On Saturday night, Richie was riding his bike around town with his friend Kristen. Richie enjoys looking in art galleries so when he spotted one while they were riding he slammed on the brakes and entered to look at the paintings. They were all very nice and interesting to examine. Richie likes trying to understand depth and perception and how the artist puts the paint together in order to get the viewer to see a particular image. An interesting prospect for Richie's inquisitive mind.
They left this gallery and kept riding only to spot another not too far down the road. This one had only two other people in it. Richie and Kristen quietly entered the gallery and spent sometime observing the art. The style was completely different, much more impessionistic and "a study of color and their effect on the mind" as the artist Sara put it. Her and her friend were there in the gallery relaxing and waiting for dinner to be done. At least this is what I believe they were doing as after Richie and kristen spoke to them for a while they said dinner was done so Richie and kristen had to leave. Anyway, they began to speak to Richie and Kristen and pretty soon it was evident to Kristen that they were new age. Things turned to what Richie and Kristen were doing in Amsterdam. This easliy lead to the words Christian Hostel, which revealed Richie and Kristen to be Christians. Sara and her friend readily accept this as they would accept any other religion. Of course they did say that they disagreed with some interpretations of the Scripture. Probably some interpretation that has to do with Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life and no one getting to the Father except through Jesus. This, however, did not come up. Anyway, Sara's friend was a gardener and enjoyed philosophizing. They especially enjoyed it when they found out Richie was a math major. Math is the language of the universe and there are many philosophies that run from math. So the gardener liked speaking of such things. Additionally, Sara gave Richie and Kristen a blessing from the Universe through a dance she performed close to when Richie and Kristen left. It was nice, but Richie found himself wondering what was blessing him so he prayed and asked God to bless him through this woman's dance. The gardener also gave Kristen some flowers as a gift from the universe or maybe from him.
Then Sunday was the Amsterdam Marathon. Richie decided to go. He watched and took some pictures at the 5K mark and then watched the finish. He enjoyed being in the running culture as it is one of those things that transcend culture. So Richie felt as much at home there as he felt in America. The winner ran a 2:06 with some seconds. Quite a fast pace.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Hesitations 5=1
Richie is here again. Morning reception.
Richie has had an interesting week. A mixture of restlessness, discontent, but now he feels rather peaceful.
He watched a Russian film three times this last week for a film discussion on Thursday night. He thinks it is an excellent film. It is called The Return.
No interesting interactions with guests this week.
There is a big fair in Dam Square. Richie thinks everything there is overpriced. A person could ride the ferris wheel for 8 euro, a swing like ride for 5 euro, and another ride for 8 euro. The cheapest option was a small Waffle for 2.5 euro. The things tourists will spend.
Is getting the travel bug ok? Does a persons character develop more in the act of travel or in staying in one place and working through the difficulties of relationship?
Oh yes. A couple of weeks ago Richie almost got pooped on by a pigeon. Richie was with Kristen and Seth standing under a tree. They were talking and plop there it was one of the larger pigeon poops in the world. Splattered a little on Richie's shoe as well.
Richie had some great Indian curry this last week as well. It was very hot, but very good. He went out with three other friends to this resturant fairly close to the community house. It was less than the steak that he had eaten on his previous night out and it was better and more filling. They gave bottomless rice.
In other news, as the community house (where all the staff live) is similar to dorm life, his room got pranked. A person or a pair of persons entered his room and saran wraped every little article of his clothing and other things as well as his roommates. The person has yet to reveal their self. So Richie and Joost do not know who to retaliate against.
Richie has had an interesting week. A mixture of restlessness, discontent, but now he feels rather peaceful.
He watched a Russian film three times this last week for a film discussion on Thursday night. He thinks it is an excellent film. It is called The Return.
No interesting interactions with guests this week.
There is a big fair in Dam Square. Richie thinks everything there is overpriced. A person could ride the ferris wheel for 8 euro, a swing like ride for 5 euro, and another ride for 8 euro. The cheapest option was a small Waffle for 2.5 euro. The things tourists will spend.
Is getting the travel bug ok? Does a persons character develop more in the act of travel or in staying in one place and working through the difficulties of relationship?
Oh yes. A couple of weeks ago Richie almost got pooped on by a pigeon. Richie was with Kristen and Seth standing under a tree. They were talking and plop there it was one of the larger pigeon poops in the world. Splattered a little on Richie's shoe as well.
Richie had some great Indian curry this last week as well. It was very hot, but very good. He went out with three other friends to this resturant fairly close to the community house. It was less than the steak that he had eaten on his previous night out and it was better and more filling. They gave bottomless rice.
In other news, as the community house (where all the staff live) is similar to dorm life, his room got pranked. A person or a pair of persons entered his room and saran wraped every little article of his clothing and other things as well as his roommates. The person has yet to reveal their self. So Richie and Joost do not know who to retaliate against.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Meditations 4
Here Richie is again after several days taken to finish a book he was reading back into the writing business.
He read The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. It was a nice book. Victorian bent, but it had more twists than usual which kept his interest.
Richie says good bye to two Somalian guests as they go out for the day. Do they go out for a smoke? or for a walk? Maybe they are just going to enjoy the city. Richie does not know. The language barrier is too difficult for deep conversation so their relationship consists of hellos and goodbyes and the occasional smile.
A couple days ago Richie had the honor of helping a guest stay focused for the writing of her thesis for graduate school. Laurel has had writers block for the last year and her thesis is long over due. So she decided to pay people to sit with her and keep her focused. Richie volunteered and got some cash out of the deal. Her thesis is on the use of music in silent films. Interesting topic. Richie quickly ended up using the cash to buy dinner that night because of a birthday party for one of the staff. They went out to an overpriced Argentinean steak house which served small portions. Richie's palet, however, is dulled at this point so the steak tasted rather nice. He hopes it was legitimate Argentinean steak. The best part of the whole event, though, was dressing up like ninjas. It was a group of six all dressed up, four black ninjas, Richie was a red ninja, and one brown ninja. Some people gave Richie and the other ninja's funny looks. Others merely did acknowledge any significance in the special dress. Yes there are pictures. No they were not made with Richie's camera, but maybe Kristen who did take some pictures put them on facebook so Richie can take them for himself.
Richie also had the pleasure of having a real dutch day this last week. He went to his roommates house. It was classic dutch, small, more of an apartment or condo by American standards, but it was nice to get into the home of a real dutch family. Also, Richie was able to see Joost's sister's house, and a farm with a bunch of swine and cattle. It was a nice day, though rainy.
---Richie speaks to a guest. A nice man with an interesting style. He wants to stay at the Shelter City instead of the shelter Jordan since it is closer to the Centraal Station. Richie says sure, but he can only recieve €12.50 in return for his room. The guest is ok with that so things seem to work out.
---Another guest comes in. A Japanese man who speak very few words. He has stayed here before and Richie is surprised at the amount of English he knows now after a couple weeks since before he knew zero English. He seems to be able to understand English that is spoken very slowly. He is a nice man with a generous heart. Richie checks him in.
Richie also was able to learn during the day away with his roommate of a nice dutch tradition. Every night all the family that is home gets together at about 8 in the evening to drink coffee or tea and watch the news. It is a tradition that more should be broadened to more cultures.
Richie also has started to have new thoughts about his time here in Amsterdam. He is thinking of trying to leave mid January and spend some weeks traveling in Europe. He feels rather restless here sometimes and wants to see more of Europe since he is over here. He expects to come back again, but he will be very disappointed and sad if he is unable to see some other places besided Amsterdam.
So Richie has had two odd feelings of late. One feeling of great restlessness and another feeling that he is being like Jonah. He does not know if these are legitimate feelings. The other night while he was lying in his bed he had this though pass through his mind that he was like Jonah. Richie, however, does not understand why this is the case as he has not felt some calling from God to go to some place. So he should probably disregard this feeling but it sits with him.
Richie also felt very restless after he finished his nightman shift. He felt this need to get out of Amsterdam and see some thing else. He believes that if he knows he will be able to travel for a while in January before he goes home it will calm these feelings and he will be able to be more content here in Amsterdam.
Richie is also feeling odd spiritually. He has begun to try to look at Christianity like somebody on the outside looking in and the beliefs of Christianity have begun to look rather odd. This occured the other night when he was looking at the classic picture of man on one side of the chasim and God on the other and then the cross creating the bridge. Richie thought of how odd this image must appear to someone who has never seen it before. Why does this image seem to speak to non-Christians? It is a very common Evangelistic tool, but it seems odd. If someone were living his or her life without God would he or she necessarily feel this chasim? Would he or she care about the chasim that seems to have no effect on their life currently? Maybe, it does help bring some people to Christ I suppose or else it would not be used.
--Japanese man comes back. He stumbles around with the right words to say and then gets out the question about a kitchen for guests. Richie says sorry there is not guest kitchen. He leaves.
--Richie checks in four guests from Germany and then two from France. All men. All friendly. All seeing the sights.
Richie also remembers today that Christians will never be cool in the worlds eyes no matter how hard they try. The world will not understand them. Believing in some God-man that lived 2000 years ago for life after death and salvation in Christ. Religion is an odd thing.
He read The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. It was a nice book. Victorian bent, but it had more twists than usual which kept his interest.
Richie says good bye to two Somalian guests as they go out for the day. Do they go out for a smoke? or for a walk? Maybe they are just going to enjoy the city. Richie does not know. The language barrier is too difficult for deep conversation so their relationship consists of hellos and goodbyes and the occasional smile.
A couple days ago Richie had the honor of helping a guest stay focused for the writing of her thesis for graduate school. Laurel has had writers block for the last year and her thesis is long over due. So she decided to pay people to sit with her and keep her focused. Richie volunteered and got some cash out of the deal. Her thesis is on the use of music in silent films. Interesting topic. Richie quickly ended up using the cash to buy dinner that night because of a birthday party for one of the staff. They went out to an overpriced Argentinean steak house which served small portions. Richie's palet, however, is dulled at this point so the steak tasted rather nice. He hopes it was legitimate Argentinean steak. The best part of the whole event, though, was dressing up like ninjas. It was a group of six all dressed up, four black ninjas, Richie was a red ninja, and one brown ninja. Some people gave Richie and the other ninja's funny looks. Others merely did acknowledge any significance in the special dress. Yes there are pictures. No they were not made with Richie's camera, but maybe Kristen who did take some pictures put them on facebook so Richie can take them for himself.
Richie also had the pleasure of having a real dutch day this last week. He went to his roommates house. It was classic dutch, small, more of an apartment or condo by American standards, but it was nice to get into the home of a real dutch family. Also, Richie was able to see Joost's sister's house, and a farm with a bunch of swine and cattle. It was a nice day, though rainy.
---Richie speaks to a guest. A nice man with an interesting style. He wants to stay at the Shelter City instead of the shelter Jordan since it is closer to the Centraal Station. Richie says sure, but he can only recieve €12.50 in return for his room. The guest is ok with that so things seem to work out.
---Another guest comes in. A Japanese man who speak very few words. He has stayed here before and Richie is surprised at the amount of English he knows now after a couple weeks since before he knew zero English. He seems to be able to understand English that is spoken very slowly. He is a nice man with a generous heart. Richie checks him in.
Richie also was able to learn during the day away with his roommate of a nice dutch tradition. Every night all the family that is home gets together at about 8 in the evening to drink coffee or tea and watch the news. It is a tradition that more should be broadened to more cultures.
Richie also has started to have new thoughts about his time here in Amsterdam. He is thinking of trying to leave mid January and spend some weeks traveling in Europe. He feels rather restless here sometimes and wants to see more of Europe since he is over here. He expects to come back again, but he will be very disappointed and sad if he is unable to see some other places besided Amsterdam.
So Richie has had two odd feelings of late. One feeling of great restlessness and another feeling that he is being like Jonah. He does not know if these are legitimate feelings. The other night while he was lying in his bed he had this though pass through his mind that he was like Jonah. Richie, however, does not understand why this is the case as he has not felt some calling from God to go to some place. So he should probably disregard this feeling but it sits with him.
Richie also felt very restless after he finished his nightman shift. He felt this need to get out of Amsterdam and see some thing else. He believes that if he knows he will be able to travel for a while in January before he goes home it will calm these feelings and he will be able to be more content here in Amsterdam.
Richie is also feeling odd spiritually. He has begun to try to look at Christianity like somebody on the outside looking in and the beliefs of Christianity have begun to look rather odd. This occured the other night when he was looking at the classic picture of man on one side of the chasim and God on the other and then the cross creating the bridge. Richie thought of how odd this image must appear to someone who has never seen it before. Why does this image seem to speak to non-Christians? It is a very common Evangelistic tool, but it seems odd. If someone were living his or her life without God would he or she necessarily feel this chasim? Would he or she care about the chasim that seems to have no effect on their life currently? Maybe, it does help bring some people to Christ I suppose or else it would not be used.
--Japanese man comes back. He stumbles around with the right words to say and then gets out the question about a kitchen for guests. Richie says sorry there is not guest kitchen. He leaves.
--Richie checks in four guests from Germany and then two from France. All men. All friendly. All seeing the sights.
Richie also remembers today that Christians will never be cool in the worlds eyes no matter how hard they try. The world will not understand them. Believing in some God-man that lived 2000 years ago for life after death and salvation in Christ. Religion is an odd thing.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Meditations 3
So here we are again. Richie is a nightman surprise surprise. He is also a sick boy with a stuffy nose, but also he is a thankful boy for paste magazine and paste station which enables him to stay in touch a little with good music. Thank goodness.
Richie is tired tonight. He did not sleep so long during the day because he chose to go to church in the afternoon. It was a nice service but not super insightful to Richie. He had heard the words before. It was the read your Bible, pray everyday so that you can keep your soil healthy sermon on the parable of Jesus where Jesus speaks about the spreading of the seed and the different type of soil that the seed finds. The problem in Richie's mind is that a person can read the Bible and pray every day and still feel distant from God. Richie knows this from experience, but the pastor did not address this issue. Sadly, Richie's tiredness because of the nightman shift resulted in him often staring off into space despite being in social situations.
Tonight, however, is the most interesting of the nights he has been nightman. A guest complained about some boys being loud. Richie went into the room of these boys and found several open bottles of beer and several unopen ones. So Richie got to tell the boys to be quiet and take the beer away. He forgot, however, to give them a warning for their misdemeanor. Oh well.
Richie went to Corrie ten Booms house this last week before he started his nightman shift. While at the house, Richie was more fascinated with the style of living of the ten Booms than their story. Not that their story is not awesome or fascinating, it is only that Richie found himself in a house/apartment above the business which is movie like and ideal. It would be great to live above the business a person owns and just go down the stairs to start work.
No strides have been made for Richie in regards to an idea of a future job or direction. He actually has started to think about this less and just live in the current moment of his life. He prays for direction, but feels no direct leading. He figures he will just have to step out and take the opportunities presented to him. If something does not work out or interest is lost then he will move on to the next opportunity. He simply needs to find opportunities, a difficult task.
Richie spent another day this week (before he started his nightman shifts) hanging out with his friend Maranda. They went to Van Gogh (Richie's third time) and walked around the city. They stopped in a cafe for a time and ended the day by eating at the Shelter City Hostel. It was a relaxing day.
Richie is tired tonight. He did not sleep so long during the day because he chose to go to church in the afternoon. It was a nice service but not super insightful to Richie. He had heard the words before. It was the read your Bible, pray everyday so that you can keep your soil healthy sermon on the parable of Jesus where Jesus speaks about the spreading of the seed and the different type of soil that the seed finds. The problem in Richie's mind is that a person can read the Bible and pray every day and still feel distant from God. Richie knows this from experience, but the pastor did not address this issue. Sadly, Richie's tiredness because of the nightman shift resulted in him often staring off into space despite being in social situations.
Tonight, however, is the most interesting of the nights he has been nightman. A guest complained about some boys being loud. Richie went into the room of these boys and found several open bottles of beer and several unopen ones. So Richie got to tell the boys to be quiet and take the beer away. He forgot, however, to give them a warning for their misdemeanor. Oh well.
Richie went to Corrie ten Booms house this last week before he started his nightman shift. While at the house, Richie was more fascinated with the style of living of the ten Booms than their story. Not that their story is not awesome or fascinating, it is only that Richie found himself in a house/apartment above the business which is movie like and ideal. It would be great to live above the business a person owns and just go down the stairs to start work.
No strides have been made for Richie in regards to an idea of a future job or direction. He actually has started to think about this less and just live in the current moment of his life. He prays for direction, but feels no direct leading. He figures he will just have to step out and take the opportunities presented to him. If something does not work out or interest is lost then he will move on to the next opportunity. He simply needs to find opportunities, a difficult task.
Richie spent another day this week (before he started his nightman shifts) hanging out with his friend Maranda. They went to Van Gogh (Richie's third time) and walked around the city. They stopped in a cafe for a time and ended the day by eating at the Shelter City Hostel. It was a relaxing day.
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