars and restaurants. It was a lot of fun, except that it was raining the whole time (as it more or less always is). Still, I met some new people and got to learn a little more about Dutch nightlife. It’s fun having Heineken as a domestic beer, and I also tried “white beer,” which is a little bit sweeter. I wasn’t such a fan – but then again, I’m not such a fan of beer in general.

I also took the tram for the first time last night, but everything is a 20-minute walk anyway. Besides the bars, everything closes down by 8:00 or so, so the city is absolutely dead quiet in the evening. I know it’s supposed to be a very safe city, but it was still a little eerie to walk down so many empty streets.

Religion: There are three synagogues in The Hague – one liberal (i.e. reform) and two orthodox (run by Chabad). I went to the liberal shul on Saturday, since it was the biggest and the closest to my apartment. In some ways the service was very reform: changes in liturgy, triennial torah reading, and the complete excision of the musaf service. On the other hand, they did do the full rest of the service in Hebrew and the service was non-egalitarian, which I was not expecting. (It switches between non-egalitarian and egalitarian every other week). The sermon went back and forth between English and Dutch, but the parts that I understood were interesting...

The building is an 18^th century Portuguese synagogue, and as with every shul in Europe, I found it by looking for the armed guard outside. There were about 25 people there, though no one in my age range. They gave me an aliyah (being called up to say a blessing during the torah reading), and everyone seemed interested in meeting me, especially all the American ex-patriots. Seems like a good crowd, and I think this place is probably where I’ll end up for the holidays.

That’s it for now.... I’m probably going to Amsterdam with some of the other interns this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes. (As a side note, whoever told me that pot is illegal outside of Amsterdam was grossly misinformed – they sell it in shops on every corner around here. What a fascinating country...)

Spreekt U Nederlands?

2007-08-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's my first full day in the Netherlands, and my first chance in some time to relax without any impending packing/preparing/applying hanging over my head. After a 2,300 mile drive from LA to Ohio, a few short days at home, and a transatlantic flight, it's good to be in one place for a bit.

The flight over was not bad at all. A friend who works for the airlines helped me get standby tickets to Amsterdam. I'd never flown standby before - and I'm someone who gets nervous about making flights even when I actually have the ticket - but it worked out fine. I was supposed to fly through Atlanta, but the flights were looking full, so I flew through JFK instead. And better still, I flew business class, which was fantastic. It took incredible willpower not to stay up the entire flight watching movies. At any rate, I fear my father is right - I'll never be satisfied flying coach again...

I took a train from Amsterdam to The Hague, with a transfer in Leiden. Outside of the university in Leiden, I saw more parked bikes than I’ve ever seen – a few thousand – and not terribly many cars. I’m definitely out of the states.

Upon arriving at my new apartment, I had to wait on the street for about an hour before someone let me in. (However, since I took a different flight than expected, I wasn’t too surprised that this happened.) The apartment is nice, and I get the whole third floor to myself. The back of the apartment looks into an enclosed area shared by several other buildings, which looks oddly like the set of “Rear Window.” The only downsides to the apartment are that the stairs to the third floor are absurdly steep (if I don’t kill myself on them, I’ll consider the semester a success) and there’s no bathroom on my floor. Oh, and there’s a loud construction site across the street, where the previous building recently burned down in a massive fire.

I spent today walking around the center of the city, where there are some amazing historical palaces and museums. I went to two museums today: Escher in Het Paleis and the Gevangenpoort. The first museum displayed the works of M.C. Escher, and it was pretty amazing – and besides the drawings, it also had a virtual reality exhibit and a mirror labyrinth that was pretty trippy. The second museum was the old prison, so it’s always fun to see some old torture and execution devices…

Anyway, I’m going to go, as I’m still a bit jetlagged. (I slept 14 hours last night, which may be a new record for me…) My laptop still doesn’t connect to the internet – bah – but I’ll try to post again next week…