wining

thursday was my last day watching trial at the icty. yesterday we went to the icj and watched some of the arguments in a dispute between croatia and serbia. the difference between the icj and the icty was startling, but i suppose that makes sense as there aren't any war criminals at the icj.

last night we invited people from our program over for wine. we ended up with about 10 people, which was a perfect amount for our not-so-large apartment. and, like i said before, it was fun being surrounded by other students interested in studying the same things, as we inevitably start dissecting the proceedings at the icty. it's almost surprising to me how many students are leaving the hague with the perspective that the icty is flawed.

today we are off to haarlem and leiden, neighboring towns. i'd like to eat at the surinamese restaurant near our apartment. it's supposed to be cheap and good.

ground up rocks

after class yesterday, i went home, poured myself a glass of tempranillo, and made myself dinner. my roommates and i then packed my backpack with some beers, and headed down to our beach, to watch the 4 hour sunset.





i still can't get over where i'm living! it's this weird combination of so many places in the world. unfortunately, the wind picked up last night and the sand ground it's way into my eyes. luckily, my classmate had medicated eyedrops that magically turned the bloodshot whites back to the appropriate color.


and everyday in court, we experience some new, unexpected element of the trial. yesterday we watched seselj's trial again. i wrote about him before, referring to the "seselj show" and how he uses the trial to build his political career. this time, he was doing the cross-examination. instead of posing questions to the witness, he manages to give long monologues and answers the questions he poses himself. "didn't croatia begin the war? yes, of course they did." and when the judge stopped him, to explain that he needed to be posing questions and not create new arguments he said, "he doesn't need to answer my question. it's already been answered." search seselj on youtube, i'm sure you'll find some great footage.


currently i'm home for lunch, drinking a cup of coffee. we just finished our last session of watching trials at the icty. tomorrow we will go watched an icj trial between serbia and croatia. fabulous! tonight i'm planning on training up to amsterdam to tour the anne frank house and the red light district. hopefully the sun will come out like it did last night.

the fog of war

on tuesday, we had two incredible speakers, a couple from berkeley, who are defense attorneys. i was inspired by them for several reasons.
1. for the first time this trip, the speakers expressed similar thoughts to mine. while they are critical of the icty and the "international community," they still retained a lot of hope in its potential and in my generation's role in changing it into a more just system.
2. though i've often thought the role of a defense attorney to be one i could do, i struggle with the thought of defending guilty criminals. this couple helped me realize that the role of a defense attorney is different; it is founded on the fundamental belief in providing a just trial. at the icty, few cases are acquitted. this couple was the defense team for one of the only "winning" trials. the prosecution in this case never argued that the defendants were the actual perpetrators of the crime. this is a mistake that many come to the icty with...the belief that the defendants are already guilty. we can see this in the emphasis on bringing justice to the victims.
3. it is not unrealistic to be optimistic.
4. they mentioned the film, the fog of war, viewable at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8653788864462752804, which is great.

Homo Sapiens non urinat in ventum

li10 hours in amsterdam makes for a long and full day.

amsterdam is beautiful. unfortunately, it was raining. but have no fear, we still did rick steve's "amsterdam city walk." about halfway through we stopped at a spectacular cafeteria in one of holland's oldest department store chains, vroom & dreesman. and spent a good deal of time at the flower markt. we also said "hello" to the van gogh museum and the sex museum, and took a canal tour.

before heading home we had dinner at an indonesian dutch restaurant, where we dined on a rijsttafel, a huge assortment of bites.

and this is a block away from where i live...

vermeer

i love how dutch sounds like it has no vowels.

today we* went to delft, a town outside of the hague, and to mauritshuis, a well-known museum in the hague, which houses the girl with the pearl earring. apparently today was all about vermeer.

delft was so quaint and was full of people enjoying the outdoor markt, i.e. flea market. we walked around for several hours, touring both the old and new church, climbing the bell tour, and watching an artisan paint delftware.









at mauritshuis, i got my fill of dutch artwork. we'll see if i "have time" to see the rijksmuseum in amsterdam... there was an excellent exhibit on coorte, who is famous for still-lifes, and i benefitted from the spectacular FREE audioguide. mauritshuis also had several vermeers and rembrandts.

*we refers to myself, ilana, and lisa, my roommates minus one

beers

last night some of us drank beer in plein, a square in the center of the hague. this was the first time we rode into the center since arriving. the hague is a beautiful town! although the center is a bit polluted with mcdonalds, burger king, subway, and kfc. after the boys used the outside urinal, we went back to scheveningen and hung out by the beach at one of the many outdoor bars with fire pits.

the only beers typically on tap are brand and heineken, both lagers, and some kind of weisse beer that i really like. weisse beers are often served with a lemon wheel and a cute little muttler and are not as heavy as many others i've had, but still retain the banana-ey flavor.

this is my apartment

this is our bedroom.

this is our kitchen.

this is our living room.

good coffee doesn't exist in the netherlands

in my apartment, we make breakfast each morning and pack a lunch for court. at the icty, you can pay 25 euro cents for a coffee from the vending machine. it's pretty nasty, but, then again, some people like vending machine coffee. on wednesday, i thought i found the solution. in the cafeteria there is a little coffee stand. with an espresso machine. so i ordered a cappucchino that cost 1.50 euro. i basically paid the guy to push the button on the vending machine.

luckily, in my apartment, we have a teeny tiny coffee maker with a built in filter. after paying the "barista" to push the button on the vending machinge, i opted to buy some coffee grinds at the super market. this proved much more difficult than i had anticipated, but apparently i've learned enough dutch to buy the proper grinds for my machine.

here, the bread you buy for sandwiches is dutch crunch. although maybe they just call it crunch. and italian restaurants are like starbucks here...on every corner. but there are no cafes.

i may not be as idealistic as you might think...

yesterday was a rough day. my roommates and i took the tram to the icty for our first day of court and class. the study abroad office seems to enjoy providing very little information, just to make our experiences that much more enriched. it was a rough day, as we were all jet lagged and had to sit through several hours of introductory lectures and trial. but we ended the day with a welcome dinner at the galleria on the boulevard, an italian restaurant on what is very similar to a boardwalk, minus rides. i then went and had beers with another classmate near my apartment. the bar was super kitchy and beer was only 2.25 each.

today was incredible. we sat through about 4 hours of trial. this trial was for seselj, former president of the serbian radical party. he's being tried for persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, inhumane acts, murder, torture, cruel treatment, and destruction. it was spectacular because, not only is he defending himself, but he is using the broadcasting of the trial throughout serbia for his political benefit. we met with the head prosecutor after court, daryl mundis, who explained that seselj's party is currently creating a coalition with other minority parties, and may be able to take control of the serbian government shortly. additionally, it is believed that he uses the broadcast and court sessions to communicate with his party members and give out orders. moments like these make me question the effectiveness of the icty and, even, the icc. despite these organizations, there still exists little accountability for atrocities throughout the world. and how much does trying men like seselj help the international community? in many ways his political muscle has only gotten stronger.

it's been very stimulating to be surrounded by liberal-minded law students, who are always eager to discuss the problems of the world :) just my kind of folks. unfortunately, there are no eligible bachelors.

throughout trial today i kept pondering, perhaps nancy haley wasn't so crazy afterall...perhaps i could be a prosecutor.

i'm here!

it's 3:30 pm on tuesday, and i'm sitting in my apartment in scheveningen, a beach town outside of the hague. our apartment clearly was originally a portion from a larger home, as the floor plan could be the strangest thing on earth. but we do have a living room with wireless internet, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a large bedroom with 4 twin-sized beds. the ceilings are probably around 20 ft high with elaborate crown molding, and the sun is shining in through the large windows on opposite sides of the apartment. the weather is spectacular...like spring in cupertino :)

my schedule

5/19: leave home
5/20 - 6/4: the hague
[6/3: by now obama is our candidate]
6/4: brussels
6/5: bruges
6/6 - 6/7: paris
6/8 - 6/27: geneva
6/28 - 6/29: lyon
6/30 - 8/1: strasbourg
8/1 - 8/6: garmisch-partenkirchen
8/7: return home