Tag: netherlands

Categories
in the netherlands

groningen class of 2005/6 – look what i just found!

i’m having a hard time keeping my focus today, because paulo discovered something completely and totally awesome: GOOGLE MAPS HAS STREET VIEW IN THE NETHERLANDS*!! :D

sounds random, but if you, like me, have spent some time abroad, the temptation of checking out all the familiar places is irresistible and very likely to send you on a nostalgic roller-coaster all day long. for my groningen peeps, here are some familiar sights. i’m sure some of these will make you go awwwwww as well :)


our student house, in van houtenlaan, the first place i checked for :) it looks the same and i can almost see my room here…


the albert heijn we used to go to!


mamma mini, my favourite thrift store!! how i’ve missed you!


the zernikeborg!


the gasunie building where i used to work!



grote markt, vismarkt, sally o’brien… *happy sigh*

oh, the nostalgia of happy times with friends in all of these places… and now if you excuse me, i’m going to peruse the other million spots in this beautiful city…

(*well not in the whole of the netherlands – just amsterdam, rotterdam.. and groningen!)

Categories
in china

looking for a job in amsterdam or shanghai?

this post is an unusual one: i wouldn’t usually post job-ads, but i’ve heard of a couple of interesting opportunities, that can maybe be of use to someone out there. i hope so. :)

* i received an email from greenpeace international, noting two positions that they have available for portuguese speakers. bad timing for me, but if you’re portuguese or speak the language, and looking for a part-time in amsterdam, maybe you should give them a look. the jobs available are web-editor and media relations specialist. you can apply on their website.

* also, the company where p. works is looking for php developers familiar with symfony, to develop web communities.
you have to either be in shanghai (or willing to move here), be passionate about what you do and be able to demonstrate your know-how. the team is very multicultural, they pay well, have a new loft/warehouse/office (complete with 2 very neat gigantic aquariums!), in-house cook and english/chinese teacher, and a bunch of cool bonus. oh! and the overwhelming experience of living in one of the biggest cities of the world is included. :) interested? leave a comment or send me an email.

Categories
foooood in china in the netherlands photography

stroopwaffles!

stroopwaffles

mimo, directamente da holanda, na forma de mini-stroopwaffles. perfeitas para o dia cinzento de hoje. obrigado cláudia, chegaram inteiras! :)

* bonuses: design*sponge guide to online shopping, made by bloggers: part 1 and part 2. filled with link goodness and lots of interesting suggestions for different kinds of gifts (artwork, lightning, ceramics, vintage, hidden gems, etc). worth a check.

Categories
in the netherlands photography

the winogrand in me

the man on the deck

it’s been almost 2 years since our trip to schiermonnikoog, a dutch island on the northern sea.

a mix of laziness, lack of budget or decent photography shops made me lose interest in developing the film i shot in the island back then. i was curious to see the pictures, but while i still had the memory of the events i shot, and all the people with me… there was no real need to “see” them again… (i guess i’ll never understand the people that peek at the pictures when they’ve just taken them, on the backscreen of digital cameras). so i let the film stay in the shelf.

i have quite a few of these “forgotten” films. they have travelled all the way to the netherlands and back, to the states and back, and now here they are in china. they’re stored in identical canisters, with no reference to what’s in each one of them. little pandora boxes, with with unknown age or stories.

to me, photography is not about rules, big lenses and trendy bags, keeping negatives in the fridge and looking out for x-rays on the airport. it’s about fun and framing. i shoot when i feel inspired, when friends are around, when i feel like being a tourist, when there are not many cameras in the area. i develop when i have the time, the patience, or whenever i itch to discover what forgotten secrets are hiding in one of those black canisters. what about you? do you develop your films right away, or not so much? do you peek on the back screen of your digital camera? :)

more, on flickr.

* bonus: two weeks with garry winogrand, by mason resnic. garry winogrand was a prolific photographer who died on 1984, leaving a total of 12000 rolls of film that he never looked at. peculiar philosophy.

Categories
in the netherlands

jelly good.

dear friends.
after six months here in portugal to wrap things up at the university, i am now, officially, an “engineer”. a pretty clueless one, career-wise, but i’m working on that bit. ideally, i would like to develop my designing skills, as i realize i still have a long way to go to get any good. i like information visualization and interface designing, but i want to explore a lot more before i choose what i really want to focus my attention on.

on a different (but related) subject, and since i’ve told it to my parents and most friends, i can give the rest of the internet the big news too: we’re moving to shanghai, me and p.
yes, shanghai. the biggest city in china, the 8th in the world, the “pearl of the orient”.
after my one year in the netherlands, and p’s 6+9 months in the netherlands and the usa, i think the “exploring bug” really got into us.
it just seems right. the right timing, the right city, the right person to hold my hand on the plane. and besides, if you don’t trust your intuition, what else do you have?

the details of the process of moving there include job hunting, a house, plane tickets and luggage allowance, visas and plenty other details that will keep us busy on the next few weeks. i’ll try to keep you posted. wish us luck! :)