Field Research In Marken

These are all pictures of Marken, where we did our tourism questionnaires in the Netherlands.
Marken actually used to be an island, until a causeway was built connecting it to the mainland.





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It's snowing in Haarlem again! Looking out the window, it's been going on and off all day. A few days ago we had a thunderstorm at 4am in the morning, which woke everybody up. It looks like we've been getting some ugly weather out from the North Sea...

So last week! The face-to-face questionnaires in Marken were a success, although to be honest, it was a bit of a challenge for me. We decided as a group that to get the best results from the locals in Marken, the questionnaires should be in Dutch. Right. So this meant that our group of 6 split up into pairs of 2, with every pair having at least one native Dutch speaker. We went to tourism businesses in Marken, as well as asking people in the street. Since it was a wet and windy day both days we were there, we decided that the best way to get as many responses as possible was to go door to door.

So I tagged along with my partner, and she introduced us and our project every time, and asked the locals if they would like to participate in our research. I felt like I was there for moral support more than anything, as I couldn't really help administer the questionnaires haha. But...I've picked up some more handy phrases, which I repeated almost the whole time we were in Marken: "Goedemiddag, ik kom uit Canada, ik spreek engels..." (good afternoon, I'm from Canada, I speak English...)

After our field research in Marken, we decided that it would be useful to create online questionaires to send to the tourism businesses that we weren't able to contact. For those people at Malaspina: surveymonkey saved the day! I ended up transcribing our Dutch questionnaires into surveymonkey, and later sent it off to the tourism businesses. If you'd like a look at this survey, here's the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=rTC_2bu1aOZ1ssFIQLWTShNQ_3d_3d

Please don't actually fill in this survey though, because it will skew our results :)

A friend took pictures of Marken herself while we were there, if I can get the pictures then I'll post them here.

Research Proposals!

The last two weeks have been mostly busy with school work and group projects. We have been working on two research proposals, one for the region of Marken in the Netherlands and the other for the city of Genadendal in South Africa.

Marken is located in the province of Noord-Holland, the same as Amsterdam. It takes maybe one hour by bus to travel to Marken from Amsterdam. Marken used to be an island, until a causeway was built to connect it to the mainland. It's a major tourist attraction, with lots of tourists coming in the summer months to see the unique wooden houses in Marken. Here's a link with some pictures of the area: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Netherlands/South/
Noord-Holland/Marken/

So basically, we made a research proposal in our group, to measure the impact of tourism in Marken on locals. We want to see what kind of effects the tourists have on locals, and we made two separate questionnaires. One is for those people directly involved in the tourism industry, so we'll go to hotels, and restaurants, and attractions. The other survey is for people not directly involved in the tourism industry. We'll find these people once we're in Marken, and this second survey is only in Dutch. This Monday and Tuesday, our project group will be in Marken giving face-to-face surveys, so the results are in quickly. On Wednesday we'll compare the results of the two groups, and even try to compare them statistically with SPSS! Let's hope I still have my notes from Statistics class...

Genadendal (pronounced: HHHay-NA-den-doll) is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, built on the site of the oldest mission station in the country (so says Wikipedia). This is really interesting, because this past November, the first group of students from InHolland traveled to South Africa and went to Genadendal and other communities. These students carried out initial research, which we will be following up on when we go in April. The research proposal that I've been working on with my project group is looking at the extent to which tourism development plans have been successfully implemented in Genadendal. One of the problems is that often there are lots of great tourism ideas, but these ideas are never fully carried out. Our research wants to find the reasons why.

One of the girls that went to South Africa in November gave us a presentation in class. Here is a youtube clip of when their bus got stuck in the mud in Swaziland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ByqB56sOE

So I'm getting excited about Africa! I will be traveling with a group of about 7-8 other students, and we will be flying from Amsterdam Schiphol airport on the 19 of April. We'll be in Swaziland and South Africa for 27 days altogether, which is when we will be holding interviews and conducting our research. We will be staying in a variety of places, including homestays, hotels, and hostels. Some of our stops include Soweto, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Capetown, and other smaller communities.

I will be getting my vaccinations next week for Hepatitis A and DPT, as well as picking up malaria pills. Most of South Africa is not at a high risk for malaria, but we will be entering a park in the North in Swaziland that most travel agencies recommend bringing pills for.

I recently received confirmation from the South African embassy in Den Haag that if I'm traveling on a Canadian passport, then I don't need any Visas or residence permits for South Africa, if I'm staying less than 3 months. I still have to check the details for Swaziland, though.

Exciting!

Vacation Week

This week was vacation week, kind of like Spring Break. No class! So, I went to Amsterdam a few times with friends to keep busy. The picture above is 'the Dam', or Amsterdam Square. Did you know...? New York city in the United States used to be called New Amsterdam, because the original colonisers there were Dutch. This is also why there's a Harlem in New York. The name of the city was later changed to New York because of the English who came after, but for some reason they didn't change the name of Harlem. The Dutch here keep reminding me about how they first owned New York...


It wouldn't be a trip to Amsterdam without the Red Light District, Erotic Museum, and Sex Museum. Although prostitution here is legal, the Dutch government is actually trying to close down a lot of the businesses that have the women in the windows. It's an interesting case study on how the Dutch government is trying to shift it's tourism image away from the "red-light city". It's hard to say if they'll be successful.


Shopping in Rotterdam. I took a day-trip with friends to Rotterdam and Den Haag, which is maybe a 30-40 minute train ride to the south. Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed in one of the World Wars, and as a result is a very modern city today. There are almost no older buildings in Rotterdam. It reminded me a lot of Vancouver, actually. The picture above is an underground shopping centre.




Stroopwafels!!! (pronounced: strope VAW-fulls) This is a Dutch delicacy....two really thin crepes stuck together with caramel in the middle.....mmm. You can buy them fresh at vendors like this, and usually during market days.


A group shot of us overlooking the waterway in Rotterdam. I'm not sure if this is true, but Dutch people have been telling me that Rotterdam actually has the biggest port in all of Europe...true or not, it's still impressive. This is another similarity with Vancouver.




After Rotterdam, we hopped back on the train to Den Haag (the Hague). This is the political capital of the Netherlands, and also the headquarters of the International Criminal Court. The building above is one of the government buildings.


The guy on the horse is the first king of the Netherlands. Today, there is a Dutch monarchy similar to the British one. It's mostly just a ceremonial position.

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And now....for some Dutch lessons! Actually, I took the train this morning from Amsterdam and I was very proud of myself. I had my first conversation all in Dutch!

Me: "ummm hoi, alles goed?"
-->pronounced: hoi, ALL-is hhhhoot?
-->translation: hello, how are you?

Train station attendant: "Ja alles prima, en met jou?"
-->pronounced: yaw, ALL-is prima, en met yow?
-->translation: I'm great, and you?

Me: "prima, dank. Ummm spoor voor Overveen?
-->pronounced: prima, dahnk. spore fore O-fur-FANE?
-->translation: Good, thanks. Platform for Overveen?

T.S.A: "ja, spoor twee-A."
-->pronounced: yaw, spore TVAY-ah.
-->translation: yes, platform 2-A.

Me: "ok, dank je wel"
-->pronounced: ok, dahnk yeh vel.
-->translation: ok, thanks a lot.

T.S.A. "als je blieft"
-->pronounced: ALL-syeh-bleeft.
-->translation: you're welcome.

Wow, I'm almost fluent now.