Hello World!
Sorry for the week of silence, we've been crazily going around the city and exploring different aspects of the history and people. I (Patty) am also gathering a lot of interviews which I'll be releasing with the rest of the project. By simply starting to conduct interviews and having a host of conversations, it's becoming clear to me that there's something more to this project than I initially thought. At first, I thought it might result in a documentary ... or, just a short film. But the more I think and gather the interviews, the more I realize that this project might have greater weight and possibility than at first expected.
Currently, I'm thinking of something right up the alley of http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
I'm not saying that the project will grow to be anything of this scale, but I love his approach of capturing the variety of people in street-portraits of everyday encounters. I want to combine this with short video-collages and stories outlining who the people are and what their thoughts are on their city and the way people need to/do connect to each other.
That's how I'm thinking of putting together all of the stories, experiences, and conversations I'm currently having. The positive aspect of this approach is that it allows me to conduct an even greater number of interviews, while still giving voice to the individual stories. It also gives me the flexibility to move beyond Vienna, and to contrast it with any other place in the world. Maybe I'm just dreaming big here, but someday there might be stories from all over Europe and the United States. I better start learning more languages if I want to speak with anyone who is not limited to German and English ;)
Kristen can tell you more about her focus is narrowing in amazing ways as well! Both of us feel enlivened by how much life we're capturing with film and photography and through our many conversations. I can't believe that 2/3 of our time is already over - I feel like I would love and need much more time to really dive into the people and the city. But alas, deadlines are good for getting productive work done, and so this next week will be busy and full of filming. And for that I am excited, even though the "end" of this leg of the project is sadly looming.
However, plane tickets to Ireland have been booked, we will be keeping you all in the loop as to further developments.
Lots of love and until next time,
Patty (:
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Are we in Buda or are we in Pest?
Hello Everyone!
Since our project is all about interviewing and exploring what different people's opinions and experiences with connection and vulnerability are, we've had to do a lot of connecting and sharing of ideas and our own personal experiences every day. It's been both incredibly exciting and tiring, and has led us to meet a lot of interesting people and explore a lot of interesting places.
We keep connecting with lots of people who openly and warmly invite us to come along on adventures, whether those be birthday parties, lunches, coffees, or ... day trips to Budapest?!
Yup, that's right! Remember those friends I mentioned having breakfast-for-dinner with the other day? Well, one of them was celebrating his birthday and invited us to come along to Budapest. It was a wonderful day full of road-trip games, Hungarian (debatably Slovak) food, and a whole lot of minarets. We also did a good chunk of walking and talking, so by the end of the day I fell into bed and slept for something around 10 hours. Kristen and I got to talk about a lot of the differences and similarities she's perceived since coming to Europe (in comparison with the States), as well as the differences between cities and countries within Europe. We also had the chance to hear what Lenka, Casey, and Adam have observed about Viennese and Austrian relationships since coming to live in Vienna.
It's so wonderful to have Kristen along to talk about everything we're both processing and learning from all the different conversations and experiences we're having. All of our discussions push us towards a greater understanding (and even more questions) about the nature of relationships. We're discovering a lot about the many things that are similar about the desire to connect with each other in different countries and between people from different backgrounds and are in a way "gathering" more and more people who have expressed an interest in being in the film!
Since our project is all about interviewing and exploring what different people's opinions and experiences with connection and vulnerability are, we've had to do a lot of connecting and sharing of ideas and our own personal experiences every day. It's been both incredibly exciting and tiring, and has led us to meet a lot of interesting people and explore a lot of interesting places.
We keep connecting with lots of people who openly and warmly invite us to come along on adventures, whether those be birthday parties, lunches, coffees, or ... day trips to Budapest?!
Yup, that's right! Remember those friends I mentioned having breakfast-for-dinner with the other day? Well, one of them was celebrating his birthday and invited us to come along to Budapest. It was a wonderful day full of road-trip games, Hungarian (debatably Slovak) food, and a whole lot of minarets. We also did a good chunk of walking and talking, so by the end of the day I fell into bed and slept for something around 10 hours. Kristen and I got to talk about a lot of the differences and similarities she's perceived since coming to Europe (in comparison with the States), as well as the differences between cities and countries within Europe. We also had the chance to hear what Lenka, Casey, and Adam have observed about Viennese and Austrian relationships since coming to live in Vienna.
Budapest was lots of fun and stunningly beautiful. Yet I've realized that I can be a very poor tourist. The beauty and history can be overstimulating, in a way. Constantly being bombarded with a different language (which I don't understand in the slightest) and new sights and sounds is both overwhelming, exciting, and tiring. That, combined with the dripping afternoon heat, led to a melting Patty who was really excited to return to Austria, where I can communicate with waiters and students and grocery store attendants and new friends. It's made me think about the ability to be a good traveller, and how one should be a good traveller. Is being a tourist really effective in learning about anything? Or do all the beautiful sites mush together in one similar sight?
It's so wonderful to have Kristen along to talk about everything we're both processing and learning from all the different conversations and experiences we're having. All of our discussions push us towards a greater understanding (and even more questions) about the nature of relationships. We're discovering a lot about the many things that are similar about the desire to connect with each other in different countries and between people from different backgrounds and are in a way "gathering" more and more people who have expressed an interest in being in the film!
So much going on, but hope this quick update suffices for you following allowing with our journey,
Patty
Friends!
A quick update from Kristen!
Hi all! We can proudly say that your support has gone a long way and is really beginning to pay off! Patty and I have now been here together for two days, have ordered all the proper camera equipment, and are in pre-production stages. Our goals for the first week were to meet people, make connections, and find people who want to be interviewed for the project.
Well, we already have friends! Not just people who are interested in being interviewed, but we have made connections through church groups and other local connections who are truly interested in the project and its ideas and us, Patty and I. We have learned so much already about differences in how people connect and interact in the United States versus Europe, through conversations with all of these new faces.
Yesterday, a group invited us to join them on a day-trip to Budapest. It was beautiful to see all the new sights, but more than anything it was amazing and energizing to step back and realize how open people are to us, to our project, and how quickly we are already making real friends. Everything is coming together so so well.
So now it is Saturday, around noon, and we have a meeting with someone at three o clock. We have some sort of meeting with new people every day until Wednesday from here on out, so hopefully we will continue to make these great new connections and continue to learn from them. Soon, we will start the actual interview process. Thanks again for following along! It's great to feel the support from back home.
Kristen
Hi all! We can proudly say that your support has gone a long way and is really beginning to pay off! Patty and I have now been here together for two days, have ordered all the proper camera equipment, and are in pre-production stages. Our goals for the first week were to meet people, make connections, and find people who want to be interviewed for the project.
Well, we already have friends! Not just people who are interested in being interviewed, but we have made connections through church groups and other local connections who are truly interested in the project and its ideas and us, Patty and I. We have learned so much already about differences in how people connect and interact in the United States versus Europe, through conversations with all of these new faces.
Yesterday, a group invited us to join them on a day-trip to Budapest. It was beautiful to see all the new sights, but more than anything it was amazing and energizing to step back and realize how open people are to us, to our project, and how quickly we are already making real friends. Everything is coming together so so well.
So now it is Saturday, around noon, and we have a meeting with someone at three o clock. We have some sort of meeting with new people every day until Wednesday from here on out, so hopefully we will continue to make these great new connections and continue to learn from them. Soon, we will start the actual interview process. Thanks again for following along! It's great to feel the support from back home.
Kristen
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Breakfast for Dinner: Cinnamon French Toast, Unrecognizable Bacon, and Old-Fashioned Pancakes
Hello Everyone (:
Given the short duration of our stay in Austria, each day is full of meetings for coffee or scouting out locations that might work for filming or signing up for random events that will help us meet new people around the city. I feel like I could write an entire blog post each day about all the new sights and sounds and thoughts, but it's probably better to refrain. So I'll give you a quick update.
Yesterday, I met with Paul, who works for a media company that rents camera equipment. Paul has made several documentaries and knows a lot about the business, so he helped raise a lot of important questions and also pointed out the possibilities for the project. Sitting with him in Cafe Ritter, drinking an Eis-Kaffee (which actually includes the delicious addition of vanilla ice cream, not ice cubes), the wheels in my mind began vividly turning at the idea of using high-quality film equipment and actually turning our small-scale project into a full-length feature film. But I'm only dreaming as I sit there, because the idea in itself is so grandios that it almost frightens me with the overwhelming details.
Talking to Kristen about it later most definitely helped. She pointed me towards the initial intention of the project, which is simply to explore the humanity of connection and vulnerability, and the universal drive of people to want to relate to one another and be with one another. I felt a lot better, much more ok with simply gathering all the interviews and pieces of film and experiences of life in these next three weeks, with the intention to put it all together in the end, and to see what story results. It helped me to be able to release the pressure of wanting to know exactly what this project will turn out to be, and give God the power to have the control. In a way, this entire project is an exercise of faith: that the right people to interview will show up, that the connections will be built, that more will happen with our clips of film than we can ever imagine.
And letting go proves to be the key to joy, I am finding. I'm currently reading a book by John Piper about fighting for joy, a concept that simultaneously entices my soul and scares me out of my mind. The idea of "fighting for joy" gives me both the power, and the responsibility to engage in the beauty that is a relationship with God. But forgive my spiritual ramblings, perhaps they have no place on this blog that deals with our project.
I bring up the idea of joy, however, because today I had an incredibly joy-filled evening. I had done a little (ok, not a little; rather, quite a bit) of research and found an indie-recordstore/bookstore/cafe that apparently catered to uni students, and invited Lenka (who I met on Sunday) to meet me at the Ubahn station so we could go to coffee. The next half an hour was almost a miraculous series of random events that lead to a wonderful and unforgettable rest of the day. Lenka was a bit later than expected, so I bought myself a small yoghurt and waited for her to arrive. As I sat there, I thought to myself how wonderful it was going to be to see Kristen soon and looked at my poorly-drawn map of how to get to "Phil".
When Lenka came up the escalator, it was so nice to see a friendly, warm face accompanied by the happy, "Hello!". Lenka, who is from Slovakia, is endearingly sweet and authentic, with the kindest heart that immediately welcomes each new person as a friend. She has said she would not mind being interviewed, and I am so excited that she agreed! We bumbled about a bit, getting lost and wandering through a few streets (even finding some real gems that I want to explore for filming), but decided to continue on to try and find Phil. This is when the strange thing occurred: a red-head biked past us at break-neak speed, and we recognized Craig, a young man we'd met on church that Sunday. Lenka and I waved wildly, hoping he'd stop, and he did. Turns out that he had just dropped off another friend of ours, Adam, at Phil, and he could easily show us where it was at.
And so it ended up that the four of us were at Phil (which, by the way, has a really charming, hipster feel) sitting together, ordering Eis Kaffees (this time with ice cubes), talking about a host of random topics, laughing and enjoying the warm summer afternoon. Adam and I couldn't figure out whether our chairs were from the first class section of a 1950s international air cruiser or and run-down 1970s movie theater, and Lenka told us about the the baked chicken her mother had made for her for breakfast that morning in a small town outside of Bratislava. Casey, another friend, came back from a few errands to see Adam, and found us all there. So then there were five of us. It was so nice, and I immediately felt comfortable and welcomed in to their community. Conversation was sweet and it almost felt like returning home, in a way.
We somehow got on the topic of biscuits and gravy, and other delicious breakfast-ey foods, and Adam voiced that he was starving, so we made our way back to my apartment. There, after a short grocery-store haul, we pulled together a magnificent meal of cinnamon french toast, American pancakes, mimosas, home-made apricot jam from Slovakia, and very burnt non-baconey bacon (German/Austrian bacon is different than American bacon). I would go as far as to say that this was the best breakfast-for dinner I've ever had [tip: the best pancakes are made with lactose-free milk and a hot pan]. Besides the mess and the laughter the resulted out of our attempts at cooking, the meal actually ended up being really tasty. We sat outside on the balcony, with the wine-bottle candles and small lanterns, and talked for several hours as the sun went down. It was wonderful and I was reminded of the whole point of the project: to research this joy that comes from being with other people. Cooking burnt, funny-looking bacon and delicious cinnamon french-toast while sitting underneath the Viennese stars is not even half as enjoyable without the people to share the experience with.
Just my thoughts from Vienna. Hope all is well with you, wherever you are, reading this,
Patty
Yesterday, I met with Paul, who works for a media company that rents camera equipment. Paul has made several documentaries and knows a lot about the business, so he helped raise a lot of important questions and also pointed out the possibilities for the project. Sitting with him in Cafe Ritter, drinking an Eis-Kaffee (which actually includes the delicious addition of vanilla ice cream, not ice cubes), the wheels in my mind began vividly turning at the idea of using high-quality film equipment and actually turning our small-scale project into a full-length feature film. But I'm only dreaming as I sit there, because the idea in itself is so grandios that it almost frightens me with the overwhelming details.
Talking to Kristen about it later most definitely helped. She pointed me towards the initial intention of the project, which is simply to explore the humanity of connection and vulnerability, and the universal drive of people to want to relate to one another and be with one another. I felt a lot better, much more ok with simply gathering all the interviews and pieces of film and experiences of life in these next three weeks, with the intention to put it all together in the end, and to see what story results. It helped me to be able to release the pressure of wanting to know exactly what this project will turn out to be, and give God the power to have the control. In a way, this entire project is an exercise of faith: that the right people to interview will show up, that the connections will be built, that more will happen with our clips of film than we can ever imagine.
And letting go proves to be the key to joy, I am finding. I'm currently reading a book by John Piper about fighting for joy, a concept that simultaneously entices my soul and scares me out of my mind. The idea of "fighting for joy" gives me both the power, and the responsibility to engage in the beauty that is a relationship with God. But forgive my spiritual ramblings, perhaps they have no place on this blog that deals with our project.
When Lenka came up the escalator, it was so nice to see a friendly, warm face accompanied by the happy, "Hello!". Lenka, who is from Slovakia, is endearingly sweet and authentic, with the kindest heart that immediately welcomes each new person as a friend. She has said she would not mind being interviewed, and I am so excited that she agreed! We bumbled about a bit, getting lost and wandering through a few streets (even finding some real gems that I want to explore for filming), but decided to continue on to try and find Phil. This is when the strange thing occurred: a red-head biked past us at break-neak speed, and we recognized Craig, a young man we'd met on church that Sunday. Lenka and I waved wildly, hoping he'd stop, and he did. Turns out that he had just dropped off another friend of ours, Adam, at Phil, and he could easily show us where it was at.
And so it ended up that the four of us were at Phil (which, by the way, has a really charming, hipster feel) sitting together, ordering Eis Kaffees (this time with ice cubes), talking about a host of random topics, laughing and enjoying the warm summer afternoon. Adam and I couldn't figure out whether our chairs were from the first class section of a 1950s international air cruiser or and run-down 1970s movie theater, and Lenka told us about the the baked chicken her mother had made for her for breakfast that morning in a small town outside of Bratislava. Casey, another friend, came back from a few errands to see Adam, and found us all there. So then there were five of us. It was so nice, and I immediately felt comfortable and welcomed in to their community. Conversation was sweet and it almost felt like returning home, in a way.
We somehow got on the topic of biscuits and gravy, and other delicious breakfast-ey foods, and Adam voiced that he was starving, so we made our way back to my apartment. There, after a short grocery-store haul, we pulled together a magnificent meal of cinnamon french toast, American pancakes, mimosas, home-made apricot jam from Slovakia, and very burnt non-baconey bacon (German/Austrian bacon is different than American bacon). I would go as far as to say that this was the best breakfast-for dinner I've ever had [tip: the best pancakes are made with lactose-free milk and a hot pan]. Besides the mess and the laughter the resulted out of our attempts at cooking, the meal actually ended up being really tasty. We sat outside on the balcony, with the wine-bottle candles and small lanterns, and talked for several hours as the sun went down. It was wonderful and I was reminded of the whole point of the project: to research this joy that comes from being with other people. Cooking burnt, funny-looking bacon and delicious cinnamon french-toast while sitting underneath the Viennese stars is not even half as enjoyable without the people to share the experience with.Just my thoughts from Vienna. Hope all is well with you, wherever you are, reading this,
Patty
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Vulnerability of The Vulnerability Project
Finally! I’m writing from the airport in Seattle, about to
board the plane for Frankfurt, where I will catch a train to Vienna. Aaannd
some thoughts:
Being in an airport alone makes me feel at once strong and
vulnerable. Perhaps there is a kind of strength in disconnection? Or maybe an
illusion of strength in reaction to the loneliness. Hm.
Anyway, this made me think about being vulnerable, and about
how truly vulnerable The Vulnerability Project really is.
Here we are, two girls fresh from the beginnings of college
in California, exploring Vienna, Austria. At least for me, I will be exploring
a whole new culture, country, and language. Maybe the feeling of being out of
place is stronger for me, Kristen, than for Patty, but it’s definitely a
factor. Even more, we aren’t simply exploring the place, but we are also
planning on making connections with the people who live there. We want to talk
to people about the feeling of vulnerability, and the process of that is so
vulnerable in itself!
It will be an interesting experience to say the least -
exploring the idea of vulnerability, while experiencing so much of it in our
day to day lives. More on this later :).
Kristen
Sunday, July 14, 2013
The Human Desire for Connection
Hello Everyone(:
Ok, first of all, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the project. We are over 100% funded, and are therefore completely set to begin buckling down in the city and finding people to interview. It's crazy and wonderful and we are so incredible thankful! So, thank you again, from the bottom of both of our hearts.
I (Patty) have arrived in the city and am getting all settled in to the apartment. Feeling a little tired from all the travel (and excited lack of sleep) but I thought I'd put something up on the blog because conking out for a nap. All this traveling and meeting people and explaining everything in two languages and walking around to different places leaves you kind of exhausted :) But I'm loving it here already and so excited to see where the project continues to lead!
After a long train ride, I was welcomed by the woman who helped set up the apartment situation for Kristen and myself here in the city. It was so nice to have a semi-familiar face at the train station and to help with all the basics of figuring out how to get from one place to another. The apartment is beautiful and so spacious! It's incredible. I never would have expected something so nice, and am beyond grateful to be able to live here for the next almost-month. It's a crazy blessing, and I am so grateful. After settling in a bit, I rushed off to the Vienna Coffee House conversation evening I had signed up for (check out more information here: http://spaceandplace.at/vienna-coffeehouse-conversations/ ). The basic idea of the event is to show up, be paired up with somebody random, and then to have an honest and stimulating conversation about a wide variety of topics. The questions range from "How have you rebelled throughout your life?" to "What does the world need to become a better place? What do you intend to do about it?"
The point is to move beyond the idle chitchat that usually takes place when you meet someone new, and actually have real discussions and conversations, using stories as examples from ones own life. I met a really interesting engineer, and we talked about many different topics, including the Vulnerability and Connection project. His name is Christian, and he volunteered to be in our film, so Kristen and I will be meeting up with him again in a few weeks for the filming! He also got me thinking a bit more about what questions we are going to ask during our interviews, and what my exact definition of vulnerability is (something I've been formulating for the last few weeks). It was a fun start to our project, and I'm really glad I went! The hosts of the event suggested we read "And Intimate History of Humanity" in order to get a historical overview of the interaction of women and men throughout the ages.
Then today I went to church with Becca, our semi-host (the one from the train station, remember?) :)
It was wonderful. There's something really comforting about coming home to a church, and hearing about the faith that I believe in, but that is practiced throughout the world. After church, a few of Becca's friends were going to lunch and invited me along! We enjoyed our afternoon immensely, eating ice cream afterwards and going to the park, but eventually I was too tired and headed back to the apartment. I had some really interesting conversations and met some really cool people, though. One might even be in the film, so more on that later. However, whenever I was asked to explain the project, people seemed incredibly interested. The pull towards other people, and to be engaged in community, is one that seems to fascinate most of the people I meet. Maybe that is the kind of person you voluntarily would join such an outing. Or maybe it is as I believe, and we are built with an innate need for community and can only be really happy when sharing our lives with other people.
"Happiness is only real when shared," said Christopher McCandless (from John Krakauer's Into The Wild). I fully agree. Today, I had the joy of sharing in conversation with a group of people, from different nationalities, backgrounds, and ages. And yes, I would describe the feeling I felt as happiness. No, these people do not know me as my closest friends do (and for this reason I love my community at home), but they mirrored what I have seen to be true in my own life: that being together with those that you love and care for is one of the best gifts in the world and of life.
Ok, first of all, a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the project. We are over 100% funded, and are therefore completely set to begin buckling down in the city and finding people to interview. It's crazy and wonderful and we are so incredible thankful! So, thank you again, from the bottom of both of our hearts.
After a long train ride, I was welcomed by the woman who helped set up the apartment situation for Kristen and myself here in the city. It was so nice to have a semi-familiar face at the train station and to help with all the basics of figuring out how to get from one place to another. The apartment is beautiful and so spacious! It's incredible. I never would have expected something so nice, and am beyond grateful to be able to live here for the next almost-month. It's a crazy blessing, and I am so grateful. After settling in a bit, I rushed off to the Vienna Coffee House conversation evening I had signed up for (check out more information here: http://spaceandplace.at/vienna-coffeehouse-conversations/ ). The basic idea of the event is to show up, be paired up with somebody random, and then to have an honest and stimulating conversation about a wide variety of topics. The questions range from "How have you rebelled throughout your life?" to "What does the world need to become a better place? What do you intend to do about it?"
The point is to move beyond the idle chitchat that usually takes place when you meet someone new, and actually have real discussions and conversations, using stories as examples from ones own life. I met a really interesting engineer, and we talked about many different topics, including the Vulnerability and Connection project. His name is Christian, and he volunteered to be in our film, so Kristen and I will be meeting up with him again in a few weeks for the filming! He also got me thinking a bit more about what questions we are going to ask during our interviews, and what my exact definition of vulnerability is (something I've been formulating for the last few weeks). It was a fun start to our project, and I'm really glad I went! The hosts of the event suggested we read "And Intimate History of Humanity" in order to get a historical overview of the interaction of women and men throughout the ages.
Then today I went to church with Becca, our semi-host (the one from the train station, remember?) :)
It was wonderful. There's something really comforting about coming home to a church, and hearing about the faith that I believe in, but that is practiced throughout the world. After church, a few of Becca's friends were going to lunch and invited me along! We enjoyed our afternoon immensely, eating ice cream afterwards and going to the park, but eventually I was too tired and headed back to the apartment. I had some really interesting conversations and met some really cool people, though. One might even be in the film, so more on that later. However, whenever I was asked to explain the project, people seemed incredibly interested. The pull towards other people, and to be engaged in community, is one that seems to fascinate most of the people I meet. Maybe that is the kind of person you voluntarily would join such an outing. Or maybe it is as I believe, and we are built with an innate need for community and can only be really happy when sharing our lives with other people.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Letting Friendships Happen
Hi everyone!
Greetings from Rome. My family is currently on vacation but I got a chance to take some time and work on prep for the project. Kristen and I are sending out e-mails to Austrian churches and alumni that might be interested in working with us. However, I'm also trying to be very careful, obviously, so that Kristen and I are completely safe. We don't want anything crazy or dangerous to happen while we're trying to make our film/take our photos. Well, I take that back. Crazy, as in adventuresome, is definitely ok by me (:
I received an e-mail from a pastor who suggested that the best way to meet people in the community was to actually come to the services and go out to eat with them afterwards (something that commonly just happens spontaneously for the young adults). This makes a lot of sense to me. Meeting people via the internet can be a little bit sketchy. I think it's more important to simply meet people through encounters and I feel a lot more comfortable with this anyways. C.S. Lewis wrote that two friends are formed not by the desire to have friendship, but by looking together towards a third object of interest. In The Four Loves he wrote, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” I'm praying and hoping right now for many of those moments, which can only happen if I let go of my need to be "doing something" about finding people to interview right now. At the very least, I know we'll find people people that are willing to share their stories for the film!
I moved a lot as a kid, and so was forced to learn how to make friends. Ever since I can remember, I've been the girl who could make friends with anybody. There's always something interesting about every person - why would you not want to talk to them, given the chance? Not everyone will be "that" person, who you share everything with and who understands you to the core. Yet there is something unique and wonderful about connecting with people through conversation that makes me feel alive and excited. That's one of the main reasons why I've been so intrigued by the topics of vulnerability and connection. However, I've done enough moving around to know that being in a different culture adds a certain layer of difficulty in connecting with other people.
Meeting the right people for the film will require time, and so I've decided to go for a bit longer than originally thought. I'll be heading down at the end of next week before Kristen comes down the following week. My first couple of days there will be spent by exploring the area that we'll be staying in and trying to establish myself there quickly. We are on a short time budget, you could say, so I will be spending a lot of my time out of the apartment in cafes and around the city. I'm going to observe at first, and hopefully meet some people (waiters, bakers, students, etc) simply by being present. I'll also be attending church services and events. We'll start scheduling actual interviews in the last two weeks, when we'll do the majority of our filming.
I've started journaling more often, as well. Written accounts have a lot of power, and I really hope to be able to look at all I recorded with fond reminders of the difficulties and joys of our adventures. Writing it all down will also help organize everything once I'm putting all the film clips together for the final project.
I'm getting so excited, I can hardly wait!
Till later,
Patty
Greetings from Rome. My family is currently on vacation but I got a chance to take some time and work on prep for the project. Kristen and I are sending out e-mails to Austrian churches and alumni that might be interested in working with us. However, I'm also trying to be very careful, obviously, so that Kristen and I are completely safe. We don't want anything crazy or dangerous to happen while we're trying to make our film/take our photos. Well, I take that back. Crazy, as in adventuresome, is definitely ok by me (:
I received an e-mail from a pastor who suggested that the best way to meet people in the community was to actually come to the services and go out to eat with them afterwards (something that commonly just happens spontaneously for the young adults). This makes a lot of sense to me. Meeting people via the internet can be a little bit sketchy. I think it's more important to simply meet people through encounters and I feel a lot more comfortable with this anyways. C.S. Lewis wrote that two friends are formed not by the desire to have friendship, but by looking together towards a third object of interest. In The Four Loves he wrote, “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” I'm praying and hoping right now for many of those moments, which can only happen if I let go of my need to be "doing something" about finding people to interview right now. At the very least, I know we'll find people people that are willing to share their stories for the film!I moved a lot as a kid, and so was forced to learn how to make friends. Ever since I can remember, I've been the girl who could make friends with anybody. There's always something interesting about every person - why would you not want to talk to them, given the chance? Not everyone will be "that" person, who you share everything with and who understands you to the core. Yet there is something unique and wonderful about connecting with people through conversation that makes me feel alive and excited. That's one of the main reasons why I've been so intrigued by the topics of vulnerability and connection. However, I've done enough moving around to know that being in a different culture adds a certain layer of difficulty in connecting with other people.
Meeting the right people for the film will require time, and so I've decided to go for a bit longer than originally thought. I'll be heading down at the end of next week before Kristen comes down the following week. My first couple of days there will be spent by exploring the area that we'll be staying in and trying to establish myself there quickly. We are on a short time budget, you could say, so I will be spending a lot of my time out of the apartment in cafes and around the city. I'm going to observe at first, and hopefully meet some people (waiters, bakers, students, etc) simply by being present. I'll also be attending church services and events. We'll start scheduling actual interviews in the last two weeks, when we'll do the majority of our filming. I've started journaling more often, as well. Written accounts have a lot of power, and I really hope to be able to look at all I recorded with fond reminders of the difficulties and joys of our adventures. Writing it all down will also help organize everything once I'm putting all the film clips together for the final project.
I'm getting so excited, I can hardly wait!
Till later,
Patty
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