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I'm Not Going Down: Thoughts from Amsterdam

2010-11-19 · John · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · reflection essay

Recounting his sleepless trip from home to Amsterdam, John lists what he loves about the city and says Amsterdam, like all great cities, brims with contradictions that are in all of us, or at least in him.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; leaving home early, Marina drives him to the airport; Atlanta airport's interfaith chapel, Chewbacca portrait

  • ★★ John recounts his departure: up around 5:30, Willy senses he is leaving, he is driven to the airport, and he flies to Atlanta. — 00:00:00 · Willy
  • ★ John says he always looks for interesting places in airports, like Atlanta's tiny interfaith chapel with Mecca's direction inked in, Martin Luther King's Nobel Peace Prize and a Chewbacca portrait. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John's description says Paper Towns is a finalist for a literary prize in the Netherlands, where he travels from Indianapolis. — 00:00:00 · Paper Towns, Netherlands, Indianapolis

00:00:32 — Sleepless nine-hour flight to Munich ('I will not go down'); sunrise from 36,000 feet; pretzel in Munich; flying on to Amsterdam and what he loves there

  • ★★ On the nine-hour flight to Munich John took a sleeping pill that didn't work, never slept, and ended up delirious filming himself in the airplane bathroom. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Seeing the sunrise from 36,000 feet, John reflects that until a century ago no one in human history had ever seen that. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ After landing in foggy Munich and eating a pretzel, John flies on to Amsterdam, which he calls the city he loves most in the world. — 00:00:32 · Amsterdam
  • ★ John lists what he loves about Amsterdam, from its kissing doors, bicycles, canals and fries to its well-balanced citizens and old canal houses, with comic items mixed in. (playful) — 00:00:32 · Amsterdam

00:01:17 — Amsterdam brims with contradictions (red-light district and church, Anne Frank hidden and given up, boats full of water); they are in all of us; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says Amsterdam, like all great cities, brims with contradictions: a red-light district dominated by a church, the city that both hid Anne Frank and gave her up. — 00:01:17 · Amsterdam
  • ★★★ John says Amsterdam's contradictions (an ancient city always under construction, boats that both keep out and contain water) are in all of us, or at least in him. (hedged) — 00:01:46 · Amsterdam
  • ★★ Forgetting he had been awake for 30 hours, John kept walking, grateful to be 'a little boat full of water still floating'. — 00:01:46 > «Grateful to be a little boat full of water still floating.»

Humor (significant)

  • Listing the interesting things he found in Atlanta's airport, from the interfaith chapel to a Chewbacca portrait, John ends with a picture of a lady. — 00:00:00 > «this lady whose knee is apparently delicious.»
  • After a sleeping pill fails on his overnight flight, John films himself delirious in the airplane bathroom. — 00:00:32 > «I'm like a tranquilized elephant. I will not go down. I'm not going down.»
  • Landing in foggy Munich after a sleepless night, John admits he is somewhat worse for the wear. — 00:00:32 > «My mouth tastes like dead rat.»

Threads in this video

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