Diane’s World

This song : Elephant Gun by Beirut : Is one I found out about thanks to my wonderful cousin who has impeccably good musical taste. I listen to it every morning while trying to catch my bus, because of how “European” it feels. I have since downloaded a few other Beirut songs, and they didn’t disappoint me a single bit.Anyways, I ‘m sure you all weren’t expecting a post so soon - but hey! Here I am! I realized how I have too many pictures, and with Karneval starting tomorrow, I better dump them off on you before my stack of things to tell you gets too large!Ok well first these handsome men are Nick (from Greece) and Hamid (a Canadian Iranian). Hamid is the guy who took the next three or four pictures, so if you think they are cool, I didn’t do them

Well what we did was we went to an aqua zoo… where we saw a lot of fishies. Here is a fishy.

This is my british friend, Fred. But we call him Kow. This is him being eaten by a dinosaur skull at the aquazoo.

And me, Kow and Nick found a new living place in the Aquazoo. If you are ever in Düsseldorf, we live next to the prairie dogs in the Aquazoo. (Um… what are prairie dogs doing in an aquazoo? I just realized how odd that was.)

So yes, that was the aqua zoo. It was a lot of fun.

The next day we went to Schloss Benrath, which is basically a big, pink palace. We had to wear funny shoes inside and we couldn’t take pictures… but it was neat-o.

There was a big pond in the front. Kow and I wanted to go swimming, but it was too cold.

So we just let the swans swim. Here is a picture of the swans’ butts. Enjoy:

Then we took a small stroll through the English Gardens. Kow was upset with it’s quality, and had a strong desire to send the Queen a letter that she needs to keep up her gardens.

Here is upset Kow. (It’s very important that “kow” is said with a “k” not a “c”… so says “kow”. But I moo at him anyways.)

I have been painting again. I’ve been working on these for a while now and I’m finally happy.

I think this one is my favorite so far. I’m calling it “Homesick”

This is a bad picture of this one (actually of all of them) but it’s called “Ich bin Blau” Yes… it means more than just being blue.

And this is called “the Greeks”

Finally, another terrible picture of one that is currently still extremely wet and right next to me called “Rosenmontag”

Sorry they are bad pictures, but at least they are proof that I’ve been working. But I must say my “Happy wall” has never been so big!

I’m really bad at hanging things straight. Oh well.

Ok well I’m done. I’m starting to get frustrated with Germany and there are some minutes where I just want to be home… but I’m still doing rather well. Thanks to everybody who has been keeping in touch with me… it means a lot.

Next post will have something about the Köln Karneval (a huge thing going on in this area a lot like Mardis Gras). It’s so huge that we don’t even have school next monday (the biggest day of the carnival). If you would like to educate yourself about it before I post a lot of crazy pictures, go here.

Well I’ve got homework to do and sleep to catch up on. Have a wonderful week, ya’lls!

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Hi there family, friends and people who are in other categories:

sorry I’ve been bad at posting. I didn’t have much to post until now.

Song of the week is “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice. I love it - Lisa Hannigan’s and Damien’s voices go together ridiculously well.

Anyways, a few interesting things have happened.An Iranian artist had a showing in the Goethe Institute. His art was very good.

there was also a concert of contemporary iranian music. There were mixed reactions with my friends - but I thought it was very passionate, very free, very experimental, and all together very lovely.

On Friday I set off to go to Amsterdam with these two crazy kids:

Left is my friend Sam - he studies in the Goethe institut with me. He’s from Kansas. The girl on the right is Tamara. I just met her this weekend, but she is from the same town as Sam.

I don’t have too many pictures of this weekend (so I’m stealing a lot of these from google), but what we did:

1) Made a tour of the red-light district. Aye-yi-yi. Quite a few interesting conversations came out of that one… but I think I should probably shut up now? Yes, I think I will.

2) Went to the Anne Frank house. This is my second time seeing this, but it was good to see again.

3) We celebrated Australia day at an Aussie bar. I don’t think words are enough to explain how hilarious this night ended up being… but we made friends with a Belgium guy, an Australian guy, and a Spanish girl and guy.

4) Went to the VanGogh museum. Really enjoyed it - Van Gogh is 8000 times better in person than just seeing pictures on a screen or in a book. These are the two paintings that stuck out at me the most (they are brilliant up close - I love how he can use a few simple strokes to create a rather descriptive painting):

5) On the train ride home, I started a little list to help me decide if I like it here or not. So I give you Diane’s list of the pros and cons of GERMANY!:

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT DEUTSCHLAND:

Döners

The way Europe makes you “feel” different

Gelato

The Auto Bahn

Chocolate

How easy it is to visit many other countries

The local public transportation

All the random old castles and churches that you can often find.

The general appreciation of the arts

Coffee. Everywhere.

How one meal can take up to 2 or 3 hours and it would be completely normal.

German scotch tape (yes, it is superior! I would know!)

Stabilo pens

Currywurst (I like how half of the good things about Germany involve food )

The rich culture

The diversity (Aka Greek Men :-p )

THINGS I HATE ABOUT DEUTSCHLAND:

The general unhappy/unfriendliness of the people on the streets (NOTE: This is only how they act on the streets - most of the germans I know close are nothing but kind, friendly and very welcoming people!)

Everybody is wearing black

Der, die friggen das. (for you non-German speakers, that roughly translates as “the, the friggen the”)

Everybody likes to stare. You can stare back at them - it doesn’t phase them at all.

German crowds are very “pushy”

Crap music

What? Tuna fish pizza? Are we serious, Germany?

How expensive everything is (except beer)

You can’t pay for everything with a debit/credit

Is it really necessary to have 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, 1 euro and 2 euro coin? Aye yi yi!

PDA (Public Displays of Affection.) I’m sick of watching people making out all the time.

So all in all, I love making fun of Germany’s crazy things, but I really am enjoying life right now. Well I have homework to do and sleep to catch up on, so have a wonderful week everybody!

Daisy *

*this is one of the nicknames I somehow managed to get while in Germany. The other two are “Ledig” (translate that one yourself), and “Dee Dee”.

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Two songs of the week - the first one is a classical piano piece written AND preformed by the lovely Matt Bellamy.

The second is the MUSE song I’ve been introducing to my German friends and family - and seems to have been received very well. It’s called “Starlight” and is unusually optimistic and upbeat for a Muse song.

The reason for this, is Muse is really all I’ve been listening to recently. So… it’s hard to post anything else especially when all other music pales in comparison with Muse… well at least in my mind.I have a lot of pictures for this week -so much has been going on.

Earlier this week (I think Tuesday?) we took a tour of Medienhof with some of the group. Here is a group picture

Notice how I’m one of two people to have light colored hair. I’ve never been so outnumbered!

Remember this building from an earlier post?

(The large godzilla creature is normally my tiny Thai friend named Naritha)

Well we went all the way up to the top for a very small price of 3 Euros (so much better than whatever it costs to go up the space needle!!!)

And the view was absolutely amazing!

What you see in this picture is my Canadian/Iranian friend, Hamid, and my German/Iranian friend, Sascha, over looking Medienhof and the far back city is Köln! If you look hard enough, you can even see the Köln cathedral!

I plan to go to Köln in about three weeks for the large carnival they have there every year. I am excited!

It was kind of creepy how far we could lean on the glass

(My friend is Andrea- she is from Brazil)

We got to roam the city a bit - they had really awesome architecture. Here are some of my favorite buildings.

These three buildings were built by Frank Gehry, the same guy who designed the EMP. He is a famous deconstructionist - I even learned a great deal about him while in Art history at school.

I also enjoyed this building:

Except I’m not sure if I’d want to work in a building with little people peeking in at me.

Oh and this one was also interesting:

Ok enough of the architecture!

On thursdays is Stammtisch night - where we go to a bar together.

This is the other Zivi, Christopher. And next to him is a very polite gentleman from New York who I already forgot him name. (oops!)

And here is my Irish friend, Catherine (who has never heard of Damien Rice even though he was born and raised in Ireland! AHH!) Every picture I have of her looks like this.

The rest of the weekend has been extremely low-key - getting lots of sleep, doing a lot of studying, and grabbing coffee while walking through the rainy streets of my little city.

It is a good life in Germany.

I have a few crazy friends who make me laugh.

The people I live with are nothing short of the nicest people I ever met. They are very kind and are always checking that I am happy. Plus allowing me all the free laundry and coffee and tea that I’ll ever want

And oddly enough… seeing this on my computer’s dashboard every morning makes me not so keen on wanting to go back to Dordt (Sioux Center is where my college is - the bottom weather map, Düsseldorf is where I am now… the second to the top weather map.)

However, the senior shows have been announced!!! My senior show starts on March 7th. When I decided who would be the best combination in my show, I got exactly the people I would’ve wanted (our show is going to be a very high-quality wide ranged show!)

Dave Schierbeek - Makes the amazing ceramics I have already posted. His drawings are quite good as well.

Mary VanEssen - Photographer/Other media.

Matt Berkenpas and Aaron Huisman - work together and do a lot of professional film stuff and both have other media as well.

Mallory McConnell - Art Education major but has some very good sculptures and paintings

And then there is me - all I submitted was sculptures and paintings.

It will run for a month - so if you are in the area, please check it out! I would give up a lot to see that show, but sadly I cannot make it. Therefore those who can see it must go for me!

Finally, I’ve been doing my hair differently these days. Now I look more European. Whee!

And this next photo was taken while talking to my sister on Skype today (i love you Rachel!)

Well I think that’s all I have to say for now. I have a few unfinished paintings - but those will have to wait a few days before I allow you to see them

Have a wonderful weekend! I’ll post again soon!
Diddles!

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There is something about Germany that makes the band Muse sound even better than in America. Which makes sense, because it was the last time I was in Germany that I declared Muse my favorite band.Sigh… isn’t Matt Bellamy gorgeous? I never say that about guys… but he is an exception. And Tom Hanks also.

Hence, a Muse song for the song of the week, since they are basically all I’ve been listening to: Falling Away with You :Lyrics (I think Muse was writing about my life when they wrote the lyrics of this song… my goodness , Matt Bellamy - stop stalking my life and using it in your song lyrics!!! )

Well I don’t have too much to write about… but I have a lot of free time on my hands so I might as well post when I can.

This has kind of become my life:

Yes, it’s my little ticket that I got for an amazing price (thank you, Goethe Institut!!!) that allows me to take a street train to wherever in my city I feel like going.

And oh boy do I use it. If roaming was an Olympic sport, I would be a gold-medalist.

Since I had nothing else to do this weekend, I basically roamed my city. My new favorite thing to do is grab a cup of coffee and some kind of yummy pastry, and go watch the sunset on the Rhine river while attempting to eavesdrop on German conversations.

Ohh! Ohh! Did I just make you jealous?

It has been a very relaxing weekend. A lot of walking around my city… and relaxation.

I’ve also created two more little paintings (it would’ve been more, but I ran out of white paint! )

First is called “Gelato” (which, by the way - there is an amazing Gelato restaurant in my town.. with millions of types of Gelato. I’ll make sure to take a picture of that and make all of you jealous )

Sorry about the bad picture quality… my room is usually too dark to take pictures in it.

Second is called “Sauftour”. Yup, a German word. Figure it out yourself

I am so glad I make these - my room is looking a lot more Diane-y and home like for me, and I don’t feel so far away anymore. Alas, that is the power of art.

Plus, I have a new way of making phone calls : Skype! I got to talk to my family for 30 minutes today - for only 2 cents per minute!

Oh the wonders of the internet - it definitely makes me feel a lot closer to home than half a world away.

Oh, and I’m trying to educate my German friends that there is more to American music than David Hasselhoff (gee whiz), Justin Timberlake, and Britney Speares. And what’s with the German’s love of Techno? My goodness. This has got to stop.

So I made a cd like this for a friend… hopefully it will start a revolution of GOOD music in Germany for once:

aye-yi-yi.

Anyways. That is all I have to say.

Cheese!

You’ll hear from me later! Have a good one, Y’all!
Diane

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Hello world!The reason I chose sonny and cher’s “I’ve got you babe” to be the song of the week, is because for some reason I chose for this song to be my alarm every morning. It makes me laugh. Yes, Random. Oh I love it.

Anyways

I have survived one full week in Germany.

My dad has ordered me (in German) to take pictures of my time here. So I brought a camera with me today.

Every morning, I ride this to school

And I arrive here and attempt to find breakfast and coffee:

Believe me, its quite exciting.

I forgot to take a picture of the building that contains my school, but here is my main teacher and my Chinese classmate I think her name is Kyeong Jin… or Mah Jong… (we have the hardest time pronouncing the asian names ).

I have two other teachers for classes that I chose to take, although I don’t have pictures. Between listening/writing and grammar, I chose grammar (because I’m really bad at it) and between hearing/speaking and writing I chose hearing/speaking. I have different classmates in those two classes.

I have actually managed to make a couple of friends. This is me, Andréa (from Brazil) and Naritha (she comes from Thailand). They are very silly.

Also, these two are both Germans that work at the Goethe insitut. Sascha’s job is to make sure that we students have enough culture activities (he is a Zivis) and Bernard’s job is to stuff envelopes (yes, I have made much fun of him for this ). Left is Sascha, and right is Bernard. There is one more Zivis- Christopher, but today was his day off so I didn’t get a picture of him. Zivis pretty much have a cultural activity planned for us every day we are here.

oh and I took only one photo of my city (there will be more later, I don’t want to spoil you too much now!)

But my city is very awesome… because we have PALM TREES!

And yes, I’ve been keeping up with my paintings:

Noch Ein Mal

Cold Blooded

Weltgeist

Sascha

Early Morning Transit

This is in my room - my paintings plus what my dear cousins gave me for christmas. I call it my “happy wall”

Well I have obligation!

Much love

Diane

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