Page 10 - NJC Newsletter 2014-Spring

Mr. Boyer and Class of 2014 participants, Model UN in Leiden
“One last benefit of visiting or even living in Amsterdam, especially for the linguistically challenged, is that pretty much everyone speaks English..”
amsterdam not to be overlooked
It’s been over 30 years since I was last in Amsterdam. It was B.C. (Before Children) as my wife likes to say. However, it didn’t take long for the fond memories of yesteryear to come flooding back.
Perhaps ‘flooding’ is the wrong term to use around Amsterdam as part of this country is actually below sea level and protected by dams - not coincidentally, the main open space downtown is called Dam Square. What a contrast to where our students have travelled from in our equally idyllic setting in Switzerland surrounded by the Jura Mountains and the Alps and glacier-fed lakes.
Ask any inexperienced North American traveller (or any newly-arrived NJC student) what they think of when they think of Amsterdam and invariably the responses will involve the Dutch city’s liberal approach to ‘recreational’ drugs and to prostitution. The famous Red Light District is known throughout the world. But to overlook everything else this city has to offer would be an incredible shame for the uninformed and the uneducated.
Our twelve NJC students crammed in as much as they could in the less than 24 hours they had in this gateway city to Europe, before they moved on to participate in the Model United Nations Event in Leiden, less than half an hour away. Our first stop was the Anne Frank House and Museum,
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Neuchâtel Junior College Magazine