Wow, what a month!
It is hard to believe that May Term is over already! It seems like we just got here in Marburg. But anyway, I promised to tell you about our last excursion, so...
On Thursday, we had a full day of touring Weimar and Eisenach with a group that included us Wartburgers as well as about 10 or so other students from speak+write. It was a lot of fun and we learned alot about both of the cities and their historical backgrounds. Weimar is famous for being the home of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for several years after he was brought there by one of the ruling dukes, who wanted to put Weimar on the map. Hans Christian Anderson also lived in Weimar for a time, in addition to another German author Schiller. In Eisenach, we had just enough time to climb up to the Wartburg castle and take a tour. It was pretty neat and I was impressed at the size of the inside of the fortress, I did not know that it was inclosed like it was with a sizeable courtyard area. It was also cool to see Luther´s room, where he translated the New Testament from Greek into German in only 10 months! Plus, you know, if we had been in Germany and not seen the Wartburg, there would have been something wrong... ;)
Friday was our last day of class where we all took our final tests and then did our presentations for our projects that we had been working on the past few weeks. After that, we were able to wind down a little, finish packing, and visit our favorite spots in Marburg before we left our temporary home. Now, the people in our group that were flying back right away with Frau Losch, left for the U.S. at about 12:45pm Germany time, so they should be back in Chicago by now. I hope they made it! Others in our group are staying on for a week or two, to visit friends here in Germany or in another European country. I am actually staying on for quite a while here in Deutschland as I will be studying German at a Goethe Institut in Göttingen starting in June. I am getting pretty excited about it already! But I am sad, because today was my last day in Marburg and I miss it already, though I have not even left.
Well, that about wraps up my Germany May Term Blog! But first I want to give a quick shout-out to all my May Term members--Frau Losch, Kristen, Eric, Debi, Luke, Janet, Sarah J., August, Margie, and Sarah M.! Thanks for the great memories and the fun times! I missed you guys already today, because Marburg was not the same without you all!
Again, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great summer and I will see you Wartburgers in the fall!
Tschüs!
Jolene
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A Jail for Students? Hmm. . .
Guten Nachmittag! (even though it´s morning back in the States)
Yesterday we took a quick day trip to the city of Heidelberg. We left class about an hour early in order to get more out of our day in the city. We arrived at around 2:00 in the afternoon and met our guide for a tour of the Schloss (castle) for which the city is known for.
Our tour guide Valerie, who is originally from Britain, had come to Germany in her 20s, met a nice German man, got married, and stayed here! She explained that she knew no German when she first came, but quickly learned the language through her immersion experience. She was full of information about the city and the castle, so we had an enjoyable time!
The castle is located at the top of a very large hill (like most castles in Germany), so we got more exercise again by climbing 315 steps to the top (there was also a tram for those who did not feel like breaking a sweat). What made it a little more exhausting was that someone had numbered each step all the way up, so you always knew exactly how far you had to go, which was not always that comforting. . . At the top we were treated with a gorgeous view of the city and the large hills that surround it from several sides. We also had a great view of the Neckar River that runs through the city. It looked like a postcard picture, it was so pretty and I think that terrace of the castle ranks up there as one of my favorite places here. The castle itself is actually partially destroyed thanks to an invasion of the French several hundred years ago as well as a lightning strike that started a fire and destroyed what was not destroyed by the French...but there are still some rooms and partial rooms left as well as statues on the outside of the walls within the courtyard. Another highlight of the Schloss is the Grossen Faß, or large wine barrel. It is actually the largest in the world! This barrel was HUGE! It could hold over 200, 000 liters of wine and was only filled up completely three times.
Another thing I found interesting was that many famous people have actually visited the castle and city. The German poet and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the city and Schloss and wrote poems about the place. There is also a story about a woman named Marianne that fell in love with Goethe during his stay and wrote poetry with/for him. But she was already married and Goethe just up and left her and never saw her again. There is a famous poem of hers that is on a plaque near the castle for everyone to read, and some even wonder if she actually wrote some of the poems that have been attributed to Goethe. But we do not know for sure.
Other famous visitors include the composer Robert Schumann and writer Mark Twain. Twain actually spent a day in the student jail to see what it was like. Speaking of students, Heidelberg is also famous for its university that was started by monks centuries ago. In the 19th century they had what was called the Studentkarzer, or student jail, where students went when they were charged with minor offences, like public intoxication. They were served bread and water for the first day or two (I heard varying reports over how long the bread and water lasted), but afterwards they could have friends bring them food and drink and visit with them. It almost sounded more like party house then a "prision". The duration of their stay depended on the offence, but most lasted between 1-7 days. In the prision´s rooms, of which there are only five, the walls are COVERED with 19th century graffiti. It was pretty cool to see. Many fraternity insignia were painted on or carved into the walls and window frames, along with poems, cartoons and other such scandalous things. That is why Twain wanted to visit the jail, because he wanted to see what it was all about and what the students did there. He wrote about his adventures in Heidelberg and Europe in his book A Tramp Abroad, which I sort of want to read now...
Anyway, after our tour of castle and a little bit of the city we had free time to grab dinner and check out the street shops in their pedestrain zone. That is one thing I will miss about Germany- it seems like most cities have pedestrian zones with little shops for ice cream, gummi bears, souvenirs, books, Italian bistros, and lots of other things! We then piled back on the bus and headed back to Marburg. It was a short little trip, but it was not too hectic and was a little more relaxing than others we have taken.
Today was our last real day of classes, since tomorrow is....just guess...another holiday! No school tomorrow because we think it is the celebration of Jesus´s Transfiguration (but we are not quite sure). I think I already said this, but in Germany they have national holidays for several religious ones, which is sort of funny, because apparently Germans attend church less frequently than Americans do, yet they get all these days off of work and school. . . So tomorrow we are going to Weimar and Eisenach with Speak+Write, so we will be with other students from our classes here as well. It is an all day affair, as we are leaving at 7:00 and probably will not get back until after 8:00. Then we have our final test and our project presentations on Friday! You Wartburgers are lucky you have finals tomorrow and then you are done. I don´t think that is fair. . . :)
I will try to write one more post on Friday to wrap this whole experience up and fill you in on the details of our last trip.
I wish everyone back in Waverly good luck with finals tomorrow and that they had a great May Term on campus! Also, those May Term Abroad trips that are back in the States already, I hope you had as much fun in your foreign country as I did!
Tschüs!!!
Yesterday we took a quick day trip to the city of Heidelberg. We left class about an hour early in order to get more out of our day in the city. We arrived at around 2:00 in the afternoon and met our guide for a tour of the Schloss (castle) for which the city is known for.
Our tour guide Valerie, who is originally from Britain, had come to Germany in her 20s, met a nice German man, got married, and stayed here! She explained that she knew no German when she first came, but quickly learned the language through her immersion experience. She was full of information about the city and the castle, so we had an enjoyable time!
The castle is located at the top of a very large hill (like most castles in Germany), so we got more exercise again by climbing 315 steps to the top (there was also a tram for those who did not feel like breaking a sweat). What made it a little more exhausting was that someone had numbered each step all the way up, so you always knew exactly how far you had to go, which was not always that comforting. . . At the top we were treated with a gorgeous view of the city and the large hills that surround it from several sides. We also had a great view of the Neckar River that runs through the city. It looked like a postcard picture, it was so pretty and I think that terrace of the castle ranks up there as one of my favorite places here. The castle itself is actually partially destroyed thanks to an invasion of the French several hundred years ago as well as a lightning strike that started a fire and destroyed what was not destroyed by the French...but there are still some rooms and partial rooms left as well as statues on the outside of the walls within the courtyard. Another highlight of the Schloss is the Grossen Faß, or large wine barrel. It is actually the largest in the world! This barrel was HUGE! It could hold over 200, 000 liters of wine and was only filled up completely three times.
Another thing I found interesting was that many famous people have actually visited the castle and city. The German poet and author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the city and Schloss and wrote poems about the place. There is also a story about a woman named Marianne that fell in love with Goethe during his stay and wrote poetry with/for him. But she was already married and Goethe just up and left her and never saw her again. There is a famous poem of hers that is on a plaque near the castle for everyone to read, and some even wonder if she actually wrote some of the poems that have been attributed to Goethe. But we do not know for sure.
Other famous visitors include the composer Robert Schumann and writer Mark Twain. Twain actually spent a day in the student jail to see what it was like. Speaking of students, Heidelberg is also famous for its university that was started by monks centuries ago. In the 19th century they had what was called the Studentkarzer, or student jail, where students went when they were charged with minor offences, like public intoxication. They were served bread and water for the first day or two (I heard varying reports over how long the bread and water lasted), but afterwards they could have friends bring them food and drink and visit with them. It almost sounded more like party house then a "prision". The duration of their stay depended on the offence, but most lasted between 1-7 days. In the prision´s rooms, of which there are only five, the walls are COVERED with 19th century graffiti. It was pretty cool to see. Many fraternity insignia were painted on or carved into the walls and window frames, along with poems, cartoons and other such scandalous things. That is why Twain wanted to visit the jail, because he wanted to see what it was all about and what the students did there. He wrote about his adventures in Heidelberg and Europe in his book A Tramp Abroad, which I sort of want to read now...
Anyway, after our tour of castle and a little bit of the city we had free time to grab dinner and check out the street shops in their pedestrain zone. That is one thing I will miss about Germany- it seems like most cities have pedestrian zones with little shops for ice cream, gummi bears, souvenirs, books, Italian bistros, and lots of other things! We then piled back on the bus and headed back to Marburg. It was a short little trip, but it was not too hectic and was a little more relaxing than others we have taken.
Today was our last real day of classes, since tomorrow is....just guess...another holiday! No school tomorrow because we think it is the celebration of Jesus´s Transfiguration (but we are not quite sure). I think I already said this, but in Germany they have national holidays for several religious ones, which is sort of funny, because apparently Germans attend church less frequently than Americans do, yet they get all these days off of work and school. . . So tomorrow we are going to Weimar and Eisenach with Speak+Write, so we will be with other students from our classes here as well. It is an all day affair, as we are leaving at 7:00 and probably will not get back until after 8:00. Then we have our final test and our project presentations on Friday! You Wartburgers are lucky you have finals tomorrow and then you are done. I don´t think that is fair. . . :)
I will try to write one more post on Friday to wrap this whole experience up and fill you in on the details of our last trip.
I wish everyone back in Waverly good luck with finals tomorrow and that they had a great May Term on campus! Also, those May Term Abroad trips that are back in the States already, I hope you had as much fun in your foreign country as I did!
Tschüs!!!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Free Weekend!
OK, so I am back.
I started working some more on my project that is due Friday for my class at speak+write. Most of the different classes have a different theme to center their projects around. Our theme is "the unconventional traveler," so most of the students in my class are writing about a topic from a particular city or site we have visited this May Term or are comparing something from different cities and explaining how they are different or alike. I know in one of the other classes they have the theme of castles and each student is writing and presenting about a particular castle in Germany that they like or found interesting in some respect. So this week should be "fun" because we have to finish up our projects in between visiting Heidelberg for half the day tomorrow and our day trip to Weimar and Eisenach on Thursday! ah! where has the time gone?!
Anyway, back to the main topic of this post. Our free weekend. So, the purpose of the weekend was to give us the opportunity to explore other cities and sights in Germany that we did not see with the group or wanted to take a closer look at. Since we all had extra days on our German Rail Passes, we could travel to practically anywhere in the country that we wanted to! Two others and myself decided to visit the city of Dresden for the weekend. After the lovely business of booking a hostel room, getting train reservations, and gaining posession of 2 maps of the city ( one from 1989 and another from a travel book), we were ready to head out after classes got out early Friday afternoon. We took a regional train to Frankfurt and then an intercity one from there to Dresden, which was rather long at about 4 hrs ( it´s actually kinda exciting traveling by ourselves, it makes it look like we knew what we were doing :) ) But we all made it in one piece to the city and found our hostel easily enough, thanks to the handy directions the hostel gave us. It also helped that it was only 10min. by foot from the train station. The hostel was pretty nice and I was impressed that we were able to make our plans work without any major hiccups.
The next morning we treated ourselves to sleeping in til the late hour of 8:30 ish and decided to take on the city. We found a pedestrian zone right on the other side of the train station and figured out by looking at the map that we could walk to everything we wanted to see throughout the weekend and would not need to buy any bus or S-Bahn tickets. Yay for not having to rely on public transportation!
As we walked through the plaza, we found out they were having some sort of celebration and came to find out that they were having a Dixieland festival! This amused my fellow student Sarah to no end, seeing as how she is from Texas, and of course she had to comment on their musical selections throughout the day and explain how they really weren´t dixie songs, but rather some other genre. . . but it was funny just the same. Our first stop was the Kreuzkirche, which seemed very plain and simple compared to others we had visited during the month, but was nice in its own right. We climbed to the top of the tower and had a great view of the city until we saw that the cuppola of the Frauenkirche was taller, so we knew we had to go climb that one next. . . but first we stopped for a brunch lunch at an Italian place and had some yummy pizza. I decided to be brave and try a spinach, onion, and egg one. It was really good! It is somewhat surprising how many Italian restaurants they have in Germany, but so far they have all been delicious!
Then we stopped to call Frau Losch to let her know that we had made it safe and sound to Dresden, as she had other plans for the free weekend and was busy pursuing those interests. After that we head to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister or the Art gallery of the old masters. The gallery is part of a museum complex that is complete with a courtyard garden and waterfalls on the inner side of the buildings. The scene was gorgeous, but we decided to wait until after our visit to the gallery to sit outside and unfortunately it began to rain while we were inside so we did not get to check it out after all. :( The museum, however, was great! It had housed works by many of the same artists as did the Alte Pinakothek in München. We saw a whole room full of large Reubens paintings, a couple Dürers, many French and Dutch paintings, and the work of art that Dresden is famous for...Raphael´s Sistine Madonna. Now, you might be thinking, "I have never heard of this piece," but trust me you have seen it, or at least part of it. Follow this link (or copy and paste it, if I cannot get the URL to work)
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/IMC/tfa487~Sistine-Madonna-c-1513-1514-Posters.jpg
and you should see an image of it. Make sure you look for the two creatures at the bottom of the painting. You might be surprised!
After the gallery, we walked around the city some more and oggled at the old buildings that were restored after the 1945 bombings of the city. There is also a nice little area where we sat on a bench for a while that overlooked the Elbe river. We could see the 4 different bridges that cross it as well as many of the older buildings. It probably was one of my favorite places of this trip. Before it got too late, we headed to the Frauenkirche. Now, this church was destroyed in the bombings and had just recently been complete with restorations in 2005, as it stood in ruins for several decades. What I found interesting, was that we could not enter the main portion of the church, but could only take the stairs that led to the cuppola. On our way up, though, they had glass viewing areas where we could look down into the church from the sides and even from the sides of the dome once we were high enough. I think they may have had a concert that night at the church and that is why we could only go up it, but I could be wrong. It was totally worth seeing, though, as the view from the top was unbelievable. (and much better than that from the Kreuzkirche) We probably stayed up there for 20 min. or so making our way around the guard rail looking at the view of the city. It truly is a beautiful city that has tried hard to reshape itself after its near destruction in World War II and after unification in 1990 (its an eastern city). After a late supper and a little more wandering around the old portion of the city, we sort of got lost on our way back to the hostel, but eventually we found it by consulting our almost 20-year-old map and asking for directions. I believe the quote of the night was, "everything looks so different in the dark." :)
Sunday morning we slept in, checked out of the hostel and packed up our luggage in a locker at the train station, so we would not have to lug it around with us before we left. We did not have a lot of time left in the city so we went to the Stadt (city) Museum before our departure in the early afternoon. It was an interesting museum, but we only had time for 2 of its 4 floors of the history of Dresden. It was a nice alternative to all of the art galleries I had been visiting lately. Plus, it gave me a chance to try and read the German descriptions of the artifacts and exhibitions before I would give up and read the English translation. :)
We then took the long train ride back to Marburg and had a good night´s rest before class this morning. Now, you might be wondering what the rest of our class did. Well, since the Wartburg choir is on tour this May Term, one of their last stops was in Eisenach, Germany, so most of the rest of our class went to their concert Friday evening and came back late that night/early the next morning to Marburg. They then enjoyed a relaxing weekend in our "home" city, which I believe involved paddle-boats on the Lahn River, shopping excursions, and sleep-overs at each others host families from what I´m told. It sounded like they had a great weekend as well.
Now, I better go work some more on my project, otherwise I do not know when I will have time to!
I hope all is well in Waverly and that you are all ready for finals and graduation this weekend!
Ciao!
On Sunday,
I started working some more on my project that is due Friday for my class at speak+write. Most of the different classes have a different theme to center their projects around. Our theme is "the unconventional traveler," so most of the students in my class are writing about a topic from a particular city or site we have visited this May Term or are comparing something from different cities and explaining how they are different or alike. I know in one of the other classes they have the theme of castles and each student is writing and presenting about a particular castle in Germany that they like or found interesting in some respect. So this week should be "fun" because we have to finish up our projects in between visiting Heidelberg for half the day tomorrow and our day trip to Weimar and Eisenach on Thursday! ah! where has the time gone?!
Anyway, back to the main topic of this post. Our free weekend. So, the purpose of the weekend was to give us the opportunity to explore other cities and sights in Germany that we did not see with the group or wanted to take a closer look at. Since we all had extra days on our German Rail Passes, we could travel to practically anywhere in the country that we wanted to! Two others and myself decided to visit the city of Dresden for the weekend. After the lovely business of booking a hostel room, getting train reservations, and gaining posession of 2 maps of the city ( one from 1989 and another from a travel book), we were ready to head out after classes got out early Friday afternoon. We took a regional train to Frankfurt and then an intercity one from there to Dresden, which was rather long at about 4 hrs ( it´s actually kinda exciting traveling by ourselves, it makes it look like we knew what we were doing :) ) But we all made it in one piece to the city and found our hostel easily enough, thanks to the handy directions the hostel gave us. It also helped that it was only 10min. by foot from the train station. The hostel was pretty nice and I was impressed that we were able to make our plans work without any major hiccups.
The next morning we treated ourselves to sleeping in til the late hour of 8:30 ish and decided to take on the city. We found a pedestrian zone right on the other side of the train station and figured out by looking at the map that we could walk to everything we wanted to see throughout the weekend and would not need to buy any bus or S-Bahn tickets. Yay for not having to rely on public transportation!
As we walked through the plaza, we found out they were having some sort of celebration and came to find out that they were having a Dixieland festival! This amused my fellow student Sarah to no end, seeing as how she is from Texas, and of course she had to comment on their musical selections throughout the day and explain how they really weren´t dixie songs, but rather some other genre. . . but it was funny just the same. Our first stop was the Kreuzkirche, which seemed very plain and simple compared to others we had visited during the month, but was nice in its own right. We climbed to the top of the tower and had a great view of the city until we saw that the cuppola of the Frauenkirche was taller, so we knew we had to go climb that one next. . . but first we stopped for a brunch lunch at an Italian place and had some yummy pizza. I decided to be brave and try a spinach, onion, and egg one. It was really good! It is somewhat surprising how many Italian restaurants they have in Germany, but so far they have all been delicious!
Then we stopped to call Frau Losch to let her know that we had made it safe and sound to Dresden, as she had other plans for the free weekend and was busy pursuing those interests. After that we head to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister or the Art gallery of the old masters. The gallery is part of a museum complex that is complete with a courtyard garden and waterfalls on the inner side of the buildings. The scene was gorgeous, but we decided to wait until after our visit to the gallery to sit outside and unfortunately it began to rain while we were inside so we did not get to check it out after all. :( The museum, however, was great! It had housed works by many of the same artists as did the Alte Pinakothek in München. We saw a whole room full of large Reubens paintings, a couple Dürers, many French and Dutch paintings, and the work of art that Dresden is famous for...Raphael´s Sistine Madonna. Now, you might be thinking, "I have never heard of this piece," but trust me you have seen it, or at least part of it. Follow this link (or copy and paste it, if I cannot get the URL to work)
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/IMC/tfa487~Sistine-Madonna-c-1513-1514-Posters.jpg
and you should see an image of it. Make sure you look for the two creatures at the bottom of the painting. You might be surprised!
After the gallery, we walked around the city some more and oggled at the old buildings that were restored after the 1945 bombings of the city. There is also a nice little area where we sat on a bench for a while that overlooked the Elbe river. We could see the 4 different bridges that cross it as well as many of the older buildings. It probably was one of my favorite places of this trip. Before it got too late, we headed to the Frauenkirche. Now, this church was destroyed in the bombings and had just recently been complete with restorations in 2005, as it stood in ruins for several decades. What I found interesting, was that we could not enter the main portion of the church, but could only take the stairs that led to the cuppola. On our way up, though, they had glass viewing areas where we could look down into the church from the sides and even from the sides of the dome once we were high enough. I think they may have had a concert that night at the church and that is why we could only go up it, but I could be wrong. It was totally worth seeing, though, as the view from the top was unbelievable. (and much better than that from the Kreuzkirche) We probably stayed up there for 20 min. or so making our way around the guard rail looking at the view of the city. It truly is a beautiful city that has tried hard to reshape itself after its near destruction in World War II and after unification in 1990 (its an eastern city). After a late supper and a little more wandering around the old portion of the city, we sort of got lost on our way back to the hostel, but eventually we found it by consulting our almost 20-year-old map and asking for directions. I believe the quote of the night was, "everything looks so different in the dark." :)
Sunday morning we slept in, checked out of the hostel and packed up our luggage in a locker at the train station, so we would not have to lug it around with us before we left. We did not have a lot of time left in the city so we went to the Stadt (city) Museum before our departure in the early afternoon. It was an interesting museum, but we only had time for 2 of its 4 floors of the history of Dresden. It was a nice alternative to all of the art galleries I had been visiting lately. Plus, it gave me a chance to try and read the German descriptions of the artifacts and exhibitions before I would give up and read the English translation. :)
We then took the long train ride back to Marburg and had a good night´s rest before class this morning. Now, you might be wondering what the rest of our class did. Well, since the Wartburg choir is on tour this May Term, one of their last stops was in Eisenach, Germany, so most of the rest of our class went to their concert Friday evening and came back late that night/early the next morning to Marburg. They then enjoyed a relaxing weekend in our "home" city, which I believe involved paddle-boats on the Lahn River, shopping excursions, and sleep-overs at each others host families from what I´m told. It sounded like they had a great weekend as well.
Now, I better go work some more on my project, otherwise I do not know when I will have time to!
I hope all is well in Waverly and that you are all ready for finals and graduation this weekend!
Ciao!
On Sunday,
Eau de Cologne
Schönen Tag!
Sorry I have not written in almost a week! I though maybe one of my fellow students was going to type something up for you, but I guess not. Anway, the time has flown by and we are looking at our last week here in our home away from home in Marburg. But I suppose I should catch you all up on what has happened this past week, starting with last Wednesday.
We woke up early to catch our 7:00 bus to Cologne (Köln in German). This was just for us Wartburgers so our bus was not that full with only the ten of us and Frau Losch. We got there sooner than expected and thus had a little more free time than was previously planned. We walked around the Fussgänger area at all the shops and what not and marvelled at how large the Kölner Dom (cathedral) while we waited until it was time to meet with our guide through the cathedral as well as the city. We met our guide, Stephan, and did a quick run-through of the Dom as they were going to have to close part of it off fairly soon for a noon service that day. The inside was huge! It had several separate little chapels off to the sides and several different religious leaders of bygone days are also buried there. One interesting thing that I found out on our trip was that supposedly the three wisemen from the story of Jesus´ birth are buried there! We saw this large coffin that looked like it was made of solid gold, but actually only had gold covering on the outside. Our guide never got around to telling us how authentic he believes these remains to be, but he seemed pretty skeptical...Needless to say, the Dom was very impressive and probably one of my favorite churches we have visited so far.
Next we wandered through the old portion of the city while Stephan pointed important buildings and monuments out for us. One that I thought was very different was a church that had been destroyed during the bombings after World War II in 1945. It was left in ruins, but the people built walls around the rubble, so they could still visit the church, without rebuilding it. I thought that this was a very different approach compared to all the restored or unrestored building we had seen so far this trip, especially in Berlin. It was more of a compromise of sorts. Very intriguing.
Unfortunately, I do not remember everything we saw anymore, because we moved pretty fast and everything went so quickly that day that it is starting to become a blur. What I do remember, of course, was the touristy side trip we took to the 4711 Cologne store, where the original cologne had its roots. Several centuries ago, several men from Cologne started bottling a good-smelling liquid that people used to cleanse themselves with since they only bathed every month or two. After this liquid became very popular, people wanted to know the recipe for it, but its inventors would not release its contents. Later, the process through which they made the liquid became known and thus other kinds were called eau de cologne, because it was made in the same fashion as the kind in Cologne! That is why many different perfumes and other ointments have the words eau de cologne on them. So there´s your history lesson for the day!
We also had a little free time after our tour to pursue other interests we had. Some went to the Roman and German Museum (because Köln was founded by the Romans around A.D. 50, I think?), some sat by the Rhine River and enjoyed the beautiful day, while some did a little shopping (for eau de cologne among other things). I did a little shopping actually. I bought some of the original cologne (which is a unisex scent) and visited a music store with Margie, because our guide had pointed the store out as being a good one and we had both been wanting to visit one. I then headed back to the cathedral to take a view more pictures before we had to get going to our next stop at. . .
. . .the chocolate museum!!! We were all very excited for this excursion, needless the say. We had a guided tour through the Lindt chocolate museum which showed us exactly how chocolate is made from the coco bean beginning from its harvestation in the rainforests all the way to where it is made into bars and other shapes. We also looked at the history of chocolate, when it became popular, how much it was originally worth, and what they added to the coco bean to make it taste good before they used sugar. Can you guess what they used? If you said chili, you would be right! I am nor quite sure if I would want to try chili chocolate, but you never know. . . after our tour we all went to the museum shop (they had all sorts of chocolates) to stock up on the goodies that were not too expensive and got ready for the ride back to Marburg.
All in all it was a great day in another great city, though it went by fast.
This past weekend was our free weekend where we could choose where we wanted to go. . .but I´ll write that post in a couple hours. Right now I should go try and get some homework done! I´ll write again soon!
Bis später!
Sorry I have not written in almost a week! I though maybe one of my fellow students was going to type something up for you, but I guess not. Anway, the time has flown by and we are looking at our last week here in our home away from home in Marburg. But I suppose I should catch you all up on what has happened this past week, starting with last Wednesday.
We woke up early to catch our 7:00 bus to Cologne (Köln in German). This was just for us Wartburgers so our bus was not that full with only the ten of us and Frau Losch. We got there sooner than expected and thus had a little more free time than was previously planned. We walked around the Fussgänger area at all the shops and what not and marvelled at how large the Kölner Dom (cathedral) while we waited until it was time to meet with our guide through the cathedral as well as the city. We met our guide, Stephan, and did a quick run-through of the Dom as they were going to have to close part of it off fairly soon for a noon service that day. The inside was huge! It had several separate little chapels off to the sides and several different religious leaders of bygone days are also buried there. One interesting thing that I found out on our trip was that supposedly the three wisemen from the story of Jesus´ birth are buried there! We saw this large coffin that looked like it was made of solid gold, but actually only had gold covering on the outside. Our guide never got around to telling us how authentic he believes these remains to be, but he seemed pretty skeptical...Needless to say, the Dom was very impressive and probably one of my favorite churches we have visited so far.
Next we wandered through the old portion of the city while Stephan pointed important buildings and monuments out for us. One that I thought was very different was a church that had been destroyed during the bombings after World War II in 1945. It was left in ruins, but the people built walls around the rubble, so they could still visit the church, without rebuilding it. I thought that this was a very different approach compared to all the restored or unrestored building we had seen so far this trip, especially in Berlin. It was more of a compromise of sorts. Very intriguing.
Unfortunately, I do not remember everything we saw anymore, because we moved pretty fast and everything went so quickly that day that it is starting to become a blur. What I do remember, of course, was the touristy side trip we took to the 4711 Cologne store, where the original cologne had its roots. Several centuries ago, several men from Cologne started bottling a good-smelling liquid that people used to cleanse themselves with since they only bathed every month or two. After this liquid became very popular, people wanted to know the recipe for it, but its inventors would not release its contents. Later, the process through which they made the liquid became known and thus other kinds were called eau de cologne, because it was made in the same fashion as the kind in Cologne! That is why many different perfumes and other ointments have the words eau de cologne on them. So there´s your history lesson for the day!
We also had a little free time after our tour to pursue other interests we had. Some went to the Roman and German Museum (because Köln was founded by the Romans around A.D. 50, I think?), some sat by the Rhine River and enjoyed the beautiful day, while some did a little shopping (for eau de cologne among other things). I did a little shopping actually. I bought some of the original cologne (which is a unisex scent) and visited a music store with Margie, because our guide had pointed the store out as being a good one and we had both been wanting to visit one. I then headed back to the cathedral to take a view more pictures before we had to get going to our next stop at. . .
. . .the chocolate museum!!! We were all very excited for this excursion, needless the say. We had a guided tour through the Lindt chocolate museum which showed us exactly how chocolate is made from the coco bean beginning from its harvestation in the rainforests all the way to where it is made into bars and other shapes. We also looked at the history of chocolate, when it became popular, how much it was originally worth, and what they added to the coco bean to make it taste good before they used sugar. Can you guess what they used? If you said chili, you would be right! I am nor quite sure if I would want to try chili chocolate, but you never know. . . after our tour we all went to the museum shop (they had all sorts of chocolates) to stock up on the goodies that were not too expensive and got ready for the ride back to Marburg.
All in all it was a great day in another great city, though it went by fast.
This past weekend was our free weekend where we could choose where we wanted to go. . .but I´ll write that post in a couple hours. Right now I should go try and get some homework done! I´ll write again soon!
Bis später!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Castles (for real this time) and Churches
Hey, I am back to finish up talking about Munich like I promised. I believe I left off after Saturday night which brought us to Sunday morning...
We met up with a tour bus that took us out to two castles of King Ludwig II´s, Neuschwanstein and Linderhof that are out in the countryside south of Munich just shy of the Austrian border. Our ride out there was GORGEOUS! When we started seeing the German Alps in front of us I was amazed at how huge they were! And how much snow some of the higher ones still have on them...so before I tell about the castles I should explain a little about their creator. King Ludwig II ruled over Bavaria and was a great patron of the arts. He loved the compositions of Richard Wagner and became his benefactor which enabled him to compose and put on many of his operas such as Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, and his opera cycle of Der Nebel des Ringes. Anyway, Ludwig loved these stories and appeared to live in his own little dream world at times, for people thought him to be mentally insane or not quite all with it. He decided to have 3 castles built to aid him in the process of living out his dream life. Linderhof was the only castle that was completed and that he lived in during his lifetime...and this was our first stop of the day. It is small in comparison to the second castle we visited, but it was cozy and had beautiful gardens and fountains surrounding it. (I would post pictures of these places we are visiting, but I forgot my camera cord....sorry! If you are really interested you could google them!) Also we were not allowed to take pictures in inside the castles...which almost forces you to buy their products! After Linderhof, we had a quick 45 min. stop in a towm called Oberammergau which is located between both castles and where one could buy fairly priced Bavarian souvenirs that were cheaper than in Munich at least....several students bought cuckoo clocks! So your son or daughter may have a surprise for you when they come home! (don´t worry Mom, I did not buy one since we already have one at home :) ) Then we drove for another 45min. to Neuschwanstein, which I will abbreviate as (Neu) from now on because it is too long to type out each time.
At Neu we ate a quick lunch at a hotel recommended by our tour guide Mark (who was decked out is lederhosen and the socks and everything that is stereotypical Bavarian, by the way). Four of us at my table orderedthe Weißwurst, which is a bavarain specialty that is eaten in the morning or for lunch and that you do NOT eat the casing of...because apparently if you do, everyone knows you are a foreigner...or at least that is what we are told. We then had several options to make our way up to the castle. We could walk up, take a horse carriage most of the way, or take a shuttle bus. The last 2 options required a nominal fee, though. About half of us walked and the other half took the shuttle. Now, our info sheet told us that it should take us an average of 40min to walk up, but we made it in about 25?min. I guess all that walking in Berlin paid off... We actually kept pace with the horse carriages that took the same path most of the time. I was a good workout, though. And it started to rain about a third of the way up to hill and I did not have my umbrella...oh uh. But it cooled me off and felt good. Once we got to the top, we had a beautiful view of the mountains around us as well as the valley below and the castle before us. Our tour inside lasted about 35-40min. and during the tour it started raining harder outside and we heard little rumbles of thunder now and then so it was sort of spooky, but it all added to the atmosphere, so it was cool. The inside was decorated with paintings of scenes from Wagner´s operas...like there was a Tristan und Isolde room and a Tannhäuser room. Very neat. Apparently Ludwig never lived in this castle (if I remember correctly) because it was never finished. After our tour some of us quickly ran over to the Marienbrücke, a bridge, where we had an awesome view of the castle with 2 lakes behind it. Plus, the bridge was near a waterfall which was pretty loud actually. So we got some nice rainy shots of the castle and headed back down to meet our tour bus and make our way backto Munich.
Trivia time! Did you know that the castle at Neuschwanstein was Walt Disney´s inspiration for several of his classic cartoon movies? Well, now you know!
So once we got back to Munich, we went to the Höfbrauhaus, where we had resevations, which is world famous for its Bavarian cuisine and show. We were treated to a full buffet of German specialties as well as traditional dances, songs, yodeling, music, and other fun surprises. Several of us students even got to help out. Kristin was chosen to help lead us in the chicken dance and Luke got to help ring the Glocken (bells) for a song. It was lots of fun! but after a few hours of the dancing and singing it got slightly repetitive and it was a little, what you would call "kitschy", but it was all in good fun.
Monday morning came all too soon and we had our last opporutunity to see the sights in Munich before we left. Several of us went to the Residenzmuseum which is a palace of sorts in the city, while others went to the German Museum, which had a lot to due with science and technology. I visited the former. Now, if Neu was a stereotypical castle, than I would call the Residenz a stereotypical palace. That place was HUGE! They had some 70 + rooms on display to look through, including a long hallway that was filled with antique busts of Roman and Greek historical figures and massive paintings on the ceilings. It was overwhelming to look at. Many of the smaller rooms and chambers also had intricate tapestries that were hung on the walls and depicted historical scenes. We also went through the Schatzkammer, the treasury that held the jewels and expensive belongings of the Bavarian royalty. Very old and very shiny...While I probably could have spent all day at the Residenz, we kept moving and visited 3 churches before meeting up with the group. We saw the Frauenkirche, Marienkirche, and the Asamkirche. They were all different in their architectural approach. One was gothic, while the other 2 were baroque. And the Asamkirche was so ornately decorated that it looked like someone exploded a baroque bomb inside of it. There was hardly a smooth surface that did not have an angel or pattern on it! I know that sounds harsh, but it was very different from anything I had seen before...
So, that about wraps up our trip to Munich! Today we had classes again and are busy working on our final projects that are due a week from Friday on our last day of school. Tomorrow we are missing class, actually, to spend a day in Cologne (Köln), so we have to meet at the bus stop at 7:00am! Needless to say, most of us will be getting to bed early tonight.
Also a quick note: there might be one or two other students that will post some of their thoughts about the trip thus far on the blog here, so just to warn you it might not be me...but I trust them...for the most part. :)
Tschüs!
We met up with a tour bus that took us out to two castles of King Ludwig II´s, Neuschwanstein and Linderhof that are out in the countryside south of Munich just shy of the Austrian border. Our ride out there was GORGEOUS! When we started seeing the German Alps in front of us I was amazed at how huge they were! And how much snow some of the higher ones still have on them...so before I tell about the castles I should explain a little about their creator. King Ludwig II ruled over Bavaria and was a great patron of the arts. He loved the compositions of Richard Wagner and became his benefactor which enabled him to compose and put on many of his operas such as Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, and his opera cycle of Der Nebel des Ringes. Anyway, Ludwig loved these stories and appeared to live in his own little dream world at times, for people thought him to be mentally insane or not quite all with it. He decided to have 3 castles built to aid him in the process of living out his dream life. Linderhof was the only castle that was completed and that he lived in during his lifetime...and this was our first stop of the day. It is small in comparison to the second castle we visited, but it was cozy and had beautiful gardens and fountains surrounding it. (I would post pictures of these places we are visiting, but I forgot my camera cord....sorry! If you are really interested you could google them!) Also we were not allowed to take pictures in inside the castles...which almost forces you to buy their products! After Linderhof, we had a quick 45 min. stop in a towm called Oberammergau which is located between both castles and where one could buy fairly priced Bavarian souvenirs that were cheaper than in Munich at least....several students bought cuckoo clocks! So your son or daughter may have a surprise for you when they come home! (don´t worry Mom, I did not buy one since we already have one at home :) ) Then we drove for another 45min. to Neuschwanstein, which I will abbreviate as (Neu) from now on because it is too long to type out each time.
At Neu we ate a quick lunch at a hotel recommended by our tour guide Mark (who was decked out is lederhosen and the socks and everything that is stereotypical Bavarian, by the way). Four of us at my table orderedthe Weißwurst, which is a bavarain specialty that is eaten in the morning or for lunch and that you do NOT eat the casing of...because apparently if you do, everyone knows you are a foreigner...or at least that is what we are told. We then had several options to make our way up to the castle. We could walk up, take a horse carriage most of the way, or take a shuttle bus. The last 2 options required a nominal fee, though. About half of us walked and the other half took the shuttle. Now, our info sheet told us that it should take us an average of 40min to walk up, but we made it in about 25?min. I guess all that walking in Berlin paid off... We actually kept pace with the horse carriages that took the same path most of the time. I was a good workout, though. And it started to rain about a third of the way up to hill and I did not have my umbrella...oh uh. But it cooled me off and felt good. Once we got to the top, we had a beautiful view of the mountains around us as well as the valley below and the castle before us. Our tour inside lasted about 35-40min. and during the tour it started raining harder outside and we heard little rumbles of thunder now and then so it was sort of spooky, but it all added to the atmosphere, so it was cool. The inside was decorated with paintings of scenes from Wagner´s operas...like there was a Tristan und Isolde room and a Tannhäuser room. Very neat. Apparently Ludwig never lived in this castle (if I remember correctly) because it was never finished. After our tour some of us quickly ran over to the Marienbrücke, a bridge, where we had an awesome view of the castle with 2 lakes behind it. Plus, the bridge was near a waterfall which was pretty loud actually. So we got some nice rainy shots of the castle and headed back down to meet our tour bus and make our way backto Munich.
Trivia time! Did you know that the castle at Neuschwanstein was Walt Disney´s inspiration for several of his classic cartoon movies? Well, now you know!
So once we got back to Munich, we went to the Höfbrauhaus, where we had resevations, which is world famous for its Bavarian cuisine and show. We were treated to a full buffet of German specialties as well as traditional dances, songs, yodeling, music, and other fun surprises. Several of us students even got to help out. Kristin was chosen to help lead us in the chicken dance and Luke got to help ring the Glocken (bells) for a song. It was lots of fun! but after a few hours of the dancing and singing it got slightly repetitive and it was a little, what you would call "kitschy", but it was all in good fun.
Monday morning came all too soon and we had our last opporutunity to see the sights in Munich before we left. Several of us went to the Residenzmuseum which is a palace of sorts in the city, while others went to the German Museum, which had a lot to due with science and technology. I visited the former. Now, if Neu was a stereotypical castle, than I would call the Residenz a stereotypical palace. That place was HUGE! They had some 70 + rooms on display to look through, including a long hallway that was filled with antique busts of Roman and Greek historical figures and massive paintings on the ceilings. It was overwhelming to look at. Many of the smaller rooms and chambers also had intricate tapestries that were hung on the walls and depicted historical scenes. We also went through the Schatzkammer, the treasury that held the jewels and expensive belongings of the Bavarian royalty. Very old and very shiny...While I probably could have spent all day at the Residenz, we kept moving and visited 3 churches before meeting up with the group. We saw the Frauenkirche, Marienkirche, and the Asamkirche. They were all different in their architectural approach. One was gothic, while the other 2 were baroque. And the Asamkirche was so ornately decorated that it looked like someone exploded a baroque bomb inside of it. There was hardly a smooth surface that did not have an angel or pattern on it! I know that sounds harsh, but it was very different from anything I had seen before...
So, that about wraps up our trip to Munich! Today we had classes again and are busy working on our final projects that are due a week from Friday on our last day of school. Tomorrow we are missing class, actually, to spend a day in Cologne (Köln), so we have to meet at the bus stop at 7:00am! Needless to say, most of us will be getting to bed early tonight.
Also a quick note: there might be one or two other students that will post some of their thoughts about the trip thus far on the blog here, so just to warn you it might not be me...but I trust them...for the most part. :)
Tschüs!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Castles and a concentration camp
Yes, that title does describe our trip to Munich(München in German) this past weekend. They may seem like two very different places to visit, but we have to make it to diverse locales, right?
Anyway, we just got back from Munich a few hours ago and I decided to be nice and write this up tonight yet before I forget everything we did! (Thanks to my host family, who let me use their computer! Danke Familie Wölk!)
Ok, so after classes Friday afternoon we took a train from Marburg to Frankfurt, which lasted about an hour and then caught another one to Munich which was about 3 hours, so the trip was not too long. And we did not lose anyone this weekend! Yay for sticking together! We got to Munich in the early evening and checked into art hotel munich, out accomodations for the weekend. Apparently, they are redecorating and everything has this modern art feel to it, which I liked actually. Very simplistic with lots of bold colors... So we checked in with 2-3 students per room and we were very excited to have our own bathrooms this time(last weekend we had a communal one that the floor shared). It was also very convenient that our hotel was just a few blocks away from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) so we did not need to rely on public transportation at all. But thankfully no bus or train strikes were occurring this weekend in Munich. . . We were all very hungry by this time and went as a group to the Augustiner Keller, which is the oldest biergarten in Munich! It was awesome! We unanimously decided as a group that this was by far our best meal in Germany. The food was AMAZING! They had delicious German specialties like wiener schnitzel, spätzle, knodeln, rotkohle, and I even tried duck for the first time. And in the words of a fellow classmate, " I am officially a duck fan." :) The atmosphere was cool, too. The place was HUGE, since it was outside and there are wooden tables everywhere with christmas lights in trees to set the mood. There were also two different levels since the ground sloped so we could actually see the tables below us. It was a great night! But if you ever visit it, which I highly recommend, be careful, because those scrumptious-looking pretzels on the table are not free, as we found out when it came time to pay the bill and the waitress asked us how many pretzels we ate... :)
After out traveling and very satisfying meal, we slept good that night only to wake up bright and early the next morning to get some museum visiting done. After breakfast at the hotel, (which was better than in Berlin as well because they had more options to choose from) we headed to the Fussgänger Zone. It is a place were they have many shops and only pedestrians can go through them as public traffic is not allowed. We walked and browsed the shops until the museums opened. We then had a choice to visit the Alte Pinakothek or the Neue Pinakothek (the old or new paining galleries). Three students went to the new one (paintings from the 1700s and 1800s), while the rest of us and Frau Losch went to the old one (1500s-1600s). There Frau Losch showed us two specific paintings by Albrecht Dürer (his portrayal of four of the apostles and a self-portrait) and did a brief presentation/explanation of them which helped us understand his style better. We then did a sprint through the museum, as we had to meet up with the rest of the group shortly thereafter to make it to our train to Dachau in time. The paintings were gorgeous and several of them were very large. We even saw a Da Vinci, several Raphael and Reubens, and one Velasquez painting!
We met up with the group and headed out to the concentration camp at Dachau, which is a little ways outside of Munich. Our tour guide through the camp was actually a young woman from the Ukraine that works through the Protestant Church here in Germany. She spoke English and is working on her German, so our tour was thus conducted in English, to the relief of several Wartburg students, who are still just beginning to learn German. We walked through the museum there which had lots of photographs and a short 22-min. film about the camp. We also went through a prison building, with many cells as well as barracks, that were reconstructed. It was a chilling experience as the whole camp is very open with gravel covering the ground so it almost looks like an abandoned gravel parking lot except with buildings here and there. What was very depressing to me was going through the crematorium and the gas chambers. Now, Dachau was not an extermination camp during World War II, meaning it did not kill its "prisioners". It was a work camp. It did, however, burn the dead bodies that came from other camps in its crematorium and sent people to be executed in other camps. The gas chamber that we went through was never used, apparently, but no one knows why. So. . . now that we were all depressed and feeling very burdened we headed back to Munich for supper at the Chinescher Turm (Chinese Tower), which is not chinese place, but another open-air restaurant type set-up. It only has a chinese-style tower on its grounds. They played typical Bavarian music (Munich is in the German state of Bavaria, which was its own country for many, many years), which lightened our mood a great deal. This restaurant is sort of like cafeteria-style where you go and get your food from people behind a counter and then you go up and pay for it at a cash register. It was also settled in the English Gardens portion of Munich, which we strolled through after our dinner. I suppose it could be compared to Central Park in NYC, but it looked so peaceful with lots of open spaces and people playing music and whatnot. After museums and a trip to Dachau, we were pretty beat and headed to bed, where we could dream of the castles we visited the following day. . .
. . .which I will finish explaining tomorrow since I am getting tired just reliving this weekend! I will retell our rainy adventures to "crazy" King Ludwig´s castles at Neuschwanstein and Linderhof as well as the gorgeous palace of the Residenz.
Bis später!
Anyway, we just got back from Munich a few hours ago and I decided to be nice and write this up tonight yet before I forget everything we did! (Thanks to my host family, who let me use their computer! Danke Familie Wölk!)
Ok, so after classes Friday afternoon we took a train from Marburg to Frankfurt, which lasted about an hour and then caught another one to Munich which was about 3 hours, so the trip was not too long. And we did not lose anyone this weekend! Yay for sticking together! We got to Munich in the early evening and checked into art hotel munich, out accomodations for the weekend. Apparently, they are redecorating and everything has this modern art feel to it, which I liked actually. Very simplistic with lots of bold colors... So we checked in with 2-3 students per room and we were very excited to have our own bathrooms this time(last weekend we had a communal one that the floor shared). It was also very convenient that our hotel was just a few blocks away from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) so we did not need to rely on public transportation at all. But thankfully no bus or train strikes were occurring this weekend in Munich. . . We were all very hungry by this time and went as a group to the Augustiner Keller, which is the oldest biergarten in Munich! It was awesome! We unanimously decided as a group that this was by far our best meal in Germany. The food was AMAZING! They had delicious German specialties like wiener schnitzel, spätzle, knodeln, rotkohle, and I even tried duck for the first time. And in the words of a fellow classmate, " I am officially a duck fan." :) The atmosphere was cool, too. The place was HUGE, since it was outside and there are wooden tables everywhere with christmas lights in trees to set the mood. There were also two different levels since the ground sloped so we could actually see the tables below us. It was a great night! But if you ever visit it, which I highly recommend, be careful, because those scrumptious-looking pretzels on the table are not free, as we found out when it came time to pay the bill and the waitress asked us how many pretzels we ate... :)
After out traveling and very satisfying meal, we slept good that night only to wake up bright and early the next morning to get some museum visiting done. After breakfast at the hotel, (which was better than in Berlin as well because they had more options to choose from) we headed to the Fussgänger Zone. It is a place were they have many shops and only pedestrians can go through them as public traffic is not allowed. We walked and browsed the shops until the museums opened. We then had a choice to visit the Alte Pinakothek or the Neue Pinakothek (the old or new paining galleries). Three students went to the new one (paintings from the 1700s and 1800s), while the rest of us and Frau Losch went to the old one (1500s-1600s). There Frau Losch showed us two specific paintings by Albrecht Dürer (his portrayal of four of the apostles and a self-portrait) and did a brief presentation/explanation of them which helped us understand his style better. We then did a sprint through the museum, as we had to meet up with the rest of the group shortly thereafter to make it to our train to Dachau in time. The paintings were gorgeous and several of them were very large. We even saw a Da Vinci, several Raphael and Reubens, and one Velasquez painting!
We met up with the group and headed out to the concentration camp at Dachau, which is a little ways outside of Munich. Our tour guide through the camp was actually a young woman from the Ukraine that works through the Protestant Church here in Germany. She spoke English and is working on her German, so our tour was thus conducted in English, to the relief of several Wartburg students, who are still just beginning to learn German. We walked through the museum there which had lots of photographs and a short 22-min. film about the camp. We also went through a prison building, with many cells as well as barracks, that were reconstructed. It was a chilling experience as the whole camp is very open with gravel covering the ground so it almost looks like an abandoned gravel parking lot except with buildings here and there. What was very depressing to me was going through the crematorium and the gas chambers. Now, Dachau was not an extermination camp during World War II, meaning it did not kill its "prisioners". It was a work camp. It did, however, burn the dead bodies that came from other camps in its crematorium and sent people to be executed in other camps. The gas chamber that we went through was never used, apparently, but no one knows why. So. . . now that we were all depressed and feeling very burdened we headed back to Munich for supper at the Chinescher Turm (Chinese Tower), which is not chinese place, but another open-air restaurant type set-up. It only has a chinese-style tower on its grounds. They played typical Bavarian music (Munich is in the German state of Bavaria, which was its own country for many, many years), which lightened our mood a great deal. This restaurant is sort of like cafeteria-style where you go and get your food from people behind a counter and then you go up and pay for it at a cash register. It was also settled in the English Gardens portion of Munich, which we strolled through after our dinner. I suppose it could be compared to Central Park in NYC, but it looked so peaceful with lots of open spaces and people playing music and whatnot. After museums and a trip to Dachau, we were pretty beat and headed to bed, where we could dream of the castles we visited the following day. . .
. . .which I will finish explaining tomorrow since I am getting tired just reliving this weekend! I will retell our rainy adventures to "crazy" King Ludwig´s castles at Neuschwanstein and Linderhof as well as the gorgeous palace of the Residenz.
Bis später!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
America vs. Deutschland
Hey,
All is well here in Germany and i am just popping in the write a little bit about some of the differences between America and here that I have noticed thus far. I am not quite sure if I remember what I have already written and since I am too lazy to go back and read it all, so we will just see.
Ok, first of all, I have learned to LOVE the public transportation here! I never thought I would be saying that, but I totally understand now how convenient it is. That is basically how we were able to see everything in Berlin and not spend enormous amounts of money on taxis and whatnot. Also, here in Marburg, it is how I get to most places that are a little too far to walk. From my host family´s house to school it is probably a 15 min. walk which is not bad and I have done it several times. With the bus, it takes about 4 min. The same with the main city center called Rudolphsplatz. I could take a nice half an hour walk and get there, but it is so much simpler with the bus! It is also very clean for public transportation and easy to use. We Wartburg students have a monthly pass that enables us to simply hop on the bus as often as we want throughout the day to get us to our destinations. It also seems much more eco-friendly than everyone driving everywhere in their separate cars. Speaking of the environment...
So far it seems as if the German society takes pride in taking care of their world. They have many different types of recycling bins located in the train stations for people to sort their trash so certain materials can be reused. Also, in grocery stores, most places do not give customers plastic or paper bags, but people have their own cloth bags or baskets which they bring with them to the store to use. I have seen some places with brown paper bags, but of course they are biodegradable to some extent. One more thing about stores is that the prices of goods appear to have tax already factored into thier price, so you do not have to worry about how much more your purchase will be once tax is added on!
Going back to the public transportation for a second, I have learned not to take the bus around 1-2:00pm beacuse there are kids everywhere! In Germany, students only have classes in the morning until about 1:00ish when they can go home and do homework and whatnot. Therefore, the buses are packed with children and teenagers around that time of day.
Other points of interest that I have noticed concern the bathroom. Now, don´t laugh, but there are some differences. For one thing, Germany does not have many public restrooms readily available to use in department stores or other places. For example, at the train station they have a bathroom, but you must pay 50 cents to use it... Also, they conserve water by taking really short showers. Several of my fellow students were instructed by their host families to go in, get wet, turn off the shower, shampoo your hair and whatnot, then turn the water back on and rinse off. I suppose that makes sense, but it is just not something that I am used to doing.
Hmmm . . . nothing else is coming to mind right now except for locking doors. At my host family´s house, they have keys in all of their doors so that they can be locked from the inside. Not just any plain old keys, but more old-fashioned type looking ones. This makes it fun sometimes to get it to lock, because if I move them out or in a little bit I can never quite get them to work right. . .but I am working on it. :)
In other news, we are keeping up with our studies at Speak+Write and are looking forward to our trip to Munich this weekend, now that we have recovered from Berlin! We are leaving Friday afternoon after classes and will get back to Marburg Monday night because Monday is a German holiday called Pfingstmontag, or Pentecost Monday. Yes, not only do Germans have a Pentecost Sunday, but they celebrate Monday as well. This does not mean that all Germans are really religious. . .they just have another day off of work and school. Therefore, we will not have to miss any classes at school, which is probably a good thing.
Well, that is all I have for now. Hopefully, I will find time tomorrow to drop a line and tell a little about what we will be seeing in Munich, so you know what our plans are!
Ciao!
All is well here in Germany and i am just popping in the write a little bit about some of the differences between America and here that I have noticed thus far. I am not quite sure if I remember what I have already written and since I am too lazy to go back and read it all, so we will just see.
Ok, first of all, I have learned to LOVE the public transportation here! I never thought I would be saying that, but I totally understand now how convenient it is. That is basically how we were able to see everything in Berlin and not spend enormous amounts of money on taxis and whatnot. Also, here in Marburg, it is how I get to most places that are a little too far to walk. From my host family´s house to school it is probably a 15 min. walk which is not bad and I have done it several times. With the bus, it takes about 4 min. The same with the main city center called Rudolphsplatz. I could take a nice half an hour walk and get there, but it is so much simpler with the bus! It is also very clean for public transportation and easy to use. We Wartburg students have a monthly pass that enables us to simply hop on the bus as often as we want throughout the day to get us to our destinations. It also seems much more eco-friendly than everyone driving everywhere in their separate cars. Speaking of the environment...
So far it seems as if the German society takes pride in taking care of their world. They have many different types of recycling bins located in the train stations for people to sort their trash so certain materials can be reused. Also, in grocery stores, most places do not give customers plastic or paper bags, but people have their own cloth bags or baskets which they bring with them to the store to use. I have seen some places with brown paper bags, but of course they are biodegradable to some extent. One more thing about stores is that the prices of goods appear to have tax already factored into thier price, so you do not have to worry about how much more your purchase will be once tax is added on!
Going back to the public transportation for a second, I have learned not to take the bus around 1-2:00pm beacuse there are kids everywhere! In Germany, students only have classes in the morning until about 1:00ish when they can go home and do homework and whatnot. Therefore, the buses are packed with children and teenagers around that time of day.
Other points of interest that I have noticed concern the bathroom. Now, don´t laugh, but there are some differences. For one thing, Germany does not have many public restrooms readily available to use in department stores or other places. For example, at the train station they have a bathroom, but you must pay 50 cents to use it... Also, they conserve water by taking really short showers. Several of my fellow students were instructed by their host families to go in, get wet, turn off the shower, shampoo your hair and whatnot, then turn the water back on and rinse off. I suppose that makes sense, but it is just not something that I am used to doing.
Hmmm . . . nothing else is coming to mind right now except for locking doors. At my host family´s house, they have keys in all of their doors so that they can be locked from the inside. Not just any plain old keys, but more old-fashioned type looking ones. This makes it fun sometimes to get it to lock, because if I move them out or in a little bit I can never quite get them to work right. . .but I am working on it. :)
In other news, we are keeping up with our studies at Speak+Write and are looking forward to our trip to Munich this weekend, now that we have recovered from Berlin! We are leaving Friday afternoon after classes and will get back to Marburg Monday night because Monday is a German holiday called Pfingstmontag, or Pentecost Monday. Yes, not only do Germans have a Pentecost Sunday, but they celebrate Monday as well. This does not mean that all Germans are really religious. . .they just have another day off of work and school. Therefore, we will not have to miss any classes at school, which is probably a good thing.
Well, that is all I have for now. Hopefully, I will find time tomorrow to drop a line and tell a little about what we will be seeing in Munich, so you know what our plans are!
Ciao!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Busy Berlin
Hallo Alle!
I am happy to tell you that we all made it back in one piece from Berlin! We had some interesting happenings on our first day there and to make it more fun I will do so by making you guess which of these three things did not happen on our first day in the German capital city. It will be like a blog version of two truths and a lie...so here we go!
1. One of the students from our group missed our connecting train in Kassel.
2. We almost got arrested for being in a restricted area of Berlin of which we were not aware.
3. The city bus company went on strike the morning of our arrival.
But in order to know which one is the lie, you will have to read the rest of the blog...that´s the catch. :) so make your guess now before you read on.
Ready? Here we go. . .
So we left Tuesday morning from the train station in Marburg, even though it was a holiday for everyone else in town. ( The Germans celebrate May 1 as there Labor Day so no one works or goes to school. In Marburg, they actually had a big celebration the night before in the city Marktplatz (marketplace) with live music and tents with food and drinks. A few of us students went to check it out and it was a lot of fun! But they played so much American music!) Anyway, we all made it on the train to Kassel. Once we were there we had to wait 20 or so minutes for our connecting train to Berlin. They announced ,however, that our train would be 20 min. late, so several students went to go grab some breakfast at the food joints around the station. Not too long after they left, our train arrived! The annoucement was wrong! So one the students from our group went to go find them (we had 4min. before it would leave!). Unfortunately, they all made it back except the girl that went to find them! She made it back to the train stop just as the train was pulling away! Not to worry, though, she caught the next train and we only had to wait an hour for her in Berlin. Alles gute!
Once we arrived in Berlin our troubles were not over for we found out that the bus company had gone on strike at midnight the night before! So no buses were running the entire weekend we were in Berlin! Thus, we had to walk. . .alot. . . Thankfully the S-Bahn and U-Bahn were still running and we could get around with them pretty well. (So, no we were not almost arrested; that was the one lie.)
Anyway, we did so much this weekend, I do not know where to begin! We made it to our hostel by taxi late Thursday afternoon and found it to be very nice and accomodating! I had never stayed in a hostel before and was a little anxious to see what we were getting ourselves into, but it was very clean and well maintained. That evening we went to see the musical "Elisabeth" about a famous kaiserin of Germany from the 1800s and her strange life. It was fantastic! Naturally, it was all in German, but Frau Losch had given us synopses of the story so those who do not know German that well (and those of us who do) could follow along easier. It helped alot! But the singing and acting were all very good. I was impressed!
Friday morning we had the great opportunity to meet Herr Breidbach, a former representative to the Bundestag in Berlin. (the equivalent of a U.S. congressman) Frau Losch met him during a visit to Waverly and made plans to meet with him during our stay in Germany! We went with him on a boat tour down the Spree River through Berlin and could see all of the architectural wonders and points of interest. The weather was wonderful that day--sunny with a little breeze that actually turned into a much colder breeze on our way back to the dock, but nevertheless lovely. We were then treated with the classic Berlin food of currywurst from a food stand. It is sort of like a cut up hotdog/sausage with ketchup and curry on top. Mine was very tasty! Because Herr Breidbach was with us, he got us into the Reichtstag (German Parliament building) through a side door and so we did not have to wait in a HUGE line that was formed outside. This was good because it had started to rain. . . The Reichstag was very cool and at the top, one could see all over Berlin. After our visit there, we went to the Brandenberg Tor (Gate) for a quick photo opportunity and continued walking down the main streets of Berlin and seeing embassy buildings and little museums along the way. Herr Breidbach had interesting "insider" stories for us for almost everything we saw and did, so it was a privilege to have him as our personal tour guide. We were treated to a traditional German meal that evening and afterwards went through a quaint part of town with little ice cream shops, clothing stores, and biergartens. Sehr schön! It was a long day and all of us were exhausted from the walking so we slept well that night!
Saturday we had the morning free to see or do whatever we wanted before we met to go to the Pergamon Museum. Most of us students went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) for an hour or two while others decided to sleep in a little from all of our walking the day before. KaDeWe is a HUGE departments store with 7 floors of. . .stuff! It is one of, if not the largest store in Western Europe. The top floor is entirely dedicated to food and one could buy almost anything there! From a 1000 Euro bottle of wine to octopus sandwhiches! Granted, their prices were pretty high, so we did not buy much there. Then we went to the Pergamon Museum and got the opportunity to see ancient Greek and Roman scultures as well as Islamic Art and other various ancient artifacts. Late in the afternoon we went to a Revue show that highlighted acts from Berlin, New York, and Paris that would have been shown during WWII in those cities. The performers sang songs, danced, and did incredible acrobatics! It was very neat! We then did a little souvenir shopping and ate supper at a nearby Italian restaurant with delicious ice cream concoctions. Several of us went to Potsdamer Platz to look around at the large buildings that were built in that eastern part of Berlin that was built up after the wall came down, while others went back to the hostel a little earlier. Some of the buildings were very tall and we noted that one of the buidlings was a semi-circle in shape with offices around the round perimeter so everyone had a window to look out of while they worked. Too bad not all Americans get a window in their office. :)
And yesterday (Sunday) was our last day in Berlin. We checked out of our hostel and went to the main train station ( Hauptbahnhof ) to store our luggage while we saw some last minute sites. We went as a group to Checkpoint Charlie which is the place along the Berlin Wall from which most East Germans tried to escape. It is also the place of many deaths. . .There is a museum there that shows the history of the checkpoint with many pictures and personal stories of triumph and defeat. It was a very sobering experience and made the East-West Germany conflict very real. At the checkpoint sight, several students were able to get their passports stamped by German, American, or Russian "soldiers" that meant they were clear to cross the border. Apparently, these stamps are either the same ones or replicas of the actual stamps they used during the Berlin Wall period. After Checkpoint Charlie, we split up into groups to see some last minute things. I visited the Alte Nationalgalerie which was a museum of 19th Century paintings and sculptures as well as the Berliner Dom (Cathedral). Both were amazing places to visit and to simply stare at the beautiful craftmanship! One could spend days in both of them! I only had a few hours, but it was worth it. I even got to climb the 267 ish steps to the cuppola of the Dom, where I saw an amazing view of the city! The Dom was refurbished after WWII, because it was partially destroyed by bombers, but one would not even be able to tell that it was, they did such an excellent job in restoring it. Other students visited the Jewish Museum, the Museum of German History, and a culture market that was being held in the area. It seemed like everyone had a good time at their respective sites.
We then said "Tschüs!" to Berlin and hopped on the train back to Marburg. However, our train problems were not over yet. At Kassel we found out our connection to Marburg was delayed 2 hours so we took an earlier train an hour later, but it was a regional line, which meant that everyone and their brother were on this train trying to get back to Marburg after the weekend on a Sunday night. Most of us ended up having to stand the hour or so back to Marburg, because there simply was not enough seats for everyone. This surprised me, because I figured they would not allow everyone on the train, since their were people standing in the aisles, sitting on the floor, sitting on the stairs, and luggage everywhere! I know this would not fly in America with lawsuits and safety codes, so it was rather interesting.
I think we are all glad to be back in comparatively quiet Marburg so we can rest for a few days and get some coursework done before next weekend when we visit Munich! Oh, and in case you are wondering, we found out yesterday that the Berlin buses were scheduled to start running again Monday morning. So they did not run for exactly the time period we were in the city. Go figure. ;)
I hope all is well in Waverly and that everyone back in Iowa is enjoying their May Term thus far!
Tschüs!
In my next post: Cultural differences between Germany and America that I did not get to this time and a little more about Marburg!
I am happy to tell you that we all made it back in one piece from Berlin! We had some interesting happenings on our first day there and to make it more fun I will do so by making you guess which of these three things did not happen on our first day in the German capital city. It will be like a blog version of two truths and a lie...so here we go!
1. One of the students from our group missed our connecting train in Kassel.
2. We almost got arrested for being in a restricted area of Berlin of which we were not aware.
3. The city bus company went on strike the morning of our arrival.
But in order to know which one is the lie, you will have to read the rest of the blog...that´s the catch. :) so make your guess now before you read on.
Ready? Here we go. . .
So we left Tuesday morning from the train station in Marburg, even though it was a holiday for everyone else in town. ( The Germans celebrate May 1 as there Labor Day so no one works or goes to school. In Marburg, they actually had a big celebration the night before in the city Marktplatz (marketplace) with live music and tents with food and drinks. A few of us students went to check it out and it was a lot of fun! But they played so much American music!) Anyway, we all made it on the train to Kassel. Once we were there we had to wait 20 or so minutes for our connecting train to Berlin. They announced ,however, that our train would be 20 min. late, so several students went to go grab some breakfast at the food joints around the station. Not too long after they left, our train arrived! The annoucement was wrong! So one the students from our group went to go find them (we had 4min. before it would leave!). Unfortunately, they all made it back except the girl that went to find them! She made it back to the train stop just as the train was pulling away! Not to worry, though, she caught the next train and we only had to wait an hour for her in Berlin. Alles gute!
Once we arrived in Berlin our troubles were not over for we found out that the bus company had gone on strike at midnight the night before! So no buses were running the entire weekend we were in Berlin! Thus, we had to walk. . .alot. . . Thankfully the S-Bahn and U-Bahn were still running and we could get around with them pretty well. (So, no we were not almost arrested; that was the one lie.)
Anyway, we did so much this weekend, I do not know where to begin! We made it to our hostel by taxi late Thursday afternoon and found it to be very nice and accomodating! I had never stayed in a hostel before and was a little anxious to see what we were getting ourselves into, but it was very clean and well maintained. That evening we went to see the musical "Elisabeth" about a famous kaiserin of Germany from the 1800s and her strange life. It was fantastic! Naturally, it was all in German, but Frau Losch had given us synopses of the story so those who do not know German that well (and those of us who do) could follow along easier. It helped alot! But the singing and acting were all very good. I was impressed!
Friday morning we had the great opportunity to meet Herr Breidbach, a former representative to the Bundestag in Berlin. (the equivalent of a U.S. congressman) Frau Losch met him during a visit to Waverly and made plans to meet with him during our stay in Germany! We went with him on a boat tour down the Spree River through Berlin and could see all of the architectural wonders and points of interest. The weather was wonderful that day--sunny with a little breeze that actually turned into a much colder breeze on our way back to the dock, but nevertheless lovely. We were then treated with the classic Berlin food of currywurst from a food stand. It is sort of like a cut up hotdog/sausage with ketchup and curry on top. Mine was very tasty! Because Herr Breidbach was with us, he got us into the Reichtstag (German Parliament building) through a side door and so we did not have to wait in a HUGE line that was formed outside. This was good because it had started to rain. . . The Reichstag was very cool and at the top, one could see all over Berlin. After our visit there, we went to the Brandenberg Tor (Gate) for a quick photo opportunity and continued walking down the main streets of Berlin and seeing embassy buildings and little museums along the way. Herr Breidbach had interesting "insider" stories for us for almost everything we saw and did, so it was a privilege to have him as our personal tour guide. We were treated to a traditional German meal that evening and afterwards went through a quaint part of town with little ice cream shops, clothing stores, and biergartens. Sehr schön! It was a long day and all of us were exhausted from the walking so we slept well that night!
Saturday we had the morning free to see or do whatever we wanted before we met to go to the Pergamon Museum. Most of us students went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) for an hour or two while others decided to sleep in a little from all of our walking the day before. KaDeWe is a HUGE departments store with 7 floors of. . .stuff! It is one of, if not the largest store in Western Europe. The top floor is entirely dedicated to food and one could buy almost anything there! From a 1000 Euro bottle of wine to octopus sandwhiches! Granted, their prices were pretty high, so we did not buy much there. Then we went to the Pergamon Museum and got the opportunity to see ancient Greek and Roman scultures as well as Islamic Art and other various ancient artifacts. Late in the afternoon we went to a Revue show that highlighted acts from Berlin, New York, and Paris that would have been shown during WWII in those cities. The performers sang songs, danced, and did incredible acrobatics! It was very neat! We then did a little souvenir shopping and ate supper at a nearby Italian restaurant with delicious ice cream concoctions. Several of us went to Potsdamer Platz to look around at the large buildings that were built in that eastern part of Berlin that was built up after the wall came down, while others went back to the hostel a little earlier. Some of the buildings were very tall and we noted that one of the buidlings was a semi-circle in shape with offices around the round perimeter so everyone had a window to look out of while they worked. Too bad not all Americans get a window in their office. :)
And yesterday (Sunday) was our last day in Berlin. We checked out of our hostel and went to the main train station ( Hauptbahnhof ) to store our luggage while we saw some last minute sites. We went as a group to Checkpoint Charlie which is the place along the Berlin Wall from which most East Germans tried to escape. It is also the place of many deaths. . .There is a museum there that shows the history of the checkpoint with many pictures and personal stories of triumph and defeat. It was a very sobering experience and made the East-West Germany conflict very real. At the checkpoint sight, several students were able to get their passports stamped by German, American, or Russian "soldiers" that meant they were clear to cross the border. Apparently, these stamps are either the same ones or replicas of the actual stamps they used during the Berlin Wall period. After Checkpoint Charlie, we split up into groups to see some last minute things. I visited the Alte Nationalgalerie which was a museum of 19th Century paintings and sculptures as well as the Berliner Dom (Cathedral). Both were amazing places to visit and to simply stare at the beautiful craftmanship! One could spend days in both of them! I only had a few hours, but it was worth it. I even got to climb the 267 ish steps to the cuppola of the Dom, where I saw an amazing view of the city! The Dom was refurbished after WWII, because it was partially destroyed by bombers, but one would not even be able to tell that it was, they did such an excellent job in restoring it. Other students visited the Jewish Museum, the Museum of German History, and a culture market that was being held in the area. It seemed like everyone had a good time at their respective sites.
We then said "Tschüs!" to Berlin and hopped on the train back to Marburg. However, our train problems were not over yet. At Kassel we found out our connection to Marburg was delayed 2 hours so we took an earlier train an hour later, but it was a regional line, which meant that everyone and their brother were on this train trying to get back to Marburg after the weekend on a Sunday night. Most of us ended up having to stand the hour or so back to Marburg, because there simply was not enough seats for everyone. This surprised me, because I figured they would not allow everyone on the train, since their were people standing in the aisles, sitting on the floor, sitting on the stairs, and luggage everywhere! I know this would not fly in America with lawsuits and safety codes, so it was rather interesting.
I think we are all glad to be back in comparatively quiet Marburg so we can rest for a few days and get some coursework done before next weekend when we visit Munich! Oh, and in case you are wondering, we found out yesterday that the Berlin buses were scheduled to start running again Monday morning. So they did not run for exactly the time period we were in the city. Go figure. ;)
I hope all is well in Waverly and that everyone back in Iowa is enjoying their May Term thus far!
Tschüs!
In my next post: Cultural differences between Germany and America that I did not get to this time and a little more about Marburg!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Grüsse aus Deutschland! (Greetings from Germany)
Wow, it is hard to believe that we have only been here 2 days! It seems like forever! But first things first...
Our whole class made it safely to Chicago to catch our flight to Frankfurt and only had to wait a few hours to board. Granted, it did not leave exactly on time; I think we left maybe 45 min. after our original departure time? But everything was fine. We flew over on a Boeing 747, so it was much bigger than anything I had flown in before! We were served a supper and a light breakfast during our eight hour flight and were shown three movies to help pass the time. We could listen to them in either English or German and all I will say is that "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is so much more fun to listen to in German.
We left Chicago at about 7:15pm Saturday evening and because of the time difference and the flight time, we arrived in Frankfurt at 10:00am Sunday! So those in our group who could not sleep on the plane had a big day before them! Fortunately, I was able to get a few hours of sleep, so I was still able to function. We left the Frankfurt airport on a bus to Marburg, which took about an hour. On the way we were treated with beautiful green scenery, signs written in German, and German autos! (Can you say Porsche?!) We then were dropped off with our luggage at our German language school Speak+Write for a brief introduction to Marburg and the school. Additionally, those of us with prior German knowledge took a placement test to determine what class we would be joining because the classes are already in session and we are simply jumping in and joining them wherever they may be. Needless to say, the test was a little more difficult as we were jet lagged, but it went well for the most part. Those in our class who had no knowledge of German were put in a beginner course in order to pick up as much of the language as they can during our stay here.
Then we were placed in taxis and taken to our host families. Almost all of us are staying by ourselves with a family that was matched with us through Speak+Write. My host family was very nice and I have a small room all to myself. Other students in our group have complete mini-bathrooms or kitchens to themelves or that they share with other students that are studying abroad here. It is somewhat challenging because I am trying to only speak German with my family but once and a while I cannot quite understand them or they do not understand me. But for the most part, they were impressed that they did not have to use English!
As far as our meals here in Marburg go, we eat breakfast with our host families, and then we are on our own for lunch. Some go to the University's Mensa (cafeteria, just like Wartburg :) ) or buy food from the grocery store or stop by a little shop after class. And for supper some can eat with their host families and others have the same options as listed above. My host family welcomes me to eat with them when I am around the house, so that's one way of saving money! On our first night here in Marburg we went our together as a class and ate at a nice student hangout called Reit's. It was in the Altstadt (old part of the city) that is located above the more modern section, so we had a great view of the beautiful hills as well as the street life below. I was a great welcome to the city. Now for the school part of this trip. . .
Our classes began right away on Monday at 8:30am. We are in class until 12:50pm, but we have two 15-min. breaks in between so it does not feel that long. In my class, we have several different themes in our school books that we are dicussing. We have a few grammatical ideas and also cultural ones. Also, our class in conducted entirely in German by a native speaker, so one should have a fairly good grasp of the language at this stage on the game. And yes, we do have homework. Several exercises in grammar as well as a brief introduction to write about our theme of "Kultur" (culture) is my assigment for tonight that I should probably be working on now. . .so I will leave you there!
Auf Wiedersehen!
In my next post: Interesting difference between America and Deutschland as well as highlights from our trip to Berlin this weekend! (So it may be a while til my next post, but we will see.)
ps- it is also takes a while to get used to a German keyboard... they have all these extra keys to fit in here like ö, ä, and ü. Also y and z are switched n their placement on the key board making it interesting to tzpe...
Our whole class made it safely to Chicago to catch our flight to Frankfurt and only had to wait a few hours to board. Granted, it did not leave exactly on time; I think we left maybe 45 min. after our original departure time? But everything was fine. We flew over on a Boeing 747, so it was much bigger than anything I had flown in before! We were served a supper and a light breakfast during our eight hour flight and were shown three movies to help pass the time. We could listen to them in either English or German and all I will say is that "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is so much more fun to listen to in German.
We left Chicago at about 7:15pm Saturday evening and because of the time difference and the flight time, we arrived in Frankfurt at 10:00am Sunday! So those in our group who could not sleep on the plane had a big day before them! Fortunately, I was able to get a few hours of sleep, so I was still able to function. We left the Frankfurt airport on a bus to Marburg, which took about an hour. On the way we were treated with beautiful green scenery, signs written in German, and German autos! (Can you say Porsche?!) We then were dropped off with our luggage at our German language school Speak+Write for a brief introduction to Marburg and the school. Additionally, those of us with prior German knowledge took a placement test to determine what class we would be joining because the classes are already in session and we are simply jumping in and joining them wherever they may be. Needless to say, the test was a little more difficult as we were jet lagged, but it went well for the most part. Those in our class who had no knowledge of German were put in a beginner course in order to pick up as much of the language as they can during our stay here.
Then we were placed in taxis and taken to our host families. Almost all of us are staying by ourselves with a family that was matched with us through Speak+Write. My host family was very nice and I have a small room all to myself. Other students in our group have complete mini-bathrooms or kitchens to themelves or that they share with other students that are studying abroad here. It is somewhat challenging because I am trying to only speak German with my family but once and a while I cannot quite understand them or they do not understand me. But for the most part, they were impressed that they did not have to use English!
As far as our meals here in Marburg go, we eat breakfast with our host families, and then we are on our own for lunch. Some go to the University's Mensa (cafeteria, just like Wartburg :) ) or buy food from the grocery store or stop by a little shop after class. And for supper some can eat with their host families and others have the same options as listed above. My host family welcomes me to eat with them when I am around the house, so that's one way of saving money! On our first night here in Marburg we went our together as a class and ate at a nice student hangout called Reit's. It was in the Altstadt (old part of the city) that is located above the more modern section, so we had a great view of the beautiful hills as well as the street life below. I was a great welcome to the city. Now for the school part of this trip. . .
Our classes began right away on Monday at 8:30am. We are in class until 12:50pm, but we have two 15-min. breaks in between so it does not feel that long. In my class, we have several different themes in our school books that we are dicussing. We have a few grammatical ideas and also cultural ones. Also, our class in conducted entirely in German by a native speaker, so one should have a fairly good grasp of the language at this stage on the game. And yes, we do have homework. Several exercises in grammar as well as a brief introduction to write about our theme of "Kultur" (culture) is my assigment for tonight that I should probably be working on now. . .so I will leave you there!
Auf Wiedersehen!
In my next post: Interesting difference between America and Deutschland as well as highlights from our trip to Berlin this weekend! (So it may be a while til my next post, but we will see.)
ps- it is also takes a while to get used to a German keyboard... they have all these extra keys to fit in here like ö, ä, and ü. Also y and z are switched n their placement on the key board making it interesting to tzpe...
Friday, April 25, 2008
Introductions and preparations
Hi!
My name's Jolene and I'll be blogging for the May Term Abroad trip to Germany. I'm just dropping a line in here quick before our group leaves for Deutschland tomorrow! This week has flown by with moving out of my dorm last week, seeing friends and family before I leave, and shopping for last minute things for the trip. I'm actually still in the process of packing as I type this. (I'm giving myself a break)
Before I writing anything else, I'll tell you a little about myself and what our class will be doing this month while we're abroad. I'm a second year (almost third) English major and German minor from Greenleaf, WI. (Just south of Green Bay) So my parents will be driving me down to Chicago tomorrow to meet up with the rest of our class and instructor before we fly out to Frankfurt, Deutschland. From there we will be taking a bus to Marburg, where we will spend most of our time while we're across the ocean. We'll be studying the German language Monday through Friday in the mornings at a school there called Speak+Write. Don't worry, it won't be all work and no play. We'll be taking two larger weekend excursions as a group; one will be to Berlin and the other to Munich. Lots of historical, political, and cultural sites to see in both cities, but I'll write about those once we've seen them. Also, we students are given a free weekend to explore other cities of our choice in smaller groups. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing that weekend yet, but a few of us might possibly take a train down to Salzburg, Austria for a few days. I'll keep your updated on those plans.
Well, I better get back to packing so I'm not scrambling in the morning to find my hair brush or something. My next post will be from Germany!
Bis spaeter! (til later)
Coming up: How our flight went and our first day in Deutschland!
My name's Jolene and I'll be blogging for the May Term Abroad trip to Germany. I'm just dropping a line in here quick before our group leaves for Deutschland tomorrow! This week has flown by with moving out of my dorm last week, seeing friends and family before I leave, and shopping for last minute things for the trip. I'm actually still in the process of packing as I type this. (I'm giving myself a break)
Before I writing anything else, I'll tell you a little about myself and what our class will be doing this month while we're abroad. I'm a second year (almost third) English major and German minor from Greenleaf, WI. (Just south of Green Bay) So my parents will be driving me down to Chicago tomorrow to meet up with the rest of our class and instructor before we fly out to Frankfurt, Deutschland. From there we will be taking a bus to Marburg, where we will spend most of our time while we're across the ocean. We'll be studying the German language Monday through Friday in the mornings at a school there called Speak+Write. Don't worry, it won't be all work and no play. We'll be taking two larger weekend excursions as a group; one will be to Berlin and the other to Munich. Lots of historical, political, and cultural sites to see in both cities, but I'll write about those once we've seen them. Also, we students are given a free weekend to explore other cities of our choice in smaller groups. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing that weekend yet, but a few of us might possibly take a train down to Salzburg, Austria for a few days. I'll keep your updated on those plans.
Well, I better get back to packing so I'm not scrambling in the morning to find my hair brush or something. My next post will be from Germany!
Bis spaeter! (til later)
Coming up: How our flight went and our first day in Deutschland!
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