Bread and Music

Before I begin, let it be known that I had a pretty good post written before my iPad decided to freak out on me. So here's part two!

One of my greatest talents in life is being able to eat large amounts of bread in one day. I love bread. I'm fairly certain that when I'm not at home, my family's bread consumption goes down by at least 63%. My mom can probably confirm this (hi mom, happy almost mother's day!) Anyway, if it's made from flour, water, salt, and yeast, and stuck in an oven for like an hour, I'll probably eat it. Brotchen, salty olive bread, brotchen with poppyseeds, pretzels with butter, ciabatta, even the ominously-healthy-looking vollkornsbrot... I will eat it. As I sort of like to say, frühstück is the most important stück of the day and if there's not bread involved, then what's the point? What I'm saying is that Germany is great if you like bread. Forget beer. Forget various meat-and-potato dishes. Bread is where it's at.

And now for something completely different!

In America, it's totally normal to listen to music as you walk. On the rare and miserable days where I forget my headphones, I notice that I'm one of the very few people without headphones. Everyone else is listening to something - an NPR podcast or a voicemail from their dad or their friend's new mix tape or even ocean noises, just not what's around them. They don't hear other people talking to each other, they don't hear bike bells ringing, they don't hear the world. But it's so ingrained into our culture, or at least it is with young people. Yesterday, I went on a little adventure through the city, and habitually, I unrolled my headphones from their coil, plugged them into my phone's headphone jack, stuck the buds in my ears, and went for my recent favorites.

Imagine my surprise when, as I'm jamming out to some OutKast on the tram, I realize that almost no one else is listening to anything. On a packed tram, I'm one of maybe three people getting my tunes on.

It's not like there's much else to listen to - every few minutes, a very serious voice announces the next stop. An angry driver honks at some wayward pedestrian. There's an ambulance siren. Usual public transportation type things. Nothing special. No one's talking to anyone, because gross, strangers, but no one is blocking themselves off from the world. 

As OutKast slowly faded out and a Frank Zappa tune came on (do not judge me), I realized just how isolating headphones are. I could be missing so much! Someone would literally have to yell at me before I realized they were talking to me. I turned the music off and just sort of listened to the world around me. I wasn't listening to much as just letting the noises of the city happen; if there was a siren, there was a siren. I also found that I could think a little more. Instead of pretending to be in a music video and singing along in my head, I could actually think. It was not a bad experience.

Will I continue this no-headphones thing in America? Maybe. Sometimes you just gotta walk across the Diag while listening to the theme from Pulp Fiction, but sometimes, you also just gotta give your brain a break from the constant noise. There's a marked difference between like noise from your headphones and noise from your surroundings; I'm talking about the former. Your brain doesn't need all that stimuli all the time, I guess.

Thanks for reading,
Until next time,
Molly

A Very Nice Beginning

      We had great weather today which was perfect for all our activities! Our first event didn't start until 1:30pm so we had the morning to explore. The sun was shining while Molly, Josiah, and I spent most of our time walking outside and Zach enjoyed shopping in München's  unique stores. We all met up in the afternoon with Christina, a talented artist who creates her work from nature and leaves it right there. She has made beautiful Landart and radiates passion for this type of expression. We gathered different colors or materials and made different pieces which we admired, snapped some photos, and left behind. It's quite a beautiful thing to work hard and then move on. Afterwards we ate a delicious German dinner to refill the energy the sun had taken from us. It was great and a nice break before the Marionette show. The play was absolutely amazing and I'm astounded that so much life can be brought into such small wooden characters. The clear diction and enthusiastic actors allowed me to understand more German and enjoy the show even more. I can't believe Janet has packed so much fun into one day, it feels like each day here is a week. I'm having a blast! There is so much beauty and history here, it's hard to take it all in. Thank you all for your support!! I am truly grateful, I'm still not sure if  this is only a dream. It seems to good to be true.

We are having fun and doing a lot lot lot! By the time the day ends, we are too tired to post. So here are a few pictures from today--before my phone battery died completely. Someone will comment or reflect on today tomorrow. . . I hope. : )

First there was a morning free for exploration. Then there was an introduction to "Landart" and at the end of the day after a nice group meal at Alter Simpl there was Kleines Spiel Marionettentheater ("Volpone"). Whew!

I'm posting this link 10 days after the original post. This seems fitting. http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/13/gathering-moss-robin-wall-kimmerer/

First Full Day in München

I'm currently sitting in a hostel quite aways away from our own, due to the internet not working where we're staying. Needless to say, I hope they don't kick me out once they found out I'm not staying here. We've had quite the long day so everyone is back sleeping, no doubt having sweet dreams about everything we've seen and experienced today! Janet has done an amazing job with this trip. It's only the end of the first day and my mind is bustling with everything we've done.

One of the highlights from today was meeting Janet's dear friend, Hans. He's a philosophy professor at JYM (Junior Year in Munich) here at the Ludwig Maximilian Universität. (Where I'll be conveniently studying next year!). He showed us around multiple places in München and explained the history, including the old Nazi chancellory and the Glyptotek. I found it astounding that people could just walk into most buildings filled to the brim with art and fossils, all for free! In some places, one could even touch some of the displays. I also learned that most of the "greek" statues people see are replicas of the original, true greek ones. Whether they were replicated by Romans a long time ago, or current artists. In addition, a lot of them were extremely colorful and vibrant. Which is a stark difference from how we view traditional greek statues today.

Earlier in the day we had a painting lesson in the botanical garden with Natalia* (spell check). She was a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot from her in our short time. Even though it was raining, we went inside the enormous greenhouse and painted with water colors. There were so many flowers and a plethora of turtles (Schildkröten), see pictures below! We each picked a plant that interested us and simply painted! I lost track of time because I was so relaxed and involved with my painting, that I didn't get to quite finish but it was a blast. I'll definitely continue painting because it's so cathartic, even if I, "paint like a typical man with strong lines and colors," as Natalia said.

We ended the day with seeing Maria Stuart at the Kammerspiele. The set was quite bare, with only textured walls, a changing ceiling, and a few candles, but that didn't stop the actors from doing there thing. It was extremely difficult for me to understand the german because it was delivered like one would deliver a play in Old English. It just so happens I haven't learned old german, so it was quite hard. However, from just watching the actors and catching phrases here and there, I was awed by the talent the actors possessed. My favorite actress was the woman who played Queen Elizabeth. The emotion and life she brought to everything she said and did was subtle, but made her character very complex. I may, or may not, have fallen asleep for a few minutes shortly after the intermission, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show and can't wait to see the upcoming ones.

Food update: I've been eating breakfast everyday and I couldn't be happier about it. I think I shock fellow diners in the morning, because they seemed surprised I can pack down my Frühstück. But after all, it is the best Stück of the day! I will say though, that regardless of how much I eat, I'm always hungry here. I have no idea why, because I walk nearly as much at home. My stomach has turned into a blackhole. Hopefully it will stop before my wallet runs dry, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoying eating all the food here whenever I have the chance.

Also, random fact: There is a Michael Jackson memorial on one of the statues here in München that has been there since his death. (See picture below).

Thanks Janet, the International Institute, the Brown Fund through the RC, and everyone who's helped make this trip possible! Bis morgen!
~Zachary

Oh, long, fruitful first day! What a day. What a rainy, fun day. First we made it out to the gorgeous botanical gardens out by the Schloß (castle) Nymphenburg. We stayed indoors, as you see, and had our first lesson and it was a lovely experience with a Munich painter Natalja R. More or less everyone there was painting or sketching--we were not alone! Natalja brought all of the supplies and gave pointers in a helpful, encouraging way. From there we stopped for a bite (and I almost forgot to pay), then bought our annual passes for Lenbachhaus, then went to a local art store and bought some supplies for journaling, painting, and sketching. Next, Hans-Peter S. (of some renown to everyone who has done a trip to Munich with me) took the group on a tour while I ran around trying to pick up all the theater tix. Our day ended at our first show--a tough one to follow, for sure, but beautiful nonetheless! Maybe a sample of pictures will give you an idea of what our day was like.

Our program starts officially tomorrow, and yes, that is the same day as the train strike in Germany is due to start. Don't worry about us, folks at home. We all have ways to be in touch with each other and we'll work out any glitches that might arise. Can't wait to start the program.