: topic:Life Abroad (DH)

Hup Holland Hup

ccseabass — 2009-04-10T23:54:00Z

And here's part two of my seven day journey. I'm gonna keep it bullet point style, else I'd have to write a friggin' novel. All of the following by the way without once having inhaled THC induced smoke. This better not mean I'm 'growing up' or something...

Late arrival. Blow up difficulties. Midnight talkin'.
Extended breakfast. Strolling through the capital. Pillow fighting. German-spanish conversations. Lots of vodka. Empty club tristesse. Full club fun. Cheap beer and cigarettes. Neck-breaking beats. Almost neck-breaking bike ride home.
Lazy sunday at the park. Partially cloudy. KFC. TV. Sushi, mmmh.
Den Haag, take one. Seeing familiar faces. Courtyard chilling. Café chilling. Screen print room chilling. Seemingly nothing has changed. Reminiscing. Long ride home. Korean noodles from back in the days.
Rotterdam, here I come. Two broken headphones. %$&@!. Cruisin' through town on small bicycles. Hideous accumulation of architecture. Coke and apple pie. Bad case of cat allergy (first time). Wine at Cécile's. Beers at De Witte Aap. Intimate details. Short night.
Slow start. Dark grey skies and rain. Wine hunting in miserable conditions. Miscommunication. Long walks on empty roads. Tired. Improvised franconian dinner the Sauerkraut didn't go well. Comedy channel.
Den Haag, take two. More familiar faces. Cutting prints. Folding prints. Carrying loads of cardboard. Sense of creative energy. Sense of 'stuff happening'. Sense of belonging. Feeling like I've never left. Short good-byes. Even shorter good-byes. In a rush. Creepy KLM check-in. Back in Oslo. Happy? I don't know.

Thank you Saskia, Cécile, Siebe, Ben, Claudia, Rebecca, Kate, Hae-Won, Fleur, Gauke, Barbara, Susan, Dylan and a couple more for the hospitality, the long conversations as well as the short encounters, the drunkeness and the many laughs. Really hope to be back soon...

THIS... IS SPARTA!

ccseabass — 2009-04-10T23:08:00Z

Back from NL with the first of two updates. While over there, Saskia and me attended the World Pillow Fight Day in Amsterdam last Saturday. Even though we didn't participate due to lack of pillows and urge to rather take pictures, it was still loads of fun :D Fifteen minutes prior to the start it didn't look like much was gonna go down, so few people had shown up until then. But then pillow fighters from all over gradually sneaked in and made for a feathery mayhem see for yourself. Next time I'm definitely joining the action...

A Funkanimal In Den Haag

ccseabass — 2008-06-12T15:33:00Z

My good friend Falko came to visit for a couple of days and we covered quite a program from 7:30 on Monday morning to 6:00 on Thursday morning:

Chilling final presentations at school lunch chilling beach Holland vs. Italy at a crummy local bar with lots of beer, chips and fresh herring beach snacking at a night kiosk sleep breakfast chilling 'photo shoot' with Cécile tour of Den Haag snacking at Havanna coffee shop good dinner chilling sleep Amsterdam Grand Tour with stops at cafés, coffee shop and Club 11, a nice rooftop club near the Amsterdam harbor a last snack at the night kiosk near my place and of course some last chilling.

Overall a very nice time, not too busy but not all laid-back either. Still, some time to breathe now would and will be nice. Below the Triple-Falko. Falko on the roof of KABK. Falko on the 26th floor of Het Strjikijzen. Falko in Club 11.

Night Sessions

ccseabass — 2008-06-06T22:31:00Z

Now in full steam. Two more to go and I'm done with this semester...

The Crowd * The Gang * The Bros * The Hoes

ccseabass — 2008-05-25T00:09:00Z

Just like I did with my Danish connections, here finally some faces to the Den Haag names I keep telling you about.

Cécile (F) Daniel (GER) Ege (TUR) Leontios (ZYP) Naïma (F)
Sayuri (J) Nele (GER) Kate (HUN) Hae Won (KOR) Rebecca (US)
Siebe (NL) Dylan (NL) Jos (NL) Liz (NL) Fleur (NL)
Cynthia (NL) Urlie (NL) Weirdo (GER)

Spontaneous

ccseabass — 2008-05-24T20:47:00Z

That basically describes the happenings of yesterday. It all started with most of my old class giving their reviews of the stages they are currently attending. Again very interesting and actually quite scary to see that even after my really extensive research of graphic design bureaus, there's still a huge number of really good ones I've never heard of. After that, as is customary, the school sponsored beers and some snacks and interested 2nd year students could talk with the 'interns'. So I stayed and had some nice chats with my old classmates. After a while everybody was gradually taking off and Dylan and Siebe asked me if I wanted to join them on their way to Haarlem to some fashion outlet sale.

I had about 60 seconds to decide and no plans for the afternoon / evening, so why not? Got on the train to Haarlem (the REAL one, not that fake copy in New York that's just named after it ;)), arrived there and started searching for the Lichtfabriek, which turned out to be a pretty cool location an old factory building with vast halls perfect for big parties. I would really like to see how that place'd be cookin' with some bad ass electro beats. Anyways, the company that was having the outlet sale was Kuyichi, a brand that strongly emphasizes the fact that all it's fashion is made with 100% organic cotton and dealt fair trade. Not exactly my style but ok, ended up buying a belt.

After that we went to visit Dylan's brother who works in Haarlem at Pepperminds, a relatively big marketing agency. Very cliché in fact, with oh-so-hip modern interior, we-are-a-team propaganda plastered all over the walls and hyperactive and overly friendly staff, some of them seemingly on coke or something. We had a couple of beers there, played a game of pool and continued on. Dylan went to Amsterdam to some party and I went with Siebe to his place, where we were soon joined by his girlfriend and a friend of hers. Had a nice chat and at about ten decided to go to town.

On the way to the city center I could see, how pretty Haarlem actually is. Lots of cozy little streets, small canals and cute houses very nice! I was told that a lot of people move here from Amsterdam as soon as they have kids only because they want them to grow up in these surroundings. Anyways, after a bumpy bike ride with me pedaling and Siebe on the back seat we arrived at a street with lots of bars, endless rows of tables outside and hundreds of young people. Kinda how I would imagine a Botellón, just that the people aren't sitting on the ground. We were greeted by more of Siebe's friends and I ended up having one of the coolest, chilled out nights since my arrival here. Cool atmosphere, good conversations and lots of hard flirting. Just that last part would make it worth coming back...

Sorry folks, no pictures this time, as none of this was planned :)

ccseabass — 2008-05-04T02:11:00Z

All I wanted to do was to take a quick trip to the beach to watch the sunset. I left my apartment around 8 and somewhere on my way (pretty much where the pink and blue lines split) must've completely lost my sense of direction instead of going north-west like I thought I was, I headed north-east. After about an hour of restless cycling I came to realize my mistake and took a turn (on N44) the sun long gone. I made it maybe 500m when the fucking bolt of my left pedal loosened and after another 500 came off. Not having any tools with me and not being able to screw it back in it was slightly damaged and therefore constantly jamming I had to walk.

I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NOWHERE!!! ALL AROUND ME WAS FOREST, BIG MANSIONS AND NO STREET LIGHTING!!! I HAD NO GODDAMN CLUE OF WHERE I WAS, IT WAS GETTING DARK AND NOT A SINGLE PERSON AROUND I COULD'VE ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS!!! I HAD MISSED THE SUNSET!!! MY BIKE WAS BROKEN AND I HAD TO FRIGGIN' WALK MYSELF OUT OF THAT BIG STEAMING PILE OF SHIT!!! MY HANDS WERE COMPLETELY BLACK WITH FUCKING BIKE OIL AND I HAD RUINED MY FAVORITE PAIR OF SHORTS!!! MOST FUCKING FRUSTRATING HALF HOUR OF MY LIFE!!!!!

After about a half hour walk of cursing and deliberately trying to cycle without a second pedal totally fucking ridiculous of course I found a bus station, giving me at least a slight idea of where I was. There were no stations shown on the map but from the bus lines I could guess my position: way off. To make a long story short, I arrived home at about 11. Instead of 7km, I made a 29km round trip of which I walked half. Instead of biking for about 50 minutes there and back, I was on the road for three whole hours. I didn't even see a glimpse of the beach nor the sunset. And all that after having the maybe best party here in Den Haag two days before.

Damn karma.

Koninginnenach

ccseabass — 2008-04-30T22:21:00Z

Yesterday was Koninginnenach or Queen's Night, the night before the traditional and very Dutch Koninginnedag or Queen's Day on the 30th of April. What originally started out as the celebration of the queen's birthday, today is only an excuse to totally freak out and party all night (and day) long.

You could already see huge concert stages being build on the major plazas of Den Haag over the past few days as well as posters announcing all sorts of activities and events. We, the exchangies, were told it's best to spend the night in Den Haag and take look at the spectacle in Amsterdam the next day. Well, in the early evening it became clear what kind of event this would be: thousands and thousands of Dutch people wearing at least one piece of orange clothing crawling the streets, getting drunk and listening to 2nd class bands blasting from the stages. Everything ranging from families to students to elderly people was there, literally the whole city seemed to be up on their feet.

Well, upon seeing what awaited us, Cécile, Naïma, Daniel and I decided we were not cut out for this kind of 'national holiday' and instead would just have a couple of drinks at Naïma's place and later sneak past the crowds into the Paard van Troje to see DJane Missile in action. And that's what we did. After a couple of beers and some wine we headed out into the night eager to party. Only to discover that Missile wasn't as good as she sounded in her online sets, the crowd was extremely... um... drunk and village-fairish and we still weren't ready for the full frontal patriotism that was apparent everywhere there were so many Holland flags hung up behind the DJ it almost looked like some fascist propaganda speeches were about to be held. Very strange.

After one and a half hours we called it quits and headed back to Naïma's place for a relaxed chill out session. Upon looking at some pictures of what Queen's Day in Amsterdam would be like, the four of us had also decided that it would probably be fun to look at for 15 minutes and after that we'd just be annoyed by the 'spectacle'. So instead of doing that trip today was spent recovering from last night and bundling strength for tomorrows big party.

By the way, Naïma lives in the coolest place I've seen here so far it's an old squatted school building, where each 'apartment' is basically one of the old 60qm classrooms, with one big shared kitchen and showers in the basement. The whole thing is just crazy and looks like a mixture of run down artist's atelier (e.g. there's a small screen printing room on the first floor), junkie den and fraternity house. Gotta go back there some time and take more pictures. Those two below are almost exactly three hours apart by the way.

Afro Blue Legends Of Jazz

ccseabass — 2008-04-25T16:54:00Z

Siebe, a friend from my old class, yesterday opened his first solo exhibition in a small gallery in Leiden, a mid-sized university town north of Den Haag. A relaxed evening with real good oil paintings about American Jazz artists, wine, a very nervous speech, weird conversation ("So, how are the streets in Germany?") and the conclusion that I'm living in the wrong town. Because Leiden is actually really beautiful looks a lot like a small Amsterdam with all its 'cute' streets and canals, just not as loud and missing all the tourists. Definitely worth coming back! All except Cynthia seemed to think so, as she constantly got stuck in the pavement with her high heels...

Master Blokland

ccseabass — 2008-04-25T16:33:00Z

In class with Frank Blokland commander of the broad nip and pointed pen. Seriously, I'm learning so much about type from this guy, I wish I could spend another semester here and just do 'Letter Ontwerpen' from the very start.

We All Suck At Typography

ccseabass — 2008-04-25T16:12:00Z

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.

On The Side

ccseabass — 2008-04-19T15:23:00Z

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.

Still Alive

ccseabass — 2008-04-18T20:50:00Z

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?

I Am Sterdam Take II

ccseabass — 2008-04-05T21:30:00Z

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.

Dazed & Confused (III)

ccseabass — 2008-03-30T03:43:00Z

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 :)