Goodbye Hamburg

Photo: Andres Maldonado

It was bound to happen, but now it´s there: today is my final day in the Miami Ad School Hamburg. I had a great night of partying behind me and tonight I'm staying with my ex-girlfriend Sandra. Although we weren't meant to be, she's one of the sweetest girls I've ever met and she deserves a proper farwell. Tomorrow I finally go back to that small Dutch city I lived for 29 years: Alkmaar.

I will miss Hamburg but I'll certainly miss my classmates. All of them. Because in my first quarter away-location (Duvall Guillaume in Brussels) there's nobody from my class. There will be really cool people from the later quarter there, so I certainly won't get bored.

But hereby I want to say goodbye to all my classmates. First of all to Caroline. One of my first teampartners and a very talented young art-director. I wish her lots of good luck at her internship in Bejing (!). Ann-Katherine. There's nobody like her in the class. She has a broad interest in everthing that is creative and it's not limited only to advertising. Jessica. She was in my class for only for two quarters but I got along with her really well. Partying is in her blood and in that sense we had a lot in common. Gunnar. The most controversial person in the class. I had a lot of trouble working with him. He has much more potential than he showed before and I'm sure that when he manages to plan his work better, he will be unbeatable as an art-director. Whenever he knew to annoy me, he always made it up somehow and I end up just liking this guy a lot. To Lea I have only one word to say: Bam! Alex. Already was a great designer before he came to school and when I worked with him he proved to be great in concepts as well. He's going to intern with Caroline in Bejing. Karime. A mexican girl who came in our class later. She has a contagious laugh and a wonderful sense of humour. Julien. With him I won the Alessi competition. He's extraordinary motivated. A great designer and a great concepter. I would love to work with him during one of my interships. Dominik. I won the top dog with him. In planning and workflow he's by far the best teampartner I had in this school. He is the living proof that good planning and discipline is already half the work.

And last but not least: my Italian friend Salvatore. One of the best friends I've ever had and a very good copywriter. He probably suffered as much as I did when he tried to break through in advertising. Both of us have faced a lot of disappointment -each in our own way- but it made us stronger. Salvatore is streetwise and determined to make it big time. He's one of the few people of whom I'm certain he's heading for great succes in advertising.

This is my last e-mail from Hamburg. I came to this city just for the school, but it also proved to be a great city where I can even see myself living in the future. I met some good people, but I also met some bad people (see my earlier post 'Living with the Twits' about my former landlord Martin). I've had some difficult times, but I had much more good times. It has certainly been a great experience. I wish all of my classmates a great, educational quarter away and I'm looking forward to meeting everybody again during my last quarter. "Auf wiedersehen!"