Gross Gott!
I have been meaning to post a new blog about more recent happenings with my experience abroad. One particularly exciting adventure I have had lately was last weekend in Munich. I was not planning to travel last weekend, but I decided on Friday night I would go to Munich with some other students. I think my friends and family can testify to my proneness to last minute decisions. I was supposed to meet at the train station at 7:45 on Saturday morning.. but you see, there are two train stations in Salzburg. I ended getting to the station 5 minutes before the train to Munich departed. I thought my friends had purchased a group ticket, and I could just hop on the train with them, it turned out though, that I had to purchase a single 24 ticket.. it is now 2min until departure lol. I made it back to the platform with seconds to spare. After a morning like that, I had no doubts it would be an exciting day.
The first place we went was Dachau. A name that was feared and well-known throughout WWII, and a name today that brings to mind morbid and gruesome memories of hatrid towards innocent people. We were at the concentration camp memorial site for 3 hours at least.. there was just so much information. The longer I stayed, though, the harder it became to read of the atrocities which occurred in that place. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that the leaders of the camp, and those who carried out the mental and physical torture on the Jews, thought it was okay somehow to treat another human being that way... it is unbelievable. Although it is hard to take it all in, and I will never understand fully the oppression those people endured.. I think anyone who has the opportunity should go to a concentration camp memorial site.. it is a must do.
Ironically, after such a sobering and disheartening experience.. we went back to Munich to have dinner! ... it just seems so insensitive... count your blessings one by one. Anyway, in downtown Munich we stumbled upon a large gathering of people in the city square. It was easy to understand by the flags and the people chanting that it was some type of political rally. It did not seem dangerous in the slightest though.. for one thing, it had just started; and secondly, there were at least 3 times as many police around as there were protestors. It was really interesting for me to see though.. having been born and raised in Midwest smalltown America I have never seen anything like that. I saw some stickers around Salzburg promoting the rally.. they said: "Fight Capitalist War! Fight Capitalist Peace!" The message seems a bit ironic at first.. and I am not sure I agree with it.. but it is never a bad thing for people take the time to evaluate the state of their society and stand for what they think is correct.
The rest of my time there is not really worth recapping.. but I certainly felt like my trip to Munich was a great way to spend a Saturday.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Germany field trip, in short
After my last post, I feel it would unecessary and disinteresting to try to recap everything I experienced that entire week in Germany.. so I will just post the itinerary for each day, and if anything is especially interesting to you, e-mail me! I would be more that happy to tell you about it :)
GERMANY FIELD TRIP
January 21-26, 2008
Monday January 21 Arrival in Frankfurt. Transfer to Trier, the oldest city of Germany.
Free time to explore the town on your own.
Tuesday January 22 Visit to Roman monuments of Trier. Drive through the Moselle Valley. Introduction to the culture of wine growing. Visit the Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach with a look "behind the walls". Continue to Bonn.
Wednesday January 23 Day-trip to Cologne. Lecture at the cathedral. Time to explore the town on your own. Optional visits to Roman Germanic Museum and/or Museum Ludwig of Modern Art.
Thursday January 24 Lecture tour of the "Museum of the History of the Federal Republic" in Bonn. Drive along the Romantic Rhine Valley. See remains of medieval Jewish culture in Worms. Continue to Heidelberg.
Friday January 25 Tour of Heidelberg Old Town and Castle. Drive through the Neckar Valley to Rothenburg, the best preserved medieval town of Germany. Continue to Nuremberg.
January 26 City tour of old Nuremberg. See the Nuremberg Trials Court of Justice and the
Saturday Nazi Party Rally grounds. Visit to the exhibition "Fascination and Terror" in the Documentation Center. Continue to Salzburg.
Sunday January 27 Free day with your host families.
Monday January 28 Orientation day in Salzburg.
GERMANY FIELD TRIP
January 21-26, 2008
Monday January 21 Arrival in Frankfurt. Transfer to Trier, the oldest city of Germany.
Free time to explore the town on your own.
Tuesday January 22 Visit to Roman monuments of Trier. Drive through the Moselle Valley. Introduction to the culture of wine growing. Visit the Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach with a look "behind the walls". Continue to Bonn.
Wednesday January 23 Day-trip to Cologne. Lecture at the cathedral. Time to explore the town on your own. Optional visits to Roman Germanic Museum and/or Museum Ludwig of Modern Art.
Thursday January 24 Lecture tour of the "Museum of the History of the Federal Republic" in Bonn. Drive along the Romantic Rhine Valley. See remains of medieval Jewish culture in Worms. Continue to Heidelberg.
Friday January 25 Tour of Heidelberg Old Town and Castle. Drive through the Neckar Valley to Rothenburg, the best preserved medieval town of Germany. Continue to Nuremberg.
January 26 City tour of old Nuremberg. See the Nuremberg Trials Court of Justice and the
Saturday Nazi Party Rally grounds. Visit to the exhibition "Fascination and Terror" in the Documentation Center. Continue to Salzburg.
Sunday January 27 Free day with your host families.
Monday January 28 Orientation day in Salzburg.
A way overdue update (Germany)
Hi everyone,
Sorry for my inaccusably slowness in posting another blog.. the following is the itinerary for our field trip through Germany:
Monday Jan 21: Arrival in at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany. Drive to Trier. Orientation meeting. Dinner
-This was the first time I had EVER flown on a plane.. it was spectacular. I remember distinctly how happy, excited, and awestruck I was to finally be on my way to Europe! It was amazing to see Chicago from so high up.. and Lake Michigan was beautiful! I am sure Ryan (the student i sat next to) would tell you how funny I was being excited over what is menial to most people. lol.
After somewhat recovering from such an exciting experience, i then realized this was just the beginning! I was not even in Europe yet!
We arrived in Frankfurt at 5:45am, and we did not meet up with our group until 8, so i had a little bit of time to kill. I realized soon after arriving that my cell phone was not going to be working in Europe (it did not support the necessary frequency), so i went on a search for a computer with internet access. Kristian, another student, also went looking with me.... but we had no luck whatsoever. After wandering around the airport for a while, and realizing that we would not be getting internet access for a reasonable price, we started to head back to the group. Along the way though, we saw a guy sitting in a corner with his laptop... it turned out he was extremely kind and helpful (not to mention bi-lingual) and he let us use his computer to email our families :) It was a great adventure!
The bus ride to Trier was rather uneventful.. everyone was just very very tired, and hungry lol. After a 3 hour ride, we finally arrived in Trier. Since we could not check into our hostel yet for the evening, the first thing we did was go to the main part of the city to get something to eat. Looking back, it is quite comical... most of us have never travelled in our lives.. and the first thing we do is wander through an unknown German city to find a place to eat, haha. Our guides simply brought us to the main square, told us when to be back at the bus, and.. let us go. This was a quick lesson in paying attention to your surroundings, and remembering which way you came from.
So, we stayed at a hostel that night, and surprisingly, it was really quite comfortable.. 75% better than i imagined it being. Anyway, to wrap things up; that day felt like a week. I mean, the activities of that one day felt like i had experienced an entire week's worth of things.. and i enjoyed every moment of it.
Sorry for my inaccusably slowness in posting another blog.. the following is the itinerary for our field trip through Germany:
Monday Jan 21: Arrival in at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany. Drive to Trier. Orientation meeting. Dinner
-This was the first time I had EVER flown on a plane.. it was spectacular. I remember distinctly how happy, excited, and awestruck I was to finally be on my way to Europe! It was amazing to see Chicago from so high up.. and Lake Michigan was beautiful! I am sure Ryan (the student i sat next to) would tell you how funny I was being excited over what is menial to most people. lol.
After somewhat recovering from such an exciting experience, i then realized this was just the beginning! I was not even in Europe yet!
We arrived in Frankfurt at 5:45am, and we did not meet up with our group until 8, so i had a little bit of time to kill. I realized soon after arriving that my cell phone was not going to be working in Europe (it did not support the necessary frequency), so i went on a search for a computer with internet access. Kristian, another student, also went looking with me.... but we had no luck whatsoever. After wandering around the airport for a while, and realizing that we would not be getting internet access for a reasonable price, we started to head back to the group. Along the way though, we saw a guy sitting in a corner with his laptop... it turned out he was extremely kind and helpful (not to mention bi-lingual) and he let us use his computer to email our families :) It was a great adventure!
The bus ride to Trier was rather uneventful.. everyone was just very very tired, and hungry lol. After a 3 hour ride, we finally arrived in Trier. Since we could not check into our hostel yet for the evening, the first thing we did was go to the main part of the city to get something to eat. Looking back, it is quite comical... most of us have never travelled in our lives.. and the first thing we do is wander through an unknown German city to find a place to eat, haha. Our guides simply brought us to the main square, told us when to be back at the bus, and.. let us go. This was a quick lesson in paying attention to your surroundings, and remembering which way you came from.
So, we stayed at a hostel that night, and surprisingly, it was really quite comfortable.. 75% better than i imagined it being. Anyway, to wrap things up; that day felt like a week. I mean, the activities of that one day felt like i had experienced an entire week's worth of things.. and i enjoyed every moment of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)