The Wedding Blog

So, I’ve created the priliminary wedding blog! You’ll find it at darbyandphilipp.wordpress.com!! (you might have to cut and paste into your address bar) Please visit us!

Der Heiratsantrag

Love does not consist in gazing at each other
but in looking together in the same direction.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I’m sure many of my readers who are also my friends and family will not be too surprise to hear that….

Philipp and I are getting married!!!

Yes, it finally happened, the question has been popped! The real story is a long one, but that’s because Philipp and I have been talking about this for quite some time. I’ll try to sum it up!

After attending another wedding, I hinted to Philipp that now would be a good time for us, but the following day I felt a bit guilty for pressuring him and wrote him a “I’m sorry”/Love letter. After he read the letter, he was so cute and on cloud 9 that he proposed to me! It was very quaint and spontaneous (on both our parts, even though at the same time we were expecting it to be sometime soon), but as they said in the movie When Harry Met Sally: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life together, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible!” So that was that!

I’m working on a wedding website as we speak, so there will be more information to come!

Here are a few pictures from last night and a picture of the ring I took this morning (it looks amazing in natural light!):

A new BMW Ad

I know I should loose my blogging license because I haven’t updated in SOOOO long! School and caught up to me, so it may be a while before I become totally active again. But I did want to post this ad I saw on TV for BMW…it’s pretty cool because all the cars featured are my buddies from the museum!

Paris, Part 1

It’s been over a month since I was in Paris! I need to get back into better habits about my blog! In any case, I am finally going to get these posts up…so here it goes!

My trip to Paris with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” was from March 22 to the 27.  The first day we arrived in Paris, via TGV (an express train) was a Sunday, and already fairly late in the day.  We were welcomed by two of our professors and received an introduction to the week at one of their apartments, which included a small introduction to French cheese! I think I liked the cheese a little too much!

Afterward, once we had checked into out hotel and the sun had set, we set out on a introduction to the city of Paris and wondered the dark and mystic streets. Here’s a picture of our exploratory posse:

You can already see in the background of this picture what our next destination was. Actually, it was food…we were looking for a specially tasty falafel stand, but it just happened to be in the direction of the Pompidou!

Here you see the Pompidou lit up by night. It’s the famous art museum with the piping on the outside. There was an exhibit on Alexander Calder there that I would have very much liked to see, but the purpose of our excursion to Paris was to learn more about Symbolism, an art movement that took place at the end of the 19th Century. In the following blog posts I will get more into the details of the movement, the artists involved, and the museums we visited in their reference.

After finding food, we headed in the direction of the Île de la Cité, where Notre Dame is located. The night lighting and the bridges on the way were gorgeous:

We took a short stop outside the Notre Dame, and then a few from the company came up to me to tell me about the wonderful English bookstore on the south bank.  So many knew of it and like it, that we decided to detour over there. So we reached the Rue de la Bucherie:

The Street of the Bookshops! There was a lovely antique bookshop there as well as the English bookshop, where I contemplated purchasing Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray…it seemed befitting; the only novel written by one of  my favorite playwrights as well as a literary work of Symbolism…but in the end I shied away from either antiques or relevant literature, considering the additional weight on my back while traveling. However, as we were leaving the Rue de la Bucherie, I did find something quite close to my heart:

I just love this! It’s like a deja vu of culture…a moment of complete and total juxaposition completely out of left field…in a street in FRANCE…a sign in ENGLISH…selling cheap GERMAN books…wonderful!  I loved the subtlety of it was well, a very inconspicuous and cheap cardboard box!

We then slowly began our saunter back to the hotel…crossing back over the river Seine and catching our first glimpse at the Eiffel Tower. One of us wanted to wander off in that direction, but we decided to save that for a later night. From a bridge, I took two pictures:

Tried from the train ride and walking through the streets of Paris (no knowing what was in store for the next few days) we winding through the maze back to our hotel.  On the way we went through an underground shopping mall, the Forum des Halles (picture below) and then crashed into bed.

My room, which I shared with two other girls, was on the fifth floor of our quaint little youth-hostel like hotel.  The following morning we were surprised by tasty instant coffee in milk and a large baguette with butter and jam…the same breakfast we had the following four mornings, but which never got old! It became the morning fuel for what I’m starting to call “Art History Bootcamp”…but more on that in the following posts!

A Preview of Pah-rih…*insert silly French “huhn-huhn” laughter*

So, I will be writing a longer post about my trip to Paris for the seminar on Symbolism soon…this is the teaser trailer!

The last time I was in Paris was in the summer of 2000…believe it or not, 9 years ago!  When I was there, I had a picture taken of me in from of Picasso’s former studio near Montmartre.  9 years later I found myself in the same street and was surprisingly able to recognize the door after all that time! So here’s a Parisian time-warp for you:

Exkursion Bayerisches Barock

About a month ago I went on an excursion with “Historische Kunst- und Bilddiskurse” (my Master’s program) to academically celebrate the end of the semester.  First we had a project seminar in Höchstädt (actually in the palace there!) and then we continued on a overview adventure of Baroque churches in Bavaria, particularly those from Dominikus Zimmerman and his brother Johann Baptist Zimmerman. I don’t think I’ll go into detail about each church (could be a little over the top and most definitely repetitive), so I’ll list them all now, in case you care to google them: Kloster Maria Medingen, the Frauenkirche in Günzberg, Kartause Buxheim, Residenz and Kirche Kempten, Steingaden, Steinhausen (yep, that’s somewhere else!), the Wieskirche (you may have heard of that one…it’s protected by UNESCO), the beautiful library and church in Bad Schussenried, Ottobeuren (a name I’ll never forget), and the Johanneskirche in Landsberg an der Lech.

The thing I liked most about this excursion was the spectrum in which we explored, which allowed me to finally understand the difference between Baroque and Rococo architecture. Apparently the transition mainly took place in none of than the (then) country of Bavaria. I’ll get to that more specifically in just a bit…

Here’s the palace in Höchstädt where we spent about 10 hours a day in a workshop:

I have to say, I can’t really complain about the location! We also had a few breaks during the workshop in which we were given tours of the palace, which is partially restored and still undergoing the remaining restorations. In this wing we saw the restored frescoes:

I actually quite liked this restoration, as it did not have the goal of bringing the works back to their original quality by adding what was missing, but instead restored what was there and nothing more. It leaves the frescoes with a very rustic and authentic look. I was also quite amused that this wing of the palace actually housed a chapel for weddings! I was quite appealed myself, until it was pointed out that the frescoes in the chapel portray the Fall from Eden! Yikes! Get married and you’re thrown from Paradise! Actually, come to think of it, maybe the irony is, in fact, a good omen. Sort of a way to ward off those demons from the start.

Since we’re on the subject of the Fall, here’s a picture of some Baroque decorative sculpture from the church in Ottobeuren:

Now that’s some pretty cool decorative sculpture of an angel turning away from a dragon-like serpent trying to give it the apple, the forbidden fruit!  This was one of the cooler things in Ottobeuren that had to do with “cool” meaning interesting, but all in all, Ottobeuren was “cool” in the cold way! As we tried to leave the village in our two Mercedes buses, a blizzard came, and the bus I was in, along with 7 of my fellow students, got stuck in the snow! The bus literally slid off the road! We had to sit in a Thai food restaurant until the blizzard passed and then we took a taxi back to Kempten, where we were staying.  It turned out the bus we had had “all-weather” tires instead of snow tires…and if anyone ever tell you that there isn’t a difference between the two, tell them to talk to us! In an case, the situation seems funnier in hindsight and it was quite a bonding experience for us students!

In our homebase during the excursion, Kempten, we saw the Residenz and Baroque church.  Upon entering the Residenz, we had to wear felt shoes because of the inlay wood floors (also from the period!)…here’s a picture:

The Residenz was one of the prime examples we saw of the distinction between Bandelwerk, signifying Baroque design, and Rocaille, characteristic of Rococo decoration. To put a name to the face, or a guess an image to the Stuck, or plaster with which these ornaments were made:

To the left you see the Bandelwerk, which means ribbon work…very elegant and perhaps more my personal taste.  (I would suggest clicking on the thumbnails to see the larger photos…these things are very detailed!) On the right is the Rocaille, actually a French word describing a type of shell, which is why it has the shell-like and sea-creature form.

The Residenz in Kempten was a restored example of these architectual ornamentations. In this picture you can see a small section that the restoration workers did not restore, as a point of reference/comparison:

Restoring to the original colors really shows the artwork’s brilliance! It seems so dull otherwise!

In addition to learning about the architectural/ornamental styles and the relevance of restoration, I also gained some knowledge of Catholic iconography.  (I know, I should know these things…I just never had much connection with religions) For example, each Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) apparently have animal symbols: an angel, eagle, ox, and lion (in the same order).  I also learned the holy monograms, like the IHS for Jesus and this cool one for the mother Mary:

It creates the name “Maria.”

So, I’ve saved the best for last…in Bad Schussenried we visited an old convent, itself quite pretty, but hidden in one of its wings was the most beautiful library I have ever seen!  As an exception to the churches, monasteries, and convents that we had seen elsewhere, this library did not have religious iconography, but iconography from the 18th/19th century of the science and humanities!  Each corner of the library was dedicated to a different discipline: art, sculpture, architecture, and music!  It even had an early for of the scientific classification system portrayed as branches in a tree in the fresco on the ceiling! Here are the pictures:

I love this picture! All of the students are staring up at the fresco…in a way looking to the sky! as Dr. Frangenberg describes the iconography. (He’s the one standing in the back…our Baroque and Rococo expert)

And, of course, a picture of me proudly standing in the spectacle:

Yay! I’m so happy that I finally have this post done! It took me like, a month! My apologies once more for the delay…coming soon: Unsinniger Donnerstag in Mittenwald and Paris!

Baby stepping out of the Blog hiatus…

So, I’ve had more time to do nothing the last 3 days, after spending 11 days straight of standing for at least 6 hours a day in a museum, whether that be the BMW Museum or a museum in Paris (a post about that trip will be posted once I’m back into the swing of things!) I’ve concluded that the posts I should be making are all way to long and overwhelming for me to do as a jump back into the blog scene, so you just get a pointless post for now!

This is actually good, it gives me a chance to use some of the things in my wordpress folder that ususally just sit around…

Here’s a good start…a happy picture of me and Philipp:

Philipp will be going in for knee surgery next Monday! I know, quite sad, but think of it this way…he gets to have me as a servant for at least the first week while he can’t walk! He’s even decided he wants to get a bell to ring.  The upside for me is that for this week, Philipp and been getting up and going into the kitchen, etc. to get me things. Don’t worry, I know how to play it right!

What else have a got in this folder…oh! here’s a cool painting of the Munich skyline that I found on the outside of a tent at Oktoberfest.  Pretty random, but that’s exactly what this post is for:

And finally, to bring up the subject of the “new” (like the blog posts I will be making soon, right?!?!) I have a picture from Mad About You, with Murray the Magic Dog:

THIS IS NEW!!!

Somewhere over the “Reno”bow…

Wow,  long time no post! Sorry about that!  A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all!  I was in Reno for about 2 weeks and although I spent most of that time being sick, I still tried to see as many people and as much of home as possible.  So I’d like to make a post of photos and a few stories about that trip, mostly for my readers who themselves are involved!   Kinda personal, I know, so just hang in there my academic readers!

First photo:

This photo is actually a poster in the Reno airport (technically taken at the end of the trip because I got the digital camera I took the picture with for Christmas), but it being in the airport is symbolic, as my last picture is also of a poster, but in the Munich airport (see below).  This photo is also the inspiration for the title of this blog post, as the Reno arch is the rainbow…

Let’s see, next photo…ooo! Another poster, except this time…

Philipp is in the middle of it!  Great story…we went to the movies to see, um, Yes Man, and I got bought a drink.  When I was finished I started to look around for Philipp and couldn’t find him, but heard a cute little Philipp voice cry out “Darby” a few times, and so I got very confused.  I finally found Philipp’s face in this poster and jumped for shock!  I think continued laughing until I was able to take the photo!

Here’s a picture of Philipp and my dad bbqing…a favorite pastime for both of them!  Speaking of food, we went to my favorite sushi place in Reno, The Oceano at the Peppermill, with my mom, my sister, and my cousin Jesse.

We got the typical wooden chopsticks, like at all other sushi place, but for some reason Philipp was inspired to put them under his upper lip so that they made tusks!  I was chatting with the others and didn’t realize him doing this, but everyone else saw him and started laughing.  I turned around and once again was shocked by Philipp.  So we all took our chopsticks and became sushi walruses, and had our picture taken by the waiter.

If you ever go to the Oceano, make sure to get the Oceano house roll, a bit spicy but really yummy…I could get 4 or 5 if they were put in front of me (and I hadn’t had anything else to eat).  Man, I’m starting to crave one right now but I’m not in Reno! Darn.

So…moving along with my digital photo album of Reno…

For New Years, Philipp and I met up with some good friends at Ceol, an Irish Pub in Reno that has become our “Stammtisch” or I guess you could say regular place to go out.  Even if you don’t tell anyone that you’re going there on a Friday or Saturday night, you’re bound to run into someone that you know.

This picture is of myself and my best friend Nick…based on the looks on our faces you can probably tell we’ve know each other for a while…

We stayed at Ceol for the “ball dropping,” although is was the first year that I didn’t actually see the ball drop on television.  We sang Auld Lang Syne at midnight, which was either very appropriate, being a celtic song sung in a pub named after the word for music in Gaelic, or incredibly ironic, because the song is Scottish, which isn’t quite Irish…hm…

I think my new years resolution will be to learn the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne.

The second photo here is also from New Years.  After Ceol, Philipp and I went downtown and found Jade, my sister’s boyfriend, at Harrah’s.  He had just gotten off work, so we went out with him to celebrate.  His face paint is pretty cool!

Here’s a cute picture of Philipp and me sitting in the back of the car with my puppy Lilybloom! I was so happy to see her!

And for a bit of a surprise, not another photo, but a video!  Philipp gives Lily a doggy biscuit, known to her as a “cookie.”

My puppy is like family to me!  And I have some more pictures of family!  Here are two photos taken with my grandparents.  I’m glad that Philipp is in these photos too!

And during the last weekend Philipp and I were in Reno we went sledding!  Poor Philipp couldn’t go skiing or ice skating because of his knee that he injured while playing handball, so sledding was the snowy alternative.  And we went with my aunt and uncle, there two sons (now all grown up) and three grandchildren.  The youngest son, Cash, went down the slope on a spiffy sled that was driven by his uncle Jesse, and every time they went down, Jesse pushed Cash back up the hill on the sled while Cash persisted “Again!”  It was very cute.  Here are two pictures from that…3 generations shown in one picture and my aunt with her granddaughter in the other photo.

Oh, and I almost forgot the picture of Philipp and me in the snow too!

And last, but not least:

Right after Philipp and I got off the plane at the Munich airport, I found this sign!  Technically it’s an advertisement for the cell phone service O2, but I liked the fact that it’s the Munich skyline and a welcoming phrase in English.  I guess I did feel at home again, even though I had just left home.  I think I like the fact that now, no matter what direction I’m flying between Reno and Munich, I’m always flying home.

Until next time!

(This photo supported blog post is brought to you by my dad, who gave me a new digital camera! Thank you!)

How can I miss you if you won’t go away!

I now have 8 days until I fly to Reno for the holidays (for 2 weeks)!  I figured, since it’s now down to the single digits, I can start that countdown.

Here’s a short list of what I am looking forward to: (not in any particular order…)

1. Driving a car AND cranking the volume on the stereo at full blast!
2. Mochi (funny ice cream balls)
3. Indian food
4. Seeing my sister
5. Seeing my puppy
6. Seeing my grandparents
7. Washer AND Dryer!
8. Reno’s radio stations
9. Getting bags for free when I go grocery shopping
10. Cheesecake
11. Phone numbers that have a pattern (775-xxx-xxxx)
12. Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic
13. Wireless internet that not only works with my computer receiver at home, but also is available in most public places…(Germany has a different frequency, very annoying)
14. Sleeping on an American mattress!
15. English television channels other than CNN!

I’m sure there are many more things, but they’re not coming to mind at the moment!!!  Most of all, I need to talk to good people, my people, about life in general!  Looking forward to seeing you!

The One with the Late Thanksgiving…

is actually one of my favorite episodes of the TV show Friends, but it is a befitting title for this post.  Two weeks ago on Thanksgiving I had the flu, so we had to postpone it and finally got around to having Thanksgiving last Friday.  Here are the pictures that were taken with a friend’s cell phone camera…my best alternative, since my digital camera is broken.

For now, this is just a photo post.  I’ll update with some stuff from my class/my philosophical rambling when I have a bit more time!

As always, the thumbnails are clickable for the larger version.

Just look at my cute boyfriend carving the turkey (with scissors!?!?!?!?!)

I’m very proud of that pumpkin pie too!  It tasted delicious, and just like the pumpkin pie at home! (although the pumpkin I could find in Germany was very little and I had to supplement it with sweet potates and apple sause! but you really couldn’t taste the difference…)