Saturday – Arriving in Hamburg!
The Erasmus+ team from Wilhelmshaven has arrived in Hamburg because in the evening we are starting the experiment "What IS culture?" on ourselves in the opera house ("Staatsoper"). We listen to "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss. This is certainly not the most easy way of approaching the world of the opera, but interesting and kind of exotic and an occasion to discuss content and stage production. And, of course, it is connected to our Latin lessons which are dealing with mythology this semester.
Sunday - Waiting for the partners / again a long bus trip
The German Erasmus+ team has the better part today: they have the chance to explore Hamburg's city centre on this Sunday morning. After this, some tireless admirers of music among us set off to the "Elbphilharmonie", spend some time on the "Plaza", catch a glimpse into the "big concert hall" and listen to Beethoven's string quartetts in the "small concert hall"; others play table football or games of cards while we are waiting for our Italian partners. Because the arrival of their bus is delayed again and again: traffic jam and roadworks stop the bus. The communication via messanger system, however, works very well. And finally, shortly after 9pm the message is: They are coming! After a warm welcome the German students show their Italian partners the rooms, mixed Italian-German dormitories. We go out for dinner together, play some rounds of table football and then, for half of us after a long bus trip of nearly 20 hours, it's time for the first night together in Hamburg.
Monday - Speicherstadt (warehouse disctrict), Elbphilharmonie and table football
Today was the first day that we are all together again. We started the day with breakfast in the hostel and an introduction into the activities of the week, especially our audio and photo tasks. Because we want to make a documentation about cultural life in Hamburg as a metropolean. Then we left for the Warehouse district ("Speicherstadt"). We had a guided tour in the "Speicherstadtmuseum" and the big warehouses around and learned a lot about history, commerce and former wealth of the city of Hamburg. Our guide was very well informed and flexible and included much comparison with the history of Venice and Trieste as commercial towns and their sea trade.
After this we enjoyed the walk to the Elbphilharmonie which is situated nearby and visited the Plaza. Here we had one hour to observe the building, to admire its architecture and to look to the city, the harbour from above.
In small bilateral groups we took the metro. We were free to find interesting places for our audiofiles which should document Hamburg as a cultural city. Some of us, for example, went to "Planten un Blomen", a park in the middle of the city.
In the evening we shared our first impressions with the others. We worked on differences and similarities between Venice and Hamburg - finding an astonishing amount of similarities - and decided together about the topics of the podcasts which we would work on during this project meeting. In addition to this, we planned activities for the coming afternoon together and used extensively the table football of our hostel.
(Moritz)
Tuesday - theatre, Kunsthalle (art gallery) and ballet
Today we start our "experiment on ourself regarding culture" with a small theatre workshop. We shall show emotions like curiosity, happiness, fear, excitement and our expectations to this project meeting. The whole day has the motto "bodies / bodies in motion". Alina and Leonie have prepared a presentation on the topic "ballet in Hamburg – John Neumeier" and get us in the right frame of mood for this evening. Because the ballet "Bernstein dances" waits for us. Mia and Paula complete the presentation because they explain the link from Bernstein's "Westsite Story" zu Ovid's "metamorphoses". And then there is the first task of the day: to act on stage - in this case: a conference room in our hostel - in small groups; an "artist" forms statue groups out of his partners with titles like "friendship", "communication" or "What does Erasmus+ mean to me?" - Prepared like that we walk to the "Kunsthalle Hamburg" (art gallery) for a workshop "talking about statues: bodies in motion". With our bodies we test the balance of statues of Edgar Degas and the movements adn expressions of one of Auguste Rodins "The burghers of Calais". Dressed in colourful cloth some of us imitate the pose of other statues of our choice, the others sketch the silhouette of the "veiled" partners; in the end we modell small statues out of clay, always trying to bring out bodies that are already "existing" inside the clay or the feeling of our hands.
After noon we have some free hours according to the plans we made yesterday evening. Some of us, for example, remain in the art gallery, others prefer to visit the "Mönkebergstraße" with its shops and cafes.
(pictures: Knud, class 10)
In the evening we are excited to leave for the opera house and the dance compagny which brings John Neumeier's choreography "Bernstein dances" to the stage. The music is easier to listen to than last Saturday, the choreography interesting. Nevertheless, music and choreography require our full attention - they are our only clues to understand the sometimes quite abstract story on stage. Also this production makes us start a lively discussion!
Wednesday - Elbphilharmonie, Chocoversum and back to Wilhelmshaven
We can choose among a guided tour through the Elbphilharmonie - which is the priority of most of us - and a visit to the "Chocoversum". Therefore, knowledge about import of cultural elements via trade (introducing cacao to Europe; sea trade) is the focus of some of us, the famous 860-million-building with its genially thought-out architecture and acoustics the focus of the others, especially the musicians among the students. "How much culture do we want, need, have to afford?" will be the final debate of our two-year project. Where, if not here, can we collect arguments for our debate?
Again we have some free time which we spend in various places according to our priorities: the old tunnel under the river Elbe ("alter Elbtunnel", the hardrock café, the Chile house - build by the architect who also created the townhall of Wilhelmshaven - the miniature wonderland in one of the old warehouses or just a bench in the sunshine in the middle of the modern architecture of the "Hafencity" (harbour city) are the goals of single groups of us, before, in the afternoon, the bus of the Italian group takes us all together to Wilhelmshaven where the parents and families already wait to meet their Italian guests again after half a year.
Thursday - working on the text for the podcasts
Our programme for today: to collect and express our experiences and impressions. Therefore we collaborate in the computerlab on texts for our podcasts "Hamburg - the sound of a (multi)cultural city", learn to work better with our collaborative cloud and organize our pictures and audiofiles. The afternoon we spend with the families; and in the evening most some of us meet for dinner, others learn how to prepare a proper pizza or pasta.
Friday - project work and last evening; "Lichterfest" (festival of lights at the South beach)
We continue our work on the texts for the podcasts and prepare a documentation to the topics "Men in a metropolitan city", "culture meets nature" and "IS this culture?!" For this we use our picture material in the cloud. We will show the documentation on our homepage.
We use the afternoon to prepare the last evening which we spend in the school cafeteria together. There we also meet the families. We finish this project week with home-made dishes which we conjured up partly at home, partly in the school kitchen. Now everybody know what "frico" is!
When it becomes dark, the German students lead there Italian partners to the LIchterfest am Südstrand" (feast of the lights at the South beach). The atmosphere of this event is a beautiful conclusion for our project meeting!
Saturday - Ciao! See you again in March!
It's very early - ealier than 6am - when we meet again at school. At 6am the bus shall bring the Italian group back home. Its a cordial farewell, already full of expectation for the next, unfortunately last, project meeting in March in Italy. Three times the Italian-German pairs have spent a week together in the family of the partner until now. So everybody became very familiar with the partner and his / her family - and is happy that this "farewell!" is just a temporary one - until March!
