Alright, I know that two posts in a row without pictures may be sort of dull, but I wanted to write about this before I forgot the details. 

I am in Utrecht, the Netherlands right now, which is a small city about 30 min outside of Amsterdam. Last night we ventured to the outskirts of Amsterdam where we had the fantastic opportunity of meeting with the organization "Women on Waves." I am not sure if I can do them justice in a brief explaination so here is a bit from their website: 

Every 8 minutes somewhere in the world a woman dies needless as a result of illegal, unsafe abortion. In response to this violation of womens human rights and medical need, Women on Waves sails to countries where abortion is illegal. This is done at the invitation of local women's organizations. With the use of a ship, early medical abortions can be provided safely, professionally and legally. Women on Waves aims to prevent unsafe abortions and empower women to exercise their human rights to physical and mental autonomy, by combining free healthcare services and sexual education with advocacy.From the Women on Waves website

So basically, they wanted to think of a creative way to make abortions avaliable to women in countries where abortion is illegal, so they came up with the Abortion Boat. They built a gynecological office in a Pod-like storage unit, which they move onto rented boats. They then sail to countries lacking abortion access, pick up women at shore, and sail out to international waters (about 12 mi out) and perform the abortion. The idea is that since the boat is registered in the Netherlands, Dutch law applies in international waters. 

Not only is their goal to give abortions to women who need them, but it is also to bring public attention to the issue and they usually campaign in places where a local org has asked them to come rile up the issue. In Portugal, only 3 years after Women on Waves campaign, abortion was fully legalized. 

The second aspect of their work is under a different title: Women on Web. Here they provide information about how to obtain Misoprostol, which is available in pharmacies for stomach ulcers, but also starts contractions and can be used to have a safe at-home abortion. For women who have no way of accessing the pill, they have an online questionnaire that resembles the questions asked in a clinic and then a doctor actually prescribes the pill and it is sent to women's homes. 


They also brought up some really interesting statistics, including the fact that more women die from regular child birth than abortions by a large margin and the number of abortions DO NOT go down where abortion is illegal. It was definitely the most inspiring lecture I have heard from an organization yet. They have come up with such unbelievably creative ways to give women access to abortions.


Other than abortions, I am LOVING the Netherlands! Utrecht is much smaller than Berlin and a much easier place to feel comfortable in for such a short period of time. There are also bikes EVERYWHERE (there's even a youtube video about it), which is inevitably comforting for me. It also helps that the Dutch speak perfect English. I am, of course, grateful for the chance to experience a lot of cultural differences, but with moving around all the time it is really nice (and I think well deserved) to be in a place that feels so similar to home--except of course much more beautiful. 


We also have the majority of our lectures here from professors in the University of Utrecht's Gender Studies dept, which is one of the best in Europe, so we are getting to meet some really amazing people and hear incredibly interesting and engaging lectures. 


The only other news I have is that I wrote a piece for a magazine about the Duke Fuck List. Check out the rest of the website too, they are doing some really cool and important work.

For anyone interested, here are the links to my photo albums: Granada, Krakow, and Prague.



I have been in Berlin for over 3 weeks now; what a luxury it is to stay in one place for more than 2 weeks! Berlin is a really thriving and diverse city with incredibly fascinating people and cool things happening all over all the time. It is a nice change from Prague where my neck got stiff from looking up at the old and beautiful buildings all time, but here the beauty is in the eclectic mix of people on the street.

In Berlin I am staying with our program site coordinator who is a Turkish woman who moved to Berlin in 1983 and just happens to be a world renown DJ. On top of that, my program director Iveta explained that Berlin is the queer center of the world and Ipek is the center of that and after 2 1/2 weeks with her I have no trouble believing it. Not only can I not walk on the street with her without someone waving or saying hi, but she is clearly quite the Ladies Lady. Directly after describing herself as newly single, she mentioned having around 3 lovers at the moment. I was "lucky" enough to walk through the main room on my way out while she was starring deeply into the eyes of one of them for at least the three minutes is took me to collect all my stuff, put on my shoes, and leave--quickly! 


The first weekend I was in Berlin, my group got the opportunity to participate in a Queer Theory conference at Humboldt University. Queer theory tends to cover a lot of issues, and I don't always love engaging with some of the theories that are a little closer to outer space than earth (for example, one of the key notes was about the eroticization of rocks i.e. rock sex? I don't know I didn't really get it). BUT despite the fact that I am still unsure whether or not I heard I lecture about rock sex, there were some really interesting lectures given by some of the biggest names in the field. 


The first full week after the conference we had a particularly interesting lecture. We got the opportunity to meet with a sex worker at her apartment. She did not fit the stereotypical image of a sex worker at all. She began working at a heterosexual sex worker at 28 after completing her Masters degree in education. During the next twenty years, she continued working and earned her PhD. Now, she is working as a lesbian escort/lover/sex worker and is also an educator, advocate--it sounds like she attends a lot of national and international conferences on sex work--and considers herself a bona fide "sexpert." It was very interesting to be confronted with such a positive view of sex work. 


In pretty stark contrast to that lecture, the second week we had all of our lectures at Humboldt University from professors in the Gender Studies department there. Fun Fact: Humboldt alum include Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Albert Einstein. 

Tomorrow we leave for Utrecht, the Netherlands. I will be sad to leave Berlin (and have to pack again), but it is nice to have something new to look forward to. 


I will put up some Berlin pictures soon. I hope the Cleveland family had a good Fall Hike. I hear my dad sang...sorry about that :)