hello from Cologne

okay i know that i have not been the best at updating the blog after traveling so am trying somthing new and updating while still traveling. this way - hopefully - things will make there way here. am making sacrifices here, i cant even tell you how difficult it is to type with a german keyboard.


so i got here today and i scored a hostel like two blocks from the train station. really nice since it cuts down the lost factor - am in constant danger of, though i was at first since i took the wrong exit from the station. i ALWAYS choose the wrong direction. i dont understand this since i teach geography and all.

today i went to the Dom which is this magnificent cathedral. its is freaking huge and quite a marvel. one of the reeasons why i love temples and cathedrals is the sheer effort involved in constructing it. people would work on it their entire lives and still not see the completion. i am romanticising it a bit but i think it the amount of faith involved is amazing. seeing stuff like this - at the the same time that humans are incredibly destructive and inhumane, we also have this great capacity for beauty. That is worthwhile.

Then upon exiting the catherdal, joy of joys, was the Ludwig museum which focuses on modern and contemporay art. it was awesome though after a couple of hours my brain and eyes were on overload. they kinda suck cause they wouldnt let me take pictures and then they didnt have postcards of the stuff that i wanted. but i sw things like warhols brillo boxes and there was a Mondrian - that man totally knew how to use lines and boxes -and lictchenstein. there were also lots of stuff by some german artists that i had forgotten about like macke and a Man Ray exhibit. there was also some russian constructivist stuff and i realized again how great is. i also realized again how much women were excluded from the art establishment. other than the contemporary stuff, only the russian constructivists had many women participating. i guess that was one benefit of the bolshevik revolution - allowing women the freedom to participate in aspects of society previously denied to them - and this was before women had the right to vote in most western countries.