A memorable night.

After a long hectic week of changes, challenges and new impressions it was time to unwind. After a quick pint with equally knackered friends in a hidden bar I got a call from my friend Saline, who's man Menno is doing a MA in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art; apparently the RCA was the place to get pissed. And so I washed that knackeredness right out of my hair and hopped on the bus. The college is situated in Kensington, one of the richer and prettier parts of London. For a small female like myself it's a reasonably safe hood to walk alone in but two very well dressed big drunken blokes decided it wasn't safe for me to be walking alone. On my way to the RCA I stopped for a smoke and to look at the beautiful houses and suddenly these two men popped up. Without warning one started to shout at me. "Heyyy darling, where you from!?" "Not from around here..." "Alright!? Listen yeah, we are Cockneys, and we're not racists!" (Although I find it unnecessary, I think it's highly amusing when white people choose to explain and defend their racial motives for no particular reason, out of the blue.) "Good for you man." "Oi, listen yeah, we have nothing against you lot, our best friends are black people yeah!" "Cool." "You don't believe us, do you!" "Yeah, I d.." "Don't worry love, we'll take you where you need to be." And so they taught me about cockney rhyming slang and the definition of 'real' pubs while walking me all the way to Hyde Park. Who says London ain't a safe place? After I arrived, Menno showed me around the college. All students have their own working space and they have an incredible private outdoor lounging zone. Yesterday was the first Friday of the academic year, hence a good reason for prospect and 2nd year students to get together. The festivity took place in their common room house, (LOL)DJs with familiar and not so familiar tastes in choons and copious amounts of booze and other substances were present and I was surrounded by numerous artists, designers and students. I met a few Dutchies; Katrien, from Gelrop of all places (Eindhoven de gekstuh) a (graphic) industrial design student who explained to me why the RCA is mostly suitable for engineers and a complete letdown for designers and Emile, a director who like me went to the HKU, who did some videos for C-mon&Kypski and Pete Philly. He's been broke in London for 3 months and we both agreed that coming to London during this 'financiele kutsituatie' perhaps wasn't the best decision, but a challenge all the same. (I'm receiving grants and loans from the Dutch government and the Euro is doing rather well, so I suppose I'm not doing too bad.) And then there were the 'locals'; Simon, a half/Filipino-Bristol boy, also an Industrial design student who explained to me the difference between studying graphic design at London College of Communication, where he graduated and doing the course at Central Saint Martins and Freddy, a funny, all-loathing northern fine artist that made me, a co-hater, look like little goody-two shoes. As the evening progressed and the beer kept flowing I started forgetting the names of people I met. But it was all good, I swerved from one conversation to another and everyone seemed to be in the same state of mind. Generally, it seems that with all the people I've spoken so far I share the same opinions about London as a home, a creative catalyst, an abomination and a blessing. No one's ever denied that London is a two faced city, it brings out the worst and the best in us like no other city can. But we know why we're here and what we're doing it for and last night made me feel at home in London just a little bit more.