That's it. I arrived more than one year ago here at Cosmo, on the 10th of August 2000. Now, it is time to go, my plane takes off the 29th of August 2001. I have to continue my studies at my German university, and—who knows—maybe I will return to Cosmo afterwards!
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Daniel
and Hee-Jung
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This would be a good time to look back on my year in Champaign, to summarize my feelings and thoughts throughout this year. Not being a very poetic and nostalgic person, I don't want to bore the reader of Cosmo connections with such a review; for those who are interested in getting to know a bit more about how I made ends meet here, just look at the two past issues of the Cosmo connections.
But still there is the actual question, "How can I leave some modest footprints in the house where I have lived one year of my life?" The traditional Cosmo-answer to this question is: "Host a Coffee hour!" That's what I wanted to do and we scheduled the German Coffee Hour for August, 23rd, the first Coffee Hour of Fall 2001.
The German Dinner that I had organized in February, had been intended to provide some little insights in German culture, we had made huge efforts to prepare good, traditional food, we had organized a presentation on German culture, scenery and history and we had some fine German music, performed by Heejung Kim on the cello with Teresa Loy accompanying on the piano.
My personal impression is that Cosmo's International Dinners are supposed to be "on a higher cultural level" than the more informal coffee-hours. Consequently, the actual German Coffee Hour that I wanted to host, was a good place for preparing some simple German food and for featuring some German folk music, presented by some rather unprepared German people in the traditional way, as it is done on our typical German "Stammtisch-Meetings." Here's our playlist:
- "hab' mein Waage vollgelade"
("I have filled up my wagon") - "Auf der schwaebsche Eisebahne"
("On the swabian train") - "Der Mond ist aufgegangen"
("The moon has risen") - "Freude schoener Goetterfunken" & "Ode to Joy" (Beethoven)
Due to not being prepared very well, our music excelled in its high level of polyphony: 12 singers produced about 6 different voices. The singing was just a part of our everyday culture, simple and without high demands, and with lots of voices that could have hurt the ear of a sophisticated musician. But, believe it or not, the whole presentation was great fun, both for the singers and the audience, and especially for me, since it was a joyful way to say good-bye to Cosmo after one great year here.
So, come to Cosmo's Coffee-Hours and enjoy its natural and unconstrained atmosphere, with lots of experiences from different nations. Coffee-Hours are always fun. I am sure that it won't take long and I will come back to enjoy these events.