So, as of April 15, school term is officially over! While that doesn't necessarily mean I have to stop thinking about this art project of mine (I now need to quickly contact a teacher who will work with me for my final semesters of study), I feel pretty spent at this point. My last project related thing was basically visiting the Dachau concentration camp and going back to Marienplatz to watch PEGIDA generally be assholes (took more pictures of them as well, and I can't help but be struck by how the vast majority of them seem to be crotchety middle-aged people). But, with two sketchbooks slathered in observational drawings of places, people and buildings, I feel like I've got all I need to create a body of work that's worth showing at my final NSCAD exhibition (and my first solo art exhibition! yay!). The only scary thing now is nailing down courses for my final two semesters (summer and fall). I have to jump through bureaucratic hurdles to secure the two independent studies that I'm hoping for. If I don't get those, I'll probably just take some history/critical studies classes instead, and do the 'independent' artsy stuff on my own time, which I'm confident I can do. I already know that a few teachers are willing to talk to me and help out even if it isn't in an official NSCAD capacity.
Gotta apply for my final exhibition too, and worry about getting accepted to do it. Ideally, this exhibition will be in the fall, and I'll be working on making posters/invitations to promote it around school and elsewhere. I'll be looking for freelance artistic jobs and regular jobs to help fund that stuff. I get kinda worked up and anxious when I think about this, especially when I know that I can't do much about it while in Germany. I'll be frantically trying to get everything together once I get back to Canada, and I'm trying to brace myself for that. This summer's gonna be artsy as shit! I'm a little worried I won't have much time to get a job!
Whew, it's a lot to think about. But it's a really good thing that the last stopping point of my project also happens to be right near one of my awesomesauce friends, who I've known since 2011! We met on the internet way back then, and have kept in contact ever since. Her name is Marie, and she lives in this gorgeous area near the Alps/Munich. I met her in person for the first time ever on the first day after getting to Munich, and again just last weekend. She invited me to come out to her town and stay the night there. Below is a photo taken from her parent's balcony. Oh yeah, I feel like I met her whole family while out there! Not only her parents and siblings, but her grandparents as well.
Gotta apply for my final exhibition too, and worry about getting accepted to do it. Ideally, this exhibition will be in the fall, and I'll be working on making posters/invitations to promote it around school and elsewhere. I'll be looking for freelance artistic jobs and regular jobs to help fund that stuff. I get kinda worked up and anxious when I think about this, especially when I know that I can't do much about it while in Germany. I'll be frantically trying to get everything together once I get back to Canada, and I'm trying to brace myself for that. This summer's gonna be artsy as shit! I'm a little worried I won't have much time to get a job!
Whew, it's a lot to think about. But it's a really good thing that the last stopping point of my project also happens to be right near one of my awesomesauce friends, who I've known since 2011! We met on the internet way back then, and have kept in contact ever since. Her name is Marie, and she lives in this gorgeous area near the Alps/Munich. I met her in person for the first time ever on the first day after getting to Munich, and again just last weekend. She invited me to come out to her town and stay the night there. Below is a photo taken from her parent's balcony. Oh yeah, I feel like I met her whole family while out there! Not only her parents and siblings, but her grandparents as well.
I should say that I was actually quite nervous to meet Marie for real. I have had a lot of friends that I've met over the internet, but she's the only one I've actually met in person, and one of the few that I ever would. I didn't know how much we'd actually connect when face-to-face, where pauses in conversation is an actual problem! The first time I met her, I felt a bit stiff despite the fact that we talked in a good flow about everything from people that annoy us to local politics (come to think of it, those conversations sounded really similar to each other a lot of the time). Music preferences, personal life, all that stuff. Really, I was super relieved to find out how easy she was to talk to. But it was only when I visited her hometown two weeks later that I felt we really connected as people. I mean, we've been friends for five years online so obviously there was some connection to begin with, but I was surprised at how much meeting Marie like reconnecting to a best friend that I hadn't seen for years rather than someone I only knew through text. Seeing her the second time, I was a lot more comfortable being my goofy, weird self that my friends back home are so used to. We laughed a lot more! I don't think our senses of humour came through at all when we talked online, but it was really clear in person. In short, I was really happy to find that we get along even better in real life than over the internet.
I took a train out to where she lived (OMIGOD those train tickets are super overpriced!) and we met at the train station. Then I met her dad, and he drove us to her place. What's cool is Marie has her own place, sans kitchen, so she can go from her flat to where her parents live and still have her own place to stay at overnight. We basically hung out at her place for a while and then went out to explore the town! Well, it's more accurate to say that she showed me around! :D
I took a train out to where she lived (OMIGOD those train tickets are super overpriced!) and we met at the train station. Then I met her dad, and he drove us to her place. What's cool is Marie has her own place, sans kitchen, so she can go from her flat to where her parents live and still have her own place to stay at overnight. We basically hung out at her place for a while and then went out to explore the town! Well, it's more accurate to say that she showed me around! :D
The weather there kept changing from mild rain to being brilliantly sunny, so the clouds were really cool and the pavement glistened in a really nice way.
The town is basically on this big lake on the foothills of the Alps. You can see the mountains all around. It reminds me of small towns near the Rockies in Canada, like Canmore or Banff. Going around town, we talked about relationships and friends and politics and music and other nonsense. It was a super relaxed environment, really quiet. Apparently during the weekend it's usual for a lot of people from Munich to pile into the little town for that Bavarian countryside and all that, so things can get a bit touristy. But while we were there, things seemed fine. We walked through the streets and around the lake, visited her grandparents (I got to practice speaking German and, even though I made plenty of mistakes and had to talk very slowly, I think I did decent!), and also got ice cream! Mine's on the left, hers is on the right :D
As it got dark, we went back to Marie's parent's place and had dinner. We talked about movies and junk like that (I'm the first person to correctly guess her favourite Disney movie on the first try! It was Mulan :D), and then went back to Marie's apartment and watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I slept on this field-hospital sort of bed that folded up.
The next day, before going back to Munich, Marie and I went on a hike with her mother and siblings. Marie was the only one who could speak fluent English, so she translated what we said to each other when it was needed (or I'd drop some German here and there). Failing that, there was always basic body language and stuff. The trail that we took went up through a hilly forest and let out on this ridge here:
The next day, before going back to Munich, Marie and I went on a hike with her mother and siblings. Marie was the only one who could speak fluent English, so she translated what we said to each other when it was needed (or I'd drop some German here and there). Failing that, there was always basic body language and stuff. The trail that we took went up through a hilly forest and let out on this ridge here:
It was super beautiful, a complete postcard-town. I actually got a postcard, too :D The experience was super fun and one of the most memorable I've had since in Germany. The funny thing is, me and Marie had talked about touring around her hometown for the past couple of years, so having it actually happen was freaking awesome. I'm so glad I got to do this, to connect with friends all the way across the globe from where I live! It really confirms to me that I need to travel and meet people again. But hopefully, the next time I come to Germany, I'll be fluent in German and won't have to meet translators in order to make new friends :D
Marie the forest dweller!
Afterwards, me and Marie headed back to Munich. Her boyfriend is in a black metal band called Kalte Tage (https://www.facebook.com/KalteTage/), and we went out to see them play at a small bar in a town called Grafing. Good thing I was with Marie, otherwise I never would have found my way there! I took a bunch of pictures of the band for them, and they posted one of my photos to their facebook page. Another band called Far Behind the Sun was also playing. We didn't stay for the third band, though. It was really nice to finally see some heavy metal played in Germany--it's been months since I'd been to anything! It was total leisure, and a good break from all the work and research I've been doing since getting here.
Last night, I hung out with Marie and Martin again, for just a few hours. We went to this hipster-y bar that played a lot of weird music over the speaker system. I couldn't help but think how this was the last time I'd probably see Marie in person for years and years. I know that I want to come back to Germany eventually, but I have no idea when. It's kinda sad to think about, but the good news is that I really feel like I have a true close friend in Germany, and that's really cool. It just makes leaving seem all the stranger. Oh well, we'll definitely keep in touch!
We stayed out until 2:30 in the morning or so, and then headed back and eventually went our separate ways. I'm dead-tired today; I woke up at 1:30pm! Now I'm on my last day alone in Germany. Tomorrow, my family arrives and I go from being an artsy-fartsy critical thinker to a tourist. Hopefully I don't get art withdrawal! With this biggest and toughest part of the project over, I'm just preparing for the deep dive where I'll really start making the large-scale works and shoring up the conceptual elements of my work. I almost wanna do one of those last-minute pretentious reflections about coming here and staying here for four months, but I think I'll wait to do that until I get back home. For now, I think the whole experience is still a bit too close to me for me to be able to 'look back.' I feel weird and listless now anyway, like I want to work more and yet do nothing at all until I get home. I even feel like this blog post is sorta half-assed compared to the others, but meh. That's how I feel right now: tired and 'meh.' Still, I'm excited/nervous to get going on the second phase of this project!
We stayed out until 2:30 in the morning or so, and then headed back and eventually went our separate ways. I'm dead-tired today; I woke up at 1:30pm! Now I'm on my last day alone in Germany. Tomorrow, my family arrives and I go from being an artsy-fartsy critical thinker to a tourist. Hopefully I don't get art withdrawal! With this biggest and toughest part of the project over, I'm just preparing for the deep dive where I'll really start making the large-scale works and shoring up the conceptual elements of my work. I almost wanna do one of those last-minute pretentious reflections about coming here and staying here for four months, but I think I'll wait to do that until I get back home. For now, I think the whole experience is still a bit too close to me for me to be able to 'look back.' I feel weird and listless now anyway, like I want to work more and yet do nothing at all until I get home. I even feel like this blog post is sorta half-assed compared to the others, but meh. That's how I feel right now: tired and 'meh.' Still, I'm excited/nervous to get going on the second phase of this project!
Oh yeah, here's some photos I took from walking around the greener parts of Munich: namely, the Nymphenburg Palace Gardens and the Englischer Garten. The statue of the children embracing the imperial German eagle kind of struck a weird chord with me... I won't be surprised if it turns up in some of the art I'll be making from this trip.
OMNOMNOM