These are the final two days of our study abroad. On the 28th, we all went out on a canal cruise, that to be honest, kind of turned into a little booze cruise. Of course, many of us brought a bottle of wine or two with us, and snacks, but this was more than the wine and snacks. This was our last adventures together as an entire group and it was amazing to see how close we had all come. Just 23 days earlier, none of use, besides having some classes together, really knew each other, but that didn’t matter. We all came on this trip because we are passionate about making the world a better place. Before coming on this trip, I went to the UO for a year and had only made 1 or 2 “friends” who were more like acquaintances. I didn’t really try to make any friends because I am a 27 year old who hadn’t been in college for  5 years. I thought that I couldn’t really connect with all the young students because not only the age difference, but because of my life experiences. I had a stereotype that most of these young students, especially those paying out of state tuition, were just spoiled kids who have had everything handed to them their entire life. When I found out I was going on this trip, I wasn’t sure how the group dynamic would be and I figured I would probably end up doing my own thing a lot during my free time. I had no idea how all my stereotypes and thoughts about connecting with young students would be smashed. During this trip, I actually spent a lot of my time with some of the youngest students in the group. It was amazing to see the passion in the other students. Being on this canal cruise, filled with smiles and laughter, showed how close we had all become over such a short period of time. This trip was so much more than sustainable bicycle transportation for me, even though that was a huge part of it. I learned a lot about myself on this trip as well and saw the world from so many different perspectives and viewpoints. I never could have imagined what this trip would mean to me. I don’t really have much else to report on what we did this day though. After the canal cruise, a bunch of us went out to dinner to a pancake house and then I met up with a someone I met in Copenhagen and her friend. We went and walked the Red Light District at night, which is crazy, and then her and I met Wally at a club to cap the night off.

The next day, the 29th, was the last day together. I overslept, being out too late, and rushed over to Volks Hotel to use their wifi and be in a nice space to do some work. I got there at 11:30am, thirty minutes before I needed to submit my 2-slide presentation that I would be doing in front of the class at 2pm. In good old Eric fashion, I got it done at the last minute and spent some more time doing research and thinking of what I was going to say in my 3 minute presentation. I then headed back to the Bicycle Hotel to change and get ready to head to the restaurant that we would be doing our presentations at and having our last dinner together. The presentation went fine and everyone did a great job. Ronald even surprised us again (he, his wife, and daughter all came to the canal cruise) by showing up for the presentations and dinner. Dylan thought of something he had done before and had everyone write their names on an envelope and then had everyone write something nice or a memory about everyone on the trip and put it in their envelope. This took me a while and I missed a lot of the dinner party because I really wanted to write something meaningful for everyone. I am really glad Dylan had us all do this because two days later, I read them all and may have shed a tear or two (thanks for all the kind words everyone!). After an amazing dinner and send off, a bunch of us went out to karaoke with Floris and Adam. I’m not sure I have mentioned Floris and Adam. Adam owns his own bike tour business and we were lucky enough to have him along with us. He set up so many things for us and Floris is a great young man that works for him. Karaoke was soooooo much fun and I even got up there and sang a few songs. Then after that, a bunch of us went out dancing and closed down the club. It was a perfect last day. I can’t believe I have finally finished my blog!!!! I think I may or may not write a few more post, for my family, about what I’m doing in Paris and London, before I get home. I just want to give a special shoutout to Marc and Rebecca for leading this amazing trip/”class”. This really was a life changing experience for me and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I will always remember Marc’s high fives and reminders of how awesome and great the things we were privileged enough to be doing were. I  will be taking some hygge and fire to make a change back home with me!

I am going to keep this blog short and simple. Like I have expressed before, this trip is my first time outside of the west coast, so I have never experience any World War II history in person. I have studied it and even took a class in high school on Holocaust literature and I have read the Anne Frank Diary, but I don’t think any of that can actually prepare you to go into the Anne Frank House. I didn’t really do any research on what this museum and tour was going to be like and when we arrived, we met outside of a really nice modern building that was the entrance to the museum. To be honest, I had no idea that I would not only going into the actual Anne Frank house, but also through the secret bookcase door and into the secret annex that they were in hiding for two years. Going through that bookcase door and into the secret annex was very surreal and indescribable. Making my way through there and imaging them all being in there and the terror they must have felt was something I have never experience. There was markings on the walls where they did a growth cart for Anne and her sister. There was magazine cutouts that Anne had pasted to the wall in her room. The whole experience made me sad, confused, and angry all at the same time. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience this. It makes you wonder why there is so much hate in this world, especially with what is going on in America right now. I wish more people could experience this and use it as a reality check for what fear and hate can do.

July 25th- This was the record breaking day for high temperature and we had an all day scavenger hunt to do and it was great! Yes, the humidity was close to 50% and it was close to 100 degrees, and I was sticky and sweaty, but I had an amazingly sweaty day! We met Meredith Glaser in the morning to go over our PUMA scavenger hunt (sorry, I forgot what PUMA stood for). We had to go to the city center, the pre-war, and the post-war areas of Amsterdam for our scavenger hunt. My group, Kelsey and Ryan, and I decided to ditch our bikes and only walk and take public transit. Starting off at 9:30am, we were super motivated to be the winning team and get every “mission” done, but I have to say towards the hottest part of the day, we started fading. Our first stop was out to Osdorp, which is in the post-war area of Amsterdam. This means it is further away from the city center and the developments are all from 1950s and later. To me, this area seemed to be where lower income people lived. I mainly saw, what looked like to be, immigrants and an older population. We took an Uber from here to the pre-war area and talked with our driver. He was originally an immigrant from India, but has lived here for 35 years. He said he never bikes, only drives and uses the metro because he lives out near Osdorp. He also said that he use to live in the city center, but parking was to expensive so he left. We then went to the museum park and talked to different families about what mode of transportation they used to get there and Kelsey attempted to ride Dutch with a stranger. The museum park had a big shallow pool of water, so we cooled off our feet in it. By this time, it was getting extremely hot, so we went to the hotel to get our swimming gear and went to FC Hyena, in Nord, which you take a ferry too, to swim. Here we cooled off and even got the opportunity to see a boat capsize. I think this night, when we got back, I hand-washed some clothes because I needed underwear. I thought to myself as I put the underwear out to dry on the balcony, “There is no way it will rain or get windy enough to blow my clothes away.” Well, I was wrong. I woke up at 4am to one of the loudest lightning strikes I have heard and the sound of rain flooding our balcony. I ran out there to grab my now soaking wet clothes and realized a pair of underwear had mysteriously gone missing.

July 26th- The first order of business was to find the missing underwear, but I was unsuccessful. Next, was a 10am meeting with Meredith for a debrief of our scavenger hunt and a bike tour. We originally were going to debrief first, but since it was going to be another hot day, we went out and did the bike tour first. Then we came back to the university do to a debrief of the scavenger hunt. Meredith was the last of the badass professionals we would meet with on this trip, well besides seeing Ronald again, but he is more like family! I feel so grateful to have met so many people passionate about making the world a better place through sustainable transportation. It was so inspirational for me and I feel extremely lucky to have had all these opportunities. Later this day, at 4:30pm, we went on a Red Light District tour. Not a whole lot to report back on that. It was very informative and our tour guide was very funny, but it still hasn’t changed my mind around the fact that it is really sad to see those women there selling there bodies. Edit: I forgot to say, I did end up finding my underwear stuck in a tree below the balcony. Sean was down there on the phone as was able to jump up and grab them. Hoooray!

I am I little behind on my blogging right now, but it is not because I haven’t been busy. This was our first full day in the AmsterDAM. We had an early morning meeting with Marjolein de Lange, who is a mobility expert in walking, cycling, and road safety. This was the beginning of a three-day heat wave. The high temperature this day was 96 degrees. Everyone seemed to be struggling a little in the heat during our lecture in a small stuffy room, especially after a long ride from Utrecht the day before, but fortunately for us, Marjolein had some amazing information to keep it interesting. We learned about the bottom-up movement for safer roads and better bike infrastructure that sparked the movement that has gotten Amsterdam where it is now, with a city center where 66% of all trips are made by bike. This has been a common theme at all the cities we have visited. There was a rich bicycle culture here before WWII and then, as the country’s economy grew, more and more people could afford cars. This caused the city to be taken over by cars and car parking. This was a safety hazard and, just like in Copenhagen and Utrecht, the “stop de kindermoord” (stop the children murder) movements happened. Today, I read an article talking about how many children die in cars today in America. It is the number one killer of children 2 to 14 and I thought maybe if more people understood how dangerous cars are for children, we could get some bottom-up movements for safer roads and bicycle infrastructure back home. Anyways, I will be doing my final assignment around topics like that, so I will save that for later. After a bike tour with Marjolein, we ended at a lake where we took a well needed swim. Later, in the evening, some of us went to the park and had some beer and wine and enjoyed the cooler evening. Then, Wally, Micah, and I went on another one of our “get lost” bike rides and boy did we get lost. We just let the wind take us wherever, and then when we started getting hungry, we tried making it back to our hotel. This was an hour to an hour to an hour and a half event. Then after seeing the Heineken building four times, we went one direction and finally found our hotel. These night rides, not using a map, have become one of my favorite things to do. It helps me get to know the city and helps me find my way around later.