We're Back!

Ross' Mom & Dad are currently visiting, and we were lucky enough to spend the weekend with them in Amsterdam with Brian (Ross' brother). It was my third and Ross' fourth time to Amsterdam, but we definitely got to see more of it than we have before.


Most of the time we were walking around and trying to avoid being run over by a cyclist, or else we were drinking coffee, beer or wine. In other words, we had a great time.



Amsterdam is so beautiful, it doesn't seem real. We went on an evening canal tour, saw the Van Gogh museum, went to the Anne Frank Huis (where Anne Frank was in hiding with her family during the WWII, and where she wrote her diary), ate at some wonderful restaurants. Other than that, we just wandered around and soaked it all in.

We randomly came across this typographer's studio. He warmly welcomed us inside and showed us around his incredibly cluttered studio, and we left with souvenirs (one we bought, and one we were given.)

It was a great weekend, with great company. This weekend we're going to Antwerp, and will again meet up with Ross' parents.

Update

The man that was arrested at gunpoint in front of the window of my office yesterday was apparently a Belgian fugitive. He was currently serving a sentance of 12 years for shooting a police officer, plus another 27 for armed robbery.

He escaped jail by holding a guard hostage and stealing his uniform on Sunday evening. He then escaped on a helicopter. He then made his way into The Hague, robbed a bank, and was chased into the area my work is. He tried to run into the CabFab building, but was (thankfully!) stopped by locked doors. Because this part of The Hague is a maze of industrial properties, factories and canals, it's a dead end. He was eventually cornered by the police and arrested in front of our studio window.

This is a link to a Dutch news site which describes what I've written above. The photos that are on the site were taken with a mobile phone from one of the employees at another studio. It is the exact view I had of the incident.

CabFab is buzzing this morning. Bizarre.

PS: Happy Halloween! It's not really celebrated here, which makes me sad. The attitude is that putting on a costume to get drunk is stupid and commercial. Well, if you put it that way . . .

Stop what you're doing and put your hands up.

As you can guess, Ross & I have been really busy lately. We've both been working constantly, and then spent the last weekend in Amsterdam with his parents. It was wonderful, and I'll post pictures maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, though, I though I'd share a detail of my afternoon.

Around 4pm I was sitting at my desk at work, and gazed out the window to watch the barges float by. All of a sudden, a policeman pointing a gun runs past the window. I yelled out "Oh my God!" as my boss and I run to the window to witness five policemen converge on one man. As they all pointed their guns at him, he got to the ground, surrendered his gun, and they arrested him. Supposedly the man fired a shot at the policeman but we didn't hear it.

So, I know you're all wondering what the hell kind of ghetto-neighborhood I work in, but I can assure you this was freakier than the freakiest accident ever. The Hague makes Vancouver look like South-Central L.A., and this was probably the only shooting in the city's 400-year history. I had a front row seat!

Dramz!

Rhymes with Main Course, or, I'm so Hungry I Could Eat a . . ., or, Tastes like Chicken?

I made such a fool of myself today.

Let me give you the background: A month and a half ago, I was having lunch at Ross' school. As I was picking out meat for my broodje and talking to the man behind the counter about his visit to Vancouver a couple years ago, I pointed some red roast-beef-looking stuff and asked, "What's that?" He said, "I don't think you want that one, you don't eat that in Canada. That's horse." I was shocked and he was correct; I didn't want that one.

Ever since then, I have become obsessed with accidentally eating horse meat, and I'm not using that term lightly. If I see a pizza and there's an unfamiliar topping, I assume it's horse. In a restaurant I won't order anything unless I know all the ingredients. When I'm grocery shopping, I just won't buy meat unless I'm positive it's not horse. I don't know why I care so much; it's not like eating a horse is any better or worse than eating any other animal. Regardless, I've been irrationally consumed with anxiety about accidentally eating equus.

Lunchtime at work consists of a table set up for everyone to make their own sandwiches. There's a bread basket, a cheese selection tray, a meat selection tray and other toppings (including chocolate sprinkles, but that's another post.) Needless to say, I am so concerned about accidentally eating horse meat, I always stick to chicken. I don't even really like deli-meat chicken but since I know what-it's-not, I eat it every day while I try to guess which meat is the horse.

Today there was an interesting predicament: there wasn't any chicken. All the meat on the tray was red, and although it looked familiar, I was frozen and unable to chose any in case it was you-know-what. So I brazenly asked the accountant who I eat lunch with everyday, "Which one of these is horse?" And he said "What?" and I said, "Horse." He paused and asked, "Do you want to eat horse?" And I didn't want to offend him by disapproving of his culture so I said, "Not today." Then he started talking in Dutch to my boss, and she seemed confused. He turned to me and said, "We don't eat horse, and we don't eat dogs either." Then everyone took a turn telling me they've never eaten a horse, and have never even heard of it. I felt like such a fool as this myth I've been obsessed with for the past month and a half dissolved. They even tried to offer an explanation about the original experience with horse meat. "Maybe he said 'pork' and you misheard him," No, he didn't.

Despite my faux pas, something good came of it. I have been liberated from this ridiculous anxiety. I no longer have to worry about the mystery meat when I'm shopping because they don't sell horse in the store – you have to get it from a specialty butcher!

Now I only have to look out for rabbit.

Film Review Corner

Last night we went to see Edward Burtynsky's film Manufactured Landscapes. We originally wanted to see it's screening in Vancouver around this time last year, but missed it for some reason which is completely forgotten now. When we saw it advertised at the Film Huis in The Hague, we were both surprised and excited for the opportunity to see it on the big screen. So we marked it down on the calendar and counted down the days.

For those of you that are not familiar with Edward Burtynsky's work, you should be. He is an enormously important Canadian photographer that documents the incomprehensible physical impact humans have made on this earth. He seeks out massive quarries, mines, ships, mine tailings, etc. and manages to capture the scale of human extraction of natural resources. His photos are incredible, uncomfortable, beautiful and disturbing.

Manufactured Landscapes documents a period of time he was in China, producing a famous series appropriately called "The China Series." After years of photographing the extraction of raw materials in the Western world, Burtynsky headed East into manufacturing plants where many of the raw materials are turned into the stuff we buy, in factories as subliminally large as their source.

It was very interesting, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone if you get the chance. But we learned something about twenty minutes in to the film. If you're in a theatre in The Netherlands, and there's dialogue in another language – in this case, Chinese – the subtitles are not in English. Obviously, they're in Dutch. We missed about one-third of the dialogue in the film, but we got the gist, I think. (Thankfully the whole movie wasn't dubbed!)

Also worth mentioning, we tried to watch this film last week but when we got to the Film Huis all the tickets were sold out. (We thought this was really impressive, but as we learned last night it's actually because the theatre only had about 30 – 40 seats in it.) So, we decided to watch a different flick, Control by Anton Corbijn. It's a black & white documentary about the rise and fall of Joy Division's tragic-genius of a lead singer, Ian Curtis. This story was good, the music was awesome, and every second of the movie was like the most beautiful photograph you've ever seen. It is very highly recommended.

They both were. Check 'em out!

A whole bunch o' stuff.

As Grace already mentioned, we made our way to Lille and Brussels over the weekend and arrived back in the Hague today.

During the trip I was reminded of something that keeps happening every once in a while. Occasionally, Grace and I find ourselves interacting with someone who is either serving us, waiting in line with us, or else just happens to notice the Canadian flag on our backpacks. Regardless of how the conversation begins the first question (statement?) we are typically asked upon finding out we are Canadian is: "ahh, so you speak French?"

Of course, we respond by saying something like "no, we're from the other side of the country". In order to clarify further we usually have to state how big the country is and that the distance between where we live and the French speaking side of the country would be like flying from The Netherlands to the middle of Russia.

What's more, there seems to be an identifying component to this as the people we have been interacting with tend to understand Canada as like the United States, only French speaking.

This is something that has interested both Grace and I since arriving here in mid-August as it's completely counter to the "Canada" we had expected people to know: Toronto. Even Vancouver is at times a foggy name in many peoples minds.

Another thing I feel the need to mention (though already posted by Grace) is this:


If there is one thing that is certain about Belgium, it is their love for beer. I could be wrong, but I think they have more micro breweries per sq. km than any other country in the world. These were two Belgian beers of the 2004 available at a bar in Brussels. Yes, that is right. There is a bar in Brussels with 2004 beers on the menu. Most of them are Belgian, though I think it is safe to say that they cover every worthwhile brewery across the globe. Keep in mind that most Belgian beers are around 8 - 11% alcohol content. That's pretty impressive if you ask me.

Speaking of Belgium, while we have only been to Brussels, I can already tell that there is something very unique about this small country. I have the feeling that Belgians understand how much of a treasure their country is, but have no desire to boast on the world-stage. In addition to this, the pace is notably more relaxed (even for such a big city as Brussels) and they have a cultural identity – including an incredible culinary history – that could rival that of France's. Combine this with the fact that Brussels is the home-base of the EU and the seat of NATO and you have an apparent influx of new ideas and international perspectives sitting peaceful along-side century old traditions.

And what about Lille you ask? Well, it is safe to say that France is where my heart is and I intend to visit it as much as I possibly can.

All that said, here's a few more photos that should add to what Grace has already provided:


(Victor Hugo called Grand Place in Brussels the "most beautiful square in the world")



Oh, and another thing: We've now been here for two full months. Hooray!

The Theme is Zebra

With three travel days left on our Railpass, Ross & I decided to make the most of the weekend and jaunt off to France and Belgium. We definitely wanted to go to France, but didn't want to spend too much time traveling, so on the recommendation of three different French people, we decided to venture to Lille, the capital of Northern France.

We couldn't find much information about it, and weren't really sure what to expect, but once we arrived we realised it was exactly what we were looking for. It is, after all, France.

There were plenty of cafés, boulangeries, and delicious wine aplenty. C'est magnifique!


Here's an action shot of Ross distributing a delicious house red.


There was also art. Unfortunatly one of the drawbacks of traveling to a city where tourism isn't one of it's major industries (especially out of season) is that a lot of things weren't available. Many galleries seemed to have incredible shows opening in the coming weeks, and were currently closed. We went to the Palais du Beaux-Arts which had many of it's biggest works on loan or being restored. Regardless, the building was incredible, and we had the place to ourselves.


Lille is known for having one of the best nightlifes in Northern France, and it was obvious that the city came to life at night. In lieu of street lamps, all the building had dramatic lighting that was frequently changing colour and intensity. It was so beautiful that we took a million photos.




We found the stereotype that the French are rude to tourists to be completely incorrect in Lille. In fact, we received the warmest reception to date. So many people were curious about us and where we came from and why we came to the city. It was obvious that Lille does not see an abundance of North American tourists. The petit Français I can parle was warmly and patiently received, and people spoke very slowly to us with a smile of their face.

Although there wasn't a lot of "touristy" things to do and see in Lille, there was lots of the lifestyle we adore. That lifestyle includes:

baguettes!

coffee! (Alongé s.v.p.)


and public markets, and zebras! Yes, zebras. We crossed a pedestrian bridge over a river and saw five or six zebras on the other side. We didn't know Lille had a zoo, so it was kind of a surprise.

From Lille we went to the much larger and much more tourist capital of the EU, Brussels. The weather while we were here was like summer.


The official languages of Brussels are both French and Flemish. Flemish is the same language as Dutch (or a close relative of), spoken in Belgium. Everything was printed in French and Flemish, and sometimes with English and German. Ross always forgot this and referred to places on the map in both their French and Flemish names, such as "Parc Park" and "Bourse Beurs". ie: "Let's take the Metro to Bourse Beurs and walk to Parc Park."

Aside from chocolate and mussels, Brussels (and the rest of Belggium) is known for these things:

Waffles! (These ones were sold out of a Westfalia)


Comic strip art!


Fries!


Beer!


Art Nouveau! We went on a walking tour of many Victor Horta houses. It was a really long tour, which we were thankful for after indulging in many of Belgium's other treats.


We saw this little fella. There was a huge crowd around him, and everyone was laughing. Afterwards we went to a pub that was decorated with costumes for him, all with a perfectly placed hole.


Brussels is thought to be one of Europe's food capitals. Instead of indulging in one of Belgium's specialties, Ross & I opted for Pho, our favourite Vietnamese dish that we haven't seen since we left Vancouver. It was so comforting!


Other highlights include Magritte and Ensor paintings, and sitting on a patio at a place that despite being named Zebra, featured furniture every colour of the rainbow.

Great weekend.

School so far

I'm not really sure if I can top Grace's post (read below, it's pretty cool), but I thought it was about time that I give an update as to my last month or so at school, so here goes.

Things have been rather busy, with almost all of my day being devoted to school work. That being said, we have managed to get in a few breaks here and there. As a class, we seem to have found comfort in a bar called De Paas, which, as it turns out, has also been a hangout for past students. De Paas is a bar specializing in Belgian Beer and has over 250 types of beer on the menu. Yes, 250! Rather fittingly, the bar is located on a street called Dunne Bierkade. I don't know the exact translation, but I think it means "the beer street". (If I'm wrong, don't correct me).

Anyway, the reason we're both here: school.

Apart from the regular calligraphy and programming excercises that I've been practicing on a daily basis, the main projects we are working on are a monogram based on our two initials, and more recently a bunch of sketching excercises using a little program called the "type cooker". The Type Cooker is something Erik of Letterror put together to output random values from a given list of options related to letterforms. For instance, it could specify the stroke thickness, the serif type, the width, the contrast type, special applications, etc. The idea is to get us to think about and draw letterforms that we would not otherwise think to draw.

I've uploaded a little sketch from one of these excercises below.

They are rather quick sketches, but you can already see a few of the parameters output by the type cooker. The letters had to be very thin in stroke, medium contrast, slab serif and wide.

The other project we've been working on (the main project of the semester) is to make a digital revival of an existing metal typeface used before 1940. The typeface I have to digitize is Plantin, made by the Monotype Corporation in 1913. It was modelled after a late 16th century typeface cut by a man named Robert Granjon. Since part of the project includes a research paper investigating the design context and history of the typeface, I thought it would be interesting to explore the earlier model and compare the two. As seen below, the two typefaces are very different.

The Monotype Plantin typeface is on the right while the earlier 16th century specimen (scanned of course) is on the left. I thought it would be interesting in reviving the Plantin type to reincorporate some of the details of the Granjon type from the 16th century. It's still very much a work in progress, but I've included a snapshot of some very primitive drawings of my Plantin revival here:



You can see the difference in the a where I'm starting to introduce some aspects of the older type back in. The project runs through to mid-January, so there is a lot of work left to do.

Excuses, excuses

The reason I've been kind of slacking off in my posts is because I'm now a working woman. This is a good thing! I just finished my second week at my new job (although I only go on Dinsdag, Woendsday en Donderdag).

The studio I work at is small, and is just myself and the owner. She is very nice, and I am quite happy. These past two weeks I've been working on a website for a photographer, and an identity for an industrial design firm that specializes in bio-plastics.

I posted before about the building this studio is housed in. It's an old cigarette factory that has been refurbished to house 50 creative studios. Phase II is opening next year with another 50. It's a pretty amazing idea.

I'll give you a tour. This is the front entrance of Cabrello Fabriek, aka: CabFab, the name of the space. It has that industrial/design look that is so familiar to any alum of ECI.


This in the front door to the studio I work in. The doors to every studio are the same sliding glass. The insides are a free for all, and many are adorned with all sorts of creative furnishings. The studio I work in is very sophisticated.

My desk is on the left. If you look closely you can see I'm designing on a brand-new imac. It's one week old, and it's incredible. There's 250 GB of space on that thing! It's so luxurious that it's making me seriously consider owning a desktop computer when the time comes to replace my dear old Powerbook (but I don't ever want that to happen :)

Outside the window is a big canal that I watch barges float past all day long. Supposedly this canal goes to Rotterdam. It's amazing to watch these huge boats corner in such a tight space. On the other side of the canal is a crane that picks up huge piles of dirt all day. I really like the scenery.


Also in the studio is a little table for meetings with clients. This is where I had my interview. It is also the cake cutting table, if it is your birthday (it was Claudia's birthday yesterday.)


There is also this other little sitting area, but I'm not sure what for. It's kind of like a waiting room, but the concept of a waiting room only works if there's more than one room. It's just plain rude to make someone wait if they can see you checking your email on the other side of the room. Regardless, it looks handsome.


In the factory, there are boardrooms that a studio can rent to have meetings in. Each one is different, and they are all very cool.

The highlight of CabFab is the cafeteria where I eat lunch every day. Yes, those are real swings.


Every day as I eat lunch and everyone around me is speaking Dutch, I stare at the mural of factory workers, and eavesdrop really hard. So far, not so good. Every now and then I'll recognize one word, like a number, or mooi (which means beautiful), and I'll be really happy. But when someone is speaking for five minutes straight and you only know they said something was beautiful and there was eight of it, it isn't exactly comprehension.


I think CabFab is mooi.

Another Day, Another Interview

I just got back from my fourth interview. It was at this place. You would think that I should be getting the hang of interviewing by now, but I am still just as bumbling as ever.

Something bad happened on the way to the studio; my bike chain fell off. I knew I wasn't to far so I quickly weighed my options:

1) Put the chain back on and get my hands all greasy. Deny the initial handshake when introducing myself and instead ask to use their washroom to clean my filthy hands, or,
2) Run.

I chose option two and ran. It wasn't far, but it was a good 10-15 minute run. It was made more complicated by the fact I wasn't wearing appropriate shoes, and had to juggle my portfolio and work. At least is wasn't raining, and the scenery was nice. I was running along a canal, and I got to run right by the palace. The guards said "Hallo" as I zoomed past. I was enjoying the autumn colours along the canal so much I ran right by the studio, and had to turn back.

I was worried about being late, so I made the mistake of not waiting to cool down for a minute before ringing the bell. When the man who interviewed me answered the door I was catching my breath, very hot, and I'm sure, red-faced. My hair that I so carefully coiffed before leaving the house was starting to frizz and curl in less than desirable places. How awkward!

As I started talking I was still in running mood, and I just started racing through my work. The man actually told me to slow down. I wasn't expecting much from the interview since I assumed I'd already blown it, but it went surprisingly well. He said they don't have any positions open, but he would be sure to recommend my to any another studio if he knew they were hiring, or would call me if something came up. Not bad, eh? In fact, I'd say it was my best interview to date.

You just never know, eh?

Happy Turkey Day

I know you guys are feeling sorry for us because we don't have an oven, meaning we can't cook a turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and all that yummyness, but there's no need for pity: we managed to score an invite to a true-blue Canadian Thanksgiving dinner, hosted by our neighbors downstairs. We said yes faster than you can say tryptophan.

Our neighbor is Canadian (from Montreal), her husband American (Albany, NY), and they have a four year old daughter, and 5 month old twin babies (a boy and a girl). Also invited for dinner was another Canadian friend (from PEI) and her Dutch husband, so it was quite a smattering of people, all brought together by the love of gravy.

Obviously, it was great. As was the apple and pumpkin pie with ice cream. It was such a treat, and for that we are very thankful.

De Haagse Markt

The weather these past few days has been very nice, as the rain has stayed away. Today was probably the sunniest day we've seen in The Hague, and the temperature in the afternoon was nearly 20°.

Seeing as how it was so lovely, Ross & I and everyone else in The Hague decided to check out de Haagse Markt, an open air market held every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The website is here, and I encourage you to all visit it and enjoy it's ambiance. Supposedly every Dutch city has a market, and they're known for their bargains.

The markt covers an area about the size of two city blocks, and it is filled with tents adorned with all kinds of treasure. It was packed! Most of the time, we were standing shoulder to shoulder in a mass of people.

There was much more stuff at de Haagse Markt than either of us expected. You could find nearly everything you can imagine: clothes, shoes, boots, jewelry, meat, electronics, boots, furniture, cheese, health and beauty supplies, boots, bike accessories, fruits and veggies, flowers, bottle openers, bathing suits, boots, cameras, candy, fabric--and above all--more boots. Most of this stuff was very cheap and junky. The stuff that wasn't cheap and junky appeared to be stolen. It was kind of like one gigantic dollar store!

Some booths were set up like stores that you went inside, but most were displayed like carnival games with the seller on one side, and you had to point to what you wanted. I enjoyed watching a woman indicating to a seller what size of underwear she wears.

Some of the tents were like a garage sale, and had people selling their old crap at them. These tents didn't smell so good. I took note of the shortsighted spacial planning of a tent that sold dvds: the "adult" section was directly beside the children's.

The abundance of items for sale was quite astonishing. Here is just one of the multiple fish sellers. I have never seen so much vis (fish) in my life. You can't tell from this photo, but the smell of this section was awful, and there were flies aplenty.


And of course, there wasn't any shortage of greasy food stands. The Dutch do love their patats (French Fries), eaten with your choice of mayo, curry sauce, or peanut sauce. I'd like to shake the hand of the man who thought of eating peanut butter with French Fries.


We bought some kaas, zonnebloemen (sunflowers), some spinach and some soap. Nothing too exciting, but now we have an idea of the available inventory at de Haagse Markt.

Happy International Animal Day!