The tulips are blooming, and exams are well over. It's time for a Field Trip!
The first, longest, largest Field Trip I ever took part in with the Knowledge Integration program was in 2010, to Amsterdam.
Our first cohort, under the leadership of the late Linda Carson, flew from YYZ to AMS via KLM.
Thirty-plus students, 14 days. What were we thinking?!
The StayOkay Zeeburg hostel was a distance from Museumplein, but was one of the few that would take a group of our size for 14 days.
Of course, being Amsterdam, it was all quite walkable, and the hostel had a bicycle rental shop for those who wanted to practise shouting "Let Op!" at tourists who wandered into the red cycle lanes.
Our first day focus was "stay awake until eight" to try to shift our body clocks into the local timezone.
The first Field Trip almost didn't happen. In March 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, closing Western Europe airspace just weeks before our departure.
We had prepped the students, made the arrangements, spent the money, and now had to explore the world of possible refunds.
Happily, we were able to take advantage of a volcanic-dust-free window of travel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallajökull
An early excursion was to catch the sights of Keukenhof. This yearly burst of colour and fragrance was a balm for those who'd left late winter at home.
Although not strictly a museum, per se, if you look at it with your "museum eyes on," you can find all sorts of display, focus, and didactic elements.
In the search for techniques, customs, and conventions, this was a rich visual and olfactory experience.
May 4 is Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day) in the Netherlands. Many of our students opted to visit the large ceremony in Dam Square, but a few joined us at the smaller service at Westerkerk church, at the Homomonument.
This service commemorates those members of the LGBTQ+ community killed during the Second World War, as well as all who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation.
May 5, in contrast, is Liberation Day, to mark the end of the 1940-45 German occupation.
We spent the day on Museumplein checking out the site for an evening concert, and paid a visit to the Sexmuseum, a unique experience for students and staff alike.
More than mere titillation, the museum offers glimpses into the less-than-pleasant past through to the more liberated present.
One of the excursions that were organized (we did a few while we were learning how to Field Trip), was to the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
The Dutch Open Air Museum joins together snapshots of Dutch life, both ancient and modern, connecting it together with an impressive line of vintage trams.
Some of the group opted to visit the nearby Kröller-Müller Museum. Two for One!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Open_Air_Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kröller-Mülller_Museum
The day after our big excursion, we met in the hostel to discuss what we'd seen so far, and what we hoped to yet see.
While we met, workers outside were finishing landscaping the grounds surrounding the building.
After dinner, the hostel's cafeteria (breakfast, lunch, dinner should you choose) became an impromptu coffee bar, where you could linger and makes plans for the next day.
Some museums were more like shops with attached wunderkammers. The Coffee and Tea Museum was one such: an active shop downstairs, and a somewhat jumbled collection of antiquated equipment upstairs.
Still good fodder for discussion:
What story could you tell with these materials?
Why so many similar items?
How might we tease out differences in the technology?
The canals were a constant companion on our walks between museums. Most were quite active with utility and pleasure boats, while others held disused watercraft and nesting waterfowl.
Where the water was shallow enough, you could also see discarded (no doubt stolen) bicycles.
The 2010 World Press Photo Contest award winners were displayed at the Oudekerk in the centre of town. The ancient church made an excellent open gallery where there was always something to look at.
The first Field Trip was so long that we were there for Mother's Day. A large vase of tulips was at the entrance of the Oude Kerk to provide every visiting mother a flower on the day.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photocontest/2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oude_Kerk,_Amsterdam
Hortus Botanicus, the Amsterdam botanical garden, was a pleasant morning visit, a combination of cool spring outdoors and sticky tropical indoors.
Again, not a typical "museum," but it was comprised of authentic artefacts intentionally displayed in a way that fostered learning.
It had a nice little outdoor cafe too, whose coffee fostered reflection and discussion.
The Katten Kabinet is an art gallery dedicated to all works involving cats, which included multiple works in vivo.
Not a place for the ailurophobe or the allergic, it was nonetheless a pleasant space to while away an hour or two and skritch the ears of the many docents.
All good things must end, field trips and degree programs alike.
We learned a lot that first Field Trip, as did the marvelous students who joined us on it.
Feedback from them: fourteen days is a long time -- for travelling, for staying in a hostel, for examining museums, for spending money -- ten days would be enough.
We spent our last day seeing people off, before heading back to Schiphol for our return flight. Bye AMS, hello YYZ!
@pdmckone Thanks for sharing this ... I graduated from UofW in 1986 and I don't think awesome trips like this were available back then.
As different as Europe was from North America back then, it's even more different now in terms of worker protections and just getting along on a regular salary.
We lived in Denmark for 7 years and came back three years ago. Even post COVID - 500K buys you a nice house in a town like Vejle. And it's renovated and ready to move in, not a fixer upper.
@rhempel The KI program and students were pretty remarkable. It was an honour to work and travel with them.
Europe is eye-opening in terms of what the world can be like when we decide that society is worth contributing to rather than profiting from.
When I graduated, the only trips I can recall were exotic workterm locations and post-graduation adventures. I took part in neither.
I tumbled across this article a while back; it sounds like it was an amazing experience.
https://uwaterloo.ca/news/engineering-alumni/building-imaginations-one-brick-time
Ralph Hempel’s beloved hobby as a child has turned into his dream career as an adult. The 1986 electrical engineering alumnus who spent countless hours playing with LEGO growing up is now employed by the popular building toy company’s home office in Billund, Denmark. As the LEGO Group’s senior firmware architect, he puts to use his over 25 years of experience in designing,
@pdmckone I looked younger 10 years ago :-) It really was an awesome experience.
I happen to be giving a talk on a project I was running at the LEGO Group. It's available today (sorry, it's a paid conference) at:
But I'm happy to give this talk in person pretty much anywhere.
Paul McKone
rhempel