the end for real sort of

well. the last time i wrote i was walking on water and now my studio is over and i am fitting everything into my suitcase.

so, my time now in holland is at an end. i am really going to miss it here, both the lifestyle and all of the cool people i've met from all over the world. it is a typical exchange experience to feel like you don't have enough time to develop friendships with the people you meet, i think. when i sit down in america and think about it i will be quite sad actually. but, again, it doesn't feel like i am saying good bye forever. beyond tools like facebook, there is a strong chance i will find myself seeing some of these people again, either in america or in their respective home nations or back here in holland. i've talked with numerous people about coming back to work at one of the many important offices in rotterdam. a few other people are serious about coming to america so i hope they will visit me. another cool thing about exchange at such an international school is that now i have global contacts and people i know in portugal, barcelona, berlin, london, greece, milan, latvia, bangalore, hong kong, shanghai, brisbane, melbourne, and LA. that is a nice feeling. the world is a small, good place.

my studio finished and i am super excited about that. the end result (which probably won't be posted here but may be available shortly elsewhere) is ok but unstable and frustrating and immature as an entire studio. there were strong organizational issues with the teachers and no given situation for us to respond to. most studios are organized around problems: design a building for this, propose a new urban plan for this area, whatever. here it was just sort of a blank expanse: do some research and come up with an idea, especially when the topic is as abstract and philosophical as it was. i think my part is OK and, with some work, could stand as an ok project. in the end it was mostly me and another student trying to coordinate everything together but it turned out alright. i spoke a bit with winy about it and he is aware. he will be at MIT soon so maybe we will talk there. i never quite realized how MIT even as a name is such a global fetish. anytime i would drop that i go to school there, people are frequently suddenly impressed. its reputation is pervasive mostly for its technical and media lab work but i guess people assume it continues over to architecture even though the undergraduate program is tiny and rocky. the problems with the studio are also another reason why this blog has been more travel-oriented than academic. i think for most people that is ok because nobody likes shop talk, especially in blog form.

well, what did i do in my last few weeks? mostly stayed in delft like a slob. in the past two weeks i did some work. i actually stayed up all night on wednesday which made me feel kind of good that i was actually working. anyway, i finished two 8-10 page papers for the two lecture courses i was in. i rode my bike around ypenburg, an area north of delft that is a dutch new town development for the hague. MVRDV has some houses there and everything sits on canals. there will be pictures on flickr or facebook sometime. it was a nice sunday afternoon ride. yesterday i had my final review and ate dinner with jean paul and hannes, the two TUD students who went to MIT in my place. both of them are super cool dudes who i would love to hang out with more. it is funny because we know the same people and places now (we spent a lot of our time joking about MIT and talking about cambridge) but we don't really know each other! then there was a great party here with everybody from the two Msc2 studios at the why factory. very good party, if i am able to say so myself. it was a good way to say good bye without being emotional.

then today i went to amsterdam for the last time and walked around a new area of the city, mostly the east docklands that is a huge west 8-masterplanned housing area. there are the really stylish and now well-known dock houses (pictures to come) by MVRDV and others like EMBT. i am glad i got to see them. i also went inside the new amsterdam public library which is super nice as a place to hang out. it was a nice mix of louis kahn-type wood and brick work with some dutch interiors inside. i also saw the renzo piano nemo museum, a building i didn't know existed until this morning. then i was walking and saw the steven holl addition to an office building along the mauritskade, a green block with thin windows cut out in unexpected places and wrapped with a mesh. pictures would explain more. walking back towards the damrak i unexpectedly discovered aldo van eyck's orphanage, a building that jan wampler worships. it was just ok. i became unexpectedly emotional walking back to the station and through these small streets with snow falling. it was beautiful in a way that i hadn't seen very much here. i will miss that.

but then there is also the future: my last semester at MIT and moving forward with my life. i am excited to return to the treehome and have a big nice kitchen and my friends and cat. my classes this spring will be interesting and hopefully not as stressful as before. playing music will be good. and then i can probably graduate and do adult things and act like i have a position of authority on a topic because i have a degree in it. ok, this will also probably be the last post on this blog too because i will be back home and its purpose will have been fulfilled. i am fine with that. see you all soon in the real world.

it is that time of the year

when the canals freeze over and become walkable.

runja, 2010, and the end

OK so christmas break has quickly flown by and now it is back to normal. runja finally arrived in holland on christmas morning, the same day as that terrorist scare on the flight to detroit. we were probably in the airport at the same time. but runja's travel was safe to and from europe.

we did lots of fun things, including walking on the beach at scheveningen, all around rotterdam, utrecht, and amsterdam a few times. we saw the van gogh museum that is designed by rietveld on the museumplein. it is expensive and 1/3 of the permanent collection wasn't on display. why aren't museums subsidized here like in england? or at least a student discount or something. also new year's eve was a blast. every person in the city set off fireworks at midnight and we watched from a small bridge so it was a beautiful sight. we ate good food (mostly pad thai), made art, and laughed a lot. that was the most important part of the trip: our time together. photos are up now on flickr. it was a blast and now it is lonely to do things i once did with her. i miss her.

but, for better or worse, i only have 3 weeks left. this blows my mind. my semester abroad has flown by. i will be both happy and annoyed to return to the US (happy for black beans, cheap food, and hills; sad for inefficient public transit, canals, and leaving delft). regardless, it will happen and life will go on. i should probably be thinking about things like how to close my bank account and how to get a school transcript, but for now i am worried about school itself. i just finished a paper for my patrick healy course and now have 3 weeks (the review is on january 29) to pump out something for the studio course. it has, organizationally, been a nightmare. i am even worried now about getting credit for it at MIT and graduating on time. i don't want to talk about it because it only makes my headache and frustration larger. instead of complaining i want to do the best i personally can to learn and get positive experience out of it. i'm also trying to get ready for the spring 2010 term at MIT that starts only 4 days after my final review at TUD and what will happen after that. but for now, it is studio crunch time.