Art & Architecture Trip - Day 19

We continued to work on our masks this morning. My mask, which has dried well, was hard for me to paint in a detail manner. I finally settled for a mask with three expressions - sadness, uncertain and hope - and used three colors: white, aqua and dark blue. The mask, I believe, is a good image of myself. We were told to name it and choose a "coat of arms." It felt a little weird - I named it Siquerque and made a blank box on white paper for the coat of arms... After we finally completed the mask making phase, we left (1215) on the train for Chloolivingplatz (spelling?). There, we had some food at a Fruh restaurant - potato pancakes and apple juice. After lunch, we came back to present our masks to everyone (1330). Very late in the day, we went to see artifacts in an African museum (including Indian art). There were many statues and masks there. The museum tour was hard for everyone because we were all tired. Christa instructed us during the tour. Today I decided that I don't like the atmosphere of the art I have been seeing. It has all been done by very spiritualistic and individualistic people - there is very little God-inspired art on this trip (except for the Churches, of course). It seems to me that modern art mirrors Man's attitude in the 1980s: that Man is too good for God and that self inspiration is more important than Inspiration. At 1830, we ate supper at JGH and then left for the ballet at 1900. The program began at 2000 and, in the course of the two hour show, we saw some very interesting dances and superb acting. The ballet was modern, with lots of improvisation, I think. When we returned home, I talked with Emily and Jeanne for a while. They told me they thought I should have kissed Heidi last night. I think they meant well, but I didn't really know what to say to them. Still, we talked until around 0200, when I finally went to sleep.