The 3-day excursion to the Netherlands was one of
the highlights for the VIZ students. Whether they cruised along the
canals of Amsterdam, visited museums or enjoyed a workshop at the beach,
the program was filled with engaging activities.
The first two days of this excursion were spent in the capital
Amsterdam. While exploring the city, we realized why Amsterdam is called
the “Venice of the North”. The city is built entirely on poles and you
can find about 165 canals and 1281 bridges. We were all surprised by the
fact that in Amsterdam it is more likely to be run over by a bike than a
car. Everybody rides their bike over there and we learnt that Amsterdam
has more bikes (1 million) than people.Right after our canal cruise, we visited the Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to the Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. Almost everybody of the group read her diary in school and it was impressive to actually see the original house where Anne lived and hid in.
For our physical well-being, we ended the day in a typical dutch restaurant, where we enjoyed a so called “Rijstafel”, a delicious dish made with potatoes, different types of meat, red cabbage, pears and so on.
The next day it was time for our company visits. Half of the group went to an animation and visual effects studio called Lemonade Animation the other half went to a graphic design studio called Fabrique. We were lucky to casually talk with the founders and get to see the heart of the studios. Both visits became an important learning experience for the Visualization students.
Before we hit the road to the beach, we stopped at the famous Van Gogh museum to see the works of the Dutch painter. The museum holds the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of the excursion was the workshop at the North Sea. The students were given the task to develop a light object which is able to move on the beach only with wind power. This could be done with mechanics or by “wind kite” principle. A final race decided about the best beachrunner and the winners were rewarded.
Check out our pictures at: http://aibvizexcursionamsterdam13.tumblr.com
Written by Inga Bruckmann, Program Assistant VIZ Spring 2013
