Jip en Janneke.

Today at work I continued working on a jacket. I put in a zipper and made pockets for boning. Edwin is working on a new design and Karo and Elise are close to finishing their garments.

After work, Gerbrechje and I went to the new library and had dinner there. The balcony was open this time so this was out view:

Before we left the library we saw that the is a Jip and Janneke exhibit because of Annie M.G. Schmit's 100th birthday (although she is deceased now). Jip and Janneke are the characters in a very famous children's book series. They don't really look human but because everyone grows up with them, no one pays attention to that. We used to have tons of Jip and Janneke books and Gerbrechje and I decided to check it out.

Someone decided to be an ass and write this inside a little tiki hut meant for little kids to play and read in.

Who does that?!?

I got home around 22:30 and despite it being pitch black in Florida at that point, it was still relatively light out. Pretty awesome.

Memorial Day? Not here.

So Happy Memorial Day people in America. Happy Monday (I know, oxymoron) people in The Netherlands. Okay, so at work today Johan came to film again. I really hope the film turns out nice and we all get copies. That would be epic. Edwin is wanting to participate in something called Salon instead of doing Amsterdam Fashion Week because he hates the way it's run. In Amsterdam Fashion Week, there are a lot of fees, a lot of rules and it's not even open to the public. With Salon, his work gets displayed among the work of other artists and anyone can buy a cheap ticket to view all 5 venues. Also, by doing Salon, he doesn't have to arrange events and press because it's all taken care of. I had never heard of it so I'm anxious to see how it all goes.

I finished lining the shrug/jacket thingy and I stared working on a new dress Gerbrechje and I did beading for. Edwin also finished a dress today and there are 3 other garments close to being finished. It's time to get crackin'!

Mada Van Gaans has new window displays.

I want this dress. It's H &M so it's cheap. Now let's hope it's not some polyester disaster in the store.

Do those shoes look familiar? If not, you have obviously not been reading this blog consistently enough. You can make it up to me by buying the above dress. I'm just kidding, I'm tired. Welterusten.

Cleaning.

Okay so nothing too exciting happened so I'll make this quick. Friday I worked on lining a complicated shrug that I'll probably finish tomorrow and after work I decided I had to at least get some of my crap cleaned up before my grandparents get back.

Before.

After.

See? I can clean up when I want to.

On Saturday I watched the Champions League finals between Manchester United and Barcelona. I was rooting for Manchester off course but they lost. At least they lost fairly and it wasn't a replay of the Finale last year. Today was Koopzondag, which means that once a month, stores are open on Sunday. They had a whole book fair type thing in het stadje and I thought it was pretty cool.

They also had a stage on the main square and they had performances. These girls did a bunch of numbers from Hairspray. It was really cute.

I also got a few things including my new awesome agenda for 2011-2012 :-) I'm ready to kick that school year's ass.

I am not a prostitute.

It seems like tourists in Amsterdam think that every female in the area of the Red Light District is a prostitute. They are not. Here are a few telltale signs of those that are: They are behind a window, they are in some form of lingerie, they are making eye contact with passers-by to get them to come in and, oh yeah, THEY ARE BEHIND A RED LIGHT. Three girls sitting on a stoop fully clothed in front of a door with dress forms and dresses, are not. So the man who walked up from behind me, touched my head and asked "Are you available for sex?" was sadly mistaken. "We are not hookers!" I replied and he said "oh sorry...can I be your boyfriend?" and he tried to touch me again. Big mistake. I told him "you need to leave right now!" He was one word away from getting my hot Starbucks poured on his face (which would have been such a waste because it was delicious) but he listened and left. There are tons of girls sitting in front of windows in a g-string and bra with red light yet he thought it was okay to assume we were prostitutes. Not okay. Next time I'll brake his face.

Beautiful dress, not a prostitute
(this one I took today and there was much less glare so it came out better.)

Anyway, we laughed and moved on. Gerbrechje and I spent the day working on beading for a dress and Edwin and Elise worked on 2 dresses. Gerbrechje and I were weirdly in sync today as we said things at the same time and thought things at the same time. We went to Boeken (the fabric store) and had dinner after work. Since almost everyone who works at Boeken is an ass and they suck at customer service, I decided to appeal to one of the men working there who is from Limburg and talk the dialect with him. I think my plan worked because it seemed I scored some points.

Meet Gerbrechje.

When we ate our food at the Dam, there was some kind of soccer tournament going on. They had put a bunch of sand on the Dam and put nets around it. There was music playing and it was a fun atmosphere even though the weather was crappy (finally. I knew it existed, I had just been outrunning it).

Gevulde koek = deliciousness.

Shoarma.

Today at work I started working on a new garment that has a lot of beading. Before lunch, I sewed and hand sewed and after lunch I started putting beads on. It's a lot of work but it's going to look so cool I can't wait to see it. We were joking around at work and Gerbrechje and I really click, which makes it even more fun. I also learned today that in English (british) there are 3 different words for different sizes of shrimp. How eloquent.

So on Central Station there is a guy living in a little room he built as part of a project. He is part of a few theatre people who are living on train stations and they will be performing a play based on their experiences here. He's going to be living in Central Station for 2 weeks! I saw him today chatting with an older man but it looks to me like it would be super boring. Power to him though, these are the things that make Amsterdam so interesting.

Image from Her Parool website. Please don't sue me for copyright.

After work I went to Pim and Sisca's for dinner. We had, get ready, shoarma, fries with mayo and kaassoufles! If you have never had these things for dinner, you need to. It's awesome.

This was our view!

Then we hung out. See below. :-)

Day 2 of Part 2.

In honor of Queen's Day last month, Edwin changed his display to a hang-dyed silk orange dress he had made. It's really hard to see because of the glare but it's pretty awesome.

I worked on the cape today and we talked about religion and prostitution, specifically the whole Loverboy con. This is where a guy seeks out a girl with low self esteem and other qualities that make her vulnerable, befriends her and eventually prostitutes her. It's not technically illegal because the girl do it voluntarily/do not object. Why? Here's the kicker: he makes the girls fall in love with him! A loverboy has an actual relationship with the girl (it is, in fact, a lie but not to the girl) and ends up threatening her and prostitutin her. Despire their poor treatment of the girls, they feel real affection for the guys and very often stay because, although their situation is bad, they still feel better than if they were not with them. SO CRAZY! But it happens and one of the interns is reading a recently popular Dutch book that is a true story of a girl who fell for a loverboy. So...interesting day. I'd say we bonded :-)

Speaking of prostitution (have you noticed we have moved from Starbucks to prostitution as the main topic of this blog? I don't know what's next but I'm thinking you should brace yourselves), I've walked by this sign in this alley/street perpendicular to the main road the atelier is on and it has always intrigued me. It's hidden away in a really small street and the sign says "Thai Massage" but the windows upstairs have red lights. I'll give you one guess as to whether you should recommend this to your friends with backpain.

After grabbing a Kaassoufle at Central Station, I had this for dinner. Awesome.

And Edwin is in this month's Dutch Marie Claire with a dress from the last collection. This is also the dress the one for Nijntje was based on.

Happy Birthday to me :-)

So..today is my b-day. I went to Limburg this past weekend to celebrate with family there and today I celebrated with family here.

Deliciousness is Hugo's yard.

I was excited to get to work today since I haven't been there in 4 weeks and I was anxious to see how far the collection has come. When I got there, I caught up with the other interns and when Edwin arrived, he had a pie that he had made for my birthday. It was delicious :-) They also showed me all the new garments that are done. There are about 3 complete garments done and 3 others that are almost done. Most of the patterns have also been made and a lot of the fabric has been cut so the ball should really get going now. I spent today constructing the cape that Elise and Kato had been embroidering before I left. It's going to be so awesome! Also, I made brownies. I brought the mix from the U.S. so it was the real deal. Thank you Betty Crocker :-)

What's interesting is that when I'm back in The Netherlands it's like I never left yet when I go back to America, I feel the same. Because I'm going into familiar territory it doesn't feel like I'm so far away. With traffic, it has taken me longer to get from Tallahassee from Boca than from Boca to Amsterdam. That's just crazy.

Anyway, When I came home my cousin Pim and his girlfriend Sisca were making dinner, they had decorated and my aunt and uncle were there. My cousin Fleur and her boyfriend Patrick were on the bus after mine and also came over to celebrate.

Decorations (it's customary in Holland to hang colored flags and streamer type things).

From my aunt and uncle. How cute!!!

My awesome shoes from my parents!!!

Thank you everyone for all the birthday awesomeness!

Round 2.

I am back in The Netherlands and ready to have 10 weeks of adventures. It sucks not to have George here with me but I am determined to make the most of it. After all, I'll be going to Barcelona with Maud, Basel and Castle Neuschwanstein with my aunt Charlotta and uncle Richard and Prague with my grandparents. It's going to be Legen-I hope-you're-not-lactose-intolerant-because-the-next-word-is Dary!

Anyway, instead of boring you with my flight etc. I'll cut to the chase. The flight was long and boring and I'm very tired. After I took a nap I went to the supermarket and got a bunch of Dutch deliciousness. Can you blame me? This stuff is yummy.

Oh, yes.

Since, I didn't touch this blog while I was in the states, here are some of the long overdue graduation pictures.

My sister convinced my mom to get a Grad tiara and sash. She has no idea the enormous can of worms that has now been opened for her graduation party. And I have 5 years to plan. Mwuahahaha. Are you scared yet Krissy? Are ya? Are ya? :-)

The delicious cake my sister and cousin made.