So Long, Farewell

Sorry its been awhile since I've updated! My roommate and I were having some internet/router box snafus and had to end up buying an entirely new box so that we could get internet again. All is well now, though!

As for the Labyrinth Kindermuseum, I had a really great last week. I was in the summer program two days, working both in the water garden as well as at the work table, and the kids who came in seemed especially curious and excited to learn AND were talkative (which always makes the time go by faster), and the rest of the week I was in the office, working on a poster of old-fashioned German alphabet letters. Here is a photo of some in-progress shots and one of the final product:

In September the Labyrinth Kindermuseum is implementing a series of mini exhibitions upstairs to get the kids to interact more with the exhibitions currently up there. Where my poster will be displayed, kids will be able to write their names in the style of old-fashioned German script and make a sort of button/brooch to wear.

Some other "stations" will include a place where kids can play dominos and arrange things found in nature from oldest to youngest; a place where kids identify types of individuals (represented by these green silhouettes--see picture to follow) and then receive figure outlines of their own bodies, which they can then color/decorate to express their own individuality.

These new implementations have been thought up by Mirca (seen in this photo, far right), who was also responsible for bringing the museum's summer program to life. I worked with her a lot this summer--probably more than I did with Britt, the woman in charge of the interns!--because she had so many great art assignments.

As a thank-you for my work at the Labyrinth Kindermuseum, my colleagues arranged a wonderful spread for me and bought me some little reminders of Berlin! The food consisted of three types of pasta, three types of sauces (spicy, chunky tomato and creamy pesto) and three types of cheese, served with arugula, cucumbers and fresh black! bread. They bought me a little cookie cutter of the Fernsehturm, which is the television tower located in Alexanderplatz and a little bread board, which has a map of the city of Berlin on it. They also wrote me a very nice thank you note on the back of this cute little postcard with two mice witches flying a broom on it!

The event was really nice. It seems that just when I was getting to know everyone, feel comfortable talking with people and even starting to make friends, my time is up. Lina--another intern--was sick on my last day but came to the museum anyway to say goodbye as well as give me a book of Berlin pictures, a bookmark and a candy bar! I just thought that was so nice! We did, however, exchange e-mails (as I did with other interns/workers as well) and will try and stay in touch that way.

My roommate, Marianne, I am going to miss most of all. We became really good friends. I'm not worried about losing touch with her, though. In fact, she is coming to Chicago with her husband around Thanksgiving (her husband is American) and we are going to try and meet up then! Additionally, she might be moving to Hawaii for nine months next year (for her husband's work) and I have a standing invitation. Wouldn't THAT be nice?!?

I really, really loved Berlin and could not have imagined a more enjoyable and fulfilling summer. I had such a great experience and feel really fortunate to have had this opportunity. Let's just hope I can transition back into speaking English!!

The Bodemuseum, located on Museumsinsel. I went to this museum on one of the many "Free Museum-Thursdays," and it was fantastic.

Museums and Art and Films, Oh My!

Sorry for the delay in posting! I've been pretty busy this last week and on top of that, my internet was down for four days!

As of late, I've been going to a lot of museums! On Thursday (and I'm not sure if I mentioned this but many museums are free from 6:00-10:00) I went to the Neues Museum and it was unbelievable! The building itself was beautiful, not to mention the collection was fantastic! There was a "cemetery" of sarcophagi and it surprised me to see how large some of them were. I expected them to be quite a bit smaller. Their enormity, though, really made me think how there would be NO WAY for someone to penetrate the sarcophagus to get to the goods inside--especially because many of the sarcophagi were made of granite/stone.

Perhaps the most well-known item in the Neues Museum is the Nefertiti bust. She is [obviously] enclosed in a glass case and has an entire room to herself. Surprisingly, though, there was not a swarm of people around the case and I was able to observe the bust in close detail. For those of you who have been to the Louvre and have "seen" the Mona Lisa (I put this in quotations because there is a crowd around her that extends a good ten feet outwards), this was NOTHING like that...thankfully.

Then on Friday I returned to Martin-Gropius-Bau, where I had previously seen the amazing Frida Kahlo exhibit, to attend the free screening of Sergei Eisenstein's ¡Que Viva Mexico! The film was interesting (and actually accompanied the current Frida Kahlo "Retrospective" exhibition) but it did not compare to Eisenstein's much earlier work, which skyrocketed him to fame--Potemkin.

Directly after the film I headed upstairs to view the Olafur Eliasson exhibit, "Innen Stadt Außen." It was SO cool. While there were many amazing facets of the exhibition, I will just briefly touch on my two favorites: "Strobe Hose" and "Your Blind Movement." The first consisted of an entirely dark room with a running hose extending downward from the ceiling. Also in the room was a strobe light. The effect the strobe light had on the spraying water was nothing short of cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6lOdmFdp4M

The latter, "Your Blind Movement" consisted of a large room illuminated by red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, fuchsia and pink fluorescent light bulbs. Filling the room was fog, and the result of the fog and lights created a rainbow haze that was so surreal to experience. I, quite literally, could only see color.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNx-Hik4Mus

Today I went to Die Brücke Museum and in so doing I was able to see another part of Berlin that I had not yet seen--Zehlendorf. This area (although I only saw a very small portion of it) was very nice, with architecturally interesting houses and lots of trees. Although difficult to put into words, two words that do come to mind in differentiating this section of Berlin from that of Prenzlauer Berg are, quieter and smaller.

Brücke was a little gem of a museum, though. It featured the work of the Expressionist artists from Dresden who were members of the particular Brücke group. The work featured in the museum belonged to the artists, Emil Nolde, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Otto Mueller. Though small, the museum had a really nice collection.

As for my actual internship goings on, I have started working on a poster of old German script, as part of a program that commences in September. I have also been continuing my painting of these little box things. I enjoy doing both things immensely but unfortunately, this week I have to work in the summer program four of the five days! I am really not that fond of working in the summer program and feel that I could be much more productive working on the aforementioned duties, which I find enjoyable to do and which need to get done!

Last thing: Kelly--I will compile some photos for the MIISP website to send to you this week :)

Jüdisches Museum...Part 2

Today I went to the Jüdisches Museum (for the second time!) after work to see the current exhibition, Helden, Freaks und Superrabbis: Die Jüdische Farbe des Comics (Heroes, Freaks and Super Rabbis: The Jewish Color of Comics). The exhibition was AMAZING, as evidenced by my spending nearly two and a half hours there!

The exhibit featured Jewish comic book artists and authors (although Robert Crumb was featured, too, because much of his work explores Jewish cultural identity and stereotypes, and his wife--Aline Kominsky, who is also a comic book author/illustrator--is Jewish, too) and explored the progression of the genre, itself, and its relationship to Jewish culture. There were original comic books and prints, reproductions, photographs, video clips, animations, audio pieces, etc. etc. The accompanying text throughout the exhibit was really interesting and thorough, without being overbearing.

Suffice it to say, this was a truly enjoyable experience. Next on my list is the Berlinische Galerie, which is located near the Jüdisches Museum. I am also toying with the thought of going to see Potemkin tomorrow at Babylon--also part of the Stummfilm Fest. I will keep my readers posted!

P.S. I keep trying to upload video clips of the movies I'm referencing but for some reason, I can't. Posters and photographs will just have to do.

Jüdisches Museum und Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmeds

Okay, this will be short (especially because I know no one reads these posts) but I just want to mention two highlights of my weekend.

The first highlight of my weekend was seeing Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmeds at the Babylon Kino. It was beyond amazing. The film introduced the genre of cut paper or "Scherenshnitt." In total, the film--made in 1926--had 96,000 cut paper frames out of a total 250,000, which were made! The film had live accompanying music and the theater in which the film was shown was really cool too. As I think I already mentioned, this was part of the Stummfilm Festival currently going on here in Berlin.

The second was the Jüdisches Museum, which is where I went on Saturday. It was AMAZING. I plan on going back to see their current comic book exhibition, which features the work of Jewish comic book illustrators. I would also like to visit the Berlinische Galerie (very close to the Jüdisches Museum) to look at their current exhibition as well. The museum as a whole looks really interesting.

Me in front of the Jüdisches Museum. The quote on the wall states in German, "auch Helden haben schlechten Tage..." (translation: "Heroes also have bad days..."). This statue is part of the current comic book exhibition, which I plan on attending this week.

Untitled

Much like the pieces of art I make, this post is untitled because it is too difficult to keep thinking of different titles for my blogs. The ones I already have are not even that good.

Anyway, this week was the first week of the "Sommerferien Programm" at the museum and it was really successful! A lot of kids showed up and seemed to enjoy all the various activities, both in the "Wassergarten" as well as the "Werkstatt," which is a glorified arts and crafts table.

The "Wassergarten," or "Water garden" features the following"

A "Spritz Galerie," where kids stand on these green circle pads and shoot water through holes in boards that I painted (and still need to take pictures of so I can have them for my own records as well as post them on my blog!) to try and knock down these lego tile things. I'm sure a picture could better explain this than my description...sorry.

An experimentation station, where kids can experiment (shock!) with different properties of water. At one station, kids put a tissue in a cup and dunk it under water and are able to observe how the tissue stays dry. At another station, kids can experiment with what materials/objects will float in water and what will not. Another station allows kids observe the sort of skin that forms on top of water in a cup as more and more water is added. Skin might not be the correct word in English--in fact, a woman at the museum was asking me how I would translate and I wasn't quite sure!

Then, there is another sort of shooting gallery, but here there are two separate boards with, again, holes cut out of them. In these holes, however, there are funnels, which connect to hoses that lead into a little pail with a ship inside. As kids shoot water into the holes, the water then goes into the funnel, down the hose and into the pail and eventually the ship floats!

Lastly--and I will sort of clump this together, since it's probably getting boring--there is a little clam shell pool with toys in it for kids 3-6 years of age, there is a water memory game, an installation of balls and bells for kids to shoot water at and make music, two information tables, where kids can learn various facts about water, and a bucket with plastic fish in it for kids to put there hand in and count the fish that stick.

Phew! That was a lot. Oh! And lastly, the "Werkstatt." Every two weeks the project theme changes. This past week kids made "Anderssehdoskope." Using toilet and paper towel rolls, kids decorate and attach a colorful film to either end of the roll to see the world--through glasses or a kaleidoscope--differently. The "Anderssehdoskope" have been really popular with the kids and next week, too, they will be making them.

Shifting gears here, my friend Gracie arrived Tuesday! As a result, I was given today and Monday off of work so I can show her around Berlin and do some sightseeing with her. To make up for the time lost at the museum, though, I will be working a double shift next Sunday.

Anyway, yesterday we went to the DDR Museum and to the Alte Nationalegalerie. Before going to either, though, we stopped off at the Radisson Blu Hotel to see their impressive aquarium. It was something else!

The DDR Museum was closing in ten minutes from the time we entered and because the woman at the register spoke SO fast, I did not comprehend this, and as a result did not get to see much of the museum. I will have to go back.

The Alte Nationalegalerie was just okay. The collection was not that impressive but it was free so it's one more museum I can now say I've been to.

Today we are going to the Türkischer Markt, which is supposed to be really great, and

the Jüdisches Museum, which is also supposed to be phenomenal. Then, I am making the

increasingly frequent Spargel und Kartoffeln mit Hollandaisesoße dish for dinner.

Afterwards we are going to Rosa Luxemburg Platz to watch Metropolis, which is going to be screened for free outside with live accompanying music. This is part of the one week "Stummfilm Fest" (silent movie festival) that is currently going on in Berlin.

On Sunday they are showing "Das Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmeds" and I REALLY want to see that. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SP4ftxklg

Paint, Paint, Paint

I truly cannot believe how fast my internship is going by! I have been being kept really busy, painting miscellaneous things in preparation for the summer program at the museum, which begins Monday. Therefore, from here on out I will be working the summer program instead of doing office/artistic work like I've been doing now. I hope I enjoy it! Right now Mürke has me (as well as the other Praktikanten) scheduled to work four shifts per week and she says if that is too much we can cut back. My only concern about the shift schedule is being outside for 20 hours per week...gah! The weather here is unbelievable hot...and occasionally cold (Monday and Tuesday I could have used a jacket!)

Next week on Tuesday my friend Gracie arrives and I am so excited for her to come! It will be nice to see a familiar face. I am picking her up from Tegel Airport because on Tuesday I work "Nachmittags," which is 14:00-19:00, and her flight gets in at 10:10 in the morning.

This past week I kept my Thursday evening museum-hopping going strong by going to the Bode Museum. Unfortunately, I left my apartment too late (8:00/8:15) and while the museums are open until 10:00, it took me a good 20 minutes to walk there and less than an hour and a half is not enough time to see this museum and what it has to offer. That being said, what I did see was amazing and I will most definitely return.

Tomorrow I am going to Hackescher Markt as well as this little vegetable market near my apartment and then just kind of playing it by ear. Sunday I am going to this dance thing with my roommate, so that should be fun, too. The weekend forecast calls for 32' - 36' so I'm going to do my best to not stay outside too long, lest I die.

And so concludes this entry. My last entry was really long (sorry!) and I know no one wants to read that much. Until soon, my loyal followers.

German Eating

Okay, so this will be short BUT I forgot to mention in my novella (*see previous post) the delicious dinner my flatmate made for me the other night. It was a very typical German dish of Spargel und Kartoffeln mit Hollandaisesauce. It was sooooooo good. She also bought some cheap Prosecco (similar to champagne), which complemented the meal nicely. Sadly, Spargel (white aspargus) season is coming to an end--if it hasn't already--so I don't know if I will be lucky enough to have this meal again :(

Another dish my flatmate is going to make for me at some point is Eier in Sempfsauce (eggs in a mustard sauce). Again, very German. I will be sure and take a picture of that dish, too, when she makes it for me!

Second Week At Labyrinth

The day you have all been waiting for has finally arrived! Yes, that is correct: Blog Update Day. Thank you to the many who have been so patiently awaiting my next post.

Well, I think it's safe to say that I am comfortably settled in my internship and I really enjoy it. The aspect of it that I most like is its variety--I am never doing the same thing. For instance, on Tuesday I served as translator for my boss (whose English is "not very good" but whose Swedish is...does not help me) when a gentleman from Qatar came to look at the museum. He is interested in building a children's museum in his country and wanted to learn more about what, exactly, children's museums should have and what is required in order to make that happen. Anyway, I translated for my boss and the meeting went really well. It only lasted an hour but afterwards my boss told me what awonderful job I did and how I should consider being a translator. While I don't foresee that, it was nice to hear!

Qatar Museum, designed by I.M. Pei.

In getting back to my variety of tasks, on Wednesday I actually worked "in der Halle," which refers to the current exhibition: Alle Anders Anders. That was my first day actually inthe museum; before then I had been primarily in the office. It was kind of a slow day, from what I hear, as there were not many kids for some reason or another. I roamed around and then pretty much planted myself at "die Werkstatt" and helped kids create puppets. One girl burned her finger on the hot glue stick and started screaming so I rushed her to the

bathroom to run some cold water over it. She was fine but...yeesh.

Theeeennnn yesterday I went to Labyrinth Unterwegs, the museum's offsite work facility, where I designed and painted these boards as part of the museum's summer program. There are three in total and I won't describe what they're for because it's too confusing but I will say that I finished one, started the second and on Monday will finish the second and start (and hopefully finish) the third.

Mürke (I'm not sure if I'm spelling her name correctly) is in charge of my work at Unterwegs and she is really pleased with the painting thus far, which I am super happy about. Before going to Unterwegs yesterday I was quite nervous because I didn't know what she would be expecting of me and if I would do a satisfactory job. My worries were for nothing, though, because--as I said--she was pleased. I will try and remember to take pictures of the boards on Monday when I go back!

I'm pleasantly surprised that there are so many art-related things for me to do at the museum. From what I hear, too, there are only going to be more! Mürke did tell me that if ever I get tired of painting, though, that I am absolutely free to do something else--again: variety!!

Now, to conclude this verrrrrryyyy long post (sorry) I will end on a sad--but in retrospect, funny--story:

After work at Unterwegs yesterday, I decided to check out Wedding Art, which was having the opening of their "best of" 2009 artists. According to Google Maps, it looked like it was in the vicinity so I thought I'd check it out. Well, it was a good 20 minutes away but, I thought, Oh well...should be good. It was not. I stayed for maybe 10 minutes, looked at some crappy watercolors and left. Now, let me say that I have NO sense of direction so if I veer from my known path, I will get lost. I thought that by instead of retracing my steps, which would take too long, I would go the other way because that will lead me to my ultimate destination faster, right? No.

Seemingly interesting event:

http://www.freeguide-berlin.de/kultur/wedding-art-14-kuenstler-13-monate-1-kalender/03-07-2010.html

I charted my walking route yesterday and here is the absolutely disgusting route I took. The only place I did not walk was from Gesundbrunnen Center to Schönhauser Allee:

Because I was trying to save money and not buy a Wochenkarte this week, I instead lost my soul by walking everywhere. Note to self: spend the 26 Euros next week and buy a week ticket.

I treated myself to a brownie from Impala Coffee because I thought I had earned it. Now, I cannot even begin to describe how good these brownies are. While my daily sandwich stint (*see previous post) did not really last (a Euro a day really adds up!), I do plan to make to make it a goal of mine to get one of these little babies every week. I can quite positively say that these brownies are the best I have ever had. Impala Coffee also has this delicious "Tiger Spice Chai Tea Latte" but with the onset of hot weather, lattes do not appeal to me all that much--shocking, I know. My friend visited Prenzlauer Berg a couple of months ago and recommended this place to me! Thanks, Allie!

I ended my very long day by going to the Pergamon Museum, which was superb. Even though I was utterly exhausted, the museum was totally worth the visit--mainly because:

Ishtar Gate, which, Wikipedia states, was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon and was constructed in about 575 BC.

1. Museums in Berlin are free after 6:00 on Thursdays.

2. Wedding Galerie was a bust.

3. I got to see a lot of really beautiful artifacts.

Berlin Art Galleries

Okay, so this will be a short post because my last one was so long but I went to Strychnin Gallery (near Frankfurter Tor) after work today to see the current exhibit, Fragility. It was AMAZING! The artist makes these incredibly detailed porcelain dolls based on literary and historical references.

Here is one doll from the exhibition. It is titled, Captain Nemo's Daughter:

There are, apparently, two more of these galleries, located in London and New York.

I am going to try and make a goal of going to at least two art galleries in Berlin per week. Since the public transportation system is so expansive, I think this will be totally feasible!

For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the gallery website and the artist's website:

http://www.strychnin.com/

http://www.enchanteddoll.com/

Tschüss!

My First Day As Praktikantin!

Well, today was the first day of my internship. Last night my flatmate, Marianne, helped me figure out the route I would take to get there and the time I should leave to make it to the museum with time to spare.

I live in Prenzlauer Berg with a German girl (Marianne), whom I found via Studentenwerk. It took a lot of searching but quite literally the night before I left for France, I secured my housing. The place is absolutely adorable, too. There are so many windows, which makes the space nice and bright. I have my own room with a comfy bed, closet, large desk and television. I share a kitchen and bathroom with Marianne and then she has a room of her own. Last night she made me dinner, too, and it was delicious! She also made coffee for me this morning and let me tell you, German coffee is--hands down--the best. She said she makes it strong, which is A-OK by me.

OH! One of the first things Marianne asked me was if I wanted to speak in German the entire time and I answered with an excited, "Ja!" Hopefully now my German will become even that much better!

Okay, so my internship. I arrived at the museum around 9:20 (normally I would have arrived a ridiculous hour or so early but--thanks to the clear directions both my flatmate and my boss at the museum provided for me--I felt confident enough that I would find my way fairly effortlessly and I did.

I buzzed and was let in to the building and met my boss right away. She is super nice and told me that her English is not so good but that my German is really good. While I disagree, it is really nice to be getting this continued confirmation of my German speaking abilities.

Basically all I did for the first hour was get an overview of the museum and get introduced to the various Mitarbeiter. There are so many people who work at the museum that the names of only a few stuck. Currently, too, there are six other Praktikanten, all of whom are from Germany. I was surprised by how young some of them are, too! Two students have this internship through their school and they are only 14 and 15 years old! The 15-year-old is named Anna Maria and when she found out I was 21 her jaw--quite literally--dropped. I explained to her how I get that ALL the time. I know I look young for my age. It was kind of funny, though.

Afterwards, I got a tour of the museum, received a packet and then folded flyers and stuffed Umschläge for the rest of the day (all while listening to nonstop German). The most interesting thing I overheard was a relatively extensive conversation about Der heilige Geist. Suffice it to say, I did not comprehend that entire conversation.

As for my duties, I don't know everything that I will be doing yet but Britt (my boss) did tell me that some days I will be im Büro, while other days I will be in the museum. I will have the opportunity to assist with birthday parties, summer programs, special weekend Fußball events usw. She also told me that if I want to work an evening or weekend day, I would be able to work less the following week. I might keep this in mind when my friend, Gracie, comes to visit me in July.

Last but not least, I just wanted to say that I think I will be purchasing my lunch every day in the cafe below the museum offices. For only one Euro, I got ein halbes Käsebrötchen and it was delicious. It had butter, super fresh and crispy lettuce, three slices of cheese, a sprig of some herb and freshly cracked pepper--all for just a Euro. The people in the cafe are going to get to know me very well in just a very short time.

Sorry for such a long post. It might be advisable to skim, although if reading it is really interesting, by all means, don't let me stop you.

Bis später!

Class Wrap-Up

I cannot believe how quickly four weeks goes by. Granted, it hasn't...yet...but this Saturday will be my fourth week in France! Tomorrow is the reception at which all of us students will show the works that we made this semester. The townsfolk, Abbey interns and director, a guest artist and some other random people will all be attending, so it should be a really nice event.

Every student was given a word/phrase as a prompt a couple of weeks ago to serve as inspiration for their artwork. Mine was bifurcation, which is a dividing of a main body into two parts. I created a hanging sculptural thing out of paper that has bifurcating shapes that go all the way down. It's a little difficult to explain but after the event I will try and upload pictures!

After Saturday I am heading to Barcelona for three days, then back to Paris and then onto Berlin to begin my internship!!! (That is also when I will get into full blog mode!) I'm getting both nervous and excited for it. Today I received an e-mail from my boss at the Labyrinth Kindermuseum, telling me when and where to meet her on the 21st. She says that she and everyone else there is looking forward to my arrival, which is nice to hear :)

On a side note, I have been having an absolutely horrible time with internet connection here at the Abbey and uploading pictures, accessing e-mail/certain sites has been a nightmare. I'm hoping things are better in Germany...

This is why this post has no photos :( Sad, I know, but uploading this blog was a hassle in and of itself!

First Day at the Abbey

Although I am not an American in Germany yet, I am officially an American in Paris...well, Pontlevoy anyway. Though this blog is for my internship in Berlin, I will probably post a few things during my time in France.

From May 16th (yesterday) until June 12th I am taking a U of M sponsored course, titled UARTS250: Creative Process, which will basically consist of "creating" things. I am staying--as I mentioned earlier--in the region of Pontlevoy, which is this incredibly picturesque medieval town in France that is about 2.5 hours south of Paris near the Loire Valley.

The class seems pretty low key, which is exactly what I wanted. There will be two mini projects and a final with little activities along the way. We are also required to keep a journal.

Elona Van Gent is a professor from the School of Art and Design whose specialty is animation and sculpture, and Herb Winful is a professor from the School of Engineering who works with optics. The two of them, along with our regional "guest artist," Jeffrey Blondes, will be teaching the course.

Here is a picture of where I am staying:

These are some examples of Elona's artwork:

Still at Home

I am still in the United States right now but I thought I would publish my first post today just so that I have something to look back on. As of now I still have no accommodations set up in Germany but this is not from my lack of searching. I must have contacted 30+ people between WG-Gesucht and Studentenwerk. I finally bit the bullet and e-mailed my boss in Germany to ask if she could help. She said she would pass on my question to a colleague who might have a room free. I hope this works out because I REALLY need a place to stay.

I leave for France in a little over two weeks and am nervous and excited for my summer ventures. I'm going to buy some luggage this weekend and compose a list of items to bring/items to buy in Europe.

I probably won't post again until I arrive in Europe so...until then!