Thursday, 28 May 2009

This wonderful evening was the night of the ultimate combination of drinking and dancing that you could ever wish for in Germany. It was the night of the TV Club. It was also the night the Gothic Festival was going to start. While waiting at the tram station in front of the main train station for Mike’s mentor and her friends to arrive, Adam and I were checking out the rather interesting dressed people arriving into Leipzig and those waiting at the tram station. We got the glimpse of a person in a pair of jeans with a cut in the jeans just below the buttocks. We were like “o yea, that’s nice,” but then, the person turned around. The person was a guy, and a pretty ugly one at that. He turned back around, and Mike had joined us, so we felt it was needed to play a joke on him and make him believe the guy was a girl, for he had turned back around and again you could not tell he was a guy. Once Mike find out, it was quite hilarious, and he immediately hated us for it.



We made it to the club and had to wait outside for an hour or so to be let in and once we got inside, we found out, to my amazement, that the club was still very empty. It was quite a disappointment, but we went ahead and ordered our drinks and awaited the arrival of everyone else that was supposed to come. When more people had shown up, we decided to play some Thumper since there was a giant round table for us to sit around. It was a good time for awhile, then people ran out of beer and, we sort of just dispersed and that was it for that game. On a complete separate note, I was wearing my Dirk Nowitzki jersey for the first time, so just keep that in mind. After awhile, I ran into Adam, and we started seeing whether or not I was the tallest in the club. There was one guy that was very close to beating me. He appeared to be taller than me. But he was wearing gym shoes, and I was wearing sandals, so I believed that I was the tallest while others tried to say that I was not the tallest. Shortly after this debate, I ran into some rather taller women who happened to be friends of one of the mentors. They were good lookers. I was thinking to myself “tall and beautiful; that’s a rare combination to come by, so I went over to talk chat with them for awhile. I don’t remember what was discussed as this quite some time ago now, and I am pretty sure I was already having a very good buzz going on at the time. I do remember I offered to buy them drinks, and they wanted Diesels. Since I was also a Diesel fan, I went ahead and ordered three of those suckers. Something happened either I disappeared or they disappeared after awhile, so I went on and roamed a little.

I eventually ran into Cor and realized that I had not been out on the dance floor yet, so we went out there and danced and danced and danced until she was too tired to dance. She left me, and I went over to Troy who was dancing a little further away with his mentor Anne and her friends. From that point on, I was dancing and drinking with them until the break of dawn, well close to it at least. Troy and I left around 4:30 in the morning to head back to our sleeping quarters, and that was that.

Monday, 25 May 2009

Today at BMW, we did little workouts that were to improve the ergonomics in the work place. It was a program to prevent injuries and strengthen the body of the workers on the floor. It was a lot of fun laughing at people trying to do the workouts and doing the workouts myself. After that, a gentleman gave a talk about the coalition of the eastern German automobile manufacturing companies belonging to a coalition to try to reach the level of the western Germany. The unemployment rate is up around 20% currently and was up to about 40% after the wall had fallen.

That evening there was a dinner with everyone associated in the program – mentors, host families, lady from Leipzig University’s Study Abroad department, and Stefan showed up. It was a great time getting to know some of the other families and to see all the students’ mentors.

The next two days weren’t very interesting, so we’ll just skip to Thursday evening.

Saturday, 23 May 2009 / Sunday, 24 May 2009

O finally it was Saturday, the day that will be remembered and looked back on for days to follow. Our only plan still was to meet at the train station at 9:00. I got up and packed and tried to prepare for what I was about to witness. On the way to the tram I ran into my neighbor, the same one that I had dinner and coffee with earlier that week. We had a short a little chat. I was already late getting to the train station and I was the one who told people they had to be on time to the train station. After explaining that I was not going to be in town for the next day and a half, he let me go and I got to the train station.

Everyone was there and ready to go; there were 8 of us. We got two 5-person day passes that allowed us to travel on any non-ICE train in the country of Deutschland for 24 hours. They were very cheap, and a reason why we decided to leave on Saturday and not on Friday. I was hungry, so I went to Subway as well as did most of every once else in our group. Then, we went to the track where the train was supposed to arrive in a couple of minutes. While there, a young lady walked up to us and asked us, essentially, if we had an extra ticket to Berlin. Indeed, we did, and she joined our group. Her name was Maja, and she dressed very weird, at least compared to us Americans. She was a great help though. We had to get off in Wittenberg to switch trains to get to Berlin, and she knew where we had to go. Also, when we had finally arrived in Berlin, she helped us get out of the train station and to the city center, more specifically Alexanderplatz, right next to the TV Tower. The TV Tower was in West Berlin and was responsible for broadcasting television and radio to the residents in East Berlin during the time of the GDR, when there was a wall built to separate the West from the East. Also, I was able to snag Maja’s number before we got off the train. I got to say I was even impressed with myself with my smooth maneuvering in acquiring it. We do, in fact, have a common taste in music, Techno.

Any ways back to Berlin. We did not really have any plans or anything when we got there, so we were kind of lost and awestruck on how big Berlin was and how extensive the subway and bus system was built up. So, we just decided to walk around and try to absorb the atmosphere we just dropped in on. We walked through a flea market by a fountain by the TV Tower. I was focused on trying to figure out where we were and where we needed to go based off of the research I had done the night before. I was using a map of Berlin Jay had gotten from his host family and this thing was huge. It I had been unfolded all the way, it would probably been 5 feet long and 5 feet wide. Berlin is a gigantic city. It turned out we wanted to be at Alexanderplatz for one of the tours I had researched, but while trying to find the rest of the group we ran into a lady who was handing out flyers for her company’s touring bus trip, I decided it was better to do that because it was cheaper, and we were able to get a deal for Potsdam. We were hoping to stop there on our way back from Berlin the next day.

We jumped on the bus and were on our way to seeing the big sights in Berlin. In the first 5 minutes, the guide told us where all the bars were, so we now knew were we wanted to find a hostel after the tour was over. When we reached the Brandenburg Gate, we jumped off the bus to get a closer look and take some closer look. The area was insanely crowded because of the celebration of the Republic of Germany being founded 60 years ago, but we were able to get some pictures of ourselves in front of the big gate and with our professor’s book that he had written. It was pretty cool. A couple of us were approached by a gypsy who wanted some money for her mother and daughter who had traveled to Berlin two weeks ago and now had no money or food. I politely declined because once you give money to one person, you feel you need to give your money to everyone that asks you. Chances are her story was a complete fabrication. We jumped back on the bus and continued our tour to the Main Train Station and other sites in the city, including the old Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

When we got back to the area by the fountain and the TV Tower, we asked the lady who told us about the tour on where we could find a hostel by the strip of bars, which included a 24-hour bar called “AM to PM.” We found a hotel, but it was expensive so we went down the street to find another hostel. We were unsuccessful so we went to the AM to PM bar to have a drink and think of what we wanted to do. To cut the long story short, we walked around for an hour or so looking for hostels. We were tired and hungry and because of that our tempers were growing shorter and shorter by the minute and each unsuccessful attempt we had at each hostel we found. Finally after a trip on the subway system, we found a place by the zoo that we had passed earlier that day on the tour. While Frank was checking us in to the A&O Hostel, the rest of us sat down and ordered ourselves another beer. During this time, Frantz found an ad for a pub crawl that was going to start at 8:00pm. It was currently 7:00pm, so we needed to sort of get a move on if we wanted to do this pub crawl. We moved all our stuff in and found a döner place right below us, which is pretty much a gyro place in the US. I ended up eating two döners I was so hungry. We went back up to the hostel and had another beer while we waited for someone to come pick us up from the hostel. Keep in mind that in this pub crawl, the guides were walking around handing out free shots at each bar.

When the girl came to pick us up, we headed to the 24 hour bar called Am to PM to meet up with everyone else that was going to join us for the great adventure. We were given a Beck’s Gold beer upon our arrival and the fun started. Our first bar was decorated in old GDR flare. I ordered two beers and two Jäger-bombs. Once I got my drinks, the stupid drunk Brit that was on the pub crawl felt the need to up one on me and ordered the same thing but also ordered two pitchers of waters. I don’t know if he ever got the waters, but it was the principle of the thing, which does not really make any sense; however, I am sure you get what I am saying. In Berlin and I believe all throughout Germany, you are allowed to carry an open container on the streets, so the conscious was to take advantage of this opportunity while we can. When we left the first bar, we were sure to have a beer with us to carry on the streets to hold us over until we reached the next bar. Um, the second was interesting and is easily describable as a small disco place that had a bar in which no one was dancing. After a couple of drinks and an hour later, we headed to the third bar where they were giving free shots out with every beer you bought. It was bad news, but I was already heading that way anyways once I had a Jäger-bomb at the first bar. At this bar, we got into a conversation with a guy who turned out to be like the head guy who inspects produce and purchases it to be shipped to the US. I do not know what company he works for, but he was very interesting and will probably never find another guy like him. At this bar, I felt the need to smoke a cigar since I saw Nick sitting outside at the picnic table smoking one. I am not sure whether this was a good idea or not. I enjoy smoking cigars, but I don’t really like smoking after I have drunk. However, by smoking the cigar, I was then not drinking any alcohol, so it is hard to say really which was the lesser of the two evils. I’ll just leave it up to the reader to decide. On our way to the fourth bar, a different guy on the tour was trying to teach some German so I could pick up to German girls. I was decently gone and kept telling the guy that his tries were futile because of the state I was in at the current time. He did not seem too pleased with me. At the fourth bar, there was an inside area where people were dancing, an outside area that was covered in sand, and a second floor. Troy and I tried to find the second floor but came up empty handed. This is about the time I stop remembering what happened the rest of the night.

The next morning (Sunday), I awoke in my bed in the hostel in Berlin with a little bit of a hangover and feeling very tired. For about an hour or so, the eight of us there relived the night before and tried to piece together the portions we do not remember. Sadly, no one remembered what the club looked like nor did anyone have pictures to look at to try to jog our memory of what had happened the night before. The only thing people remotely remember were the hookers on the street on our walk to the tram. We think they were wearing all white, white knee-high boots, white skirt, and a white top. We also remember them being really, really hot, but then again we were all really drunk at the time. We dragged ourselves out of bed finally and got our stuff together to get ready to go back to Leipzig. On the way back, we were going to stop in Potsdam, but apparently, the train on the way back does not go through Potsdam, so we did not get to see any of Potsdam.

Once back in Leipzig, we stopped for food in the main train station, and then, I headed home back to the apartment and passed out. When I awoke, the host family had returned from their trip from the Baltic Sea, and head white asparagus to make for dinner that night. It was very good. Then, I went back to sleep and prepared for another day at BMW.

Friday, 22 May 2009

When I wore up Friday morning, I was still so tired from the activities from yesterday. It was hard to get up and get moving. At class, the guys were very tired and hung over from the night before. No one had done the homework for one of the professor’s class. Students were also falling asleep while the professors were teaching. It was a really bad day, so bad that at 12:30 the professors sat us down as a group and reminded us why we were over in Germany. After the talk, they let us go for the rest of the day because they were so upset with us. It was very bad and definitely a real low point in the program. I personally felt real bad for the professors and hoped that the students’ eyes have been opened. I did feel the talk was needed because it really could have gotten out of hand very fast.

The talk put such a damper on the entire day that our trip to Berlin was seriously being considered to be canceled so that we could refocus ourselves and get back to the grind of studying. Then, we gave it a second though and realized we were thinking crazy passing up on this opportunity to go to Berlin. It was finally decided that we would meet at the main train station at 9:00 the next morning and head out for Berlin.

After lunch in the Mensa, we went to the Leipzig museum to check out some more of the Leipzig history. We ended up just checking out the GDR exhibit instead, which wasn’t realized until about half way walking through the exhibit. It was interesting but since everything was in German and people were really tired, it was hard to be able to truly enjoy the history of it all. When we left, I separated from the group because they were going to go back to the dorms, and I was going to go back to the apartment but decided to look for a good map of Berlin. I couldn’t find one that I liked after going to a couple of the bookstores, so I went back to the apartment and made one of the frozen pizzas I had bought earlier in the week for an early dinner and to watch some South Park and do a little research on Berlin. After that, I took a nap and went around the city in the evening to take some pictures and actually buy a map of Berlin. However, all the stores were closed by the time I went out the second time. I went back to the apartment unsuccessful and hungry, so I made the second pizza I had bought and watched more South Park and did more research on Berlin. This research contained mostly of trying to find a good hostel and sightseeing tour. Then, I went to bed to prepare for tomorrow’s festivities.

Thursday, 21 May 2009

The next morning, Thursday morning, I had coffee with my neighbors. It was again tough because we were unable to communicate to each other. After many feeble attempts of trying to have a conversation, I left and headed to class. Today, I had to ride my bike because I was going to go to the lake again with my mentor Kathleen, Adam, and two of Kathleen’s friends. I got to class real early because it takes me like 5 minutes to ride to class in the morning because I am allowed to ride down all the streets. After 11:00, some streets are cut-off to pedestrians only. You could technically still ride down those streets as long as you don’t get caught by the Polizei. Also, you could walk around with your bike, but why walk when you can ride?


As far as I can remember, class was nothing special. It was essentially a “normal” day of classes if there could be something that would classify as such a thing. After class, Adam and I waited for Kathleen outside of the Ring Café. It took awhile for her to arrive because she had two bikes to handle; Adam didn’t have a bike. The five of us headed out to the lake. On the way there, I saw a ping pong table outside in a little park-ish area. Shortly after that, the break on the front wheel on Kathleen’s friend broke when turning the corner, so she ended up having to jump on the tram while the rest of us headed to the tram stop by the lake. The stop was by a forested area which separates the lake from the city center. Once we got near there, we decided to get ice cream while we waited for the friend to show up. I would say her name, but I don’t remember it. When she finally showed up, we made our way to the lake. She rode on the back of Kathleen’s bike where the basket would normally sit on top of the rear wheel. It was rather funny watching Kathleen struggling to pedal her bike with the extra person causing the rear wheel to flatten out. We found an ice cream place along the lake to sit, chill, and take in the view of the area. There was talk about riding around the lake but that is as far as that went.

On the way back from the lake, we saw some guys about to get in a fight because one guy probably ran into another on their bikes. It was quite amusing even though I could not understand what any one was saying. I would have liked to have sit there and watch it play out and see if anything would have actually happened, but we didn’t because we needed to get to dinner and needed to stop at Kathleen’s place first for something. I ended up watching an episode with Sandra, Kathleen’s roommate and the other girl that went with us to the lake that day. It was a pretty good episode. Both Kathleen and Sandra are big fans of the show. They own all the seasons and watch the shows in English because some of the jokes are lost in translation from English to German.

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant because Adam is a big fan of Mexican food. We went to Enchiladas. I ordered a Coconut Mojito to drink and then a combo meat Fajita dish. The food and drink, sadly, was subpar. Sandra said it used to be a really good place to go where you got a lot of food with what you ordered. Apparently, times have changed. O well. We ended up being there from 19:30 to 23:00. We were just having a good time hanging out and talking. Also, we had to wait a long time for both our dinner and our dessert. I had to go back Kathleen’s apartment to pickup my bike. That ended up being a bad choice because the restaurant was right next to the apartment that I have been calling my home for the past week or so.

Some of the guys from the program had gone to the TV Club that evening. I had planned on going out with them to the club, but since dinner had gone so late, I decided to not go out and just go to bed after getting a shower.

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 / Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Tuesday, the class and I went back to BMW for further presentations and evaluation of the plant. It was a lot of fun. It just was not a lot of exciting things to talk about nor do I really remember at this point, so we will just move on to the next day.

Wednesday came and gone with nothing real special. We had real class in our kindergarten room. After class, I headed back to the dorms with the rest of guys to try to plan out our weekends for the rest of time in Leipzig. Only Troy and I were the only ones who actually did some planning. During our planning process, we decided that we should not waste the weekend that was about to come, so we “planned” a trip to Berlin. The “plan” will be further explained in the upcoming days. Since my host family had left for the Baltic Sea today and were going to be gone until Sunday, I had dinner with the neighbors below where I lived. If I did not mention before, they used to be owners of a hotel and have very limited English speaking abilities. It made dinner very interesting. I am not sure what sort of meat that was served to me, but I did have potatoes and a reddish-purplish cabbage. The meal was not too shabby. After dinner, I went back up to the apartment to do laundry for the first time in a different country. The wash machine was easy to work and figure out since my host mother had gone over how it worked the night before. It was interesting though when it went on its final spin. It sounded like and aircraft was about to take off in the apartment. It wasn’t as loud, but it definitely reminded me of about to take off in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago. I put my clothes in the dryer for about 10 minutes or so before I checked on them because I didn’t want them to shrink. The clothes were extremely hot, like I just pulled them from boiling water. It was then that I realized that the dryers in Germany were not at all similar to those in America, so I decided to lay my clothes out on the drying rack to dry overnight. I proceeded to then pass out watching an episode of South Park.

Monday, 18 May 2009

Well today was a fun day. We went to BMW in Leipzig, which is north of the city center. We were given a tour of the plant by a man who sort of reminded me of the character Borat. It was pretty amazing walking around a manufacturing plant of BMW. It was very clean and quite. We were able to see the production of the X1. It will be released in Europe in October and next Spring in the US. There is no picture on the internet that depicts that actual look of the model. There are only speculation pictures and drawings. It was a rather interesting car, and I am very pleased to have gotten to see it months before it is being released to the public. However, it is not really my type of car that I would want to buy for myself. Lunch was pretty good considering we got food from the cafeteria there. I was impressed. Also, I was impressed by the ladies in yellow leading around car salespeople in the plant. After lunch, we had some presentations by people from the plant and by our professor Dr. John Heitmann. Once they were over, we were released and made the journey home back to our respective places to return once again the next day. I had dinner on the balcony and then I passed out watching an episode of South Park.


On a side note: If you ever have a questions about parts of what I right about or wish to know more, please let me know, and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Thank you.

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Today when I woke up, I was so tired and sire from all the dancing and drinking that I ended up spending most of my day in bed watching episodes of South Park and sleeping. It was a glorious day for me. However, I did miss the opportunity to go to the Leipzig Zoo. The only thing I really missed though was some different architecture from the buildings they house the animals. Believe it or not they have the same animals in the Leipzig Zoo that they have in the Cincinnati Zoo. Weird, isn't it?

For dinner, my host family and I went down to the neighbors that live below us for a little barbecue. There was bratwurst and, what I believed to be, pork steaks of some sort. There was also an assortment of salads as well. It was all very, very delicious and was only cooked on like a 10 inch diameter grill on the balcony. The only problem was that the neighbors do not speak very good English, so I was unable to communicate with them, but it turns out that their son is in Dayton right now studying abroad at one of the high schools. Who knew it was such a small world? Barbara and her son was also there. He is around Sonja's age. She was pounding down all the food that was put in front of her and drinking it all away. However, it did not seem like she was getting the least bit of drunk or tipsy, even after we all had a shot of schnapps. It reminded me a little bit like Jagermeister. After dinner, I went back to my room and was preparing to just go to sleep for the rest of the evening until Troy gave me a call, saying he and some of the other guys were going to go to Champions to watch some of the NBA or NHL Playoff games. They were only able to find the NHL Game, which was Red Wings vs. Blackhawks. So, we watched some of that and ordered food and a beer. Then, we left after the 2nd period was over and then passed out in my bed.

I know this day was very uneventful, but after my past couple of days, the rest was definitely needed because the coming week was going to be full of more crazy adventures along with trips to BMW and the start of school work. Ugh...

Saturday, 16 May 2009

After dragging my sore and exhausted body out of bed at 10:00 in the morning. I went to go meet up with my mentor to go bike ride to a lake that I had no idea where it was nor did I know how big it was, but I was getting out there anyways. The lake is known as the Cospundener See and is 9.8 kilometers around, which is a very long distance if you have never rode on a bike in many, many years. It is also a natural lake, unlike many of the other lakes around in the area. Anyways, below are some pictures of the lake and the houses by it. In the background of the first picture, there is a pyramid. The pyramid resides inside an amusement park that, as I am told, similarly resembles a Six Flags Amusement Park but is no where near as cool as one.

Also, the sand on the beaches is very coarse. During the warm days of the summer, people come out and lay out like Americans do, but some of them decide to lay out nude and such. Fortunately, it was a colder day when I went and there was no one to be found on the beaches. However, I heard some of my professors were fortunate enough to see some 65'ish old men one day when they decided to go visit the lake.

The picture of the pigs was in a wooded area that we had to ride through to get to the lake. I took this picture on the way back, hence why it is shown after the pictures of the lake.

After the lake, we went back to Kathleen's apartment to have some lunch but first I was to get my first taste of how grocery stores ran here in Leipzig. I did not see much of a difference other than the fact that they were much smaller than say a Wal-Mart Supercenter and everything was in German. Actually, come to think of it there were some more interesting things. For example, there were a much more variety of different cheeses that would have been considered "exotic" in the states, same goes with some of the meats they had, and they sell bubbly water, AKA Carbonated Water. They also sell carbonated fruit drinks. I personally hate both of those, even though I enjoy drinking pop. Someone said the water was like drinking Sprite but without any real taste. Well since I don't like Sprite, I didn't see myself how I would like the carbonated water.

So I bought some lunch meat and goat cheese to make a sort of panini-like sandwich back at her apartment. It was pretty good. Now, I plan on investing in a George Foreman grill so that I may be able to recreate my experience some day in the future. Her roommate Sandra joined us for lunch as well. We got to talking about the Swine Flu that has been spreading around because we had to turn off the radio so that Sandra would not hear the latest news on the matter because she is scared of it becoming an epidemic. I thought it was rather odd she did not want to hear what has been going on, and I was not alone on this thought. Kathleen agreed with me on my thinking. After some more chatting and cleaning up after lunch, the three of us decided to go to the park that was near Kathleen and Sandra's apartment. Sandra had just bought a new bike but had yet put it together, which consisted of putting the seat at the right height, screwing on the peddles, and fixing the handlebars at the right height. We ventured through the streets and went to the park to hang out. It was nice and relaxing to sit down in the park and just talk to two young Germany ladies about life and such. The picture of the Smiley Face was in the apartment of Kathleen and Sandra. I like those yellow Smiley Faces, so I took a picture of it.




After we left the park, I had to get back to the apartment that I have referred as my home for the next 6 weeks to have dinner with my host mother, her young daughter, and the neighbor next door. Her name is Barbara, and she is quiet an interesting person. She is a very talkative and animated. If this puts it into some sort of perspective, she runs marathons. Any ways, Anja made a Hawaiian Pizza, and it was very delicious. I am sad to say that Barbara was able to eat more than me. And for being how much she ate and drank, I am impressed of how she is able to keep off the weight and be so motivated to run long distances.





When dinner was over, I got a shower and prepared for my first night out in Leipzig, Germany. I went to the Augustusplatz to wait for my fellow peers to head to a discotech, which is a club. It was called Moritzbastei. This is the place underground that is a part of the old wall that once surrounded the city of Leipzig many, many years ago. Apparently, there were three different dance floors on different levels of the disco club, but I only stayed at the one because I did not know this until the next day or so. The picture is part of the Augustusplatz of what was in front of me where I was sitting. There are some pictures of the club as well.




Some of the mentors came with us and showed us a good time. However, most of everything that happened was first initiated by the guys from the program. We decided to play Thumper. This is a typical American drinking game and can be very loud because of all the banging on the table that happens during the game. It first started out small but soon spread to the entire table. George was even to get two German ladies in on the action that were sitting to the table next to us. It did take some persuasion, but it worked out in the end.




Once the game got old, I had the desire to go dancing. Luckily, the two German ladies and one of the mentors Cor also shared the same desire. So, I went out on to the dance floor with them and after awhile most of the rest of the group joined us. It was an amazing time dancing out there because the Germans love American music, so I knew about every single song they were playing. It was just so beautiful. The rest of the night consisted of more drinking and dancing. I even tried a drink called "Diesel." This is a combination of Coke and beer. Yes, I know it sounds disgusting, but it was very delicious. Cor made me chug the whole thing because she wanted to get out back on the dance floor. She wanted me to come with her because I am just an amazing dancer. (I went to 11 dances alone my Senior year in high school, so yea I can dance.) I tried to go up to the DJ and suggest a song, but it didn't work out because I never heard it played. It might have been because I put Beyonce down instead of Sash Fierce, but if he were a true DJ, then he should have known who I meant.



The night ended finally. I walked home an went to sleep. And on the way home, I saw a poster advertising the movie Angels & Demons. However, here is Germany it is called Illuminati. O man, what a Saturday nigh I had.

Friday, 15 May 2009

On Friday, we had our first class and my first adventure through the city. My host mother Anja and my mentor Kathleen took me through the city and pointed out some famous places and areas to know. We did some riding on our bikes, but it was mostly walking so that I could get a better feel of the area I was about to spend 6 weeks. I got to the place where we have class. It was called the Ring Café.

Our first day of class was basically just “Syllabus Day,” except for my LEAN Manufacturing class because the professor is only going to be there for 2.5 weeks, so her class is being accelerated right from the get go. Unluckily I suppose, I had signed up for this class, so I had to get it into gear on the first day, which stunk majorly. At lunchtime, the students and I as long with 2 of the mentors went to get a food card to put money on it so that we could go to the Mensa, the student cafeteria, and eat for a cheaper price. The food is pretty decent and you get a lot for a little.

After lunch, we went back to the Ring Café and had class to the 15.00 hour where we then were given the task to pair up and sent out into the city to find 10 things that were similar to American cities and 10 things that were different. Frank and I paired up together while his mentor Cor tagged along. We were able to come up with stuff, but I don’t really remember what they were. However, I have been taking pictures of things that I notice that are odd or at least different from the United States.

After we got back from our little excursion through the city, the professors, students, and some of the mentors went on a private tour of the city of Leipzig led by our very own Dr. Mosher.



This is a picture of the Ring Café where we have our classes. It was also one of the buildings the GDR built. They were planning on erecting building around the city to form a ring but ran out of money to continue on with the project. Ironically, a church now exists in the building.



This is a picture of an old wall that surrounded the city back in the way back of times. As you can see, the wall is covered in graffiti. On the other side, there is an entrance to a café, which turns into a bar/dance club in the evening.



These next two pictures are of a fountain in the Augustusplatz. The Augustusplatz is a very nice and beautiful. The fountain is called the neo-Baroque Mende Fountain. IT was built in the square in 1886 and is the only remaining testimony to one of Germany's leading late 19th century square ensembles. Rebuilt and bearing new pieces of porphyry, it stands before the New Gewandhaus and forms a striking contrast to the new and modernly designed Augustusplatz with its jet fountain in front of the Opera House.





















This is a picture of the Opera House. There is another fountain in front of this building. Often you see people laying down with parts of their body hanging into the water. Also, kids play in the water on a hot day. It is very beautiful in the evening with the lights and surrounding architecture. The New Opera House opened 1960 on the site of the New Theatre which was destroyed during the Second World War. It stages operas and ballets and can accommodate an audience of 1426. Leipzig's Opera House conception goes back to 1693, making it the second oldest musical stage in Germany. Tribute was paid to the Opera House on a European scale when it was voted "European Opera House of the Year" twice at the end of the last century. The renowned Opera House boasts one of the best ballet companies in Europe, an opera choir, a children's choir and a ballet school. Musicals and operettas are performed in the historic Dreilinden House.



This is a group picture of the UD students and two of the professors with us on the trip, Dr. Mosher and Dr. Heitmann in front of the big fountain in the Augustusplatz. In the background is the New Gewandhaus, which houses the orchestra and symphony and played host to University of Leipzig's 600 year anniversary celebration. This is very controversial because of the history the university has been through with the Nazi regime and especially the GDR days. I don't really know what the stances are on either side, but the students are very into expressing their views and showing their views in the public than are the American students.




This is a picture of the highest building in Leipzig. It was originally used by the university but now the tv and radio stations own and use it. it is referred to by some of the Leipzig people as the Wisdom Tooth as it strongly resembles a tooth by some people. As you are looking at the New Gewandhaus from Augustusplatz, the building is on the right but back off of the square a good 500 to 1000 meters or so.









This is pictures I was able to capture of one of our heroic professors as Dr. Mosher was talking about the Augustusplatz. I was able to take the picture at exactly the right time as Dr. Falkowski turned his head to the side. He truly is a superhero. Well, at least that what he believes at times.

There are more pictures of the tour, but it is just a hassle putting them up here. IT was a lot of fun and helped to get to know the city center real fast. We often spend a lot of time going in and out of the city center to get to class, go out to eat, and go out to the bars and clubs.

Some of the other things to mention about the city is the university is in the middle of expanding along the Augustusplatz and are in the process of rebuilding a church that was knocked down during the times of the GDR. It is very controversial. Though the actual final plans on what the building will actually be used for is still undetermined, the design strongly resembles the architecture of the old church that once stood there in its place.

Another controversial thing that is happening in Leipzig is the construction of the railway system going under the city. This is happening because the Main Train station only allows trains to pull into a dead end stop and have to back track out of the station and go around the city if it wishes to travel that way. The construction of the railways are to cut time of travel and add a couple of stops through the city. The city map shows some of the plans of where the rails are suppose to placed under the ground.





After the tour, there was a celebration dinner sponsored by the program to celebrate the beginnings of a wonderful time spent studying abroad. This is probably where I got my very first experience of some true German food and beer. The following pictures are the front entrance, my beer, and my food. My beer was the Goser, which is the Leipzig beer. I had some sort of game food with dumplings and mixed in a sauce. It was very good, and I was very happy for trying something new on the first time out at a restaurant in Germany. After the dinner, there was a plan of the students going out to the bars and do a little celebration of their own, but after I got a shower, I was way to exhausted to go out and passed out on my bed.

That was my Friday.



Please note that some of the information about the buildings and places in Leipzig were gotten from the Leipzig tourist website.

Wednesday, 13 May 2009 / Thursday, 14, 2009

Well after finishing eating dinner with my family at Willy's, it was time for me to go to the airport and head to Frankfurt, Germany on a direct flight that took about 8.5 hours. Once I checked my bags and walked to the gate, I already ran into one of the guys that I would be spending time with in Germany, Frank. Frank had flown into Cincinnati 7 hours earlier from Cleveland,OH and had spent the entire day at the airport. His day was already looking much more exhausting than my would eventually become. Many of the students that were to come to Leipzig were coming in on a flight from Dayton, OH. Due to the stormy weather, they were running a little late but by they arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare before the plane took off.

So we boarded the plane, and I had a window seat in the emergency exit aisle. It was very nice because it had extra leg room. I sat next to some guy that didn't talk at all and seemed to be an experienced flier. On the other, the last time I was in a plane I jumped out of it last Spring and the time before that it had to have been 10+ years before I had flown on any other sort of aircraft, so it was sort of a new experience for me. The flight didn't seem to be too bad. The dinner and breakfast was sub par but what else would you expect from an airline. They showed two movies, The Express and Yes, Man; an episode of The Office, King of Queens, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. All were at least fairly decent, except for The New Adventures of Old Christine. It was extremely stupid and the only funny parts was when there was a scene of Old Christine's son.

My seat was also located right next to the toilets, so I got to see many people on the plane. I especially took notice of the women and younger ladies on the plane, and I felt (I am not alone) that were a rather high number of good-looking females on my flight. And, in case any one was wondering, I only had to use the restroom once during the entire flight and pretty much got zero hours of sleep.

When night-time rolled around, the sky was very beautiful. There was a full moon and since we were so high it was a clear sky. Below the plane, it looked like there was a never-ending sea of clouds and all I wanted to do was to stay up there forever. It looked very peaceful and comforting. Living in the clouds would be such an amazing feeling. I tried to get a picture of the view but I was not able to get one until the sun started to come up. Below are those pictures that I took that turned out fairly decent.













The last two photos are of the descent of the plane into the airport and of other planes docked at the gates at the Frankfurt airport. Once we got off the airport, we had to go through security and show them our passports and waited to pick up our bags at the terminal. Mike was joking how it would funny if someone's bag didn't show up for whatever reason. I told him if my bag didn't show up that I would slug him in the face. Luckily for him, both of my bags made it just fine.

After getting all of our bags, we had to find our way through the airport to the train station. We have to sit around and wait for the train to arrive. I believe we had to wait for an hour or so. The train ride from Frankfurt, Germany to Leipzig, Germany was 3 hours and those 3 hours were he worse of the trip. Beth and I had gotten to her seat she saved and I found on next to her. There was a man sitting across from us in the same compartment. He had a beer in one hand and talking on his phone with his earpiece. He spoke German, but I was unable to understand anything that he was saying. He finished his first beer, took a little nap, and then reached into his suitcase and pulled out another beer to continue to drink. After he finished that one, I think he passed out or just happened to have fallen into a deep sleep of some sort for the remainder of the our train ride.

Once we finally arrived in Leipzig, we walked down the end of the rail to run into our professors, our mentors, and (for those who had them) our host families. I met my family and almost immediately left for their apartment, which was only like a 5 minute drive since they had their car with them. Since their car was so small, the father had to walk home which only took him maybe an extra 10 minutes.

When I got to the apartment, I quickly unpacked my things, had dinner, and proceeded to pass out. The dinner was very delicious. I had veal, mashed potatoes, and cauliflower. Also, I had a beer for my beverage.

That is the conclusion of my first day in Leipzig.

JUST A SEPARATE NOTE: Not all my pictures will be posted on my blog. Most of them will be placed in an album on my Facebook account, so be sure to go there to see them.

The Beginning

I created this blog to keep track of everything that happens in the next 6-7 weeks in my time spent in Europe. I am spending 6 weeks in Leipzig, Germany living with a host family and taking a couple of classes. The last week will be spent traveling through the rest of Europe ending in London, England where my flight leaves back to the States on July 3, 2009 just in time for Independence Day.

My host family lives on the edge of the center of the city on the North side. The parents have a 3 year old daughter named Sonja. I have found that she can be quite a handful for the parents. I do not know if this is a worldwide thing since I am the youngest in my family and never ever spent more than a couple of hours, at most, with a child so young.

Any ways, I have my own room in their apartment, which is bigger than my own room at home and strongly resembles the size of a Marianist room (for those of you who might actually know what that is). The apartment in-of-itself is also big. There is a so-called half bathroom; a bathroom where there is a shower, a bath tub, a washer and a dryer; a kitchen; 2 more bedrooms; a living area; a work area; and of course, a balcony. This is where I am writing this little blog right now. It is awesome. Most nights we eat dinner on the balcony, and the view ain't too bad either. On the left side there are trees and a little river and in the background and on the right are buildings, which all have their unique style depicting different times in the life of the city. (There will be pictures at some point showing all of this.)

Besides living with a host family, I have a mentor that helps me to get to know the city better and, at times, help with my ability to speak German. Her name is Kathleen, and she is currently studying at the University of Leipzig. She spent two years in Chicago and mentored a UD student last year as well. She is very nice and helpful in trying to make my experience an unforgettable one.

There are many things I want to say but will try to break them down on a day-to-day basis as the thoughts first occurred in my brilliant mind. I have already taken many pictures on my trip, so those will be coming soon as well.

If you have any questions or would like to know more information about certain topics, you are welcomed to ask me whatever you wish. However, that does not necessarily mean I will answer your questions. Also, I do have a WebCam and I have a Skype account. My screenname is david.rathman and I welcome you to invite me to chat whenever the notion might move you.


Tschüss