I❤️amsterdam, Part I: The City & Architecture

Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and when I had the opportunity to spend the first three days of my vacation anywhere, I chose to come here.  I'd been to Amsterdam before, twice on school trips, but never on my own, and I was excited at the prospect of seeing the beautiful city in more of its entirety.  I wasn't disappointed.

There are so many things about Amsterdam that I love, the architecture, the scenery, the people, the openness and the quaintness of it all, and of course the canals.  Here are some photos and comments on this wonderful Dutch city that you should surely visit at least once in your lifetime.  Check it out...

Amsterdam is a small enough city to navigate (though admittedly I did get lost on more than one occasion, lol.)  The one thing to remember is that Amsterdam Centraal, the main train station in the city, is pretty much central to everything.  Whenever I did get lost, all I had to do was look for signs that pointed to the beautiful edifice at the center of it all and I could easily find where I wanted to go.

Architecture

The city of Amsterdam and The Netherlands in general is famous for its architecture, and there are plenty of beautiful edifices throughout the city.  The Dutch style is very uniquely geometric, and very pleasing to the eye.  Here are some examples:

This style of architecture is not the only style found in this beautiful city.  There are plenty of other beautiful buildings and sites all around town that give you the feel of being in a European city.  Check out these pictures:

Rembrandt Square

Well I'm realizing that Amsterdam is too special a city to cover in just one post, so I'm going to leave it here for now.  Stay tuned for many more beautiful photos and commentary on this wonderful place...

See also I Was on a Paris Train

  

Lost

outsidethebeltway

In another piece written by one of my students, a young teenage girl from Guatemala writes about her harrowing journey from Central America to the United States. Freshly arrived, she wrote this as an essay in Spanish and translated it via Google translate.  As I read through the piece in my editing stage, I thought it read more like a poem.  To me, it captures the inner struggle that these children must face and the constant fear they endure during their voyage.  Check out Lost...

I am a Guatemalan with dreams of overcoming my problems

My trip started on December 4, 2017

With a prayer to God to take care of me on the way

There I left my childhood, my family

To come to this new place

With a lump in my throat, I said goodbye

Time progressed and with each moment

I was moving farther way from them

Two days by bus, we reached the border with Mexico

We crossed at night, in fear, ,among so many strangers

We arrived, locked away for two days until finally they came for us

A truck, ready to start crossing the desert

They dropped us at 3 A.M., 

with nothing but backpacks, water and a garbage bag

To protect us from the cold and the rain

In the morning, we were separated into three groups

Told to look for the famous line with guides who "knew where we were"

By the fourth day, we were all supposed to meet again

Unfortunately it was not meant to be

What happened to the rest of the group, I do not know

The guide went back for the rest, leaving us

On our own, to get to that line

I know he feared something would happen to us too

But he left us anyway, to walk through the desert on our own

Two days, no water, and the fatigue was surely fatal

The only thing we had was to ask God

To give us the strength to follow on

I don't know whatever happened to my travel companions

But I wish them the best since their decisions weren't easy either

As always, thanks for reading.  Stay tuned for more...

I Was on a Paris Train

The sadness first hit me as time wore on towards the end of another wonderful day in Paris.  It was Saturday, and anytime I made any sort of mention of the end, Amy wouldn't have it.  Goodbyes are always hard, and I'm sure they've been especially difficult for her in the nine years since she'd moved to Switzerland.  I understood that, and I tried my best not to bring it up, but then Sunday came too fast and suddenly I was packing to go home and the reality that the end was near really started to settle in once David started explaining how I would get to the airport on the train.

My trip to Europe was one of those special times I will always remember.  Almost all vacations are good, of course, but in the grand scheme of things there are certain ones that just stand out, and this was definitely one of them.

I'd started my trip in Amsterdam, a city that I always wanted to explore on my own (I'd only been there before on school trips with lots of kids.), and I loved it.  The rest of the time was spent with Amy and her husband David in Lausanne, Switzerland and then Paris.  Amy and I graduated from Stony Brook together (She teaches ESL, too!) and though our interactions since graduation had been sparse, when we do, she and I always connect like the old friends we are.

I'd last seen Amy back in April, when I visited Lucerne, Switzerland on a school trip.  Like before, she invited me to come visit on my own in the summertime and that's just what I did.  I'd never met David before, and when I arrived, I shouldn't have been surprised that he was as genuine a person as Amy was, very warm and welcoming.

For the last ten days of my stay in Europe, the three of us got on so well.  Amy became my tour guide to the Lake Geneva area while David worked, and the three of us spent lovely evenings together just chatting and enjoying each other's company.  Once we'd reached Thursday, David was officially on vacation and the three of us headed off to Paris, where for four days we spent a magically spontaneous, adventurous time.  And then there was Sunday...

David and Amy accompanied me about three quarters of the train ride to Orly Airport in Paris.  David carried my heavy luggage up and down stairs through the Paris subways, one last act of total sweetness.  We switched trains in Chatelet and on the RER we were going to part ways about four stops before my destination.  As we stood there in the crowded car, getting closer to their stop, none of us really looked at each other, avoiding the sadness of parting.  Soon, it was time for the two of them to disembark.  The train stopped and each of them gave me a knowing hug and kiss goodbye and then they stepped off the train.  Once the doors closed and they were out of sight, the tears finally came.

I want to take a moment to thank both Amy and David for their hospitality, their time, and most of all their friendship.  I will take the memories of this wonderful time with me as long as I have time on this Earth.  I am sure that after this trip I will see them both again sooner rather than later.  I love you both! 

Stay tuned for some European vacation stories and pictures...

      

Judge Us for Who We Are, Not What We Are

As promised, this will be the first of several stories written for my class' ENL Magazine that I spoke about earlier.  It was written by a long time student of mine and it speaks to the feelings of a young girl who has experienced both the good and the bad about coming here.  Take a look...

The United States is a country that offers many opportunities and is a much safer place than El Salvador, but the separation of races to me is ruining the beauty of this country. I am a high school student and it is sad to see how other young people my age see me so differently than they see each other. In the five years that I have lived in this country, I have learned to speak English, to integrate myself in the culture and the way of life here, and yet I have not made one American friend.

None of this has been easy. It took a lot of hard work to learn the language, to be able to communicate, and yet I feel so rejected. I feel so isolated from my American peers, and even some teachers, too. Sometimes I feel that I’m not treated with respect and kindness by them, and they never even try to speak to me. Now I'm not saying that this is everyone, it’s not. There are many very nice and kind people here, too, but the ones who treat me differently because I'm from another country, because I speak another language, or that I have a different skin color, makes me angry. These things don’t make me less than them. Being Hispanic doesn’t mean that I am not intelligent, or that I can’t do what anyone else can do.

This separating ideology that some people have prevents them from seeing that really we are all the same. If they just take notice, they will realize that there is no difference between an American and a Hispanic. We are all human beings! I don’t understand this separation. If we are equal, why are we treated badly because of our differences?

I understand that in my country there are bad people and that many of them come to this country and do bad things. They embarrass me and fill me with indignation and sadness to see that they are like that, but just because they are like that doesn’t mean I should be judged differently or badly. We shouldn’t have to pay the price for their bad behavior. Get to know me before treating me badly. There are as many young Hispanics like me who just want to study, be honest, not do bad things and not take people’s jobs away. I think that God rewards people who struggle so hard to achieve.

For every person who reads this, I invite you to give yourself an opportunity to get to know me, to get to know some of us. We’re not all bad. Know us and judge us according to what you observe in us, not simply because we are Hispanic. We’re not all gang members or murderers. You should thank God that you are blessed. You do not have the need to immigrate to another country for your safety, for food, or to just save your lives. Imagine if you had to move to another country for these reasons, and people there treat you with indifference, as we are treated here. Imagine you had to learn a whole new language in order to be able to survive in that country. Imagine what that would be like. I can tell you it would be frustrating.

Like I said, we are all human, with feelings, emotions, and each with our own problems. We are the same. So I invite you to leave that race-separating ideology, to not judge us without knowing us. Say hello. Make a friend. See that we are all good people with dreams to succeed in this jungle full of wild animals.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING