At least when you look at what the guys from Postgraduate Type & Media are doing. Yesterday, they had their last pre-presentation before the final one in June. And let me tell you, this isn't some cheap-ass modular font stuff that can be done in three days – this is the real thing: making letters from scrap, forming each one individually, searching for perfect angles, curves and legibility. When you see all the things that you have to watch out for, hence how much effort is involved, you come to understand why it takes at least a year to make a worthy font.

Two days ago the fire alarm in my apartment building went off for the first time since I've lived here, probably having permanently damaged my eardrum. Running in to the hall I then saw what had caused the trouble: my neighbors had decided to make a midnight snack at 1 o'clock at night. Something must've gone awfully wrong as their whole apartment was full of smoke, the girl stood outside being sorry for the noise while her boyfriend was trying to 'make it go away'. Luckily after a while the high pitched ringing stopped. Still wondering how you could produce so much smoke while cooking, I made pasta yesterday. I think subconsciously I was trying to copy that very event amd at one point I could barely see my window. Luckily the alarm didn't go off as I immediately opened all windows and the door to produce a draft. But now the whole flat still smells like salami...

Today I was on my way to go grocery shopping when I passed one of the big squares here in Den Haag crowded with people. There appeared to be some sort of street soccer tournament going on. As it turned out it wasn't an ordinary tournament but the Dutch Homeless Cup. Yupp, it's exactly what it sounds like. Would have loved to watch, but when I arrived, the last game had just finished. Still, a nice idea.

Yeah, I'm still here. Just living a really messed up life right now. Either I'm working my ass off in totally unnecessary 8 hour night sessions just like in 1st year or I'm slacking hardcore for two days straight. As you might imagine these two states are mutually dependent – I usually start with the slacking off part, which then leaves me no choice but to put too much work into too short amounts of time, which then results in me having to recover from the exhausting designing shift. It's my own fault really. Gotta get a 'natural' rhythm a.s.a.p.

And how are these two greatly differing time periods spent?

A) Updating my portfolio – worst job ever – in order to finally be able to call some agencies/bureaus for an internship. Organizing all sorts of scholarships and such for exactly that. Working on typography. Working on my concept design. Working on calligraphy. Working on my font.

B) Finishing the second season of the highly addictive Dexter. Starting the first season of Arrested Development. Sleeping. Endless hours of surfing on the internet. Cooking. Working out. Running (started yesterday, now I can't climb stairs anymore). Occasionally grabbing a coffee with friends or going for drinks. Thinking about why I'm not spending more time outside.

Pretty sad, huh?

This time I spend the afternoon/evening with Alice who was visiting her grandma in Holland's capital. Again quite a lot of walking, but a bit more relaxed than last time as temperatures were nice and springy and we didn't constantly have to take cover from hail storms inside textile shops ;)

After she'd picked me up from the train station and I had satisfied my hunger with an extremely overpriced shawarma we strolled through the city for some time and had some coffee in a very nice corner bar. The latter seemed to be a popular local after-work place as from about 6 it started getting more and more packed with thirsty dutch workers. The last half hour there I was also 'occupied' by the bar cat, who had chosen my lap as a nice place for a nap. After leaving we only made it another 200m until we stopped to look at a shop window. The people inside saw us and waved us in.

It turned out the shop was an old butchery being used by a couple of artists as a temporary exhibition place called Gallery Shaap and that night was an 'unofficial opening'. A very cool, run down location with lots of charm. As we were told, there's an organization in Amsterdam which gives artists and the likes old rooms, office spaces or shops for free for a couple of months before they're demolished or rented out again in order to avoid squatting (Hausbesetzung). Pretty cool idea actually.

To make a long story short: Alice and I ended up staying for almost three hours – having a couple of beers, looking at the work, making CD covers, signing the guest book and first and foremost having some very nice chats with the laid back bunch of Thomas Reineke (who a.o. made sculptures out of broken car wind schields), Jacob Plooij (who is also a professional violin player), Vilbjørg Broch and Jennette Snape with Thomas being the only 'real' Dutchman. Jacob and Jennette are originally from Australia, Vilbjørg – who by the way was pretty damn drunk as it seemed – from Denmark.

All in all, simply a good time with a good friend, nice chats and some sightseeing on the side which came to an end after another long stroll through the dark alleys of Amsterdam, two dutch 'frikadeller' – weird mutants out of hamburger patties and bratwurst –, a quick goodbye and a 40 minute ride back to Den Haag.

After a short stop at home to take a shower and rest for a few minutes, I went to Kate's and Rebecca's place for an extreme chilling session including lots of red wine (took me all day today to get rid of the headache), some good ol' sheesha smoking with nice melon flavored tobacco sponsored by Ege and some classic drunk games like 'Who Am I' and 'Chinese Whisper' (Stille Post), the latter being especially funny with the high number of foreigners present.

Also kinda sad as maybe the last night I spent with that many people from my class all at once, as they're now all off to their internships and we – the exchangies – will be joining up with the other half of the class, who is now coming back from theirs. We'll see how that goes. Everyone keeps telling us, that they're the more 'serious' ones and not as fun as the people we've been with now...

Anyways, at two, about the time everyone started falling asleep, I left, dragged my drunk ass back home – luckily not being stopped by any police, I heard they're tough here – and finally got my 12 hours of straight sleep :)

After my friends left I took the Saturday off to relax a bit more and gradually shift my focus back to school work. After all, I only had six days left to finish that large scale project of mine and even though my concept was finished and I knew what I had to do, there were still thousands of little things waiting to be done.

As we didn't have any classes anymore last week, we were forced to work the final stages of the project completely on our own, without feedback. Risky business for those who still weren't sure where exactly they'd be heading. Anyways, I slowly got back into the groove over the weekend and starting Monday I was working at least 12 hour shifts each day to get my stuff done. As usual, pushing all important decisions back way too far, which then resulted in having to deal with them all at once. But it worked out. Even though the last two days were maybe two of the most intense since the Meloni-panic-nights, I had to drop a couple of details due to lack of time, I actually got blisters on my fingers from cramping up too much on my pen and my lungs almost gave up to the combined forces of spraypaint, fixativ, glue fumes and a cold virus, I finished my maybe most well-structured and thought through conceptual/visual project up to this date *blingbling* (pics will also follow). Honestly, with this thing my time here at KABK has already payed off :)

The presentation on Friday morning was quite an experience. Everyone was overfatigued, tense and edgy like hell. Some almost snapped prior to their turns and several of the girls actually broke down crying after their presentation. But to be honest, it's understandable given the fact, that this showing of their work determined if they would pass the third year or if they'd have to repeat it. In addition, it is quite intimidating to present your work to a total of 7 (!) profs all at once, plus a changing number of students in the background – the quality of the work by the way varying but overall quite high.

For me it all went down relatively smoothly – despite a horrible start, skipping almost 20% of my concept and sometimes taking ages to find the right words (but hey, like everyone else I was just tired and exhausted). Still, maybe it was a little easier for me simply because I didn't have the same pressure on my shoulders as everyone else. Plus, I was already so happy with my project, I think not even a bad critique could've brought me down. Luckily that didn't happen, all the teachers really liked it (except one of the typography girls, who didn't quite get it and thought it wasn't 'serious' enough) and I got lots of good feedback. And unlike Copenhagen where everything was always 'good', it actually means something here – believe me, the dutch teachers don't spare with tough critique and harsh words if you didn't reach their standards or they think you haven't worked hard enough. And they also don't go easy on the exchangies as Cecile and Ege had to experience painfully...

After everyone was done. We had to wait for two hours for the teachers to finish the evaluations (I went home to catch an hour of desperately needed sleep) and then everyone was called to their table to get their results. Some more crying, some people getting small extra projects which they now have to finish in order to pass but also lots of smiles and sighs of relief. Again, I only got to hear good things about my stuff – the only problem now being, that I have to live up to everyone's expectations for the upcoming projects ("Looking forward to what you'll be doing next." – aaaargh!!) At about 8 in the evening it was all over and we could finally go home. Here some impressions of the work chaos I had left there.

Shiiiiiiiit. Sorry my blogging hasn't really been too frequent lately but damn, those were two busy weeks.

As you know, I had some friends from Germany over the week before last week. It was very cool seeing some familiar faces for a change and being able to talk in mother tongue – totally worth the absolute chaos that five people lived in over the course of five days (with only one 2sqm bathroom!). And even though I still had to go to university on two of those days, it all worked out and we/they were actually able to cram quite a program into that week:

sightseeing in Den Haag – unsuccessful searching for a cool restaurant and instead settling for dutch fast food – a visit to a big ass water park that was supposed to be relaxed but ended up somewhat unnerving due to hordes of little kids, german tourists and outdated facilities (we would've left after one hour, but we payed 12 bucks each so we better damn enjoyed it for two!) – a day trip to Amsterdam – a surreal but fun photo shoot – a very wet and windy beach walk – chilled out cooking sessions, even though we had way too little space to eat – and three nights in a row of relaxed Texas Hold'Em, repeatedly ending in everyone getting their asses beat by either Tim or Saskia

All in all, even though it threw me back a bit in my school work, I was kicked out of my own bed for four nights and it took me almost three hours to restore order in my room ;) it was really cool having the guys and girls over to take my mind off things for a while. See ya'll in May!

Trip to the capital: Lots of walking, lots of watching, lots of rain + hail, lots of sunshine. Hours in textile shops, lunch at a gay bar, pizza at home. Items bought: 50m of cloth, 1 beard trimmer, 1 remote controlled toy car, one jeans (almost). At the end of the day: totally pooped.

The Germans are here! And look at the mess they made...

Today I had to skip Calligraphy as there was a presentation of half of the 6th semester students. They introduced the agencies/bureaus where they did their 3 month internship (dutch: stage, spoken staash) and showed the projects they worked on while being there. Pretty neat idea, gives you an overview of who is out there and what is possible. Maybe worth introducing back home at the H_DA.

Furthermore there was another lecture at the Zeebelt Theater yesterday evening, again organized by Zefir7. This time with one third of 75B, a Rotterdam based design studio, presenting a retrospective of their work over the past ten years as well as their most recent project. Although I didn't get much again due to my crappy dutch skills, I understood a bit more than last time. At least enough to realize, that this guy was one of the most cynical designers I've ever seen. Well among the ranks of a certain Mr. Baum...