No grandma’s at Hot Yoga

Yoga, that sounds like exercising for grandma’s. No sweating, no running and no sore muscles the next day. I can tell you that the opposite is true. After being convinced that hot yoga isn’t an old lady thing I found my way to the Hot Yoga class, also called Bikram Yoga.

Entering the space, it smelled like entering a sauna; a hot but friendly sauna with mirrors on every wall. After a warming up, which meant standing still in this Yoga sauna, I began to sweat already. Every pore of my body opened to its full extent and I felt every little bit of toxin leaving my body. And that was just the warming up. After learning all kinds of yoga poses I felt really relaxed, sore, sweaty and above all I felt really down to earth; as if I was born five minutes ago.

Different isn't wrong; Dove Pro-Age

Just before I left my home-country lots of people gave me tips for how to survive in another country. One of those tips was: “keep realizing this; different isn’t wrong”. That sentence sticks in my head all the time and so did it last week during my Public Relations classes. We were watching a promotion video for Dove Pro-Age beauty products; old ladies trying to breakthrough the beauty ideal that is indicated by the media. Because of the fact that these ladies were naked, although, naked in a in my opinion responsible way, the American television didn’t want to broadcast the promotion video. On the contrary, this promotion video for Dove was very successful in Europe because it made clear that real beauty is not related to age. My objective: convincing America that different isn’t wrong.

Graceful Gaudi: Parc Guëll

Barcelona; Inspiration and Imagination to their full extend.
Parc Guëll, designed by Antoni Gaudi, is situated on the hill of El Carmel in Barcelona, Spain.Visiting Parc Guëll made me lose my orientation, my awareness of everything around me. This piece of art on the top of the hill is very colorful and overwhelming. Especially when you sit on the mosaic couch, which is enormous, and you get an incredible view of the city. The little pieces of mosaic opposed to the view of the city made me forget the difference between small and big. I knew I was ready to explore every little piece of art Gaudi realized in Barcelona.

Amy's Ice Cream

Probably this is one of your daily activities and one of the most boring and common topics to talk about, at least; for you.
I almost forgot it still exists: being creative in selling food. After living in a country where all icecream bars look exactly the same and sell exactly the same flavours, I was quite surprised by finding Amy's Ice cream in the middle of South Congress. It was not only the appearance of Amy's Ice cream that made me wonder what the ice cream tasted like, the list of flavours made me very curious as well.
Because I wasn't able to taste all their different flavours, toppings and shakes, I will definitely return to this little, shiny, blue box during my stay in Austin. Not only to try their whole assortment but also to create some amazing brainfreezes in all kinds of flavours and colours in order to become just as creative as Amy.

Ready or not, Obama? Take a chance on me, McCain.

Are we really that interested in the music taste of our presidential candidates? According to Blender: yes. Both top ten lists of our candidates appeared in this magazine last month. By taking a closer look at the lists I don’t think these songs are just putted together in a couple of minutes. Probably, both candidates have been thinking, doubting and questioning whether the one song or the other would get more appreciation from their target groups.
After getting so many questions about if he is able to fulfil the role of the president of the United States, Obama made his answer clear by saying ‘Fugees – Ready or not’ is his favourite song, and by saying that ‘William – Yes we can’ is the song that closes his list. This message should be clear to you all. McCain, on the contrary, comes up with a little less meaningful list just by placing ‘ABBA – Take a chance on me’ on a third place.

Weegee: New York in black and white

Arthur Felling (1899-1968), known as Weegee, was a photographer and a photojournalist in New York. Around 1930 he was the only photojournalist with permit to listen to the police shortwave radio, which - together with his creativeness and talent - was the key to his success.

Last summer I accidentally passed by the exhibition called ‘Weegee’ when I was making my way down at ‘Esplanade de Charles de Gaulle’ in Montpellier, France. The AUER Foundation collected a lot of pictures from Weegee which were exhibited in the ‘Pavillon Populaire de la Photographie’. It took me at least half a minute per picture to realize how many elements of a story Weegee was able to capture in pictures from a distance as well as in detailed pictures. Weegee expressed colourful moments in black and white scenery and produced pictures that are telling a half an hour story in one moment. He showed the poverty on the streets as well as the richness in the hearts of the individuals.
Although New York is known as a polychrome and colourful city, Weegee was able to capture the souls of the inhabitants, the souls of the different districts, and the soul of the city in just two colours.

Labor day weekend: Port Aransas

Labor day weekend; finally I found an opportunity to set my mind free on an empty beach. The smell of a salty see, the sound of incredibly high waves, the tickling sand underneath my feet and the feeling of unlimited freedom. After living at the Dutch seaside for 18 years I was craving to find this piece of mind in Texas.

Every time I stand on the edge of sand and sea I start visualizing the world map in my head. Realizing the fact that I stand on the exact boundary of brown coloured ground and blue coloured ocean makes me feel like I am part of the map that is coloured in two colours, part of a structured system, part of society that is coloured in an unlimited amount of colours.