Day Trips and Other Cool Things

Leipzig

Our first day trip was to Leipzig, which I think is about an hour south of Hedersleben… Something like that. We went to the old town section thingy with all the historic cool stuff. As a huge American mob we saw the Nikolaikirche, Goethe statue, Mädler Passage, and Thomaskirche (Bach did a lot of work there). Then the teachers set us loose on the town. Not much of the day is worth boring people with, but it is necessary to say that I ate a Döner! It was as good as Dr. Seeger said, though I have been informed that that was an “average” Döner, so I must go looking for more… Leipzig was really cool though. I don’t know if it differs in other parts of the city, but the architecture was really awesome, especially in the churches. Those were really beautiful, well worth seeing, especially with all the history in them. The only other eventful thing that happened that day is we saw a naked lady in a city fountain, but I’m trying to forget about that.

Quedlinburg

Going to Quedlinburg was a trip that we took as classes, instead of as a huge mob. It was a 20 minute bus ride from Hedersleben. Quedlinburg had a totally different feel than Leipzig. It seemed like Quedlinburg wasn’t interested in modernizing at all, but emphasizing the history and such (at least in the parts we went to). And I can understand why, because it is a beautiful place with lots of history. Our teachers explained the famous woodwork style that came from Quedlinburg (at least I think that’s what he said... it was all in German) and just walking through the streets we saw things from 1215 and 1560. We walked up to the castle which I found really cool and interesting because of its connections to the Otto emperors and such. Basically, the coolest thing was seeing all the culture and history there. Oh, and I also tried Spaghetti Eis; they put vanilla ice cream through a press to make it look like noodles and cover it with a red berry topping. I think there was even a little whipped cream in there. Really good.

 
Feuerwehr

That’s German for fire station. Basically, they invited students to do stuff with them. We were driven from Hedersleben’s station to a bigger station in a town nearby in the fire trucks, which was really fun. They showed us around and the equipment and let some of us use the hydraulic tools to cut open cars. Everyone got to use the fire hose. It was quite fun and interesting, but it was even cooler because I got to meet Erica’s host family from last year. I recognized them from pictures and Erica had told me that they knew I was coming, so we talked a little. It was cool, albeit a little hard to speak German, but I was at least able to understand and communicate what I wanted to.

 
Magdenburg

Our last day trip was to Madgenburg, which is the capitol of Sachsen-Anhalt; as such, it was quite big and city-ish. Some of us traveled by train because there wasn’t enough room on the bus. I got to ride the train, which was really cool for me because I’ve never been on a train before. The US doesn’t exactly have a thriving public train transportation system. We visited the really cool, really old gothic cathedral, which (if I remember correctly) has roots back to the 900s. Though, the cathedral itself took 100+ years to be built, and finished in the 1300s after the first one burned down. Directly across from it was the Sachsen-Anhalt Parliament building, which we went into and got to have a Q&A with the parliament president. It was interesting to talk politics a little with him. We also listened in on a public hearing of some sort that the parliament was having; I had no clue what they were discussing, but it was interesting to see how the government is set up on a state scale. Beyond that, we also saw a really weird house thing designed by a guy who, I think, was named Wasser. He designs a whole bunch of buildings and they all look like they came out of a Dr. Seuss book.

 In Summation

Because this is a blog and I suppose I’m supposed to share some of my thoughts, I guess I should say that being in Hedersleben for the language camp has been great; I have been able to meet plenty of great people and learn/practice lots of German. However, I am definitely ready to leave. I’m excited to meet my host family and start school in a Gymnasium and REALLY learn German. I’m a little nervous, but I mostly want to really begin this program and year abroad. Though I think the thing I am most afraid of is missing my train connections tomorrow. That would stink.