Richard for real

This is quick summary of presentation I did today at my uni’s study abroad fair. These are basically seven principles for maximing the use and pleasure of a limited period spent in a new location. All based on my personal experience as an Erasmus exchange student in Amsterdam last semester, but it should be applicable for other places and situations as well.

1. Learn the language

Even if English is widely spoken, knowing a few words and phrases of the local tongue will get you long way. It’s also a great of showing respect for and increasing your understanding of the locals you meet.

2. Conscious socializing

The uneasy feeling of not knowing anyone in a new place can easily make you bond with whoever comes in your way. This can lead to great things of course, but there is also a risk that it will keep you occupied from opportunities later on. Try to assess people as you would with anyone back home, especially during the first two three weeks.

3. Spare time occupations

A great way to get involved in a new community is to take up a familiar hobby or sport in the new context. This is a great way to connect with people with whom you have common ground, and a good entrance point to local networks.

4. Be a foreigner

Don’t limit yourself to being just an exchange student or just a guest worker. Frame yourself as a foreigner and you will see a lot more posssibilities. The expatriot community is a rich source of information, services and connections.

5. Bring what you want to be

When you are packing, don’t go for the things you use the most. Go for what you would like to use the most. This goes for clothes (bring more shirts to force yourself into a business look for example), accessories, gadget, books and everything.

6. Makes the most of mobile

I found a smartphone with internet access to be many times more useful in a new place than where I am more familiar. Just time you will by not getting lost is worth the investment in a mobile internet bundle.

7. CouchSurfing

This hospitality exchange community is an invaluable resource of information, events and people. It will definitely help you to get on the fast track to integration.

[Imagine a stylish picture of illuminated bridges, reflecting in canals.]

These are some of the places I enjoyed most during my five months in Amsterdam. First food, then some shopping and finally nightlife and other fun stuff.

Talia - Unique Italian deli shop and take-away, everything home-made and extremely friendly service. Free internet and a place to leave your bags if you’re visiting for a day. My second home in the city.

Addis Ababa – Funky Ethiopian place near Vondelpark. Very chill and a great place to go with friends to eat with your hands from a huge plate and try the exotic Mongozo beer.

Vligende schotel – The flying saucer is a genuine vegetarian/vegan restaurant. Small, but warm and cozy.

Volkskeukens – Most of the squats serve meals one or more evenings every week. Check the Radar to see what’s on. Fresh home-cooked vegan food in an environment typical for Amsterdam. The price depends on your willingness to donate.

Bakkerij Oost on Molukkenstraat (between Insulindeweg and Tidorestraat) has no website, but invest in keeping their prices low. Nowhere else city can you get a Turkish pizza roll for just one euro, on freshly baked bread. Yum!

Dappermarkt - Huge street market that sells everything, at a reasonable price. Don’t forget to look behind the stalls for the shops that line the street. The side street have some cool stores too, like the Afro-Food shop. Sushi n Sake on Dapperstraat also has really good food, and Ben&Jerry’s.

Bierkoning - For all your needs in beer (and cider). 1000+ different types of beer in a store the size of a regular apartment.

United Nude – The flagship store in Amsterdam has some of the coolest shoes I have ever seen. Architecture + fashion + engineering.

Nukuhiva and VEGA-LIFE – Great shopping alternatives for fair fashion. Not to far from each other either.

Amsterdam public library – Computers, books, architecture, music, killer view, designer furniture, cafés, piano (free to play for visitors) and a funky Vapiano restaurant. Top score!

UvA Science Park study center – The best university location to get stuff done. Motivated tech students working away around you and a super smooth interior, plus long opening hours.

Trouw - Hard hitting club in a former industrial building. It’s basically just one big room, but that’s no match for the sound system. They say the best sound experience is actually on the dancefloor podiums.

AIR - Takes the trophy for most confusing wardrobe system: automated lockers that can only be paid for with a special AIRcard loaded with credit. Instead of chaos when everyone’s leaving, it’s chaos all the time. If you don’t care too much, just throw your stuff on top of the lockers.

Busbar – The squatters at De Hallen set up the coolest party in town on Friday nights. If an old tram depot with pools of muddy water in it was not post-apocalyptic enough, why not build a make-shift lounge inside and park an old bus with a bar and sound system in it next to it? Words cannot do this place justice.

Sauna Fenomeen – After a long day in the city, or before dinner at MKZ, this squat sauna is the perfect place to relax. Turkish steam sauna and a dry Finnish one, attached to a vegan café.

Wow… eight days on the ground here in the Venice of the North and I’m starting to feel at home. Here is some randomness:

A bike is essential. I was without wheels for about five days, and living some five kilometers from the center of town this was a nightmare. Some three hours of walking a day, in combo with playing indoor volleyball barefoot during exchange student intro week, had my feet pretty destroyed. It’s ok now though. And after an 8 euro spray paint investment I now have one of the coolest bikes in town, albeit an “omafiets” (granny’s bike).

Turktown rocks. I live in the east of Amsterdam, in the Zeeburg region. This is a very multicultural neighborhood and it is awesome. No tourists and genuine shops and restaurants everywhere. Best so far is Bakkerij Oost and their 1 euro turkse pizzas. Get two and it’s like a full lunch.

Couchsurfing here is awesome too, with a load of great characters and a thriving community. I was at my first meeting this weekend and it was crowded, like 50 people. Going there partly to practice Dutch, I ended up speaking a lot of Russian. Well next time… There are also couchsurfing language classes that I will try to attend.

Tot ziens!

I just came back from watching Renzo Martens’ Episode III: Enjoy Poverty at my local scene for quality documentaries. Afterwards I had an intense and interesting conversation with a friend who has a Master in International Economics. One tripod and one dialectic concept came out of this discussion.

We were lucky to have a Q&A session with Martens after watching the film and among other things (such as saying that the most important goal of the film was for it to be an auto-referential piece, depicting a certain status quo) he said that what people in materially well developed countries can do to improve the situation for those with a lower standard of living is to put pressure on the companies that deliver products which originate in less fortunate places by asking them for increased transparency. A key point in this is to demand fair wages and a thorough corporate social responsibility throughout the whole production process.

The tripod thought builds on this by adding two other ways of producing change and a more equal global society. Slightly au contraire to what Martens claims I would like to think that people who travel from rich to poor countries can actually make a positive difference. But as I see things the key to success here lies in personal engagement, which means that this behavior will probably be far less efficient than, to put it roughly, staying at home and buying the right things at the right price. What I have in mind here are small-scale projects aimed at developing competences and overall empoverment. For example, teaching languages or setting up internet access points. The second example is an already ongoing process, where people from developing countries who have made themselves a career in the traditional sense abroad return to their native area to share their experience and teach others the skills necessary to take a similar path as they themselves.

What is maybe more interesting is that Martens statement about how the power of the consumer can and should be used also highlights a way of seeing the world in two perspectives. These are different perspectives on where change necessary, given that we today live as humans in a global economic system that produces and perpetuates inequalities. The most obvious thing to change would be the system, since this is what seems to be the source of the problems. We see a number of groups acting to achieve this sort of change today. But we tend to forget that there is an alternative, which is more along the lines of Martens ideas. This alternative is quite simply to change the humans and how they act within the system. If we want a global system to be equal we need an entirely new paradigm of global consideration. Rather than trying to dismantle our economy to prevent harm, we can strive to evolve the people within the framework of this economy so that they think differently and behave in such a way that the system produces inequalities. This is a great challenge, which may seem as overwhelming as “putting an end to global capitalism”, but I believe it can be done. I believe the first step toward an equal and sustainable world economy is to promote and create a true global awareness.

3. What do you consider to be the most important skill/quality in entrepreneurship? (Please limit response to 250 words.)

I think the most important skill of an entrepreneur is the ability come up with revolutionizing ideas and to a suitable extent adopt them to the current paradigm. I believe that it is when something absolutely radical is successfully integrated in today’s society that real change comes about. Just dreaming and never realizing anything makes no difference and the same goes for just copying ideas that have already been carried out.

An entrepreneur sees opportunities no one has noticed before, but also has the capacity to transfer this insight to something that everyone can understand and see the use of. This illustrates the capacity of the entrepreneur to live simultaneously in the world of visions where there are no limits and in the real world with consideration taken to all obstacles that can hamper a business concept. 

5. Briefly describe a passion of yours. (Please limit response to 100 words.)

I have a hard time pinpointing a certain passion in my life. I guess this relates to the fact that I like to try everything once or twice. So my passion is probably about never stagnating, about always progressing. I was once asked to formulate my personal philosophy, and one thing that came out of this was this:

The only way to always be the same is to be in constant change. Change is life, life is change.

So, basically I am passionate about change in my life. It is my challenge and my fuel.

8. You may use this space to tell us anything else you would like us to know about you.

I wrote this application while DJing at combined late breakfast and preparty on New Year’s Eve in a flat with three Australians in Berlin.