First things first: English is not the universal language. In America we grow up with this notion that the rest of the world speaks English. This is a lie.
Category: Western Europe
A Two-Minute Peak Into the Mind of Someone In Holland During Carnival
That’s a church. That’s a giant church with a carnival flag on it. And underneath the church there are masses of extremely drunk and costumed humans. It’s like a huge mockery of life. There are fake news reporters, adults in diapers, kids dancing in the bars (real kids), and old people chugging beers. Maybe I’m just drunk or maybe I’m drunk and this is actually happening. Let’s run that thought.
Poetic Monologue Written on a Tiny Island
Thoughts on Jersey.
Wednesday.
Susan took the day off so we decided to cycle to a cafe on the west coast of the island for lunch. She knew about some old railroad trail that was supposed to be a pretty ride so we set off to explore it. We missed the trail somewhere along the way and ended up on the cliffs with the most beautiful view of the ocean I’ve ever seen and completely forgot we had been looking for a trail.
Reflections by a Lake – Luzern, Switzerland
I woke up early on Sunday because I wanted to do something different than Wadenswil. I headed to the station and hopped on the fast train to Luzern. When I arrived I headed to old town. I only had a few hours and I wasn’t really sure where to go, so I started walking until I came to the lake and the bridge that leads to old town.
Art Lessons in Zurich, Switzerland
Location: Kunst Haus Museum, Zurich
“The music of expressionism and contemporary art exhibit”
Going with Hedi Ernst (http://www.arthke.com) turned a typical touristy museum day into an in depth art lesson on German and French expressionism. Hedi explained how expressionism took flight in Europe and how to see the art in a way I hadn’t before. She encouraged me to avoid thinking about what the artist intended and focus instead on what it brings up personally. That’s the point, she argued. A good work of art has different meanings. It’s personal to everyone. I always enjoyed fauvism and Impressionism in painting, but Hedi made me think of it in entirely different way. As she showed me the progression of style, I saw the leaps each artist made and could appreciate the risks. They allowed themselves to do things differently: they used different brush strokes and colors that don’t exist in reality to create an emotion that does exist in the mind. It reminded me of Luis Borges, the first author to write magical realism. In both cases, the artist gives himself the right to bring something from their imagination (third eye, whatever) into the material world. It gives it this universal meaning because everyone’s connected on that invisible level.
SINCERELY, LIZ B 