The IP students

In two weeks and with a migled group of Irish, Greek and Dutch and even one Austrian we have experienced a lot. Ofcourse we had the Flat Earth experience, but there were also other 'funny' experiences.

We picked the good ones and put them on our blog.

Introduction

Anita, Marie-Christin, Ronan, Roely and Kiki. Group 3

Lost in the woods

Plant

Watch out when you go into the forest! 



Impressions of other IP students

We've interviewed other IP students about what they think of the project.

Comparison

After two weeks we can say that we know something about the Frisian identity. The Flat Earth is always present in the Frisian identity. The landscape is an inspiration for the artists, but it is also what Friesland is made of.

But what about the other identity's whitin our group. Do they match with the Frisian identity or are they different?

Kiki Stoumpou (Greece)

All in all living between differed from different nationalities is most of the times a very weird phenomenon as it is basically makes you understand yourself through others. Dutch, Irish and Greek have major differences in their mentality and way of thinking which result from everyday lives, traditions, language and education that they are accustomed to. Summarizing it is very important to approach others without any prejudice and just accept them the way they are. The only thing that someone can to when mingling with other people is just trying to explore them.     

Ronan Sloan (Ireland)

Information about the Irish Identity


Marie-Christin (Austria)

One of the biggest differences I experienced during my stay here, was the landscape. The Austrian landscape is quite different form the Friesian landscape. In Austria, you can find the Alps, lakes, rivers, hills and woods. As there are different floras, you can find a lot of different flowers on the hills, on the mountains and on the flat land. You can always use the mountains as a reference point, so you always have a feeling for where you are.

While to Frisians, freedom means to see as far as you can, with a lot of sky, for me, as Austrian, it means standing on the top of a mountain and see the wide few from there.

Also, Austrians feel more save and cosy if they are surrounded. To me, being surrounded by mountains, feels like being surrounded by my own four walls. It makes me feel save. The “own four walls”are very important for Austrians, we spend a lot of time here, and always try to create a space of cosiness and safety, where we only invite close friends and family.

Another connection that I can make, considering the restricted view, it comparing how we decorate our windows. Also here, the Dutch do not worry about views form outside. Austrians do not want anybody to see inside the house. We always have two curtains. One which is a little bit transparent and lets daylight in. We keep it covering our window the whole day. But if it gets dark outside and you leave the light on, strangers can still look inside at night. So we have a second curtain, which is thicker. It protects us from looks from outside, and as well it is useful to keep the room dark while sleeping.

More information about Austria

My experience in Freesia was very enlightening and showed me a lot about this part of Holland. Before travelling here I was unaware of the cycling culture, and only associated canals running through the street with Venice, Italy. The laidback atmosphere and the attitude of the locals appeals to me and  after living here for two weeks, it is somewhere I would like to live in the future.

Art

ART

               

“to be normal is good enough”

The Belvedere museum is located to the Landgoed Oranjewoud. The building has been structured above of a canal. The idea was to seem like a brick which is the characteristic material for Frisians to build their houses. Like any other building in Friesland the museum is seems to be a part of the natural scenery. The art work inside is have been made by Frisians topical artists who lived and worked in Friesland.

The paintings had the characteristic simplicity of the Landscape and our tour guide confirmed that was the artist’s purpose. Their thought was “to be good is good enough” Most of them were farmers and interested in daily life and of course Landscape.

You can see in the pictures below how the artists were inspired by the flat earth landscape.

                                                                                                                                        Henkde Vries

                                                                                                    Jan Mankes

Webquest

Inspired by the landscape, the art, music and identity we've made a webquest. Students get a task on the webquest.

webquest

Public spaces

We've captured the sound of the public spaces in Friesland. All the sounds became one song.

In the city Dokkum we've videotaped the 'normal' live. We call it the street view. On the video we see people on the street and on the terrace. 

School

We've made an lesson about the energy in Friesland. It's about the history of the use of energy and the windenergy.

powerpoint

background information energy

Landscape

We had a lecture about the Frisian landscape. You can defided Friesland in three types of landscape:

• North: there are dykes and kwelders and long fields to produce potatoes etc.
• South-west: there are lakes created by the excavation of peat.
• East: it's above sealevel, you can find forests here.

Other features of the landscape of Friesland are the Terpen.

The church of Hegebeintum is still standing on a Terp

One thing we noticed was the organisation of the landscape. Almost everything is man made. Like the dykes, the fields between the dykes, the lakes were created throught the excavtion of peat and in the East the woodstrips are getting restored.

Landschap in the east of Friesland were peat was excaved and now the lakes are remained

It’s obvious Friesians like everyone else took advantage of all kinds of things that nature had to offer them, like forms they used in structures and of course any kinds of material. They managed to transform sea areas to fertile land after many years of efforts and hard work. 

The dykes are needed to protect the land

The simplicity and the organization is a characteristic of Frisians daily life just like the simplicity of the landscape. Cycling is Frisians common way to move to the city in any season in any time of the day in any kind of weather.

An impression of the landscape we've cycled through:

The Flat earth and the giant sky are meeting to create a horizontal line. The viewer of Friesland’s landscape gains the sense of balance and also they might consider themselves as minus existence in front of this view.

Terschelling

We also have visited the Isle of Terschelling. In the morning we went to rent bikes and made a tour around the island. The landscape is rich and manifold. Sand, dunes, woods, hills and lakes. You can see this variety also on the flag.

Poem of the Flag

Red are the roofs

Blue is the sky

Yellow are the dunes

Green is the grass

White is the beach

These are the coulours of Terschelling

By the translation of the Flag you already can see that Terschelling has a different landscape. Through pictures we want to show you the different types of landscap in Terschelling.

Artwork on Terschelling

Inspired by the landscape of Terschelling we have created some artwork:

"From the sea for the sea"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTGVF-J8E4

"Tracing the Tide"

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16v0pyHfd2Ehz6flJfstVNzmGwqw5TuIxcAiIa4FQ9yA/present?ueb=true#slide=id.p13

Traditions

A small video will give you an impression of some things which are 'typical' Frisian in the eyes of dutch people. Things like: the Frisian soccer team: Heerenveen, Fierljeppen, Kaatsen, the eleven city skate tour and Frisian bites.

On the background you here the tune of the Frisian Folksong.

Religion

In the landscape of Friesland we already saw a lot of churches. The first thing we've concluded out of this, was that Friesland must be a religious region. The figures show that there's a secularisation going on in the Netherlands. But wat does that mean for Friesland?

A typically view in Friesland, churchtowers in the landscape

In Friesland the average of people going to the church lies higher then the rest of the Netherlands.

Since the christinisation of the Netherlands, Friesland always kept going there own way. They wouldn't kneel for a supressor. They 'only kneel for God'. So the christinasation went on but the Frisians killed Bonifatius and kept there own religion but there were influences of christianity in it.

The church has a special place in the Frisian landscape. You can see it at the way they are built on the Terpen. The village was built around the church. It was a place for Frisians to come together.

Church on a Terp

An Impression of the Frisian traditions.

Language

For the foreign students it is difficult to say something about the Frisian language. But the overall impression was that the language is very important in Friesland. Why we've come to this conclusion? We've had to do an interview with people to record the Frisian language. Everybode spoke Frisian...

Images of Friesland and the explanation of the working of a windmill in Frisia

Learn Frisia with this movie!

History

In the past two weeks we have seen, visit and experienced a lot in Friesland. We have a good image about some things that are important to Friesland.

History

In the Provence House you can go back to the roots of Friesland, because in the Statenzaal there are paintings of the 'history' of Friesland.

Painting of St. Bonifatius                                Frisians are getting knighted

The paintings are about important moments in the history of Friesland. Interesting to know is how the Frisians look at their history. Because St. Bonifatius was killed by Frisians, but the painting shows how the Frisians are carefully listening to him. Here the Frisians look at him with pride. 

It's an example of how proud the Frisians are of their history.



Old meets new in the Provence house



An other example we can find in the archives of Tresoar. Here all of the Frisian history is stored. There are books of the university of Franeker. It doesn't excist anymore. I was closed down at the beginning of the 19th century. The books were sold as well. But to secure the Frisian history, Friesland bought it back. An other example of how pride the Frisians are of their history.







Books of the university of Franeker



Another thing the Frisians are proud of is the Planetarium of Franeker. It's special because it's still working. Also it's special because the man who has build it, Eise Eisinga, made it whitout any lectures about it. He didn't went to the university. He was an autodidact. 

Maybe that's another feature about the Frisian identity, they do what they want. They won't let anybody tell them what to do.





The Flat Earth Experience

 

Millions of years ago mankind lived in caves. People that lived in these caves needed to be with other people. Obviously a man who is a member of a group will feel safe and protected. People lived in groups and each one had specific characteristics. One of the main characteristics was the technique they used to hunt. Another one was the code which they used in order to communicate and the way they organized their defense in case of attack by dangerous enemies. Finally another important characteristic was how people’s behavior was influenced by nature.

According to archaeological findings, we can now assume that those groups coexisted in the same cave. Can this coexistence and the characteristics above define those groups’ identity? Maybe they do, but do we know for sure?

Has the need for people to belong somewhere changed over the years? I think not. I believe that the notion of identity is complicated. Maybe some people believe that identity in our days is more important than ever. Is that true or according to globalization, identity isn’t an issue to consider about? Finally, is identity an easy matter to realize?

The way of understanding someone’s identity is not only to research about it but also to have the opportunity to mingle with the specific nation you are interested in. During the last two weeks Irish, Greek and Dutch students had the opportunity to participate in the IP program visit in Friesland in the Netherlands trying to find out which elements are defined someone’s identity.

"We had the Flat Earth Experience"

On this blog we will share the impressions we had during the last two weeks. Subjects that were important are: Identitity, Landscape, History, Language and Art. We will shine our light on these subjects how we've experienced them.