I went to Germany.

Tyler - Hello, dear reader. It's been too long, but I'm back with vengeance to lay down the truths and the laws.

Let's be honest: I'm busy, you're busy, I don't want to type a lot, you don't want to read a lot. We're going to make this painless for all parties involved. I'll start:

Last week I went to:

• Germany

The transport I used to get there was:

• Bus

• Train

The cities I went to were:

• Hamburg

• Berlin

Things I saw were:

• The largest model train display on Earth

• A tea museum

• Art

• Old buildings

• Environmental things

Okay. That's the gist of this post. If you wanted the footnotes, there they are. I get it. For those of you who want more, I understand; it's easy to find one's self on the edge of your seat when dealing with matters "tea" and "art". The following is for you, edge-seat-sitter.

Let's break this down by city. Then by academic, cultural, and tourist subsets. Each has been handily labeled so you can skip what you find boring. Please enjoy!

Hamburg
March 4-6

I'll be honest, wasn't overly thrilled with this place. I don't want to rag on it though, it was probably just because it was cold and we spent a lot of time outside.

Academics

Day one we visited a place called HafenCity (Harbor City) that was essentially going through massive rezoning and construction to be a sustainable commercial and residential community. Also checked out the Municipality since Hamburg was voted Green Capital of the EU in 2011. Our final academic stop of Hamburg was Energy Mountain, a former landfill that was cleaned up and now is home to wind turbines and solar panels, powering roughly 40,000 residencies in the city.

Culture

The first night we had a traditional German dinner (read: meat and potatoes and beer). Please note: My skin is still purging all the unnecessary fats and greases from that night and I don't want to talk about it.

Do not ask me about this meal. Photo credit: Christian Graefe

 Tourist

While in Hamburg I went to the Miniatur Wunderland, a museum of very small things, which was pretty much 8 rooms filled with a giant model train. They say it was the biggest on Earth. I believe them. Also went to a World War II memorial at the site of a church that had been totally destroyed in Allied air raids circa 1943, save the bell tower which somehow survived. We went to the top of the tower which had been retrofitted with an elevator. Later I went to a tea museum and bought Pai Mu Tan White Tea. I have not yet tried it. Look at these pictures of all that stuff I just talked about:

Bald man included for scale.

Bird's eye view of Hamburg from aforementioned bell tower.

These tubes are filled with tea. I'm not sure what else you were expecting.

Berlin
March 6-9

Berlin was where it was at. We had an extra day to spend here, and it was much more of the European cultural epicenter that I expected to see.

 

Academics
We talked mostly to firms who aid and stimulate discussion between large corporations to encourage sustainability. I found some components interesting, but all in all they were very boring. I, therefore, won't perpetuate this extend this apathy to text form. I will tell you about a quaint community garden we went to that had opened its own café on site. It was also completely moveable; everything was planted in crates. This was in case they lost the land for some reason in the future. I enjoy the communal stuff much more than the business stuff. We also went to a sustainable community that's goal was to create a living, working, education, and recreation site all in one place. They had their own mini outdoor amphitheater, educational facilities, theater, bakery, etc. I dig.



Culture
I went to a couple museums, one of Greek and Roman architecture, and the other of art, with 19th century realism, impressionism, and romanticism. They were two of five museums on this small plot of land surrounded by water, aptly named Museum Island. I also got to go to the top of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, see the city from one of its highest points there, and then eat a three-course meal. I accidentally had a small knife on me, which was briefly confiscated, but don't worry, I got it back afterwards. Security hassled me though. I remember learning about the place in 10th grade AP European History. CONNECTIONS.

Tourist
We went to the Holocaust Memorial, finished as recently as 2005. Also went on an "alternative walking tour" of the city where we saw a bunch of graffiti complaining about the rich and the government, etc. etc. Also got to walk along the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall. Other than that, see "Culture". These two really go hand-in-hand and should not be separated, but I'm too far along to want to go back and change anything. By the way, if you've read this far, let me know in a comment on here or on facebook, because that's just impressive, and I want you to understand my appreciation. It will be our little secret. But we can't have you just saying you read this far, because then fellow readers will be like, "Huh, what is this guy talking about with this comment?" and then go back and look for THIS VERY STATEMENT. So please, in your comment, after your remarks on how I'm a great writer, just give me your favorite number. Or any number, for that matter. Thanks so much. I admire you. Now look at this picture I took in Berlin:

The Reichstag. No, we're not in Mordor, it's just night.

I have nothing more to say. This was long. I'll aim not to put either of us through this again. Thank you.

Being for the Benefit of WST251

Colin -- Midterms are over. I finally am able to kick back do the month old laundry and relax apply for internships. I hear also that Western would like a bit about my coursework here and how it relates to my area of study. So here goes:

Most importantly, I'm not a Western major, I'm a minor. If explaining your future degree to people feels uncomfortable, no worries, it can get just a little weirder. Really, I'm a painting and printmaking major, with the School of Fine Arts. I joined Western with their first LLC, Activism and Engaged Learning. After deciding that my ideal art-with-everything-else degree would have been a six year journey, I chose my current path, which keeps things in check.

So anyway, an art major, interdisciplinary studies minor goes to Italy. I'm doing a semester in Florence, with Studio Art Centers International (SACI), an English-speaking program, because suck it Italian. With three studio art courses and two art history courses, I'm basically enrolled everything I would take normally this time back home. They are:

Advanced Drawing - Upper level art courses have you creating self-designed projects and approaching conceptualization. We have to justify our work with meaning, rather than simply draw attractive still lifes (I hate you, still lifes). As a supplement to our drawing, we're reading Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. We consider themes from that story and use them to construct drawings based on those concepts. Drawing works as both a visual exercise (for preparatory work, warm-ups, etc.) and an art in it's own right. I use just about any medium here, with lots of charcoal and ink.

Intermediate Painting - Like my drawing course, intermediate painting has us moving away from very technical projects (those still lifes...) into more conceptual work. Since this is an intermediate class we don't have total freedom; each project has a framework to work within. I mostly use oil paint here.

Beginning Serigraphy - Serigraphy is just silk screening, or screen printing, however you prefer. That's how you print t-shirts. Because it's an intro course, and because of the professor's teaching style, this is the simplest class I'm taking. We learn the process and have fun. That's it really.

Women in the Arts in Italy - The class that exercises my flabby reading and writing skills. My required reading (and my supplemental and 'suggested' reading) is as much as I've read in all of my time at Miami, seriously. Art history can be like that I guess. We examine women as both subjects of art and as artists themselves around the time of the Renaissance.

Contemporary European and Italian Art  - There are three articles we have to read in this class about art in the modern era, each about critical issues that have affected the art world. Every day we review and analyze modern artists and place them in the context of these issues.

Since this is for Western, I'll explain how I make all this relevant to the program, or rather, how I make the program relevant to my major. The courses I take for the minor are mostly the same WST-labelled classes that majors take. Just as individualized majors are expected to use the skills gained in those classes to pursue their degree, I am expected the same without the guidance of the major. For me, the research and writing projects performed in Western courses have been an influence on the way I study art and artists. I now think of artists not as people with miraculous talent and sudden inspirations, but creatives who are highly analytical.  I use the same research skills to consider my own art, and explain better to others why did what I did. I use these skills to make better art by always questioning my reasons for making it. For me, what I apply from Western, at home and abroad, is the need to avoid lazy thinking and to the practice of being self-critical.

That's all, I'll go back to posting pictures of Italy.

Studying Over on the West Coast

Chelsea speaking:  So, following suit I figure I'll write a little about myself and my life out here in San Francisco and how it's applying to my major and my future.  First.  I guess a little bit about my majors:

I call my major "Young Adult Literature and Adolescent Development" which basically means I'm taking a lot of English and creative writing classes, along with psychology, sociology, and family studies courses that either focus on language or, you guess it, adolescent development.  My second major (or as of right now it's a co-major) is from the Interactive Media Studies department (if you haven't heard of them click here and check out their department's site -- even if you don't major, I honestly highly suggest an IMS minor, I've learned so much from being part of their program, if you ever want to talk about that (or the Individualized Studies program) my email is foughtcm(at)muohio(dot)edu).  My co-major is a focus in social media and commercialization.  Basically that means I've slightly gone around the FSB and have learned quite a bit about social media marketing and by being in San Francisco I'm learning a lot about entrepreneurship in a hands-on type of way (and I think that's about ten times better than sitting in a classroom all day).

So.  Now that that's out of the way... classes, what I'm doing... and why does it matter.  Well, if you even made it through that last paragraph, I applaud you.  I tend to write a lot.  It's a problem, but since I'm a writer I forgive myself and edit later.  Anyway.  Classes:

Internship:  I'm at an internship 4 days a week, and my day goes generally from 7AM - 7:30PM.  I work in Silicon Valley, if you don't know what/where that is... it's south of San Francisco and it's where Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and other big companies started.  I'm at a web optimization company called Torbit.  We focus on making websites faster by optimizing its content.  I honestly had no idea what web optimization was until this internship, so just from that aspect I learned a lot.

Altogether there are 7 of us working there (two of us are interns), so we're all in one room.  I'm their social media person.  I control their Twitter, Facebook, and occasionally write blog posts when asked.  I've also recently been helping out with sales leads, and I'm in charge of a marketing campaign.  So.  It's been a blast, and a lot of hands on experience.  Since we're all in the same room I've not only learned about my job and how to do things, but a bit about sales, coding thought processes, as well as just big business decisions startups have to go through.  It's basically amazing, and I love it.

Social Media Presence:  That's basically the best title I can come up with for this class.  It focuses on presenting ourselves in a professional manner.  We had to come up with a "personal branding" - mine is YA books, transmedia (stories taking place over multiple platforms), social media, etc.  Basically we developed/fixed our LinkedIn accounts (they matter, seriously, people look at them... so if you have one make sure it shows how you want to be presented to future employers, and if you don't you should take the time to make one, it doesn't take long), Twitter accounts, and created a blog where we write on stuff related to our brand.  Here's mine:  Whale of Another Color

Social Media Marketing:  This is kind of a crucial class, and it's stuff I've been able to take into my internship and sound at least a little more knowledgable than the average person.  Basically we talk about a ton of different social media platforms (going in I had to sign up for like ten different sites I had never even heard of before).  For instance we talked about Pintrist last time - it's getting a lot of attention right now due to how much traffic it seems to be forwarding to retailers and thus causing sales.  It's actually really cool.

IMS 440:  This is the one class I don't know the sort of title of, and basically for us it's an independent project (normally it's a class project developing something for a company).  The reason it's an individual project for us out here is because we're each developing our own startup idea.  So, I have to come up with something that I believe is a good business opportunity.  We'll see how this goes - I only had one vague idea, and then I met with a startup yesterday (Coliloquy) and they're doing exactly what I wanted to do.  Basically they're made of awesome.  So... now I need to go back to the drawing board, and totally I'm okay with that, haha.  I'm sure I'll figure something out.  I'm surrounded by startups and entrepreneurial spirit.

Startup Visits:  There's a better description of this class, but basically it's just the class going and visiting different companies and getting to know about them.  Their startup culture, their history, how the people in charge got to where they are... everything.  We've been to Google, Glu, GlobalMojo, Wildfire, Uber, Grockit, and Twilio (if you're at all interested in startups that's a good spattering of different companies to check out).  We will be visiting Ubisoft, Yahoo, eBay, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, and (hopefully) Facebook.  These are just the ones I know about.  It's sort of a surprise every week as to what companies we'll be visiting.

Now. What do these things do for my future?  How to they influence my life?  Quite literally all of them fulfill my co-major requirements, but more importantly they all fulfill my interests and have inspired me as to what I may want to be doing with my future.  If you take the time to check out my blog I linked to earlier, you could read about how I want to marry my interestes in young adult literature and social media together.  Basically out here I'm getting hands on experience in social media marketing, and learning a whole lot more in the process.  This was an opportunity I couldn't miss out on, and I'm so glad I'm out here.

Okay. So. While I'm doing all that on the weekends I go exploring.  Here are some pictures from last weekend to wrap up this really, really long post (sorry, everyone):

This is the Sutro Baths before 1906.

This is the Sutro Baths now.

Shipboard Life

I took this picture and now it's appropriate to my life.

What is my life?

Emily here.  I've heard through the grapevine named Audree that some WST 251ers are going to be reading this blog, so here's to you... enjoy. 

So a little about my life? This semester I'm sailing around the world on a converted cruise ship.  I have a really hard life. I only have class on A days... so every other day all I have to do is work for 2 hours.  And usually my work consists of me playing on Microsoft Paint.  I've gotten pretty good at it.  Classes can be fairly intense, but that's mainly because there's so much to cram in in a short amount of time.  

The shipboard community is great--imagine all of your life in one place.  Okay maybe that's not so great.  Rumors spread like crazy and there's always drama, but if you're not involved, you just sit back and watch it unfold.  Dinner and a show.  Speaking of dinner, it's pretty terrible, but I'm still sailing around the world, so whatever.  

 We circumnavigate the globe, stopping at different countries along the way.   I chose Semester at Sea because I'm indecisive.  I've always wanted to travel the world and I couldn't settle on one country, so I chose a bunch of countries.   It's also a really cool way to compare how these different places have responded to similar events in their histories. 

I can't believe we've reached midterms already.  And yes, even though I'm on a ship, I have midterms.  And a presentation.  Better yet, we're rounding the Cape of Good Hope, which means rough seas.  I'm talking 20 feet. 

That brings me to my Western major.  I like to call it "Development of Culture and Society Through Imperialism," and it combines history, anthropology, political science, international studies, etc. etc. 

While we're onboard, we take classes.  It was pretty easy to find courses that fit well with my major.  I'm currently enrolled in four: 

Global Studies

Everyone takes this class.  It's just a comparative class, and it's very vague, but it hits a lot of the main points about each country we visit.  I guess I can compare it to a history class, but there isn't anything too specific.

 

Human Rights and Ethics in World Politics

This class is a lot of fun.  We talk about the issues in each of the countries before we arrive so we have an idea of the current political and social situations. 

 

Anthropology of the Oceans

We talk about how different cultures view the ocean and how the idea of the seas has changed over time.  It's probably my most interesting class because we float on the ocean each class and it's cool to look out the window and see the subject. 

 

Language and Globalization

This is a linguistically based anthropology class.  We've learned a little bit of linguistic theory, but focus on the languages in each country we visit.  Sometimes we learn some phrases and words, but usually we read about how the languages of the countries relate to one another (in many of the places we visit, the colonial language is the official language).

 

While in port, we have FDPs.  These are required field trips for our classes.  It's mandatory that we sign up for two per class, but they're usually interesting so it's okay.  If we aren't scheduled for anything, we're free to do independent travel, which is great because we can pretty much do what we want as long as we're responsible about it and it's no illegal.  Speaking of illegal, someone got kicked off today.  No idea why, but it was probably because she did something illegal.  Why you would even risk that, I have no idea.  People = dumb.  Remember that.

 

You probably want pictures, so here.

That's my room before it was messy.

 

Mosquito nets in Ghana.

 

Marty and I playing rugby at the University of Cape Town.

I don't remember if I'm supposed to talk about anything else.  Also sometimes email doesn't work, and that's how I've been blogging... so... maybe nobody will see this anyway.