9th St

The first project was to find inspiration at 9th street at Jordaan. I like the juxtaposition of interiors and exteriors, physical objects and reflected images, the blurring of time and space. Perhaps I will call this the best kind of window shopping.
(Copyright! Please do not use the pictures without my permission.)

The kitchen is in a much better state now! Maybe it's time for me to move my rice cooker there.

I was supposed to meet a friend at the tram stop at Spui, where I was shopping. For some strange reason - as usual - I got lost even though the bus stop was like 2 mins away from where I originally was. I walked the wrong direction for about 20mins and ended up at the next stop. I waited for the tram, which took such a long time to come that I decided to walk back. In all, it took me an hour to walk one full circle back to the meeting place. Poor Annahita waiting in the cold!!! I still feel so bad. One of those ridiculously stupid things I do.

Yes, I will now confirm this. Dutch clubs play bad music. I thought it was only Utrecht and Storm, but Amsterdam and Powerzone play techno macarena. That's why I have to drink!

Amsterdam night life is really cool and lively, on the other hand. Bars and cafes place chairs out on the side walks, with the chairs facing the roads, so you can literally people-watch and observe the hustle and bustle. Today is the start of uitmarkt, which is something like a free live music festival. Performances take place on podiums, makeshift tents, in buses, on top of cars...also book markets, information booths are set up along the streets...love it, love it!

What comes is better than what came before

Orientation was really cool. There are only 20 international design students, although half of them are dutch, and the rest are international. It's a good mix of different people. School classrooms now include drawing studios, textile lab, knitting room (I can't wait to try out the machines!), sewing room and screen printing room. First semester modules are stylebook, inspiration book, clothing prototype, theoretical knowledge on history of fashion, and a theoretical business course. It's really funny, isn't it? After all these years, and I'm back to being a first year student again. Everything's so new to me! The schedule is not going to be easy either. After every module, there's an assessment which you have to re-sit if you fail, or you will get a negative study mark, which basically means that you will be kicked out of the school. Anyhow, this is a make-it or break-it situation!

It's so hard for me to tell people why I chose AmFi. Till this day, I still can't give an adequate explanation. Amsterdam, I love for sure. But the school itself, I've mixed feelings about it. The truth is that I would much rather have an artistic approach to fashion design - an approach that will test and push the boundaries of design itself. It's very idealistic but you can say that I would like to live in a world of ideas and pictures. I don't care much for anything else, including the commercial and business sides of fashion, which are key concerns for AmFi. But I suppose you have to be realistic (a word that I reject often). You just have to understand that design can't be self-centered, in the sense that it is always related to the environment, including the industry itself, which ultimately has profits as its goals. A horrible notion that must be instilled for "survival", yet to be gotten rid of because it is Disgusting. Actually, if I really must tell the truth, I think I'm here partly because I'm afraid of failing another entrance exam and of waiting again for a chance to do this. I've waited so long that my confidence has been seriously shaken. I was so, so happy, by the thought of acceptance and recognition, when the interviewer wrote, "I think she has potential".

Well, we'll see. I just really need to find a reason why I'm here, and I need a reason to tell others why I'm here. (And I hope the knitting room is the answer!)

Iamsterdam

I wasn’t fully sure that I was in Amsterdam, about to spend 4 years of my life here, until today when I laid on the grass at Museumplein, watching the birds flock into the open sky, blue with cotton clouds, the peculiarly slanted Dutch buildings, delicately carved, brick walls, brick roads, sipping tea by the canals, the sun shining across the city – “what a lark, what a plunge” (Mrs. Dalloway). In summer, the day lasts till 9pm. One never runs out of energy. Every step I take is filled with exuberance, with the sense of greatness and significance. It is the illusion of freedom, not from anything in particular, but of being free to wander as I please. I am absolutely in love with this place. A little more each day (except for the kitchen), and there is so much more to explore. How can I know if coming here is right? How can anybody know that what they are doing is right? What if one should lead his entire life believing that he has grasped the meaning of life and reality and existence but he hasn’t in fact? But as it seems, I am happy and excited for the days to come. We can leave out the metaphors and stick to the barest of words, green and blue, and the experience is still beautiful.

A Rush of Blood to the Head

In case you're not sick of t-bags, here are more pictures:
1) t-bags for blackout
2) a friend wanted to buy my bag outside of blackout, so i created my own label and tag. if you can even pronounce a.oei, that's great. it's not very creative, but i have absolutely no idea how to do branding, and i really did this in the very last second before selling it off.

Nabokov's Mary:

"And if my heart bursts, right now, then my whole world bursts with it? Cannot grasp it."

It later turns out that having exhausted his memories, his whole being, waiting for Mary to arrive, Ganin realizes that "other than that image no Mary existed, nor could exist." He picks up his bags and leaves.