Hello and happy 3rd Advent! The past couple weeks have been really fun. Because we had rented a car to get home from Frankfurt after our Italy trip, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a car at our disposal for 24 hours. We took about an hour drive to a town called Goslar, which is in the woods and up the mountain aways. We had heard it had a great Weihnachtsmarkt, which is why we chose to go there (I will talk more about Weihnachtsmaerkten later). It was truly magical in this hidden away medieval town and the lights, music, and Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic version of Gluehwein, which is like wassail) were all amazing. After a few Brats, mugs of Kinderpunsch, and candied hazelnuts, we headed back to Goettingen. We are planning on taking Tom there when he comes here (in 6 days!!!).
Last Friday (the 5th), Mom, Kara, and I went to cute little town called Duderstadt, which is an hour bus ride away from Goettingen. Rosmarie, a cute older lady in our branch, lives there with her husband and has wanted us to come visit her so she can show us her home (built by her husband) and around the town. We toured the extremely oldRathaus, including the jail cells and torture chamber below. Rosmarie's house itself was very cool and had an amazing yard and is a state-protected wild-life environment because of the unique and old trees and at least 51 different bird species. Her husband (Aloys) had built many birdhouses and we just sat at the picture window and watched the birds for like an hour. It was amazing- we saw a woodpecker and dozens of other colored and interesting birds. And there was a beautiful pond with fish in the yard as well .Rosmarie showed as pictures from her wedding 8 years ago to Aloys, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing stories about her and her husband's life. She is originally from Canada. Rosmarie herself speaks like 7 different languages and is the unofficially appointed translator for anyone in the branch during church, including some French-speaking investigators we have attending the branch right now. The day concluded with a delicious meal she made for us and singing Christmas carols.
Last Sunday, I had 6 of my friends from my German class (which I am not continuing because the next term started 2 weeks ago and doesn't end until February) over for dinner. A group of them all rotate who cooks Sunday dinner, and I had volunteered this time. I had been blown away by the incredible pizza we had tried all over Italy and I wanted to recreate it. It turned out pretty well- I made one pizza with fresh tomatoes and mushrooms on top, another with ham, and the last with olives and peppers. The family was a big help too and overall, it was a really fun evening, especially because I got to see these friends again and I got to tell them about my Italy trip. It was also kind of exciting to find out that we had progressed so well as a class, that they had all skipped the next class and gone to B12 instead of B11.
This weekend, my family took a 25 hour trip to Osnabrueck, which is where Dad served the first 6 months of his mission (33 years ago). He wanted to visit the couple people he still knows there before we go home and we haven't been able to make it work until now. We took a 2-hour train ride and got there in the evening, just as they city was coming to life with the magic ofWeihnachtmarkt. Weihnachtsmarkt , for those of you who don't know, is like, better than going to Disneyland. It is in like every German town and varies between them all, but they all comprise of tons of little kiosks set up all around the main downtown of a given city, where you can buy a variety of different foods. I've mentioned some already, but you can also get crepes, chocolate-covered or candied fruits, hot cocoa, fried cauliflower, fried mushrooms, okay pretty much anything fried, any type of nut or candy, etc. Besides food stuffs, there are people selling a huge variety of handicrafts, from wood-carved ornaments, to blown-glass figurines, to intricately-cut paper lamps, to delicate candles, to all types of jewelry, the list goes on. Anyway, it's not onecertain thing about Wiehnachtsmarkt that makes it special, but just the general splendor of all the lights, decorations, holiday smells, and merry-makers out after dark.
We met Joe Kaiser (a missionary who served here the same time as Dad and then ended up moving back here and has lived here for the past 30 years) at theRathaus, as he had just finished giving an English city tour of historic Osnabrueck . Him and his wife showed us around the town a bit and we climbed a 32 meter tower in a church which looked over the city. They also took us to all the best stands of where to find the best brats,Knuedeln, and roasted chestnuts, etc. They also were so nice to let us sleep at their house that night.
The next morning, we visited Ingrid Reinke, a sister in the ward here who Dad knows through her (late) husband. She and her son were incredibly nice to feed us a delicious meal and we had a great time talking with her- she is such a sweet lady. We then went to their ward Christmas party where she played the angel in a re-enactment of the Christmas story. Dad played one of the 3wisemen, last minute, and the highlight for me was the 2 missionaries playing the camel accompanying the wisemen ... Also, Joe Kaiser played his flute, and then... our family sang Angels We Have Heard On High (in English) and didn't botch it up too bad, considering we didn't know we would be doing it or practice at all :) Afterwards, I got recruited to take some family photos of theReinke's, upon sister Reinke realizing her whole family was there and I had a camera.
Overall, it was a really fun Christmas program and day. We walked through the Weihnachtsmarkt on our way to the train station and then headed home. A short but fun trip.
Tonight we are just back home in our cute apartment and we are discussing the rest of our plans while being in Germany- hence why I have so much time to write this blog entry :)
Viele Grüβe
Emily
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Italia!
Hello! I am so excited to tell you about our family trip to Italy! We left last Tuesday around noon (I left my last day of class a bit early and met the fam at the Bahnhof) and took the 2 hour train ride to Frankfurt. We then took a one hour shuttle bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, and then the 2 hour flight to Rome, where we took a taxi to our hostel, arriving there around 11 PM. Surprisingly, we were not so dead tired by that point that we wanted to just go straight to bed... Temptingly, Rome's oldest gelato factory was right across the street from us. We grabbed some of that and than wandered over to the Colosseum. To see it lit up at night was fantastic, especially the juxtaposition of this ancient structure sitting amidst the blearing night traffic whizzing by all around it. We went back to our hostel, which was really nice.
The next day we had a marathon day in Rome, first visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, then jumping on a Bus city tour where we hopped off at the Vatican. We tackled a sizable fraction of the vast Vatican museums and were struck speechless (and crick-necked) after taking in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We then had some lunch (pasta) and then headed for St. Peter's Basilica. I remember being stunned by the size and dark magnificence of the cathedral in Koeln a few years ago, but St. Peter's was.... ethereal. The bright white and colored marble and just the sheer space was overwhelming. We saw the beautiful Pieta by Michaelangelo, which is a statue of Mary cradling the crucified Christ in her arms. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain where supposedly, if you toss a coin in, it promises a return trip to Rome (I threw in about 10, just to make sure). We got some gelato and then walked over to the Pantheon. The ancient architecture was amazing- there was a big hole in the ceiling for light to come in and to show what time of day it is. The incredible part is that for the keystone of a domed 
ceiling to not be there, it is still to standing today. Of course the interior was completely transformed into what it looks like now when the Catholics destroyed all evidence that it used to be a temple devoted to worship of pagan gods. Kara, obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology as she is, was in denial of this fact and was re-titling and re-imagining all the Christian statues and paintings as possible mythology scenarios... in an only slightly sacrilegious way.... :) It was dark by this point and so we meandered through a couple piazzas and then got some dinner at an Italian restaurant (I guess Italian was an unneeded adjective) and I had this amazing lasagne.
The next day we caught an early train to Pompeii. It was gorgeous and green and relatively warm there and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me: it was hard to grasp how old and well-preserved the city was. We were able to see the remains of mosaic floors, frescoes, pillars, pottery, and
countless
homes and civic buildings up to the bottom of the second story. The higher stories had mostly been made of wood as opposed to the stone and brick of the bottom story, which is why nothing very tall survived the volcano or the nearly 2000 years since. We saw some bodies that had been found too; that is, holes that were filled in with plaster to reveal that a body had been there. One of them, though most likely crouching from the heat, to me looked like he was praying. We then spent a few hours in Naples and went to a museum that had more antiquities from Pompeii.
On the 3rd day, we were in Rome for most of the day. It was pretty rainy, but we braved it and took a tour of the inside of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
(essentially the ruins of the ancient Rome government buildings and temples). We left that evening for Florence.
Day 4: Florence (or Firenze in Italian) was beautiful, but cold and rainy. We took a bus tour of the city and got thoroughly chilled sitting on the open upper level of the bus. We ate some more great Italian food and then we went to the Pitti Palace, which housed the royal family of Florence, and an exceptional and colossal amount of paintings and sculpture. We saw many works of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other famous painters. Walking around town, a poster for the Opera La Traviata caught my eye on a church. We found out it was showing that night and that we could just come half an hour early to get tickets. So we went and got some dinner (and then gelato of course) and did some window shopping on this cool bridge that has shops lining the bridge that are held up on stilts. And then we went to the opera, which was fabulous!
The next day we took a train to Venice (or Venetia). Once again, cold and rainy.... but of course
still marvelous and beautiful. We shopped and just wandered through the almost claustrophbically narrow and building-lined streets. We ate some great pizza and looked at the beautiful Venetian glass and mask shops. Dad let us take a gondola ride where our gondolier pointed out the home of Marco Polo. We were all impressed at the way he masterfully steered the gondola through narrow canals and under low bridges. We saw an amazingly gaudy and dark cathedral there that Kara said reminded her of the Holy Sepulchre. And we got hopelessly lost in the maze of Venice. But we caught our train back to Florence ok after having another amazing Italian dinner involving a lot of seafood and pasta.
Monday morning we saw the Duomo cathedral and visited the catacombs below. We did some last minute shopping, after finding out that the Museum housing the Michaelangelo's David was randomly closed :( and then were on a train to the Pisa airport (no we didn't have time to actually stop in Pisa) and then a plane back to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, we missed the last train of the day to Goettingen, so Dad rented a car and him and I drove back to Goettingen. It was kind of stressful for me to drive on the autobahn, along with the fact that it was a manual (thank goodness Kristi let me practice on her car...), but also really fun- I hadn't driven a car in at least 3 months. Anyway, we got home around 1:30 AM, but had a marvelous time!
Italy is beautiful, but we are also glad to be back to our Goettingen where the food is not quite so rich :) if it's possible, we got a little sick of pizza and pasta, after eating it virtually every meal for a week. Don't worry though- I could never get sick of the gelato! Love you all and hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving- we missed and thought of you dearly while we ate our pizza on Thanksgiving.
The next day we had a marathon day in Rome, first visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, then jumping on a Bus city tour where we hopped off at the Vatican. We tackled a sizable fraction of the vast Vatican museums and were struck speechless (and crick-necked) after taking in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We then had some lunch (pasta) and then headed for St. Peter's Basilica. I remember being stunned by the size and dark magnificence of the cathedral in Koeln a few years ago, but St. Peter's was.... ethereal. The bright white and colored marble and just the sheer space was overwhelming. We saw the beautiful Pieta by Michaelangelo, which is a statue of Mary cradling the crucified Christ in her arms. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain where supposedly, if you toss a coin in, it promises a return trip to Rome (I threw in about 10, just to make sure). We got some gelato and then walked over to the Pantheon. The ancient architecture was amazing- there was a big hole in the ceiling for light to come in and to show what time of day it is. The incredible part is that for the keystone of a domed 
ceiling to not be there, it is still to standing today. Of course the interior was completely transformed into what it looks like now when the Catholics destroyed all evidence that it used to be a temple devoted to worship of pagan gods. Kara, obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology as she is, was in denial of this fact and was re-titling and re-imagining all the Christian statues and paintings as possible mythology scenarios... in an only slightly sacrilegious way.... :) It was dark by this point and so we meandered through a couple piazzas and then got some dinner at an Italian restaurant (I guess Italian was an unneeded adjective) and I had this amazing lasagne.The next day we caught an early train to Pompeii. It was gorgeous and green and relatively warm there and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me: it was hard to grasp how old and well-preserved the city was. We were able to see the remains of mosaic floors, frescoes, pillars, pottery, and
countless
homes and civic buildings up to the bottom of the second story. The higher stories had mostly been made of wood as opposed to the stone and brick of the bottom story, which is why nothing very tall survived the volcano or the nearly 2000 years since. We saw some bodies that had been found too; that is, holes that were filled in with plaster to reveal that a body had been there. One of them, though most likely crouching from the heat, to me looked like he was praying. We then spent a few hours in Naples and went to a museum that had more antiquities from Pompeii.On the 3rd day, we were in Rome for most of the day. It was pretty rainy, but we braved it and took a tour of the inside of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
(essentially the ruins of the ancient Rome government buildings and temples). We left that evening for Florence.Day 4: Florence (or Firenze in Italian) was beautiful, but cold and rainy. We took a bus tour of the city and got thoroughly chilled sitting on the open upper level of the bus. We ate some more great Italian food and then we went to the Pitti Palace, which housed the royal family of Florence, and an exceptional and colossal amount of paintings and sculpture. We saw many works of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other famous painters. Walking around town, a poster for the Opera La Traviata caught my eye on a church. We found out it was showing that night and that we could just come half an hour early to get tickets. So we went and got some dinner (and then gelato of course) and did some window shopping on this cool bridge that has shops lining the bridge that are held up on stilts. And then we went to the opera, which was fabulous!
The next day we took a train to Venice (or Venetia). Once again, cold and rainy.... but of course
still marvelous and beautiful. We shopped and just wandered through the almost claustrophbically narrow and building-lined streets. We ate some great pizza and looked at the beautiful Venetian glass and mask shops. Dad let us take a gondola ride where our gondolier pointed out the home of Marco Polo. We were all impressed at the way he masterfully steered the gondola through narrow canals and under low bridges. We saw an amazingly gaudy and dark cathedral there that Kara said reminded her of the Holy Sepulchre. And we got hopelessly lost in the maze of Venice. But we caught our train back to Florence ok after having another amazing Italian dinner involving a lot of seafood and pasta.Monday morning we saw the Duomo cathedral and visited the catacombs below. We did some last minute shopping, after finding out that the Museum housing the Michaelangelo's David was randomly closed :( and then were on a train to the Pisa airport (no we didn't have time to actually stop in Pisa) and then a plane back to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, we missed the last train of the day to Goettingen, so Dad rented a car and him and I drove back to Goettingen. It was kind of stressful for me to drive on the autobahn, along with the fact that it was a manual (thank goodness Kristi let me practice on her car...), but also really fun- I hadn't driven a car in at least 3 months. Anyway, we got home around 1:30 AM, but had a marvelous time!
Italy is beautiful, but we are also glad to be back to our Goettingen where the food is not quite so rich :) if it's possible, we got a little sick of pizza and pasta, after eating it virtually every meal for a week. Don't worry though- I could never get sick of the gelato! Love you all and hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving- we missed and thought of you dearly while we ate our pizza on Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
A fairly uneventful but wonderful Mittwoch
So... it's not the weekend, like it usually is when I make time to write here, but I just feel like writing today, for no apparent reason. Mmmm it feels good to write a somewhat complicated sentence with multiple commas and not give it a second thought to rearranging all the verbs... I love English.
So, my mom discovered this great thing called "Nugat Bits" at the grocery store, and they are changing my life :) It's like a little chocolatey cereal bite, but it is filled with NUTELLA! It is disguised in the form of a cereal box, but it is no cereal.... Haha ok- I know what you are all thinking with my comments all over this blog page about amazing food, much of it being not the most light foods out there, that I am going to be the size of Harry's Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during her blown-up state, when I get home. But I actually haven't gained any weight while being here. I go running frequently though, which is really fun. I have this route where I pass a quiet, old church; a little lake; a big park full of Europeans walking their dogs (which btw, sometimes have similarities... the owner and their dog, I mean. It is so funny, you wouldn't think there would be a difference in European dogs and American dogs, but there totally is: the dogs here act so refined and calm and they are therefore allowed everywhere people are. Even on buses and in restaurants.); and a handful of corner bakeries and flower shops.
I am getting really sad for my class to end (which it does officially on Tuesday the 25th). It has reminded me of being in elementary school again, just with the whole concept of being in the same classroom with the same people and only your one teacher everyday. It has made us become a really close-knit class of 12, and therefore, it is a very comfortable and productive learning environment because we don't care about making mistakes in front of one another or asking the same questions over and over :) Our teacher is the best language teacher I have ever had and has very logical and organized lesson plans and direction, and conscientious of our individual levels and needs. He has been teaching German (though he also speaks English, Greek, and Czech fluently, along with the half-dozen or so other languages he knows a little bit of) at the Institute for 10 years, but this is his last semester here- he is moving to Koeln (Cologne) in January.
During the class breaks, I have had a couple of theology discussions (we speak in a German-English conglomerate) with a fellow classmate, Marcio, who is from Brazil. He is a very strong Christian who believes in modern and personal revelation and has been slowly reading the Bible in English on his own. I asked the missionaries for a Portuguese Book of Mormon to give him before classes are finished, so hopefully I will get the opportunity to give it to him.
I have also somehow only added to my 'books to read' list while being here, despite bringing like 6 here with me that I have read/will read. John (to refresh your memories: English major guy who is about to begin his graduate work in English) has been drawing up a personalized list for me, according to my areas of interests and previous reading experiences, of course :) Maybe I will include it for those of you interested to know what they might be, or who randomly need a book recommendation.
Dad has been under the weather the past few days, but is slowly recovering. Mom's classes end on Friday, and Kara has been busy with school, and Italian and Swedish callers. Haha jk.... kind of... She bought and has been slowly trucking through the first Harry Potter book in German though, and I am extremely impressed by her perseverance in such a daunting task. Mom and I, meanwhile, continue to enjoy German children's books with more pictures than words.
I hope you are all having a delightful week, and that Grandma's birthday party went well! Good luck with school, work, and all other events that demand your time and energy. From Germany with love,
Emily
So, my mom discovered this great thing called "Nugat Bits" at the grocery store, and they are changing my life :) It's like a little chocolatey cereal bite, but it is filled with NUTELLA! It is disguised in the form of a cereal box, but it is no cereal.... Haha ok- I know what you are all thinking with my comments all over this blog page about amazing food, much of it being not the most light foods out there, that I am going to be the size of Harry's Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during her blown-up state, when I get home. But I actually haven't gained any weight while being here. I go running frequently though, which is really fun. I have this route where I pass a quiet, old church; a little lake; a big park full of Europeans walking their dogs (which btw, sometimes have similarities... the owner and their dog, I mean. It is so funny, you wouldn't think there would be a difference in European dogs and American dogs, but there totally is: the dogs here act so refined and calm and they are therefore allowed everywhere people are. Even on buses and in restaurants.); and a handful of corner bakeries and flower shops.
I am getting really sad for my class to end (which it does officially on Tuesday the 25th). It has reminded me of being in elementary school again, just with the whole concept of being in the same classroom with the same people and only your one teacher everyday. It has made us become a really close-knit class of 12, and therefore, it is a very comfortable and productive learning environment because we don't care about making mistakes in front of one another or asking the same questions over and over :) Our teacher is the best language teacher I have ever had and has very logical and organized lesson plans and direction, and conscientious of our individual levels and needs. He has been teaching German (though he also speaks English, Greek, and Czech fluently, along with the half-dozen or so other languages he knows a little bit of) at the Institute for 10 years, but this is his last semester here- he is moving to Koeln (Cologne) in January.
During the class breaks, I have had a couple of theology discussions (we speak in a German-English conglomerate) with a fellow classmate, Marcio, who is from Brazil. He is a very strong Christian who believes in modern and personal revelation and has been slowly reading the Bible in English on his own. I asked the missionaries for a Portuguese Book of Mormon to give him before classes are finished, so hopefully I will get the opportunity to give it to him.
I have also somehow only added to my 'books to read' list while being here, despite bringing like 6 here with me that I have read/will read. John (to refresh your memories: English major guy who is about to begin his graduate work in English) has been drawing up a personalized list for me, according to my areas of interests and previous reading experiences, of course :) Maybe I will include it for those of you interested to know what they might be, or who randomly need a book recommendation.
Dad has been under the weather the past few days, but is slowly recovering. Mom's classes end on Friday, and Kara has been busy with school, and Italian and Swedish callers. Haha jk.... kind of... She bought and has been slowly trucking through the first Harry Potter book in German though, and I am extremely impressed by her perseverance in such a daunting task. Mom and I, meanwhile, continue to enjoy German children's books with more pictures than words.
I hope you are all having a delightful week, and that Grandma's birthday party went well! Good luck with school, work, and all other events that demand your time and energy. From Germany with love,
Emily
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tribute to Sharolee
So... I made a promise that I would someday write a blog entry in German, and the person I made that promise to is leaving on her mission to the Baltic Mission in 3 days (I am so excited for you Sharolee!) so this is my last chance to fulfill that promise.... so for those of you who don't speak German, I am sorry. And for those of you who do, I am also sorry because this is going to be really bad.
Ich kann nicht es glauben: nachste Woche ist die letzte ganz Woche von meinen Deutsch Kurs! Ich bin sehr traurig, weil ich da vielen Freunden gemacht habe. Auch, wir haben nur sechs Wochen in Europa. Verruckt!
Heute, haben wir Mittagessen im Kirche mit der Gemeinde gegessen (Jedermann hat Speisen mitgebracht). Dann, sind die Missionaire bei uns fur Dinner angekommen, weil wir einen neuen Missionair haben. Er heiszt Elder Schenk und kommt aus Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wir sind am Mittwoch Abend zusammen mit dem alte Missionaire zuessen gegangen.
Okay I am switching back to English for this part cause I think many will want to know this. So on Saturday night, we went out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant with Pika, and then we sent her off on the train to visit her friend Imke one last time and then she is headed back to the states on Wednesday. So sad for us, though happy for Pato, and you all. But we will miss her oodles.
Oh I wanted to tell you about my experience on Thursday night. My school had this really cool night of international music where any of the students could share their musical talents. So Carrie and another girl Rachel who is also an opera singer, sang a song from Hansel and Gretel and it was AMAZING. Tony, a music major from California played an amazing classical piano piece. Also, Brandon another American, played some Neil Young on his guitar and seriously made me itch to get my hands on a guitar again.... I somehow got addicted in the short time between Brighton and coming to Europe.... anyway, he did a really good job, and then my personal favorite number was when a girl from Switzerland combined with a girl from Canada to sing a Celine Dion song in French, since Celine Dion is from Canada, but is apparently currently living in Switzerland so it all tied together.... ok no I am kinda making fun of them because well..... it was Celine Dion.... (sorry Elyse, I know you love her...) but they actually did a pretty good job. My real personal favorite number was actually these two men from Africa who speak not only a bunch of diferent African dialects and French, but also English and German. Anyway, the one, Blanchard, is completely blind, which I knew. What I didn't know was that he can play the piano!!!! He sat down at the piano and started playing and I was like, what the heck! He can play a trillion times better than me and I have full vision! And then, he started singing. This rich, deep voice in some beautiful African dialect. It was like nothing I have ever heard. And I seriously cannot get over his playing the piano- he just totally played by touch. And I am not just talking about playing the keys by touch of his fingers, I am talking about making music with his soul. You seriously just felt the music eminate from his soul, via the tools of his fingers and vocal chords- who needs eyes. Anyway, with all of the music talent that abounded from my fellow students at my school that night, I realized how many of the students studying there were doing so to enrich somethin to do with a music career or talent. Or maybe, just people who love and understand music are more quantitatively minded and have a better knack for learning another language. Although I don't seem to fall into either one of those categories, so maybe this is all just useless and false generalizations...
Well, Sharolee, I am so excited for you and wish you all the best on your mission and I can't wait to hear you speak Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or whatever languages you know when you get back. And I promise I will write you lots!!!
And to everyone else, I miss you bunches and bunches and love you even more. Until next week,
Emily
Ich kann nicht es glauben: nachste Woche ist die letzte ganz Woche von meinen Deutsch Kurs! Ich bin sehr traurig, weil ich da vielen Freunden gemacht habe. Auch, wir haben nur sechs Wochen in Europa. Verruckt!
Heute, haben wir Mittagessen im Kirche mit der Gemeinde gegessen (Jedermann hat Speisen mitgebracht). Dann, sind die Missionaire bei uns fur Dinner angekommen, weil wir einen neuen Missionair haben. Er heiszt Elder Schenk und kommt aus Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wir sind am Mittwoch Abend zusammen mit dem alte Missionaire zuessen gegangen.
Okay I am switching back to English for this part cause I think many will want to know this. So on Saturday night, we went out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant with Pika, and then we sent her off on the train to visit her friend Imke one last time and then she is headed back to the states on Wednesday. So sad for us, though happy for Pato, and you all. But we will miss her oodles.
Oh I wanted to tell you about my experience on Thursday night. My school had this really cool night of international music where any of the students could share their musical talents. So Carrie and another girl Rachel who is also an opera singer, sang a song from Hansel and Gretel and it was AMAZING. Tony, a music major from California played an amazing classical piano piece. Also, Brandon another American, played some Neil Young on his guitar and seriously made me itch to get my hands on a guitar again.... I somehow got addicted in the short time between Brighton and coming to Europe.... anyway, he did a really good job, and then my personal favorite number was when a girl from Switzerland combined with a girl from Canada to sing a Celine Dion song in French, since Celine Dion is from Canada, but is apparently currently living in Switzerland so it all tied together.... ok no I am kinda making fun of them because well..... it was Celine Dion.... (sorry Elyse, I know you love her...) but they actually did a pretty good job. My real personal favorite number was actually these two men from Africa who speak not only a bunch of diferent African dialects and French, but also English and German. Anyway, the one, Blanchard, is completely blind, which I knew. What I didn't know was that he can play the piano!!!! He sat down at the piano and started playing and I was like, what the heck! He can play a trillion times better than me and I have full vision! And then, he started singing. This rich, deep voice in some beautiful African dialect. It was like nothing I have ever heard. And I seriously cannot get over his playing the piano- he just totally played by touch. And I am not just talking about playing the keys by touch of his fingers, I am talking about making music with his soul. You seriously just felt the music eminate from his soul, via the tools of his fingers and vocal chords- who needs eyes. Anyway, with all of the music talent that abounded from my fellow students at my school that night, I realized how many of the students studying there were doing so to enrich somethin to do with a music career or talent. Or maybe, just people who love and understand music are more quantitatively minded and have a better knack for learning another language. Although I don't seem to fall into either one of those categories, so maybe this is all just useless and false generalizations...
Well, Sharolee, I am so excited for you and wish you all the best on your mission and I can't wait to hear you speak Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or whatever languages you know when you get back. And I promise I will write you lots!!!
And to everyone else, I miss you bunches and bunches and love you even more. Until next week,
Emily
Sunday, November 9, 2008
School, politics, the weather: same old. EXCEPT THAT I AM IN GERMANY!
Ok so we just got back from the Thomas's house. They are a family in the branch and their 5 kids make up the entire primary and young men's. We are their home teachers and we had them over 2 weeks ago for dinner and games so this time we went over to their apartment. It is actually a crazy small world story: Sister Thomas was a foreign exchange student about 15 years ago in a U.S. high school. But not just any high school, PLEASANT GROVE HIGH SCHOOL. As in the high school Kara and I went to. Yeah. Crazy ironic. She even had the same P.E. teacher as me, good old Coach Bone who retired just last year. Anyway, Sister Thomas's English is brilliant and she has no accent whatsoever, and they are a really nice couple. And their kids, oh my goodness they are adorable. If my kids are half as cute as theirs I will feel really good about myself. There is Dennis (12), Imke (11), Johanna (10), Lasse (8), and Bente (6). Kara and I played Uno and some other random German card game with them for hours and it was so much fun. It is really fun to not be super self conscious about speaking German in front of them too because you don't feel obligated to speak in full sentences; you can just spurt out phrases, exclamations and slang words. Anyway, it was a really fun evening.
It was fast and testimony meeting at church today and Dad bore his testimony. I was asked to give the closing prayer and I (amazingly, and unlike last time when I chickened out) said it in German.
School is going fairly well. I mean, no- it gets more and more frustrating and seemingly impossible, but I have been told to regard that as a good sign, so all is good.
I had several people congratulate me on our new President. It was all every newspaper, radio, and news channel could talk about this past week. I have to say I am quite glad of the results, at least while I am here in Germany, due to the fact that all Europeans are obsessed with Obama and seriously would have broke into riots if he was not elected. They may not be as unbiased and informed as they think they are on American politics, but I have realized how profoundly American government and politics affect them here, and many other countries globally.
The weather here is still amazingly nice. The grass is even still green, but only the reddest of leaves still cling to the sparse trees. It has yet to snow in Goettingen, but the clouds feel at their leisure to rain as often and as much as they desire.
Ok, that must mark a fairly uneventful week if I am reverting to talking about the weather, so I will peace out. Bis nachste Woche. Ich liebe euch!
It was fast and testimony meeting at church today and Dad bore his testimony. I was asked to give the closing prayer and I (amazingly, and unlike last time when I chickened out) said it in German.
School is going fairly well. I mean, no- it gets more and more frustrating and seemingly impossible, but I have been told to regard that as a good sign, so all is good.
I had several people congratulate me on our new President. It was all every newspaper, radio, and news channel could talk about this past week. I have to say I am quite glad of the results, at least while I am here in Germany, due to the fact that all Europeans are obsessed with Obama and seriously would have broke into riots if he was not elected. They may not be as unbiased and informed as they think they are on American politics, but I have realized how profoundly American government and politics affect them here, and many other countries globally.
The weather here is still amazingly nice. The grass is even still green, but only the reddest of leaves still cling to the sparse trees. It has yet to snow in Goettingen, but the clouds feel at their leisure to rain as often and as much as they desire.
Ok, that must mark a fairly uneventful week if I am reverting to talking about the weather, so I will peace out. Bis nachste Woche. Ich liebe euch!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
"At least it's not raining..."
Okay so yesterday (Saturday), a bunch of my classmates decided they wanted to take a day trip to Eisanach to see the Wartburg Castle and I decided to tag along. It was a 2 hour train ride there and it was freezing cold and foggy when we go there. Steve had done a lot of research beforehand and found out that the bus that goes up to Wartburg every half hour, but after waiting an hour.... we finally noticed the small print on the bus schedule. It said something about Nov. 1st and calling ahead 45 minutes. We realized that it was in fact, Nov. 1st, but we couldn't quite figure out the complete meaning of the German sentence due to some disagreement about small, yet amazingly important words such as until, only, etc. Anyway, we finally decided to call the number listed on the bus schedule but no one answered. So then after a lot of asking people, who really didn't know what they were talking about, we went back to the Bahnhof and asked one of the ticket ladies there. She found a pamphlet with a newer number on that, so then we were finally able to secure a bus to come at the next half hour. So, 2 1/2 hours after arriving in Eisenach, we were on our way up there. It turns out that after Nov. 1st, if you want to take the bus, you have to call because it is no longer tourist season... yeah. Well we know now!
Anyway, we got up there and took a tour of the castle. It was awesome! I have been to a fair number of European castles and fortresses now, but this one was exceptionally cool. It was built in 1166 and had much of the original roots, but since it was in use until the 1950's, parts of it kept being updated every hundred years or so and so it has styles over a range of 800 years. It's true claim to fame, and the main reason why I wanted to tour it, is because it is where Martin Luther hid under the name "Squire George" and translated the New Testament into German from December 1521- February 1522. I had finally seen that really well done movie "Luther" about the life of Martin Luther, just a few weeks ago, so my interest was especially heightened. It was crazy to actually stand in the simple room where he worked tirelessly over a 2-month period and began the first stages of the Restoration.
So, we realized that it was getting pretty late, and that if we didn't catch the 5 PM train out of Eisenach, we would have to wait an additional 2 hours to leave, so we ran down the mountain, because no more buses were coming. Amazingly, though we got to the Bahnhof 2 minutes after our train should have left, it was still waiting for us, so luckily we got home by 7 PM. I was exhausted after being outside in the penetrating, damp cold and walking (or running) around all day. We saw the first snow I have seen here up by the Castle. But our response to any unfortunate event or complaint of someone being cold, was "At least it's not raining!" Because it rained the whole day when we were in Celle on Thursday. But it was totally worth it, and I am really glad to be fitting in all these weekend or day trips between school.
Today we went to Hannover for stake conference. Janet made a really yummy dinner tonight (taco soup) and we are all sad for her to leave back to Utah tomorrow morning. It has been really fun for Mom to have her over her birthday and for "the Blender Sisters" (named that for the weird voices they do around each other, dating back to a sleepover they had once upon a time, when the tried to impersonate the sound their voices made while talking into a blender... yeah, and everyone thinks the Woodbury girl cousins are so weird and unique with the voices) to reunite the past 8 days.
Anyway, we got up there and took a tour of the castle. It was awesome! I have been to a fair number of European castles and fortresses now, but this one was exceptionally cool. It was built in 1166 and had much of the original roots, but since it was in use until the 1950's, parts of it kept being updated every hundred years or so and so it has styles over a range of 800 years. It's true claim to fame, and the main reason why I wanted to tour it, is because it is where Martin Luther hid under the name "Squire George" and translated the New Testament into German from December 1521- February 1522. I had finally seen that really well done movie "Luther" about the life of Martin Luther, just a few weeks ago, so my interest was especially heightened. It was crazy to actually stand in the simple room where he worked tirelessly over a 2-month period and began the first stages of the Restoration.
So, we realized that it was getting pretty late, and that if we didn't catch the 5 PM train out of Eisenach, we would have to wait an additional 2 hours to leave, so we ran down the mountain, because no more buses were coming. Amazingly, though we got to the Bahnhof 2 minutes after our train should have left, it was still waiting for us, so luckily we got home by 7 PM. I was exhausted after being outside in the penetrating, damp cold and walking (or running) around all day. We saw the first snow I have seen here up by the Castle. But our response to any unfortunate event or complaint of someone being cold, was "At least it's not raining!" Because it rained the whole day when we were in Celle on Thursday. But it was totally worth it, and I am really glad to be fitting in all these weekend or day trips between school.
Today we went to Hannover for stake conference. Janet made a really yummy dinner tonight (taco soup) and we are all sad for her to leave back to Utah tomorrow morning. It has been really fun for Mom to have her over her birthday and for "the Blender Sisters" (named that for the weird voices they do around each other, dating back to a sleepover they had once upon a time, when the tried to impersonate the sound their voices made while talking into a blender... yeah, and everyone thinks the Woodbury girl cousins are so weird and unique with the voices) to reunite the past 8 days.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Celle
Happy Halloween!!! Oh my goodness how I miss the random and commercialized festivities of the Halloween holiday in the states... corn mazes and haunted houses, pumpkin carving, costume designing, and excessive candy eating. Actually, they are starting to get into it here. We actually had two girls come to our apartment trick-or-treating, or "Susser oder Sauer", but before that Kara and I had somewhat consoled ourselves by acting out the trick-or-treat procession with Pika as the door woman and Kara was Batman (don't ask me why she happened to bring a batman mask to Europe...) and I was a ghost... for lack of time to come up with something more creative. There actually was a party going on tonight at the school, but I am going on a day trip tomorrow early in the morning with some classmates so I decided against it. The party tonight was in celebration for "Berg Fest" which literally translates to "Mountain Party" but this is in reference to the 'hump' of being at the Goethe Institute and not the geographic feature; we are half done with our classes, which is a crazy thought.
Yesterday (Thursday), my class went on a day trip to a town called Celle. It was fun to have our teacher as our tour guide, as he was born in Celle. We went to a museum that showed medieval life in Germany, like farming and other trades, daily life, clothing, etc. And then we went to the Schloss (castle) in Celle that housed the royal family of Neidersachsen (a state in Germany) beginning in the 1500's. Also among our sight-seeing was a cathedral from around 1300. It was so old and very beautiful and intricate. The frescos lining all the walls were beautiful old and new testament scenes. We also went down to the catacombs below the church where all the royalty and their families from 1500 to 1700 are buried.... yeah pretty creepy and claustrophobic. It didn't smell too good either- Carrie kept threatening to pass out :) We also ate at this awesome classic German food restaurant/pub where my teacher proceeded to order a drink that I can't remember the name of, but that was essentially 1 part beer to 1 part Sprite. It was hilarious to me for some reason. I dunno I guess just because a teacher would never really drink in front of his class in the states (correct me if I am wrong, I have been living in Utah for a while now...), but beer is such a part of the culture here that it wasn't even considered weird. Anyway, we had a really fun day as a class.
I got home relatively late but Pato was here! Pika looked 10 years younger... than even her normal 10 years younger... so she looked like she was.... 20. Anyway, they both left today for Hamburg to see Lion King- on stage- in German.
Janet and Mom are getting back tonight from the travels to Berlin, Nuernberg, Eichstaett, Dresden, and Freiberg.
Happy Halloween! Enjoy it for me!
Yesterday (Thursday), my class went on a day trip to a town called Celle. It was fun to have our teacher as our tour guide, as he was born in Celle. We went to a museum that showed medieval life in Germany, like farming and other trades, daily life, clothing, etc. And then we went to the Schloss (castle) in Celle that housed the royal family of Neidersachsen (a state in Germany) beginning in the 1500's. Also among our sight-seeing was a cathedral from around 1300. It was so old and very beautiful and intricate. The frescos lining all the walls were beautiful old and new testament scenes. We also went down to the catacombs below the church where all the royalty and their families from 1500 to 1700 are buried.... yeah pretty creepy and claustrophobic. It didn't smell too good either- Carrie kept threatening to pass out :) We also ate at this awesome classic German food restaurant/pub where my teacher proceeded to order a drink that I can't remember the name of, but that was essentially 1 part beer to 1 part Sprite. It was hilarious to me for some reason. I dunno I guess just because a teacher would never really drink in front of his class in the states (correct me if I am wrong, I have been living in Utah for a while now...), but beer is such a part of the culture here that it wasn't even considered weird. Anyway, we had a really fun day as a class.
I got home relatively late but Pato was here! Pika looked 10 years younger... than even her normal 10 years younger... so she looked like she was.... 20. Anyway, they both left today for Hamburg to see Lion King- on stage- in German.
Janet and Mom are getting back tonight from the travels to Berlin, Nuernberg, Eichstaett, Dresden, and Freiberg.
Happy Halloween! Enjoy it for me!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Weimar and Buchanwald
Hallo from Deutschland! This past week has been good- Kara and Michele got back from a two-week trip to Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm on Friday and it is is so good to have them back! Mom's friend Janet arrived yesterday and now she, Mom, and Pika left after church today to go to Berlin, Nuernberg, Dresden, Freiberg, Eichstatt. Janet's dad designed the Freiberg Temple and she has never seen it. I can't believe Pika is still alive with all the consecutive traveling she has been doing!
School for me has been going really well. I have been meeting some really cool people. In my class (there are 14 of us) Carrie, an opera singer from Michigan has become a really good friend, along with Stephen who is an engineer from New Zealand. There is also John who (who actually isn't in my class, but in another similar level class) just graduated from Princeton with a B.S. in English and is starting his PhD at Harvard- he has been a super good resource for me to talk to about some good authors to read and what to do with an English major. Mohamood, a civic engineer from Oman has been fascinating to talk to about politics with. Sorry- I feel like I am introducing all the characters in a play in this paragraph. It's just because I expect to refer to them a lot from now on and so I want you to all know who I am talking about.
Anyway, yesterday, we took a trip to a town called Weimar, about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride away- the whole school, not just my class. It is famous for being the residence of Schiller, Goethe, and Liszt, at least for part of their lives. We took a tour and then had some free time, where John and I got pear and vanilla sauce crepes (Birne & Vanillesosse) while Carrie and Stephen got bratwurst. They had a whole market set up in the main square with food, jewelry, and flower vendors. We also visited some churches, ruins, and parks. My camera battery died so I don't have any pictures, but Carrie promised to e-mail me some.
After that, we all hopped back on the bus and drove 7 km to Buchanwald, a concentration camp, or KZ. It feels weird to talk about what is was like. We all learn about WWII and the horrors of the concentration camps in school. But to actually be there, seeing the ovens in the crematorium in front of my eyes and imagining smoke coming from the tall brick chimney was... uncomfortably vivid. Inside the museum, I saw artifacts of inmates- blue and white striped uniforms, colored fabric triangles each inmate wore to represent their crime or identity, remains of completely worn leather shoes- evidence that this whole thing was not just a horrible dream but really happened. Most eye-opening and memorable to me was being just outside the camp- the whole camp was surrounded by thick woods with gorgeous autumnal-colored leaves. When the U.S. soldiers came to liberate Buchanwald in April of 1945, the were horrified by the sight of hundreds of dead bodies piled up outside the crematorium- the holding cellars couldn't hold anymore. The soldiers then forced all the citizens of Weimar to walk through the camp and witness the death and suffering. Though it was but 7 km from their town, they said that they had no idea of the horrors that lay within. Even after liberation though, hundreds more died due to lack of food and health care in time. Mass graves were dug there right outside the camp among the dense trees. In 1995, they dedicated that area of the woods as a graveyard and marked every grave, each containing 5-6 bodies, with a steel pole about 6 ft. tall and having about a 4 in. radius. I wish I could share the image with each of you. I looked out as far as I could see in the woods at the gorgeous tall trees, with these steel poles littering the sight about every 4 feet. Hundreds of wood trees, hundreds of steel trees; representing thousands of souls resting there, below the red and orange leave-covered ground. I just stood there, for the first time being able to get some sort of small grasp for how many people died, at least in Buchanwald alone, which apparently was the best of the concentration camps. Wow, I am emotionally exhausted just trying to recount it. Sorry. But I don't want to end on this depressing note.
Before Mom and Janet and Michele left today, we had a small birthday celebration for Mom. Pika set up a really cute Birthday display for Mom on the table and made delicious German pancakes for brunch. She and Dad got Mom a beautiful wooden statue of the Gaenselisel, and Janet gave Mom a really pretty watch, amongst some other things. She also liked the scarf I gave her.
This past week we went over to the branch president's house for dinner and his wife Julia made a really yummy meal where there was a grill thingy in the middle of the table and you just put food on a little tray on the grill and cook whatever you want, from the spread of chicken, potatoes, veggies, and cheese. They are super nice and we had fun bonding with them. I am growing to love our cute little branch here. They are so kind and service oriented. We have stake conference next week. Ok, well yay for daylight savings time here so I have an extra hour to sleep, otherwise, I would be going to bed very late :) Ich liebe euch!
School for me has been going really well. I have been meeting some really cool people. In my class (there are 14 of us) Carrie, an opera singer from Michigan has become a really good friend, along with Stephen who is an engineer from New Zealand. There is also John who (who actually isn't in my class, but in another similar level class) just graduated from Princeton with a B.S. in English and is starting his PhD at Harvard- he has been a super good resource for me to talk to about some good authors to read and what to do with an English major. Mohamood, a civic engineer from Oman has been fascinating to talk to about politics with. Sorry- I feel like I am introducing all the characters in a play in this paragraph. It's just because I expect to refer to them a lot from now on and so I want you to all know who I am talking about.
Anyway, yesterday, we took a trip to a town called Weimar, about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride away- the whole school, not just my class. It is famous for being the residence of Schiller, Goethe, and Liszt, at least for part of their lives. We took a tour and then had some free time, where John and I got pear and vanilla sauce crepes (Birne & Vanillesosse) while Carrie and Stephen got bratwurst. They had a whole market set up in the main square with food, jewelry, and flower vendors. We also visited some churches, ruins, and parks. My camera battery died so I don't have any pictures, but Carrie promised to e-mail me some.
After that, we all hopped back on the bus and drove 7 km to Buchanwald, a concentration camp, or KZ. It feels weird to talk about what is was like. We all learn about WWII and the horrors of the concentration camps in school. But to actually be there, seeing the ovens in the crematorium in front of my eyes and imagining smoke coming from the tall brick chimney was... uncomfortably vivid. Inside the museum, I saw artifacts of inmates- blue and white striped uniforms, colored fabric triangles each inmate wore to represent their crime or identity, remains of completely worn leather shoes- evidence that this whole thing was not just a horrible dream but really happened. Most eye-opening and memorable to me was being just outside the camp- the whole camp was surrounded by thick woods with gorgeous autumnal-colored leaves. When the U.S. soldiers came to liberate Buchanwald in April of 1945, the were horrified by the sight of hundreds of dead bodies piled up outside the crematorium- the holding cellars couldn't hold anymore. The soldiers then forced all the citizens of Weimar to walk through the camp and witness the death and suffering. Though it was but 7 km from their town, they said that they had no idea of the horrors that lay within. Even after liberation though, hundreds more died due to lack of food and health care in time. Mass graves were dug there right outside the camp among the dense trees. In 1995, they dedicated that area of the woods as a graveyard and marked every grave, each containing 5-6 bodies, with a steel pole about 6 ft. tall and having about a 4 in. radius. I wish I could share the image with each of you. I looked out as far as I could see in the woods at the gorgeous tall trees, with these steel poles littering the sight about every 4 feet. Hundreds of wood trees, hundreds of steel trees; representing thousands of souls resting there, below the red and orange leave-covered ground. I just stood there, for the first time being able to get some sort of small grasp for how many people died, at least in Buchanwald alone, which apparently was the best of the concentration camps. Wow, I am emotionally exhausted just trying to recount it. Sorry. But I don't want to end on this depressing note.
Before Mom and Janet and Michele left today, we had a small birthday celebration for Mom. Pika set up a really cute Birthday display for Mom on the table and made delicious German pancakes for brunch. She and Dad got Mom a beautiful wooden statue of the Gaenselisel, and Janet gave Mom a really pretty watch, amongst some other things. She also liked the scarf I gave her.
This past week we went over to the branch president's house for dinner and his wife Julia made a really yummy meal where there was a grill thingy in the middle of the table and you just put food on a little tray on the grill and cook whatever you want, from the spread of chicken, potatoes, veggies, and cheese. They are super nice and we had fun bonding with them. I am growing to love our cute little branch here. They are so kind and service oriented. We have stake conference next week. Ok, well yay for daylight savings time here so I have an extra hour to sleep, otherwise, I would be going to bed very late :) Ich liebe euch!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Dresden: City of Dreams
So sorry about the cheesy title, but most of you know my love of alliteration....
On Monday night 2 week ago, we were all at the old Rathaus at a string quartet concert for Michele's birthday when Pika randomly let me know that she wanted to go visit Summit (past Brighton staff) who was serving her mission in Dresden and then go to the Freiberg Temple. I told her that I really wanted to go with her, as it has been a while since I have made it to the temple and I have been longing to go. Pika then was amazing and figured out trains and places to stay and found out Summit's address with Pato's help to track down her mom's phone number.
I woke up on the day of planned departure (Friday the 10th) feeling really sick, but I slept a little and took some drugs and then we left around noon. We were trying to make it to the Temple in time for the 7 O'clock session, so we took the fastest train option, which got us there around 6, but which also meant 4 train transfers. Let's just say it wasn't the most relaxing traveling I've ever done, but Pika had packed yummy food for the way and we talked the whole time.
We hurried to our little bed and breakfast to change and then made it to the temple with about 2 minutes to spare, which we quickly used by tearing up at the sight of the beautiful and miraculously historic temple (the first temple built in East Germany, and incredibly, during DDR times) that we we had traveled for what felt like so long to go to. It gave me a whole new appreciation for sacrificing for your beliefs. It was only a small taste of what so many people have to go through and sacrifice to get to the temple, but it felt so much more... special being there, to be able to sacrifice in our own small way to be able to get there. I ran off to do baptisms while Pika ran off to do endowments, but the people there were so nice and took special care to make sure I had everything I needed, though carefully only talking to me in German, as the Temple president was an English teacher for German students, and upon finding out I was studying German here, wanted to help me and made me promise to try to speak in German as much as possible during my time here, even when English is available. There was a Romanian group there and so everything was done in German, with some people translating into Romanian. I actually was baptized in English because there was a young man there who was from Chicago but had served his mission in Romania and then I think come back and married a Romanian girl and then they had all traveled from a branch in Romania. And he was the one baptizing me and only knew English or Romanian. The temple president talked to us before we started about the worth of souls in the sight of God. Before hand, he had asked me if I was a seminary graduate and if I knew the scriptures. I said I was (how embarrassing would that have been if I was from Utah county and couldn't say I had completed seminary. I was inexplicably grateful to be able to answer him that I did know the scriptures.) And so he quoted D&C 18:10 in German and asked me to recite the English translation, though it was more like, "the worth of souls is wonderful in the sight of the Lord" in German. Afterwards, the cute temple worker ladies took special concern to make sure all of us girls had enough time to blow dry our hair. It is this funny superstition to Germans that YOU WILL catch cold if you go outside with wet hair. Which actually, I could see being very true in the cold weather here, where it is always so humid and so it's not like Utah where my hair dries relatively fast. Anyway, afterwards, it was nice to have some time to sit and ponder in the temple while I waited for Pika to finish. Pika and I walked home through the sleepy town of Freiberg- it seriously almost felt like a ghost town because NO ONE is out after 8 pm- I was told that the missionaries who serve there always do there scripture and language study after 8 pm instead of in the morning because no one wants to make appointments after then. Anyway, we got home and stayed up until 2 am talking....
The next morning we thankfully slept in and then caught a train to Dresden. When we stepped off the train, it was like magic. It was seriously such a beautiful and diverse city. Not as big as Berlin (obviously) but still quite large. It had this great trax-like system and an amazing Fussganger zone (only peds and bikes allowed) with tons of great stores and cafes. Pika and I did some shopping and then as it started to get dark, we headed toward the old part of the city. I wish I could depict the sight of walking into the town center as the sky was getting completely dark. It was better than Paris or any other place I could imagine up in my head. There were lights strung across the tops pf buildings, forming a canopy of glow over the street lined with cafes and wandering musicians. It was so alive- I have never been to another German city that is still so living and breathing at 8:30 pm. People were eating, talking, laughing, strolling, entertaining, and observing. There along the Elbe River was a wall you could walk along and trace the river on you left side, and the cathedrals and downtown on your right. It barely seemed out of place when a guy dressed in a really authentic 18th century nobleman's wig and costume walked past us and on down the street, while turning the corner and seeing emo flame throwers. It was all so unique and varied from street corner to corner, yet amazingly flowing and fitting. We tried to take a picture, but it just doesn't come near to doing it justice. Anyway, Pika and I pretty much just wandered around with our mouths open, until we realized that we needed to start walking towards the sister missionaries' apartment if we were going to catch them. WE got there right at 9:30 pm, after pausing to pray when we were so close but couldn't find their building number. The Lord answered our prayers with a man who walked by just then and pointed us in the right direction. Sure enough, the doorbell said "Missionaire" and we rang. We asked if a "Summit" lived there, and one came bounding down the stairs to open the door in delicious shock and excitement (she had no idea we were coming or that we were even in Europe). It was so good to visit with her and meet her way cute companion (Sister Parker from Alpine, UT). Ok, now I am going to skip a lot of story because it would go on way too long and it's too close to my heart to not give it enough explanation, so for now I will skip to Sunday. We went to the Dresden Ward, which was huge! I mean, compared to our 20 people Goettingen branch. It felt like being at home in Utah. The people were so strong and confident in the gospel and all so friendly. We met two women- sisters- who were on a mission there- they were both well into their sixties and widowed within a few months of each other and wanted to serve a mission together. They were adorable and really cool- they didn't speak a word of German before they got there either, and only knew what they had started to pick up there. Pika had a miraculous answer to prayer with running into someone she knew there, but I will let her tell that story. And then skipping a lot of other detail and events, we found ourselves back on the train home. This was complicated a bit when one of our trains was three minutes late, which resulted in us missing our next transfer. This equated to us not getting home at 11pm Sunday night as planned, but at 3:30 am Monday morning. One of our train transfers had us stop at this tiny town no one has ever heard of. The only way I can think to describe it is to compare it to that tiny train stop in the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" where the Tevye waits with his daughter as she goes off to Siberia or something. We stepped off the train into this god-forsaken (as I referred to it at the time), cloud covered, desolate town. I kind of felt like I was in Siberia actually because the fog and penetrating damp cold and lack of any one or anything alive around. Admittedly, it was one in the morning, but, still. There was no place indoors to wait, so Pika and plunked down on a self- plastic-bag covered bench to wait out the hour and a half we had before our next train came. The time passed quickly however, as Pika and I told me of her adventures living in Germany back in college. And we arrived on the doorstep of our beloved Goettingen apartment at 4 am, Monday morning.
I wish I could tell you more of the miracles and adventures and tender mercies and answers to prayers Sister Pika and Sister Wren experienced that weekend in Dresden, but I feel bad for how long this is already. It has been a long week for me since then. But I will never forget the trip to Dresden and the things I learned. Thank you for all those who have had me in your prayers and thoughts- I have felt them so much. I miss you all excruciatingly. I will have to tell you all about how my classes at the Goethe Institute are going and the people I have met there, and maybe about my emotional and spiritual journey these past few days, but I will spare you for today. God be with you,
Emily
On Monday night 2 week ago, we were all at the old Rathaus at a string quartet concert for Michele's birthday when Pika randomly let me know that she wanted to go visit Summit (past Brighton staff) who was serving her mission in Dresden and then go to the Freiberg Temple. I told her that I really wanted to go with her, as it has been a while since I have made it to the temple and I have been longing to go. Pika then was amazing and figured out trains and places to stay and found out Summit's address with Pato's help to track down her mom's phone number.
I woke up on the day of planned departure (Friday the 10th) feeling really sick, but I slept a little and took some drugs and then we left around noon. We were trying to make it to the Temple in time for the 7 O'clock session, so we took the fastest train option, which got us there around 6, but which also meant 4 train transfers. Let's just say it wasn't the most relaxing traveling I've ever done, but Pika had packed yummy food for the way and we talked the whole time.
We hurried to our little bed and breakfast to change and then made it to the temple with about 2 minutes to spare, which we quickly used by tearing up at the sight of the beautiful and miraculously historic temple (the first temple built in East Germany, and incredibly, during DDR times) that we we had traveled for what felt like so long to go to. It gave me a whole new appreciation for sacrificing for your beliefs. It was only a small taste of what so many people have to go through and sacrifice to get to the temple, but it felt so much more... special being there, to be able to sacrifice in our own small way to be able to get there. I ran off to do baptisms while Pika ran off to do endowments, but the people there were so nice and took special care to make sure I had everything I needed, though carefully only talking to me in German, as the Temple president was an English teacher for German students, and upon finding out I was studying German here, wanted to help me and made me promise to try to speak in German as much as possible during my time here, even when English is available. There was a Romanian group there and so everything was done in German, with some people translating into Romanian. I actually was baptized in English because there was a young man there who was from Chicago but had served his mission in Romania and then I think come back and married a Romanian girl and then they had all traveled from a branch in Romania. And he was the one baptizing me and only knew English or Romanian. The temple president talked to us before we started about the worth of souls in the sight of God. Before hand, he had asked me if I was a seminary graduate and if I knew the scriptures. I said I was (how embarrassing would that have been if I was from Utah county and couldn't say I had completed seminary. I was inexplicably grateful to be able to answer him that I did know the scriptures.) And so he quoted D&C 18:10 in German and asked me to recite the English translation, though it was more like, "the worth of souls is wonderful in the sight of the Lord" in German. Afterwards, the cute temple worker ladies took special concern to make sure all of us girls had enough time to blow dry our hair. It is this funny superstition to Germans that YOU WILL catch cold if you go outside with wet hair. Which actually, I could see being very true in the cold weather here, where it is always so humid and so it's not like Utah where my hair dries relatively fast. Anyway, afterwards, it was nice to have some time to sit and ponder in the temple while I waited for Pika to finish. Pika and I walked home through the sleepy town of Freiberg- it seriously almost felt like a ghost town because NO ONE is out after 8 pm- I was told that the missionaries who serve there always do there scripture and language study after 8 pm instead of in the morning because no one wants to make appointments after then. Anyway, we got home and stayed up until 2 am talking....
The next morning we thankfully slept in and then caught a train to Dresden. When we stepped off the train, it was like magic. It was seriously such a beautiful and diverse city. Not as big as Berlin (obviously) but still quite large. It had this great trax-like system and an amazing Fussganger zone (only peds and bikes allowed) with tons of great stores and cafes. Pika and I did some shopping and then as it started to get dark, we headed toward the old part of the city. I wish I could depict the sight of walking into the town center as the sky was getting completely dark. It was better than Paris or any other place I could imagine up in my head. There were lights strung across the tops pf buildings, forming a canopy of glow over the street lined with cafes and wandering musicians. It was so alive- I have never been to another German city that is still so living and breathing at 8:30 pm. People were eating, talking, laughing, strolling, entertaining, and observing. There along the Elbe River was a wall you could walk along and trace the river on you left side, and the cathedrals and downtown on your right. It barely seemed out of place when a guy dressed in a really authentic 18th century nobleman's wig and costume walked past us and on down the street, while turning the corner and seeing emo flame throwers. It was all so unique and varied from street corner to corner, yet amazingly flowing and fitting. We tried to take a picture, but it just doesn't come near to doing it justice. Anyway, Pika and I pretty much just wandered around with our mouths open, until we realized that we needed to start walking towards the sister missionaries' apartment if we were going to catch them. WE got there right at 9:30 pm, after pausing to pray when we were so close but couldn't find their building number. The Lord answered our prayers with a man who walked by just then and pointed us in the right direction. Sure enough, the doorbell said "Missionaire" and we rang. We asked if a "Summit" lived there, and one came bounding down the stairs to open the door in delicious shock and excitement (she had no idea we were coming or that we were even in Europe). It was so good to visit with her and meet her way cute companion (Sister Parker from Alpine, UT). Ok, now I am going to skip a lot of story because it would go on way too long and it's too close to my heart to not give it enough explanation, so for now I will skip to Sunday. We went to the Dresden Ward, which was huge! I mean, compared to our 20 people Goettingen branch. It felt like being at home in Utah. The people were so strong and confident in the gospel and all so friendly. We met two women- sisters- who were on a mission there- they were both well into their sixties and widowed within a few months of each other and wanted to serve a mission together. They were adorable and really cool- they didn't speak a word of German before they got there either, and only knew what they had started to pick up there. Pika had a miraculous answer to prayer with running into someone she knew there, but I will let her tell that story. And then skipping a lot of other detail and events, we found ourselves back on the train home. This was complicated a bit when one of our trains was three minutes late, which resulted in us missing our next transfer. This equated to us not getting home at 11pm Sunday night as planned, but at 3:30 am Monday morning. One of our train transfers had us stop at this tiny town no one has ever heard of. The only way I can think to describe it is to compare it to that tiny train stop in the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" where the Tevye waits with his daughter as she goes off to Siberia or something. We stepped off the train into this god-forsaken (as I referred to it at the time), cloud covered, desolate town. I kind of felt like I was in Siberia actually because the fog and penetrating damp cold and lack of any one or anything alive around. Admittedly, it was one in the morning, but, still. There was no place indoors to wait, so Pika and plunked down on a self- plastic-bag covered bench to wait out the hour and a half we had before our next train came. The time passed quickly however, as Pika and I told me of her adventures living in Germany back in college. And we arrived on the doorstep of our beloved Goettingen apartment at 4 am, Monday morning.
I wish I could tell you more of the miracles and adventures and tender mercies and answers to prayers Sister Pika and Sister Wren experienced that weekend in Dresden, but I feel bad for how long this is already. It has been a long week for me since then. But I will never forget the trip to Dresden and the things I learned. Thank you for all those who have had me in your prayers and thoughts- I have felt them so much. I miss you all excruciatingly. I will have to tell you all about how my classes at the Goethe Institute are going and the people I have met there, and maybe about my emotional and spiritual journey these past few days, but I will spare you for today. God be with you,
Emily
Friday, October 3, 2008
Tag der Deutschen Einheit
Wow. That's all I can say about Berlin. I knew it was a big city, but I am so used to my little Goettingen that I forgot temporarily there were bigger cities in Germany. It was like going from Provo to New York City. It was beautiful and had so much history that I had to be careful to not get numb to it. We left right after Mom, Kara, and I got out of school on Tuesday and caught a 2 PM train. Pika, Dad, Mom, Kara, and I all squished around a table on the train and ate a meal Pika had packed for us and played card games, read, slept, etc. We had sat across from 2 graduate students from the east coast on an exchange program and talked to them for a while. There is this magical bond that happens between people when you find someone who is from your home country when you are both abroad. It made me wish that it could be like that all the time at home too, and not just when you can appreciate it because you are in a foreign country- to just make conversation and be friendly to everyone you meet because you can! You can freely communicate, so why would you not take advantage of it? Hopefully I will remember that when I come home.
Ok back on topic. So after we arrived in the ginormous Berlin Bahnhof (train station), we hurried to make our way to our hostel, which was awesome btw, to leave our stuff there and then hurry to the US Embassy. There was an open house going on Tuesday that only happens once a year, so we had planned the dates of our Berlin trip around that. So we got to the Embassy and were really excited to be able to show our US passports and gain entrance. Again, even though we didn't know anyone there, it was fun to talk to people in English and drink Coca-Cola and eat triscuits and chedder :) As amazing as European cheeses are, sometimes you just want chedder. Anyway, we also were able to fill out absentee ballots there so we will be able to vote. It was amazing to note, as we came out afterwards, how incredibly close to the old East/West Germany division and the Brandenburg Gate were to the embassy... like a matter of yards. And the Brandenburg gate with the Quadriga all lit up in cotrast to the dark sky was truly magnificent. It hit me all of a sudden how little I actually knew about the history of Berlin and the wall, despite all that I have learned about WWII in general, and was fascinated as Pika filled us in on a little of the history. We walked down Unter den Linden Street (Under the Linden trees) and found a little Bavarian restaurant to eat dinner at- we had some amazing salad, soup, duck, and European-style pizza- I know weird combo of foods... and then Dad and Pika figured how to get us home via the subway system. The next morning, we had a really good continental-type breakfast at the hostel- traditional muesli, fruit, yogurt, and even a spread of bread, meat, and cheese. We decided to fight the rain of the day by hitting up museums, and you would all be proud- we hit 3 in the 8 hour day we had left! We first went to the 'New' Jewish Synagogue, which had a beautiful facade that seemed somewhat out of place, squashed between two appartment or business buldings on either side (see pic below). We learned all about the history of the building and how it was damaged during Kristallnacht and then bombed later. But it was rebuilt about 10 years ago and much of the old building and objects originally inside, were found beneath the ground when they began construction. After that, we went to the Pargamon Museum. Oh my goodness. I wish everyone in the world could go to this museum. We saw the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. YES WE SAW THE REAL LIVE ISHTAR GATE THAT IS LIKE OVER 2000 YEARS OLD! It was incredible. We weren't allowed to take pictures (though I think Kara may have illegally....) of it, but it is just like all the pictures you ever saw in your history books, but it is huge. And they have recreated like 1/6 of the rest of the Babylon city walls using the remains. The bright-blue color has been preserved because of how they painted and then put the bricks in a kiln like pottery. We were able to see tons of ancient antiquities and artifacts from western Europe to the Middle East. Our last museum visit was to visit Nefertiti. Because one can not go to Berlin and not see that. She was more beautiful and intricate than I imagined and it is incredible to realize how old and well-preserved it is. At this ancient Egypt museum we also saw countless other ancient sculptures, mummies, and papyrae (is that how you would pluralize papyrus?).
After our museum marathon, we realized how hungry we were an ate at this really yummy american-style burger place- we had all been missing being able to eat fries and stuff. We then walked by the gorgeous Berliner Dom and all we had time to do was take some pictures before we had to catch our train back home, which I don't remember much of, as I slept practically the whole way. But it was weirdly comforting to be back home in our cozy and dry little Goettingen, which amazingly felt like we were home when we got back to our apartment.
Friday, none of us had school, as it is a national holiday here- Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or Day of the German Unification. It is the day they commemorate the falling of the Berlin wall in 1989. So we enjoyed a nice relaxing 3-day conference weekend. We watched the first session live Saturday night and then the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions today. I have my first day of the Goethe Institute tomorrow morning and I have been studying to take the German language placement test so that I can not have to start over at A1 agian. Kara has been sick with sinus junk :(, but the rest of us are happy and well, though missing you all, especially this conference weekend when we often gather as friends and family. The church is true, President Monson is a Prophet of God. Love from Germany,
Emily
Ok back on topic. So after we arrived in the ginormous Berlin Bahnhof (train station), we hurried to make our way to our hostel, which was awesome btw, to leave our stuff there and then hurry to the US Embassy. There was an open house going on Tuesday that only happens once a year, so we had planned the dates of our Berlin trip around that. So we got to the Embassy and were really excited to be able to show our US passports and gain entrance. Again, even though we didn't know anyone there, it was fun to talk to people in English and drink Coca-Cola and eat triscuits and chedder :) As amazing as European cheeses are, sometimes you just want chedder. Anyway, we also were able to fill out absentee ballots there so we will be able to vote. It was amazing to note, as we came out afterwards, how incredibly close to the old East/West Germany division and the Brandenburg Gate were to the embassy... like a matter of yards. And the Brandenburg gate with the Quadriga all lit up in cotrast to the dark sky was truly magnificent. It hit me all of a sudden how little I actually knew about the history of Berlin and the wall, despite all that I have learned about WWII in general, and was fascinated as Pika filled us in on a little of the history. We walked down Unter den Linden Street (Under the Linden trees) and found a little Bavarian restaurant to eat dinner at- we had some amazing salad, soup, duck, and European-style pizza- I know weird combo of foods... and then Dad and Pika figured how to get us home via the subway system. The next morning, we had a really good continental-type breakfast at the hostel- traditional muesli, fruit, yogurt, and even a spread of bread, meat, and cheese. We decided to fight the rain of the day by hitting up museums, and you would all be proud- we hit 3 in the 8 hour day we had left! We first went to the 'New' Jewish Synagogue, which had a beautiful facade that seemed somewhat out of place, squashed between two appartment or business buldings on either side (see pic below). We learned all about the history of the building and how it was damaged during Kristallnacht and then bombed later. But it was rebuilt about 10 years ago and much of the old building and objects originally inside, were found beneath the ground when they began construction. After that, we went to the Pargamon Museum. Oh my goodness. I wish everyone in the world could go to this museum. We saw the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. YES WE SAW THE REAL LIVE ISHTAR GATE THAT IS LIKE OVER 2000 YEARS OLD! It was incredible. We weren't allowed to take pictures (though I think Kara may have illegally....) of it, but it is just like all the pictures you ever saw in your history books, but it is huge. And they have recreated like 1/6 of the rest of the Babylon city walls using the remains. The bright-blue color has been preserved because of how they painted and then put the bricks in a kiln like pottery. We were able to see tons of ancient antiquities and artifacts from western Europe to the Middle East. Our last museum visit was to visit Nefertiti. Because one can not go to Berlin and not see that. She was more beautiful and intricate than I imagined and it is incredible to realize how old and well-preserved it is. At this ancient Egypt museum we also saw countless other ancient sculptures, mummies, and papyrae (is that how you would pluralize papyrus?).
After our museum marathon, we realized how hungry we were an ate at this really yummy american-style burger place- we had all been missing being able to eat fries and stuff. We then walked by the gorgeous Berliner Dom and all we had time to do was take some pictures before we had to catch our train back home, which I don't remember much of, as I slept practically the whole way. But it was weirdly comforting to be back home in our cozy and dry little Goettingen, which amazingly felt like we were home when we got back to our apartment.
Friday, none of us had school, as it is a national holiday here- Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or Day of the German Unification. It is the day they commemorate the falling of the Berlin wall in 1989. So we enjoyed a nice relaxing 3-day conference weekend. We watched the first session live Saturday night and then the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions today. I have my first day of the Goethe Institute tomorrow morning and I have been studying to take the German language placement test so that I can not have to start over at A1 agian. Kara has been sick with sinus junk :(, but the rest of us are happy and well, though missing you all, especially this conference weekend when we often gather as friends and family. The church is true, President Monson is a Prophet of God. Love from Germany,
Emily
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tea parties, Flea Markets, and the Crowning of Miss Gaenseliesel
Well, the rain has finally stopped, but only to be replaced by a cold, impenetrable fog that makes you feel lonely, even if you are surrounded by thousands.
Okay, Kara us mocking my taking advantage of the fact that I feel like I can write whatever I want because regardless, some of you out there will read this.... but having this blog is seriously so fun because I feel like I am published....
Anyway, on Friday, Pika rejoined us again! She had been in Hamburg and Kiel visiting old friends. Frau Weppener, our neighbor 2 flights down, invited us over for afternoon tea, and so Kara, Pika, Mom, and I showed up to have her give us the marvelously detailed tour of her elaborately and warmly decorated apartment. She is the cutest old lady and took such pride in all her "kitsch" as she called all the trinkety knick knack stuff that she has collected over a lifetime. The tour ended in her sun/sitting room with a lavishly laid out table for tea for four and coffee for herself (she had originally invited us over for coffee, but we explained to her that we didn't drink coffee). She had laid a different kind of tea cup at each place, to show off the variety of complete tea sets she had, and each one was exquisitely intricate and unique. She kept mentioning how her 2 kids were always trying to make her get rid of all her collectibles, se we were really glad to be able to share in the beauty and sentimentality of all her unique treasures. We felt like princesses, as she served a variety of delicious Kuechen and chocolate, along with the most divine strawberry raspberry herb tea I have ever drinken. She is a diabetic, but assured us that she wasn't for the day :)Three hours later, after looking through photo albums and hearing stories of her interesting life, and with stuffed bellies, we were on our way home with the leftover cake and pockets full of tea bags she had made us take home.
Friday night, Kara and I rented a movie from the huge video rental store a mere block away from our apartment.
Saturday, Pika, Mom, Kara, and I went to the Floh Markt (flea market) and found some treasure among the junk: Pika found some traditional Christmas pyramids for really inexpensive along with a rug beater and some pants for herself. Kara and I hit up a used CD stand and perused the plethora of classic american music, notably including original ABBA, David Bowie, and Madonna CDs. Kara bought an old Muse CD that she hadn't been able to find in the states. Mom and Pika found some really nice new authentic German style blazers and jackets and a skirt. Overall, a succesful day at the flea market.
Sunday after church, Dad went to a stake-wide priethood conference in Hannover, while Mom and Kara and I went to the Gaenseliesel Festival in downtown Goettingen. Our neighbor had told had told us that we had to go, so, went we did. It was fun to see how similar small town festivals are, universally. All the Eiscafes and bakeries were open (all the shops and restaurants are normally closed on Sundays) and there were art and food kiosks litering both sides of the streets. We tried some amazing crepes! Mom's had Nutella in it, mine was cinnamon sugar, and Kara's was like a pizza on with mozzerella and tomatoes. We saw the 'crowning of the 2008 Gaenseleisel', which I would compare to the 'Little Miss Lindon' pagenat and a Homecoming pageant, where they interviewed the top 8 finalists on stage with questions such as: What do you want to do when you grow up?, and what makes Goettingen the best city in the world? etc. Upon announcing the winner, the last year's Gaenseliesel gave a litte speech and passed on the basket with a stuffed goose in it to the new girl, and then the Burgermeister (mayor) of Goettingen gave flowers and a kiss on the cheek to the 2008 Gaenseliesel. It was a lot of fun.
So that was our awesome weekend! Stay tuned for the next entry.... which probably won't be until Thursday or Friday because we are going to Berlin for a couple days. Bis Spaetter!
Okay, Kara us mocking my taking advantage of the fact that I feel like I can write whatever I want because regardless, some of you out there will read this.... but having this blog is seriously so fun because I feel like I am published....
Anyway, on Friday, Pika rejoined us again! She had been in Hamburg and Kiel visiting old friends. Frau Weppener, our neighbor 2 flights down, invited us over for afternoon tea, and so Kara, Pika, Mom, and I showed up to have her give us the marvelously detailed tour of her elaborately and warmly decorated apartment. She is the cutest old lady and took such pride in all her "kitsch" as she called all the trinkety knick knack stuff that she has collected over a lifetime. The tour ended in her sun/sitting room with a lavishly laid out table for tea for four and coffee for herself (she had originally invited us over for coffee, but we explained to her that we didn't drink coffee). She had laid a different kind of tea cup at each place, to show off the variety of complete tea sets she had, and each one was exquisitely intricate and unique. She kept mentioning how her 2 kids were always trying to make her get rid of all her collectibles, se we were really glad to be able to share in the beauty and sentimentality of all her unique treasures. We felt like princesses, as she served a variety of delicious Kuechen and chocolate, along with the most divine strawberry raspberry herb tea I have ever drinken. She is a diabetic, but assured us that she wasn't for the day :)Three hours later, after looking through photo albums and hearing stories of her interesting life, and with stuffed bellies, we were on our way home with the leftover cake and pockets full of tea bags she had made us take home.
Friday night, Kara and I rented a movie from the huge video rental store a mere block away from our apartment.
Saturday, Pika, Mom, Kara, and I went to the Floh Markt (flea market) and found some treasure among the junk: Pika found some traditional Christmas pyramids for really inexpensive along with a rug beater and some pants for herself. Kara and I hit up a used CD stand and perused the plethora of classic american music, notably including original ABBA, David Bowie, and Madonna CDs. Kara bought an old Muse CD that she hadn't been able to find in the states. Mom and Pika found some really nice new authentic German style blazers and jackets and a skirt. Overall, a succesful day at the flea market.
Sunday after church, Dad went to a stake-wide priethood conference in Hannover, while Mom and Kara and I went to the Gaenseliesel Festival in downtown Goettingen. Our neighbor had told had told us that we had to go, so, went we did. It was fun to see how similar small town festivals are, universally. All the Eiscafes and bakeries were open (all the shops and restaurants are normally closed on Sundays) and there were art and food kiosks litering both sides of the streets. We tried some amazing crepes! Mom's had Nutella in it, mine was cinnamon sugar, and Kara's was like a pizza on with mozzerella and tomatoes. We saw the 'crowning of the 2008 Gaenseleisel', which I would compare to the 'Little Miss Lindon' pagenat and a Homecoming pageant, where they interviewed the top 8 finalists on stage with questions such as: What do you want to do when you grow up?, and what makes Goettingen the best city in the world? etc. Upon announcing the winner, the last year's Gaenseliesel gave a litte speech and passed on the basket with a stuffed goose in it to the new girl, and then the Burgermeister (mayor) of Goettingen gave flowers and a kiss on the cheek to the 2008 Gaenseliesel. It was a lot of fun.
So that was our awesome weekend! Stay tuned for the next entry.... which probably won't be until Thursday or Friday because we are going to Berlin for a couple days. Bis Spaetter!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Music Makes the World Go Round
Well, thanks Kathleen for being interested in whatever happens. It brings me courage to write again today, though I don't really have any fantastical fabulous foreign anecdotes of an adventure.
So today is the forth day in a row it has been rainy and chilly. Thank goodness for scarves and umbrellas. Yesterday, after Mom and I had just kinda been cooped up in the apartment all day, we decided to go with Dad (he had come home for Mitagessen) to go find this shopping mall that Pika had told us about. So we hopped on the Linie 5 bus and rode it for half an hour to, what looked on the outside, a huge and kind of ugly corrugated concrete store. We walked inside though, and I was instantly transported back to the states. It looked exactly like a mall we would have in the U.S. and I felt right at home browsing the book, shoe, clothes, and pet stores. There was also a home depot type store, and even a wal-mart type store. The internal halls were even complete with little kiosks selling beauty products, and self-advertising massage chairs. Mom and Dad and I bought some chocolate to try, including at my insistence, a "hot grenadine dark chocolate" bar. The 'hot' comes from the red chiles they put in it. Hey, I wanted to say I had tried it! Well, now I have. And I think the only person who might be able to appreciate it is my uncle Dave (yes, I will bring you some home). The yogurt and cranberry chocolate Dad picked out was a universally liked flavor, however (yes I will bring all the rest of you some home...).
Mom's goal for the week was accomplished, when she finally located where to buy hot coca mix (oh they have coffee aplenty, but we have had the hardest time finding hot chocolate).
So I have this new philosophical question that I would like some opinions on. Here, at least 70% of the music they listen to (at least on their personal i-pods, radio, CD selection in stores, and what is played in public places) is American music. Or, at least music where the words are in English. Yes I know this shouldn't be that weird to me: many people speak fluent or semi-fluent English. But many people don't. A lot more people than I first realized actually don't speak English. And even if one is fluent in a second language, as Kara found out while trying to translate a poem from German into English the other day, it is really difficult to actually catch the intended meaning or feeling even when something is directly translated: there is so much "between-the-lines" interpretation and connotation or implied meaning or background associated with written literature, especially poems and lyrics. At least in English, and I would assume in every language.
Ok, all that laid out, I wonder if music, to other cultures who listen to English-lyriced music in majority (beside America or England probably), means something different to them. I mean, anyone can appreciate music for the sake of music- classical music or even sometimes opera for instance are valued for the beautiful music quality. And I can appreciate beautiful songs that are sung in a language foreign to me for the sound of the music or even the aesthetic of the sound of the language. But for me and the music I listen to, with my favorite bands such as Postal Service, Goo Goo Dolls, John Mayer, Coldplay, Angels & Airwaves and that whole genre of alternative type rock, half of the listening experience for me is interpreting and applying the lyrics for my life; I am not one of those people who can tune out the lyrics in a 'bad' song, for instance, and excuse myself saying that I don't even listen to the words. I can't help it. Now I kind of claim to be somewhat of a poet, and so maybe I am different than many music listeners and their music-listening goals. But my major point of these whole two paragraphs of doom are this: How can they (meaning my German peers in this case) appreciate popular English-lyriced (I don't actually know if 'lyriced' is a word) music and enjoy it as much as Americans when even those who are fluent in English, probably cannot get nearly as much meaning out of the lyrics as someone who understands American culture and connotations of the American-English language. And it's totally fine of they don't and just are listening to American music out of music sake, and honestly because it is mostly what they have to choose from, but I just wonder if music, at least to the current generation of people, means the same thing to them as it does to me and other American music-listeners.
Wow. How was that for confusing. I just re-read that. Hmm. Well, anyway, now I have opened up way too publically how my mind works.
Oh well. Totally aside from the aforementioned music philosophical views, I want to tell anyone reading this the following: I love life. I love my family and friends. I love living in Germany. I miss and have a new appreciation for living in Utah, living in the U.S., and being close to all of you. Love from Goettingen,
Emily
So today is the forth day in a row it has been rainy and chilly. Thank goodness for scarves and umbrellas. Yesterday, after Mom and I had just kinda been cooped up in the apartment all day, we decided to go with Dad (he had come home for Mitagessen) to go find this shopping mall that Pika had told us about. So we hopped on the Linie 5 bus and rode it for half an hour to, what looked on the outside, a huge and kind of ugly corrugated concrete store. We walked inside though, and I was instantly transported back to the states. It looked exactly like a mall we would have in the U.S. and I felt right at home browsing the book, shoe, clothes, and pet stores. There was also a home depot type store, and even a wal-mart type store. The internal halls were even complete with little kiosks selling beauty products, and self-advertising massage chairs. Mom and Dad and I bought some chocolate to try, including at my insistence, a "hot grenadine dark chocolate" bar. The 'hot' comes from the red chiles they put in it. Hey, I wanted to say I had tried it! Well, now I have. And I think the only person who might be able to appreciate it is my uncle Dave (yes, I will bring you some home). The yogurt and cranberry chocolate Dad picked out was a universally liked flavor, however (yes I will bring all the rest of you some home...).
Mom's goal for the week was accomplished, when she finally located where to buy hot coca mix (oh they have coffee aplenty, but we have had the hardest time finding hot chocolate).
So I have this new philosophical question that I would like some opinions on. Here, at least 70% of the music they listen to (at least on their personal i-pods, radio, CD selection in stores, and what is played in public places) is American music. Or, at least music where the words are in English. Yes I know this shouldn't be that weird to me: many people speak fluent or semi-fluent English. But many people don't. A lot more people than I first realized actually don't speak English. And even if one is fluent in a second language, as Kara found out while trying to translate a poem from German into English the other day, it is really difficult to actually catch the intended meaning or feeling even when something is directly translated: there is so much "between-the-lines" interpretation and connotation or implied meaning or background associated with written literature, especially poems and lyrics. At least in English, and I would assume in every language.
Ok, all that laid out, I wonder if music, to other cultures who listen to English-lyriced music in majority (beside America or England probably), means something different to them. I mean, anyone can appreciate music for the sake of music- classical music or even sometimes opera for instance are valued for the beautiful music quality. And I can appreciate beautiful songs that are sung in a language foreign to me for the sound of the music or even the aesthetic of the sound of the language. But for me and the music I listen to, with my favorite bands such as Postal Service, Goo Goo Dolls, John Mayer, Coldplay, Angels & Airwaves and that whole genre of alternative type rock, half of the listening experience for me is interpreting and applying the lyrics for my life; I am not one of those people who can tune out the lyrics in a 'bad' song, for instance, and excuse myself saying that I don't even listen to the words. I can't help it. Now I kind of claim to be somewhat of a poet, and so maybe I am different than many music listeners and their music-listening goals. But my major point of these whole two paragraphs of doom are this: How can they (meaning my German peers in this case) appreciate popular English-lyriced (I don't actually know if 'lyriced' is a word) music and enjoy it as much as Americans when even those who are fluent in English, probably cannot get nearly as much meaning out of the lyrics as someone who understands American culture and connotations of the American-English language. And it's totally fine of they don't and just are listening to American music out of music sake, and honestly because it is mostly what they have to choose from, but I just wonder if music, at least to the current generation of people, means the same thing to them as it does to me and other American music-listeners.
Wow. How was that for confusing. I just re-read that. Hmm. Well, anyway, now I have opened up way too publically how my mind works.
Oh well. Totally aside from the aforementioned music philosophical views, I want to tell anyone reading this the following: I love life. I love my family and friends. I love living in Germany. I miss and have a new appreciation for living in Utah, living in the U.S., and being close to all of you. Love from Goettingen,
Emily
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Hello my loyal fans! I can't believe it has been almost a week since I have posted anything...
Let's see, nothing too exciting has happened since Wednesday, but noteworthy events were saying goodbye to my Italian friends on Friday, as their two week study abroad was over. We all exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses and they made me promise to call them when I come to Italy.
On Saturday, the fam took a guided walking tour of Goettingen, as it was the one Saturday a month that they do it in English. It was actually quite fascinating. Kara and I realized that we had been trying so hard to blend in and not be tourists, that we hadn't even noticed some of the amazing historical and cultural aspects native to Goettingen. For example, the tour guide pointed out architecture and plaques naming historically famous residents on the upper stories on the downtown shops and restaurants. Some especially interesting facts about Goettingen I learned were that the beginnings of Goettingen began in the 12th century because it was so important in the trading routes, as it is in the exact center of Germany. It had a golden age in the 14 and 1500's due to its' fine clothe production, and then again in the 18 and 1900's due to the importance and prestige of the University and was an influential intellectual center, with over a hundred resident Nobel prize winners (I hope I got that right). Unfortunately, with WWII came a brain drain due to Nazi infiltration, but no physical damage affected the city. I wish I could remember everything else I learned. But it was really cool. Oh the stained glass window picture below was in the old Courthouse (built in the 1300's) and is where all the civil weddings in Goettingen take place to this day.
On Sunday, we had the missionaries over and Mom made an amazing dinner. It was really fun to talk to them in English and talk about home- they are both from Utah :)
It has poured rain here for the past 2 days, but that is fairly normal it seems, and at least is not that cold.
Wow I am having a hard time thinking of anything else cool to say... but I really am doing cool stuff and keeping busy most of the time... you'll just have to take my word for it?
Let's see, nothing too exciting has happened since Wednesday, but noteworthy events were saying goodbye to my Italian friends on Friday, as their two week study abroad was over. We all exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses and they made me promise to call them when I come to Italy.
On Saturday, the fam took a guided walking tour of Goettingen, as it was the one Saturday a month that they do it in English. It was actually quite fascinating. Kara and I realized that we had been trying so hard to blend in and not be tourists, that we hadn't even noticed some of the amazing historical and cultural aspects native to Goettingen. For example, the tour guide pointed out architecture and plaques naming historically famous residents on the upper stories on the downtown shops and restaurants. Some especially interesting facts about Goettingen I learned were that the beginnings of Goettingen began in the 12th century because it was so important in the trading routes, as it is in the exact center of Germany. It had a golden age in the 14 and 1500's due to its' fine clothe production, and then again in the 18 and 1900's due to the importance and prestige of the University and was an influential intellectual center, with over a hundred resident Nobel prize winners (I hope I got that right). Unfortunately, with WWII came a brain drain due to Nazi infiltration, but no physical damage affected the city. I wish I could remember everything else I learned. But it was really cool. Oh the stained glass window picture below was in the old Courthouse (built in the 1300's) and is where all the civil weddings in Goettingen take place to this day.
On Sunday, we had the missionaries over and Mom made an amazing dinner. It was really fun to talk to them in English and talk about home- they are both from Utah :)
It has poured rain here for the past 2 days, but that is fairly normal it seems, and at least is not that cold.
Wow I am having a hard time thinking of anything else cool to say... but I really am doing cool stuff and keeping busy most of the time... you'll just have to take my word for it?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Heist of the Goose!
Gutentag! So for my German class, we have been making a film (I now realize that no matter where you are or what language you are learning, language classes are all the same). The plot is basically thus: two thieves steal the goose from the Goose Girl Statue (the Gaenselisl) and so the Gaenselisl recruits these girls to help her get it back. They, with the aide of the Polizei, find the theives and recover the goose. As simple as this sounds, it took us forever and a half to all get on the same page (across English, Italian, and German) as to what the plot would be, how to script it in German, casting, memorizing lines, and then the filming process. It has been really fun though- we finished filming today. Afterwards, we went on a field trip of sorts to go to a local Burg (castle). It was about a 20 minute bus ride and then a half hour walk to get there. It was really cool and had a great view from the top of the Turm (tower), but more memorable to me than the castle was the company and conversation. It really is quite comical how we communicate with each other: it is me speaking in German when I know the words, and when I don't know a word, I substitute in English words. Even when they ask me a question in English, I respond in as much German as I can because I am thinking in German... cuz I am in Germany. It is probably really confusing for them to switch back and forth so quickly between what are both secondary languages for them, though they tell me they like it because it helps their German AND English. Today they asked me a lot about American music and if I had heard of so-and-so, or if I had been to New York or Hollywood and if I had ever met any actors. They also, once again, asked me about countless American TV shows, movies, and actors. At first, like Tom, I was annoyed at how they must view America and American life, based on shows they have seen that are unrealistic of what it is really like, but it doesn't really seem like there is cause for that, now that I have talked to them more and more, as the only TV they have is American shows. It is just like us watching the variety of shows we have here. Not just the obscene shows are piped over there; they all are, so they have the same spectrum as us. Anyway, they have this weird cultural thing here that I am pretty sure is Europe-wide (at least in both Germany and Italy) that everyone carries a pencil case around with them. You know, like the little oblong zipper cases that you used in elementary school? Anyway, everyone has them over here- kids and adults alike. It is like, horrible if you don't have one. When I questioned them on this, they thought it was so weird that we didn't widely use them and they were confused as to where we put our writing utensils. "Ver do you keep pencil then? Pocket (hahaha)? Behind ear (chortle)?" They laugh, as if it were completely ridiculous. Hmmm. Telling them Tom actually does indeed keep a pencil behind his ear probably would not have eased their giggling at that point.
Holy cow I need to go to bed. Bis morgen!
Holy cow I need to go to bed. Bis morgen!
Monday, September 15, 2008
My First Day of Skool!
Hallo! Sorry it's been a few days since I last posted- the weekend was crazy. It was Mom and my first Sunday here and so when we went to our branch, although Kara had told me already, I was still surprised to find only about 20 people there on the third floor of a downtown office building - which is our meeting house. We had Sunday School first, which was taught by a lady who was from Colombia and therefore had a really interesting accent with her German. But it was a good lesson. She showed a portion of a church video of Christ healing the sick and speaking with the Nephite children, surrounded by angels. There was no dialogue, just music and I felt the Spirit very strongly in the room. I was again hit with a strong re-realization of how universal the gospel is for God's children all around the world. I am grateful for the commandments and the scriptures and for the prophets and revelation that keep the church consistent all over the world. There was no Relief Society/Priesthood because they have that on the first and third Sunday, and Sunday School on the second and fourth Sunday. I think they do this because there are just so few people to be able to facilitate all the organizations and auxiliaries and activities that I so take for granted in Utah. Anyway, then we had Sacrament Meeting and they read off our names (Dad had asked them to wait until Mom and I got here). I also got to meet Heidi, who is Kara's seminary teacher who just got married.
After Church, Pika, Mom, Kara, and I went with 4 other ladies from the branch to a yearly stake women's conference, which was in Hannover. We took the train there, which took about an hour and a half. We had a lot of fun getting to know the ladies better, and one, Rose Marie, took a special liking to Mom and talked to her and insisted on translating for her for the whole time. The theme of the actual conference was "Men are that they might have joy" and the talks focused on how we are responsible for our own happiness and attitude. On the first part of the train ride home, Pika talked to the sister missionaries, and then the last hour, talked to this German dude who had just graduated from the Goettingen University in archaeology and was pretty much like Indiana Jones. Anyway, he seemed pretty cool.
Wow this is going to be really long. Ok so today I had my first day of classes- I am doing a 2-week program through a community German-learning program as a refresher course before I have to jump into the rigorous Goethe Institut program. It was really cool- I am in a class with 10 other girls who are all from Italy (from a small town near Venice) and they are here for two weeks and staying with host families to work on their German. They are mostly 16 and 17 years old and have been taking German for 3 or 4 years in high school, so it is a good challenge for me to keep up with them, but I am pretty close to their level. They are really nice and wanted to know everything about me (including if I watched The OC, which when I told them I wasn't very familiar with it they were disappointed), as well as vice versa.We conversed outside of class in a German and English mixture- their English is about as good as my German. We have class from 9 AM until 12:30 PM with a half hour break in the middle. And after I was done, my brain felt fried from trying to remember all the German I have ever learned and thinking purely in German for 3 hours. I think after having these 3 hour classes everyday for 2 weeks, I will hopefully start to not feel so inadequate when it comes to the language and trying to communicate, as it has been for me the past week.
I have been here a week. I can't believe it has only been that long. I miss you and hope you are all surviving everything you have going on in your lives.
After Church, Pika, Mom, Kara, and I went with 4 other ladies from the branch to a yearly stake women's conference, which was in Hannover. We took the train there, which took about an hour and a half. We had a lot of fun getting to know the ladies better, and one, Rose Marie, took a special liking to Mom and talked to her and insisted on translating for her for the whole time. The theme of the actual conference was "Men are that they might have joy" and the talks focused on how we are responsible for our own happiness and attitude. On the first part of the train ride home, Pika talked to the sister missionaries, and then the last hour, talked to this German dude who had just graduated from the Goettingen University in archaeology and was pretty much like Indiana Jones. Anyway, he seemed pretty cool.
Wow this is going to be really long. Ok so today I had my first day of classes- I am doing a 2-week program through a community German-learning program as a refresher course before I have to jump into the rigorous Goethe Institut program. It was really cool- I am in a class with 10 other girls who are all from Italy (from a small town near Venice) and they are here for two weeks and staying with host families to work on their German. They are mostly 16 and 17 years old and have been taking German for 3 or 4 years in high school, so it is a good challenge for me to keep up with them, but I am pretty close to their level. They are really nice and wanted to know everything about me (including if I watched The OC, which when I told them I wasn't very familiar with it they were disappointed), as well as vice versa.We conversed outside of class in a German and English mixture- their English is about as good as my German. We have class from 9 AM until 12:30 PM with a half hour break in the middle. And after I was done, my brain felt fried from trying to remember all the German I have ever learned and thinking purely in German for 3 hours. I think after having these 3 hour classes everyday for 2 weeks, I will hopefully start to not feel so inadequate when it comes to the language and trying to communicate, as it has been for me the past week.
I have been here a week. I can't believe it has only been that long. I miss you and hope you are all surviving everything you have going on in your lives.
Friday, September 12, 2008
I gave this a really dumb title, but luckily Kara erased it for me and replaced it with this
Well Sharolee, I don't think I am quite ready to write a complete entry auf Deutsh, but I will keep that as a goal for a couple of weeks down the road...
Kara and I ventured off on our own this morning because she wanted to show me the graveyard, which dates back to 1700 (I have this weird fetish for graveyards...). We found the gravestone for the Burgermeister (Mayor) of Goettingen, for which Georg-August University was named (see picture).
We then meandered downtown to do some window shopping, where we saw this amazing pastry and candy shop (see picture). We also bought some amazing hazelnut ice cream at an Eiscafe. As we walked past the Jacobi Kirche, the doors were open with organ music streaming out. Kara freaked out because apparently the cathedral has never been open the whole time they have been here. We went inside to find beautiful stained-glass windows and striking orange and blue pillars. After listening to the music for a bit, we saw a sign pointing to the tower. After each paying a Euro, we climbed 13 flights of intensely steep and narrow wooden stairs to the top of the bell tower. The view from the top was incredible.
After Dad got home from work, we decided to go to the circus. We had seen signs all over Goettingen for a traveling circus that was performing tonight, and we didn't have anything else to do on a Friday night...
I was quite impressed with it- the acrobatics, trained animals, tight-rope, and other acts were all very entertaining and impressive. We were on the very front row too, which was a plus... until PomPom the clown (see picture) picked on me from the audience to be his assistant for his jokes and acts intermittently throughout the whole program. As nerve-wracking for me as being in the spotlight would have been in any other situation, not really being fluent in German made it even more scary. Luckily, PomPom was very nice and when I couldn't quite follow what he was saying in German or from his pantomiming, he whispered some English. I even kissed him at the end (sorry Michael...). We found out at the end that he was from Hungary and had performed in England for 7 years, which is why his English was so good. Anyway, It was a little scary, but really fun and makes a pretty good story. Oh but don't bring up the part about when Kara almost got mauled by the horse at one point-- she might start hyperventilating...
That's enough adventures for one day I think...
Kara and I ventured off on our own this morning because she wanted to show me the graveyard, which dates back to 1700 (I have this weird fetish for graveyards...). We found the gravestone for the Burgermeister (Mayor) of Goettingen, for which Georg-August University was named (see picture).
We then meandered downtown to do some window shopping, where we saw this amazing pastry and candy shop (see picture). We also bought some amazing hazelnut ice cream at an Eiscafe. As we walked past the Jacobi Kirche, the doors were open with organ music streaming out. Kara freaked out because apparently the cathedral has never been open the whole time they have been here. We went inside to find beautiful stained-glass windows and striking orange and blue pillars. After listening to the music for a bit, we saw a sign pointing to the tower. After each paying a Euro, we climbed 13 flights of intensely steep and narrow wooden stairs to the top of the bell tower. The view from the top was incredible.
After Dad got home from work, we decided to go to the circus. We had seen signs all over Goettingen for a traveling circus that was performing tonight, and we didn't have anything else to do on a Friday night...
I was quite impressed with it- the acrobatics, trained animals, tight-rope, and other acts were all very entertaining and impressive. We were on the very front row too, which was a plus... until PomPom the clown (see picture) picked on me from the audience to be his assistant for his jokes and acts intermittently throughout the whole program. As nerve-wracking for me as being in the spotlight would have been in any other situation, not really being fluent in German made it even more scary. Luckily, PomPom was very nice and when I couldn't quite follow what he was saying in German or from his pantomiming, he whispered some English. I even kissed him at the end (sorry Michael...). We found out at the end that he was from Hungary and had performed in England for 7 years, which is why his English was so good. Anyway, It was a little scary, but really fun and makes a pretty good story. Oh but don't bring up the part about when Kara almost got mauled by the horse at one point-- she might start hyperventilating...
That's enough adventures for one day I think...
Thursday, September 11, 2008
In this section: Fashion, Traditions, Politics, and Food
Hi! Today Pika, Mom, and I met up with Kara downtown after she was done with school. Can I just say that I love shopping in Europe! While the warm weather delicately lingers, food stands, clothes sales racks, and other street vendors selling any goods you can imagine, flower the streets, along with accordion players. Kara and I bought a gorgeous skirt, a scarf, and some awesome print tights- I had no idea there was such a variety of colors and patterns of tights in the universe. For lunch we grabbed some bratwurst und broetchen, while Mom ordered some "Wonton Suppe" from the German-ized Vietnamese food stand all by herself. Kara and I also discovered the "Charlotte Russe" equivalent here- cheap, trendy clothing with dance music and all :)
We also visited the local landmark of the Gaenselisl ("goose girl") fountain (see picture below). The local tradition is for all newly graduated PhD students to kiss the cheek of the goose girl statue. Gottingen is a very intellectual center in Germany because of the very old and prestigious university. In fact, Heidelberg and Gottingen are the two intellectual hearts of Germany that England had an agreement with Germany during WWII that they would not bomb if Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge or Oxford. Because of this, Gottingen has several buildings dating back to the 1300's.
When we got home, Kara and I turned on the TV and were reassured in our realization of how obsessed Germans are with American politics when the first 3 channels we flipped through had Sarah Palin, Bush, and Obama on respectively. Kara asked a classmate why this is and she replied that U.S. politics affect them more so than probably any other country, besides their own. She then proceeded to ask Kara if she even knew, as an American, who the German Chancellor was. Kara thankfully could answer her correctly, though I wouldn't have been able to... Kara's classmates have a whole class devoted to politics, where they spend most of their time discussing American politics. This is probably why Kara was bombarded with questions like " Who would you vote for if you were old enough" or "You would vote for Obama, right?" when she first got to her school, or by anyone she meets who finds out she is American.
For Abendessen (light evening meal), Pika had gone to the day-old bakery and purchased a cornucopia of Kuechen (pastry-like cake), ranging from raspberry to rhubarb to a lime-cheesecake-tasting one. They were all delicious and surprisingly light- everything is less sweet here it seems.
Well, I will sign out for the day, but I love and miss you all at home with a "veritable cornucopia of sincerities" (thanks for that one, Michael- it is my favorite phrase you have ever said to me).
We also visited the local landmark of the Gaenselisl ("goose girl") fountain (see picture below). The local tradition is for all newly graduated PhD students to kiss the cheek of the goose girl statue. Gottingen is a very intellectual center in Germany because of the very old and prestigious university. In fact, Heidelberg and Gottingen are the two intellectual hearts of Germany that England had an agreement with Germany during WWII that they would not bomb if Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge or Oxford. Because of this, Gottingen has several buildings dating back to the 1300's.
When we got home, Kara and I turned on the TV and were reassured in our realization of how obsessed Germans are with American politics when the first 3 channels we flipped through had Sarah Palin, Bush, and Obama on respectively. Kara asked a classmate why this is and she replied that U.S. politics affect them more so than probably any other country, besides their own. She then proceeded to ask Kara if she even knew, as an American, who the German Chancellor was. Kara thankfully could answer her correctly, though I wouldn't have been able to... Kara's classmates have a whole class devoted to politics, where they spend most of their time discussing American politics. This is probably why Kara was bombarded with questions like " Who would you vote for if you were old enough" or "You would vote for Obama, right?" when she first got to her school, or by anyone she meets who finds out she is American.
For Abendessen (light evening meal), Pika had gone to the day-old bakery and purchased a cornucopia of Kuechen (pastry-like cake), ranging from raspberry to rhubarb to a lime-cheesecake-tasting one. They were all delicious and surprisingly light- everything is less sweet here it seems.
Well, I will sign out for the day, but I love and miss you all at home with a "veritable cornucopia of sincerities" (thanks for that one, Michael- it is my favorite phrase you have ever said to me).
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