thoughts...

The first couple weeks of class here has made me really appreciate what I have at home. I love my little design community at OSU. I am so comfortable at my school. I know the professors and my classmates are like siblings. The studio is a place where I can always go and know my classmates will be there to bounce ideas off of, to distract me, to have fun while working until the wee hours of the morning.

Here it's all new. I love being surrounded by new things everyday. It is challenging to figure out the workings of a new school, city, country, especially in another language. But it's the excitement of the new and the challenge that make this experience so amazing. Going to a new school in another country is great experience, but it's the details that go into this that I have learned the most from. Learning how to get around when you speak little of someone's language, figuring out what you are buying at the grocery store, learning the bus system, understanding what is going on in class. It's being able to do these everyday things that make me feel like I can now do anything. I realized lately I have become much more comfortable here, things that were strange before go unnoticed now.

Class is going well. Today I had my favorite class, letterpress. Our jolly, grandpa, professor could not be more kind. I can imagine it is not easy to teach students who don't know your language. Which is why I really appreciate his constant effort with us. As I said before he speaks no English, but he is always speaking slowly and conscious of our understanding. It's exciting to be forced to use our German and be able to communicate with each other. I also really enjoy working with the type. Today I was in my own little world of lead letters constructing the alphabet out of 12 punkt Garamond.

It's November! Time is flying by. I plan to continue to make the most of each day here, so my calendar is filling up quickly with exciting events. This weekend we have a day trip to Wiesbaden. Next weekend Laura and Alicia are coming from Columbus. To kick off their Euro adventure, they will travel with Amanda, Holly, Joanna, and I to Prague for the weekend. Then Sunday we are coming back across the country to Köln (Cologne) for the start of Carnival. The following weekend I hope to make it to Zurich with Amanda and Grace to see Katie. Thanksgiving weekend all the OSU kids (I think 15 in Europe?) will head to Berlin to celebrate. :)

Ahh I love fall.

Amanda and I were walking back to Karlshof from our photography class today, when we saw this. We both immediately stopped to snap a few shots.

The photography class theme is Globalization. The Americans, Amanda, Craig (Wisconsin) and I, we are doing projects in almost the opposite direction. We are to find everyday things here that are completely exotic to us. It will be interesting to see perspectives from both the German and American sides. Today the Prof. was talking about typical German things that everyone had grown up with in Amanda's photo. He explained to us the word "gemütlich", a feeling word unique to the German language. It means something like comfort, coziness, warmth, and cheer, drinking wine and singing are also associated. Sounds nice :)

smiling is against the rules in Germany.

I was smiling in my other VISA photos so they wouldn't take them. Trying to be serious while taking them in the little booth was quite funny.

My Flat.

I took some photos of my flat so everyone can see where I am living. I live in student complex (Karlshof) a 10 min walk from my design school. All of the erasmus students are spread throughout the buildings in Karlshof mixed with Germans, international students and other erasmus.



Here are my flatmates at their best. :) L to R: Witali as Duffman, Russian, but has lived in Germany since he was young. He studies history and loves cheese. He usually feeds me his newest exotic cheese find during our lunch time chats. Clemens as Buttman, German. He studies media production. He moved in only recently, but is a lot of fun. Marina as some kind of super hero. German. She studies Biology. She did erasmus for a year in Madrid, Spain. She is always laughing. Katrin as poison ivy, German, Is studying Psychology. She taught English in Guatemala. She likes to draw so I think we will start taking a drawing class together on Tuesdays.

For more photos of my flat see my flickr site under Europe 2007> In Darmstadt.
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikolegramm/1756605176/in/set-72157602276004657/ )

Pumpkin carving & Letterpress. <3

Wednesday night Amanda, Jo and I introduced Ester, Rosa, David (Spain) and Holly (Australia) to the experience that is pumpkin carving. They always say they've seen things like this in the movies, but are surprised we really do them. We had 2 pumpkins and everyone took turns scooping out goop, drawing eyes, noses, mouths and carving. It was so funny to watch the newbies reactions, but I think they really enjoyed it—especially sticking their hands in the goop! For the experienced ones the smell and feel brought back so many memories—ahh the smell of childhood. Jo's flatmate was excited to be the only flat with jack-o-lanterns displayed in their window. I love 1) sharing our cultures with each other 2) that we have become such a family here.


Yesterday we went to our first letterpress class. The teacher is an old, jolly grandpa type. He speaks only German, but is quite helpful with us. It's always exciting when we have a (primitive) German conversation and we both understand each other. Because I have a little knowledge about letterpress already it was much easier to follow and understand in German than my other design classes. (We also talk numbers and points a lot and my German numbers are solid :P ) Our new friend, Dennis, also translated for us. This is the first time I felt like I was really part of the class and knew what was going on. That and my deep burning love for letterpress made yesterday a good day!! We all set our names, addresses and email addresses in lead type. Amanda, Dennis and I used the 16pt Akzidenz Grotesk Kursiv drawer. Then the Prof. put them all together to print. A few of us made mistakes.. Darmstabt instead of Darmstadt.. So we fixed them then each printed a sheet ourselves. I'm going to really enjoy this class!

Woo Hoo! I am finally caught up with what I have been up to in the past 2 months. It's a lot to digest at once, but I will have more frequent shorter posts from now on. I hope people enjoy hearing about my adventures. Feel free to leave comments, questions, whatever :) I have put a ton of new photos on Flickr, captions are coming soon. Check out the following new sets located in Europe 2007: Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Venice, Oktoberfest, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Paris, Marburg, and of course Darmstadt is continually updated.

PS Happy Belated Birthday to my sister Kayla. I have tried to call but your number doesn't work... Hope your day was fabulous and you enjoy your gift. Ich liebe dich. <3

old friends + new friends + super hero costumes=a fantatsic weekend

Last weekend Grace and Katie decided to pay us a visit. We have a really great balance of travel, fun with new friends in Darmstadt and visits from old friends also living in Europe going on here. The best of everything. Anyway, It was really wonderful to see Grace and Katie and catch up on life's adventures of the moment. I'm so glad we've all been able to keep in touch so much. VC08 makes me smile.

Saturday they joined our Erasmus group for a trip to Marburg. Marburg is what you might expect a small German town to be. Great German-esque architecture and a castle (us Americans love a great castle). The view from the castle of the city was quite nice.

Later that night, my flat mates and the 3 flats next door had their huge annual party. This year it was super hero theme. We went all out. Our flat was transformed into the dance flat. They took all the furniture out and taped the fridge and cupboards shut. Even parties are well designed ;). My favorite costumes of the night include my roommates dressed as Buttman and Duffman, but number one definitely had to be the guy dressed as Bedman. He was just so cuddly. The party was still going strong past 6 am when somehow I managed to go to bed. Good Times! My flatmates are great.

Sunday morning we showed Katie and Grace around Darmstadt a little, got some Doner Kababs (love these, they're everywhere), drank tea and conversed for hours. Amanda and I hope to get down to Zurich where Katie is interning for Designalltag soon. She promised cheese, chocolate and mountains, so I can't really resist.

So Amanda told me today that we are now at the half way point of our time here. Now that school has begun, I'm starting to get into a schedule and our calendar is filling up with events, I'm afraid time will only fly quicker from here. Not a day goes by with out the thoughts of how much I wish I could stay longer, and how much I will miss it here. It's a reminder to enjoy and live each day here to the fullest.

PS. It suddenly got freezing here! And Sarah Mac told me today she went for a long walk on the beach in Rio.

Paris, je t'aime

(Great film by the way)

Anyway, catching up on adventures here....

The weekend before last, Mom and Jon came to visit and travel Europe a little. Amanda and I joined them for a weekend trip to Paris. They arrived Friday morning, took a shower at my flat and then we headed to the train station. We had to get tickets for a later train to Paris so Amanda and I showed them around Frankfurt a little before leaving Germany.

We arrived in Paris later that night, dropped off our things and went for a night walk. Due to the overcast weather and the lights of Paris, the sky was an eerie lit grey/orange. Looking at the white/grey buildings against the sky, it was like we were in a land of sepia tone. On our walk saw the Arc d'Triumph and the Eiffel tower before making it back and passing out. Amanda and I were very excited to stay in a nice hotel. However, many places do not have 2 bed rooms, so we all squeezed on 2 twin beds. Amanda was stuck with the unfortunate position of having my feet in her face.

The next day we woke up ate breakfast and headed to the Musée d'Orsay, an impressionist museum. Again we saw several pieces we had discussed in Art History class. The impressionist and modern art periods are some of my favorite. We saw Dega, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Lautrec... I loved it. Afterwards Mom and Jon went back for a nap while Amanda and I took a stroll along the river. The architecture everywhere was gorgeous as were the bridges along the river. We got seriously side tracked when the vintage book, magazine, and poster stands popped up a long the way. There was potential for this to be very bad, but we were on a tight timeline to get to Notre Dame, so I only made a few purchases :) After climbing hundreds of tight winding stairs, the view of Paris from Notre Dame was beautiful. Unfortunately we had to hurry back to meet my parents at the Eiffel tower. On the way back we saw people our age with signs that said free hugs. We jumped at the chance, chased them down and got some hugs!

That night the semi-finals for the Rugby World Champs were going on in Paris! There was a screen on the Eiffel tower!! We watched some of the game at dinner on a TV in the restaurant. The people next to us explained the rules a little. After dinner Amanda and I went to the Eiffel tower, where thousands of people were viewing the game. Unfortunately France lost, so there was not a celebration, but it was still crazy. We found several 20 somethings playing drums and dancing on the lawn, so we joined in for a bit. It reminded me of Columbus on game day, however on a much bigger scale, rooting for your country is pretty cool!

The following day we all went to the Louvre in the morning before Amanda and I had to catch our afternoon train. We only spent a little time seeing a few paintings. I enjoyed the architecture of the Louvre and the Tuleries Gardens located just outside the most. We soaked in the warm sunshine at the gardens and grabbed a crepe below the giant farris wheel before leaving for cold Germany. It was really great to see Mom and Jon a little and to be in Paris with them :) I really loved Paris. Someday I will return and spend more time :)

Amanda's birthday was on Sunday but we celebrated Monday after returning from Paris. We had cake and gave her gifts in Karlshof (student complex) before heading out to our favorite bar, SchlossKeller, for Erasmus Monday. Some of the others got her a birthday hat which looked like a cake with candles on her head. Of course she wore this all night. I got her several exciting goodies including a children's book about colors in German. We decided she should read this during breaks at school. Erasmus Monday only happens once a month, and Amanda's birthday once a year, if you do the math, naturally this is an equation for a good time. We danced the night away and it ended with Bram and I tucking Amanda into bed ;).