The New Pinokothek

~Art---fruit for the soul~

Visited the New Pinokothek this morning. Short was the trip but yet very educational and satisfying, especially with a good guide to show us around and narrate the stories behind various famous art pieces.

Here’s a brief introduction to the New Pinokothek. The New Pinokothek is an art museum which is founded by King Luwig 1of Baveria in 1853. The original building constructed by Friedrich con Gaertner and August von Voit was destroyed during World War II and it's ruin was demolished in 1949. The new buiding for the New Pinokothek was designed by Alexander Freiherr von Blanca and opened in 1981.

The primary art pieces displayed in the New Pinokothek are European art pieces from the 18th to the 19th century, and there’re about 400 hundred art pieces and 50 sculptures to satisfy one thirst for art!

Below are some paintings and sculptures for you to appreciate and enjoy!

Front and side view of a sculpture. Can one guess who is he? By looking at the apple held in his hand, he could be Adam from the Bible. Well...what's your take?

'Woman ironing' by Edgar Degas (19th July 1834 – 27th September 1917), who is a French painter, and who was famous for hs work in painting, sculptures, printmaking and drawing. He is regraded as one of the founders of impressionism.

'Breakfast in the Studio' (the Black Jacket), by Édouard Manet who is a French painter and a pivotal figure in the transition of realism painting to impressionist painting.

'Thusnelda im Triumphzug des Germanicus' by Karl Theodor von Piloty (1st October 1826 - 21 July 1886), who is a German painter.

'Destruction of Jerusalem' by Wilhelm von Kaulbach (15th October 1805 - 7th April 1874), a German painter.

Sketches for frescos in the New Pinokothek, which is also by Wilhelm von Kaulbach.

'The Bridge at Argenteuil' by Claude Monat (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926), a French painter who is one of the pioneers for impressionist painting. From afar, it's easy for one to decipher his paintings, however upon close-up viewing, his paintings become merely strokes of paints.

'Italia und Germania' by Johann Friedrich Overbeck (4th July 1789-1869), a German painter, who is a supporter of Nazarene, which aim is to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian Art. Painters who are supporters of Nazarene are basically against Neoclassicism.

Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Comtesse de Sorcy by Jacques-Louis David (20th August 1748-29th December 1825) , a highly influencial French painter in the Neoclassical style, where the paintings are devoid of pastel colours and haziness.

Besides the New Pinokothek, there're 2 other art museums in Munich. They are the Alte Pinokothek, and the Pinokothek der Moderne. The Alte Pinokothek exhibits one of the most famous paintings of the old masters, while the Pinokothek der Moderne exhibits modern art. Together the 3 Pinokothek form the 'Kunstareal' of Munich.

If you're an art lover, the Pinokotheks in Munich are a must visit! I'm not exactly an art enthusiast, but the art pieces I saw in the New Pinokothek have left me so fascinated and hungery for the art that visiting both the Alte Pinokothek and Pinokothek der Moderne in the near future on my own is without question!

Dritte Tag ins Muenchen

~Deutsches Museum, the love for all Science and Tecnology aficionados~

After the morning lessons today we went to visit the infamous Deutsches Museum.

Judging by the name, it wouldn’t be surprising that many may mistake it as a museum for the history of Germany. Deutsches Museum is in fact the world’s largest museum for science and technology, founded by Oskar von Miller (7 May 1855-9 April 1934) , a German engineer. The full name of the Deutsches Museum is ‘The German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology’ (Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik). The museum has 50 exhibit sections (ranging from Aeronautics, Argriculture/Food technology to Tunnel construction, and Weights and measures) spreading over 47,000sqm, showing the development of science and technology from early origins through to the present day.

There was so much to see in the museum that I couldn’t complete walking through all the exhibit sections within the 3hours I was there. The sections I briefly covered were marine navigation, machine components, power machinery, electrical power, aeronautics, Petroleum and natural gas, physics, musical instruments, scientific chemistry, pharmacology, energy technology. That’s like only 1/5 of the whole museum!

Took photos only at the marine navigation section as the battery in my camera was only half-charged. Below are photos of some of the boats or ships displayed at the museum. I didn't manage to take note of the details for each boat, hence can't describe them here as I would love too. Sorry about that. Well...hope that if you like the boats and would like to know more about them and their history, you can consider visiting the Deutsches Museum if you ever come to Munich.

Just some extra information for those science and technology lovers out there.

Deutsches Museum has 3 other branches, and they are:

1. Deutsches Museum Verkebrszentrum, located at Theresienhöhe in Munich, presents an unique collection transport technology.

2. Flugwerft Schleissbeim, located some 13 Kilometers north of Munich city near the Scheissheim Palace, displays aircraft, helicopters, engines, simulators and exhibitions on selected aspects of the history of aviation and space travel.

3. Deutsches Museum Bonn, located in Bonn, presents 100 highlights from research and development in Germany since 1945.

I'll revisit the Main Deutsches Museum, and its 2 branches in Munich some day(s) after the Pre-study course. Will be sure to take more interesting photos and share them here, and probably add in some details for each photo too. Stay tune!!!

~Sleep inducing concert---I need my sunglasses!~

After going to the Deutsches Museum, we went to watch a concert at 8pm at Gasteig, the cultural centre of Munich and which host the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Richard Strauss Conservatory, the folk high school, and the municipal library are all located in Gasteig, and it’s the holding place for most of the events of the Film Festival of Munich too.

The concert we attended was held in the black box studio theatre. Well…comments on the concert?

Sorry to say, I didn’t really enjoy the concert. It was an electronic base concert, portraying a lonely man blowing the saxophone, with beating of waves in the background. The music sounded lonely, and overall it reminded me of music from ‘Secret Garden’ or ‘Heaven Blue’. If you’ve heard music pieces from Secret Garden or Heaven Blue, you’ll know that while those music pieces are good for studying, they are good inducers of sleep. As a result you can imagine what most of us were doing---struggling to keep awake, heads nodding in beat to the music. While many of us were bored by the concert, there was, however, an old man sitting in wheelchair in front of me who was really enjoying the concert and dancing (in his way) to the music! Thanks to him I was able to keep myself awake!

There was a screen that displays scenes in the sea, as described by my friends who got better seats and managed to see what showing on the screen (I was sitting at a left corner and thus couldn’t see the screen at all). In the middle of the concert, 3 men in white suits (probably acting as some creatures living in the sea) with frequency sensors came out. They reminded me of the Phantom of Opera except for the fact that they’re fully masked. I don’t really understand the meaning behind their entrance, but I figure they were trying to detect and play with the frequency of music coming from the saxophone, thus showing how the saxophone music sounded in the sea.

The concert lasted for 45mins, and well it’s an experience!

Zweite Tag ins Muenchen

~Closer intimacy with life in Munich~

Today lessons started proper. Been classified into group 2, and…wow…I’m the only girl in the class! Amazing! Thanks to Wushu I guess I’m should be used to being either the few girls existing or the only girl (i.e. if I’m considered a girl to start with).

I realized compared to the guys in my class, I’m really lagging behind in German, especially in speech and listening. When our tutor, Frau Nagy, teaches, I’m like --- ‘Ich verstehe nur noch Bahnhof!’ (I don’t understand anything!). Felt really embarrassed and bad that I’ve to keep asking the unlucky guy who got partnered with me to translate what the tutor had said during pair discussions. Nevertheless I enjoyed the lesson as there were a lot of group and class discussions, i.e. lots of interaction, and role play. It’s really fun, and much more enjoyable than the German lessons back in NUS. Probably it’s because I’m not under the stressful environment where every mark counts.

Just a brief introduction to my class. We’ve 4 students coming from Norway, 1 from Turkey, 1 from France, 1 from Sweden, I from Venezuela, and lastly me from Singapore.

After the morning lessons from 9am to 12.30pm, we had an 11/2hrs break for lunch before the German Language and History lesson, which commences at 2pm and ends at 3.30pm. For today’s lessons, we had it outdoor where we sat on the grass in a circle and exchanged our impression of Germany before and after arrival in Munich, followed by a small quiz on the basic facts of Germany (realized there’s so much I don’t know of). The most delightful part of the lesson was the arrival of Jing Yi, another fellow Singaporean from NUS who’s majoring in architecture but doing her masters in Landscape for her exchange in TUM. Now, there’re 2 girls in group 2! I’m no longer alone!!! Woohoooo!!!

After lessons, I accompanied Jing Yi back to her dorm (she lives in the same block as I) and helped her to carry her luggage too (just as how Emily had helped me the previous day.). However, being still confused with my surroundings and with the subway system, we took the wrong train back. Sorted help from an elderly lady for directions. She was real nice as to miss her train just to tell us which train to board.

When we finally reached our dorm, we had to rush out again as we had to meet at Sendlinger Tor with our pre-study course mates for bowling.

Bowling was real fun! I was so ‘good’ at it that I kept striking ‘null’ pins! My points in my group was first from the back! Haha…Jing Yi, Dainiz, and the German tutor played much better though. In fact most of my pre-study course mates played really well!

After bowling, we went to the beer garden for dinner. As the name goes, in beer garden most drink beer (usually 0.5l Weissbier) and eat pretzel. Traditional food such as Schweinbraten (pork knuckle), Wurst (sausages), Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) etc are sold too. I ordered a set meal of Kartoffelsalat, Schweinbraten and Haehnchen (chicken) for about 8 euro. It was such a large serving that I could only finish half of it. Had I finished the whole plateful of food, I might just end up with meat poisoning! Overall, dinner was good!

Farewell drawing

~A drawing that arouses fond memories~

Received this drawing from Wendy when she came to send me off at Changi Airport with Rachel and Gabriel. It's quite amusing, at least to me.

Thanks Wendy for drawing this, and you shouldn't be shy to show it to the rest! It's nice and I love it! It had been a real good companion for me on my journey to Munich! Thanks for drawing this to remind me of Wushu and all the people back in Wushu Club! Miss you guys!!!

Erste Tag ins Muenchen

~A smile or a lending hand in a foreign land really makes my day ~

Flying to a foreign country like Germany all alone can be quite daunting, especially when one’s command in German is very poor. However, the lonely journey to Munich turned out to be an exciting adventure for me.

First was the initial sense of lost when I first arrived at Frankfurt Airport, and had to rush to take the train down to Munich. Next was the sense of panic when much waiting time was needed during luggage claiming, and realizing that I’m going to miss my train to Munich. Finally was the sense of helplessness when I had to drag my luggage in search of the train station to take the long-distance train to Munich.

All negative thoughts and feelings faded with each certain step towards the long distance train station after sorting directional help from the information counters.

Now comes the great part of my journey!

The first to make my day was a man in his 50s or 60s. He not only offered to help me carry my heavy bulgy luggage ( app. 20kg) up the train, but also helped me place it up in the luggage compartment ( Later when I had to alight from the train, he offered his help again.). Next was an old lady who told me that I had to transfer train to go Munich, and patiently taught me how to read the information sheet of the train in her limited command of English. Once again when I was boarding the next train, I was offered help in carrying up my luggage.

When I finally reached the main train station in Munich, Hauptbahnhof, and made it to Technical University of Munich (by taxi though), the sense of relief was unspeakable! Phewwwwwwww…………………………… Guess Frau Blanco heaved a big sign of relief too after failing to pick me up since I missed my train.

Upon arrival I was given 2 options: Go back to my dorm or join the class for the rest of the day. Since I’m here, why miss out on the fun and choose the former? Was briefed about some mundane issues, given the pre-study course package of delightful things such as maps, lunch cards, travel pass etc, and lastly given a German proficiency test to do, before joining the rest of the group in Mensa ( a building which house the canteen, and a small café, the crazy bean).

Thereafter, we were brought to open our bank accounts in Deutsch Bank, and this was followed by a tour around the shopping district, Marienplatz and Sendlinger Tor, which is something like Orchard Road in Singapore. Amazingly, the weather in Munich then was so sunny and hot that I started sweating from walking! Had it not been for the buildings and people around me, I would have thought that I’m still in Singapore!

After the tour, the dreadful journey back to my dorm was made much bearable with the help of Emily, my pre-study course-mate from USA. She was really very nice to offer to bring me to my dorm, despite the fact that she didn’t know where I live except for the train station I should alight at. She also helped carry my luggage though she had her own to drag along too! The fact is, my luggage she helped carry weighs nearly 10kg! You can imagine how grateful I am to her for her tremendous help. Thanks Emily!!!

Well not to forget the guy who helped me carry my luggage down the long flight of stairs when the escalator at Koenigsplatz (the train station where TUM main campus is located) broke down.

Now when you may think that that’s all for the day, an unexpected sight in my allocated room ‘welcomed’ me! No pillow, no bed sheet, no blanket, a barren room except for a table, a chair and rows of shelves. Was told that the ganitor had probably forgot to place those missing things on my bed, and advised to buy them in town since the ganitor was unreachable. In my exhausted state, my only thought was to get some sleep, hence was happy to make the table my bed instead.

Yup that’s all for my first day of arrival in Munich. Once again thanks to all the kind souls out there who had helped me in one way or the other. You really made my day!!! Thanks a million!!!