Im in Cologne

I got to Cologne yesterday morning and it has been quite an adventure. Right after I checked into my hostel room I met a really nice guy named Yusef who is Moroccan but lives in Spain... the only problem was that we didn{t understand each other because he didn{t speak english well I can{t speak spanish. We ended up finding a common language in French, so for two days now I{ve been practicing my rusty french vocabulary all day long. We{ve been walking around together and today we walked all the way along the rheine to a sculpture garden, and then doubled back to several large cathedrales and finally parted so that i could go to the kunstmuseum Koln. This museum is famous for its huge collection of modern art, and i was amazed. Ive never seen so many picassos, richters, kirschners, beckmanns, chagalls, .... on and on you name it they had it. they had an incredible balthus show, and i saw the coolest installation art by claes oldenburg... i saw my first ever sculpture by christo and painting by dali, ive saw so many artists i never even knew existed. lets not forget the video by william kentridge...wow! sorry this is a lot of name dropping... the building itself was also incredible, it was a modern art-deco interpretation with tons of stairways and secret rooms and little hallways. by the time that i finished looking around it had been 3 hours and i had a huge headache... so i went south of the museum to meander around the aldtstadt, or old town, and i marveled at the old german architecture and everything smelled like sausages.

going back to yesterday i visited the Dom Koln, which is the largest cathedrale in germany. i have pictures but i can{t post them right now... the bell tower on the dom (which i got to climb up) was the tallest building in europebefore the eiffel tower. construction on the building started in 1248, but it wasn{t finished until the mid 16th centry because they kept running out of money. the exterieur is covered in soot, so its very ominous from the outside... there{s also a shrine in the cathedrale that is devoted to the 3 kings who went in search of jesus when he was born... legend says that they are buried underneath the shrine.. but who knows?

tomorrow i am leaving to either bonn or aachen. bonn is a large city further south of cologne and is the birthplace of beethoven. aachen is right on the border with the netherlands and belgium, so if i end up there i will be riding my bike into both countries. i haven{t decided yet. but im gettig very very excited to watch some 6-day action, and then its back to school for me!!!!

au reviour...

Germany...

(Im writing on a Swedish computer, so all of my y's are going to be z's)

Uneventful flight, eventful afternoon trzing to get to Stefans apartment. I arrived at Niederrhein airport and got on a bus to Essen. Our trip was slightlz diverted because the German authorities discovered another undetonated bomb from WWII somewhere along the highwaz hours before I arrived. Therefore, all traffic routes around the area were shut down as thez tried to safelz recover it. I guess that this happens somewhat often, so after getting through massive traffic jams it was smooth rolling with no concerns all the waz to the Hauptbahnhof in Essen. There, I was dropped off with the other passengers and soon realiyed that I had no idea of where I was. I had tried to google map the station before I left, with no such luck. But after talking to three different people, I finallz got a taxi driver to give me directions to Stefans flat.

Walking through Essen was an interesting experience. Yet again, the traffic drove in a different direction. The streets were verz clean and the sidewalks were paved in beautiful cobble designs. Trains run right down the middle of the street, and wires hang permanentlz in the air above the tracks, suspended in between the first and second stories of buildings. The architecture is somewhat more reserved than Glasgow, and I have zet to see an elaboratelz carved stone building. All this being said, I havent zet explored Essen to the extent that I have Glasgow. But Essen is a much smaller citz, and much quieter as well. It was a welcome change.

Zesterdaz night I went out to a Turkish restaraunt, and had an interesting time trzing to order Turkish food that had been translated into German. Thankfullz, with Stefan's help, I made a good choice.

Todaz I went on the three hour long bike ride along the Ruhr river. There were all sorts of interesting ducks that I had never seen before, along with swans, grez herons and mallards. I have NEVER seen so manz people riding bikes before, and everz single one of the guzs who passed us looked incrediblz fit. I had a lot of fun just cruising and looking at the scenerz...

Tomorrow I'm riding a bike to Dusseldorf to visit some museums and then plan to ride to Koln to do lots of sightseeing...

Next Friday!!!

I will be here

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Emergency

Today was our final formal day in printmaking for the term. We a wee last day critique. It was a wonderful three hours of talking about what we've accomplished and struggled with over the past weeks. However, structured conversation usually digresses after the first hour, so we ended up talking about pumpkins.

Everyone who is paying attention to their calender knows that Halloween is just around the corner. Obviously, one of the main iconic images of this spectacular holiday is the pumpkin. But the Glaswegian pumpkin is mysteriously absent on the doorsteps and windowsills of the city. This afternoon I found out why. The pumpkin fields in Scotland didn't get enough sunlight this summer, and the pumpkins failed to turn orange due to decreased UV levels. Because various stores and buyers are afraid that no consumer will buy a green pumpkin, the poor green ones are sitting in a warehouse being blasted with UV light to try and make them change hues before the holiday.

Are they taking a piss? (Glaswegian for, "Are they kidding?!!!") What a waste of money! Bring on the green pumpkins!

Ich verstehen nicht Deutch...

Oh dear, I feel like I've got a giant clock ticking on my back. I've got a plane flight to Germany at 7:15am on Friday... and I've just realized that I don't speak German. Now this may not be a surprise to most people, but for some strange reason I thought that my German language skills were more proficient than they actually are. Simple requests like, "I need a train ticket to Essen" won't be so easy anymore, because I don't know the words to say it!!!

I've only traveled in countries where I've had no problem speaking with the locals. In France I was able to get by reasonably well. There was only one incident in a small town in Normandy where I had trouble. I was asking for stamps, and I think that the lady asked me what kind, but she said it so quickly I couldn't understand a word.

Here are a few german words I can say:

ein Farrahd - a bicycle
ein Flugzeug - a plane
bier - beer

I think thats sufficient...

I can also experiment with Ich bin (I am...) and wild arm gestures or facial expressions until I am able to make my point clear. Actually, I'm not totally screwed. I can say that I don't understand, that I can't speak German well, and can make a mild attempt at asking for directions.

Even though I'm slightly anxious about the language barrier, I've got a lot of cool museum hopping planned. Cologne has a Kathe Kollwitz museum and renowned modern art collection, Essen is home to the Red Dot design Center, and the Kunstmuseum in Bonn looks spectacular. Duesseldorf also has some interesting attractions, including some Frank Gehry creations. I never realized what a modern art hub Germany is, and although most of the major attractions are in Berlin or Munich, I think that I've still got plenty to work with. If I have a little extra time, I may try to make my way to the Bauhaus epicenter in Dessau.

The only thing that could put a damper on this adventure is my sore throat. Tonsillitis is swarming through the Margaret MacDonald house, and I've got a throat that hurts... I'm crossing my fingers...

In search of Crow Road

I've heard many things about Crow Road. Today I decided that I was going to go find it and see what all the fuss is about. I started out around 9am with my pockets jammed full of food and extra water, expecting to get desperately lost. I'd looked on a google map before leaving, but I don't have a printer here so I couldn't print it out. To complicate matters further, most roads in the country are not marked, so you ride blindly and hope for the best. Luckily I knew half the route, and I figured that Crow Road wound up the hill pictured below.As I rolled into Milton of Campsie, I stopped half a dozen times to ask where the road took off from. Disguised as a residential street, I finally found it, and it was wonderful. As it turns out, Crow Road ascends for almost 2 miles before descending about the same distance. Even though you can't really tell, there were streams and waterfalls in the glen on the left side, and a sharp hill on the right side. The hillside was dotted with ancient wells that were marked by stone slabs and carefully carved with a description of date and creator. I chased a guy up the hill for quite awhile, and I got far too excited and really started to feel the weight session that I did yesterday. At the top of the climb I caught up with him and we descended together. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures on the descent. The scenery was spectacular, but I was having too much fun going 35+ to take out my camera and stop. I know I'll be there again soon anyways.
This is happy Stephanie climbing Crow Road. (I've got a glove in my mouth.)
It ended up being an accidental four hour ride. Yahoo!!!!!!

A walk in the park.

I feel like I haven't put enough images up. This is a corner of the print studio. The windows look over Glasgow city center and lots and lots of trees.
This is the street that I live on. They have a really strange one-way system going on, so I never know which way I should be going when I'm on my bike.

This is a major intersection a two minute walk away from my apartment. I took this picture standing on a bridge that goes over the main highway, the M8. The pointed tower is the distance is part of Glasgow University - I walk there several times a week to use the gym.
This is part of Kelvingrove Park. I sat on that bench for awhile today drawing the fountain. Needless to say it was fairly difficult. The large building in the background is Kelvingrove Museum. Right now, of all things, they have a retrospective exhibit on Kylie Minogue's life. She is SO huge over here right now - even though her hey day was in the 80's and early 90's. I've heard that the highlight of the show are a golden sparkling pair of hot pants that Kylie wore during a music video... hmm....

Stuff

I love riding in the morning here in Scotland. The traffic isn't nearly as bad, so there are a significantly smaller amount of motorists pulling bizarre 180's in the middle of the road. The weather was freezing, but I got to see the sun rise (at about 8am) and there was a thin layer of frost on the fields. And the first thing I thought of when I saw the frost was trying to train for x country skiing on frosted fields at St. Olaf a couple of years ago. I thank Coach Brochman for these wonderful memories...

By the time I got to the Campsies (the hills) I had to turn around. My hands were freezing - so to keep myself warm I started pedaling as fast as I could. I passed a field of black sheep, an official bowling green, and rode through an area that smelled like a distillery. The really fun part about riding this particular route is that its all uphill on the way out, downhill back. I was absolutely flying, and I got speed-addicted so I started racing cars. Too much fun.

I got back, showered and headed to class. I've got two seminars on Thursday afternoon. One on Post-Modern and Contemporary Art and the other on Philosophy and Aesthetics. Post-modern is my favorite, probably because it's slightly ridiculous. The whole thing is filled with phrases like "conceptualizing conceptualization" and "mediating mediation" and the lecturer rants about how the artist is "dead" but not really dead, the artist just isn't an "artist" like he used to be. The class goes around and around in circles, and the "theories" never get to the bottom of anything, or specify any coherent meaning. So I sit in the magenta-painting auditorium and get nicely confused, and walk out feeling really smart because somehow I feel like I've connected with what our prof is talking about. The more likely case is that I've just lost touch beyond reason - but its still great because I'm getting lots of great ideas for sculptures! Oh, art in the dark.

Another adventure - I dyed my hair a couple of days ago, and today I got it cut. The salon was way cool, you got complimentary hot chocolate and candy. I was unable to resist and ate about 500 candies while I was waiting for my friend Cara to finish. We then decided to make a grocery run, so we shuffled off with our pretty hair to Lidl's. We bought WAYYY too much stuff to carry home, but had to do it anyways. So Cara carried a huge bag, about half the size of her body, and I carried everything else: a backpack with a case of beer, two bags on either hand, a jug of milk and tennis shoes hanging from the pack straps. We looked ridiculous and had to stop every block to re-adjust our purchases... it was funny, you had to be there.

And... In one week I leave for Germany! First stop, Essen, which lies inbetween Dortmund and Dusseldorf. I'm going to visit museums, ride bikes, watch racing, eat sausages and chocolate and enjoy german beer. Yay!!!

Upon Request...

This is my first lithograph, I completed it the first day of printmaking...which was yesterday... Sorry that the angle is skewed- I just lifted up my camera and shot it, very sophisticated.Well, I think that I've eaten too much curry, because I've got a massive headache. Either that, or printmaking is very hard on my eyeballs. Since starting our two week intensive yesterday I've spent about 16 hours in the studio, and even though it hasn't really hit me yet, I've been learning a lot. In fact, I've decided that I should become a printmaker. There's something so comfortable about being in the studio among the huge antique presses, fun rollers, messy inks and smelly smelly chemicals. I got to play with a bunch of ajax today, it looked like snow... The view from the studio is amazing. We overlook Glasgow city center, and the whole room is always flooded with a clear, overcast light. I can see the southern hills rolling in the distance. It makes me want to ride my bicycle - but the weather definitely doesn't. Today it rained, then the rain started floating (the rain was trying so hard to be snow, but it just couldn't make it...) then there was sun and a rainbow...

I'm finally starting to get the hang of things around here. I've learned that wearing a scarf and wool jacket is a necessity, and I have now amassed a small collection of pashminas. I've learned that everyone takes tea time, but you are allowed to drink hot chocolate during the scheduled 30 minute break. But when I do drink tea, I've learned that English tea is best very milky and with several sugars and it is absolutely essential to eat shortbread with it. I've also noticed that some English authors are very depressing (cough cough, Emily Bronte).

It's almost time for bed, but I just spent the last hour discussing music, Jenny Salvo, Lucien Freud and Egon Schiele with a English friend. I really should be doing some late night brushing up on post-modern and contemporary art theory, but that's not due until Thursday... There's some party chatter outside my window and an Irishman in the hall. The leaves are falling, the ground is always wet. My life? Yep!

Pictures!

This is the inside of one of the rooms at Scone Palace...
This is the shepherd starting to shear the sheep. It is not dead, it is relaxing, I promise.
This is Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. See... no Nessie!

Marathon weekend = marathon post

On Friday morning I left Glasgow on a coach bus and headed to Inverness. The trip was organized through my study abroad agency, so it was jammed packed with every tourist activity you could possibly imagine. The day started with a visit to Scone Palace - pronounced "Scoon" (because you eat scones, not palaces...hahahahhaha!!!...). We lined up for a really interesting falconry display on the palace grounds. Falconry, or pleasure hunting with trained birds of prey, has been a hobby of English/Scottish aristocracy for centuries. The coolest part of the whole display was when the falconer brought out the largest owl I've ever seen in my life, and threw a piece of meat up in the air for the owl to catch. It swooped in with both its feet, wings spread, and snatched the meal right out of the air, and then flew off into a tree to eat it. By landing in the tree, the owl disrupted a family of crows, who started attacking the owl - then the crows called for reinforcements so the owl eventually was forced out of the tree by about 50 swarming crows... it was like the Hitchcock film Birds...

We took a tour of the palace, and the decoration theme tended to center around the importance of the visit of Queen Victoria in the late 19th century. The furniture, dishes, silk wall dressings and various other decorations were bought and designed especially for her one night stay at Scone. Forty-two scottish kings were also crowned there - and a large monument marks the place where the 'Stone of Destiny' used to lie. Unfortunately the English stole the stone, then the Scots stole it back, and so on, until the stone ended up in Edinburgh Castle, where it is today.

And by far the coolest part of the day was when we visited a working sheep-dog farm. The discipline that the master has over his dogs was amazing. A certain pitch and pattern of whistle issued from the master to the dog told the dog where to go and what do to. So the master whistled twice, and the dog disappeared into the hills to round up the sheep. Soon, the dog was back, moving the sheep along in formation. The master whistled a certain pattern so that the dog would slow down. He whistled some more and the dog stopped. He did some more whistling and the dog knew to herd the animals to the left, but while walking slowly so that the sheep didn't become scared. And when the master whistled, the dog's response was instantaneous. He showed us how the dogs could separate 2 sheep from the entire bunch and keep the rest of the group intact... and on and on. Then the shepherd picked one of the sheep from the group and started shearing it. I got to help shear the sheep!!! Freaking cool!!!

We stayed the night in Inverness, a small town in northern Scotland. The next morning we took the bus to the Cairngorm Mountain Ski Center and got to enjoy the scenery. One thing that is really interesting about being at outdoor centers in Scotland is that they actually acknowledge global warming as fact. The debate that centers around it in America is nonexistent here - and it's refreshing to be in an environment where its existence isn't fought. The guides told us that they are having problems with new species of animals, particularly hares, living at altitudes that they previously were unable to inhabit. The hares are consequently messing up a little ecosystem niche and will probably wipe out some plant species that reside in the area. They also told us that in the winter the winds can get up to 170 mph at the summit. Yikes!

We then rushed on to take a tour of a distillery, where I tried some Scotch whiskey and learned a whole bunch about alcohol and whiskey's history in Scotland.

Then today I went to a battlefield, took a cruise on Loch Ness, but didn't see any monsters (not enough whiskey I suppose) visited another castle, and drove through the Western highlands again through Glencoe. Uff da.

I've been in Scotland for 6 weeks already, and the time seems to be flying by. I know that in another 8 weeks school will be over, and my time in Europe will also be drawing to a close. This next week I start printmaking at school, which I will be working on for the next two weeks. Then I'm flying to Germany and possibly venturing into the Czech Republic while I'm there... or I could go to Luxembourg, Belgium or the Netherlands. I'll take votes...

Peace!!!
Steph

Ich liebe Deutchland und Lidl!!!!

Today I successfully booked a airplane ticket to Germany to visit my friend! I'm leaving the end of October to travel for nine days in mainland Europe. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but I don't care. Traveling alone, despite being a little bit stressful, is always an adventure.

This afternoon I was not in such a good mood. After being frustrated with my art projects for the better part of the morning, I was ready to take a break and decided to find a discount grocery store called Lidl's. The food is exorbitantly priced here no matter where you get it - and the products are teeny-tiny (unless its made of chocolate). I've been training too much, so with my metabolism I can't make 30 dollars worth of food last more than 3 days. It's pathetic.

When I left to find Lidl's I didn't know exactly where I was going, so I got lost. After a good 30 minutes of extra walking I finally found the store. The carts were stacked outside, so I tried to pull one out, and realized that they were all locked together. I tried yanking on the chain, twisting, pulling, and the cart wouldn't budge. So I ran around the store trying to find someone to help me. After looking like a complete idiot for a good amount of time a nice woman informed me that you have to put a pound in the cart to use it, then when you lock it back up it gives you your coin back. Sheesh!

Shopping was also an adventure. Lidl is a German company, so all of their food labels are from Germany or in some other language I can't read or understand. I took a risk and bought something that looked like curry sauce and was written in what looked like arabic. (I ate some tonight and survived! Hooray!) In addition, OVER half the store is devoted to stocking sugary biscuits, candy and cookies. I the UK has a serious addiction to bad food, you wouldn't believe how cheap candy is compared to bananas (like half the cost).

At the check out, the cashier thought I was nuts - I didn't know that you had to buy plastic bags to carry your food out in, and he had also never seen a credit card that looked like mine... he kept staring at me like I was some from other planet, and also made a comment that I looked confused and didn't know what the heck I was doing...

By that point, I didn't care. I walked home, put everything away and got on my bike. By a twist of fate I met a really really nice guy who told me about some close mountain biking areas, so I found one venue and rode around for awhile. It was also a dog park, so I got chased by some friendly hounds. Then I crashed and WHACKED my knee out really hard.

But I was ok and made it back to the Margaret Mac. House before it got pitch-black.

Well, that's all folks!!!

Studio, studio, studio

I spend a lot of time here, its my little home away from home. Its been a week, and I've managed to start on every you see in my space. So far I've "stolen" - or rather 'asked and taken' -random parts of the Mackintosh building so that I can paint or draw on them. The GSA has been named as a Cultural Heritage site, so there's a whole bunch of construction going on and there are spare things lying around everywhere. If they sit there for more than a week I ask someone and adopt it into my studio!This is the upstairs gallery - there's a really cool faculty show going on right now, but I really like the giant flower tree made out of paper mache... Please notice the wonderful replication of winged victory in the background, I like to think of this gallery as part of the Louvre...
And for all your fellow plunderers - I found out today that on Wednesday nights, everyone in Glasgow puts stuff outside that they don't want, and you can just take it. It's basically institutionalized dumpster diving!

Talk to you later,
Steph

Holy wow.

Wow, I am very very tired. I woke up this morning 8:30am to meet a local group of riders for a 50 mile ride. Five minutes before I left I realized that I didn't have any proper cycling waterbottles, so I dug some out of the recycling, washed them REALY REALLY well, filled them and took off. I met them at a huge roundabout around 35 minutes outside of Glasgow. It turned out to be a really nice group of masters riders who thought that I was kind of crazy for trying to ride with them on a mountain bike - but whatever, better workout, you know...

We started a rotating paceline and I got to know all the guys a little bit better. It was kind of hard to understand some of them with their thick Scottish accents - and to give you an idea some of them actually do aggressively roll their R's (like fat Bastard in the austin powers movies, im not kidding). But I learned quite a bit about the area and now I have even more information to go get even more lost on Glaswegian roads!

I could keep up just fine on most roads, but we started to hit super hilly areas when we got deeper into the Trossachs and I began to have a bit of trouble. So I decided to turn around early with some guys who are racing tomorrow, ended up kind of bonking on the hilliest part of the ride. oops. They were nice enough to wait for me and we just rolled through picturesque Scottish countryside, dotted with white sheep and heather...sounds like a joke, its not. Then it started drizzling - another Scottish cliche, but absolutely true, and several times I almost got hit by hedges that line the sides of these tiny tiny roads. Next time I go out I'm bringing my camera.

When I finally got back into Glasgow I ate almost everything I had in my refrigerator, and now I have to go shopping. I'm going to buy a HUGE bar of chocolate.

love,
steph

Doom and Bikes...

This afternoon we had a giant painting meeting in studio 21. I thought that they were going to give us a nice little talk about the GSA like they have normally been doing... but I was wrong. A woman that I didn't recognize was standing in the corner. She wore a long dark skirt that draped over her large frame and a matching knit sweater thing that was pinned together by a large mother of pearl square brooch. Her hair was gray, and cropped short to her ears with the standard artsy-fringe brushing the tops of her eyebrows. She introduced herself as Sam, and firmly stated that Sam was NOT short for Samantha - it was a name that she gave herself at 12 years of age because she HATED the name her parents gave her. ("And DONT ask what my real name is, because that will NEVER be said out loud.")

Then she launched into a manifesto about how someone told her in art school that she should NEVER have enough time in a day to do everything she wanted to - and if she did she was wasting time. She expected us to TREASURE our time at art school, because there would never again be a time in our lives where we had all day everyday to make art. She said that she expected all students to be in the studio eight hours a day, and if she had it her way it'd be twelve... Sam continued along these lines until she had thoroughly intimidated all of us, read a passage from a book about living, breathing and drinking art, and then handed us a written paper called "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" by Bruce Mau. It listed all sorts of pointers, or rather, orders on how to grow as an artist:

#2. Forget about good
#5. Go deep
#7. Study
#8. Drift
#12. Keep moving
#13. Slow down
#14. Don't be cool
#18. Stay up late
#25. Don't clean your desk
#34. Make mistakes faster
#37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it...

and so on, there are 43 of them, all with accompanying descriptions.

Then Sam said that she was going to be doing individual and group critiques with us on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Welcome to the Slaughterhouse, Sam is going to rip us apart. (!)

(im not scared, im actually excited)

More news:
I got my bike tonight - put it together all by myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THEN I WENT RIDING IN THE RAIN!!!! tomorrow im getting lost in Glasgow in the AM - on a bicycle!

love,
steph

Don't ask me, I don't know...

This is what my papier mache looks like up close:
This was the supposed start of an explosion of artistic creativity at the GSA:
This is what it turned out like after one day.
I don't know where it came from - but to me it looks like a mother wearing a top hat, holding a raggity anne doll smashed together a la robert motherwell...

This evening I was reincarnated as a fish.

I bought a membership to the local gym and went swimming. I soon learned that unlike cycling, swimming takes place in a pool and a person cannot breathe while underwater. So I almost panicked halfway through a length, and then I remembered to breathe. Hmmm...

Also this morning I decided to make papier mache. I found a recipe online that said that you could make it by boiling flour and water, so I tried it. Long story short, it didn't make papier mache, it made something that looked like mashed potatoes. But I decided to go to studio with it anyways and ended up smearing it all over a painting board... it ended up looking quite like wax.

It was a grand failure. I'm very proud of it.

Goodnight all.

Steph