Guten Tag! I’ll be honest- I’ve been in Germany for almost a week now (one week as of tomorrow), but my program hasn’t started just yet! I flew in May 22nd with Lufthansa. They trusted us with real utensils on the flight made of real metal! Getting to the hotel took a looooong time. Got up early to get some last minute packing done May 21, watched my mom panic, got on my 8 hour flight, and landed at 6am on May 22. To cut a long story short, I miraculously got no sleep from getting up on May 21 until I was checked in to my hotel in Osnabruck, Germany at 3pm the next day.
I’ll be participating in a studio while in Germany during a 6 week program, with a focus on storm water management and infrastructure. We’ll be travelling around a lot to see different places, but we’ll be centered mainly in Berlin, Essen, and Hamburg.
To prepare for this trip, I went to the Steel Yard in Providence, RI with some other people who are also going on the program. The Steel Yard is an award-winning industrial arts center, with a focus on foundry-related arts, such as iron working, jewelry, and ceramics. It’s actually a really cool space, and they offer classes and summer programs in things like welding, ceramics, etc. It’s a super interesting place, and definitely worth a visit for anyone in the area! There will also be a huge farmer’s market opening up next to it!
In Germany so far, my friend and I (who came early with me) have been looking around the city. It’s a college town known as the City of Peace (according to SnapChat) and is full of nice places to go and things to do. There’s an art museum here that actually hosts some works by Durer, as well as the works of Felix Nussbaum, a Jewish painter born is Osnabruck. His works stand out in their depictions of the first world war, including his experiences as a Jew in an increasingly racist country. I would highly recommend visiting the museum for anyone who’s in the area. Entry is only 5 euros! (My friend and I got in for free though because we went during the opening of a new collection)
We’ve also had a small barbecue, hosted by a friend of ours from the program last year and his wife, went to a garden show in Iburg, and had lots and lots of good food. I’ll talk about the food here in a future post, so look forward to it!
See you tomorrow!