New discoveries

Freitag, 10.11.06

The past few days have been a bit different from usual. After a short spurt of badminton on Tuesday evening, I joined Joanne and Jen to go to a concert at the Dom. It was quite something. We arrived just as it started at 8pm and there were lots of people; all the pews were full and many more were standing at the back. It began with some solo organ performances before the adult and children choirs with a big ensemble finale accompanied with a string orchestra. The intensity of the music was heightened by the vast interior space of the Cathedral which echoed in the still crowd. With everyone so quiet and still throughout the concert, it gave me a chance to admire the Dom without the usual business of tourists and cameras during the day. When the performance came to an end, an hour and half later, the audience literally went wild and some were very generous with their donations on the way out. I was really glad I went, definitely worth missing some badminton for.

After class on Thursday, I went downstairs to the Gute Stube [Good Room?] which is the college café run by the students. At last, the building works have almost finished and a hot spot to surf the net whilst enjoying a coffee. A more social spot than sitting in the computer room, although easily distracted to play fussball or to have some free soup and snacks. Where does the college get the 15€ a day budget for the café to spend on the students? And I think its pretty cool that students are also in the process of making the furniture, designed by a Professor, to go in this new café.

Later that evening, a group of us from halls went to Salsa class at the university nearby. It was my first time going to a dance class and had fun trying to learn the moves and steps.

Today, a group of us Internationals went to Bonn to see the Guggenheim Collection. It was really good as there was everything from architecture to painting to installation to sculpture. The museum was fairly busy with several tours running simultaneously. It was funny to see the tour leader speaking in to a microphone with the participants each with a radio receiver and earpiece although they are not more than a few meters apart. Such a shame I wasn’t allowed a camera into the gallery, there were so many great photo opportunities and not necessarily of the works!