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 :)