Dordrecht and Den Haag

Our class embarked on a 2 day trip to Dordrecht and Den Haag on June 4th. We went on a walking tour of the quaint Dordrecht. The city was so cute, despite the constant drizzle. We toured some nursing homes and spoke briefly about the aging population and the problems it's creating in health care systems across the world. The plan two day excursion was to visit sites in which we could learn about euthanasia and psychiatry in the Netherlands, so the first day included a hospital visit. We ended our walking tour at a restaurant that was staffed by people with mental handicaps and disabilities which I thought was a really cool and practical idea. Like I've said before, the Dutch are practical people and everything they do just seems to make sense. We had sandwiches and some of the best mushroom soup I've ever had.

We made our way to a big hospital and heard from a nurse, a doctor, and a counselor on the topic of euthanasia. Hearing personal stories from people who had actually administered euthanasia really opened my eyes. I understand why it's a controversial subject, but in the end I believe we all of autonomy over our own lives and if we want the option to end it, we should be able to make that choice. It gets tough when you have to consider that doctors are the ones who actually have to provide the drug. Doctors shouldn't be forced to take life, but we should have the right to ask for it to end? It gets confusing, but the way it's done here seems very... practical. 

That night we stayed at a StayOkay Hostel, the same type of place we stayed at in Amsterdam for the first week. It was literally in the middle of no where and it looked like a summer sleep away camp in the middle of the USA. We sat at the hostel bar and played cards because there was literally nothing else to do. I woke up thinking I was in Montana or something as I looked out at the lake and log cabins. We left the hostel and spent the day in Den Haag, the government capital of the Netherlands. We toured the Hall of the Knights and some other government buildings and were then given a free day. We had no idea what to do so naturally we pretended one of my friends was getting married and we went into a tacky bridal boutique. As Cassie browsed through the dresses mumbling about her January wedding, Iman and I were trying to track down someone who worked there to let us into a dressing room. The woman clearly knew we were messing around when she told us we needed an appointment to try on dresses, despite the shop being completely empty. We sulked out, defeated and in need of pie. We saw people eating desserts in the window of a fancy department store so we went in and literally bought a whole strawberry cheesecake. We're clearly growing and maturing while abroad. 

We obviously got lost on the way back to our third StayOkay Hostel (they're all the rage in the Netherlands apparently) and it took us an hour to find it. I FINALLY got a hairdryer here so I made my hair look presentable for the first time since leaving the US. We went out that night and actually managed to find our way back to the hostel after, which I was super proud of. 

On our way back to Amsterdam on Friday we stopped at a psychiatric facility to learn about mental health care in the Netherlands. Mental illness is a lot less stigmatized here and people with mental disabilities are treated, for the most part, just as everyone else. Mental health care is also covered in the basic health care package here, and medication is prescribed significantly less often than in the US. Learning about the similarities and differences between here and home has been absolutely fascinating, although I still cannot decide what I think the ideal health care system would be. 

After leaving the psychiatric facility we went to the beach. And this beach literally looked like the Jersey Shore. I'm not even kidding - there was a boardwalk lined with restaurants, tacky arcades, beach shops, and ice cream parlors. It was the weirdest cultural experience - so similar and yet so different. We ate lunch and got ice cream and frolicked in the freezing ocean before finally packing it in and heading back to Amsterdam.