– Post by Rawand –
12.08.2018
Today we had this switch day experience where we decided to work on a Sunday and take a day off on
a Friday. We started normal time 9:30 am, my team had a long day at work with a lot to get done, but I was excited to get things done. After a couple of hours of work and fruitful discussions, I worked on a map of Palestine for our project.
Every time I remember doing it, I get goosebumps. Because drawing borders on one’s country makes one feel trapped and even more helpless, but it gave us insights on the project so it was also fulfilling to do. Plus, it took me back to project days in architecture courses: we always used this technique so it had me reminiscing to good times as well. After a few more hours of work all we needed was to chill, so that’s what we did. We grabbed a few things to munch on and to drink and went down to the river. We recently made new friends from Africa and we ended up hanging out all-together. It was a well-spent evening. Then of course, we got hungry again, but it was 11 pm so everything was basically closed, we had to walk around downtown like 2 or 3 times to find something open at this hour. We ended up taking about a dozen cookies before we ran to our bus, on which, of course, Ahmad fell asleep while guarding the cookies, then he woke up to half of them eaten by us.
13.08.2018
After accidentally missing our bus, we had our daily team discussion and a while later, Razan’s sister Renad came and told us to get ready for Razan’s small birthday celebration. A few minutes later she walked in with a delicious cake lit up and we all started singing in different languages. The look on her face was priceless. We also practised the traditional chair gesture, where basically the person we are celebrating gets carried on a chair and everybody gathers around to sing.
After this adorable celebration, my team and the computer club’s had a reviting collaboration where my expertise in visual design met one of their team member’s to help design a logo.
It was definitely a prolific interaction between the two teams and everyone. Another super interesting thing that spontaneously happened was teaching Aydin how to roll cigarettes, and now we think his life is complete.
Then we did some shopping and went out again at night to explore more of Siegen uptown. We visited the campus there and learned about its history. It’s always fascinating to grasp other culture’s history and lifestyle. Lastly, we went to see the most breathtaking view on top of the hill where we enjoyed the sunset. Then we decided to go on excavations discovering the urban spaces and morphology of the town, and eventually took the open courtyard in front of the city municipality as our ‘chill’ spot for the night.
14.08.2018
Arriving at the Fab Lab and getting stuff done, the groups had an interesting discussion about group activities to keep the communication going. We came up with the longest list; a lot of interesting stuff, but unfortunately, not enough days left. Eventually, we picked something for today, which was Minigolf. It was an interesting experience because many of us from both sides aren’t familiar with the game’s concept and culture. Each person had certain expectations, so it was interesting to finally go and experience for oneself. We played 18 rounds which were a hot mix of competition and fun. Plus, you see all kinds of people playing, friends hanging around to play, old married couples, dads and sons bonding etc.
After that, we went to a close restaurant that had a super cool vibe. We all tried out new food types. For example, Mohammed and I ordered a 1m long pizza, how cool is that?! Although I still think we should have booked a side table for only the pizza.
As for the after food activity, Majid invited us to his flat for karaoke night. It was super fun and crazy, we sang along to 80’s music which rose a lot of nostalgia.
We even played a board game after. I can now safely say I wasn’t born to sing hahaha.
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