#kifieldtrip — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #kifieldtrip, aggregated by home.social.
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All good things must end, field trips and degree programs alike.
We learned a lot that first Field Trip, as did the marvelous students who joined us on it.
Feedback from them: fourteen days is a long time -- for travelling, for staying in a hostel, for examining museums, for spending money -- ten days would be enough.
We spent our last day seeing people off, before heading back to Schiphol for our return flight. Bye AMS, hello YYZ!
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The Katten Kabinet is an art gallery dedicated to all works involving cats, which included multiple works in vivo.
Not a place for the ailurophobe or the allergic, it was nonetheless a pleasant space to while away an hour or two and skritch the ears of the many docents.
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Hortus Botanicus, the Amsterdam botanical garden, was a pleasant morning visit, a combination of cool spring outdoors and sticky tropical indoors.
Again, not a typical "museum," but it was comprised of authentic artefacts intentionally displayed in a way that fostered learning.
It had a nice little outdoor cafe too, whose coffee fostered reflection and discussion.
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The 2010 World Press Photo Contest award winners were displayed at the Oudekerk in the centre of town. The ancient church made an excellent open gallery where there was always something to look at.
The first Field Trip was so long that we were there for Mother's Day. A large vase of tulips was at the entrance of the Oude Kerk to provide every visiting mother a flower on the day.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photocontest/2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oude_Kerk,_Amsterdam -
The canals were a constant companion on our walks between museums. Most were quite active with utility and pleasure boats, while others held disused watercraft and nesting waterfowl.
Where the water was shallow enough, you could also see discarded (no doubt stolen) bicycles.
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Some museums were more like shops with attached wunderkammers. The Coffee and Tea Museum was one such: an active shop downstairs, and a somewhat jumbled collection of antiquated equipment upstairs.
Still good fodder for discussion:
What story could you tell with these materials?
Why so many similar items?
How might we tease out differences in the technology? -
The day after our big excursion, we met in the hostel to discuss what we'd seen so far, and what we hoped to yet see.
While we met, workers outside were finishing landscaping the grounds surrounding the building.
After dinner, the hostel's cafeteria (breakfast, lunch, dinner should you choose) became an impromptu coffee bar, where you could linger and makes plans for the next day.
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One of the excursions that were organized (we did a few while we were learning how to Field Trip), was to the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
The Dutch Open Air Museum joins together snapshots of Dutch life, both ancient and modern, connecting it together with an impressive line of vintage trams.
Some of the group opted to visit the nearby Kröller-Müller Museum. Two for One!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Open_Air_Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kröller-Mülller_Museum -
May 5, in contrast, is Liberation Day, to mark the end of the 1940-45 German occupation.
We spent the day on Museumplein checking out the site for an evening concert, and paid a visit to the Sexmuseum, a unique experience for students and staff alike.
More than mere titillation, the museum offers glimpses into the less-than-pleasant past through to the more liberated present.
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May 4 is Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day) in the Netherlands. Many of our students opted to visit the large ceremony in Dam Square, but a few joined us at the smaller service at Westerkerk church, at the Homomonument.
This service commemorates those members of the LGBTQ+ community killed during the Second World War, as well as all who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation.
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An early excursion was to catch the sights of Keukenhof. This yearly burst of colour and fragrance was a balm for those who'd left late winter at home.
Although not strictly a museum, per se, if you look at it with your "museum eyes on," you can find all sorts of display, focus, and didactic elements.
In the search for techniques, customs, and conventions, this was a rich visual and olfactory experience.
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The first Field Trip almost didn't happen. In March 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, closing Western Europe airspace just weeks before our departure.
We had prepped the students, made the arrangements, spent the money, and now had to explore the world of possible refunds.
Happily, we were able to take advantage of a volcanic-dust-free window of travel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallajökull
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The StayOkay Zeeburg hostel was a distance from Museumplein, but was one of the few that would take a group of our size for 14 days.
Of course, being Amsterdam, it was all quite walkable, and the hostel had a bicycle rental shop for those who wanted to practise shouting "Let Op!" at tourists who wandered into the red cycle lanes.
Our first day focus was "stay awake until eight" to try to shift our body clocks into the local timezone.
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The tulips are blooming, and exams are well over. It's time for a Field Trip!
The first, longest, largest Field Trip I ever took part in with the Knowledge Integration program was in 2010, to Amsterdam.
Our first cohort, under the leadership of the late Linda Carson, flew from YYZ to AMS via KLM.
Thirty-plus students, 14 days. What were we thinking?!
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After ten days of waking up to these three little faces overlooking the head of the bed, it was time to pack up our room and head out for an early morning clatter across the cobbles to Christianshavn station, there to catch the M2 to Köbenhavns Lufthavn, and the flight home.
We'd had a hygge time, but I think we were all ready to explore the quirkiness of the new ArriveCAN app, & return to Canada, hoping our luggage would accompany us this time. (It did.)
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Food played a community-building role: morning check-in over the breakfast buffet, snacking at a pølsevogn, lunch from the morning's grocery shopping, al fresco dining at POPL Burger, Reffen Street Food after visiting Copenhagen Contemporary, or the student-organized Pop-up Potluck Picnic (featuring baked goods from a pastry course some students signed up for!).
We always ate well, and among friends.
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We spent the day at the Experimentarium and there was SO MUCH TO DO!
Highlights included
an interactive movie,
a shipping port simulator,
tonnes of sensory input, and
a chance (via the Pulse Plaza) to see just how fit you are on a Field Trip. (We managed six of the eight activities.)
At closing time we were exhausted, but happy. -
May 5th is Liberation Day in Denmark, with 2025 marking 80 years since the end of the German occupation.
In 2022, we visited the Frihedsmuseet, the Museum of Danish Resistance, in its new home. New interactive exhibits, along with those rescued from the fire that destroyed the old museum, provided an engaging, thoughtful experience.
We are fortunate in these Elbows Up times to be able to reflect on the effects of past conflicts and conquests.
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What do you do if you have a massive, disused underground drinking-water cistern? Well, if you're Copenhagen, you create a gallery, and fill it with exhibits that engage the contrasts of dark and light and the qualities of cool and damp.The Cisternene does just that.
What does one do when visiting such a gallery? One takes in the immersive experience -- the ethereal lighting, and ambient dripping and inherent echoing -- and tries to capture others doing the same.
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A favourite spot every Field Trip is the Rundetaarn or Round Tower, a 17th century tower with an astronomical observatory at its top.
There is a gallery/cafe about half-way up the spiral ramp that visitors ascend, Europe's oldest observatory in the dome, and striking 360° views of the city.
Each visit is capped with a treat from the Pølsevogn that is outside the Rundetaarn's entrance.
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Except -- the Toronto flight was late departing, so the transfer between flights was a little tight.
Kudos to the carrier, though! We were met at the skyway in Frankfurt, ushered onto a bus, whisked to a entry gate opened just for us, cleared through Customs, shepherded back onto a bus, & rushed to the in-field location of our next flight.
We made the flight with minutes to spare. Sadly, our luggage didn't, but we wouldn't know that for a few more hours.
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Compare and contrast one of the (many) sparrows outside the 2 euro pizza place near the hostel with the slightly more exotic specimens roaming Schloss Sanssouci at Potsdam.
The pizza was popular with the students; the students were popular with the sparrows, but I'm not certain the sparrows were popular with the pizza place -- although there were no crumbs or crusts in evidence.
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The Pergamon Museum contains several large-scale reconstructions of ancient architectural elements contained in equally large spaces. I often found myself gawping at the size, colour, and age of the displays.
Every time we've visited Berlin, a different part of the Pergamon or its sibling institutions has been under renovation. Everything old is made new again.
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In 2011, the Schwules Museum was upstairs in a courtyard off Mehringdamm, but now it's located in a beautiful facility on Lutzowstrasse (with a lovely cafe and patio for a drink or coffee).
May is Queer History Month in Berlin, and the Schwules Museum has some special tours and exhibits to mark the month.
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We took a side trip to Sachsenhausen just outside of Berlin to visit the former concentration camp, and feel a solemn reminder of what happened there.
A comprehensive visitors centre provided audio tours, and in-the-camp exhibits demonstrated and documented the grim reality of the unfortunate many who laboured and perished within its walls.
@GMSachsenhausen
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May 1st is Labour Day in Germany. While events are held across the city, much of the celebration -- and occasional rioting -- is centred in Kreuzberg. The instruction for the day: "Don't go there."
Many museums were closed, so we explored the city looking at architecture, catching a glimpse of a Canadian flag over the embassy, and wandering between the 2710 massive stele of the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas.
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Museum Island is well-named.
In a very small area we could visit the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Pergamon, the Bode, and the Berliner Dom. And these days, of course, the Humboldt Forum.
There's enough stuff here to keep your "museum eyes" engaged for several days. (And the cafes were pretty nice too.)
State Museums at a Glance
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The [Humboldt Forum](humboldtforum.org/en) stands opposite the Lustgarten on Museum Island, but in 2011 it was a construction site and archaeological dig presided over by the Humboldt Box, a temporary building being built to provide info about the massive project.
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The hostel where we stayed the first trip wasn't very far from Checkpoint Charlie, and remnants and reminders of the Berlin Wall were ever present.
(It was rumoured that the hostel was owned by -- or leased from -- the North Korean Embassy which was next door to it.)
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Touring a new city for the first time: find your way out of the airport, find your way into the hostel, and begin to acquaint yourself with some of the city's unique aspects -- Ampelmann & Aperol Spritz.
The goal on the first day: stay awake until 8pm in the new time zone, then go to bed ready to wake up the next morning less jet-lagged.