After visiting the Anne Frank house our group realized the importance of personal freedom and what it really means to be free.  We also discussed how a human may have his or her freedom taken away in many ways except the soul.  This sad place gave us the power to truly begin to love and value what has or may come accross our paths in the past, present, and future.

    These cube houses help dislpay the arcitectural styles that vary amoung Holllands major cities.  Rotterdam holds these cube houses that show how modern the city has become since the war.  The houses sit on poles and are very disorienting to be in.  We were very lightheaded for the first few minutes of going inside. 

    This exhibit at the Gemeentemuseum in Dan Haag showed us the varities in cultural beliefs.  We learned that the type of culture that you find in Holland is less likely to have violence and wars in thier movies and advertisemtn.  Here we saw another perspective that has truly captured all of our eyes in different ways.  The artists tried to capture the what he felt was the "essence" of being American.  Which is owning a gun and shooting it at whatever. 

    In the center of Amsterdam we got to see the Stock Exchange up close.  We did not learn what goes on inside, but we got to see the differences in arcitectural styles amoung amsterdam and other Holland cities.  Amsterdam is old- fashioned and there is no grass amoung the whole city.  Everywhere you walk is brick.  Rotterdam on the other hand is more modern due to being destroyed and re-built. 

    This is a worms eye view of the Knights Hall in Den Haag.  It is one of the many branches of the Parliament buildings.  It is the single most famous building in The Netherlands.  It was built for Willem II in 1861.   We realized that in a place that did not really choose to except us Americans there can still be beauty. 

     Due to shortage in houseing in Amsterdam there are many poeple that live in house boats along the canal. 

Culture

The Netherlands have a somewhat more relaxed environment when it comes to soft drugs.  As far as we found the "soft drugs" were consisting of opium, cannabis, psychedilic fungi, ephedra, alcohol.  They concentrate less on voilence in their media and advertisement.  This keeps the culture from being focused on violence and concerned with more peaceful society. 

Like taking our first step into the cube houses the trip to The Netherlands became really disorienting.  Vertigo became our compadres.  Presenting Dr. Kelly Forrest, whose insightfull  discusssions during dinner kept us from loosing our control and sanity.