On my way

Bicycle in Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by matthew_machine.

Long sigh....just got back after 12 hours at the office. It has been a while since I wrote my blog but I have been trying to be in dozen places at the same time and do zillion things simultaneously. I noticed today at the office how I felt and looked tired. When cycling back home I felt like being in a fishbowl when being surrounded by all those happy, tanned summerish people.

It has been quite a week. Last weekend we did a workshop with asylum seeker youngsters here in Amsterdam. These youngsters have gone through so much that I think I can never understand. Many of them have been living in the asylum seeker centres for six years or so. They are being moved around all the time. And still I met a group of polite, funny and smart 16-21-year-old guys and young women. Their videos are already online. I like many of them but my favourites are the videos by Louis&Vino, Rauf and Hossein.

I really like working with youngsters. The workshop reconfirmed my belief that all talk about passive youth or so is just complete bull.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Lisbon. That should be fab. We have a meeting there on Monday but we decided to use the weekend for seeing some contemporary performances and hanging out.

Tip for all Dutch and Finnish readers: Finnish weekly Suomen Kuvalehti will publish an article of mine tomorrow and the Dutch daily de Volkskrant on Saturday.