Schiermonnikoog, Music & Queens Day

Well, this past weekend as I mentioned before, CIEE took our program to the northern, west Frisian island of Schiermonnikoog. It was, to say the least, an absolutely fantastic trip. Nature, beaches, bonfires, bbqs, sunbathing, mudwalking, biking... it was perfect. Here are some pictures -

Mudflat walking at 6am -

Surrealist beach -

Beach bonfire -


Basically, Schiermonnikoog was a super Dutch version of Fire Island. So, given that Fire Island is one of my favorite places in the world, I loved Schiermonnikoog as well. (My only complaint is that it was a little too farm-y... and smelled a bit like cow shit, but hey, things could be worse.) It made me extremely nostalgic for Fire Island though. So I need to plan a trip back asap.

In other news, I have changed the topic of my religion and media paper. I was going to write about Focus on the Family but I decided against it. I figured I'd give myself a break from writing about sex/sexuality/homosexuality, etc. Because literally all of my final papers in Amsterdam thus far have been about that and I deserve to give myself a break. Sooo, I have decided to write about modern "Christian rock" music, focusing on Relient K and MxPx.


Anyway, I am going to focus on how each band uses their religion in their music, their public image, etc vis a vis lyrics, interviews, talking at shows, etc. I'm definitely very excited - and its a plus that I like both bands so I won't be annoyed listening to their music.

In other news, Thursday is Queens Day. For those of you that don't know, Queens Day (aka Koninginnedag) is a national Dutch holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday. (Well, not the present Queen because her birthday is on January 31st... not exactly the best weather for a national outdoor celebration... so they celebrate it on April 30th which was the birthday of Queen Juliana.) Basically, the entire centre of Amsterdam is shut down, which includes trams, stores, etc.


Everyone wears orange (the national color), gets extraordinarily drunk and just... parties. There are tons and tons of boats on the canal ring, lots of markets, "garage" sales, live music, and apparently lots of drunk Dutch men peeing all over the place. I'm really excited for it and hopefully the weather will be nice. Yesterday is said it would be cloudy, today it says it will be sunny. So I'm praying it stays like that. We'll see.

Alright well, I have an insane amount of work to get done before Queens Day (I didn't go to class this morning so I could finish it... ha) so I better get back to that.