I remember very well a sentence told by one of my fellow-students during our seminar. We discussed on virtual realities and their impact on our daily life. F. said on some point: “As long as we have our five sences, the virtual world won’t replace the real one”. And I liked this statement alot.

The same statement seems to be followed by Moleskine, a brand created  in 1997, bringing back to life the legendary notebook used by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Bruce Chatwin and other great artists and thinkers. Although today we can store almost every information on our PCs, iPhones, iPods and other devices in a digital form, and then easly browse through it, the traditional way of writing, on a real piece of paper, with real pens, in a real book is still very appealing. I love Moleskine’s city guides, now I’m gonna fall in love with their Passion Journals. They are tailored for different topics, like cooking, films, music, wines, books etc. Recently I got the recipe one. Sometimes I like to add a personal touch to the recipes I found somewhere on the web. It’s almost impossible to get back to these spontanious ideas without writing them down somehow. And the best way to do that still seems to be on a real piece of paper.

One of my big passions is fashion. Okay maybe it is nothing unusual to be fascinated by fashion especially when you are a girl, but I really love it. I also would like to start to create by my own, so recently I started fashion design evening classes at SKVR in Rotterdam. Well let’s see if I am patient enough to develop any fashion designer skills ; ) But anyway, I’m happy to announce my first small success today. During Christmas I prepared an entry for a re-use design competition organised by trashion.pl and ecotopia.pl. My dress made of an old men shirt and two ties made it to the semi-final stage and was selected to be published in oncoming Trashbook. Cool!

On this point, I also want to thank my lovely sis who was patiently modelling for me, freezing in the middle of winter on this meadow you can see above while I was shooting. She has had fever on the next day…

Latest update: my design is the winner of the “garment” category!

In December, together with 5 girls from my work, we organized a party in a squated old school. The aim of our endavours was to collect money to buy Christmass gifts for kids in poorest orphanages and we called it S.O.S. Party. The party turned to be better than anyone expected! Really crazy night, many people reporting that it was the best party they  had since a long time, and finally: 25€ per kid for those Xmas gifts! Many wonderful people helped us, great band and DJs played for free on the party, it was simply amazing. After this success we decided to organize a second edition and went to WORM to ask if they would help us with it and they did. So the next one is gonna take place on Saturday 27.02. I’m currently doing publicity and advertising for the party by writing the blog, updating fb event, designing and printing flyers and doing many many other stuff. Today we went with Franziska to see the venue and it’s simply great. Take a look on the photos above!

The Santa Claus Eve, that is the 5th of December, has very rich tradition in the Netherlands, is an important part of their culture and is celebrated more than in any other country as far as I know. It seems to me almost like a national holiday, all people know that on this evening they gonna have a dinner together to share gifts with their dear ones and near ones. How suprised I was when I was trying to go to the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam for the exhibition The Art of Fashion on the 5th of December only to find out, they closed earlier because of Santa Claus. Too bad!

Anyway, later on, together with my flatmate, we cooked a delicious stew, set out the table nicely and exchanged small gifts we prepared for each other. I got really cool introduction book about fashion, and Ania got this cute saucer you can see above. I found it at the shop of re-use studio Hergebruik and it was made by Duch designer Esther Derkx. Old china reincarnates in her hands, getting her cool retro desing prints on it. Very simple idea and truly beautiful. Later on I got another one of this unique pieces and sent it to my friend living in New Zealand as a Christmas gift. Do I need to mention how cool he found it?

My flatmate told me a story about my favourite hairdresser in Rotterdam (and to be honest only one I tried out). Our common friend came visit once and they both were passing by Mixt Baby, the salon i am talking about. The interior is pretty cool, so it drew their attention, but there were almost no mirrors, which is rather unusual for a hairdressing salon, and customers were sitting at a long wooden table, facing each other. “What kind of hairdresser is that! No mirrors?” – said Marta. After few months the same mirrorless place was recommended to me by a colleague when I asked her where to get a nice haircut in Rotterdam.

I got a nice haircut by a cool guy names Leon, who besides of being a hairdresser also studies graphic design. What I discovered during this visit was that the absence of a mirror was not disturbing at all! It was even nicer that it wasn’t there. I haven’t seen myself with this stupid cape around my neck and half-wet hair fixed on the top of my head with a clip. I realised that during the hair cutting process you don’t know the final effect anyway so you are not able to advice your hairdresser on anything. After he was finished, we went to the one of two mirrors hanging right an the entrance door and I saw the final result. Of course I had the possibility to let him change things that I was not happy about but as the haircut was just perfect, it wasn’t necessary at all. Really nice concept, and I wonder now actually, who on earth needs those all mirrors while getting a haircut?

It was one of those beautiful summer days in Munich, so one afternoon I decided to go to the English Garden for a lunch break. Actually it was not a regular lunch break as I havn’t been working my regular working hours, croped because of the bad economy. Anyway, I was there, lying on my blanket and chatting to a guy who just had a surf on the “Eisbach”-river. When he asked me if I’m living in Munich for long already, I answered that I’m just about to move out to Rotterdam. “Well, wasn’t there any uglier city to move to?” he commented ironicaly.

Well. The city is not one of those fairy-tale pretty ones, no doubt. Bombed down during the second world war, then totally rebuild, didn’t look back in its past during its recovery process, unlike Dresden for example. This move to rebuild the destroyed city in a totally new way was also very daring and creative. And this creative, bold, daring spirit is something I really love about Rotterdam and was fascinating me for a long time before I decided to move there.

It might seem to be crazy to exchange cozy comfy Munich against dirty windy Rotterdam. I also used to have doubts about it. And it was very big move, to leave behind my old customs, friends, places, memories and language that I managed to learn quite well, and move kilometers away. It’s really tough. But it’s a move further. And is very enriching. And everyday I find out again how right this decision was.