Vīrieši par sievietēm

Pirms kāda pusotra gada manā rīcībā nokļuva aizraujoša lasāmviela, kas bija (gandrīz) autobiogrāfisks stāsts par kādu puisi-vīrieti, kurš no vairāk-vai-mazāk jefiņa kļuva par vienu no sieviešu iekārojamākajiem objektiem, kurš zināja, kā jebkuru sievieti dabūt sevi. Angliski šo mākslu un specus sauc par "pick-up artist", latviski tiem nosaukums man nav zināms.

Ar lielu interesi izlasīju šo grāmatu tāpat kā citas neparastas grāmatas, kas ir balstītas uz patiesiem stāstiem. Atzīšos, ka līdz tam nezināju, ka ir tāda "suga" (ja tā var teikt) un ka tā ir gan māksla (viņu uztverē), gan arī labs naudas pelnīšanas bizness, mācot to citiem.

Pirms dažām nedēļām veiksmīgi dabūju arī realitātes šova ar tādu pašu nosaukumu sērijas, kur astoņi neveiksminieki (kā viņi tiek pasniegti), tostarp arī 45 gadus vecs un vēl nevainīgs vīrietis, tiek apmācīti trīs šādu "pick-up artists" pavadībā. Kā jau katrā šovā, katrā sērijā kāds tiek izbalsots, ir balvas un visi pārējie pribambasi.

Diemžēl vismaz pirmās divas sērijas nebija tik interesantas, kā es to biju cerējusi. Pārāk daudz šova elementu un atkārtošanās... Grāmatai ne klāt nestāv. Tomēr kā izklaides līdzeklis vakarā - droši! Ar vīna vai kādu citu glāzi un labu kompāniju, ar ko kopā pasmieties :)

Latvian cuisine

A few weeks ago in one event I met a lady from Philippines. We started talking and she asked me where am I from. "Latvia, but probably you don't know where is it," I replied as I don't expect non-Europeans know our small country.

What a surprise I had when she asked which is my hometown! Turns out just only a few weeks ago she visited in Latvia and felt in love with the country and food! Now she is telling to everybody how nice and beautiful it is, unofficially becoming a kind of Latvian Ambassador :)

That's not all. She really loved our cuisine, so kept telling me about a book about Latvian food she saw, but didn't buy - and regretted it. I even didn't know that there is a book in English about Latvian tasty food!

With my help and a few websites she managed to find the name of the book, so tomorrow I am going to meet her and give her the book (thanks to Agnese who bought and brought it from Latvia!). It will be funny to think that a women from Philippines is going to cook home Latvian food :)

For all of you who also want to know more about Latvian book - take a look at the book here!

Open-air theatre

On Thursday we were praying for the rain not to pour and driving to a small place between The Hague and Leiden for an open-air theatre play in English.

A few months ago I won the tickets (of course), so it was a wonderful opportunity to enjoy another cultural performance in the Netherlands!

This time it was The English Theatre, which was organising another English theatre company's tour around the country with Shakespeare's play "The Twelfth Night". It was unusual because of several reasons:

1) It was outdoors. We were sitting on chairs, wrapped with blankets, sipping our drinks and eating food we have brought with us - a real picnic!

2) There were only five actors, but around 10 characters - so each of them were performing two roles, some even more. Men were playing women, women were playing men etc.

3) I haven't read the book and haven't seen other performances, but this was definitely one of the biggest comedies I have ever seen! Couldn't stop laughing (even if I didn't understand some parts due to the specific English) and wondering how did Shakespeare write it in the original version.

If you have a chance - go and see the play either here or in the United Kingdom!
If not - make sure you attend any other open-air theatre, it is a completely different experience!

Die Welle

I am quite picky about good films, but yesterday I saw a film which is definitely worth mentioning - German film "Die Welle" ("The Wave") from 2008.

First - watch the film.

Second - read the background about the film.

Third - tell me where can I borrow the book! After seeing the film I want to read the book on which the film is based!

Here comes the library

Almost two weeks ago I finally subscribed for OBA (library).

More than half a year ago I won a year long free membership card (worth around 25-27 EUR) for the library (thanks to I amsterdam!), but turned out that only registered Amsterdammers are able to subscribe.

When I finally registered as living here, I immediately wanted to use the opportunity to subscribe. All I needed - the present voucher, my passport and the letter from the city council stating that I am registered here.

I have been to OBA quite a lot of times - studying Dutch, showing friends the nice view from the top and escaping from the rain. Now I will also be able to take books, films and CDs home! And it is really great, because one can take books for three weeks for free and films & CDs for a week for just one euro. Great service and big choice!

Last week we went to the library to take something and we opted for DVD "The Da Vinci Code" because Michael hasn't seen it yet (we watched it on Monday) and we couldn't agree on anything else. Next time - maybe some book? :)

It was amazing that both the registration system for renting the DVD was automatised (put your library card on point A and the DVD on point B) and also paying for it (1 EUR) was possible only in the machine. Great! As far as I remember, at least one gives back the items to a real person. :)

Dienvidslāvija

Tikko pabeidzu angliski lasīt ļoti interesantu un viegli lasāmu grāmatu.

Horvātietes Slavenkas Drakulič grāmata "They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals on Trial in The Hague" stāsta par tiem augstākā mēroga kara noziedzniekiem, kuri bija iesaistīti 90. gadu Dienvidslāvijas karos, nogalinot vairākus tūkstošus horvātu, serbu, musulmaņu u. c.

Lai gan tā nav pirmā reize, kad iegūstu jaunu informāciju par šo laika periodu Dienvidslāvijā, es joprojām cenšos atcerēties, vai skolas laikā mums par to vēstures stundās mācīja? Savu atmiņu neuzskatu par sliktu, bet absolūti, absolūti (!) neko par to neatceros.

Latvijas vēsture - skaidra lieta. Krievijas, Francijas, Lielbritānijas, pat ASV Pilsoņu kara un citi notikumi ir spilgtā atmiņā no vēstures stundām. Neatceros neko daudz par Āfriku, it īpaši tās kolonizēšanu, un Āziju.

Tomēr bijušās Dienvidslāvijas teritorija ir kas cits, tā ir tepat Eiropā, pavisam netālu no mums. Un 90. gadu vidus bija tieši tas laiks, kad es sāku iet skolā. Ja vēl ne pamatskolā, tad varbūt vidusskolā par to vajadzēja runāt?

Tagad pēc gadiem par to uzzinu vien no saviem ārzemju draugiem, kuri paši nav dienvidslāvi (jo zinu, ka ar viņiem par to labāk nerunāt) - bet kuriem par to ir vairāk informācijas. Skatos (dokumentālās) filmas un lasu dažas grāmatas, lai gūtu kaut aptuvenu priekšstatu.

Tomēr jautājums paliek... Vai varbūt citās skolās ne tikai par Dienvidslāvijas karu/-iem, bet par to teritoriju vispār tika vairāk mācīts? Un vai šobrīd par to māca?

What is Bookcrossing?

I wrote this article for Cafebabel Brussels almost two years ago, but it never got published. Recently remembered about it and thought it is still worth publishing it at least in my blog.

How often do you get a present when you go to interview somebody for an article? Not too much, I would say you. But during my last interview I got a present – a book! Amy Bartlett, a bookcrosser from Brussels (originally from Canada), gave me Terry Pratchett’s book “Jingo” to understand the concept of Bookcrossing much better.

Release and find books

BookCrossing? What is that? How can these words go together? Actually yes, quite easy, says Amy, who has been a bookcrosser for eight years and can not stop talking about the concept of it. Listen to her passion and emotions when she speaks about the positive karma travelling around the world, about making somebody’s day in such an easy way and about the lovely way how to connect with others!

BookCrossing is an online platform, created nine years ago, which gives the possibility for book lovers to release and find books in random places all over the world. Even if it sounds scary at a first glance to give away your books, it gives the possibility to increase your “bookshelf” (even if virtually), exchange opinions about books as well as give and get suggestions which are the most interesting books.

From Germany to Malaysia

“Some people struggle with Bookcrossing, because they want to keep their books. I struggled with it in the beginning and I kept a lot of my books, but then I started to realise that it is so exciting for other people to read the books I like and to pass them on. I have almost no books that I own. There are some that are gifts and I keep them because I do not feel comfortable giving away gifts all the time. My friends know me well enough now, so if they buy me a book, they say – you can bookcross it,” admits Amy, who has the biggest amount of bookcrossed books between Belgium bookcrossers – at the moment she has registered more than 400 books and released more than 500 books.

As a citizen of the world who has lived in six different countries and is travelling a lot, Amy has released books everywhere and is excited to see where they end up. She recalls a book she released in Germany and it is now in Malaysia or another book which flew away in her homeland Canada and five years later was registered in the website somewhere in the United States. Amy says: “You really start to get the global reach of this process and see how far good books and karma can travel.”

800 thousand members of BookCrossing

While I am going through the book she gave to me (by the way, a few days later I released it on a bench in Amsterdam and already a few minutes later the book was gone!), Amy tells about people she have met and books she have exchanged throughout these years. While living in Peru for a year, she once received a box full of books in English from a Brazilian bookcrosser who just saw her post in the forum saying that Amy misses books in her native tongue and sent her the present. Another book which she received from an Australian bookcrosser and released later on Rue de Midi was picked up and taken to Antwerpen. “I had never heard of BookCrossing before and was intrigued so I just signed up, but really have to do some work now, so no time to read just yet,” was the journal entry left by the lucky founder.

What is the secret which makes people want to buy books and later give them away? Maybe it is the curiosity they have, thinking what others say and how do they evaluate the particular book. Maybe it is “win-win” situation, understanding that you can also get from somebody else the book you have always wanted. Maybe it is a good will and a wish to make somebody very happy. Whatever is the answer, more than 800 thousand members of BookCrossing so far have registered more than six millions books and the number is increasing.

Reading a new book

Sometimes you have those days when nothing seems to be good, when the philosophy "it can always be worse" and "find a sunlight in the black cloud" doesn't help. And sometimes even I have those days...

So this will not be a long blogpost, I will simply share with you a new book I am reading.

I found Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "Nomad" in the English bookshop on Sunday evening when we went out for a walk and I felt like buying a new book to read. It was the only non-celebrity autobigraphy I could find in this bookshop (the cheapest one in Amsterdam), so I took it.

Turns out that Ayaan, born in Somalia, moved to the Netherlands and was even in Dutch Parliament. Now she is living in the US and speaks about the contradictions of Islam and Western cultures - basically saying how bad is Islam...

I haven't finished the book yet, so can't comment on it fully, but I can see that it is full of feelings how good is the Western society and its values and how bad is Islam... White vs black... A bit too radical, I think - even though she has islamic background herself.

Free books

Although I enjoyed Queen's Day (official holiday in the Netherlands, celebrating Queen's birthday - the biggest street party ever) a lot, there was also something sad about it.

In the evening we were walking back home, looking at all the mess on the streets and people still continuing to party. That was all bearable, and we even appreciated the free stuff left on the streets - especially several bags of clothes. Both me and my friend took some clothes and now after washing (as they smelled like champagne) I have a nice white summer jacket, a Chinese-style top and two orange tops, which will be perfect for the next year. Although it is pity that so many clothes are going to waste and people should be donating them to charity instead of leaving on the street, it was not the sadest thing.

Some streets later it hit me. There was a huge amount of boxes, full of books! It was like 5m long street, all full of boxes of books. Around ten people (and later even more) were looking for books they would like to keep and take home. Apparently somebody did not manage to sell them and left on the street.
Books! Why was that stupid person??? Imagine, it would start raining and all the books would get wet... Why couldn't this person simply donate them to the library, old people house, orphanage or any other place? I took around 10 books in English and thought that it is enough, I can't take more. But it makes me sad thinking that all the rest of books will end up in a garbage... People should be punished for leaving such amount of books on the street!

Looking for books in English in Amsterdam

Today I was looking for a present for my master thesis' supervisor. I wanted to buy her a book, so that involved visiting different bookshops here in Amsterdam. Here is a short summary of the bookshops in English I mostly visit. If you know some more, feel free to comment the blogpost!

• New English Bookstore - that's the one I visit the most. Comparing with other bookshops, it has the best prices, you can often find good books for around 5 euro! On the other side, the bookshop is not so huge as some others, so the variety of books is limited. Also bear in mind that you should have cash with you, because quite often the credit card machine not working.
• American Book Center - huge! It has several floors and all the books are sorted in various topics, so you can find pretty much everything there. As I was looking for books about the Netherlands, I noticed that ABC has the biggest choice - several shelves were dedicated to books about living in the Netherlands, getting to know Dutch culture etc. It is not so cheap as New English Bookstore, but in general the prices in ABC are the same as all other bookstores in Amsterdam I have seen.
• Waterstones - I have been to this one only twice, but already noticed that it's quite big as well. It seems to be British version of ABC. They have a very nice tradition of posting the readers' reviews about the books next to the books - so you can read what somebody else has said about the book before deciding if you want to buy it or no. Alternatively, you can also leave your own comments.

Of course, there are also shelves dedicated to books in English in the regular Dutch bookshops such as Selexyz. There are also some smaller bookshops in English, but I haven't been to them enough to comment.

Conclusion - I still prefer going to second hand bookshops in London and remember the wonderful bookshop in Toronto where the books were amazingly cheap and which also claimed to be the biggest bookshop in the world. Ah, buying books in countries where the first language is English still is the best!

About book presentations

Another event I attended lately was organised by ABC Treehouse, where ABC stands for American Book Center. On Saturday three authors were holding a presentation "Three authors read from their memoirs of life overseas", so we went to have a look.

Presentation itself

The presentation was very informal, all authors said "hi" to everybody personally and chatted around - probably because there were max 20 people, so the atmosphere was very nice. Although it was clearly a part of advertising campaign (as all books were launched recently), it did not feel like one because of no distance between authors and readers.

I haven't really been to any book presentation before, at least I can't remember, so it was interesting to participate in one. As a person who reads a lot of books I also took a look at those three books and some others which were displayed. I did not plan to buy any, but (as always) I went through all of them briefly and one really caught my eye. Such campaigns indeed work, because in the end we bought that book!

USA & black vs. white

The book we bought is called "black and (a)broad" and it's about a black American woman who is now living in the Netherlands and her life journey on the way to where is she now. The book is written in an easy-going way, so I finished it pretty fast and was very satisfied about it. As a person who has never been to the USA, my impression about the relationship between black and white people is purely based on mass media and talks with other people. The impression I got from a book is a completely different one, making me think - does racism really exist there? If so, in whose mind is it bigger - in white people or in black people?

What made the book even more special was the feeling that I know the author. Of course, I do not know her as my friend, but I have seen her in the presentation, I have heard her voice reading out loud some pages of the book and got her signature in the book. I know she is real and I believe in what she is writing. Plus, as a foreigner she is writing about the Netherlands, the country I am living - so I can relate to some things being said in the book and compare them with my own thoughts.

Money, money, money

And that's not all. Michael started a chat with another author, an Irish lady. She seemed to be quite talkative and we got to know that the music in the background is hers. With that I do not want to say that she owned the CD, but that she composed the music, wrote the lyrics and was singing herself! The music touched me and I wanted to listen to it again and again, so... we bought the CD "The Singing Warrior" by Niamh Ni Bhroin as well! We do not have so many CDs at home to listen in the living room, so it was another reason to buy it.

So, you see, such book presentations work out and the authors really get some income and extra PR without a lot of effort! Both sides are satisfied, because participants could also just listen to authors reading, have a chat, get some snacks and a glass of wine for free - and who doesn't want that? I really appreciated the fact that nobody was forcing me to buy any of the books and trying to tell "discount just now". It was my own choice and judgment.

On a side note - the event could have been longer, it was less than two hours in total with three authors and Q& round. I had a feeling that there were more questions in the air and that also other people would love to chat with the authors a bit longer.

Septiņas lietas par mani

Pateicoties Ilzei, arī es ieguvu uzdevumu aizpildīt ceļojošo anketu, ko tad nu ar godu arī cenšos darīt.

1. Kas ir pirmā lieta, ko tu iedomājies, kad piecelies no rīta?

Ui, jau tik agrs? Vēl varētu pagulēt. Negribu celties!!!
(pēc tam sastādīju kompāniju brokastīs un aizgāju atpakaļ gulēt uz vēl trīs stundiņām)

2. Pirmā lieta, ko tu pamani pretējā dzimumā?

Rokas un smaidu. Rokām jābūt vīrišķīgām un lielām. Smaidam - īstam un bieži.

3. Pirmā lieta, ko ņemtu līdzi uz neapdzīvotu salu?

Savu mīļoto vīrieti ar domu,. Viņš ir noderīgs :)

4. Kas ir pēdējais, ko tu apēdi?

Divas pēdējās Australian šokolādes konfektītes no (sava) slepenā pielūdzēja.

5. Pēdējais cilvēks, ar kuru tu runāji pa telefonu?

Ui... Neatceros. Jāapskatās telefonā. Izskatās, ka pēdējais zvans bijis piektdien no nepazīstama numura. Atcerējos - atbilde uz manu CV un motivācijas vēstuli, lai paziņotu, ka es, iespējams, esmu pārāk kvalificēta. Viņi gan teicās vēlreiz apdomāt un dot man šonedēļ atbildi. Gaidu.

6. Pēdējā filma, ko tu noskatījies?

Gribēju teikt, ka "Inception", bet tā bija viena no pēdējām, ne pati pēdējā. Varbūt "Into The Wild"? Neatceros. Pirms 1-2 nedēļām skatījāmies vairākas filmas, nu jau aizmirsies, kura bija pēdējā.

7. Pēdējā grāmata, ko tu lasīji?

Vakar iesāku, bet vēl nepabeidzu grāmatu "Black and (A)broad" angliski, ko nopirku no pašas autores - Nīderlandē dzīvojušas amerikānietes.
Pēdējā, ko iesāku un arī pabeidzu? Šķiet, ka Dena Brauna "Zudušais simbols" latviski, ko aizņēmos no vecmāmiņas, kad biju Rīgā.

Tradīcija prasa, ka stafete ir tālāk jānodod trīs cilvēkiem. Nodošu nākamajām pasaules lāpītājam un ceļotājām no AEGEE-Ogre - Agnijai, Anetei un Lindai. Veiksmi!

Secinu, ka man slikta atmiņa uz sīkumiem. Bet varbūt uz nebūtiskām lietām?