London Ding Dong

I guess I’ll just pick up where I left you all on the previous post. Friday night we got the majority of the exchange group together and went out. There seem to be two “clubs” here where everyone wants to hang out. The Litton Tree and the Pure. On the way there I had already noticed that all of the pubs had hired doormen to check for ages and considering we were with a big group I could already smell trouble. Needless to say I was right. The first club we went to, the Litton Tree, the doorman didn’t want to recognize an ID card which had the date spelled out in a way he didn’t see fit. So the group moved on to Pure, where the doormen were actually nice and didn’t even feel the need to check out ID’s.

So our group was in, 4 Dutch, 2 Portuguese, 2 Swedes, 4 French, and I have the feeling I might have forgotten about some of them, if you’re one of them don’t be offended. We had a blast there; we drank a lot and made fun of the locals. It’s probably because they are locked on an island, but the British sense of “style” can hardly be classified as style. I won’t go into too much detail but it seems to be very popular to wear less when you are more, hope that makes sense.

After arriving home at 3 am, my Saturday was wasted basically. I spend most of the day sleeping and other than that I didn’t do much. I went to bed early as well again because the following day we were off to London! We had arranged that we would meet at the train station at 9:15 Sunday morning and the Portuguese people, who had been here since September, offered to give us a tour of London.

So Sunday morning we all took the train to go and see London. It was about half an hour before we were in London and then we took the tube (metro/underground) to Piccadilly Circus. When you see a map of the underground system in London it will look like just a couple of lines crossing each other at random places, but once you start using it you see that there’s actually a system to it, and that the system works. I must say though that even on the Sunday all the underground trains were packed, only at night did it calm down a bit. So yeah we were at Piccadilly Circus and only once you walk up from the underground do you realize where you have gone to. A big city, with lots of big buildings and a lot of traffic.

From the Piccadilly Circus station we then went off to see Buckingham Palace. On the way there we came across randomly scattered groups of people dressed up in 17th century battle outfits, complete with pikes, spears and swords. We thought that they would go off to do something interesting, but we didn’t get to experience it, although we came across them later on in London as well. So we arrived at Buckingham Palace and there were large groups of tourist waiting around and the police had blocked of the main road we decided to stay around for a bit and see if anything interesting would happen. After about half an hour of standing in the cold weather (it was sunny, but still very cold), a marching band passed by in what I guess what traditional clothing, followed directly by about 20 men in what appeared to be WWII nazi uniforms carrying machine guns. So what we had witnessed was probably the best protected marching band of Britain. Right after they had entered the gates of Buckingham palace we did see some big black hats walking around in the distance so we had also witnessed the changing of the guard from a distance.

We continued on into London and walked through a park, I must admit though that I can’t remember the name and pretty soon we were staring at the “Big Ben”. Walking up to it I don’t really know why they call it the Big Ben, I didn’t really find the size of it that impressive, they could have just called it Ben I suppose. We spent a good half hour taking pictures of the Big Ben and the rest of the group really got into taking pictures of themselves in the, I guess famous, red London phone booths. I found the temptation great to do it as well, but I ended up not doing it because it didn’t seem as original anymore. Oh and all the pictures I will just put at the end of the blog this time because I think it’ll be quite a lot of them and might keep this easier to read and follow. So from the Big Ben we continued on a little bit to see the Thames river and the London Eye from a distance. Only then did I get an impression of the size of London, all along the shores of the Thames was London and it literally was as far as you could see.

Now, as I am writing this I’m not completely sure of the chronological order of everything anymore. I might get things wrong and leave parts out, but that was just because there were so many impressions in one day. So basically what we did was walk through London the whole day. I think we saw everything there is to see basically for the typical tourist route through London. We had lunch in an Irish pub in what seemed to be the China town of London, they wanted us to pay for our food and drinks before we had actually gotten them, which was weird but it ended up being a real good burger and a very tasty pint of Guinness. I think it was after this that we went on to see the Tower Bridge and the London Eye from a bit closer. We did end up walking across the Tower Bridge, which really was an impressive bridge considering the size of the towers in the middle of the river. And right after we had gotten to the other side of the bridge we got in the bus because all of feet started to hurt. Public transport is arranged really good in London I think. We bought a 10 pound ticket which was good for the train to and from London, and it also included the tube and bus transport throughout London.

We ended up in Convent Garden at the market place, which has a really nice feel to it, with lots of shops and a really cultural and lively atmosphere. Here we watched some street theatre comedy act, which wasn’t really all that funny but they were working the crowds properly so it was definitely worth our time. By now it was already 17:00 and we continued to stroll around London and sat down somewhere to eat and have a drink and then continued strolling and ended up back in Wycombe around 21:30 so we had spend close to 12 hours exploring the British transport systems and London. All in all I got the impression that after this day I already know what London is, but not yet who London is. I have gotten a taste of everything but haven’t yet explored deeper into some of the more cultural things that the city has to offer. I am sure I will though.

I will leave you now with some pictures, and hope I will be a little quicker with my blog entries in the future. It’s a really busy life though, to the pub, to the pub in London, to school, to the pub, and then to the pub again… Life’s tough isn’t it :P



(These are the crazy war dudes that didn't even really fight. Dit waren mensen die zich omgekleed hadden tot soldaten van zo rond de 17de eeuw, ze hebben alleen niet gevochten, jammer.)


(The road leading to Buckingham Palace. De weg naar Buckingham Palace, waar de Engelse konigin woont.)


(Buckingham Palace)


(So this is the might Big Ben. Dit is de Big Ben.)

(The London underground, the tube, a system that works and is really usefull. Dit is een van de borden van de Londense metro, een heel goed system die het erg makelijk maakt om door heel Londen te komen.)




(The group have lunch, almost everyone got the house burger :) Hier gingen we met de groep even lunchen, bijna iedereen had de hamburger genomen, die trouwens ook wel heel erg lekker was.)


(Me and two of the Dutch girls infront of London Bridge. Dat ben ik met nog eens twee andere Nederlandse meiden die hier ook op uitwisseling zijn bij de London Bridge.)


(So this is the group of exchange students, there we 2 Portuguese, 2 Americans, 2 French, 1 Swede, 2 Finns and 4 Dutch. I won't go listing the names, all the nationalities should be impressive enough. And yes I know that if you add these numbers up there's one missing in the picture, but that's the one taking the picture ;) Dit is de groep mensen met wie ik naar Londen ben geweest. Het zijn allemaal uitwisseling studenten en we hadden daar 2 Portugezen, 2 Amerikanen, 2 Fransen, 1 Zweed, 2 Finnen and 4 Nederlands.)


(Ofcourse the famous double decker, thought I'd share it with you. Dit is de beroemde Engelse dubbeldecker.)

This post was created under the influence of RX Bandit's 2001 Progress.

Wicked Wycombe

So here’s another update from Wycombe. Past couple of days have been full of new impressions again and I think that Wycombe has fully grown on me already. Thursday was my first official day at school with classes, and guess what, first class I have is taught by a Dutchman. Funny really, trying to escape the Dutch teaching at Inholland and then having a class from someone who used to teach at Inholland as well. Apart from the fact that he is ex-Inholland, he is a really cool guy and it seems that he really knows a lot about music events. But then again, someone with a lot of know-how and then teaching before hitting 30 must be a failed business man. But I won’t get to negative about him because he is a nice guy and really helpful as well. We have already made plans to organize a Dutch night in one of the local pubs since we are represented so well.

Another class I had was with local second year students and you can really tell that the level is lower than a third year class. (The study is only 3 years here, instead of 4, so we got to choose between second and third year classes). The students themselves aren’t as mature yet as I would have expected and the teacher was really bring all the theories in the most simple way, and then going on about obvious (for me at least) stuff for too long. But I think I will get a better picture once we get further in the semester. Other funny thing is that teachers have obligatory and recommended books and reading but you are not supposed to buy these books. Instead the library will have several copies of all the books, I hope the system works, at least it saves the students a whole lot of money.

And then for today’s classes (Friday), they were cancelled… I don’t know exactly why they were cancelled but I do hope it’s not going to be standard practice as it was at Inholland. So instead today I did some cleaning in my room, my laundry and some shopping. I think I succeeded in cleaning my clothes, they weren’t really dirty but they were wet when I took them out of the washing machine. Only then realizing that I didn’t really have anything to dry my laundry on. The house does have a weird system from drying laundry, in the kitchen there’s a couple of bars attached to each other and you can move it up and down with a trolley system. To give you a better picture, I made a picture:

(Dit is het originele was droog systeem in het huis, heel strategisch geplaatst naast het fornuis)

This system has one big disadvantage though, once I start cooking all of the grease and fumes will go straight into the laundry, which would make it dirty again. So I went into town and bought myself a nice drying rack. Having that, and doing my groceries I was already 40 pounds lighter. UK is really expensive, even a medium pizza from domino’s is already 8 pounds. A good thing is that I’m still driving on the gas that I got in Holland, meaning that I’m not really driving as much as I used to and this is saving me money as well. Only now I have to replace my right side mirror which I smashed pulling in backwards to my house.

Here’s an overview of pictures that I made to give you an impression of my living here, and if I forgot to write about something, I’m sure I’ll do it some other day.

(Van boven naar beneden, spiegel kapot van de BMW... heel jammer, m'n spagethi van van de week, en mijn vernieuwende was droog systeem)

Getting ready to go the pub so g’night.

This post was created under the influence of Snoop Dogg’s 1993 Doggy Style.

UK Oddities & Classes

Apart from driving on the wrong side of the road and not being able to speak their own language, there have been some other things about the UK that have me puzzled. First off, their coins. The less value they have the bigger they seem to be. On top of that, there’s a coin which doesn’t even say how much it’s worth! Turns out this is the 1 pound coin, but if you don’t know this how are going to figure this out? To illustrate the weird coin sizes I made a little picture, see for yourself, it isn’t all of them but they are in order (left least value to right biggest value).

(Het Britse geld, heel raar dat het de munten niet groter worden als ze in waarde omhoog gaan, ze liggen hier op volgorde van waarde...)

Another thing that I cannot see the logic in is their water taps. Instead of having the convenient two waters pipes (one for hot, one for cold) come together into one tab, they keep them separate here. Of course there is the occasional exception, but it is rare. So we have one tab for hot water, and one tab for cold water, at opposite sides of the sink. So when attempting to wash one’s hands you have to choose between either washing them with cold (usually freezing) or hot (usually boiling water), the only way I have figured out so far is to keep both tabs running and moving quickly from hot to cold and so on. I am sure there is a better way to use this system but I have yet to figure it out. What I don’t understand is that when we have such obvious solutions for these things on the continent, they seem to refuse to adapt to these systems here.

(Het Britse kraan systeem, twee aparte kranen voor heet en koud, werkt voor geen meter)

Moving on, I have had my first day at school yesterday. And what can I say… the buildings certainly aren’t up to standard compared to Inholland, but the staff is just really friendly, helpful and well informed. Really a pleasure to see that I didn’t even have to introduce myself and they already knew my name from my application forms. At Inholland I think 90% of the teachers still don’t know my name although I’ve had class with them for almost 2.5 years. The information packets provided were also very insightful and helpful, not only concerning the school issues, but also on things in Wycombe and the UK in general.

After a general round of introduction and a short speech by the vice dean it was I think, we got to sit down with the head of the Music and Entertainment program to discuss our schedules and any potential clashes between the courses you had picked. Of course only 3 out of the 6 courses I had picked were compatible within one schedule, but atleast the two that I really wanted to do were on there. So in the end I got stuck with a class I wasn’t really interested in, but for the sake of getting enough credits I’ll take it anyway. So just to give you an idea, here’s an overview of the course I’m following.

Finance for the Creative Industry
The aim of this module is to develop knowledge of the range of financial planning, control and evaluation techniques available to managers in the creative industries and lead to a wider understanding of the role of finance in the achievement of the aims and objectives of a variety of types of organisation within the creative industries. Applications of these techniques are used in Royalty and Recoupment calculations, Tour budgets and Venue hire decisions. The techniques and concepts developed in this module are a progression from those studied at level 1 in the Music and Entertainment Business Environment module. In addition they will be particularly appropriate for modules such as Business Enterprise, Music & Entertainment Company Management and Tour and Stage Management at Level 2.

Music & Entertainment Company Management
The aim of this module is to develop knowledge of the range of relevant theories and techniques available to managers in the creative industries. This will lead to a wider understanding of the role of management in the achievement of the aims and objectives of a variety of types of organisation(s) within the creative industries. The theories, techniques and concepts developed in this module are a progression from those studied at level 1 in the Management Principles for the Creative Industries Module and also expands on the Entertainment Industry Framework Module. In addition some of the theories & techniques used are also appropriate for modules such as Finance for Creative Industry Managers & Music & Entertainment Business Enterprise at Level 2. It also discusses issues that are covered in much greater depth at level 3 within Global Retail & Distribution and Application of the Law & Trade Practices.

Promotional Techniques
This module is a progression from the introduction to promotional mix theory covered in the marketing element of the programme at level one. It also compliments the Music Marketing and the Media module at level two, which provides a critical insight into media utilisation within the music industry. The Promotional Techniques module provides critical integration, knowledge and understanding of marketing communications theory and music and entertainment promotional practice.

Strategic Management of Live Events
To critically analyse advanced practice and the strategic organisation associated with live events. This module will focus on four areas critical to the development of the live event.

Lectures, seminars, workshops and assessments will allow students to consider a wide range of strategic practices related to the live music industry. These will be drawn specifically from the live music environment but can be transferred to other events where pertinent. The explicit link between the complexities of event strategic planning and the operational outcomes will be examined. The module content as a whole will be of particular relevance in the context of a wide range of other operational and strategic management modules that the students are undertaking during their programme of study.

This post was created under the influence of Millencolin's 2002 Home From Home.