In Bruges

This weekend I hitched a ride to Bruges with the boys from 1upToys. They were on their way to a newly opened Carrefour near the city to demonstrate their V-beat toys. I was dropped off at the edge of the city center around 10am, and for the next 7 or so hours I wandered around the fairytale city that is Bruges.

It was a bright but cold day when I arrived at the border of the city. I was psyched to try out my new camera a la tourist style. The city did not disappoint with its picture perfect canals and archetypal Flemish architecture. As I walked through the streets I must have passed by a million old churches, chocolatiers and lace shops. Influenced by my graduation project on revealing secret places in old cities, I kept trying to go down every small alleyway to see what kind of places laid in wait for me. I didn't find too many amazing secret locations, but I did squeeze myself through a couple charming alleyways. Learning to read Utrecht made me hyper-aware of all the symbols engraved and embedded around the city. One recurrent symbol was the crescent moon.

The film, In Bruges, was still pretty fresh in my memory, so I tried to compare the physical city with the scenes I remembered from the film. It was fun to stumble into the market square and think "oh! this is the belfry tower where *** fell". At points I did feel like I was in a sort of purgatory, especially near the end of the day when I was extremely tired and cold. The city was large enough that I always felt a bit lost and overwhelmed. My horrible sense of direction and refusal to read maps made my walk through the city strange and circular...always seeing new things while unintentionally revisiting the old things.

Before traveling to Bruges, Daniel made me a list of things to do in the city, including braadwurst on the square and a tour of a beer brewery. On arriving at the market square, I dutifully followed Daniel's instructions and ate an amazing broodje braadwurst with mustard. The flavors are indescribable, and my mouth is watering as I write this. One regret I have on visiting Bruges is that I did not climb the belfry tower.

Past the square, I ended up walking into several delightful courtyards, past boat tours (much more charming and enticing than those in Delft), and an antique flea market by the water. Around 1pm, I arrived at the beer brewery and bar/restaurant de Halve Man, recommended by Daniel. I took a tour around the facility and learned about the brewing process. One fact that stuck out was that Belgian specialty beers often use coriander as an ingredient for it's hangover preventative and aphrodisiac properties. This made me wonder if Michel (great hater of coriander in his food) would still like his Leffe if he knew...At the end of my tour I was given a complimentary Brugse Zot (brewed at the brewery) and was sent on my way back to the city.

For the rest, I just wandered through the city as it got colder and darker. I took a break and popped into Our Lady's Church, did some shopping, and went to drink coffee in an unmemorable bar by the city library while waiting for the boys to join me. In the evening I was joined by Ronald and Marcel for a nice dinner in a small Italian restaurant. Needless to say, I left the city with a belly full of good food and good feelings.

Pictures to come...

Recommended to do in Bruges:
Eat a broodje braadwurst on the market square
Climb the Belfry tower
Visit and take a tour of the Halve Man brewery
Take a boat tour (something like E6.50 for an hour)

Next travel destinations:
Paris (Nov 29)
Jamaica (Dec 8)
Raleigh, NC; Washington DC; New York, NY (Dec 17th)

Another Invite

Dear friends,

You are formally invited to the Halloween-madness-graduation-party-extraordinarie of Sander de Clerque and Shauna Jin on Friday, October 31st. We will be dancing the monster mash in celebration of our diplomas, kom jij ook?

Location: Tour Boot Delft (De Nieuwe Haven 5)
Time: 9 pm

Come decked out in your scariest outfits (check out the invitation for inspiration!) Hope to see you there!

Shauna & Sander

Invitation

It is official. I am graduating, and you are invited, provided that come to Delft!

I am still scrambling to finish and print my report, make a poster and presentation. Maar komt allemaal goed..

Halloween/graduation party details to come...

Grolsch chandelier

update, a better photo I took..

For Jorn, Fedde, and Michel's housewarming my roomates, Inga, and I made a chandelier out of Grolsch bottles and Christmas lights. Here is a crappy picture I made with my camera phone. I hope I can take a better picture later. The result looks something like an upside down Christmas tree.

Pre-emptive thoughts

I am in the last stretch of my project. Just three more weeks and I will be graduating on Halloween. Now I am sitting in my office working on video analysis, procrastinating and dreaming of when it's all over. I made a list of things I have to do/after graduation resolution:

1. Bike to Brussels
2. Get off my fat butt and exercise/find a new sport to play
3. Get a job, go to job fairs
4. Finish my unfinished projects (that painting in the corner, make Maya model of my yo-yo design)
5. Practice cello in time for Jamaica
6. Write letters to those people with whom I have lost communication
7. Fix my portfolio and website
8. Participate in some design contests
9. Keep working on my project
10. Finish that PSS course
11. Figure out how to train my bonsai

*I can't remember the original item which inspired this list, so I will add it later.

A Comment

One of the best things about the Netherlands is that people drink tea all the time. I remember that one of my first assignments upon my arrival at the TU Delft was to design a high tea set for offshore workers. Though the whole point of the exercise was oxymoronic, the idea that offshore workers would drink tea was totally baffling. So instead I designed a high coffee set. Now that I've lived here for two years though the idea of oil rig workers drinking tea is becoming more and more plausible. As I am writing this I am sitting in my office downing one cup after another between bathroom breaks. It works better than coffee because I don't get the jitters no matter how much I drink.

Summer passing

suspended zone
The beginning of the rest of my life

I went on a bit of a book binge recently since I joined GoodReads. Below is a list of books I read, including a bunch of YA literature that was rated highly on the site.

Booklist:
The Barrytown Trilogy (3.5/5)
The Alchemist (2/5)
Time Traveler's Wife (2.5/5)
The Midnighter's Trilogy (3.5/5)
The Uglies Trilogy (4/5)
Twilight Trilogy (3/5)

None of this list really consists of great literature, but they were all pretty fun to read. I liked the Barrytown Trilogy a lot, revolving around the lives of Rabbitte family in Dublin. The books complement each other nicely, building up to a nice cohesive whole, but the gem of the three is definitely The Van. The Van is about Jimmy Sr. (the best character out of the trilogy) who starts a fish and chips truck stand with a friend and the hysterical, sad, moving situations that follow. I can't judge totally subjectively, because I read all the novels in order, but maybe it wouldn't be as powerful without the other books as well (i.e. the character development you see in Jimmy Sr. as he confronts the fact that his daughter is pregnant).

The Alchemist and Time Traveler's Wife are both totally overrated books. Referring to the first, I know that self help/enlightenment books have to be overly simplistic and trite, but this one is really going too far. My problem with the Time Traveler's Wife (probably accentuated by the fact that I was aware of its existence for a long time before I tried reading it) is that it that the writing style is mediocre though the concept of the story has so much potential. What is worse, is that Niffengger puts in all these pop culture and literature references in an attempt to make this into some kind of loftier literature, which it is absolutely not. I expected more from the reviews I read beforehand. Additionally, Clare and Henry are too good looking and "attractive" as people. They are also way too well read, artsy, and cool...which is not at all convincing. However, it was fun to read unlike the first, which was kind of a drag.

The last several trilogies fall into the YA (young adult) category of lit. It is mildly embarrassing to admit, but I am unapologetic about liking these types of books. Scott Westerfield writes sci-fi topics in a realistic way. I really liked the Uglies trilogy especially...where he presents all these interesting ideas in a highly digestible and entertaining way. The Moonlighters trilogy doesn't end that strongly in my opinion, but it was also highly entertaining. Finally, the Twilight series (now a major motion picture), was pretty ridiculous, but I still enjoyed it. I have a weak spot for vampires and sappy romance.