Bloom and Grow Forever: Winter Break Part 1: Hip-Hop, Family, and Buzz!

It’s been a while but I’m back at school, attempting to slip back into routine, and I’m going to do my best to recap everything I’ve been up to the past several weeks (broken up into several blog posts)!

To start my vacation I went into Vienna to meet up with my friend Annie, who had tickets to see this German Hip-Hop group called Blumentopf and invited me to come with. Although we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, the night certainly did not disappoint. The opening act was this Asian German hip-hop rapper who said a lot of things about Jewish people/Nazis that we couldn’t really understand (we just kep hearing the words Jew, Nazi, Hitler, etc). We can only assume they were anti-Nazi rather than anti-Semitic, but one can never be entirely sure. Although I’m generally anti-rap, I thought Edgar Wasser was actually quite good. He was kind of funny and satirical, so I enjoyed him more than I expected.

Similarly, Blumentopf were actually pretty awesome and really fun as well (video below, if you're interested). However the real highlight of the night was the people-watching. Annie and I are both hilarious, and we provide witty commentary to literally every second of our lives, so this setting provided prime material for us. We looked super out of place (Like Quakers at a war rally, we remarked) and I’m pretty sure we were judged super hard by the Austrians around us (including one guy who read a caption I was putting on an Instagram photo over my shoulder and literally laughed out loud, and then proceeded to explain to his friend who also laughed, causing me to be quite embarrassed), but we were judging them too, so all is well. After 2 hours of hip-hop (we left early because we literally could not handle one more second), we went home and listened to lots of Fleet Foxes and smooth jazz to attempt to balance out our brains. It was a super super fun night and a great way to kick off my break!

we so hardcore.

I knew I wasn’t going to go home for Christmas so I was delighted when I was invited to Bonn, in the western part of Germany, to spend Christmas with the host family I lived with when I studied there during Spring Term of sophomore year. I developed a great relationships with Ela and the rest of the clan when I was there for spring term abroad, and we’ve kept in touch since. It was so so lovely to just relax at home with wonderful people, truly enjoying vacation like it should be. I read a lot, watched lots of movies, ate a lot of cookies—basically everything you want to do on vacation. Ela and the family are such awesome and welcoming people that I felt so at home, and they really made my Christmas special. Of course it was really difficult being away from home this time of year (especially considering how obsessed I am with Yadlin Family Christmas Traditions) but if I couldn’t be at home, this was exactly where I wanted to be!

When I was last here, the Rathaus was under construction,
so it was lovely to see the beautiful finished product!
Complete with a Christmas tree of course!

Christmas Dinner: Raclette! Yum!

Wandering the city itself was really fun because I got to go back to all the places that were so dear to me during the study abroad trip. Since that trip was my first experience with study abroad, and really my first big trip abroad without family, it was a very special time for me. All the fabulous memories that came rushing back to me made me super nostalgic for my Spring Term trip, and W&L in general!

Part of the University of Bonn

The building we had all our classes in!

I also got to go to this AWESOME exhibit at the Bonn art exhibition hall called Pixar: 25 Years of Animation. It was not only about the history of Pixar and how it developed from a tiny company working out of a high rise office with donated furniture to one of the most successful production companies of all time, but also about the techniques used in the making of the films. They used one scene in Toy Story 3 to show the various stages of the animation process, from sketches to storyboards to animated storyboards to adding each and every detail including light and sound to all the frames. It’s absolutely incredible how much thought and detail goes into every tiny piece of a film. I don’t often think about how with animation you have to artificially create all the lighting and sound effects, and make it as true to life as possible. Each and every piece of fur on Lotso or bubble in Finding Nemo is animated precisely and intentionally, making these films all the more impressive, even just from a technological standpoint. They also talked about how Pixar works to create entirely new worlds that seem to defy reality, but then operate within those worlds under strict restrictions. For example, the world of Toy Story seems to be such fantasy, but then there are rules that restrict the world, most notably the fact that the toys cannot be seen moving by any people. I'm not explaining it well, but it was super interesting. There's also such complexity in Pixar characters, which is something the company strives for when making these films. They really work hard to create fantastical stories with all the pathos of real life. I just love Pixar so much.

There was also a ton of really really cool concept art from every Pixar movie, and I kept thinking throughout the exhibit how I want basically every single piece of art on those walls to decorate my house with. They were SO cool. If I wasn’t already in love with Pixar, this exhibit did it for me. It’s a travelling exhibit so if it comes to your area, GO SEE IT.