16.07.2011
I’m leaving on a jet plane but I actually do know when I’ll be back again. At least, there is a plane ticket for my return flight that will supposedly be used at the end of August. I guess we’ll see where things go with this internship and life in general. The rest of this summer will fly so fast in Bad Doberan with everything going on around me: an internship at a Kunstverein, a volunteer position at the Kulturhistorisches Museum, and working with children at the Kornhaus, a Kunstschule for kids. There is certainly a lot to think about. In fact there already has been a lot to think about and the beginning of the summer has also flown by unimaginably.
Today’s the big day. Thus far my glamorous day of traveling abroad consists of an intense job of packing up my life in two small suitcases since 7:00 AM, pulling a bank job to afford this trip (just kidding, I just deposited some checks at a bank…) and dropping off library books. Woo! Now I’m sitting at my flight’s gate, reflecting on the last few days in the Twin Cities saying that gloomy final goodbye to Andrew before his departure to DC in the exact same terminal, next to the exact same security walk through. What a difference my two experiences here have been all in one week. It’s a bit exhausting, I do believe.
Currently I am surrounded by a screaming Mankato girls’ soccer team, who apparently is also flying to Iceland. It’s a bit shocking to know they are able to travel to another country for a few soccer games, where as when I was on a summer traveling league we were excited to play in Edina and Eden Prairie. Oh how the times have changed.
About to board now. Ciao.
Things to remember:
- ATM trip—euros
- Text the frenetic Mums
- Contact Antonia about train ride
- Meet with Thomas on Monday at 9:30 AM
- Email Andrew and Annelen
20.07.2011
The past couple days were my first two working days for the Kunstverein Roter Pavillon, and it was pretty exciting to be associated with installing a new exhibit, especially with the artist there. The visiting artist’s name is Uwe Kampf, and he creates major sculptural pieces, black and white prints, and paintings on felt to represent contrasting materials in an unusual fashion. His focus is topography, which is also similar to the name of his exhibition, Topos. The show includes two mediums: multiple 10 x 10’’ gray felt-covered canvas squares with different orange-painted ovals on the fabric. The ovals give the composition a sense of depth, and one could comprehend the images to be a simple representation of terrain seen in a birds-eye view. The other medium is heavy, geometric sculptures made from steel and welded with intricate netted patterns.
We just started the installation process by taping walls for painting, hanging the textiles and cleaning up the Pavilion. The rest of the work will be finished tomorrow and an open house will take place on Saturday evening.
I met most of the staff, all of whom will be my work buddies for the next month and a half. Heike, Thomas’ wife, is usually running the show; Stefan is the brother of Mathias, who is married to Antonia, Thomas’ daughter, is the Kunstverein assistant. The others are around some of the time, but also seemed really helpful with all of my questions.
Heike showed me a normal routine for the work day, which involves picking up mail from a nearby gallery, assisting with various office tasks, and dealing with the financial aspects of the Kunstverein. The Pavilion’s mail is sent to another gallery because everyday a group of men a bit “rough around the edges” with tattoos, piercings, and usually a bottle or two of liquor in hand (no matter what time of the day it is) hangs around the Pavilion, and from what Heike explained, they tend to get feisty at times and ruin the mailbox or windows. It’s a very bizarre scene because they look so out of place in Bad Doberan, where families walk around with ice creams, older men play their instruments in the town square, and their main city transportation is an old-fashioned train called the “Molli.” Just a bit silly.
People have been constantly speaking German to me, which can be very hard but also incredibly rewarding. I feel like I’m picking up so much already. German television is also teaching me, however every time I turn on my TV, Sponge Bob Square Pants is on and it drives me a little bonkers.
Yesterday, I spent the day with Antonia at the beach with her two children: Lia, the sweet little four-year old with golden hair and a smile from cheek to cheek and the other, little Mats, the seven-week old baby boy, who has the chubbiest arms and legs. Both are adorable. I had a couple lovely moments of bonding with Lia. First riding in the car to the beach as we both inconspicuously blew bubbles with our chewing gum and her followed giggles, and then finding seashells in the sand to decorate our slightly collapsing sand castle.
Antonia and her husband Mathias are both wonderful and generous people. She clearly acts like her parents, Thomas and Heike, with how caring and thoughtful they all are. For being warned about Germans being curt and perhaps rude, I have only experienced warmth.
Things to remember:
- One can only pick up a grocery cart outside of the store and there’s a deposit of a 50, 1, or 2 Euro coin to use it.
- Everyone shakes hands all the time even when they have met multiple times. Our verbal greeting is their handshake.
- Make a calendar. Lots of events coming up soon and must keep things organized.
24.07.2011
There’s so much to report, I don’t know where to begin. The last point, which I left off would probably make sense. This first week in Bad Doberan has come and gone exceptionally fast. I’m sure the rest of my time here will be the same, especially with more and more planned activities coming my way. The workweek went really well. The rest of the installation was put up on Thursday when I was in Rostock for my Museum orientation, and the Pavilion was slowly put together for the grand opening on Saturday.
I left for my first orientation of the Kulturhistorisches Museum on Wednesday morning bright and early. Catching the train at 8 AM, I needed to be there by 9, but trains don’t arrive as often in the morning so my trip was ahead of schedule. This is good because I’d much rather be early than incredibly late. Bad Doberan is about 20-30 minutes away from Rostock by train. Meeting Annelen at the museum she directed me to an office and there I received a short interview/welcome from her and her boss. They only spoke German and fast. Surprisingly I picked up quite a bit and they knew that my German speaking was weak. Overall the main idea of the meeting was to explain that I would be working on translating their website into English as well as correcting English brochures, which have already been printed.
Then Annelen gave me a tour of the museum/old convent. Again only in German. I probably understood 3-5 words in each sentence said. Although in my defense, I didn’t exactly study the vocabulary on the history and background of a “Kloster” when I learned German in school.
Once the tour was finished she brought me back to her office and we casually chatted about the job, life, and Rostock. Speaking in both German and English, I became more at ease with knowing what she exactly said and things were much more comfortable. I met her co-worker Annika, who is a historian at the Museum part-time. Graciously she offered me her afternoon and gave me a tour of the city. Later we bought coffee at one of her favorite little cafes (with blankets offered on the chairs-something she and I have never seen anywhere else) and talked for about 4 or 5 hours. It was a really nice afternoon to be able to get to know someone around my age and living in Rostock. She suggested that I come visit and hang out with her and her friends more often, which I will definitely take her up on.
On Friday and Saturday there was last minute preparation time for the open house on Saturday. Stefan and I bought appetizers, wine and juice for the party and helped organize art title labels, etc. As fast as the time came to be 5 o’clock on Saturday evening, it moved just as quickly with the opening and a late dinner afterwards with the artist and some Kunstverein friends. The party had a good turnout of about 35 people, and with Bad Doberan being so small, that seemed like a nice group to have support Uwe Kampf. His wife and her friend played the flute and some percussion (gongs and drums!) in a very sporadic way. Their two-man band was an improvisational group, who knew what to play from just how they felt and the mood the surrounding artwork gave them. It was quite interesting, sometimes bizarre, but with the message behind Uwe Kampf’s work and how it appeared in the Pavilion, the strangeness was appropriate. To be played at an open house for Monet might be another story. That evening I learned about jellied pork at dinner. The meat was in a jar of clear jelly amongst vegetables. It was a bit odd to serve meat that way, however as a woman next to me intelligently pointed out, it allows the whole meat source to be used. Pretty efficient even though jellied pork doesn’t sound that appetizing. I did end up trying it and my opinion is this: It’s good to try new things, but it’s not bad to say no thank you the next time.
And now onto today. At 9:30 AM I experienced my first Protestant church service and my first German spoken service. I understood little to nothing because of the language barrier and also because I am Catholic, which has a different style for the mass (not too far off though as I learned). The point wasn’t for me to gain some faith in my life though, just to experience something new in a different culture and location.
The rest of the day I spent in Rostock. Traveling to the city and thinking I could do some shopping on my free day, I quickly learned that I was mistaken. Shops, and I mean all shops, are closed on Sundays. I should have realized that things might be similar in Germany as they are in Greece in terms of shop schedules especially on Sundays. All is well though because one small ice cream shop/café was open in Rostock, and I was able to purchase a delicious strawberry frozen yoghurt. From useless train traveling to unexpected disappointments, ice cream certainly makes things better.
29.07.2011
My second Friday in Bad Doberan! Wow! I feel as though every time I come back to this journal I have too many things to report and about five new jobs in this tiny town than what I originally started with. Okay, reverse reverse. Explanations are in order:
Last Monday I went to Wismar with Thomas, which is where he works as a professor of architecture. Wismar is a city of about 50,000 with a very medieval background. With the buildings and churches being so beautiful and close knit, it was a real treat to walk around and look at things. Peter, Thomas’ research assistant, gave me a tour of the University, and he was able to get me a tour around their print studios. What fun! I spoke with the printing professor, and he invited me to come anytime to print there if I was interested. I might now be returning next week Tuesday. We shall see. I experienced my first smoked fish, which was delicious and afterward was able to help Thomas’ secretary write a letter in English to university students. I felt very needed (for my English skills) and that is always a good feeling. I explained that I could help her with writings in the future when I was in Wismar.
Tuesday I had an interview with the Bad Doberan newspaper called Otsee Zeitung. Ha! It was a bit silly because I really don’t feel that important to be reported on for a newspaper article, however it was done and thoroughly. She asked all sorts of questions about my life and the internship. Later she took me to the Kamp or park area of the town and said, “Now I will play you. Please watch and then do this when I take your picture.” She then laid on a park bench, put her arm and hand on the side of her head to support her neck and smiled to the sky. I looked at her and I bursted out in a laugh as rude as that might have been. She was laughing too though and said she was serious about the look. So I posed how she wanted me to but in a less Hollywood, dramatic way. I didn’t want to seem full of myself and the pose sang egoistisch, “drama queen.” The last thing I need is a bunch of Bad Doberaners thinking the American girl is into herself. Anyway, she showed me her photos and we were both very happy with the results. The rest of Tuesday was spent at the Kunstverein, where I worked on a powerpoint for Thomas and his presentation at the Town Hall meeting on Thursday. The powerpoint was based on their previous exhibition called “Verlorene Gebäude” at the Roter Pavillon, and he and the Burgermeister would be speaking about the slides. A very long, time consuming process to make that slideshow.
On Wednesday I went to the Kulturhistorisches Museum in Rostock for my first work day. I translated some of their website into English and took a good portion of the day to fix A LOT of errors with their museum brochure, which had already been “translated” into English by someone else. I also met up with Mathias Rothe at the end of the day, a fun and rather odd experience to see someone familiar in a very unfamiliar place, even when it is planned. Wednesday was finally a beautiful, sunny day, something usually common in the region, however this summer has been very different. I have seen rain and lots of it. It’s also very cold and already feels like autumn. I miss my boots and sweaters but I’ve still made things work. Apparently the weather in the Twin Cities is horribly hot and humid. Two h’s you want to stay away from so in a way, I suppose I am very lucky to have cool temps. Once I returned from Rostock, Thomas and Heike invited me over for a delicious dinner of spaghetti, cold cuts, and a lovely salad. We also ate with Antonia, Mathias and the kids, who always make for entertainment with their silly thoughts and Mats’ urge to teethe everything in sight including a wine opener, Thomas’ glasses, and the offered breadsticks.
On Thursday and today, Friday, I was able to work at the Kornhaus Kunstschule. We made monotypes in a style I’ve never tried before. Rolling black ink on a flat surface and placing tracing paper over the ink, you can draw an image on the side facing up with pencil, your finger, or any object that creates a pressure against the ink. Once the drawing is finished, you remove the paper and your composition is shown in black ink. The process was fun but so different from what the U teaches in my printmaking classes. Ha. That is a bit obvious I suppose.
Working with kids is really fascinating though. They watch you create something and if it is simple enough, they can replicate it perfectly. I watched as a little girl made an underwater ocean scene with fish and seaweed. Not wanting to step on her toes, I drew a small crab and some waves on a separate piece of paper. She liked the pictures and put them in her work. She was incredibly sweet and mature for her young age as the teachers came over, complimenting her crab, and she immediately explained that it was Anna’s idea. Later I painted another ocean scene with sun, clouds and waves in watercolor and gave her the picture. Today she came in with her mom to pick up her pieces, and her mom said she saw my article in the newspaper, which explained that I was an art student. Her mom excitedly (and hopefully jokingly) stated that she would keep the painting forever because it would soon be by a famous artist. I just laughed and said if that was the case, I would make them a better piece of art.
So that’s where I’m at thus far. I think I’ll hang out with Annika and her husband Henryk tomorrow. It all really depends on the weather I think.
Ciao xxx
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