Jewish Holidays, Jobs, T.T.M.Y.G.Hmmm
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
51
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Sorry for the long lapse in t-pods. We've been so busy. In the last 6 weeks, we've spent 2 days in Athens on a last-minute, all-hours trip to the Olympics, 2 days later we left for a 10-day trip to Italy where we hiked, relaxed, and ATE along the Med. Sea coast in Cinque Terre (where we also saw our friends Mitch and Robin from Chicago), spent some time in the Italian lake district, and saw an opera in a Roman coliseum, only to come home and wait for our friends Jeff and Andrea from Milwaukee(?) who were finishing up a few days in Paris. After spending 4 days with Jeff and Andrea in A'dam and a quick daytrip to Delft, we had Julie's uncle Jon and aunt D.D. stay with us for a few days. And then, just a few days later, we were off to Munich for Oktoberfest and to hang with my college/Chicago roomie Justin and his wife Erin and also Janet and Dirk from A'dam. Phew!
Thrown in there was a dinner with Elena, my friend Scott's girlfriend from LA who will be moving to A'dam on an 18-month assignment with KPMG, dinner with David and Adriane from LaSalle, a good-bye lunch with Philip and Juliana who left A'dam for London on an assignment with the bank, and of course, the Jewish holidays. I sometimes joke with Julie that at the end of this 3-year experience, we're going to drop from exhaustion! Although not every 6-week period is like this, these 3 years are a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we are trying to live it to its fullest. I'll also say that while we saw a ton of familiar faces over these 6 weeks, we would love to see more. So please, look into flights and get your asses out here before we're gone and you have to pay for your own hotel while in A'dam!
You might be thinking 'damn, Stephen's got a lot of t-podding to do'. Yup, so I'll get to it, but before I update you on some of our trips, here's some info on life in A'dam...
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JEWISH HOLIDAYS
For Rosh H Julie wanted to find a warmer congregation than the one we had gone to last year. She found one through the Gay Pride Parade www. I tend to like a more traditional service with little English reading and no fancy choir. I expected this service to not fit within that qualification but Julie hates what I like and I'd rather go with her than alone. So off to temple we went. And what a surprise it was!
The temple itself is in the old Jewish section of A'dam. This was an area of town filled with Jews for hundreds of years, up until WWII eliminated virtually all of the 120,000 Jews that lived in A'dam. The temple was built in the 1750s. Again, it was used as such until WWII. It was not destroyed in the war as A'dam fared very well in the war but following WWII, the building was bought by the Dutch government and used as an administrative building.
Recently, this community has rebuilt itself and has begun using the synagogue for worship. The congregation hopes to buy the building back soon but in the meantime, it is theirs to use as they wish. They fixed it up, painted it, and made it back into a temple. It is a large room, big enough for about a 200 people, with a balcony which was probably once used by the women. The room is white with a beautiful baby blue ceiling and brown columns. It is a very pretty room.
Julie adds: I am guessing blue was the original color painting on the columns because blue supposedly repels flies. You see a lot of blue kitchens in Amsterdam.
The congregation was a mix of Dutch and Americans, including a very nice American lady who organizes activities for the group. At least half of the attendants were openly gay or lesbian. Many of the Dutch congregants come from mixed marriages (ie. one Jewish parent, one non-Jewish). Some of them didn't know they were Jewish at all until recently (like my friend Dirk) due to their parents and grandparents not discussing religion following the war - which, considering the Netherlands is a very secular country, is not a huge surprise. But basically, each of these people are 'outcasted' by the Jewish community. But since they feel Jewish, they built their own community. And having been to both, they have a nicer one!
I can say with absolute certainty, this was the nicest most special service I have ever been to. It was being led by a female rabbi from Phili. Here are a few things that made this service a memory I will never forget...
*** The congregation had usually borrowed a torah from a neighboring temple for their services. But now, they have their own. They now have a torah from a temple in NY that was rescued from Europe after the war. The rabbi made a comment about how it had 'come home', back to Europe. It has a little bit of damage to it but it is still kosher and as long as they have the damaged areas fixed within a few years, the NY temple will allow them to keep it. So for the first time, the congregation was reading from THEIR torah. Not a borrowed one but one that they will have forever. That is cool!
*** The rabbi decided that since this was the congregations torah, the congregation should get to hold it. So after the torah service, the torah was returned to the ark by being passed person to person around the congregation and into the ark. It was an amazing sight. There were a few people who looked like they had never held a torah before. Some were so overcome that the tears were pouring down. It was quiet a sight. This is what Judaism is about. These people feel Jewish and want to be Jewish and it definitely doesn't matter who their parents were or who their lovers are. It was beautiful and a wonderful idea by the rabbi!
*** Continuing the theme of inclusion, the rabbi invited the 30 or so people in services to approach the bima and hold the torah together as we said the Meshaberach (prayer for the sick). She also assigned group Aliyot (prayer before/after the reading of the torah). It was nice to see these people included in the service and invited to participate.
*** Our Aussie friend Ange asked me how my 'rogan josh' was. I had no clue what she was talking about so she clarified...she knew it was the Jewish holiday but she confused 'Yom Kippur' with 'rogan josh', an Indian spice! Pretty fuuny!
*** The Dutch Jewish community is in a lot of trouble. Everyone is dying off and those that want to participate aren't allowed. It's too bad. But this community is inclusive and needs people to help. I don't feel like I know much about Judaism, but in comparison to those in the community, I'm fairly knowledgeable. So I plan on helping. I'm not sure how yet but I would like to give back to this community and ensure that the torah stays here forever.
JULIE'S JOB
What can I say, Julie got fucked by the British School. In the last t-pod we told you about her job and what she'd be doing. Well, a day before we left for a week in Italy Julie got a call from the British School saying that her work permit was denied. This was quite a shock since Julie automatically gets a permit since she is my wife and I was moved here on an inter-company transfer. But somehow, when the British School applied for her, it wasn't noted that she is with me and therefore gets this special treatment. So the Dutch government looked at her application as if she was any normal American looking for a job. In that case, the British School has to hire a Dutch first, a resident of the EU second, and last an American. So the government agency didn't understand what was so special about Julie and felt that the school could've hired a Dutch or EU resident first so they declined her application.
I immediately called the Dutch agency to find out what happened and explain the situation. The woman I spoke to said that she should be able to get a permit and that it would be resolved. So Julie sent the British School an email explaining the deal and asked them to contact the woman I spoke to in case they had any issues.
We left for Italy with all our documents in hand just in case the British School or the work permit agency needed something from us to get the process finalized. We never heard anything from anyone until a few days later the British School emailed Julie to tell her that I was wrong. When I got back from Italy, I called the agency again and found out that I was not wrong but that the British School didn't ask the right questions.
So I talked to the man who would be able to issue Julie the permit and he told me that he would need a few docs from Julie and me and 1 doc from the British School, the employment contract. He said that if we got him everything within the next day or so, he'd be able to get Julie her permit in time to work on the 1st day of school the following week. So we sent him everything we needed and Julie called the school to tell them who to fax to and what they should send.
The next day I checked in with the man and he said he got everything except for the contract from the school. Julie called the school to find out what happened and they said they would fax it. Another day went by and they didn't send it again. Finally, Julie called and stressed to them that they needed to fax the contract. About 5 hours later, at the end of the day, just 4 days before the 1st day of school, Julie got an email from the principal saying that they hired someone else.
We were so upset. I can understand that he has a school/business to run and that he needed to ensure that the kids would have someone on the 1st day of school but I think he was dishonest with us. He made us think that they wanted Julie, had me running around making all the calls that he should've been making, and in the end, he already had someone else. Julie is a commodity. He doesn't care if Julie is with the kids or if Jane Doe is with the kids. Obviously we cared. Julie wanted this opportunity and I wanted her to be happy. And the principal not only fucked us over but also treated us like dirt in the process. What an asshole. As Julie's dad so perfectly and eloquently summarized "fucking British bastards"!
STEPHEN'S JOB
I started my new job. I spent a few days working with Kirk, the guy who would be working with the group in place of me, and then, only 1 year later than expected, moved to a new group.
I will be working within Risk Management for a group that analyzes all of the bank's larger customers within the construction and/or technology industries. The group is partnered with the telecom and media group as well so there will probably be opportunity for me to work with those industries as well. I am excited as I am looking forward to working on my analytical skills.
The people in the group seem really nice. I've only been with them for a handful of days so far so we'll see how it goes but I know a few people who know the group and they have all said really nice things about them. They are all Dutch and they seem to be pretty quiet. They get to work at 9:00, do their work, and leave at 5:00. At 5:05, I am the only one in the office, so that will be nice.
I will miss the old group. While it took some time to get warmed up to them, I really like those guys. Lisa is another story altogether, but Sjoerd, Michiel, and Ricardo I will miss. I'm sure I'll grab lunches with them every so often.
A'DAM T. T. M. Y. G. Hmmm
*** There has been a lot of talk lately about changing the work-week in A'dam, not just at the bank but at other multi-national companies as well. Currently the Dutch law caps the work week at 36 hours. When these companies indicated that they might increase the work-week to a whopping 40 hours - like the rest of the friggin' world has - the labor unions were not happy. Their exact words? "Unmentionable". Can you believe that, it is 'unmentionable' to work 40 hours a week?!?!? And they wonder why their businesses are struggling? When was the last time you worked less than 40 hours in a week? Exactly!
*** On my bike ride to work one morning I noticed that a street was blocked off. There was an ambulance in front of a house and cops milling around. Then I noticed that the ambulance had a huge crane attached to the room, almost like a fire engines hook-and-ladder. This crane had a gurney attached to it. They were removing a woman from her house using this. In buildings that are too old to have elevators and too narrow to allow the paramedics to carry a stretcher up the steep steps (which looks more like a ladder than a staircase), the only way to get someone is through the window.
*** Julie joined a group of ladies through the American Woman's Club in an art lecture series. Julie is by far the youngest. She seems to really enjoy it. The lecture is given by an eccentric man who wears a bow-tie and is named Buck Pennington. How funny is that? And yet, only a bow-tie-wearing man named Buck Pennington can lecture on art. The group is taking a 'field-trip' to London next month. I'm going to join Julie for the weekend and then head back to A'dam, leaving Julie behind with the executive wives. And what a group they must be. Julie mentioned that while discussing the details of the trip, one of the ladies volunteer to arrange lunch at her 'clubs right behind the Ritz'. Great, Julie got hooked up with these upper-crust ladies. I hope some of these woman have husbands who can help me with a nice job. But for now, this 4-day trip is gonna cost me a fortune!
Julie adds: I was on an art tour last week of an exhibit of the 19th C. Dutch artist Breitner and one of the women on the tour was talking about the Breitner painting she owns. I told her about the Reservoir Dogs poster Stephen has.
*** We received our absentee ballots the other day. It's kinda strange to think that electronic voting is 'not secure' and yet I have my absentee ballot, sent by regular mail. The ballot consists of about 10 pieces of letter-size paper photocopied with the candidates names. The intern who stapled the pages together couldn't even do a good enough job to get the staple to go through the pages cleanly. And oddly, Ralph Nader's not even on it. Another thought about the process; all I had to do to get it was call the electoral commission in Chicago, fill in a form with my address the last time I voted, and give them my forwarding address in A'dam. No confirmation of anything, all done by paper, no photocopy of my drivers license as proof, nothing! It's very 3rd-world! I almost filled in an absentee ballot request form for Joey since I can't be certain that he will cast a good vote!
*** There is a commercial here for Coke that cracks us up every time we see it. A black guy with a big afro walks into a dark movie theater. He finds a chair, reclines farther than it really should, and a deep Barry White-type voice says "sit back and vanilla baby". It seems borderline racist. I simply can't believe that the Dutch find this acceptable and Coke would allow this sort of campaign.
*** The Gay Pride Parade this year had 400,000 people attending. That's a lot of 'happy' people!
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That's it for now guys. I'll be uploading a t-pod of our trip to the Alsace with my mom later today and hope to work on the other ones soon.
We leave for the US on Friday! We are very excited! While Julie plays with the precious Chloe, I am going to the Badger f-ball game with her dad, Joey, and Jeff...I can't wait to see the renovated stadium! Then we head to Chicago to see some friends and allow me to get into the office for a few days... someone's gotta hire me in 1-1/2 years. Then we head to Long Island for Julie's bro's wedding. Should be a great trip!
Hope all is well with you all and speak with ya soon.
-Stephen
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