Gezellig X-MAS!!!!

The Cooling Down

The cooling down became literally a cooling down. Being with 18 persons in one cottage in Lapland heading to an alcholic situation is not comparable with the four that stayed in Kristiiniekaupunki. I'm not sure yet whether it was the amounts of drugs (alcohol) or my own prepared food back in Helsinki that screwed up my stomach, but my stomach was complaining almost all the time at Sabby's place. Luckely there was much more to it than drinking alcohol. Detoxing from alcohol is step one of the cooling down and I must say that I'm quite well recovered after some medicines. Step two is obviously related to 'the sauna'.

The first day the sauna was a bit disappointing, It was cold, only 70 degrees, because the windows weren't good isolated. Sebastian bought some rubber strips which he attached to the windows. The day after the sauna reached a temperature of 110 degrees, good enough to get into the hole in the ice that Sebastian had prepared. It was a perfect cooling down.

During the day we did some activities on the ice. The lake was totally frozen and covered with snow. This gave, in combination with sunrise and sunset, a fabulous view that we enjoyed during fishing, ice-skating and our attempt to make an iglo. Although fresh snow had fallen, making an iglo was unfortunately impossible because the snow didn't stick together. We had already tried to make one in Lapland, but there we also had to deal with the same misfortune.

Making an iglo was one of the so called daily missions. Likewise was cutting down the tree, of which I'm really proud. However, the Finns don't seem to share our enthusiasm. Since our return from Lapland I've been proudly telling about this event to all the Finns I met. All rejected the idea and we immediately got compared to Germans, which had been all over the country in the news because they had cut down some trees. We did only one tree, although it was the biggest one.... the most valuable one......... the most important one for regrowth of the forrest........... Oops?! No, no 'oops' at all. I still remember the sound, as I will never forget the sound of water that touches the stones of the sauna oven.

Lapland! (written on 18-12)

Lapland, Cottage, Alcohol, Sauna, Sleeping, Northern-Light, Travelling. These are the keywords of the past week. It all started with the final presentation on Thursday the 10th of December. Nothing spectacular happened and everyone passed it. Holiday!! The celebration of it that night wasn't so intense for me. Mainly because I was pretty tired of the days/evening/nights before the final review.

Friday evening we took the train to Rovaniemi. Although we were accompanied by enough alcohol, sleeping was my most important activity. After Rovaniemi we needed to take a bus heading North for another 150 km. A taxi had to be taken in Kittilä to reach our final destiny: a cottache with 2 sauna's, but without: electiricy, water and central heating. We arrived while the temperature was -4, by which we were pretty lucky. It took a while to heat up the wooden stoves, cause most of the chimpney's where stuck with snow. The next day it was around -25. Which is cold, but not too cold if you only walk from the house to the wood staple, sauna and back. That day we also chopped a tree of about 25 meters. Because we had a small and "not sharp" axe it took a while, but nothing is impossible. After a while it came down and you can imagine that for a Dutch guy chopping down a tree is quite a happening.

The third or the fourth day it was -35. Sauna gets a new dimension by these temperatures. The sauna cottage was about 40 meters walking from the main cottage. After being in sauna for about 10 minutes you can sit outside on a elevated terrace, or roll through the snow. Almost everything you touch at -35 degrees Celsius sticks to your body. Opening the door, walking (naked) outside and sitting (naked) on a bench becomes a total new experience, even after 4 months of sauna practice. But after a hot sauna it doesn't really matter anymore how cold it is, it is beautifull. A clear sky, a white ground, steam coming from your body, sitting on a bench to which your balls freeze while you're sipping your beer. What a wonderfull world!

From the wonderfull world we went back to Helsinki. We arrived back last friday and in the evening we had a goodbye toast. After a short sleep Javier and I went to Sebastians summer cottage in Kristinestad...... the cooling down!

Update!

It has been a while that I’ve wrote the last post. It has been pretty busy since then and I didn’t really feel like updating it. At this moment I’m working on the final presentation for our studio exercise. This presentation is going to be on Thursday, therefore we need to hand in the drawings by tomorrow. So this weekend hasn’t been a weekend at all. While the computer is rendering an image I have some time to update you. The update is going to be short. A few weeks ago I went together with 149 others on a skiing trip to Ruka, which is pretty far up north. Going on holiday with Finns the best way to explore their culture. However, no new habits were revealed, but the old ones definitely became confirmed. Fins like to drink, like we do. But like I’ve probably already said before: they drink to get drunk. It became really clear in the bus. Vodka is handed out for those who ordered and you’re not a real man unless you get drunk. Some girl was kind of surprised because we only had a few beers with us and no intention at all to get drunk. She proudly told us that she finished 7 vodka bottles (obviously not on her own) at her birthday party. Well…… we might do that as well, but rather in a way to explain how drunk we were, instead for showing of…. As far as I am accustomed to Dutch habits. And maybe I was talking to one of a kind.

After a 12 hours bus trip we arrived around 9 am and around noon we were standing on our snowboards. The first day I dislocated my fingertip and hit a tree, but nothing else happened. In the evening we went to the bar, but we were the only sober ones. Which is not as much fun as we thought it could be, don’t know the reason for that. On Saturday we firstly set of for a fondue dinner. It was a lame dinner, no excitement no gezelligheid. People are sitting quiet, finishing their food, behaving…….. maybe because they were not drunk…… although I’m not sure. In the evening we also finished some drinks and ended up drunk…….. yup, that was some fun.

Within a week we’re going to be on the arctic circle, so hopefully we’ll see the northern lights. We’ve plenty of time to look up to the dark sky, cause it is at least 22 hours night!

no text, just images/video!

Midgets...... just want to share.

After I got an e-mail with a link to the blog of 'tuckermax' which starts with "We all have dreams. Martin Luther King dreamt of racial harmony. Larry Hagman dreamt of Jeannie. For over a decade, I dreamt of fucking a midget.", midget stories seemed to appear everywhere. For example 'Lilliputioa' on Coney Island (Delirious New York). This was a Midget City. "Three hunderd midgets who had been scattered across the continent as attractions at World's Fairs are offered a permanent experimanteal community here. [...] Within the walls of the midget capital, the laws of conventional morality are systematically ignored, a fact advertised to attract visitors. Promiscuity, homosexuality, nymphomania and so on are encouraged and flaunted:...." And also in the movie I watched a week after a special element relating to midgets was added.

Midgets........ amazing!

SWINNISH PARTY

The day after my last written message we went to Helsinki for a electronic music party. Nothing about the place is really special, but two Spanish guys and a criple Swiss can create a special atmosphere. Fins are obviously not good in creating a party-scene. Maybe they are in their own way. We were trying to make the best of it, which resulted in pogoing. Some Fins got pushed aside or got a bodycheck. None of them got angry, none of them went away and no security came to quite us down or kick us out. At a certain point I got overheated because I was wearing a turtleneck. So I took it off, which maybe wasn't the best thing to do because it left my upperbody naked. Apparently it triggered the two Spanish and the criple Swiss, who by then took of their t-shirts, climbed on the stage and started beating eachother with their t-shirts. This all happened after the criple tried to kiss the female singer of the band, and the Spanish had grabbed her microfone for some major karaoke performance. Unfortunately the mic was death and the male singer dragged the criple away from the girl. Nonetheless the Spanish kept screaming and the criple started to kiss the guy.......

The second day after my last writing was all about the Swinnish party. This party was organized by the "Swedish speaking Fins guild" in their own building. The ground floor is usually a restaurant, but changed into a disco. The basement is a afterparty bar and the board room is located at the top floor. Swedish speaking Fins from all around the area have gathered, while no Finnish speaking Fin is to be found. It is still unclear for me if there is any rivalry and why. Well... the Swedish speaking girls are in average more beautifull. The party itself was pretty lame, but luckely they have this "balls bath". I don't know the term for it, but I mean those areas filled with balls like in the IKEA or McDonalds. So our time consuming element of the evening was throwing balls at.... everyone. Bart was very succesfull with hitting the deejays :).
At the end of the evening we went upstairs, just out of curiousity. We were looking for a trophy, so at the end we went home with some certificate that was hanging on the wall. Bart wanted to fetch himself a nice chair, but I convinced him it was to difficult to smuggle out. BTW, don't worry. These things are just borrowed, there is now way that someone will bring a chair or other things back to holland.

Anyway, it kept us busy till I think 7 am. But we needed to be in Helsinki at 9 am, because of the history excursion. Yes, it was the first time that I attended a class not being sober...... well excursion......... on Saturday!

Tonight the Spanish are going to make us a fine dinner. At least I think so. And Saturday we're leaving for Stockholm!

AARRRGGHHHH!!!!

It is clear that the average age of the architectural students here is a bit higher than back home. This has several reasons. First of all it is hard to get into architecture studies. After failing, someone might succeed to get in after a few years. Secondly, most of the students are during their studies also working in an office. This causes delay, but that's not a problem because the schooling system is much more flexible. University is for free. The third reason is that most of the guys need to go in military service, what takes them one year.

I really don't have a problem with people being older. I also don't have a problem with moms studying in the same workspace as I am. But I do have a problem with the kindergarten/studio mixing. There is this one woman, walking around in a terrible coat made of towel fabric. She is 'ni-ing' allll day long!! Ni...ni...ninininini......ni......nini......ni....ninini....nini.....ninininininini.ni.ni........nini......ninini......nini.ni.ni. Is it already boring you? Luckily it is not everlasting. At some point she has to breath. So I close my eyes, enjoying the moment. Although it is short, the moment is intense and relaxing. "NI" Aarrrghhhh...... I open my eyes again and turn my head..... WHWHWHWOAHOHOHAOHOWHAOAAAA!!! A woman of equal ugliness is suckling her baby. What is wrong with these people??!! It doesn't get any better when a 3 years old spoiled kid is screaming and jumping around your workspace. Get him vodka, beer, make him Finnish: quiet!

So what is keeping me alive? Well........ it has been snowing! Yup, snow at the 10th of October. Isn't that nischhhh? :D Besides people ask me if there also Finnish Snow Whites. Yes there are. We have a princess among us at the faculty.

Miss Finland 2007

SNNOOOOOWWWW!!!!!

Just Home!

My back is covered by sweat. By telling Bart that I could ride home within 25 minutes putted a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I managed it to do so one time, but actually from the most South point of Helsinki it is impossible. However, I tried hard and managed to be back in 35 minutes. I needed to cycle fast, because it is freezing. Car windows, puddles and the sea bridge are covered by ice. One wrong movement and I could slip, break my neck and die. Luckily I'm Dutch and immune for this kind of situations. Eventually we're born on a bike. My blood shows more comparisons with Jenever than it does with water. So I don't have to be afraid that my blood gets frozen.

But now........ now it's time to sleep. Tonight I've concluded that some Spanish people talk as if they got frog's tongs. Some Spanish people like to sing and some Spanish people like to crawl underneath their desk after some vodka.

Cheers!

Last two weeks.

It has been a while, two weeks, since I've written a blog. Usually I try to keep the blogs short and readable. This time the blog is going to be short for sure, because I'm not really in the mood for writing. The past few days I've been quite busy with writing a book review. The book itself is very interesting. It is called 'Collapse, how socieities choos to fail or survive' by Jared Diamond and I would like to recommend it, although it is quite pessimistic :).

Last weekend was special cause my parents came over. Before their arrival I hadn't done any touristic things and drank proper beer. So I'll post some images of the past few weeks..... easy for me, easy for you!

Processing your thoughts.

"Don't work too hard, because it makes us look like shit.", according to a Finnish colleague of us. Yes, one of the 35 annual selected talented persons to become an architect. Hereby I take away the doubts of some......

Processing your thoughts is certainly as important, if not even more, as being productive. At least it is more interesting for you to read what kind of situation stimulates this processing. If possible, I'll try to visualize these situations.

That's all I wanted to tell you about this week, because the climax this week was in the middle of the night at the rooftop of a six stories high student flat. Yup, we tried to get into a after after after after after party. No luck.

Kristinestad

Friday we went off to Kristiinankaupunki, Kristinestad. This town is at the west coast of Finland and the people speak here Swedish. As you may know Finland is a bilangual country. Both Swedish and Finnish are the official language.

Anyway, the journey is 350 km. The five of us, Bart, Sebastian, Janna, Ian and I, were packet in a Fiat Bravo. Our first stop was at Sebastian's Grandma's place. Her house is really impressive. It used to be a restaurant and a casino for a while. Now there is a woman of 93 living there all by her self. Which is as impressive as the house itself. After saying hi we went to Sebastian's town house to get the cottage keys. From the town to the cottage is 7km on a sandy road through the woods.

Being in the car for more more than 3 hours, even the knowledge that you've almost reached destiny can't easy the pain of your knees, ass or neck. When you look through the windows you'll be staring at a line of trees, which were situated along the 350 and 7 km road. The moment this curtain of trees opened a panoramic view appeared. My cheeck was almost touching my knees, which were suddenly free of pain. We drove onto a small grass field, which led to a lake. There was the cottage situated, facing the water.

Bart, Ian and I started fishing. In the beginning it resulted in a major loss of gear. Our clumsiness prevented us of catching the first fish which took the bite. The fish started to notice that we are kinda fishing fools, so they started to tease us. As a result that Ian's line got bitten off, so that we lost another fishing plug. In the end we caught a fish. It luckely took my bait, Sebastian brought us some tools to get it out. Ian was enjoying the killing and Bart documented the scene.

In the evening we went into the sauna. 90 degrees is a nice temperature.......for a few minutes. Luckily the lake brings enough cooling. Swiming after the sauna gives a strange feeling. Your skin and some muscels hurt by the cold water, meanwhile you don't feel cold. A relaxed feeling took over me, but that might also have been the beer. Afterwards some 'Colin McRay' guy took us to town, to the Wild Wild West square. According to Sebastian Gipsies 'own' the place. Sorry Sabby, but there is nothing to own.

The moment we entered a bar, Bart got seduced by a woman of over 40. The moment we left the bar I got threaten because of my trousers. It was around 1:30 when we entered the club (the only one in town). Deserted, that's what the place and the club is. How would you describe a bar with only drunken old men/women which try stay on there feet, they all induvidually stagger around and once in a while they accidentally bumb into eachother. 90 % change that even then they won't have any conversation. But there is also a group of young people, like us. These people just end up in a club like this because there are no other options.

The next day started with some fishing exersizing. This time nothing got lost, no teasing and no fish. In the afternoon we checked out the cultural herritage of the town. Which includes a church from the 18th century, a church from the 19th century and a beuatifull house.

Everything on the church is original, except for the roof. Check out the pictures and pay attention to the wood connection. This church is the only one in whole Finland with this kind of wood construction.

After the keykeeper guided us through the church, we went to Sebastian's girlfriend's, Jannah's, parents to have dinner. After 40 minutes driving, we stopped at a white, kind of concrete house. Having tree 3 bedrooms, open staircase with void, a jacuzzi, sauna, fitness room and area for a bar, the house can be considered as pretty big. Bart and I were a little bit dazzled by the style of the house. It is a mixture between a house of the bad guy within James Bond (Sean Connory) movies and the Thunderbird mansion.

They have this huge garage in which they prepare their 'thunderbird' cars. Jannah's dad used to be the fastes guy in the country. Which means that he won the drag racing championships back in the 80's. The Camaro is still standing in front of the house, but downtuned.

We actually started with the dinner. It was delicious and I haven't, like the most of us, eaten so much in years. Not because we were starving and rudessly emptying all the pans on the table, but because there was so much variety in dishes. When offered it is proper to accept rather than decline the food. Shrimp cocktail, fish, grilled meat, boiled meat, boiled potatos, fried potatos, some sort of rice, salad, strawberries dipped in chocolate, frozen cream with special berries, cookies and we ended with "pistace nuts".

With totally filled stomaches we returned home to have a Sauna. It took a while before the sauna was heaten up, but around 11:30 pm it was ready.... After the sauna and swimming we took some Finnish sausage with mustard.

On sunday we went for mushroom hunting. I've never seen so many different and big sized mushrooms, but they tasted together with the fish delicious!

Prohibition

Yesterday I cooked 'hutspot met worst' for Vladimi, Bart and Ian. Unfortunately I was forgotten the salt, otherwise it would have been their best meal ever. Just watch how happy they are, especially Vladimir can't wait to get started.

After the dinner we went to this sauna party.... but there is not much to say about that. The next event was better. The prohibition party. (Alcohol) Prohibition is in Finland seemingly impossible. Prohibition was together with the clothing from the 1920 the theme of the evening.

The main idea was to dress up fancy and hide some booze underneath. At the end of the evening I had to crash at Vladimir's place, because it was too late to catch a bus. I had a great evening, met Meg Ryan and woke up without a headache.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to Kristinestad, to Sebastian's summer house. We'll stay there for the weekend.

Being Positive

This time I'm going to write something positive, because I have to. "Do you actually like it in Finland" Yes I do. I highlighted some parts, because they were in my opinion quite typical. I've been accused of treating the Finnish with disregard, maybe... But at some points they do weird things. And yes again, I say this probably from a Dutch perspective.

So what did I do in this positive Era? The first event was some sort of opening party of the design week. There was this catwalk show and some art was displayed. Ever noticed what a catwalk attracts.... beautiful women..... lots of them..... (isn't that positive?) Secondly I went to this sauna party. Unfortunately not with those beautiful women. It was a party for the international students, but only a few showed up. I stayed in the sauna for a while and had some dinner with Ian and Vladimir afterwards.

Friday was stage 1 in my becoming serious progression. Sebastian took me to this underground club called "playground". The club closed at 4 am and opens again at 5 am for an after party. Drugs was offered and drugs were taken. I just took the regular one, alcohol, and watched people getting some everlasting energy boost. Yup, that was a serious party.

Sunday night we went to the Helsinki amusement park. Fun.

Monday was a moment of serious studies. The class started at 3 pm and finished around 7 pm. The teachers give interesting lectures and the exercises are some you can actually learn from. A remarkable thing is the relaxed attitude of the teachers. They are never in a hurry and not worrying about time. While TU Delft admitted this year around the 600 freshmen, these teacher are pretty shocked/surprised with 34 students in a seminar room. As time doesn't matter the teachers start discussing about the 'huge' amount of people in a room, which is to small. After 30 some minutes they conclude (like last week) that we should move to another room. 30 minutes are wasted, but none of the teachers consider to shorten their story. Best thing to do as second lecturer is to take a power nap at the front row, even though you're snoring. Things are maybe not that well organized, but flexible and relaxed.

For some of you:

Rather German than Dutch........... anyway....... we all love concrete!

ScandinAsia

Like mentioned before karaoke is also quite popular in Finland. Bart and I tried it once at the karaoke association at the campus area. Although we are gifted, the language was an obstacle. By gifted I mean Dutch enthusiasm, it is all about the performance.

So there we are, downtown Helsinki, yet again at a freshmen's party, but this time in a bit more fancy surroundings. Last week good oldy 'Captain Jack' made my feet go crazy, shaking me from left to right, left...right... left. Maybe I should have left. Last night was different. There was Ken. You remember Ken? Ken took us for about 3 minutes into the realm of Barbie. And believe me, I don't need Ken to make me realize that Finland is a neighboring country of Sweden.

Anyway, on the floor below there was this chill out area with karaoke. Bart and I decided at the end of the night to give a blasting performance. Unfortunately there was a cue of 10 persons and Bart had to catch his bus. So we left while the DJ was playing a song of the Vengaboys.... yes the absence of the Dutchmen had to be compensated.

No more chittychatty about very cosy, but a bit lame freshmen's parties. University has also begun. Our first serious lecture kept us seated from 15:00 till about 19:00. The course is about urban planning improvements in the so called 'Third World', if I still may say so. Besides, I'm accepted into the Public Building Studio, like I believe everyone is. So we are getting serious now. No introduction lectures any more, but serious ones. No introduction parties anymore, but serious ones. No lousy karaoke any more, but serious practice. Please join me in my Karaoke quest. In china they have 1.3 billion Chinese, in Finland they have 1.3 billion trees. Lets hear some signing in Holland. Our tulips will grow better, our weed will be stronger, our cheese will be better and our windmills will run faster. Perhaps we will reach the 1.3 billion with this song..........

Finnish way of partying.

The university organized a pick-nick for all the new students on Tuesday. It was on the field on front of the main building. They drove a stage on the field and I was expecting some food stands and a bar including beer pump. There was only one hot-dog stand where a single hot-dog was at least 4 Euro. Nevertheless, we didn't expect this to be our only 'dinner option' because the event was labelled as 'pick-nick'. Every guild brought their own grill and sausages. However, our guild only brought a grill, no beer and no food. So we (Barthold and me) bought our own beer in the supermarket and drunk that among the others. After a while we started to feel hungry.. and because our own architecture guild didn't bring any food we tried to get some at a guild which grill was packed. Our attempt was without any lucky, cause in Finland it seems to be that at an organized pick-nick at which you're invited, you're suppose to bring your own drinks an food. With a supermarket around this was easily solved, but we were kinda amazed.
Besides it wasn't that crowded. And I can image why when the university invites a so called 'Love Metal' band which only attracts 15 year old groupies. Anyway, we had a nice time learning some Finns with strange names: Antti, Antti-Matti, Aku, Jirre, Tuamen, Elsi and many many more which I can't remember. On the other hand Koen isn't that common as well. Usually it is written down as Kun or pronounced as Koën. Pronounced in the correct way it means 'sleepy' in Chinese, 'ass' in Afghan and 'when' in Finnish........ then there is also 'Barendregt', well I don't have to explain any further.
After the pick-nick we had an after-party in someone's dorm. This was a real 'after party', cause it wasn't particularly a party. Although this had a High-School character it was still good to meet some more Finns. Around midnight I went back home on my just rented bike. The usual 20 minutes ride took me about 1 hour cause a sign was broken off, which doesn't really help when it's your first time.

Yesterday there was this 'Fuksi' event. The Fuksi are the freshmen, after a while they are allowed to wear a cap. Therefore they need to earn points, which can be done by playing games. Barthold and I are not really interested in this cap cause it is still considerable expensive. Anyway, we did some games. Among we sang a Finnish song at the Karaoke,and acted as Mario and Luigi in a television show. The students here have their own television channel and all the activities during the last days are live broadcastings. While we were live on cam Barthold was so nice to mention 'Okenoken' which comes from the purno de purno cartoons. Meanwhile I had drunk tooo much what made me offer to explaining the game. Watch the movie and figure out whether the Finns liked it or not :S.



After the games there was a party, which again reminded me of High-School. But then again there were a lot of exchange students, so it was good evening anyway.
Tonight I take a brake, cause tomorrow is promising!

Finally the campus!

It is beautifull weather, there is a nice sun and a fresh wind blows through my room. After a day of resting and reading I wanted to get moving. Although my tutor planned to pick-up my public transportation card, internet account and student member card by tomorrow, I wanted to have these things as soon as possible. A ride with the bus costs at least 2.50 (withouth traffic card). Besides I wanted to get a bycicle.
Today I've handed in the forms for the student union membership card and the bycicle rental. I also picked up the student computer account and traffic card. Only waiting for the bike pick-up time and place and the student membership card is left over. At the end of the afternoon I was a bit dazzled by the bureaucracy. However, I'm happy that I've done my part today, because most of the international students will be applying tomorrow or the day after and standing in a line will really test my patience and mood.

Anyway, I've taken some pictures. Some are from my departure, but most of today. The campus has some special atmosphere. It is designed by Alvar Aalto. You should really check out his designed wooden chairs. He's one of (or the) first who used bended and laminated wood in furniture design. The campus was designed to be in balance with nature. It worked out since you feel like your in the woods, at the same time you get easily lost at the first time becasue of the organic design. Not knowing what's behind the corner...... perhaps another tree....

The Address:
Timpurinkuja 1A 023
02650 ESPOO

Finland day 1!

Finally I’m in Espoo (near Helsinky), but at the moment pretty tired. Some things kept me awake during the past few nights. It wasn’t beer this time…. Last night it was my backpack, but I managed to pack it in time with no things missing so far.

After my arrival I took the bus to the main train station. There I met with Matti, who brought me to my flat. It is a nice place. Very clean, which isn’t a surprise when it was inhabited by three girls during the last term. I don’t want to raise a certain general impression, but I do think they deserve a compliment. What also comes in handy is that the apartment is at about 5 walking minutes distance from the biggest shopping mall in the area. If I might believe Matti the best library is behind this mall, where renting a dvd costs only 50 eurocents!

Anyway, I’ve unpacked my bag, bought a phone-number and bought some food to survive the Sunday. Tonight I need to read a bit about the university and the area around Espoo and Helsinky. Sports, friends and exams were keeping me busy the past weeks, so I didn’t take the time to prepare myself……….well not enough.

Yes I’ve met my roommates and some other people including a Dutch person, but I’m not going to tell you anything about my preconceived opinions. First I need to figure out myself what kind a “at 16:00 eating pasta with egg and beer for breakfast – from ‘central Europe’ coming – can’t shake your hand – I have Amsterdam flag on my wall” for person is.