Rotterdam & Leiden
This week I got to see two new cities in the Netherlands. For work, we had our full staff meeting to review the past year and hear from our coworkers about what is working in our office and what needs improvement overall. We had the meeting at my boss’s house and had a nice lunch after at the local harbor. It was great to be with all the IDEA employees and get to hear about their lives and travels, especially since they are all from different countries. The rest of the week I spent continuing my research on the Women as Constitution Makers project still studying natural resource management institutions and diversity of leadership. I also went back through more data for the Climate Assembly research. Later in the week, we had an online “all teams” meeting with the secretary general and the other teams of International IDEA. It was interesting to hear what the other parts of the organization have been working on. One group talked about how they are publishing a book on how elections were impacted by COVID-19 and how to protect elections.
On Friday, after finishing the edits on my Climate Assembly data, I went back to researching natural resource management and added what I studied about different ombudsmen and committees in Thailand. That evening, I went with my coworkers to a rooftop terrace near the office for farewell drinks for our coworker who was leaving. After getting drinks, some of us also walked to buy “frites” together and I tried the “joppie” sauce which I enjoyed (similar to mustard and ketchup together with raw onion. I spent the rest of the night in the “Plein” area of Den Haag with a group of women I had found from a Facebook group. We had a nice time talking together, and I appreciated getting to make new friends from other countries (Pakistan, Poland, and the Netherlands).
On Saturday, I went on a free walking tour of Rotterdam. The modern architecture was an amazing sight. The tour included the sad history of the city too, though, and how the modern architecture exists because of the World War II bombing that took out the “heart” of Rotterdam. The tour guide did a great job explaining what makes the city special—the other members of the tour and I got along really well. Rotterdam’s “cube houses,” market hall, and outdoor market area were some of my favorite sights.A group of us from the tour (a Ph.D. student from the UK, another from Sweden, and an undergraduate student from Norway) ended up going to lunch together. We tried the infamous “herring” fish that is eaten raw by holding it up in the air, and I found it to be much tastier than I had anticipated.
I spent Saturday evening in a different Netherlands city: Leiden. This city has essentially an opposite aesthetic as Rotterdam with its old-fashioned windmill, winding cobblestone streets, and secret courtyards filled with flowers. I loved seeing the canals and going up on a fortress-hill where I could see most of the city from above. Leiden had to be one of my favorite places to visit so far.