This will be the second post this week, just because it should have technically already been up two months ago xD As you might have already read, there was a problem with Brexit regulation in April and May which leads to many packages getting lost. This box was amongst them, but I am glad it got replaced and I am able to review it now! Hopefully, this will be the last you hear about the Brexit stuff, since all of the stuff that got lost, is accounted for now xD But maybe there will be some post talking about stuff I got, I apologize in advance 😛
It’s kinda funny to me how the Junes box was a bit to dull to me colorwise or better to put it: it was not rainbow enough for pride month xD The mays box is! This is just so funny to me because technically they just would have to switch out the box designs and to me, it would have made so much more sense xD But in general, I have to say this months theme is one of the prettiest ones I have seen so far 🙂 As for the contents we have a 256 pages linen daily planner with the beautiful color gradient, an A5 print designed by Steffi Lynn(as everything in the box is :P), a set of point sticker markers with 5 different designs, a large vinyl sticker, two pencils with holographic foil and a small bag filled with 40 multicolored paperclips (60 advertised in the booklet but maybe not delivered?).
When you follow me for a while and have read my other reviews on the previous Papergang boxes you know I love to look for a DIY aspect or a theme in the contents we are getting. This box weirdly does not feel as it has a theme at all, it more feels like a refill box: Is your planner from January already full? Here you get a new one! Have you lost your paperclips again? There you go! All of your pencils are broken again? We have some extra shiny ones for you and some point markers for good measure! 😉 And don’t get me wrong, refills are a good thing, especially if you frequently use all of your stationery, so I appreciate getting refills kinda automatically with every new box. But one box just with refills feels a bit lame. Maybe that’s just my point of view and others get to enjoy the box more, but I would have loved there to be a theme or DIY aspect to follow.
For me, the Mays box was a bit underwhelming, which might be due to the circumstances of already having received multiple boxes and comparing them to each other. I think the Januarys box actually did not look much different from what we got and I got to appreciate it more. And like I mentioned in June I might have celebrated the colorfulness of it more… Sounds kinda strange if I put it like that, but that’s just my opinion 😉 And I have to view the Papergang boxes as a subscription because I do think some people might get a single one if they really like the content, but in general, most people will get it as a subscription. And I think it’s completely normal to then view it that way and compare the different boxes with each other. I am looking forward to the next boxes still since I love the Papergang stuff in general, I just hope to be more blown away next time!
In Germany, there is currently a debate going on about if Tattoos are considered art and therefore the people making the tattoos are artists. That might sound a bit strange to you, but it’s actually a legal issue since if you are recognized as an artist in Germany you get certain insurance benefits. So it’s not only about the art itself but also about the people behind it. Since I am not designing tattoos myself, but I love having them and I will get some more this summer, I really want to speak about it here on my blog. And I want to start by telling you about parts my own tattoo journey. You notice that I will use the word “tattoo artist” a lot, which kinda seems to defeat the purpose here, but in English, that’s the only word I know and in Germany they are only called “Tätowierer”. Maybe that will change soon 😉
I actually got my first tattoo when I was only 16 together with my mother. In Germany, you are technically only allowed to get a tattoo when you are 18 years old, but when you have the consent of your parents and find an artist who is willing to tattoo you, you can legally do it sooner. For my first tattoo, I choose something small, because I was very afraid of the pain and I kinda wanted to test out what it was liked to get tattoed. It was a good idea, but I sadly did not have the best experience in general, because my artist back then was not very understanding… he was like: “If you cry about pain, you should not get a tattoo.”. He was really not the best example of what a tattoo artist should be, but we will come back to that 😉 My first tattoo took about 10min, but it felt way longer, but I felt so good after it.
Why get a tattoo with 16 you might ask yourself? I always was very fond of how they looked at other people, but it also was a psychological thing for me. I was bullied a lot in school and there was nothing I could really do about it. The short version of it was, that I felt like I lost control over my life, and getting a tattoo, making a lifelong decision like that, felt like I was taking back that control. So getting a tattoo is not always about aesthetics, it can also help people cope with troubles in their life, deal with trauma or grow their self-esteem. There is a popular meme about tattoo artists being lowkey therapists and I guess it’s not totally wrong. Sitting up to 8 hours next to a person talking can really connect people 😉
But that is only part of what they do, with their art. But what is art? That’s quite hard to define. “Art is a highly diverse range of human activities engaged in creating visual, auditory, or performed artifacts— artworks—that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, and are intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.” (lumenlearning) is one of the quotes you can find on the topic and they all sound poetic like this one. Art can be everything, is a statement as helpful as the last one. But in all of that, there is a piece of truth. Technically everyone can be an artist from a child with a crayon drawing on the walls, up to a person creating a doodle at school. But in this case, it’s about earning money with it, so it’s about creating visual, auditory, or performed artifactsthat express the author’s imaginative or technical skill, to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power by the client.
The Artists’ social fund which would grant the insurance benefits has a slightly easier to understand the definition of what to do, to get in. The requirement is “the exercise of a permanent, self-employed artistic activity on a commercial basis” and to be someone “who creates, practices or teaches music, performing or visual arts”. Now you would think, the problem here is not the art part itself, since tattoo artists do create visual art, right? Well in Germany they are seen as Artisans because tattooing itself “does not become artistic in that in individual cases not working according to existing patterns or stencils, but the motif itself is designed; because this is also typical for handicrafts.”. Basically, that means that the people who decide on who gets into the fund and who does not, think that tattoo artists only do the craft of tattooing, bringing a design onto a person’s skin. And maybe in the past, in some cases that was true since some tattoo people work with the designs from others, sometimes even without asking them. But the vast majority and what I personally think are the better tattoo artists, only tattoo their own designs.
Actually, I have a friend who, let’s say falls in love with designs easily and when she sees something, she really wants to have EXACTLY that design. But when searching for an artist who would tattoo her that, she has some problems since most artists will tell her, that they will try to recreate the design in their style or not tattoo her at all. Not because they are arrogant or just don’t want to work with her, but because it would not feel right for them. And if that’s not artistic, then tell me what is. A good tattoo artist should not only be good at their craft (technical skill), but also at helping the client get his design on paper(imaginativeskill), work on it until it’s ready(to beappreciated for their beauty or emotional power), and also give emotional support, for the process of tattooing but also in general. What I would have wanted to say to my artist who did my very first tattoo: If you don’t like to work with people, that have emotions, don’t become a tattoo artist. In Art, it’s never about you, but it’s always about them.
My tattoo journey is far from being over and I knew the answer to the initial question all along, of course tattoos are art and their creators are artists who should defently be taking in by the Artist’ social fund as soon as possible! Not only for support but also for apprechiation of they are and what they do. If you’d like you can let me know in the comments what you think about it, in a fair manner of course 🙂 And if you would like to know more about the topic or my tattoos in general, let me know!
I am back with another mystery/ subscription box review, this time it’s all about the Artful box, which is done by the same people who do the Papergang boxes too, so I had to test it out eventually 😉 The concept of both boxes is pretty similar, only that in the Artful box instead of stationery you get art supplies for a certain project and you don’t get it every month but one box every quarter of the year. I did not have the money for it in the first quarter of 2021, so I had now reordered the box and got it shipped in May. Sadly same way with my Papergang boxes, there was a shipping/ delivery problem that led to the box that was shipped in May being lost. I did get sent a replacement box of course, but in the whole chaos, I kinda overlooked that instead of just buying one box, I actually made a subscription, so I got sent the next box already too. But to be honest, I am not mad about it, since it also sounds very interesting. Let’s have a look at it together! So many things can be considered art, so there are many possibilities of what could be inside an Artful box. The people behind it thought it would be the best idea to highlight a certain type of art with every box, focus solely on that, and give the best supplies needed to start a project. This Mai box’s theme was Hand Lettering, which I actually did some years ago, so it was a great box for me to restart an old Hobby! The next box I got has watercolors as its theme and since the watercolor box actually arrived first, I will also review it first 😉
The box came with a set of 24 watercolor half pans, a 29.5ml masking fluid bottle, special watercolor paper, 4 blank greeting cards, 5 different brushes, a pencil such as a pipette, and a 100 pages magazine with tips and tricks. The book was actually what I was interested the most in since the last time I painted with watercolors was in primary school and I absolutely hated it. I really hoped to get new motivation and learn new techniques which helped me use this type of art in a different way. The artwork on the book and within is very pretty, they even show how to draw one of my favorite animals a red panda! They start with some pages of general information about watercolors, assuming that you don’t know anything about it, which was great for me! But this information only uses up about 10 pages in the book, so if you already know how to work with it, you could start right away and still have enough input and ideas for your new projects 😉 So only judging from the book, I would say the box is both beginner-friendly, but also useful and interesting for people who search for art prompts, step-by-step guides, or interviews with artists who work with that particular craft.
Like I mentioned, working with watercolors always felt like a chore to me, since it was the go-to color technique in almost all of my art classes and I still never seemed to fully master it. I also don’t think we were really introduced to how to work with them properly. For example, I never heard of a masking fluid before, even though it does sound like a cool way of creating certain patterns and would have been surely helpful! As I am writing this part of the review, I still have not used the art supplies yet, but I wanted to let you know what I am planning on doing and later I can tell you if it has worked out of not 😉 I am actually a bit scared to try the very professional-looking animal drawings in the magazine and wanted to try something more abstract first. Since I also like to design greetings cards for my friends and family and there were some birthdays recently, I wanted to play around for a bit with the blank cards and use the watercolors to create an interesting background. Sadly there seems to be no real chapter on how to do that, only on some blending ideas in general. So I guess I will have to look for some other tutorials on the Internet. Maybe a small negative point: I would have loved to not only see realistic drawings, but some guides create abstract art too.
When starting to use the appliance from the box, I opted for watching videos on youtube in the end instead of using the magazine itself. I just learn better with visual input and the guides in the books were a bit too advanced for me. I watched a video by Shayda Campbell and tried to recreate a flower greeting card she made, testing out different colors and trying to blend them together. One of the things I learned right away is that the colors are way more potent than anything I have used before! When using watercolors at school, we would mix them in the pan with the pigment itself and put it on paper, repeating the process over and over when the brush was dry again. With these watercolors, I take a bit of it on my brush, use the pipette to get some water on the mixing palate, and mix the puddle with my brush. Then I use this puddle for my illustrations and I only use the color again, when I am mixing a new one. It might sound kinda dumb to you, if you have worked with good watercolors before, of course, that’s how you would use it, right? But I have never done that, so it was all new to me xD What I realized because of it is that the half pans you get, which might seem very small at first, last longer than expected^^ The brushes felt like very good quality, but when working with watercolors, the liquid has a mind of its own. So even though they did not shed, but glide over the paper, the water often finds its own way xD If you will be more trained to use it, things like that won’t happen that often I guess, but for a beginner like me, it was not avoidable. The paper was really great to work with too! I did use a lot of water on it, because I wanted to try out different techniques and it never leaked or ripped, it only warped a bit, nothing some heavy books couldn’t fix. I did not get to test out the masking fluid, since it felt a bit too advanced for me yet, but I still appreciate having it in there for future use, when I got better 😉
It’s was a birthday card, “Alles Gute” means “Good Wishes” in German^^
I would say I was pleasantly surprised by the box! The contents were very high quality, though all of them are produced especially for the box, which some people seem to be mad about(they even talk about it in the magazine). The way I understood it, there are certain brands being associate with “good art” and if you use any other brand, your art might not turn out as good, in some people’s opinion. I can’t really speak for them, since I have not used many different art brands when it comes to watercolor, but I would say it’s always good to try out new things 😉 And what I can say is, that the contents: brushes, colors, and paper were lightyears better than everything I have worked with so far and I can highly recommend it^^ The magazine itself is pretty interesting, especially the interviews, the guides are a bit to advances for a beginner. Of course, you could say that this box is just not made for beginners, but I do think it’s made to suit everyone. They are releasing a new box every quarter and it’s all about learning new things, so maybe there should be more projects for people beginning the craft. So I am looking forward to using my next box!
As you have read in my last Papergang Post there were some problems recently. From what the lovely people from the helping team could tell me, OhDeer had a general delivery problem with their parcels getting to Germany, something with the carrier so they switched it. But it seems like all of my recent packages have been lost because of it: my Aprils and Mays Papergangboxes but also the artful boxes I wanted to get and review. Since I got a replacement sent for all of these, I am not as mad and just waiting patiently for them 🙂 But that’s why after the review of April’s box, you now get to see Junes 😉 Let’s take a look inside!
I have to say since it’s my first time getting a Papergang box in June and I kinda heard about them doing something more pride-themed last year, I was expecting something more… pride-themed xD I would have even liked it if it would have been more subtle, maybe less rainbow more other flags, or something like that but the June 2021 box, has nothing to do with pride at all. I guess it’s not too bad, but I was a bit disappointed. Moving on to the actual contents of the box we have an A5 Notepad with 85 sheets printed in a flowery, jungly-vibe design the whole box is themed after, 4 blank greeting cards to design yourselves that come with 4 differently printed envelopes, 3 rubber stamps with a big leaf, a bird and “happy birthday” as their motive, including a blue ink pad, 3 gel pens in the colors green, blue and pink and 4 sheets with washi stickers on them 😛
I love the DIY vibes this box has since I like designing greeting cards myself 🙂 Basically, you can make a card only using the stamps, but you can also be inspired by the other artworks in this box and maybe draw some birds or special leaves yourself. I would have liked it better if they would have included a marker or something since the gel pens they did include seem like they would be better used for writing or maybe outlining. But I like that we don’t only have the stamps and stickers to use for making our own cards 😉 And I really like the already made envelopes, since envelopes are harder to draw on and individualize. I am looking forward to using them^^ I guess you could also use the notepad sheets to write a letter on to include with the card or just take notes in Home Office 😉
I would have loved to switch out the notepad with maybe some washitape to be used to customise the greetingcards even more or something similar. I guess I can’t really get over the fact that there is not a single pride item in here …So I can’t really hide my dissapointment xD But all in all it was a pretty avarage box, not much to critisie, but also not too much cool stuff to get exited about, at least in my opinion. But maybe you would have fun with it^^
You all might be wondering where the post for the Aprils Papergang box went or why it was missing: The reason actually was that my Papergang box for April got lost in the mail :/ But the nice people over at OhDeer helped me out and send me a replacement box which arrived today(the 02.06.2021)! So now we can take a look into what we got together 😉 Enjoy!
This month was a bit special since 4 different designed boxes were sent out. I got the one with the orange dots, if you want to see some of the other designs check out Papergangs Instagram Channel^^ But even though the outside of the boxes was different, the contents were the same for everyone! We got 16 letters with the 4 different designs the boxes were designed in too, 32 letter sheets in different colors a small stencil made out of metal with some geometric shapes, a 60 sheet sticky notepad(also with the 4 different designs on it), 2 transparent penicils filled with rainbow gel ink and last but not least a washi tape 🙂
I have to say when I saw the designs of the boxes on Instagram I was not very hyped, since they looked very geometrical and I just thought April’s box will not be for me. Geometrical is not my style which is why the washi tape and the stencil impressed me the least, even though I like that the stencil is made out of metal! All the stencils I own are made out of cheap plastic, unfortunately, so I guess they have at least somewhat impressed me with that 😉 There is always a use for sticky notes, no matter the design or size, so I won’t complain about them at all xD The idea behind the rainbow ink in the gel pens is cool too since you will first write in purple, then pink, blue, green, orange, and yellow until the pen is drained. But what I would have liked better(and I have no idea if that is even possible to do with gel pens) is writing in rainbow colors the whole time. Do you know these pencils which look like a colorblind test at the tip? They change colors way quicker and back again and I love the effect that creates! And I kinda expected that when I saw this pen, but of course it works a bit differently 😛 Still, a cool idea to not only have a one colored pen^^
I do really like the envelopes, especially the blue one which says “Oh hi”, I don’t know why it just made me smile 🙂 The only problem I have with those in the size. I already own a letter set from Papergang(from the November box 2020) so I have already used them and they are quite strange. I measured them just for you and they are 8x16cm, for comparison a normal envelope would be 12,5×23,5cm 😉 Of course, the letter sheets are a perfect match for those small-sized envelopes, so there is no problem there, but you can’t write as much, without using many sheets. Maybe that’s just a problem for people who like to write long letters like me, for others they might just be cute 😉 The letter sheets themselves fit better into this month than they would have in April since they are bright-colored in almost rainbow-like order 😛 But we only have yellow, blue, pink and orange, which still look very intense and very great. I think I never owned such colorful lettering paper and I will definitely use it soon!
So, all in all, I can say this box pleasantly surprised me with its colorful theme and I am glad that I have got a replacement. The may’s box also has not arrived yet, but I hope it will come soon 😉 If it’s there I’ll let you all know!
Blurb: New York Times bestselling love story between a vampire and a werewolf by the creator of the enormously popular Sarah’s Scribbles comics. Elsie the vampire is three hundred years old, but in all that time, she has never met her match. This all changes one night in a bar when she meets Jimmy, a charming werewolf with a wry sense of humor and a fondness for running wild during the full moon. Together they enjoy horror films and scary novels, shady strolls, fine dining (though never with garlic), and a genuine fondness for each others unusual habits, macabre lifestyles, and monstrous appetites. First featured as a webcomic series on Tapas, Fangs chronicles the humor, sweetness, and awkwardness of meeting someone perfectly suited to you but also vastly different. This deluxe hardcover edition of Fangs features an red cloth cover, dyed black page trim, and 25 exclusive comics not previously seen online. Filled with Sarah Andersens beautiful gothic illustrations and relatable relationship humor, has all the makings of a cult classic.
Publisher: Simon + Schuster Inc. Published: 1st September 2020 Length: 112 Pages Genre: Cartoon / Comic Price: 11,59€ on Amazon
Summary: The story revolves around Elsie a 300-year-old vampire in the body of a 26 years old woman and her boyfriend, which happens to be a werewolf. It’s not exactly a continuous story that is told, we just get glimpsed of what the life between two different kinds of monsters look like while playing with stereotypes from movies and what we might think monsters like that would behave in daily life 😉
Review: Comics and cartoons have been around for quite some time now, but I think they have become more popular with the rise of webcomics on the internet! They have changed the way comics and cartoons are written to appeal more to a modern audience and that’s when they started catching me with their stories too 😉 Sarah Andersen better known as the author of Sarah’s Scribbles is one of those modern cartoonists since 2011. I love reading her funny cartoons for years now and when I heard that she made a book with VAMPIRES in it, I needed to get it!
The story started on Tapas, which is a whole website dedicated to publishing webcomics and illustrations 🙂 I have not read it on there, but I have heard that the story was not concluded! So if you consider reading it on there, because it’s for free, of course, you can do that and it’s a great reading sample, but you won’t know how the story between the sweet couple will end. Also supporting your favorite artists is a great thing and the book is not that expensive, so if you have the money, I highly recommend getting the hardcover^
Another reason to get the book is how beautifully it’s designed. The cover is strung with red cloth, as a homage to the old Dracula books, which I absolutely love! The black dyed pages trims makes it look even more special and really adds to the whole gothic vibe. The thick pages have a matt finish, which feels very nice in the hands. I really love it and don’t regret getting it for my little library at all 🙂
The Story is very different from what the author creates in her Sarah’s Scribbles comics, it’s still very funny, but it has a much darker vibe to it. The style of the comic is also very different, but also in a good way. I don’t think you have been able to tell the same story with the more silly-looking figurines Andersen uses for her semi-autobiographical comics. For me, it all matched very well, the style of drawing, with the design of the book and the story that is told.
Final Verdict: Reading the book did not take me that long, that’s the only complaint I have about it 😛 But the comics can be enjoyed over and over again and the presentation of the book is gorgeous and having it in my home alone is a plus! I am looking forward to more from this artist, preferably more vampire content 😉 So I give it 4 out of 5 comic books!
I know, I am kinda late to the party since the game came out in 2016, but it only came out for the Xbox(which I did not own) and the PC. I grew up being a console kid, owning different Nintendo handhelds and a Wii. Today I am kinda in love with my Playstation 4, desperately waiting for the Playstation 5 to be available in stores again! I did try PC-Gaming for quite some time, but the hardware gets old so quick o_O But since I married an IT-Guy we do own a good Laptop again, which he used for programming and I use for gaming 😛 And after playing Quantum Break I just to write a review about this game, because I think it’s something really special and also some kind of an underdog. Let’s get into it 😉
I stumbled upon this game by accident, after looking through the bio of Adain Gillen. You might know him as Littlefinger from Game of Thrones or the many other characters he played on television and cinema. He is just one of the all-start cast, playing the roles in this game’s story. Accompanying him are Shawn Ashmore(X-Men), Lance Reddick(Fringe), and Courtney Hope(The Bold and The Beautiful) in some of the leading roles. And you can see them in two different versions, as their live-action and in-game counterparts. This brings us to the next great thing about the game: it’s not just a game!
I don’t even know if there is a word for this hybrid experience you have when playing this game. Apart from the actual gaming part itself and cutscenes we also get 5 live-action episodes with 20-30 minutes of running time. That’s really great because Quantum Break is all about its story and the players’ decision to play a role in how it turns out to a certain degree. The ending seems to be fixes but your actions can decide the fate of some of the side characters and how everything progresses. Which to me makes it more like a tv show, you can take part in and I loved it!
Of course, there is a gaming element to it, and it’s mostly about shooting your way through waves of enemies. That’s not as bad as I might make it sound, but definitely not what I will remember this game for. It’s made a bit more fun with some timy-wimy powers like stopping the enemies in time, rushing to them, or creating a time-shield, that stops bullets and heals you faster. It’s all cool and it looks very great, but for me, the shooting was just a way to get to the next point in the story 😉
The story itself is about the age-old question: can you change the future by altering the past? Finding an answer is made even more important because of an imidate danger: time is breaking down. The hows and whys and the possible solution(if there is one) are for you to find out, but together with the brilliant acting, it makes for something really great! Sadly it’s over pretty soon, the game is told in 5 acts, each ending with an episode and I played about 2-3 hours in every act. Normally I am all for longer games, more hours to play in the new worlds, but Quantum Break was less about gaming and more about storytelling and it did a good job 😉
So all in all I think this game make for a very special experience, an interactive story with great actors and some amusing gameplay 🙂 Greetings and good wishes The Mad Hattress
So I think what I can say now most indefinitely is that the Papergamg boxes are always arriving at my doorstep right at the end of the month xD I am okay with that though and it’s at least something to plan with. But like I mentioned in the previous reviews it’s almost impossible not to get spoilered about the items inside that way. I am okay with that but maybe you are not, so keep it in mind 😉 And let’s have a look at the march’s box:
This months box was designed by Amy Hastings and I am kinda in love with it xD What you see on the outside is basically what you get on the inside too small cartooney icons designed with much love^^ This time there is so much different stuff in it too! You get a small enamel pin labeled “creative juice” which we all need from time to time, an A6 so-called “detective notebook” you can open up upwards, 2 greeting cards one happens to be a birthday one(thanks for the late birthday wishes Papergang^^), 4 sticker sheets with gold finish and a small sack functions as a pencil case with 12 colored pencils in it!
Remember last time, when I said how the theme in the papergangboxes seemed to get less quantity more quality and it felt like they would just put less stuff into the boxes? Well, I take it back, or at least I think I get it now, it’s not about one theme it’s about variety! And I think that’s really the perfect strategy to try to please as many customers as possible. One month there will be a simple design, very minimalistic just a bit less. And maybe next month or the month after it will be a bit more of everything again! The month is more of the ladder 😉
I also love the different kinds of stationery you get, like this time for example We got a notebook again, just like in the January box, but it’s a totally different kind of notebook! We don’t get another set of normal pencils, but colored ones and so on. It’s really great for someone like me who got a big subscription, it does not get boring or repetitive easily^^ As for the practical theme in the box, what to do with the contents, I say it’s all about writing someone a letter or gifting a card 😉 You can use the sticker or colored pencils to decorate and make every card or letter special. And I might already have someone in mind, I can send the result to!
All in all this box was a pleasant surprise for me! I really like the design and the many different contents in it. I will look forward to working with them, especially the stickers, I have not used stickers in years 😛
My birthday was coming up and so was the same old question, what to wish for… It was easy as a kid, right? There was always a toy, a book, or something that you just needed to have! These days there are things you need too, a reasonable income, a new car maybe? That’s why most people gift money today, you will use it for something 😉 But it’s not a surprise, not something you can keep, it’s just not a gift – at least in my opinion and I hate to wish for it. That’s why I am so happy to have found something really great for my wish this year! And I want to tell you all about it^^
My recent search for mystery and subscription-related things, let me to an advertisement for the Flower Letters. They are made by a couple from the USA as an interactive way of storytelling! They are like a Letter Novel but told through actual letters :O Maybe it’s just the immense book nerd in me, but that already sounds SO AWESOME xD To go more into detail, the letters tell the story of two lovebirds in the world war two era, and seemingly they have more to do with the events that follow than anyone would have expected. The story is told through them, writing each other and two times in the month, we can read their exchanges^^
The story is comprised of 24 letters, you get two of them each month, so you can experience the story over the span of one year. I think it’s really great because most things are just over so quickly nowadays. If I have enough time, I can finish a book within days, I watch multiple films a week, and even finish a whole tv series! Sometimes that can feel like some kind of superpower, but it’s also quite sad when things end that soon :/ That’s why I am really looking forward to it, experiencing a story for such a long time! And I think it also adds to the realistic feel of it, 2 weeks do sound like it could have the waiting time for letters back in the day^^
I have started my subscription in February because I hoped to get at least one letter to open on my birthday. Delivery time from the USA to Germany was said to be between 2 and 6 weeks, so I just wanted to up my chances 😉 The first batch of letters that were sent out after I made my subscription were on the 8th of February and the first one got here on the 4th of march. It was the only one so far, but there was also a little mistake on my address. The letter was not sent to Germany but Denmark, most likely because Germany is “Deutschland” in German and the abbreviation is DE, but Denmark begins with those letters too xD Anyway, the post managed to get it here despite the odds, I just don’t know if the delivery time is accurate because of it. But as of now, I can say a letter will take about 3 weeks to a month to get to Germany. Let’s take a look inside.
The first letter was double-sided and beautifully designed. It’s not just blank, but illustrated paper that does not distract from the written words. As you may see, some words are marked in red, those words are not used anymore today, most of them can be understood in the context of the letter. But if you don’t understand them or just want to learn more about the time, you can go on their website and look them up 😉 I really like that aspect about the letters, you not only experience a lovestory, but also learn about the era it’s set in!
Aside from the main act, being the letter, there were some other things in the envelope. There are said to be some surprises along the way like postcards for example, in the first letter I got a dancing card. If you don’t know, back in the day, for an event like a public dance men would ask women to dance with them and when they accept, they would write their name on the women’s card. I also got a magnifying glass, to help people with eye problems enjoy the letter without problems too, which I really appreciate^^
I censored the picture, so your eyes are fine 😉
All in all, I am very happy to have gotten this subscription as a present and I really looking forward to experiencing the whole story. There is nothing comparable in Germany, at least I have not found anything, even though I can’t understand why. If everything works out as promised, it’s such a great idea and I hope they make more stories like this one to enjoy in the future 😉 I’ll update you on the progress of the subscription and if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask them!
Hey Wonderland people, I am in my semester holidays FINALLY! In Germany, a semester is about 6 months, but only 3-4 of them are filled with classes the other months are left free for writing exams or working. I work regularly so I will use it mostly for writing but also for relaxing 😉 And I thought about what I could write about here on my blog. Because I get asked in my letters often what exactly studying sign languages is like, I decided to write a post!
I started studying sign languages in Winter 2018, it was one of two possible Bachelor courses. The second one would have been sign language interpreting, which is basically not only theoretical knowledge about the community and stuff but also training to become an interpreter after graduating. That’s the biggest difference between the two courses. Studying sign languages, in general, is more about linguistics and how a language is processed in the brain.
It is a very new and rare course, that’s why you can’t study it at every university in Germany. The biggest three being Berlin, Colone, and Hamburg. I decided to study in Hamburg, so I can only say what’s like over there, maybe it’s different at the other universities. In Hamburg, you get thrown into cold water basically xD Meaning that the first classes you will have are language learning classes held by a deaf professor. The first few times two interpreters sat with us in the room, helping us asking important questions, technically stuff und information about which books to buy, things like that. But after that, they are gone and we literally have to communicate using everything we got xD
So what does a sign language learning class look like? There are not many books to go off and only a very old software with videos to use. So most of the time the professor will have a certain topic, a set of words like food for example, or a certain sign language technique he wants to teach us and then he makes a presentation about it. He signs every word, we try to imitate it and if we can, we use the sign in a sentence. Over and over again until we have memorized it. The first few things we learned revolved all-around family, so I remember signing about my family members, their names, and their jobs to my fellow students. This is a great way to get to know people who were total strangers to me back then xD
Other than the language learning classes we had lectures about deaf culture and what being deaf entails aside from the loss of hearing. Those lectures were held by a deaf professor too, but they were interpreted fully, not only the first few sessions xD That’s for mostly two reasons, one being that the lecture halls are very big and when you sit in the last row, you can’t really see the professor signing. Reason two is that lectures, in general, are open for every student of the university, and students from other faculties should have the option to listen to them too. So the interpreters had microphones, voicing the whole 90 minutes.
In later semesters I began having more linguistic-style classes, readings studies about the processing of sign language in the brain, comparing it to spoken languages but also comparing different sign languages with another. Learning what scientific research methods there are, what an EGG is for example 😛 Those classes were mostly held by hearing researchers in spoken language, I guess having them in sign language would have made it even harder to follow xD
Now that I am more or less in the middle of my bachelor studies, I mostly have specific classes for learning specific things. This semester I had a psychology class in sign language and even held my first presentation about fear in the german sign language DGS(deutsche Gebärdensprache). I also had a class about cinematography, which was basically about how to describe film scenes in sign language. Super interesting I highly recommend watching videos about that on YouTube if you are interested!
So you now got a small glimpse of what studying sing language in Germany looks like. It’s a bit hard because there are so few materials to learn from. Learning is very intuitive, basically, when you can remember things quickly, you have an advantage. But I would not say it’s not worth trying 😉 I have learned so much about the deaf community, things that should actually be reached school. And even though learning sign language was hard and I still have to practice a lot, it was fun too.
If you have any questions about sign languages, please ask them in the comments and I will try to answer them as good as I can^^ Greetings and good wishes The Mad Hattress PS. I’ll give you a full table of the german sign language alphabet, so if you want to, you can try signing your name 😉
