Our current assignment in Typography class is to pick one book each week, do a thorough analysis of it's content / design and create a wrapping for it reflecting the results of our analysis. Each week the book we're supposed to pick has to be a little different, so far: 1st week – one of our favorite books (Graphic Agitation 2), 2nd week – a newly bought second hand book (1970s Italian train schedules).

At Naïma's place.

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...

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.

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.

Or 'Fris & Fruitig' in Dutch was a crazy party last night organized in part by some guys from my new class. Entrance was 10€ and one piece of fruit – in my case a honey melon and mint – in return you got an 'all you can drink' buffet of beer, wine and a wide variety of hard liquor (they even had Amarula!). The fruits were supposed to be converted into cocktails but due to the high intoxication level of all attending, only a total of two drinks were produced – but at least they were very stylishly served in carved out pineapples. Cool location (10 students living in one big house), creative decoration, very wild mix of music, lots of unknown faces, funny conversations, hard partying and a very drunk me hitting the sheets at 6:30. Some pictures and yet another video clip full of indescribable noise and bad lighting...

A friend of mine back from Copenhagen, Kári, is currently working on his masters project – redesigning Icelandic folk tales and legends. Pretty neat stuff from what I've seen so far. Check out the progress on Lokaverkefnið or the Ponyfarm. By the way, the guy also has pretty cool illustration blog with a friend from up north called Krass og Krot. Go check it out! And props to the Danish capital, hope you don't hate me for showing your stuff here :)

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.