the Dirty Projectors

I was thrilled to see the Dirty Projectors last night for the second time this summer! (thank you Andrew for taking me in LA!). They were phenomenal. I was happy to take the journey to Amsterdam with my friend Emily who is on exchange here from MICA in Baltimore, Maryland.

Next week, King Khan and the Shrines!

"The video was shot on location on Mount Equinox, Vermont and features siberian huskies and rare llamas." haha

Music, skateboards & graffiti make Kristin a happy girl

Photos from the R' Uitmarkt festival in Rotterdam, and Just Writing My Name, a skateboarding, graffiti, and music festival in Antwerp, Belgium. Good times!!!

View of Rotterdam from the Euromast

A few weeks back my mom and I went to Rotterdam's viewing tower called the Euromast. It's only 185 meters high, making it one of the smallest towers compared to all the other major cities, but I still don't think I would repel off the top like these girls in the photos! So scary!!

I can't really point out anything of interest in the photos besides the Erasmus Bridge, and the Willemsburg Bridge in the background, so just enjoy the views!

Van Harte Gefeliciteerd Raul!

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but I can assure you that a lot has happened! School is kickin my butt, and the language barrier isn't getting broken down quiet yet, but I'm working hard and things are good. :)

I met Raul on the train coming back from Antwerp on Sunday. He is from Barcelona and also just moved to Rotterdam only a few weeks ago, so naturally as outsiders we have bonded together and will help each other figure out this new culture. It was Raul's birthday tonight so he brought over a great meal of spanish "homelettes" and salad, and we finished it off with a Dutch birthday cake I got him from the nearby "bakker." Good times! It's really fun having so many different cultures represented in one place... I love learning about all the differences.... and getting to eat cake.....

Antwerp, Belgium

My mom and I went to Antwerp for the day back on August 28th. It was beautiful!!! This Dutch speaking city of Belguim is the birthplace to Peter Paul Rubens, the home of two of the oldest printing presses in the world and a Gutenberg Bible, and once held it's ground as the wealthiest city in Europe.

It is located in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions, and is only 1 hour from Rotterdam by train. It is located on the river Scheldt which is linked to the North Sea. It had three major booms during its "golden age" the first from the pepper market, the second by American silver coming from Seville, and a third on the textile industry, and it is now home to a surfeit of expensive clothing boutiques and fancy restaurants. The language spoken here is Dutch, although with a slight variation from how it is spoken in Holland, and it has a large French influence. Traveling a bit further to Brussels, the language switches over to French.

It was a great place to spend the day walking around. This time we didn't climb any towers. :)

See the full set on facebook here

First Week of School!

So! I have completed my first week here at the de Kooning Academie. Things really couldn't have been much better unless, of course, I could speak Dutch. :) I really love my courses and think that I am starting right where I left off at BU, meaning that my courses are more advanced here and cover new topics. Typography, Experimental Type, Image Theory, some other theory courses, Software (where I'll be doing web design), and Graphic Design are the classes I am enrolled in. All of my professors are incredibly passionate about what they do and are very nice and have been helping me out with the language. Some are speaking English when they can and others are working with me separately.

The students have also all been really great! We have all the same classes together so it's been easy to get to know everyone, and they have been helping me out with everything I need from the assignments to where I can buy the cheapest coat hangers for my apartment. Everyone is genuinely interested in me, so I feel really welcomed and enjoy answering questions like "so was high school for you like it is in the movies?" Haha! Everyone is around 23 years old, some older and some younger, and pretty much everyone attended another school for design after high school (kind of like the equivalent of trade school for us but different) so we are all very much on the same level in terms of our design education. Most of us went out for drinks after class on Friday and they also want to arrange a dinner next week to welcome me ... so nice!

I really enjoy the city so far! I've made some friends outside of school and went with a girl to see the Wailers the other night at the WATT, which was a ton of fun. I just keep biking around (workin' those thighs!) and checking out the plethora of shops. There is an English speaking bikram yoga class that I signed up for and I absolutely love it. Best classes I've ever had.

Things are great, but the assignments have snow balled already so I will be really busy soon! I'll try to post about the projects I am working on. Find me on Skype to say hello and distract me momentarily!! My account is: kgroener.

"back to school... back to school... to prove to dad that I'm not a fool... I got my lunch packed up... my boots tied tight... I hope I don't get in a fight oooohhhhh back to school... back to school...." ~billy madison

First day of Skool

So today was my first day at the Willem de Kooning Academie. After moving into my apartment at about 1am last night I finally got to bed around 2:30 am and was really happy when I woke up this morning at 8am even thought I set my alarm for 7am. Un-showered but otherwise fine, I walked to class because my bike was still over at the hotel. I get to room 105 or whatever and there is no one there! Luckily another girl was there looking just as confused as I was so she called a classmate who told us that class was canceled for some reason and that we didn't have to be back until 11. So I thought, great! I can grab my bike and take a shower! which I did, but when I came back at 11 I found out that the teacher did wind up having class, it just started late. It wasn't a problem though luckily, and the girl felt bad about it so she wrote down my assignment for the next class in english for me (which was super sweet b/c it totally wasn't her fault).

My experimental typography class was all in Dutch so I just tried to absorb and decode. My typography teacher spoke english for me in his class, even though he said he is not all that great at it (which he was) so I really appreciated the help. Tomorrow should be the same... mostly Dutch but some English.

All the students were really nice and welcoming and seemed pretty interested in talking with me. Looking forward to tomorrow! ... and sleep :)