The thing about being a novice anthropologist, a novice anything really, is that you have to figure a lot of things out for yourself. Doing research, 'fieldwork', is like this too. Sure, we're all required to take methods classes before we are turned loose to get to the real work, but reading about things like interviews, life histories, kinship charts, and of course, ethical dilemmas, is nothing like actually doing this mysterious stuff we call fieldwork. At least, that's how I'm finding it. Shy by nature, I've never been one to just start talking to people on the street, unless it's to be helpful, like asking or giving directions. I asked some colleagues what I'm supposed to be doing, and among all the helpful answers came the classic response to the anthropologist's dilemma: When in doubt, map the city and make kinship charts.

So, here I am, one little Canadian, trying to figure out what's going on in a land that lies mostly below sea level, in a city where streets alternate between ridiculously picturesque and shockingly seedy, where the locals will always speak English to you and aren't necessarily from Amsterdam themselves, and where really interesting things have been happening politically and socially, not least of which being the national rise in far-Right/ nationalist political views and increasing concerns over the status and place of (non-Western) immigrants in contemporary Dutch society. So, what does it mean to belong in a place like this?