helpful people!

The more people I meet here, the more I realize how helpful people in general can be. There are certainly times when I am apt to gripe about people not returning emails (maybe it's more of a phone culture here?), but in everyday interactions most people seem keen to have a discussion about my research, or pass on some names of people I should contact, or offer to put me in touch with people or organizations. It's amazing!

Like today, I had a meeting with the good people at Hart voor Amsterdam since I want to volunteer to help with their Native Speakers Project. This is a really cool project that gets volunteers (mostly expats who are native English speakers) involved in helping 'at risk' youth learn and/or improve their English language skills. I thought doing some volunteer work would be a good way to get involved with different people in Amsterdam, feel like I'm doing something productive and useful with my time that gives back in some way, gets me out of the house at a decent hour at least once a week, and hopefully puts me in contact with people who can help my own research. While most of those items would be easy to check off, I knew the last bit might be tricky to do (and I did/ do have some ethical concerns about the whole volunteer/ research thing, but will just have to pay attention to that as the story unfolds...). But, much to my surprise, the lovely woman I chatted with this afternoon offered to help put me in contact with lots of people and organizations connected through Hart voor Amsterdam. I didn't even have to ask!

Of course, helpful people show up in a lot less formal situations as well. This is the nature of fieldwork, and I suppose a dilemma faced by most anthropologists at some point or other. Every event can count as research, regardless of one's state of, um, sobriety... On Saturday I had a good evening visiting people for drinks in Utrecht before coming back to Amsterdam to a very fun house party. I talked to a lot of people that night about many different things, I am sure, but (unfortunately?) over quite a few adult bevvies. Socially: a great night. Social anthropologically speaking: a learning experience, if not quite a success. The jotted note of people and places to check out that I found in my pocket on a kind of fuzzy-headed Sunday morning (written by a new friend in Utrecht on her own handy notepaper) has reminded me of the importance of carrying small little notebooks or bits of paper around at all times, because no matter what I am getting up to, I never quite leave the 'field' and helpful people are everywhere.