Final Thoughts and Bremen

When I came to Germany, I came with the goal to make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. I left Atlanta with high anticipation and curiosity of what the year would hold; what things would be like, what I would learn, see, and do. It's different going back to the States. In packing my bags to come back States the anticipation is no longer there. The last few days held nothing unusual. In fact the days were normal and routine and felt a bit anti-climatic. I take that to mean that the strange has indeed become familiar. There are several things that I have become used to and things that I have grown to love. I've loved the half timbered houses and the the connection and closeness to European history. I've enjoyed the accessibility of a pretty punctual train system. I've gotten used to separating my trash and making use of the bio trash. I don't leave the house without a cloth bag to hold my purchases. I make sure to make it to the grocery store before Sunday, otherwise it's the local döner imbiss for lunch. I've enjoyed the luxury of more leisure time than the average year holds. I've loved running around the lake not far from where I lived. German has made it's way into my thoughts and dreams on occasion. I've gained an appreciation for what it means to live as a foreigner. I've grown fond of the German breakfast and Abendbrot (supper) which consists of a spread of delicious breads, cheeses, meats, yogurt, muesli, and nutella. Above all, I've loved walking everywhere.

I started preparing this post during a packing break and have now finished sitting in my parent's home in Colorado. I can say with confidence that this past year has been great and I am left to discover which of the familiar things that I left behind have indeed become strange. I have also been left to wonder what to do with the blog. I started it with the intention of keeping an account of the happenings abroad and now that I'm back it seems a bit strange to keep it up. At the same time, just because I'm back, that in no way means my wanderlust has subsided and that there won't be travels in the upcoming year. I think for the time being, I'm going to give it a go to try and continue to keep it up.

Here's a few last pictures from my time in Germany. As an end of the semester celebration, I managed to fit one last trip in, traveling up to Bremen. It was cold and rainy, so we didn't stay long, but managed to get a few photos out of the trip.

Medieval Böttcher Street

Town Square

Inside the church

Loccum

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a class, which was held over an intensive weekend. The class was in Loccum, a site of an old monastery. Today, it is an educational institute owned by the church in Hanover. The evenings afforded time for exploring and since the sun stays out until almost 11:00pm we could do so in daylight. The property was gorgeous with a forest of trails running throughout. After the sunset the fireflies (which are called "glow worms" in German, and might be my favorite German word) came out in hords, and when walking through the forest with little green lights flashing around, one would have thought fairies really existed.

The monastery from across the pasture.

A closer view

Loccum is along a pilgram's route and there is an entire building on the premises set aside for those on their journey to sleep in. This monument symbolizes this significance, being made of three pillers to represent the trinity and an upward spiral pointing towards heaven.

In the evening we attended "hora", which is essentially latin for a daily prayer service. Since we were such a small group we sat in the choir. I always feel so priveledged and like I'm some place I'm not supposed to be allowed when I get the opportunity to go into the choir area of the church.

An old barn soaking up the evening sun

Weekend Bike Rides

Germans love their bikes! I'm pretty convinced that one can ride their bike to pretty much any place they desire within the country and the route will be well marked and almost entirely without need of riding along a main street. I have an acquaintance who’s riding her bike home from Bonn, Germany to somewhere in Norway. Sounds fun to me. Although not quite as ambitious, I have however, been able to get in a few weekend bike trips of my own.

I and a few fellow Stifties rode our bikes to nearby Besenhausen, town of 5 (seriously, look it up on Google Earth), and had lunch at the Farm restaurant. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Through the fields

Through the towns

Our destination was along the old border between West and East Germany. Passing through the city of Friedland (which interestingly Friede means peace) we came across one of the last border integration camps still in operation. It serves to provide housing for Russians, help them find jobs, and integrate into the country.

These signs are seen on streets indicating that bikes are allowed to be ridden, and are particularly helpful when there are several pedestrian only zones around. Fines can be quite hefty when caught riding your bike in such a zone. My companions speculated that with the former border being so close, it would have been helpful to have a sign indicating that this path was safe to ride on.

Looks like a nice place to have a bratwurst before heading back to Göttingen!

Dishes in the window- somehow oddly attractive

I found humor in this chicken placed in the widow outside of the bathrooms.

Sheep!

The scenery

More scenery

Prague

Well, Germany was unsuccessful in claiming the title of European Masterchampions on Sunday night. It was still a fun time, and from the sounds of horn honking and fireworks from my bedroom window, I'd say that most people decided to celebrate despite the loss.

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Today marks three weeks exactly until I will be boarding the plane back to the States, and I still have pictures from several weeks ago that I haven't posted. With the impending countdown, I have vowed to get all the pictures up that I have not yet posted and to make the most of my time left. I still have two weeks of classes left, but I've pretty much wrapped them up- no more assignments due and the last week is mostly scheduled for those who need to take tests (not me!).

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There have been more great things about this year than I can count, one of them being an all expense paid trip to Prague. As part of the program, we are required to take part in an ecumenical seminar, which happened to be in Prague this year. What a drag to have to go to Prague (if you missed the sarcastic tone, that was intended to be sarcastic).

For one week, I met up with other students who are also in the program and we toured Prague and engaged in seminars highlighting the history of different church traditions in relation to their Prague location. Several students who were apart of the program a few years ago had helped in putting the program together and we were really able to get to know the city well with personalized tours and the local favorites, helping to avoid the crowded tourist locations. In the evenings we had dinner in a local restaurant, which was always followed by a walk through the city. Above is the Charles Bridge and Prague Fortress by night.

The buildings in Prague were almost always supported by the statues of people.

The famous astronomical clock

The deteriorating effect of communism

The buildings in Prague were stunning. The one pictured above is near the town square and housed Franz Kafka for a while.

Another painted building

We spent several hours touring the Jewish quarter, once ghetto, in Prague. I really liked the clock. Being that Hebrew is read right to left, the clocks run what would be for us counter clockwise. Starting from the 11:00 position and going counter clockwise are the first 12 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Apparently Prague is well known for their Jazz music. I had no idea. Among the folks I spent the trip with was a musician who enlightened us to the fact and did a great job in picking out a jazz club to spend our evening.

At the market

Town Square by Night

European Master Championship

Last night was the semi-final game, Germany against Turkey, in the European Soccer Master Championship. We here in the Stift have different activities that we plan throughout the year, and as we were putting our schedule together at the beginning of the semester the Master Championship was taken into large consideration as to what activities would be when, being very careful not to schedule anything during the potential times that Germany might be playing per hopeful chance that they would win.

The games have turned out to be quite a cultural experience. Last Monday, before Germany had even made it into the quarter-finals, after their win the streets were filled with fans and cars honking for a good hour after the game. I thought that for sure I had misunderstood just how far along we were in the tournament and that Germany had actually won the final. This was just the beginning, however.

Throughout the past two weeks German flags have started appearing in every store window, on the cars, on the bikes, pretty much wherever a flag seems suitable to show their national support. Interestingly, this has been a great source of conversation where there are those who are still uncomfortable with such a display of the national flag following the war and there are those who are rejoicing in the fact that they as a nation are coming much more to a point where they can feel comfortable to do so.

From what I gather, Germany was not expected to make it this far, but there we were last night gathered in our meal hall to watch the semi-final game on the big screen. It turned out to be a pretty intense game as the score was almost always tied. 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, and then the power in Vienna went out, which happened to be where the game was being broadcast from. We were without broadcast coverage for about 15 minutes and when it happened you could hear the cry of anguish from the neighboring houses. I was reminded of the Heidi Game in which the Raider-Jets football game was cut off to show Heidi at its regularly scheduled time. With only a few minutes left to go in the game the losing team scored two goals- which America never got to witness to.

Gemany came back to score the winning goal in the last few minutes of the game (I was greatful we wouldn't have to go into overtime). They made it into the finals. The horn honking and celebrations went on for a good two hours last night. I can't imagine how things will be if Germany wins the Championship.

I'll let you know on Sunday.

Back on the blogging track

My brief intermission turned out to be not as brief as I intended it to be. Not much has been missed, however, since my last post. I've stuck much closer to home this semester and have focused more on classes, which doesn't provide for a lot of writing material. There have been a few excursions and I managed to borrow cameras in the absense of my own. In the meantime I have become a proud owner of a new CanonA570 IS. I've had fun playing around with it.

Here are the promised pictures from the final stop on my semester break trip: Austria

After coming back from France I spent two night back in Goettingen, had the chance to wash my clothes (this was much needed!) and joined up with a fellow exchange student (from the French-Switzerland) and we headed to Vienna together, taking the night train down.

We thought it would be interesting to check out the home of Freud. The museum was disappointing and not very informative, but what they did have were home videos of Sigmund Freud and his family. His face would light up in the presence of his grandkids and seemed to really enjoy himself with his family. It was sweet to see.

The famous Vienna Cathedral

The best thing about Vienna were the cafe's. Germany certainly lacks in this department (they have however mastered the beer garden) and it was so refreshing to enjoy leisurely time in a cafe. Anytime we were in need of a break, we would poke into a cafe. Following our visit to the Freud museum we thought it best to introduce ourselves to the Vienna cafe's for a midday pick-me-up. We quickly found a cafe up the street a bit and popped in. It was extremely simple inside, with just a few tables and very smoky air. Nonetheless, we decided to stay and soon found ourselves in conversation with the owners, who were eager to hear about how we happened upon their cafe, what brought us to Vienna, and were even more facinated by our interest in theological studies. That's the kind of experience I love, mixing with the locals.

The best cafe, however, was Cafe Hawelka. I had read about it in a book several years ago, and since then had sworn to myself that if I was ever in Vienna, I would most definately have to stop by this cafe. I won't lie, it was largely the motivation for a trip to Vienna in the first place. It is the true essence of the bohemian coffee shop, and has survived for 72 years, surving the war completely unharmed. It once served as the meeting place for artists and intellectuals such as Arthur Miller, Henry Miller, and Andy Warhol and is famous for it's buchteln, a sort of warm jelly roll. What I found most attractive about the place is that is remained largely intact as it originally was. It's the people who make the place, not it's style. My friend and I found it to be the perfect place to relax and chat at the end of the day and the buchteln were well worth the 20 minute wait to get them fresh out of the oven.

We spent just two nights in Vienna and had booked a plane back to Germany which flew out of Bratislava, giving us a chance to visit the capital of Slovenia- small town with a charming castle. Although there wasn't much going on (we were there on a Sunday and in the low season) there is something that really attracts me to the Eastern European culture. We had a great time visiting the shops and wandering the town before catching to tram back to the airport.

All in all it was a great trip, not just vienna, the whole thing!

A Brief Intermission

My last post brings you pretty much to the end of my semester break trip. However, shortly after posting disaster struck... I managed to break my camera!! Totally kaput. I've been in mourning the last week and did all that I could to try and save it, but in the end it was not worth the repair costs, so I am waiting for a new one to arrive in the mail. In the meantime my pictures from my last stop, Vienna, remain on the broken camera. So for the moment I hope you can be satisfied with the promise "to be continued..."

I realize that I have been back in Goettingen for a month now, and lack posts from the present day to day happenings. During the backlog posts, I have been keeping myself busy with the start of the second semester, finding myself in an odd place as I realize that my class at Candler is finishing classes (and their entire seminary career) as I start. And as I start this second semester, the end of the semester is also on the horizon as I begin to make plans and preparations for returning back to the States. I booked my ticket back this week, so it is official, I will be returning!

With the start of the second semester I also realize again how grateful I am that this exchange program is a year long. For one, I am able to concentrate in classes in a much different way and it's nice to be able to see the change and brings a feeling of progress. Last semester was all about keeping up with the language, and this semester I find myself much more able to be able to engage with the course context in a deeper way. I've also have some great classes that I'm participating in, having been better able to pick out classes that suit my interests.

And with this second semester comes signs of spring! Within the last week the trees have really become green bringing color and life back to the city and the rainy days are becoming more evenly dispersed with sunny and warm days. I've pretty much stayed close to home since school started again, concentrating more on keeping up with the reading than on getting out and doing, but I think I've come to the point where I found a nice balance and routine and with the warm weather am anxious to get some day trips in. I'm sure my last two months are going to go by faster than I expect. I am certainly looking forward to being back in the States, but I hope they don't go by too fast.

Backlog: Paris Round Two

I'm curious to know what counts as hitchhiking? I decided to risk not buying a return ticket back to Paris in hopes of finding a ride with someone else on their way to or through Paris. I found a group of Arizona University students who were flying out the same day that my night train left Paris, and scored a ride with them (I didn't even have to pay for gas money!). The bus left at 4:30 in the morning, but a free ride was enough to get me up at such a ridiculous hour.

My train didn't leave until 8:30 in the evening, so such an early arrival in the city left me with the day to do some more exploring. I returned to the Louve to visit the Babylon special exhibit that hadn't yet opened on my first visit.

In the area around the Notre Dame, the Seine River is filled with street vendors selling used books, posters, music, and a plethora of artists displaying their work. I followed the Seine River from the Louve back to the Eiffel tower for more photo opportunities. Along the way I got caught in a lovely downpour and of course didn't have an umbrella on me and was far from any metro stops which could have provided cover. Luckily I dried out before needing to share a small space with cabinmates on the train.

The rain did make for some fun picture opportunities though, with the reflection of the Eiffel Tower filling the puddles.
Looking up
Eiffel Tower by night.

Backlog: Taize

Before leaving the States, I made a list of the top places that I hoped to able to visit during my time here in Germany, many of which I have been able to check off during this trip, one being a visit to the Taize community. Wanting to do something intentional for Easter, Taize seemed like the appropriate place to spend Holy Week.

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Taize is a monastic ecumenical community of brothers, who share common community and desire life to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and separated peoples (as taken from their website). Their community is open to young people, those aged between 16 and 29 to come and join them in prayer and bible study. I have seen church signs offering Taize prayer services and had even sung a few Taize songs before coming and knew that they attracted young people by the thousands to join them in prayer. My curiosity was high upon arrival!

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I arrived at the beginning of Easter week with about 3000 other young people, and ended the week with about 5000 other companions. Coming from the quietness of Chartres, this was a bit of a shock! The routine and life in Taize was simple. We joined three times a day for prayer, ate simple meals, participated in bible study and acquired a job for the week (I helped distribute the food, and feeding 5000 people in 30 minutes is a sight to be seen!). There was also plenty of time for reflection and stillness.

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A highlight of the week was meeting up with a friend who spent the entire month of March in Taize and sharing in daily walks and conversations. There are times when I find myself downright amazed at the people I have been priviledged to meet in life, and their willingness to share of bit of theirs with me.

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I also joined in choir practice each day. I have not sung in a choir since 5th grade, and while I still can't sing, it was pretty awesome to be able to see the harmony of voices come together and to pray not just through song, but in the actual way we sang. The prayers of the community have become a meaningful part of my own personal prayer life, and for that I am grateful.

I think that the actual town of Taize has about 20 people, what you see here is pretty much it.

After the morning storm

Easter life

A small French town. Notice the snow on the hill. Easter morning, we woke to huge snowflakes falling out of the sky (although, nothing like what you Clevelanders experienced last year!). I brought no winter jacket with me this trip- it was a bit chilly.

Backlog: Chartres

When I arrived here in Germany, I was very grateful for the visual arts that were within the church walls of the church services that I attended. I couldn't understand much of what was being said in the services, and although the litergy is different, there are similiarities that I could follow along (or at least make up my own, whatever I thought was appropriate at that particular place in time). During the sermons, when I could no longer concentrate on trying to follow what was being said, I let my eyes wander around the space, paying attention to the alter pieces or the stained glass windows, doing my best to interpret their meanings. I allowed their pictures, their stories, to teach me something.

Following my brief stay in Paris I spent three days in Chartres, France, a nice quiet town about an hour outside of the big city. I was practically the lone person in my hostel, so the visit really was a retreat of sorts. My purpose in visiting the city was to experience the Chartres Cathedral. The cathedral is unique in that it's gothic grandeur has remained largely intact as it has always been, not having been changed by the reformation, vandalism, or war.


Inlaid into the floor is a labyrinth. On Fridays the chairs are pulled back and the labyrinth exposed for the public to walk through. It was a real treat to be able to see it uncovered and to walk through its path.


The Chartres Cathedral was influential in the world of gothic architecture, as it reached new hights with the development of the flying buttresses providing enough support to build higher than ever before.

I was lucky enough to get in a tour with Malcolm Miller, who first came to Chartres 50 years ago as a student from England and fell in love with the Cathedral, so much so that he decided to pick up and move to Chartres and dedicate his life to researching the cathedral and giving tours to those who are interested. He's not your average tour guide, however, and it may have been the best 5 Euros that I spent on my trip, as we spent 90 minutes hearing the history of the cathedral and learning a bit of the story that the Cathredral stands to share.

The Chartres Cathedral was built in a mere 30 years, which is astounding really, considering that it is the largest cathedral in France, and its walls and windows are incredibly detailed with theological stories. The Milano Duomo took 500 years to complete and Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia is 125 years in the making. Each window highlights a different biblical story: creation, the flood, the passion of Christ, the birth of Christ, the miracle's of Christ... the list goes on. As Malcolm Miller described it, it truly is a storybook, built to teach the biblical story through pictures and images to the common person and theologian alike. Visiting the Chartres Cathedral is nothing less than an interactive experience. I spent three days there, and spent a majority of my time exploring the cathedral, where there was always something new to discover.

Each figurine that surrounds the door is highly symbolic and together they tell the story of the apostles.

While the cathedral had certainly captured my attention, the city was full of charm as well. I daily enjoyed a stroll through its streets.

The French have half-timbered houses too!

Chartres Windows

The town square by night

My favorite time to window shop was at night. There was something much more appealing about them as they were all lit up (and safer for the wallet).