This one was a large mountain to climb
I have just discovered that the last Foreign Socks part is from two years ago. Two years! If someone asked me, I’d probably say this was a few months ago or so, but one thing I noticed is that Corona messed up my sense of time pretty badly. It is almost unreal.
Granted, the whole pandemic is unreal for the largest part of us – no one had any experience with such a drama before.
Some days ago I was sitting outside in a Café and I was wondering how normal the masks have gotten in the streetscape. Usual for Tokyo maybe, but I felt that I am deeply missing the faces of the people.
The laughs, the smiles, all kind of things which are normal in our society and which are an important part for my projects also. Even after all those months of adaption I’m struggling with conversations outside, because often I have to ask twice, talk louder and have to listen much more carefully
UF got cancelled in 2020 and 2021, but I wanted to have at least one clip of that kind, when the numbers of infections fall and more people have been vaccinated. So I planned this part of Foreign Socks – as a kind of new start? No. Continuing from where I got stuck? Yes, maybe.
What I underestimated was the loss of self confidence, the nervousness and the technical practice. Although I did a list of items I should not forget, I saw afterwards that I missed a button on my lavalier microphone, so in the end I only got the audio straight of the camera. Double Facepalm 
But now to the good news! After three cancelled planned appointments, Chiara and I finally managed to meet in a small town near Cologne to get this project done. I hardly slept the night before and I was on too much coffee, but it almost felt like the first time again. And this was exciting!
We chilled in the pedestrian zone and had much fun with the people around us. I needed some time to get my mouth open, but soon after the first girl I made my jokes again and found my elements. This is what I really love to do: Social contacts, talk to people, have a good time with some laughs, lying on the ground in public to capture socks and feet and bring some kind of normality to the things which aren’t quite normal or usual at all.
In the end we got away with five pairs of socks, many funny and interesting conversations and the hope that everything will be better soon for all of us. I was very happy and satisfied that day and as always: A big “Thank you” to the girls! Without them such clips weren’t possible 