Being in Amsterdam has been really nice and relaxing really. I enjoy the fact that it is a city but it is not like New York or Tokyo for example. I have also figured out where all the tourists like to flock toward, thus it is easier for me to avoid them on a daily basis. Now that I kind of know where I am going I tend to walk even faster than I normally do and it gets quite frustrating when I am stopped by walls of people and maps. Though, I can't complain, sometimes I am still part of that wall myself.
So, Visitors! Monday morning I got the pleasure of welcoming both Jelka Quintelier and Younghee Hong to my apartment. Jelka was a temporary room mate of mine at Cranbrook while she interned for Iris for six weeks. Lucky for me she lives in Belgium which is very close to the Netherlands and permitted us an easy visit. Younghee has just graduated from Cranbrook and is spending about three months in Amsterdam to work with Ruudt Peters. To say the least it was nice to see familiar faces. Seeing as they have both been in the city before we had an easy time just hanging around town. Among all the dinners and lunches we had, since we slept in past breakfast, we did a little shopping as well. This sounds silly but I needed to find a jacket for this crazy weather that I was unprepared for, as well as a backpack to replace my duffle bag. My bad shoulder was just having too much of a hard time dragging that around with books and my laptop creating a good amount of weight. We actually found the bag at the big market here in the city that my land lady had told me about. Having come in and seen my work table set up she noticed my samplings of leather that I had with me. She then informed me that there was a shop that sells leather by the foot at a very good price so of course I had to go see for myself! Being the crazy girl that I am I of course got some lovely pieces of leather to work with. Jelka also found not only some leather to her liking but she apparently has a great love for olives. The market has, as all good markets should, a great selection of everything from clothes, food, bags, jewelry, art, you name it and it was there. There was even a vendor that had other organic, bone and such, pieces that I would love to have. Sadly getting those items through customs would be a challenge that I don't feel like going through in the long run. At one point we decided it might be fun to do something more touristy in the city so we headed further down town. We gave ourselves the choices of "The Amsterdam Dungeon" or the "Sex Museum".. we chose the Museum. We were not really in a scary ride kind of mood and the museum had some really interesting pieces inside. It is not like the Sex Museum in New York, with both historical information and contemporary exhibits that change. This one was mainly historical references using photographs, videos, objects and mannequins. There were of course some funny moments but I really had fun there in the end. Definitely work the 4 Euro to get in :) Now I find myself in solitude again, allowing me to update my blog and do a little bit more work. Tomorrow I will go see Hilde de Decker and Saturday I will meet with Gesine Hackenberg again to see an exhibit at Foam. Also, my friend Carson who I stayed with in Berlin will be visiting for a few days on his way to visit Oxford. We shall have a good time running around the museums and such, hopefully with some good weather. Let today's sun shine stick around please!
1 Comment
10/24/2013 03:19:55 pm
Great site, was just reading and doing some work when I found this page
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Author: Jane Ritchie Old Dominion University Adjunct Professor Cranbrook Academy of Art MFA 2012 Archives
May 2015
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