Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Year in Amsterdam: Die Schweizermacher!

What a wonderful time of year! Spring has sprung, tulips are blooming and it's sunny in Amsterdam. Spring fever had me spending all day Sunday outside and I even got a slight sun burn to prove it. I will have to start applying the SPF 30.

Well a great start to my Spring season was my trip to Switzerland! Though the weather was a mixed bag, I had a great time all around. Just spending time with my friend Michele is always fun and it was nice to also meet up with her family and friends. We had a typical Swiss brunch of Rosti with her family and made two nice Italian style meals and reminisced about our Roman adventures.

It was great being able to use my German again and everyone was kind enough to adapt to the 'Hochdeutsch' standard. One place where this wasn't possible however was during a Musical we went to see in Zurich, called "Die Schweizermacher". It is based on a 1978 film that has Federal Police investigating immigration to Switzerland. I could understand the main aspects of the story and was really intrigued to see how Swiss culture was portrayed through this very popular medium. Die Schweizermacher means quite literally the Swiss maker and the love story in the end tied all the details together to make for a very Swiss story.

Another great part of my trip was the day we spent in the mountains. Though we did not strap on any skis we still made the trip up to 3500m with 2 gondolas and a Mountain Metro. The view was needless to say breathtaking. There were some avalanche warnings so even the skiing was limited, but in Saas-Fee they can ski all year round because of the glaciers, which sadly to say are receding quite quickly based on observations.

So after a wonderful trip full of good times, laughter, cheese and chocolate :) I took the overnight train back to Amsterdam to finish the last assignment of my course work here in The Netherlands. Hopefully if everything goes well I will have just my thesis left to work on. To add some inspiration to the mix after I handed in the take-home exam on Friday I took a trip to The Hague.

First, I was able to visit the Canadian Embassy to pick up my forms to vote in the upcoming federal election. Excited to see how the campaign plays out over the next few weeks. Second some classmates and I attended a Master Class given by Luis Moreno-Ocampo. It was a very thought provoking session as students were able to ask the Prosecutor of the ICC questions about his mandate, decisions on cases to prosecute and the politics of the court. It was a great follow-up, hearing from the man himself, after having watched the documentary film "The Prosecutor" and also having visited the ICC this past fall. What is sure is that the next year and three months of Ocampo's mandate will be interesting to watch, especially as current events unfold around North Africa and the Middle East.

Now enough law and politics it's time to get my vitamin D intake while I still can.

Cheers to all :)

Laura