#this is just my interpretation of this miniature and i am not an expert on premodern race studies at all

[cuties-in-codices]

an example of medieval racism: a depiction of the last judgement, with an angel expelling a black man from the blessed, all depicted as white, guiding him towards the damned, all depicted as having darker skin tones

miniature in the "livre de la vigne nostre seigneur", france, c. 1450–1470

source: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 134, fol. 58v

(some trustworthy academic resources on the topic of medieval racism would be “The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages” by Geraldine Heng, or “Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking” by Cord J. Whitaker)

[onehunnit]

Cinema Studies Minor Gets Super Into Analyzing K-Pop Videos 2.1

Disclaimer: I'm still a student, no where near an expert, I will be wrong in some technical aspects. Also my interpretations are my opinion which means you may disagree and that's okay. Awesome even! Just be normal about it fr. This is also very out of order bc that's how my brain works. Also I am but a baby loretiny, which means my interpretations are shaky at best compared to what's been established. But the lore is confusing anyway so....

The World EP.FIN: Trailer Analysis pt 1: Sections

Why Not Film?

K-Pop's Obsession with Wong Kar-Wai

Ateez and Metropolis

Why Not Film?

I mean like filming on film stock. Because there is a film grain/noise... (overlay? mask? idk man i'm not an editor I forgot my terms) texture to parts of the video that I think is supposed to evoke the idea of a security camera (I would have LOVED some high-angle shots to drive this home but oh well) BUT could also just be representing that it's old/in the past because it is also in black and white.

the texture is especially evident on San's face. I think they just put a noise filter over this part, which creates grain that you'd find on old film

So why not just film on film stock? It's expensive and cumbersome my guy. they filmed this between schedules like.... digital editing and stuff is just so much easier.

Which leads me to the next section:

K-Pop's Obsession with Wong Kar-Wai

STEP PRINTING!!!! 8/10FPS!!!!! STREAKS!!!! WE! LOVE! IT!

I fucking love this effect which WKW first did by filming (on stock) at 8 frames per second (fps) and then repeating the same frame 3 times to create that streakiness. Filming at a low frame rate then playing it at a higher one (usually 24 fps, which I'm guessing is also what they used for this trailer, 24-32(ish) fps is the cinematic standard) creates fast motion. This process is called step-printing.

The subject(s) would stay still/ move very slowly while filming to give the effect that everything is moving fast around them while they're normal speed. Super cool, gives sense that time is passing around them and/or isolation from others, which is what I think is intended here since HJ and the teezers are isolated from society as they're trying to fight against the government. sweet sweet storytelling through style. OBSESSED!

Here is an example from Chungking Express:

But also: K-Pop in general is OBSESSED with WKW's style. I will make a list of MVs that rep that eventually, but off the top my head, Mamamoo's mv for wind flower is inspired by Fallen Angels. The color grading, cinematography, the scene references etc.

Ateez and Metropolis

Now for something completely different: Before I get into it I really want to emphasize how fucking instrumental cinema was in globalization, because when cinema first became an industry it TRAVELED like TRAVELED. and resulted in a mix of styles since the fucking like 1920s. AMAZING

Okay so speaking of 1920s, let's get into IT! German Expressionism was a film movement that was born out of post-WW1 Germany and society's need to express (ha) the horrors of war they went through and since hyperinflation fucked up the economy so much, film companies were like "spend whatever" and blew budget on super elaborate film sets and facilities.

Expressionism is focused on the physical and really emphasizing features and such. It's hyperbolic as show in the screen shot from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari:

The subject's face is deepened by the make-up and lighting and shows their state of mind, a mindless corpse being controlled by another power (think Master/Puppet, but we don't have time to rly get into post WW1 Ger's anxieties)

It's also hyperbolic, as I said, which sometimes takes form in the sets. Specifically the establishing shots. These would traditionally be miniatures or painted, as they are easy and you can see how they're similar:

1- Metropolis & 2- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Notice anything? The lines maybe? Perspective? Symmetry? These are all qualities seen in German Expressionism which I will get into in a momement but first. Let me explain why I use Metropolis as an example. In short, they already referenced it in Guerrilla:

click to get the whole picture! Guerrilla MV and the film poster for Metropolis, the book cover is similar.

See the lines and perspective? The establishing shot at the beginning is the same, let's compare it to Metropolis again:

THE WORLD: EP.FIN Trailer & Metropolis

German expressionism is alive and well in film style and I'm so in love with how the director utilizes it.

Next, we're going to talk about structure and lines, along with style and how it helps the narrative.

[TO BE CONTINUED]

[i-have-a-crush-on-someone]

Do you have any poetry or art at all that I can cling to bc of a person that's been in my life for almost 10 years, that I've had a crush on for so long? At least 6 years? It's much like that movie "One Day" with Anne Hathaway (hopefully without anyone dying at the end). We don't live close to each other but cling to each other when we feel lost and just click as friends I guess but there's always been more. He told me he loves me but idk if that's true or the way I interpret it. It's just all so complicated

Hello ^^.

I am not a huge poetry person, but I do love music, so song recommendations is all I can offer you for now, hope that's okay. And, luckily, I've had the same crush for the past 5 years so I have some saved songs about that type of thing, lol.

• Summertime -- My Chemical Romance

• Still into you -- Paramore

• Crush -- Tessa Violet

• Two time -- Jack Stauber

• Cupid -- Jack Stauber

• Oh Klahoma -- Jack Stauber

• Like or Like like -- Miniature tigers

• Talk to you -- Ricky Montgomery

• Do I wanna know -- Arctic Monkeys

• I'm like a lawyer in the way I'm always trying to get you off -- Fall Out Boy

• Sarah smiles -- Panic! At the disco

• Jenny -- Studio Killers

And that's what the list is. Hopefully you find them easy to connect to your experience and crush ^^. Also, these are songs I like, and I know a lot if styles vary so I am sorry if they aren't your taste.

Anyway, hope this helps and good luck!

~Not a love expert 🌸

[skippyv20]

Portrait Discovered of beauty who inspired ´Pride and Prejudice` character

Portrait of Mary Pearson

The museum Jane Austen’s House, based in Chawton Hampshire, has purchased a miniature portrait of Mary Pearson. It’s believed Mary became Lydia in the author’s most famous work.

Henry Austen – Jane’s “favourite brother” according to The Guardian – got engaged to Mary in 1796. From the outside it may have appeared a decent match. Her father was Sir Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy, who’d commanded HMS Serapis during the American Revolution (1765 – 83). Henry was in the militia, so it made sense she would gravitate toward this man of duty.

Marriage in those days was a more serious affair, tied up in reputation and status as much (and often more so) than true love. Pride and Prejudice’s famous opening line declares: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

1796 portrait miniature of Mary Pearson by William Wood (Courtesy of the Jane Austen’s House Museum)

By 1798 however, the relationship had crumbled. Henry took up with widow Eliza Hancock and Mary found herself on the scrapheap. It would be a couple of decades before she found a partner again. Quoted by The Guardian, collections and interpretations manager Sophie Reynolds says, “It is quite easy for our society to see that obsession about marriage as a kind of problem but back then it was, 100%, what you had to do.”

Devastating though this experience must have been, Mary had to get back on the courtship horse – hence the portrait, experts speculate. Dating from the year she was dumped and painted on ivory using watercolour, the oval image measures just 3.5” in height. It shows Mary with her hair “curled and upswept” (says the museum website) and wearing a dress made of white muslin.

Jane Austen portrait

The portrait contains the subject’s actual hair in the back. “Locks of the sitter’s dark brown hair were braided into a design on the object’s reverse—a practice common in Victorian jewellery-making and art-making” notes Smithsonian Magazine, referring to writings by Allison Meier in Artsy. The little gold-framed advert may have “marked her reentry into society following the failed engagement” it continues, reporting on word from Jane Austen’s House. The museum is based in a 17th century cottage occupied by Austen during her final years.

Austen certainly met Pearson. Buzz around the engagement was said to be happening as the former wrote Pride and Prejudice. The wayward Lydia is described by Sparknotes as “preoccupied with gossip, socialising, and men.” The site adds “She is attractive and charismatic, but she is also reckless and impulsive” Lydia’s elopement with Mr Wickham is one of the best-remembered sections of the book.

Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Hunter Spence (2003) claims Mary’s assorted love notes to Henry were returned care of Jane. The pair even corresponded post split, yet Austen wasn’t exactly impressed by her brother’s choice to begin with. Not for nothing was the working title for her masterpiece ‘First Impressions’.

“I will not pretend to say that on first view she quite answered the opinion I had formed of her” Miss Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra. “My Mother I am sure will be disappointed.” Pouring further oil on the fire, she says, “From what I remember of her picture, it is of no great resemblance”.

Pride & Prejudice has been adapted numerous times – Jena Malone played Lydia in the 2005 movie. The role is probably best associated with Julia Sawalha and the classic BBC series from 1995.

The portrait was supplied by art dealer Philip Mould, with Beecroft Bequest/the Art Fund financing the sale. 

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/04/12/portrait-jane-austen/

Thank you😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

[minaa-munch]

Ooc: what would kushina think of Sasuke?

Based on our IM-talk, Kushina would be the lone survivor of Kurama’s tantrum - thus, context. 

Let’s see…surviving the biju’s tantrum probably meant that she would no longer be the Jinchuriki, since Minato already took Kurama’s yin-half with him, whereas Naruto has the yang-half. 

Meaning she’d be a single mother with a Jinchuriki son to raise —

Oh boy. I’ll try to be brief for your reading sake @chidoricry. 

Despite her loss, Kushina wouldn’t be the sort to sit idle. After Minato’s demise, she would probably manage certain government affairs with the help of the council and the Sandaime (all the while cursing the Yondaime for not being alive to do the paperwork). Her being offered a place in the council doesn’t seem entirely unlikely, considering the series of events but I imagine the Elders might get their wrinkly diapers in a twist. 

ANYWAYS - back to Kushina. I imagine she would lean rather heavily on the few friends she has; Mikoto clearly being one of them. Since she would need time to recuperate and heal and whatnot. 

In other words, either Mikoto would find a homely companion (if the Uchiha clan head doesn’t shoo her away that is) or another kid to worry about. ._.’’ either way, higher chances of interacting with miniature Uchiha squish-ables, ne? I reckon she would be more than willing to allow herself distractions in the form of chibis (Read: By being an absolute hellion of an obaa-san).

So…either the Uchiha gaki, along with Naru-chan would end up as early initiates in her minion army, or she would be the soccer-mom archetype. ._.’’’ A part of me really wants to entertain the possibility of her being just a tad bitter, but since this is potential interaction with children (and lets face it she loved the gaki members of Team Minato) I don’t think she has it in her to direct any non-fuzzy sentiments their way. 

With regards to Sasuke in particular; she might find in him an endearing, corruptible-via-salt-ramen minion. Coupled with the fact that he is doomed to be Naruto’s rival in either case; I’d say chibi Sasu-chan would find his forehead being poked by more than just his older brother. She’d be the older sister he probably dreads. 

Needless to say, it would make for some pretty adorable interactions. ^^ 

Please note: this is my interpretation of a possible what-if ^^; I am no expert with regards to Kushina as a character  - @himekushinada and @fox-mother might be better equipped to satisfy the question. They have interesting takes on Kushina ^^ totally worth checking out.

P.s. I share a headcanon with himekushinada and uchihaa-itachi that Kushina was Itachi’s godmother - that may have influenced this answer a little. ^^;

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Care of Cell 44 - Analysis + TTD

This will be short and sweet today. I wanted to give you guys the lyrics and some background on the Care of Cell 44 song. Then I’ll mention a few tidbits from TTD. 

Lyric Analysis:

Good morning to you, I hope your feeling better baby Thinkin of me while you are far away Counting the days until they set you free again Writing this letter, hoping your okay Sent to the room you used to stay in every Sunday The one that is warmed by sunshine everyday And we'll get to know each other for a second time Then you can tell me about your prison stay

Feels so good your coming home soon

Its gonna be good to have you back again with me Watching the laughter play around your eyes Come up and getcha, saved up for the train fare money Kiss and make-up and it will be so nice

Feels so good your coming home soon

Walkin the way we used to walk And it could be so nice Talkin the way we used to talk And it could be so nice

Its gonna be nice to have you back again with me Watching the laughter play around your eyes Come up and getcha, saved up for the train fare money Kiss and make-up and it will be so nice

Feels so good your coming home soon

(Ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh Ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh)

Feels so good your coming home soon

 There are definitely some Beth symbols in there, especially the sun and sunshine, being “okay,” but also visit THIS ARTICLE to get more of the background behind it, because I think that’s interesting too.

The song was written to be about an inmate being released from prison. What, WHAT?

Because we had an episode in S4 called Inmates, that highlighted Beth and Daryl and foreshadowed Beth’s arc.

Furthermore…well, first let’s talk about Carol. This song is played over her kitchen dream, right? And I said part of the point of this is that she’s in prison in her own mind. A prisoner of her memories and her regrets, and it’s keeping her from being happy with Ezekiel, who is her soul mate. So given what this song is about, there’s definitely something to that.

But then there’s also Beth. In 4x01, we saw many things in her cell that foreshadowed imprisonment. Things like the gnome and the bird’s cage.

If Beth is currently imprisoned—say, to the helicopter group?—then we have one of two possibilities. Either someone from TF will stumble upon her and help free her from that imprisonment. Or, more likely, she’ll free herself and come to find them. Honestly, we have symbolism that points to both scenarios, so I don’t know which it will be. Probably a mixture of the two.

But my point is that, while of course this song playing in 10x03 is about Carol and Carol’s arc, it’s also about Beth’s entanglement with Carol and how current events on the show will eventually lead to Beth’s return. 

I would also argue that the meaning of the song is a direct foreshadow. A foreshadow of a time when Carol will get out of her mental/emotional prison and return to normal. Grief over Henry is stopping that right now. When he appeared, it interrupted both the dream and the song. 

But by extension, you could argue that the stuff in Beth’s cell foreshadowed her imprisonment. That imprisonment began at Grady, but I think she’s been imprisoned, away from TF, ever since Coda. So this song also foreshadows Beth’s release from imprisonment. Soon, grasshoppers. Very soon! 

TTD:

So I already talked yesterday about what Angela Kang said about Carol’s kitchen hallucination: that it was about her continued grief over Henry. Not about Daryl. But we got a few more tidbits worth mentioning from TTD. Nothing huge and ground breaking, but definitely worth mentioning. 

1. They emphasized Eugene’s “flees on a farm dog” line by putting it in the quiz. Obviously a line they want us to pay attention to.

2. @wdway​ is our resident expert at paying attention to the shelf behind the guests in TTD. The music box has been present on the shelf all three weeks of this season. (Important because it’s not always present when they do TTD after Fear, so it’s obviously placed there or taken away purposefully.) In the space below the music box was a miniature windmill. Last week, the Bunny occupied that space. After 10x01, it was the sheriff’s hat.

3. They emphasized how weird it was that Daryl would share a personal story about his dad. Chris said he knew something weird was going on because Daryl never does that. The ONLY time he did that for real was with Beth. It was almost like they were trying to say that without saying it.

4. MMB and Ross Marquand attended via satellite. Behind MMB we noticed a radiation/biohazard symbol. Might be part of the radiation theory.

5. Finally, and most importantly, when they had a guest ask a question, the guest asked if the kitchen dream meant that Carol’s feelings toward Daryl had shifted to romance. Angela very diplomatically said no. She didn’t use the actual word, “no,” of course. But it’s just proof to me that they’re trying not to piss off or completely shut down any section of the fandom. We wish they would, but I guess we just have to accept that they won’t. Here’s what she said, word for word.

“As with any dream, there’s a lot of room for interpretation, and you know, dreams are not usually literal. I think the point of that dream is that there’s something about her that wishes there was normalcy, but, it’s, she’s still filled with so much grief.”

Okay. So, there’s the “room for interpretation” part. That’s her concession to the Carylers. If you want to interpret it that way, you can. BUT. Most dreams are not literal. That’s as good as saying no. Carol does not literally want to be married to Daryl and making breakfast in the kitchen. But I think the second part of what Kang said is equally important. Carol wishes for normalcy, but can’t really have it because her grief is getting in the way.

By extension, let’s appreciate the fact that Carol did choose normalcy at one point. She did choose to be married and raise a family. But not with Daryl. With Ezekiel. So if Carol can every get past her grief and embrace normalcy again, it will be with him. Not Daryl.

So why put Daryl in this dream? Why not Zeke? It would have made a lot more sense, right?

Well, it goes back to all the batshit crazy theories I’ve suggested over the past two days. I think the ONLY reason they put Daryl here instead of Zeke is because of the symbolism of it all. Am I interpreting that symbolism correctly? No way to know yet. But I think that’s why he’s there.

Because in any given scene, tptb try to accomplish sixteen things at once. And roughly three quarters of them fall into the symbolism/callback/parallel/foreshadowing category.

Just wanted to point that out. ;D Thoughts?

[negahc]

March 3rd, 2020

Our interns this semester have done great work already! We are so fortunate to have these dedicated interns, so we’d like to introduce you to them:

Carmen Villacana

“Hello! My name is Carmen Villicana. I’m from Gainesville, GA and I study history education (secondary grades) at the University of North Georgia! I plan on being a high school teacher after graduation and am super eager to learn as much history and as much about the teaching service as I can. Some of my hobbies include watching K-dramas and spending time with my dogs. Pictured is my pup Freddie and me on our way to the beach last summer.”

Ruth Moreno

“Hello! My name is Ruth Moreno, and I am a History Education major at the University of North Georgia. I am one of the Educational Programming interns. I graduated just up the road at Gainesville High School (Go Big Red!) in 2018 and will be going back to be an active volunteer at the Hub. With my degree, I plan to teach middle and high schoolers as well as advance towards earning my Master’s Degree and teaching US citizenship classes.”

We had a great group of students from Spout Springs Elementary visit us for a field trip last week. They got to meet President Abraham Lincoln in the Ivester Education Center, tour our exhibits, and participate in a hands-on corn grinding activity! It was a great example of what the History Center can offer both students and educators. 

By meeting a historic figure through Living History, the students can engage with history in a fun and memorable way. They can ask historic figures the specific questions they’re interested in and then ask an expert historian even more questions for context about the figure’s life. 

Touring our exhibits, we have new tactile-learning activities for children like building a miniature log cabin, conducting a railroad, and more. Our corn grinding activity really puts chores into perspective for the kids ;) and gives them a chance to consider how life was different in the past.

We love having students visit the History Center! The excitement that the students bring with them is contagious and makes our job so much fun. Help spread the word about our programs by telling the parents and teachers in your life about the History Center! More info on our programs at www.negahc.org.

Ida Cox was a native of Toccoa, Georgia born in 1896 who heavily contributed to the blues genre for women. As a teenager, she left her home near Rome, Georgia and toured with a minstrel show and performed at vaudeville venues in the South before becoming a blues singer.

Her repertoire includes songs like Graveyard Dream Blues, Weary Way Blues, Handy Man, and Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues. She wrote the majority of the songs and managed her own successful career. She would eventually be known as the “Uncrowned Queen of the Blues.” In 1939, she performed at Carnegie Hall which lifted her career even higher.

Ida had a stroke in 1945 which inhibited her from continuing to perform as rigorously. She lived in Knoxville, Tennessee with her daughter during this time and continued singing in the church choir. She passed away in 1967 and her legacy remains as modern singers like Francine Reed continue to sing Ida Cox’s music.

We had a Webcast every day last week in the Cottrell Digital Studio! Students of six different schools met Juliette Gordon Low, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, Lewis & Clark, and Harriet Tubman. These are among our most popular characters for Webcasts, and they are always a joy to present.

Libba Beaucham, our Director of Media & Communications, portrays Juliette Low from the year 1920 when Girl Scouts was rapidly growing in popularity (and just starting to consider cookie sales!) Libba loves sharing stories of Juliette’s childhood, especially her love for animals. She retells the story of when Juliette was so concerned for the family cow on a cold winter’s night that she took the guest room blanket and snuck out to tie it around the cow. Well, the next morning the cow was perfectly fine but the blanket was trampled in the mud!

Libba Beaucham portrays Juliette Gordon Low

Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass are portrayed by Mustapha Slack. There are parallels to the stories of King and Douglass as they were both activists fighting for freedom, both gifted orators, both faced violence, and both believers in peaceful reform. Students get to hear the personal stories from these figures' lives and are always encouraged to stand up for what they think is right.

Mustapha Slack portrays MLK Jr.

Mustapha Slack portrays Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman is portrayed by Chiara Richardson who has a great wealth of knowledge about Tubman’s life having portrayed her for several years now! Chiara is able to answer just about any question the students have for her and truly brings this heroic figure to life for the students.

Chiara Richardson portrays Harriet Tubman

This week From the Archives is the program from the 1909 Brenau Chautauqua. Chautauquas originated in 1874 in New York at Lake Chautauqua. This event would provide lectures and music to the town and give the people a sense of community. Chautauquas first appeared in Gainesville in 1897, inspiring HJ Pearce, the founder of Brenau College, to work on his own with assistance from the college.

The 1909 Brenau Chautauqua ran for 26 days in July and included hundreds of Hall County residents that volunteered their time for the event. The program book includes a history of Gainesville, updates on town history, and interesting trivia. Some trivia includes “The Pacolet Mills, at New Holland, is supplied with pure water from the boldest spring in this section of the state,” and “The finest churches that grace any city of its size are to be seen in Gainesville.” Our book is in perfect condition and is a great piece of history in our archives!

Lunch & Learn: Girl Scouts Founder Juliette Gordon Low Thursday, March 5th, 2020 from 12:00-12:45 PM Included in General Admission

Meet the Founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low (or “Daisy”) during this Lunch & Learn! Daisy will tell the story of how she founded the Girl Scouts, stories from her childhood, her experiences around the world and more.

Family Day: Women’s Work March 8th, 2020 from 1-4 PM Free! Thanks to the Ada Mae Ivester Education Center

In conjunction with National Women’s History Month the History Center take a special look at the role of Women over the last 300 years as they work at home and in public. Hands-on activities and living history interpretation will bring the work of women and the path toward equality to life on this special Family Day. Family Days are free to the public thanks to the Ada Mae Ivester Education Center.

Forum: Lost Towns of North Georgia March 10th at 7 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM) Admission is $4 or Free for Members

When the bustle of a city slows, towns dissolve into abandoned buildings or return to woods and crumble into the North Georgia clay. The remains of numerous towns dot the landscape--pockets of life that were lost to fire or drowned by the water of civic works projects. Author Lisa M. Russell has unearthed the lost towns of Georgia in her latest book, and will be sharing their stories.

Our forum series is brought to you by the Ada Mae Ivester Education Center.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program 7-8 p.m.

Admission is FREE for members, $4 for everyone else.

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Photograph of a group on a walk at Tallulah Falls, 1888. Source: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_vang_rab022

[ichhabeschwein]

Life Update

I’m pretty terrible with keeping up with this blog, huh?

Well first I’m going to give a general update on my day to day, and if you stay tuned, you’ll get to read a kind of life update/new goal of mine! Isn’t that exciting? I hope so.

“SO” (this is how most Germans start off a sentence when they’re really getting ready to do something with/for someone. The “S” is usually kind of drawn out and half-sounds like a “Z”). 

Here’s what my day to day looks like.

7:00-7:20am: Up and at ‘em. Gotta get ready, maybe pack a gym bag, scarf down some Müsli (cold oatmeal popularly eaten all over Europe, but mainly in German-speaking countries, I believe) and catch the 15-minute train to the city. (If you remember from my last post, I’ve moved in with a host family that lives in a dorf (small village) outside of the main city, Magdeburg). I watch the horses go by, oogle at the Barleber See (a lake north of Magdeburg), and show my month-ticket to the ticket checker when they inevitably come around and say, “So, ihre Fahrkarte, bitte.” Which basically means, “May I see your train ticket” (And if you don’t have one, you will have every eavesdropping commuter judge you while you get a ticket for 60 euro).

8:30am: Most mornings I go to the University gym, which is a little dungeony, since it’s in a basement with no windows, but it’s cheap, and that’s what I’m after while on my minimum-wage budget. When you walk into the locker room, you’ve got to say the classic “Guten Morgen” (Good Morning/formal greeting) to all of the fit grandmas getting ready for whatever fitness class they’re taking there. They’re a happy bunch and inspire me to stay active and create a band of fit older women when approaching my old age. 

Now, I live in former east Germany. This was the part under the soviet rule when Germany was separated into East and West after WWII. This introduced many practices and general moods to the German culture, and one of these was a general acceptance of nudity in East Germany. Enter FKK, or “Frei Körper Kultur”, which translates to “Free Body Culture.” This basically means Ossies (shhhh, I know Germans living in former East Germany don’t like this term) are pretty cool with the naked body.

Now that you’ve gotten this lil’ cultural tidbit, you probably get where I’m going with it. 

There are no barriers in the shower area keeping any one of these fit grandmas from seeing all your natural goodness when you want to wash your pits. I’ve gotten used to it and like to think that I’m a pretty open-minded person (* waves my big old Women’s Studies Minor flag *), but sometimes it’s hard to shake the culture that informs the way you interpret the world-- the main one in this situation being the EVERYTHING-INVOLVING-SEXUALITY-IS-BAD one from that one country with apple pies and stuff. And what embodies the symbol of sexuality from the US better than the naked, stereotypically-female body!! I’m beginning to rant. I’ll get back on topic, I swear. 

10:00am: So after I expose my goodies to the grannies (the alliteration was too good to pass up, sorry mom) then I just hop right on across the street from where I work out, swipe my cool, little electronic key on a pad, and let myself into the Max Planck Institute for the Dynamics of Complex, Technical Systems (MPI). An interesting thing here is that the institute is very international, which I guess shouldn’t be so surprising, since this reflects scientific research in general: very international. I’m pretty sure everyone here tries to follow Germany’s cultural rules, but because it’s so mixed, I can never be sure if the cultural practices I’m learning pertain specifically to German work-life or not. One of these practices is that everyone greets everyone, even if you don’t know them, even if you just pass someone in the hallway or if you’ve walked into a kitchen, etc. I’m not the expert on this, but this hasn’t been common practice anywhere I’ve worked in the US. (Another random side note and weird formality in Germany is that people address and give a sign off for text messages here. So, every text starts with a greeting, which depends on how formally you want to address the person, and a sign-off like “Sincerely, Megan,” for example. And this is expected even if you’re texting someone your own age!)

Other than that, I make up samples, test solubility and different crystal formation behavior of a specific substance and report to a young PhD, whose project I work on. Sometimes, I wait long periods of time on crystals that never behave how I want them to! Crystals are can be very unpredictable in their behavior, and this one behaves especially unpredictably, which is why industry has handed its issues over to us to standardize. But in this down time, I usually sit on skyscanner and plan trips to different countries, “huhu” (this is how Germans type out “haha” if they want to sound cheeky. I imagine is sounds something like “hyuhyu” in their heads, but I’ve never heard a German actually say something like this out loud.).

I share an office with a bunch of other HiWi’s (”Hilfswissenschaftler”, or research assistants that are paid through the University) and it is usually dead quiet in there. People are coding, typing furiously, reading through research articles, etc., so this isn’t exactly the place to chat. People usually gather in the kitchens on their respective floors and chat over lunch or breakfast, but no one really uses my kitchen! I’ve slowly figured out that most of the Master’s students stroll on over to the Uni Mensa (cafeteria) for lunch in packs at specific times. I’m trying to work my way into one of these lunch possies and have had some invites to come along, but remember how I said crystals are unpredictable? Yeah, I usually have to babysit them and/or work through lunch to tend to them. Yay, work social life! 

4:00 - 6:00pm: Once I decide there’s nothing left to be done for the day (this time varies depending on what was on the work-menu for the day), I usually wait until I can catch a train home (it only runs every hour). When I get home, my host dad is usually cooking dinner or cutting up our appetizer of various fruits. I give Momo, our cute lil’ miniature Bernese Mountain Dog, a couple scratches and then try to get something done before getting called to dinner. I have no idea what my host mom and host sister do beforehand, but once dinner has been called and my host dad and I are sitting at the dinner table, it takes a solid 20-30 minutes before they mosie on down the stairs, maybe slowly making a cup of tea, or checking their phones at the counter before they sit down. In Germany it is rude to start eating or even to serve food until everyone is ready to eat, so, as you can imagine, my stomach is like, “whaaaaaaaaat’s the hold up.” The TV is usually on during dinner, so there’s not usually a lot of conversation until we’re all done eating and someone turns on the news. They meckern ( “to gripe” kind of fits this translation) about politics, and this is my time to grasp some German and try to get involved in some German conversation. We’ve talked about gun control, driving laws, the western-hemispheric drug war, the (related) refugee crisis in the US (most call this the immigration crisis), the change in the cultural climate in Germany due to immigration from Turkey and refugees from Syria, etc. 

8:00 - 9:00pm: After dinner, the mom or dad takes the dog on a walk (interesting tidbit: if you own a dog in Germany, you are walking this dog 2-3 times a day, automatically. I have yet to meet a German who does not walk their dog at least 2 times a day.), and this usually signals the end of dinner. I head upstairs and usually talk to my boyfriend about travel plans, our days, etc. and then hit the hay.

NOW. I was just talking to a few friends about this, but with this schedule, I’m trying to fit in a new piece, namely, studying for the TestDAF.

What the hell is the TestDAF? 

This is a language test that evaluates how well you can wield Deutsch als deine Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language). 

Why would you want to do that, that kind of sounds like a lot of work? (What my brain says to me every time I think about taking the test, really)

Well, I want to apply for a master’s program in Germany. 

To anyone from my program reading this statement, it’s kind of like, Na klar, ich auch. But to friends and family, hey yea what’s up I might live here a little longer term. 

There is one program in Germany, specifically in Hamburg, for Cosmetic Science, and all of the classes in this program are in German. This means I have to take the TestDAF, prove that I am C1, or basically fluent, in order to apply and have my application considered. One of my huge motivators for pursuing this opportunity is that school is free in Germany. 

You read that correctly. And anyone can apply to their schools, as long as they can fluently speak the language that the program is taught in. They have small administrative fees, which also include a student transit ticket that covers all of the transit in the city the school is in (some tickets cover multiple federal states!! What a deal!!), but the semester fee is less than ($250) half the cost of cheap rent in Ann Arbor. 

So why not try?

I wouldn’t usually post about something exciting that isn’t a sure thing yet in a public space, but seeing as I haven’t started pursuing TestDAF preparation materials, etc., getting something concrete out there to hold me to my goal seems like a good motivator. 

I hope all is well on the other side of the pond for y’all! I fly back July 17th and will spend some time in NYC with my little (who I miss so much, shout out to Ryan Gentil) before I’m back in Michigan, but I hope to post a few more updates until then!

Alles Liebe

Megan