The Beginning!

Perhaps it is best to begin this blog while still in the States. Perhaps not. Regardless, I am starting it now! I, Brock, leave for Amsterdam in two days (one, if you don’t count the day of departure nor the current day; three if you count both the current day and the day of departure). While there, I will be studying Fine Arts and Theatrical Design/Art Direction at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie , an art and design school in the Nieuw Zuid neighborhood of Amsterdam. It is roughly 8 km (about 5 miles) from my housing in the northern Western Islands/Jordaan neighborhood. This is really boring.

I’m living in a flat (where I have a single room, for which I am very glad). I don’t know who my flat mates are, and I hope they aren’t scary. (Aside: I feel like I am a fourth grader writing a really bad essay for class).

Those are the boring parts of what I had to say. Now to the exciting parts.

Earlier this week, I decided to shift my cultural preparation for Amsterdam from attempting to learn Dutch, an effort that has been both foiled and enhanced by my background in German, to listening to Dutch music. You see, being almost fluent in German (in a strictly academic sense, not a real world sense), I can read Dutch fairly easily. I cannot, however, pronounce the words well at all. I tend to swtich into German pronunciation at the slightest anxiety. Its kind of fun, to be honest: I don’t actually recognize that I have switched into German until I have been going for a bit.

But back to the music.

I proceeded to search Google for the Netherlands’ Top 100 Chart. Once I found it, I proceeded to acquire, possibly through nefarious means, the songs of which I had never heard, while ignoring the simply atrocious American songs that people seem to like (Aside: Lead example number one of this is Rihanna. She isn’t pretty, she can’t sing very well, AND her lyrics are simply awful. Yes, Rihanna, I got the fact that you had an Umbrella the first time you said the word. You don’t need to break it down into phonics for me. I graduated from the first grade years ago. Thanks.)

My favorite song of the lot is actually by a fairly new Dutch band called Leaf. The song itself belongs on a summer road-trip mix tape: it has a laid-back, care-free quality which is perfect for driving down a country highway with your windows down, singing along, driving with no real destination.

“Wonderwoman” by Leaf

And with that, I am done.

To life!