December 30

I've been reading stories for the poor children in the public library. It seems that my warm and honey-like voice has a very calming effect on them.

December 28

Today I discovered the flee market at Waterlooplein. Everything is really cheap. Buy shirts, sweaters, boots, pants for prices around 2 euro.

December 27

Today I finished a painting I started over a year ago. It's a painting of Joanna Newsom and I'm really happy with the result!
I spent many hours on this one...

December 22

Today I followed the exchange student from Estonia to his high school and pretended to be a exchange-student as well. It was so much fun. Many people were very enthusiastic to talk to this 'Markus Olausson' from Sweden. I had to watch myself, because I could of course understand the dutch even though I pretended not to. A few times I laughed about the dutch jokes they made, and I even forget my foreign name at some point. But nobody seemed to notice anything, and I've had the most interesting talks with people which I wouldn't have had otherwise.

I even took pictures as if I were a tourist

December 20

IKEA today. Normally I'm not such a big fan of mass-orientated places, but the IKEA is perfect for a student like me. Good things for cheap prices. Still I try not to show too much that I am a slave of the IKEA! As I took the train home I thought of a little rhyme:

Take the products of your liking,
Choose a kitchen with your wife
Yet the difference is striking,
When you're back into your life.

December 19

There's this amazing construction in the library: a mouse-mansion. You can walk around it and see inside how the mice live, the details are incredible.

December 17

For a long time I have been wanting to visit the evensong in the Saint Nicholas church. Today I had the opportunity, and it was really amazing. Almost as good as the King's Choir! They sang a lot of christmas carols, like Ding Dong, Merrily On High. The church itself delivered a massive and beautiful echo through the whole building.

December 16

I made a cover of Ane Brun's 'Words'. I really like this song, and recently it has gotten some extra meaning for me. One of my best friends has lost her mother, and in this song Ane sings:

'Words, take her with you.
Let her rest in your rhyme.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iPsHhbM3OU

December 14

As I posted a few days ago, the College of King's Choir is in town. Previously the tickets were to expensive, but as I walked into the library today I noticed they were selling last-minutes to this concert. I bought one and got really excited as I took the bus there. The concert venue was incredible and so was the concert. After the break there was a song by Giles Swayne that made me cry. I know that I'm stating the obvious, but the voices of those boys are like angels. The clearest of light.

December 6

A poster showed that the Choir of king's college of Cambridge is about to perform in Amsterdam. I looked them up, but tickets were between 40 and 70 euro...
There was one good thing: their setlist was online and I learned about an amazing song by John Tavener. It's called The Lamb, and the verses are written in 2 different tonalities, giving a very dissonant feeling. The chorus on the other hand feels very romantic. So in the end this song pleases me on both intellectual and emotional side =)

December 5

Actually, TODAY it's Sinterklaas. Not only the children that look forward to this, the shops can't wait either. Below are some commercials I've seen over the past week:

December 4

Today's Sinterklaas :)     lot's of presents... We all really enjoyed it.
Sadly enough there was an awful message for me in the evening. My current landlord, which I really like, told me his son had drowned during one of the floods in Thailand. I'm very sad about this, and the contrast between my happy evening and his miserable message is unbelievable.

December 3

Saturdays are for making fun, so I made music. All day I played Coldplay's 'Paradise'. I feel bad for playing such mainstream music, but this one is really nice. I recorded my version, have a listen below. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGhVjASviJ0

December 1

The second Taizé-service was today. It was so nice, I had a great time. I was worried at first, because I hadn't practiced the piano as much as I would've liked. But the people that came were wonderful, and the singing was great.

November 30

Got lucky twice today. First I missed the ferry, but it turned out I had mistaken the clock for one hour. I was perfectly in time for everything.
Then at school I got a free ticket for the cinema. The movie was 'Fight Club' and it was so cool. I felt kinda... reborn(?) after watching the movie.

Meanwhile, tourist guy below gets eaten by the doves on Dam square.

November 29

Today I went to the cinema, to a movie called 'The Ballad of Narayama'. It's a Japanese movie about a small village where people have to die when they are 70.

The movie was terrible, and with that very interesting. In one scene there is a man who fucks a dog, and in another scene a whole family is being buried alive. This film is brutal! Next to that, the volume of the music was ridiculously loud so that I had to sit with my fingers in my ears through the whole movie (at some points I took them out to hear the actual volume: the sound penetrated my ears painfully).

But I really liked it, maybe because of it's weirdness. The last scenes on the mountain were very touching.

November 28

Today, after breakfast, I decided to mingle a bit with the blog lay-out. I created the logo-picture, and I'm so happy with it! Here's a little explanation:

November 27

November 26

Björk made a wonderful appearance on Later with Jools Holland, performing Cosmogony. Check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duk37-OIoW8&list=LL5G6nczjY103LgFeTwuub1A&feature=mh_lolz

November 23

I was making music in the evening, when suddenly I heard "The library is going to close in 15 minutes. Please prepare to leave." I hadn't written down anything yet! I quickly jolted some lines down and wrote wrote wrote the whole thing down. Even when people asked me to leave I was still writing as I walked down the chairs. But I finished it :)

Here's some autumn in Amsterdam:

November 22

A great day. It only took 10 minutes to bike to the ferry, and then 5 more minutes to reach central station, in comparison to the 45 minutes I used to travel! Also, the city was shrouded in mist which looked very cool from the waterside.

During some free hours I decided to check out the film-festival in the centre: the IDFA festival. I was lucky and got a free ticket for a movie called 'the Strawberry Tree'. It was great, and I got to meet some students from England who had traveled to Amsterdam especially for this festival.
(After the movie it turned out that it was the director himself that had given me the free ticket!)

November 21

Ai moooved, finally to Amsterdam.

It was harder that I thought, we had to ride the car 3 times. (I was so naive I thought we could do it in one time...). Here you can see that the car was packed, having a mattress and a bed above us, and sharing the front 2 seats with 3 persons.

November 18

This lady had a camera I had never seen before, it seems to be for stability.

November 16

Biking in the sun this morning was amazing, Amsterdam looked perfect everywhere I looked. Regardless of the bad reputation, the city looked like a place of peace and harmony.

November 12

I found a new room! After weeks of worrying, I finally got a new place. It looked great, and it's close to the city centre. It has it's own kitchen, and a lot of room so I can invite guests over. The only downside is that it's a bit expensive, but I think I can afford it. I'm really happy, and relieved.

November 11

I'm kinda tired of Amsterdam lately. The weather is cold, and the people are cold.
Anyway, I edited a picture of a friend, a kind guy with an angel face. Have a look below.

November 9

Ah, the months of tradition have arrived. I have a feeling that the centre of Amsterdam will make heavy use of Sinterklaas and Christmas.

November 8

I was worrying about money-issues on my way home. Then suddenly, 5 euro was laying at my feet. It seemed like such a funny coincidence! Nobody was around for miles, so I saw no other option than to take this money into my possession.

November 7

I had a lot of fun playing the piano today. Came up with some really nice melodies which, (breaking a certain tradition), are written in major and not minor.

November 6

Sometimes our dog refuses to go for a walk, that's why we got this little cart for her. She seems to be enjoying it, as if we finally treat her with the dignity she deserves.