Netherlands Study Abroad - Summer 2023 (videos)

ENS and Geography students from UK attended this study abroad offerred through KIIS. Below is one of the food gardens maintained by Groengoed, an organization I coordinated with to allow for students and myself to volunteer to weed, hoe, plant and water. We worked at several gardens around the city over the course of our stay in Rotterdam. Students worked in groups of two to four, and we were often working alongside local residents. You can see some ENS students at the end of the video.

As part of the classes I designed, I arranged for all us to volunteer as docents at a Rooftop Rotterdam event. We were there an entire day on the rooftop of a mall in the Zuidplein neighborhood. These are annual events organized by Rotterdamse Dakendagen. Many thanks to this organization for working us into the event.

Another urban food garden where the students and I worked. This garden was on top of an old train station across from a high school. I hope my bean trellis stood the test of time. Talking to some of the other volunteers from Rotterdam while working was one of the highlights of my trip.

The Netherlands from one end to another is an evolving study in biogeomorphology. This is the view from a lookout in Meijendel, just a little ways outside of Den Hague. We rented bikes in the city and rode out this nature reserve. My Society, Resources and Climate class examined many of the water issues in the Netherlands, including how their water infrastructure is set up to balance demands for (dune-filtered) drinking water, coastal protection, and nature conservation.

ENS students on the bike ride to the dunes of Meijendel near Den Hague.

My favorite cafe on the trip. I only went their once. It's location will remain undisclosed.

On the day we arrived in Den Hague, a protest organized by Extinction Rebellion took place. The goal was to shut down the A12 roadway in order to call attention to government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. There were several thousand people present and in this video I am very much in the rear of the activity. Water cannons were being used to dislodge the protestors down closer to the roadway.

These are the protestors that initially stopped the traffic so that the main protest could take place at a short distance away.

Another one of my favorite days. My partner Laura and I took the train to Haarlem, rented bikes and rode to the beach with a stop to swim in a lake in the dunes. We spent part of the day in Haarlem and this the view from the bench where I happily did nothing on this Saturday morning