Tourism vs Immigration

Yesterday I had a conversation with one girl who contacted me through the forum of local Latvians in the Netherlands. She was wondering how I was doing and whether I was coping well with the life here. She sounded pitiful trying to complain about almost every aspect of her life: this is more expensive, that is worse in quality, people are so unfriendly, parties are boring, agency is unfair, etc. “I can’t get it,” she continued, “I’d visited the Netherlands so many times before and it was always so nice & cool to come back here. I had so many points in favour of this country when I decided to move away from Latvia. But now I feel absolutely devastated. It is so much different now, I can’t believe it!”…

This reminded me our trip to Barcelona in 2004 and our Ukrainian guide there.

Expats in the Netherlands

It’s again just about the time. I finally decided to sum up all the websites, groups & forums I’ve been using since I came to the Netherlands. Jus in case someone needs them.

First of all, as I was advised by my sis, I do advise everyone to read the book “The Undutchables” – an observation of the Netherlands: its culture and inhabitants. It’s absolutely adorable, highly popular book, written for anyone interested in learning about Dutch quirks, character and customs. Actually, I’d indeed advise it to everyone – reading it is so much fun. Sure, people living or coming here will find it more useful – you’ll live this book through as soon as you enter this country  

RIP Patrick

I guess for any salsa dancer, the words “dirty dancing” and the name Patrick Swayze are the first to learn.

Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into moviegoers’ hearts with “Dirty Dancing” and then broke them with “Ghost,” died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

RIP Patrick

Bride Parade

It already looks like a wave of events for brides. Riga welcomed ex-brides in their beautiful gowns on 30^th August this year for a Bride Parade offering them different activities and a certain entertainment program. Well, dancing lambada and running in that long skirt – that must have been entertaining for those who watched it

The Netherlands went further and used the mysterious date of 09.09.09. to push 99 brides to go swimming in the sea in there wedding dresses. According to the video, they (brides) didn’t mind

Hot, hot, hot

It’s so bloody hot these days… And all my windows are facing the sun, and it is on almost all day long so the room heats up pretty quickly, thermometer shows around 50+ around lunch time already and i’m expecting it to collapse soon. All those talking about climate change does not seem to be silly any more. Greenhouse effect is somewhere nearby as I feel like sun-dried tomato even at home…

There Must Be A Reason

Checked my mailbox in the morning and found too many emails from unknown people mostly saying “look at this”, “look at that”, mentioning discredits, showing videos and pictures. Lots of them. There must be a reason.

Doorbell rang around 8am. Postal carrier’s sense of duty was high enough to go up the 5th floor to the door of addressee to hand in the incoming mail – she said my post box was so full that she could not push anything into it. There must be a reason.

Leaving to the office, I opened the post box and a pile of paper-staff appeared on the floor: colourful leaflets, brochures, and newspapers, some in 2 samples (am I supposed to read them twice?). Photos of familiar or (mostly) unknown people, and numbers, numbers, numbers… There must be a reason.

Was listening to radio on the way to office. Don’t remember much as information flow was often interrupted by weird jingles and ads. Repeatedly. Again and again. There must be a reason.

Babel Tales

Peter Funch is a Danish photographer who lives and works in New York City. In his photo series Babel Tales, Funch took pictures of people passing by the New York City street corners. Every photo is an edit of several photos he took at exactly the same spot in a period of two weeks. He then Photoshopped the images he captured to create the Babel Tales series. 

 

A huge work was done to show that people tend to think and to act similarly during the day, smile and are surprised by the same events and at the same time, even move alike and wear the same clothes. The name of the project is also interesting – Babel Tales. At once one imagines the Tower of Babel when there was united humanity speaking the same language and led by the same aim – to build a high tower. God, seeing what the people were doing, confounded their languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. To judge from the pictures of Funch, not all similarities of people were lost. Apparently.

…nothing, but kill…

5th April ’09. I came earlier, went to the last carriage and took a place by the window. Backwards. Unlike majority of people, I prefer sitting backwards when going by train, bus etc. The only two guys being inside by that moment smiled and greeted me.

“At least one girl,” the older one said. “It’s difficult to survive without girls in spring, you know,” he smiled at me and winked. I smiled back.

I took my coat off, sat down and started looking through the window. It was nice April afternoon, warm and sunny weather, and I even put my sunglasses on. Still light though almost 6pm by that time. I saw some people rushing by the train – talking, saying goodbye, smoking, and some young people among them with huge bags. “Students,” I thought, remembering the times when my mum stuffed in my bag with home-made food every time when I was leaving the town to go to the capital. I smiled and glimpsed at my bag – mum hasn’t changed her habits, actually.

I looked out the window again and turn to the book I brought with me. It was “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini this time. My recent hectic lifestyle made my books cover in dust and I was happy about being able to find some time for reading. Finally! I opened the first page and read the praise. I knew the book was great even without reading it as I was absolutely over the moon about Khaled’s “The Kite Runner” and many people considered “the suns” to be even better. I plunged into a plot and lost the connection with the train, passengers and sunny weather. Now there was Afghanistan, Kabul and Farsi…

My book-life was suddenly interrupted by a loud man voice behind me.

Help In One Shot

What is “In One Shot“?
For many years now, young artist Mareks Ruskuls (24) has been creating “visual dictums” spending his leisure moments. His drawings are about everything: life, people, actual problems and everything happening around, and also adding a text to his drawings. He has a dream – to publish a book.

How much is needed?
1500Ls (around 2150 EUR) are required for publishing this book, and the means will be spent only for this purpose. If a bigger sum is acquired, the bigger number of books will be published.  

When is it coming?
The book in its touchable version will be available from 5th May 2009 (Yahoo!)

Do you want to support?

Write about “In One Shot” on your homepage
If you have your webpage and you wish to help, then you definitely can participate. Write about the project of publishing the book “In One Shot” and put the link. All references (articles? publications? feedbacks?) will be collected in “Thank you” section.

Donate
You can donate any sum for the project team to be able to collect the amount required for book publishing. However, if you donate 4,5 EUR and more, you will receive the book without any additional charges on 5th May or by post. The list of contributors will appear in “Thank you” section and the entire list will be included in book too. If you donate but you do not want to appear in the book, email the team stating your wish. You will find all information about possible contributions on the right on the webpage. 

Buy your place on LogoWall
You can buy any free square (or several) in order to put your logo in it. One square costs 50 Ls. The main advantage of this LogoWall is the opportunity to see it on the back page of the book. The supporters will also be seen on the website and mentioned in press releases. The entire sum acquired will be invested in book publishing. LogoWall can be seen in “Thank You” section.

Let’s make the dream come true!

You are great!

I always knew there is something magical in a smile.

Happy to be the reason you smile ®