Blog of Nikki Veldhuis

Like I said I try to keep my blog up to date with what I do. So here is my first attempt to keep this blog interesting.

After getting back in Holland I stayed at my parents place for a while. There I looked for some new place to live for my studies (My parents live all the way in the south of the country). I tried searching on websites that offer rooms, but they are crap or way to expensive, or both. I also have send some e-mails to people I know who live in the neighborhood of Hilversum. Luckily, my old roommate had some room left in his big apartment. So here I am, living in the center in the city of Hilversum. It’s a great place to live and I feel settled already.

The view out from the room in Hilversum.

My studies don’t start until the 15th of September, so that means I have more spare time than expected. I was selected for the master program at our school, so I’m really happy. That means I have an international degree and I will be called Ing. instead of Mr. Veldhuis when I’m done. But it’s going to be a tough year I think.

With that extra spare time I decided to go back to Sweden for a short week in the beginning of September. I will go back the place where I lived and I will go to Stockholm to meet with a certain special someone  .

With that extra spare time I also decided to do something useful, instead of laying down in the sun sipping booze. I’m working on a small technical project with Arduino. Arduino is a small interface board whereby you can connect all kinds of sensors and actuators and program its behavior on the computer. Simply that means you can build something physical and interactive. It is great fun, but I never had the time to learn the programming language at a decent level (also because I suck at programming). I have different kinds of stuff on my desk, like light sensors, motors, buttons, LED’s and some other small things. I hope to build something autonomous in the next weeks.

My arduino project…for the moment

Next week I have to go back to my parents place to look after the house and animals, because they are leaving for holidays. So I have to leave this city again. I probably leave tomorrow and will stay there until next weekend.

So this is it. This is how an exchange study supposed to be like. I had a great time with the Swedes and some exchange students. Quite unique actually, because exchange studies usually mean that you’re going to be with other Erasmus students. I barely had contact with other international students, except for the International Presence Exhibition project in Vasteras. Instead I was hanging around with local students in Eskilstuna. They we’re truly great friends and damn, I’m going to miss those guys. Always good for a crazy laugh and they we’re always a great help and company. I consider myself very lucky that I met them. David, Sandra, Henderson, Henrik, Oscar, Veronica, Klas, Andreas, Urban, Sophia, Andy and Robert; you are all fucking awesome.

Damn, I’m going to miss this country, the town but especially the people. If I ever have the chance to do an exchange study again, I will do it without thinking.

Of course, one of the reasons I started this blog is to report my school what I’ve done here. So here comes the official stuff.
I’ve learned especially some practical skills. I’ve learned 3d modeling and animation, got quite experienced in InDesign in a relative short time. My interaction design study at my home university is mostly about project methods and design ethics. It was very useful to learn some practical skills instead. However, from this point of view, I didn’t think I’ve learned some new methods in Sweden. I’ve learned to work in a team consisting of foreign people, but I used mostly the methods I’ve learned in Holland.

Most students (and some teachers) I talked to said that exchange studies are not about what you learn in school, but what you learn socially. You learn how to deal with difficult social situations, like languages and cultures. You learn how to fit in and use your own skills and expertise in a different environment. In this case, I learned more than enough and I think I got to know myself better. You discover things about yourself you never thought about before and look at it from a different perspective. This is the reason that everybody who has the chance has to go definitely on an exchange study. It’s a lot of work and a hassle before you go (and after) but it’s more, much more, than worth it.

At the moment I’m home with parents in the south of the Netherlands. The past few days I’ve been busy finding a room in Utrecht or Hilversum again. I really hope that I’m settled again before I have to start my last year at my school.

I was thinking to change this exchange study blog to a regular blog. It is a good way to learn writing English (I noticed that I still make terrible mistakes here and there). Also I want to keep my friends and family up to date with what I do. You will hear from me!

Finally, one more thing. I missed the dutch “quality” music!

I arrived two days ago from Lund. It was great fun to see my old friends again, and we did a lot’s of stuff. To my surprise Sjouke offered us to go to Copenhagen, but it is actually quite near Lund (40 minutes with the train). So we went Saturday to see the city.

Kopenhagen, the most famous street.

After walking for hours, being in the sun all day I’ve seen enough cities for a while. Kopenhagen is also a very nice city, but after seeing the 3rd big city in a row it’s getting more or less the same. I’ve got quite burned, so I’ve a nice red workers tan. In the evening we went to Malmö, to eat something and because Sjouke wanted to give us a quick tour there.

Sjouke and me on a bench in Malmö. Myself finally on a picture.

The second day we went to the beach in a place not far from Lund. It was terrible crowded on the beach, much like Zandvoort or Scheveningen in midsummer. I met some nice people and had a BBQ in the evening.

omgwtfbbq

The last day Sjouke gave us a quick tour in Lund, because I didn’t see this city yet. Most of the students are away in the summer, so it felt deserted. I saw some fancy buildings and spots where Sjouke goes too, but that was all I saw.

But like always good things come to an end, and I left on the train back to Eskilstuna.

Back in Eskilstuna there was some work waiting. In didn’t mentioned in my blog yet, but we are still busy with the International Presence Exhibition project in Vasteras. It has cost me lots of work next to my studies, and had to pause one or the other to manage the whole bunch a bit. At the moment we delivered most of the posters at the print shop. It’s a shame I won’t see the result on the short term. I hope to finish the rest tonight.

I also have to arrange everything for my leaving. I have to get rid of my stuff, send a package, give a small going away party and much other things. Arggh, so much to do. I don’t wanna go, because I know there is gonna be a shitload of more work waiting for me back in the Netherlands.

I’m on my way to my final destination Lund. I’m going to visit two of my Dutch friends who are both studying in Scandinavia. They are staying until August this year, so it will be a while that I will see them again (I also haven’t seen them for the past 5 months). I have no direct plans for this weekend, but I trust on Sjouke that he knows some things to do. I will go back to Eskilstuna Sunday or Monday, but will figure this out by then.

So I stayed for the past 3 days in Oslo. Unfortunately my travelpartner Sophia was not able to go to Oslo, because she couldn’t find a place for her cats (arghhgh!). I had to be on myself during the day, but I met up with Kristina after she was done with her work. I normally don’t like to be on myself while doing things, but it rather worked out well. I did some touristic stuff like sightseeing and shopping. Before I went I searched on the interwebs to find less touristic stuff to do. I found some very nice, and almost deserted locations nearby the city. the second day I went on a stroll in the forest and some parks. It was good to see the best parts of the city. Oslo is a really clean and modern city, but has some historical parts too (the vikingship museum and an old stronghold). But yeah, it is really freaking expensive, even more expensive then Sweden. Luckily I took care of my expenses.

Graphic design poster that made me laugh

I also went with Kristina to an exhibition of graduating work of industrial / graphic / interaction designers. This was unexpectedly nice. I really tried to look for exhibitions relating to interaction design or interactive art, but its hard to find something like this in Sweden. It was good to see at least one, but maybe I looked at the wrong places.

I will keep my blog up to date with my experiences in Lund.

At the moment I’m sitting in a coffee shop waiting for my bus to leave to Oslo. I said goodbye to David about an hour ago because he’s going back to Eskilstuna. We had a great time here in the city, it was a bit chaotic but we managed to see lots of the city.

A warm day in the centrum of Gothenburg.

This morning we saw Henderson for the last time and said goodbye. I’m probably gonna see him again on my goodbye party. The rest of the day we saw a lot of second hand shops and a comic store. Emma, a old friend of David, guided us through the city to find the best shops and such. It is always good to know someone in a big city to show you around. I bought an really old and crappy plastic camera to take some pictures for the rest of my holidays here.

But now I have to leave to the station to take the bus to Oslo, see you on my next post!