Teachers, bars, and condoms

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My Intro to Sexual studies teacher took our class on a tour of the Redlight district on Sunday night. It was a great tour with a lot of insider information and cleared up a lot of misconceptions for me. Random Facts:
-The RedLight district is mostly made up of Eastern European prostitutes with a smattering from South America and West Africa.
-Most of the girls are younger, but supposedly there is a thriving market for older women.
-The majority of the girls are prostitutes by choice, but there are a decent amount that are victims of human trafficking.
-The average price for sex is 50 euro although the government says it should be 75.
-It takes 3-4 customers to earn the money to pay rent for a window.
-The average income is around 200 euro per night if you are attractive and in a good part of town.
-By law, prostitutes should not have to pay money to to the people that own the windows other than rent. However, most of them pay 40%.
-It isn't unheard of for women to be in the trade for 10-15 years.
-Even though prostitution is a job that is protected by the government, sexual health screenings are not mandatory. I thought this fact was especially interesting. I think that many people in the United States who believe that prostitution should be legal, and who use Amsterdam as a model, think that one of the benefits is government mandated/provided health checks. I know I've definitely used that argument. However, its not true. Although there are people that provide low cost health checks to prostitutes, it is not mandatory that they have std screenings.
-There is a hierarchy between the sex show workers and the prostitutes. Sex show workers consider themselves above the prostitutes since they are "performers".
-Proper protocol for walking through the Red Light District: Treat the prostitutes as normal people. I never quite knew what to do when walking through the area. I didn't know if it was more rude to look or to not look; if there was a 'if you're not buying then no previews' sort of policy or if by not looking the prostitutes thought that I thought they were less than human or something. So when walking through the RLD, feel free to make eye contact and smile.
-Prostitutes do not hate their lives. According to my teacher, who has worked with prostitutes for a number of years, they usually treat the profession as a 9-5 job. She said they don't usually have negative feelings for their profession....its just a job to them.

After the tour, our teacher took us out for coffee and drinks which I think is the coolest thing. The student-teacher relationships here are far more casual and laid back than what I'm used to. I could never imagine a professor back home volunteering to take a group of students to a strip club (no matter how educational or relevant) and then out to drinks to intimately discuss our reactions to the sex trade industry.

As for jobs...I'm quasi inquiring/ applying. I've applied to a condom shop (per recommendation by my teacher) and to be a club promoter. Both would be part time jobs and both seem interesting. I've heard back from the club promoter one, but I'm holding out for the condom one since I'm interested in promoting sexual health/education/responsibility.

Today (Monday) nothing much happened. I gave a presentation in my film class and I think it went rather well. I saw a lot of smiling and nodding from my teacher which is a good sign and she also referred back to my presentation a few times while she was giving her lecture. Now I'm in the process of making "dinner". I'm trying not to spend more than 5 euro a day, which leaves me with some interesting food combinations. Breakfast was coffee, peanut butter, and orange and a donut. Lunch was greek yogurt and honey. Now dinner is some sort of rice/milk/honey combination. Don't worry Mom...vegetables generally get in there too.

Oh...I also added pictures to the last entry so check it out.

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