Campaign Speech

I am reviving my high school drive and am running for Activities Coordinator for the Graduate Student Association (GSA) here! It feels good to want something - and to write a campaign speech - telling people why they should vote for me! 


Here was my speech: 

Hallo, Hello, Hola y Salu,

My name is Danielle Keiser and I want to be one of the two Activities Coordinators you elect this year at Jacobs University. You came here today to find out why you should vote for me – I’ll tell you why. I bring people together.

WHY you ask, am I good at bringing people together?

I think it has to do where I’m from:

            Born and raised in California, I’ve been shaped by the multicultural meccas of LA and San Francisco and have lived, seen and breathed diversity in it’s fullest. In San Francisco, you can be black, gay, Muslim, communist, vegan (or all at the same time!) – ANYTHING – and you can be accepted for who you are and have a place to express yourself. It’s exactly this confluence of identities that brought me to Jacobs and it’s what has driven me to want to participate in the GSA. Life is more colorful when you are sharing similar experiences with different people and cultures in the same space. Life is more valuable when you learn from them. It’s your suggestions and your ideas that I want to learn about that will allow me to flourish as Activities Coordinator.

HOW, you ask, am I good at bringing people together?

Simply put, I am a natural hostess. I’ve always had a knack for party planning and just want you to have a good time! No matter the occasion, it is always my aim to make people feel welcome and to make sure they are having FUN. Everyone deserves to have fun, now matter how hard that lab report is to write, or how much reading you have to do! AlI I know is that I am happiest when the people around me are smiling because they are having a great time. My goal for all activities is to make fun #1, rain or… rain.

WHO am I good at bringing together?

Hopefully you! To Jacobs I bring three years of working in Advertising and Marketing managing campaigns that reached out to people of all backgrounds. Professionally, I’ve coordinated Focus Groups, Holiday Parties, Film Screenings and other events that have required extreme attention to detail. Personally, I’ve hosted tons of dinner parties, themed get-togethers and rallied people to go cultural outings! I’m always the one saying, “Let’s go camping! Want to go to the Wine and Jazz Festival? Come with me to the Farmer’s Market!”; my invites are endless, but I’m always the one making it happen!

Finally, HOW will I bring you together?

You name it and I will try to make it happen! Tired of beer breaks, well how about happy hour cocktail breaks? (limit 2 before 4 pm.) Themed movie nights – Horror, 80’s, Gangster movies? What about holidays? Who of you are going to be here and will want to be with others since you won’t be home? Let’s go to Freimarkt and see how Germany celebrates Christmas! The world is our oyster!

Vote for me so I can bring us all together!!!

Cross your fingers for me! 

Guilt?

Germany's got mad love. 

Today's Specials: Alan Shear

Below are 4 artworks by Alan Shear, my Grandpa. As you can see, he expresses his art in in absolutely unique ways, whether using paint, a camera, old boxes or markers. I've picked one from each category (Abstract, Black & White Photography, Chaos, and Doodles) to allow you to see the incredible range of his talents.  

A107. Womb for Two. 2008. 21 X 21. ACRYLIC ON CANVAS. $500    

B103*. Merced River. Undated. 8 X 11. $1100

C121. Mosquito. Undated. 30 X 26. ACRYLIC, SPRAY, FOAMBOARD, CARDBOARD AND CORRUGATED ON FOAMBOARD. $1500

D107. Love Notes. Undated. 21 X 25. IN SHELL FRAME. $1500

If you are interested in seeing more, please contact him directly at alanms1@juno.com. He lives in LA and would gladly meet with you about them. 

If you have any suggestions for how to get his work "out there" and allow his work to be seen, PLEASE, please, let me know!

Tea'd Off

The "Tea Party" is causing quite the storm! (And I'm happy I'm not there to deal with it!)

With the latest news of Tea Party candidates upsetting established Republicans for the nominations for the 2010 Senate and House races, how disturbing, exciting, revolting, inspiring, and nerve-wrecking is this phenomenon?! Do you see this is a feasible threat? To what? The Republicans? The Democrats? The two-party system as a whole? 

And, how interesting is it that not one political commentator can assess the situation in a concise, articulate way? Everything is "ambiguous" and nothing is predictable (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/assessing-the-g-o-p-and-the-tea-party/?hp)! This is the aspect of politics that I love. 

Thoughts?

In Scotland...!

In Scotland:

• The people are unbelievably friendly, warm and approachable, unlike in Germany :(
• The sun was SHINING it's bright rays on Em and I!!! This is very unusual for Scotland...:)

(FOOD)

• They have incredibly good Indian food (yum-yum garlic chicken and coconut naan)
• They have deep-fried Mars bars, however, I did not try one
• I finally had an avocado again, and it brought me back to life
• They eat beans with eggs for breakfast - it kinda reminded me of having Gallo Pinto in Costa Rica
• Although is sounds nasty, Haggis, a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in sheep's stomach for approximately three hours, is actually pretty tasty. Vegetarianism is so blase.
• They like to drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, driiiink, driiiink drink!

(HISTORY AND CULTURE)

• I'm pretty sure the Lock Ness monster died, a long time ago.
• There is a high rate of scurvy due to the fact that the Scottish, apparently, don't like to eat fruits and veggies
• Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) dancing is definitely the most fun you'll ever have!!! Spinning, sweating, smiling! I felt like Rose from Titanic when she sneaks away from first class and goes to the steerage class and takes shots of whiskey and dances!! This isn't us, but we did this dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXmnP38EAow&feature=related 
• There are castles! This is the historic Edinburgh Castle, a gigantic structure on the top of a hill. Here, Scotland's Crown Jewels are preserved. 

(Other Observations) 

• Infant Mary, Queen of Scotts, had a lot of power for being such a wee tot.

• You can drive from one side of the country to the other in roughly 1 hour (WHOA!)

• Instead of "Exit", they use the term "Way Out"

• There are 2 people named Ginny and Joe who have hearts as big as the Atlantic and minds as sharp as diamonds - they let me stay with them and oh! they were so good to me!   

Danielle Irissa Keiser, age 25, sitting on top of the United Kingdom.

Chao!

Maps as More Than Just Geography

In my Transnational Communication class, we dissected the topic of "the nation" as a socially constructed or "imagined" community. This is to say that it is imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group (Benedict Anderson, 1983). To that point, we took one of his examples - MAPS - and mused about them as symbols and logos of "the nation", and thus, tools for defining power relations. 


Here is the map that we are all familiar with (Mercator's projection). It shows the correct shapes of countries and continents, however, unbeknownst to most, size is distorted:

And here is Peter's projection, a more accurate view of the actual sizes of landmasses: 

What differences do you notice? 

The most startling thing to me was the difference in the size of Africa. 

And check this one out: how does this make you feel? it makes me feel weird. Uncomfortable even.

If you like this kind of stuff, check out this site: Ten of the Greatest Maps That Changed the World

If you can, please comment, just to let me know if anyone is reading this silly thang! 

Quarter Century

I am so pleased with how my  25th birthday turned out. I danced the funky chicken at midnight, I was brought home-made Indian food by Ashwini, received a gorgeous rose bouquet from Mr. Bursell, was taken out to dinner (Chinese in Germany!) by the Reinkens, had a successful little shindig (with all my new int'l friends), and was even baked a gorgeous and divine chocolate cake by Rion and Louise! 

This, added to the countless Facebook and email greetings is a sure sign of being loved.

I feel so lucky. 

Thank you. 

So thoughtful. 

It was so freakin' delicious - it was like a gigantic brownie.

Cristina was so sweet; she helped me carry all the wine and snacks I bought for the party back to my house.

<3

Dragon Boat Racing on the River Weser

... is pretty popular here!  (Although it is Thai in origin... but they served Singha Beer!) 

 People coordinate teams beforehand with others from their work or extra-cirricular or whatever (i.e. Fitness Club, Martial Arts Club, etc) to RACE! These people had some kind of purple cow thing going on..?

It was an unbelievably gorgeous day in Bremen, in the park alongside the river. It was the type of day that, when the sun was out, you were beaming like a child being thrown up into the air by your father. But, when a cloud floated across the sun and its warmth and beauty was blocked, you were like a child who just got their dessert taken away from them. 

Luckily, most of the day proved to have chilly sunshine, through and through. 

Martina and I had a fabulous time. 

Observations

• IR (International Relations) people are unnecessarily intense, especially in a small classroom setting.
• Germans do not make the best Zumba instructors, although I give them a lot of credit for trying.
• My readers (the actual reading material for my classes) will crush me with their physical weight.
• I love Doner Rollos ("doo-na"), aka Turkish Burritos, with LLLAMB
• Shakira is extremely popular in Germany, as is Marzipan
• Bulgarian women are gorgeous
• Native German speakers have a hard time pronouncing "ths", as in "months", instead they just make is singular
• I am stoked to turn 25 on Thursday!

Get Off My Desk, You Dickhead!

Although clearly unrelated to my experiences here at Jacob's, I would like to introduce some of my Grandpa's artwork on my blog, especially since he and I spent so much time together this summer logging it all. Since my Masters will be in Global Visual Communication, I see this as a perfect opportunity to expose his work as well as utilize my skills and knowledge in the field. 

Alan Shear is a true original: he sees things like no one else. His art is saturated with bright, vivid colors and his zingy personality can be seen in each and every painting, drawing or photograph he has created. 

This is a DOODLE (a mosaic of small faces and colors in the background) with many, many different things happening. In a rare move, Al himself makes an appearance. He is not pleased.

AlanShear_D105_Dickhead

Look closely, 
What do you see? 

Who do you see? 

What does this type of art make you think or feel and why? 

Beck's Brewery Tour and Tasting

On Thursday, I went on a 2 1/2 hour tour of Bremen's own Beck's Brewery. I learned a LOT about the beer-brewing process that I never knew before.

Here was our tour guide (his name escapes me), a very German, very sarcastic, yet very informative Beck's expert. Here, he was describing the process of first boiling malt with fresh spring water.

This is an old-fashioned wort boiler. According to German law, beer brewing is some serious business: beer is ONLY allowed to be made with 4 ingredients: malt, water and hops (yeast was later added to the list).

One of the first kegs to hold Beck's beer

A miniature replica of the original Beck's Brewery (which was called Kaiserbrauerei!) 

Thousands of Beck's beers on their way out to the masses.

After the tour, Steffi (left), Kerstie (right) and Laura (not shown) and I enjoyed a mystery tasting: we had to guess which beers were were tasting between Beck's regular, Beck's nonalcoholic, and Haake Beck. 

We failed miserably. But, we enjoyed the beer.

They also served steaming hot pretzels, or brezels, as they call them here. YUM YUM.

Overall, it was a great tour. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Bremen. 

The Haake Beck 12 was my favorite beer on the menu. It had tasted of grassy hops and had a creamy barley malt aroma. I'd give it 3/4 YUMS.