Well, I have now been in Germany for nearly a month.
The first week of the program was on campus. Our class of eight students had class from about 9 to 5 every day with a break for lunch. During those six days of intense class, we went through 2, 500 years of history and about 1000 years of history on the first day alone. It was incredibly intense as I am not used to sitting in a classroom for that long anymore. :0)
During that week, I also had two job interviews, so right up until the end everything was going 100 miles a minute.
We flew to Munich where I got to briefly see my dad and then our professor led us on the "Munich death march" after dropping our bags in our rooms at the YMCA in Munich. Imagine not sleeping at night and then walking all over Munich to see 5 different churches (in one of which I fell asleep), then walking up 350 stairs to have a "view of Munich" and then getting hailed on at the top of the tower. Finally, we went back to the hostel and I crashed!!!!!! I slept for about three hours and then woke up for an hour to try and reach my parents and to put on my PJs and then just climbed back into bed.
While in Munich the days were fairly packed. One of the days we were supposed to use to go to the Art museums (at least one of them) in Munich. We decided to go to the Alte Pinakothek. We went to a German church service on Sunday and after that went to Dachau. That was quite the experience. Our prof gave us about three and a half hours to just wander around the camp. What can you say when you visit such an awful place? It made me ask a lot of questions. In my German classes at Wheaton, we have talked about how Germans are never allowed to forget the Holocaust and how generations later still have to carry the weight of what happened. I wondered what it must be like to acutally live in the town of Dachau where everyday hundreds of tourists come to visit this concentration camp...
My favorite day was the one that we went to Garmisch. Our group took the train to Garmisch-Patenkirchen and there we were met by a large portion of my family. They drove the hour from home to spend the day with us. It was so wonderful to see them! We went hiking in the Partnachklamm, which was really nice and then hiked up to the top of a mountain/peak. Afterwards, I went to dinner with my family while the others had some free time to roam the Fußgängerzone (area with shops).
On two of the days, I also had the chance to conduct my first two interviews, which was really interesting.
From Munich, we then took the train to Vienna. Each day, we saw many of the important sights there. We saw a lot of the important and beautiful buildings that the Habsburger built. We went to Schloss Schönbrunn and we saw the Hundertwasserhaus. That was really neat! What cool architecture... so much nature on top of apartment buidings!!! ;0) I think I speak for the whole group, though, when I say that we were all glad to return to Germany after a few days.
We are in our third week in Bonn, each of us stayng with individual host families. It is wonderful to be in a home and to have home-made meals. I am really blessed with the family that I am with. I spend each of my days here working on my research project, meeting with the rest of the group when we have group events, and spending time getting to know my host family. They have taken me on many wonderful outings and I have especially enjoyed playing board games with my host parents once the kids have gone to bed. My host dad is trying to teach me Filser English, which is basically translating German idyoms or sayings into English. It is absolutely hilarious! I have completely lost it more that once!
I spent one weekend in Marburg, visiting my older sister! That was such a highlight! She got me hooked on professional tennis. I did not understand why she liked it so much, but now I do! It's a lot more fun watching the games when you actually understand what is happening! :0) Tennis players are just such gentlemen. They are overall good sportsman and they are just as Kristin says, 'all around good guys!' Roger Federer finally won the French Open and so has now won every Grand Slam tournament at least once. We were both just so happy for him... when he finally scored the winning point, he just fell on his knees (on the clay... ouch!!!) and just started sobbing! Poor guy! So much pressure and tension! Finally, he has won, though! Kristin and I also spent one day walking around Marburg in the rain, which was fun. We sat in a little cafe, went to a massage place, hair salon, shopping... and then we also cooked together! She's such a good cook. Of course, we also spent some time studying and working on our individual things that we needed to get done. She is such a trooper. She has her state exams coming up in August and they last until the end of October. So, basically, she is just studying, studying, studying... 10 semesters or so worth of material! Crazy!
But I know that she can do it! She is incredibly capeable!
I am now in Hannover, after meeting my dad in Cologne for the afternoon. Dad and I first went to see the famous kölner Dom and then to lunch at a restaurant right outside the church. After that, we met up with the rest of his group (a seminar on sports ministry with people from all over Europe) and went to the Olympic museum. After that, Dad bought me an ice cream and we headed back to the train station.
In Hannover, I was picked up by three very wonderful friends. I had told one of my friends that I thought coming back would kind of be like being in a dream... everything would be so familiar, but strange at the same time since my family doesn't live here anymore. So far, everything has seemed really real and I just feel really blessed. I am about to head out and go to a lot of familiiar places and take pictures. I am really looking forward to the next few days and reconnecting with long-time friends.
Thank you for all of your words of encouragement and prayers!
I would greatly appreciate prayer for:
a job for both Andrew and myself. We are continuing to just trust the Lord that He will provide.
Discipline and clarity as I finish my research project. Next week, I am hoping to start with the final paper, after finishing my interviews here in Hannover and finishing the reading.
For good health.
For safety.
I hope you are all doing well and I love hearing from you!
Comments (1)
You've done so many things! What a trip!