CS newsletter for the Netherlands

[[Wiki.trustroots.org]] is an independent wiki with information for people who are actively exchanging hospitality.

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CS Newsletter for the Netherlands 2010.1

Draft 2nd newsletter

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Bericht over queensday?

Couchsurfers meeting up (rechterbalk)

Queensday

Wie schrijft er een korte introductie over alle activiteiten?

Visit the Deltaworks!

The Dutch know how to manage the water, it's been a constant struggle in the past centuries with the lowpoint being a major flood in 1953 with thousands drowning. Nowadays big dikes keeps the water out succesfully. One of the major accomplishments in the fight against the water is the 'Deltaworks' in Zeeland, in the southwest corner of the Netherlands, with the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier being the masterpiece. The first part of the Deltaworks was built about 50 years ago, and the Eastern Dam was finished in 1986. Check for more information: http://www.deltawerken.com/23

I think both Dutch and foreigners would love to see the Delta works by themselves. For me it's been a while as well, so that's why I'm setting up a meeting event for June 5th. The enthusiasm was overwhelming in the first few days with over 20 people signing up. We are working hard on the program now, but it will include a museumvisit and the visit of the outside structures. It could be a whole weekend event for those who want, with camping, or we could have a night program in a city afterwards. It depends on you as well. Ideas and suggestions are very welcome. So please sign up, and let's make it a fun event! We'll keep you updated then.

Harald

Flash Mobs in the Netherlands

Flash mobs have been taking cities all over the world by storm since around 2003, though until recently they were not common-place in the Netherlands. A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual act for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. At the first ever recorded flash mob 150 people arrived at a flooring shop, claimed to live together in a warehouse and showed interest in buying the same rug. Exactly 10 minutes later the crowd suddenly disappeared.

Reading about this first flash mob inspired me to research the phenomenon. As I sat captivated by videos of flash mobs on Youtube, the idea of organising one in my home city became increasingly exciting. Admittedly it took a bit of work, but within a few weeks eager participants were signing up on Couchsurfers, Hyves and Facebook.

The afternoon went off without a hitch. At the appointed time on Saturday 20th February 2010 the signal was given. Couchsurfers ran out of shops, jumped up from benches, suddenly stopped window shopping, and got down on their knees and fanatically worshiped a small statue in the busy shopping area of Rotterdam. Passers by looked on with confusion and surprise, as the mob disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. You can find “Worship the Sock Bears” on Youtube. Our after party proved highly successful as Rotterdam’s Tiki Bar kindly agreed to open early for us.

If you’ve ever been part of a flash mob you’ll know the immense amount of fun involved. If you haven’t yet, don’t fear, there are many more entertaining events looming on the horizon. On Saturday 3rd April at 15:00 there will be massive pillow fights worldwide! The pillows of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, along with over 120 other cities will be celebrating together as never before. Interested? Check out our group

Hazel

Couchsurfers’ Music Exchange: Different cultures different music styles

During my Australasian half-year-in-between-jobs I’ve encountered it several times: backpackers I randomly met that have the best suggestions of music I might like after listening to some of my stuff on my ipod. Of course you’re somewhere dodgy and that’s exactly the point where you are being pushed into another rundown bus and you forget to write down the artists and titles of the songs your musical muse told you. You tell yourself you’ll remember it till you find pen and paper. An hour later you completely forget about it.

That’s how the idea of the Couchsurfers’ Music Exchange started: it’s a meeting where CS listen to other CS’ music and give “if you like this you might also like”-type of suggestions. (besides writing down some tracks themselves, of course). To keep it civilized nothing is actually copied on the spot (except for some open source tracks). The first meeting took place the 1st of March at the “La Place” on the top floor of the OBA (library) near Amsterdam Central. A happy and culturally diverse group of around 15 people brought their laptops, ipods, headphones and harddrives to share their taste in music. A combination of hip-hop, electro, lounge, classical music, dutch music and bollywood was the outcome. The atmosphere was open and relaxed; a beautiful start of a monthly little festival of music lovers.

The next one will be held Thursday 1st of April at the same spot. Keep an eye on the Couchsurfing events calendar for more info.

Victor

Arnhem Calling?

Sytse gaat op zoek naar iemand die een verhaal wil schrijven

Bowling meetings

Astrid schrijft een stukje

Midsummernight in the park

Wil er iemand iets leuks over schrijven?

Small meeting?

Wil er iemand iets leuks over schrijven?

Meeting in Zwolle?

Vind enkele dagen voor de deadline plaats, is het nog mogelijk er iets over te schrijven?

News from Cs Netherlands (rechterbalk)

CS Eindhoven in Elsevier

More and more media are noticing Couchsurfing, after 3opreis, Arnon Grunberg in NRC and many more also Elsevier found our about couchsurfing. Read here a article about a CS event in Eindhoven

wellicht nog iets naar aanleiding van de volgende CS NL meeting

nieuwe ontwikkelingen

hopelijk zijn de vernieuwingen van het ambassadeurs-systeem bekend en kunnen we een oproep plaatsen voor nieuwe ambassadeurs

Nomadic adventures (linkerbalk)

Do you have a nice travelstory? Tell us!

Sytse heeft contact gezocht met een interessante surfer Jasper gaat nog contact zoeken Zie voorstel vragen in de newsletter werkgroep

Standaardvragen

1. How did you find out about Couchsurfing?

2. How do you combine travelling with your professional life?

3. What is the most special experience you ever had through couchsurfing?

4. What is the most special place you ever visited?

5. What is your favourite means of travel?

6. What should every traveller bring in his/her suitcase?

7. Which traveller should we interview in the next newsletter?

Hitchhiking from Bremen to Stockholm

Check the weblog of Tommy for more.

I hitchhiked up to Stockholm, because the only home I have is the road. It took me three days to get to Stockholm for one reason, and one alone: Some hitchhiking places in Sweden suck. It took me a while to realise that in Scandinavia on-ramps with your thumb out are actually better than their gas stations which are often at least a km from the highway, small, and frequented by locals, not long-distance drivers.

The first day of the hitch up was really lucky. Even though it ook me 3 or 4 hours to get out of Bremen, right before Kiel I met Jørg. Jørg was a german from Dortmund, moving to Sortland, up north in Norway (Yeah, it's pretty far up). He had all his stuff with him and he was taking the ferry from Kiel to Gøteborg, and since he was paying the same amount regardless of the amount of people in his car, he had no problem taking me along.

photo My free bed on the right. Jørg on his on the left.

The next day, the ferry docked at 9 and by 9 30 we were on our way North, where I got stuck for a long time before moving on to Karlstad, where I pulled some strings to stay a night with Elina's boyfriend's friend's neighbor. (Elina being my host in Stockholm, whom I hadn't met yet, technically making Marion Carel's friend's boyfriend's friend's neighbor. Then of course true to my nature, I left the very instrument used for the pulling of aforementioned strings (read: my phone) in Karlstad.

So after a romantic 5 days in Stockholm, I ha to pick up my phone again and finally go home. No way was I going to find an excuse to spend even more time in a meter of snow.

Exotic couches (linkerbalk)

Do you have a nice hosting story? Tell us!

Couchpicture

Who can beat 8 people?

Interview with a 'exotic host'

From now on every newsletter we want to introduce you to a host in the Netherlands. This edition we'll start with Gerard in Bergschenhoek, near Rotterdam.

1 How did you find out about Couchsurfing?

In September I read an article about CS in a local newspaper. I got interested and informed myself at an experienced Couch-Surfer: Urbian Fitz-James. He talked so enthusiastic that I made a CS profile myself the same evening.

2 What makes your couch special?

My guest(s) get their own room: I have a guestroom with a nice bed next to the bathroom. I prefer one or two guests at a time, so I can give them as much attention. I wanna be social with my guests: We have the meals together and I show them around. I live between Rotterdam and The Hague; also Delft and Gouda are quite close by. I love to tell them about the Dutch history, culture and way of thinking: liberal and independent. I show them the typically Dutch landscape 'polder below sea-level' and let them taste Dutch specialties as 'stroopwafel', 'kroket', 'drop' and 'poffertjes'.

3 Tell about a special person you hosted?

In 2008 I was Couch-Surfing myself in Brazil. I also visited the Amazon's-region, with Manaus as capital. There, in the jungle, I found a Couch-Surfer: André, a guy of 21, who picked me up from the airport, helped me as much as he could and showed me around. This young man spoke: Dutch! He visited our beautiful country already three times, each time several weeks, and fell in love with the Netherlands. In January 2009 he stayed at my place for three weeks and we had a wonderful time together. We still have contact.

4 What place near your couch would you recommend everybody to visit?

A very nice small town is Delft: very Dutch, full of history, lots of things to see and to do. I love to show my guests around at the 'grote markt', and tell them about the royal graves in the 'Nieuwe Kerk', Hugo de Groot, Vermeer and the old houses and town-hall. There are nice bars, restaurants, souvenir-shops and terraces in Delft.

5 What do you like to see in a good couchsurf request?

In a good Couch-Surf request the guest writes about himself (or herself) and tells me why he wants to come to the Netherlands. I always give newbies the favour of the doubt and welcome also young starters in our CS community.

6 Which sort of guests do you prefer?

I prefer guests who don't come for the red-light district and the cannabis! I love guests who are interested in the Dutch way of living, way of thinking, culture and who wanna let them show around. Guests who let me decide where to go, see the most and have the nicest time.

7 Which host should we interview in the next newsletter?

I suggest to interview Urbian Fitz-James, mentioned before. He made me enthusiastic and helped me the first year with advice and recommended me as starting host at guests.

Standaardvragen

1 How did you find out about Couchsurfing?

2 What makes your couch special?

3 Tell about a special person you hosted?

4 What place near your couch would you recommend everybody to visit?

5 What do you like to see in a good couchsurf request?

6 Which sort of guests do you prefer?

7 Which host should we interview in the next newsletter?

Place unknown

Casa Merode, a CS house in Tilburg. It's a house with 5 students who are all active on CS. There's a Wiki-page about it and it's got its own group on CS.

http://wiki.couchsurfing.org/en/Casa_Merode http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=22894&showpage=1

traveltip (linkerbalk)

Get a phone without SIM-lock and get a new SIM-card whenever you enter a country in which you plan to stay for over 5 days. It saves you (and your CS-hosts) loads of money.