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Visiting Porvoo made me wonder whether I’d like to move back to a small town some day. It was so quiet, and dark, but still felt like home after almost ten years. I love giant cities where each district has it’s own feel, like Berlin, but it can’t be a coincidence my old hometown and my favourite spot in the world (for now at least) share some characteristics. Crooked streets, old wonky buildings and the possibility of getting everywhere by bike.

P.S. I’ve been working on my portfolio a bit. I like the super bare look for now.

and that’s about all i can say in Nederlands, for now.

Yesterday was the first dutch lesson. To our surprise the teacher was a youngish, very enigmatic guy with big curly hair… easygoing and talkative, just like all the dutch guys I’ve met. “You know what,” I said to Kaisa after the lesson, “I am gonna marry a dutch man. They are talkative enough for me. It’s destiny.”

What I hate most about Finland is the casual manners. Or total lack of manners, I should say. Especially when it comes to dating. I want to be called, not text-messaged. Or at least not messaged when drunk. I want to be asked out. In no circumstances do I want to be groped. Maybe I am getting old or something but manners is the thing I first pay attention to in people.

Okay, that’s it for a rant. Maybe we could start with developing better ways of greeting? Hugging is reserved for close friends and shaking hands is just awkward. When will the cheek-kissing reach this hemisphere?

Read Silvia’s post here

Monday morning Silvia and I met for breakfast and talked, among other things, about decisions. Then I finally said aloud what I have known all along: “I think I need to go to Rotterdam. I just have this gut feeling… it is where I should go.”

You see, I have been toying with alternatives (Utrecht, Gerrit Rietweld at Amsterdam, Berlin..) and listening to other people. My art teacher says to go to Berlin. Lots of people have had a good point that if I want to do the Type&Media master’s program at KABK, maybe I should take the opportunity to pick another country for my exchange year. I can speak german, I can not speak dutch (yet).

But some have said: go to Holland because you love being there. The question is, Can I just trust my gut feeling?

I know, I know, I have this habit of obsessing about the future, when I should be enjoying the school year ahead here. But I feel so much calmer when I have laid out my plans and can work towards them. To be honest, WDKA is not just about a gut feeling. I have poured through the course syllabus and it looks good, particularly the editorial design minor.

And now I got this crazy idea that I might take a long weekend and visit Holland at some point during the year, to go school-sightseeing and see friends. Even the thought is making me giddy…

P.S. Today I left in my application for dutch courses at the university. Fingers crossed that I get in!

Rainy day tea here -Amsterdam 06

Travel journals are among my favourite things in the world. While away from home you see so much you start to think differently, open up. I always try to write a lot while I am away. And jot down these little details and notes…

In the turquoise bar it is playing Zero 7 - home and it’s perfect.

Something of this world dies for we don’t write letters anymore. Read: the book of Van Gogh’s letters … His black birds are really black…

Tons of stuff to do: some work, emails, laundry, luggage insurance, packing… then tomorrow morning we will leave for Berlin! Let’s see if it can steal my heart from Amsterdam (like everyone thinks it will.) I have my doubts.

I’ll leave you with some links:
t-post is a really really cool project! I’d love to subscribe because I suck at finding cool t-shirts. If anyone ever wants to gift me, t-shirt is the thing…

More t-shirts: girls of boredom, made by my school friend Inka. I really want to get the one with the streched character.

The swedish Emma has a new photoblog. You can read that while I am gone, since she is an Emma after all.

If you are in Helsinki 30.6. go see my friend Eero Johannes play at Alppipuisto. I will hopefully be at the Daft Punk-gig…

Be well everyone <3

typo-gallery, amsterdam

Apparently I’ve behaved like a foreigner, carrying a take-out coffee in Amsterdam. (Oft repeated occurence, since Kaisa and I need to be properly caffeinated at all times, to be able to function). We also tend to wear make-up.

I am checking out other schools for student exchange/master’s degree studies in Holland. This seems pretty interesting. I have my sights on KABK but it is very hard to get in, of course. So I need options. And I might hate living in Holland, but I need to try it out.

All the things I am attracted to are just about to disappear.
- Tacita Dean

Sorting through the travel pictures makes me homesick. Holland-sick. At the supermarket I grab the falafel mix (for a really really bad day, to pretend you have maoz). I look up the dutch courses at the university. (Did I mention my vocabulary has extended from 10- to 100+ words already) I sort through the BA course syllabus to figure out when it would be best to do the student exchange -thing (not until third year, shit!). My body is here, yet my mind isn’t. Not even nearly.

Home is a portable thing, a mental state, right?

more pics to come soon!

dutch men cycling in pinstripe suits, girls in shorts and boots and vests (?!?), cute boys and all the bicycles everywhere, rain and more rain, tomato soup in foodism, tofu-lemon “cheesecake” at green planet, large coffees to go, the parks, many many maoz picnics, the clubs, the crooked streets, the canals crossing here and there, and most of all the houses…

Now I am back and everything here looks so grey… the first batch of laundry is in the machine and Anouk is playing. I still didn’t find a cute dutch boy to live happily ever after with, school starts in a week or so, and I still don’t know if I need to move.

For some reason my phone didn’t work (gah!!) so I didn’t get any of your messages, Sia. I tried to send you a couple but they didn’t go anywhere either. It would have been lovely to meet you! I got a stomach bug on Saturday, and after the worst of that was over I was just kind of wiped out. For the same reason I didn’t get to Hague, although I really wanted to, (after finding a flyer about the gem exhibition), and to better imagine stydying at KABK, and to see Silvia of course.

But you know what, I’ll be back!

Weeks of work crammed into a few days, to be able to get away. I am so tired right now… Everything unpacked still. It feels unreal that tomorrow at this time I will be in Amsterdam. And will be, for eleven days.

We were originally supposed to visit lots of places nearby plus go to Belgium, but our budget is on a tight side (since the bank messed up my credit card application, shit, and there’s the typical wage delay problem) so we have to give a miss at least to Belgium. But Hague at least, I hope. “Don’t shop, just chill”, says K’s brother. And that’s what we intend to do.

I probably don’t want to come back…

Travel plans should always be made in the spur of the moment and out of the blue…

photo by sia.

I don’t want to live in Finland. Not eventually. I am not meant for this climate; even my cheeks develop goosepumps when I go outside in this cold.

I want to live somewhere like Holland. Warmer, full of crooked old houses, painted bicycles, little bookstores, vegan food, nice bread. I want a bright turquoise umbrella and a community of likeminded artist-designers to drink afternoon tea with. I want, I want; today I want so many things.
(and I don’t understand a word but I like to look at Sia’s site.)

High stress times:
I have been working on my portfolio for TAIK. I have had dreams about admission exams already. My flatmate tells me to go to Yoga and relax.

Fun things -times:
I am doing some illustrations for letterpressed cards for the lovely Eva Nouveau.
And a collaborative art project with the talented Celeste Najt.

What are you up to? And what is your dream place to live?