Jodie's Blog - May Term Study Abroad Blogs - Global & Multicultural Studies

About Jodie
Major(s): Mathematics, Business Administration
Hometown: Davenport

5/18/06
So it has been awhile since my last update; we´ve been kept pretty busy traveling the last week. Since I was last able to write, we have been to Berlin, Potsdam, Hanover, Göttingen, Kassel, Bonn, and are currently staying in Köln. This will be one of our longest stays in the same place, as we will actually be here for three whole nights! In Berlin, we were able to visit Museum Island, an area with five different museums, though two were closed for renovations. One of the museums had an amazing exhibit on Egyptian artifacts including an actual Nefertiti bust and some real mummies. The art museum displayed some original Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Cezanne paintings. It was really neat to get to see such well-known painters´ work up close and see their actual brushstrokes and all the details of their work.

In Potsdam, we visited the Einsteinturm, a solar observatory and then walked around at Sanssouci, the palace of Frederick the Great. The palace was absolutely huge and incredibly beautiful. You could probably fit at least five entire Wartburg campuses on the grounds. It took us close to a half an hour to walk from one side to the other! Their were gorgeous flowers, statues, and fountains all over - hard to imagine all that space for one person!

The next day we headed to Hanover where we visited the Leibniz Archives. Leibniz is considered kind of the father of calculus and it was really neat to be able to see some of his original documents, including a letter written to him from Newton.

On Sunday, we were off to Göttingen for our second homestay. We attended church at St. Albani´s Kirche and then met with all the families after the service. It was interesting to see how closely a German Lutheran service compared to a service at my home congregation. It helped me be able to somewhat follow along with it, anyway! That afternoon, we visited the Göttingen Stadt Museum which housed exhibits on the history of the city as well as the history of the University. The University of Göttingen was considered one of the mathematical centers of the world so we have been reading a great deal of articles about the area.

In the evening, Ashley, Tim, Kyle, and I attended a short Vespers service at an old monastery with our host families. There were about twenty people there and we were all given song books. The man acting as the abbot selected different songs for us to sing, some of which were sung in rounds. It was difficult to concentrate on both keeping up with everyone and trying to pronounce the words as accurately as possible. After the service, Tim and Kyle´s family had Ashley and I over to grill out. They fed us so much food! They just continued to add meat to the grill, but all the food was great, the chicken especially!

The next day we were able to visit the math department of Göttingen as well as the Observatory where Gauss used to live. We also were able to go to the Gauss Archives and see some of his original works, including his diary. It is amazing how well they can preserve everything! The rest of the night was spent with our families and I think we all had very different, but good experiences.

Tuesday morning, we left from the comfort of a real bed to go back to life in the hostels. We headed to Kassel for the day where we visited the Orangerie Museum. We saw some very old astronomical instruments as well as many different types of old time-keeping devices. That afternoon, we were supposed to tour the Martini Brewery, but it ended up that they had to have confirmation of a tour by phone and wouldn´t accept just an email. Needless to say, everyone was pretty disappointed to hear that news. It was nice to have some time in the afternoon though to catch up on homework and spend some time out in the sun.

Yesterday, we arrived in Köln and visited the Dom Kirche, an absolutely magnificent cathedral in the middle of downtown. You almost get dizzy looking up at it because it is so big! The cathedral houses some beautiful stained-glass windows, tile mosaic on the floor, and even the relics of the Three Magi.

Today, we went to Bonn where we toured the Deutsches Museum. This museum had exhibits on everything from a model of a monorail to microbiology. In the afternoon, we were able to meet up with Lori Liehs who has been in Bonn for several months and she took us to a döner shop, a kind of wrap that is pretty popular here.

Our group has been able to take in some sporting events in the last week as well. Ashley and I were able to see part of a tennis match between Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo at the German Open in Berlin. Steve and Jason W. attended a professional league football (soccer) game at one of the World Cup stadiums in Hanover - I don´t think I have ever seen those guys more excited!

We have continued to see pretty nice weather, though we have had a couple days with rain. At one dinner, we all had to huddle under a small cafe umbrella when it began to rain because the restaurant did not have room for us all inside! It was pretty funny to watch people eat while holding up umbrellas at the same time.

We have all been enjoying our time here in Germany, though I think we are all getting ready to get back to the comforts of home. We´ve been eating a lot more cheeseburgers and chicken for dinner, and a lot less sausage and bratwurst, though people have still been enjoying trying all the local beers! It will be nice though to get home and actually be in one place for more than one or two nights at a time!

The trip has gone incredibly fast, but has been an amazing experience!

5/10/06
I can´t believe our trip is already half over! Today marks the 10th day in Germany and we have already been in so many different cities, it is getting hard to keep track of everywhere! Since I last wrote, we left Stuttgart to head to Munich which was the biggest city we have been in so far. It was an interesting city because it was a mix of old buildings with all the new shops intermingled in, which gave it a very unique feel. In Munich, we visited the Deutsches Museum, the second largest museum in the world, second only to the Smithsonian. Because it is so large, we were able to see only a small portion of the museum. We got to see Germany´s first submarine, some of the first aircrafts, holograms, and some of the first computers ever created.

The next day, we took a trip to Dachau and walked through the concentration camp. This camp was one of the first in Germany and was one of the few that was running for the majority of the war. Visiting the camp was a pretty overwhelming experience but was something I am very glad I was able to see and learn more about. After Munich, we headed to Eisenach for our first homestay. We were able to see the Castle Singers perform so it was really nice to see some familiar faces! The families that we stayed with were so nice. They all were excited to do our laundry (we all needed some clean clothes!) and tried to feed us as much food as possible. The house that Joee, Jill, and I stayed in was four stories with a beautiful garden including a small pond behind it - the gardens here are all so colorful!

Our second day in Eisenach, we visited the Wartburg Castle, so I can now officially say I am a true Wartburger! It was very interesting to learn some of the history of the castle, including the stories of St. Elisabeth and Martin Luther´s time there when he translated the New Testament. It was hard to leave Eisenach and the incredibly comfortable beds to go back to a hostel, but we had to head out to Leipzig. We spent Tuesday in Leipzig where we were able to visit two churches and the Stasi Museum, about the secret police of East Germany. The architecture of the churches was very detailed and incredibly beautiful. Today, we took a day trip to Dresden where we visited another church, the FrauenKirche. The church actually was just opened up to the public in January after its rebuilding. You could see the difference between the part of the church that had withstood the bombing and the new part of the structure. This church was even more impressive than those in Leipzig and it was easy to see why it took about fifteen years to rebuild. We continue to have beautiful weather, and have yet to experience more than a couple drops of rain! Some of us are actually getting sunburns because we have been in the sun so much which was not something we were expecting! Tomorrow morning we head off to Berlin - we all look forward to the big city and to continue to have the chance to compare the cities of West Germany and East Germany.

5/4/06
After all of the wait, we are finally in Germany! So far we have been to Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Weil der Stadt, and Tübingen. In Heidelberg we visited a really pretty castle that had a great view of the city. We only stayed there for one evening and have been staying in a hostel in Stuttgart for the past couple days. The hike up to that hostel was definitely a workout with our packs on our backs! We have visited a lot of museums so far including the Johannes Kepler Museum, the Porsche Museum, the IBM Museum, Alte Schloss (Old Castle) an art museum, and the Stadt Museum or City Museum in Tübingen. Tübingen was incredibly pretty and seemed like it was right out of a movie. If I could actually speak German, I think I would move there!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, not at all what we were expecting of Germany weather! The last couple days have been warm and sunny which makes the scenery even more picturesque. Aside from the large amount of stairs we have had to climb, everyone seems to be enjoying their time so far. We have all been getting along really well which makes the trip even more enjoyable. I look forward to what the next two weeks will bring!

4/7/06
Just three weeks until we fly out of Chicago – I can’t believe this trip is coming up so soon! Going to Germany is something I have been looking forward to since we registered for classes last year; however, now that it is finally close to taking place, the nerves are really starting to settle in. Since I have never been in another country, especially for three whole weeks, I really have no idea what to expect. And trying to pack for three weeks all in one backpack? That is definitely going to be a challenge!

Looking past those uncertainties, though, I am incredibly excited about this opportunity to learn more about another culture and to experience life outside the United States, even if only for a short while. I am looking forward to seeing, learning, and doing something new and different every day. Being able to share all these new experiences with my friends will make them even more memorable.

Thinking about all that we will be doing just makes me even more excited to go! Hopefully the weeks leading up to our trip go by quickly!