Gala Nocturna 2016 - The Age of Redemption

Same procedure as every year...
Beginning of March means it's time for Gala Nocturna! This year it moved to Ghent, a welcome change from Brussels last year (such a hideous city!) and Antwerp (didn't really need to go there for a third time...).

I was not too enthusiastic when the motto was announced some time late last year. "The Age of Redemption" just didn't evoke any ideas or pictures whatsoever. The moodboards didn't help either. The women's outfits were either boring or impossible to achieve (at least for me) haute couture outfits, while the inspiration for the men's outfits could probably best be described as "homeless Hipster Jedi-Priest". Oh well, at least everybody would be able to recycle their halo headdresses from 3 years ago ("The Pope's Daughter").
Nevertheless, I didn't cancel my pre-booked hotel room. After all, decent goth-dark-romantic parties are rare up here, I wanted to see Ghent and there would at least be some friends from back home and all around Germany coming. And so far I've never stuck to the Gala's theme anyway.

Turns out, Ghent is really lovely, almost as pretty as Amsterdam (but a lot smaller). Over the centuries they seem to have filled the city with as many churches, chapels, cathedrals and monasteries as possible, and it's rather impressive to turn a corner and find yet another gothic cathedral when walking through the city. Several rivers flow through the city centre and the waterside cafes invite to indulge in the holy trinity of belgian guilty pleasures: Mussels, Frietjes, Waffels. Preferably sitting outside in the sun, of which we luckily got to see quite a lot during the weekend.

Gravensteen castle, major tourist attraction

In the end I decided to wear the Victorian Mourning Dress that I had made just before last year's WGT. I had only worn it only on one day for a photoshoot and apart from that mostly spent said day sitting in Cafés and in our appartment sipping wine, so that dress definitely needed to be taken out again. I did want  at least one new piece though, so I made at least a quick new headdress and a matching boutonniere-like thing to pin onto my boyfriends jacket (I think this is the closest we've ever come to matching outfits).


Befitting the theme, the location for the Gala this year was the Augustijnenklooster in Ghent, an old monastery, where monks are still living and working and apparently also brewing beer. Long hallways with ancient paintings, wooden furniture and antique chandeliers created quite a noble atmosphere, but also made me anxious to walk around with a drink in my hand (what if I stumble and spill it onto the painting?!). Having seen pictures of the monastery before, I just found it a pity that the library was not open.

The largest of the monastery's halls was dedicated to the dance floor, however, the room was carpeted and quite badly ventilated so that towards the end of the evening the air got sweaty, humid and stale, ugh. Dancing was not much fun. Also, the historical dance instructor was missing this year, I guess that also had to do with everything being focused on Redemption *yawn*

FOOD!

Other than the Concert Noble in Brussels last year, the place was not crammed with vendor stalls and there was plenty of seating space to rest weary feet. The buffet was stocked with mostly simple items, bread, various cheese, apples and grapes and was constantly refilled during the evening. I definitely prefer a simple but full buffet over a fancy but scarce one...

The other two halls were dedicated to a video installation, "Casting Jesus", that I didn't watch because... well, I wanted to go to a ball and not an art show and to an "interactive praying installation" that I did not really understand. I guess everybody else felt the same, because I never saw more than a handful of people in any of these rooms. Most guests remained in the hallways talking to friends or gathered around the buffet.

All in all I have to say, the Gala Nocturna this year did not feel like a ball at all. It ranged somewhere between a cocktail reception and an art show, but the dancing and all the rest of the programme was definitely missing. I would even say it was simply boring, nothing new happened all night long. Where were the living statues, the ballet dancing, stage combat and all the other little diversions that created such a fascinating atmosphere during the last editions?

The organisation however was immaculate. No queues at the entry, the wardrobe, the bars, or the buffet, professional security personnel (not that you would need much security on this sort of event). No confusion with QR codes on your printed ticket and ticket order numbers. Organisation-wise, the Gala has definitely grown up.
Only too bad that this was the last event under the name of Gala Nocturna. Viona, the organiser, announced several weeks ago that after 10 years it would be time for something new. It remains to be seen what this "something new" will be. I myself hope for a summer ball - why do these sort of things always have to happen when it's cold?

Summer in Amsterdam

September has started, summer is over now and it's back to university now after 3 months of what were probably my last real holidays ever.
All in all, this summer turned out to be less exciting than it could have been: of the day trips I had originally planned (and announced here earlier), not a single one became reality, either due to lack of time or due to bad weather. Yup, Dutch summer weather proved to be extremely disappointing: While practically next door Germany was experiencing its hottest summer in centuries, we got barely a handfull of days with temperatures significantly above 20°C. And during those few warm stretches, I was mostly in Germany, and couldn't even go to the beach here once.

But, on the bright side: We had a whole lot of people coming to visit us here this summer! And with its many summer festivals and events it really is hard to get bored around here - even when the weather is bad.

As soon as the sun comes out, we usually go into one of the many water-side beergardens here. Our favorite, as it's just around the corner, is the Waterkant. It does not have that many tables but you can always just grab a beer at the bar and sit down somewhere on the pier (or bring your own drinks - nobody really minds as the quay technically isn't part of the bar). It usually has sun until rather late in the evening, so it's also crowded during the week and many people arrive in boats to refill on booze there or to pick up their friends.

Another favorite is Roest in the eastern part of the city (sooo far away), which boasts a swing hanging from an old industrial crane going into the canal, for swinging into the water on hot days (yuck, canal water!).

And up in Amsterdam Noord, a 10 minute ferry ride away is Pllek, built from old shipping containers, with the most comfortable bean bags and canvas chairs on its little beach overlooking the IJ river. On one of those bean bags I managed to get my first sunburn in years - I guess my skin just was not used to the sun anymore.

Then there was the Grachtenfestival: A week of concerts, most of them classical or jazz, many of them for free and on stages built onto the canals. We went to see the opening concert on the Kloveniersburgwal, and since the stage was on the canal, the audience was mostly gathered on boats and the surrounding bridges.

Probably my highlight this summer was the Amsterdam SAIL 2015. It only takes place every 5 years, so we were rather lucky to experience it now: It is probably the largest free maritime event in the world and brought this year around 50 tall ships and hundreds of other vessels: antique steamboats, submarines, ships of the Dutch navy and basically everything else that was able to swim.
It was a magnificent sight to see them all come down the IJ river on the wednesday before the event - and I may have just rediscovered my love for sail ships, if I should ever win the lottery I'll buy myself a luxury cruise on the clipper Stad Amsterdam through tropical islands.
My poor smartphone camera pictures barely do it justice, so I'll just embed one of the official videos here.

During the weekend there were hundreds of side events: parties, concerts, parades, tours, children's events, ...
Oh, and: there were so many sailors in their uniforms out and about in the city... ;)

We spent a whole day wandering around the docks (they had even partially dismanteled one of the bridges on the eastern islands so the ships could pass through!), went onto several of the large ships and marvelled at everything to be seen. The boyfriend and I agreed on a ship from Sweden, the Götheborg, being the prettiest of them all - you can see her sailing in rather in the beginning of the video, in blue and yellow.

And, to stick to the naval topic: We finally managed to go on a boat here! With visiting friends, we rented an electric boat and, within our 2 hours, we managed to go almost once along the Prinsengracht and back. Much to my dismay, we didnt quite make it until the Amstel without the danger of being late to return the boat. Maybe we should get one for ourselves.

And I'm finishing this up with a picture from Museumplein, where the new wing of the Van Gogh museum was opened last week. To celebrate this, thousands of sunflowers had been arranged on the museum square in front of it in a maze - an impressive sight!

Rokjesdag!

I learned a new word this week: Rokjesdag, the first day in spring when all the girls wear a skirt with bare legs underneath for the first time (although I can assure that the picture on the matching Wikipedia article is not at all representative for that...).
So, this first really warm day of spring weather was last friday and we immediately took our workgroup meeting outside onto the campus square and complemented it with ice cream and a bottle of Rosé from the campus supermarket. Super-tough student life!

Yesterday we had again around 20°C, no lectures and no imminent assignments due, best conditions to start my day with a piece of the supposedly best Appeltaart of Amsterdam at Winkel. I must say, I've gotten really fond of Appeltaart by now - although it does not contain any chocolate and often even has raisins in it. But with a nice crunchy crust, cinnamon filling and a big portion of slagroom, it's really hard to resist! And the one at Winkel yesterday was still warm inside, mmh!

Afterwards I did the best thing I could imagine: I went to the beach with friends! Admittedly, it was still a little cold with all the wind... but it did feel like a small mid-week vacation!

No beach trip without fresh seafood!

I don't think we're in Karlsruhe anymore...

We mostly spent the past weeks here getting our apartment set up: Multiple trips to IKEA for picking, buying and returning furniture (-parts), multiple trips to the hardware store and carpet/flooring shops, and many hours of my dear flatmate torturing me with possible apartment layouts, furniture arrangements and flooring options – we both aren't naturals or in any way talented at interior design, but while I myself seem to have come to terms with that and don't mind unprofessional furniture arrangements, he spent a lot of time with an interior design program trying out different options. He also seemed to be incredibly keen on laying out laminate himself in our living room and eventually he got what he wanted: 27m² of laminate are now lying downstairs, waiting to be unpacked. I do really appreciate his efforts though – we have an amazing apartment (in a quiet street just off Prinsengracht! With garden and balcony!) for an incredibly cheap price considering we are in Amsterdam and it would be a pity if we didn't furnish it nicely. Did I mention that the apartment comes with a fish pond, visiting cats, and a huge shower? I also really love that one of the tourist horse carriages, with a driver wearing a tailcoat and a top hat, drives through our street from time to time. The first time I saw it through our historically accurate window I thought I was dreaming...

Why, Mr Darcy, OF COURSE I want to come to the ball!

O hai!

  

Settling in from an administration point of view is also yet to be completed: I don't know if it is because things here just don't work as well as they do in Germany, or if it is because we are expats: Everything. Seems. To. Take. Ages.
I already mentioned the famous BSN in an earlier post, which is a tax/social security/citizen identy number. In order to get it you need a valid rental contract – which might take some time to get considering the housing market in Amsterdam. Then you need to get an appointment at the Gemeente for getting a BSN. Students like me can just show up, hand in their documents, and get their BSN within one week by mail. My Significant Other however spent 45 minutes on the phone talking to various clerks in various offices, just to get an appointment for handing in his documents some time in mid-November. It remains questionable how long he will have to wait after this appointment.
Without a BSN, it is not possible to open a bank account – or so I was told. In the end I did not need it at the bank, but it did take more than 10 days until I got the letter that I could pick up my PIN, which had not been sent to the bank branch where I had opened the account, but to a completely different branch further away. Ugh!
This bank account was necessary for signing up for gas and electricity, for getting a mobile phone contract, and most importantly for signing up for internet! Our internet connection will already be enabled „within 3 to 6 weeks“, possibly on November 3rd. How the hell am I supposed to procrastinate without internet?!


University is quite demanding as well – yes, I do have 2 days off every week at the moment, but trust me, I'm still not getting bored, since my courses are laid out in a way that we theoretically have to work around 40h every week. In practice, I had assignments due every thursday evening and every 2 weeks on friday, and since all of them were team assignments a lot of evenings during the week and most part of my „days off“ was spent coordinating and working with my teammates. I am still not sure whether or not to like the amount of teamwork we have to do here. One of my courses' grade is solely based on those group assignments, so it definitely sort of sucks to have others partly responsible for your grade. And there were definitely times when I had the feeling that I could have done the work faster and better on my own (ironically, that was for my Multithreading course – talk about synchronization overhead!). Then again: We can divide the work so I don't have to do the parts that I don't like (I'm completely fine with writing long text, but please don't have me do any diagrams!). And it does give me the opportunity to learn more about group dynamics, motivating others, etc. pp., all things which I might need when I'm grown up and want to manage projects. Haha.
At the moment I'm preparing, or rather: should be preparing, for the exam in said Multithreading course. The Dutch university system is a little different from the one we know in Germany (or at least: the one youknow; I've never attended a regular German university!): there are 2 semesters per year, both of them divided into 3 periods of 8, 8 and 4 weeks length. Typically students take 2 courses in the long periods, and 1 course in the short period, exams are at the end of each period. There is no real break between the periods and none between the semesters: only July and August are „free“, and 2 weeks around christmas and New Years.
Now, don't dare calling me a lazy student again!

Arrival in a new home...

View from our temporary apartment
(was able to catch a stretch of good weather)

So, on Monday evening we finally arrived in our new home city - later than we had planned, thanks to the Deutsche Bahn which as usual did its best to present us with a variety of excuses why we had accumulated yet another hour of delay.

These first days have been quite busy and it is only today, with the rain pouring down since the early morning, that I manage to find some quiet time to write down some first impressions.
Ah, the rain, I guess I'll have to get used to it: with more than 200 rainy days per year in Amsterdam we decided that our strategy should be to be happy every time the sun is shining instead of complaining about the weather. Buying a rain-cape is on our list as well. The last days have been rather Irish, with fast changes between sun, clouds and rain...while today it's just rain and thunderstorm and I don't feel compelled at all to leave the apartment (not even to check out the cake store around the corner someone on Twitter recommended!).

On Tuesday I went to see my university for the first time (yes, I applied to VU without having ever been to the campus!), and got enrolled at the International Students' Office Arrival Days. Finalizing my enrollment, a short chat with a faculty advisor about choosing my classes and signing up for the ESN was all I could do there unfortunately: In the dutch system, a lot of official things (creating a bank account, mobile phone contracts, ...) require you to have a burgerservicenummer (BSN), which is obtained during the registration at the municipality (Gemeentelijke Basisadministratie Persoonsgegevens/GBA). This registration is only possible with a valid adress and a rental contract - since we haven't found an apartment yet, I'll have to sort out the bank account and some insurances myself, and couldn't profit from having all the companies and the municipality officer there at the Arrival Days. But the important thing is: I'm enrolled and now officially a student again!

Wednesday passed quickly as well: Introduction day at the university, with several welcome presentations by university faculty and alumni, a campus tour (of course) and a short dutch language class. Among the international students, Brazilians, Germans and Italians seem to present the majority, but that might be just my personal impression. I was able to find several of my classmates for the MSc CS, from what I was told we will be about 80 students all in all, distributed over several specialization topics. And I was told that (although I'll only believe this once I see it myself) there will be around 40% girls in the Computer Science Master, ha!

Iamsterdam logo in front of the Rijksmuseum