The Dutchman

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Alright well after a day or two of recovery I think I can now write this blog.

Okay so we woke up on Friday and headed to the train station. We hopped on and went to Brussels and then got on another train that went to Rotterdam. We arrived in Rotterdam at 11ish. We went and saw a Rem Koolhaus building called Kuntshal. Then wandered around and checked out the city and then went and checked out a few other buildings. This was all the the span of maybe 5 hours. After that we were just sitting around so me and two friends decided to walk around and we found a supermarket there which happened to sell some bubble gum and Dr. Pepper, so we decided to make it feel like home and bought some and had a good time.

After Rotterdam we hopped on a train and headed towards Amsterdam. We arrived at Amsterdam and hopped on the train to the hostel. We got off and were walking towards the hostel and I came about 2 inches from getting creamed by a tram. It really is a different world there, the trams just go and they don't stop, so if you think they will, well wrong choice. So we checked into the hostel and ate some dinner.

We met up after that ( I think maybe 7:30) and headed to a library which just opened up in 2006. So this baby was brand spankin new and it was so cool. There were so many elements about it that were great. The interior was lit up and lots of open space.

So it was a lot of fun, and there was a cafe on top which we went to and had a coffee. Well right next to the Library was another building called NEMO.
It really wasn't that impressive of a building (definately looks better in pictures) but it was cool to see anyways. It had copper panels which were aged so they had turned green. Excuse me the proper term is oxidized.

I have to mention one quick thought here. Compare to Paris, Amsterdam is much much smaller. So it is a lot quicker and easier to get around and see stuff. Which made life a lot easier.

After seeing NEMO we walked about half a mile and saw another building called ARCAM (Architecture Academy) I believe. It was cool but was closed so we planned to come back the next day.

Well after seeing that we pretty much called it a night. So we walked home and decided to take a detour to the Red Light district for giggles. And I have to say no one was giggling. That had to be one of the strangest experiences of my life.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it (well probably 85% of it). But I didn't expect it to be like BLAM that in your face. But I can't complain too much. So after walking through there we stopped and discussed what we just saw. Kept walking around and then headed back to the hostel (we were all tired).

We woke up the next day and it was raining. And raining, and raining. So it was a nice gloomy morning and we first headed to a Steven Holl building. It was alright but there was nothing too great about it. Sunlight really brings these buildings to life and the mix of light and shadow reveals things about the building that you would not normally see. So we checked that building out and then watched this intense battle between a bunch of ducks in the river. That was fun. We then hopped on the tram and went out to this social living area called Borneo. At first it was not too interesting until we hit these apartments that were built on the water. I really can't even describe them. There was probably a hundred of them all built by different architects.

So that was actually a lot of fun. I made friends with a snail and got some close up's of him. So we headed back to "town" for lunch. Well I had to go to the bathroom really bad so when the group sat down for lunch I departed and went looking for a toilet. The problem is (and the Netherlands are infamous for it) is that there were barely any public restrooms. So I walked around for 30 minutes trying to find one. DUring which I got stopped by not only locals but also tourists who thought I was a Dutchman, and they were both asking me for directions. Okay so that didn't turn out so well.
But okay back to the bladder. So I continued to walk around and time was running out for lunch. So I said screw it and ran over to some bushes real quick and turned both ways and did my business.

One of my prouder moments. ONe quick note here, I cannot talk about all the buildings we saw in the Netherlands, there were so many sick ones that I would write more than anyone...well most anyone would care to read. So I will be paraphrasing a lot.

So we headed back and went to a concert hall by MVRDV. It was....cool I guess. Lots of concrete and wood. It was alright. So it was getting close to dinner time so we headed back to the hostel and ate lots of food. After that some people wanted to go out and party and instead I decided to go out with my professor and her friend and his wife. So we went out and got some cigars and went and sat next to the canals. And just about that time (it was dark) boats started just roaming the waters. So it was a very enjoyable time and relaxing. Not to mention my professor's friend is an architecutre teacher in France and him and I talked four about 2 hours on public space (which I will have to talk to you about Uncle Patrick). It was such an interesting concept about how everything that needs to go into creating a public space but also how it affects people. But that is a different conversation.

The next day we headed out to a University. There was a lot of buildings there to look at but my favorite one was called The Educatorium by Rem Koolhaus. There are a lot of ideas behind it (another conversation we can have). So I really enjoyed that and actually enjoyed it so much I took an hour nap in there. That was excellent. And a lot of fun.

When we got back we headed to dinner and ate a whole bunch of food. That night me and my teacher and her two friends (which I will now refer to as the 'gang') went to the concert hall to listen to a jazz remix of Gershwin. And I have to say that was the highlight of the trip. A few songs in they played Rhapsody in Blue which was just amazing. And to top that the top saxaphonist in Holland was there to play. And he was amazing and it was really great to listen to him.

So we got done with the concert and went to the cafe next to the hall and had some coffee. We sat down and my teacher ran off to the bathroom so I had a nice talk with the rest of the 'gang'. About 15 minutes later my teacher comes back and sits down next to me and hands me a cd case. It was the saxophonists cd and on the back it was written "For Luke" and he had signed it below it. This really blew me away and I couldn't believe that she would do this for me. I was really taken aback and that was the second layer of icing on the cake. So it was a really good night.

The next day we went to a town called Almere where the whole urban plan was layed out before the town was even built by OMA/Rem Koolhaus. It was cool. Too much to talk about there but I should metion that I got bitched out by my teacher (a different one) and so from this trip he became blacklisted. So we were there for 4 or 5 hours and then headed to another town called Den Haag ( I think) and went and saw a few more buildings there and then headed to the town and ate lunch there. Well I finished early and walked around town and came across a bookstore.

So I went it and purused and came across a book called "PUSHKIN: Poems, Plays and Prose" and it took me all of 5 seconds to buy the book. It was like 14 Euro so I was happy. We headed back to Amsterdam after that and went to dinner.

That night people went off and did their own things so I went to the park and sat down and started reading Pushkin. And it was great....confusing but great.


The next day we had some free time in the morning so most everyone slept in. I went with my teacher downtown and went looking for this great tea shop. It was one that she had always wanted to go to but it was always closed. So we went down and found it and it was open so we went in a browsed for a long time. Smelling and doing such things. I ended up buying some tea and a cup and saucer. And some damn good chocolate which I ate later. After that we took a train to Utrect and saw some other builidngs there. Nothing too great but nothing too bad.

We then went and hopped on the train to head back to Leuven. We just had one problem. We hopped on the train from hell. So the ride back was about 1:30 minutes. And the whole ride felt like sitting in an 400 degree oven. It was pretty miserable.

Ironically when we got off half of the group was in another cab and they complained that it was too cold. So I stick with my theory of the hell train.

And then we were back in Leuven. We have been playing soccer every night having a lot of fun with that.

And so that is about the end. It is Saturday morning and we have one week of school left. Me and my friend Sam are heading to Paris today at 3:30 and are going to catch the end of the Tour de France tommorow. We haven't figured out what we are doing for sleeping arrangements so it is going to be a very interesting and possibly horrible night. But anyways we get to see the tour so that will be fun.