alissapajer

Yesterday I went on a Yellow Bike Tour of Amsterdam.
Today I ate the best apple pie ever at the cafe De Winkel.
Tomorrow I will leave for Berlin at 4:30 in the morning.

I created a conceptual map of Amsterdam that maps the areas in the city that have the highest concentrations of bicycles. I began my walk at what I call “bicycle central,” which is a four-floor parking garage for bicycles next to Centraal Station. Per square meter, this spot has the highest concentration of bicycles in […]

1) I went to the movies today and saw Snakes on a Plane. When I bought my ticket, I had my first real conversation in Dutch with the man at the cash register. The conversation went like this:
Alissa: “Snakes on a Plane”
Man (in Dutch): “Will you pay for that in cash?”
Alissa: “Ja”
Man hands ticket to […]

Today I visited the Waag Society, which is a research and production institution that focuses on the implications and uses of new media in education, culture, and the public domain. The directors of the Waag Society shared some of their past and current projects with us, and in turn, we told them about our current […]

The beginning. I did laundry this morning, and now my clothes are clean. But if it were not for the help of a nice woman in the laundromat my clothes would still be dirty. The setup of the laundromat was different than any laundromat I had been in before. To pay for your laundry, all […]

This evening I embarked on another Ultimate adventure. I went to the first winter practice of Crunch. The practice was in the evening and outdoors under the lights. When I left my hotel to walk to the field, I could see stars in the sky; there was no sign of rain anywhere. But shortly after […]

When you drive out of Amsterdam into the countryside, there are cows and sheep everywhere. The city ends abruptly; vast fields take the place of the crooked buildings, and it is impossible to tell that the city lies just a few kilometers away.
Today I went into the countryside to play Ultimate at a local tournament. […]

I like to watch people dance because I like how the human body moves. While I watch people dance, often I forget that I am watching live people; I see them as three-dimensional figures, not as as fellow human beings. Yesterday evening I watched people dance in Carmen, a ballet performed at the Muziektheater.
The theater […]

This afternoon I took a five hour walk around Amsterdam. I don’t know exactly where I went, and I like it that way. I find it hard to enjoy a city if I am constantly looking at a map. If I have to reach a specific destination at a specific time I will look at […]

Yesterday I did the tourist thing and ran around London with my digital camera. I took lots of photos of Big Ben and the Thames River. There are a lot of strangers in my photos. I like to think about how many times I am in the background of other people’s tourist photos.
During the past […]