Neuendettelsau

This being the third new place in 2 months in which I showed up not knowing a single person, I arrived in Neuendettelsau tired, a little on the cranky side, and for the first time since arriving in Germany, had a brief “Why on earth am I doing this?!?” moment, but it did not last long as I was greeted by Judith at the Neuendettelsau station.  The students are happy (at least they pretend well!) to speak slowly for me, repeat, and try alternative ways of saying what they’re attempting to tell me. 

Neuendettelsau is gorgeous right now with the trees at their prime fall colors.  I am so relieved to be out of the city…makes it all the more beautiful here!  I can open my window and smell “cow” or walk down the path just a short way and be among the fields or in a patch of forest.  There is no sound of traffic, no smell of exhaust, very few sirens blaring.  Peace.  Something I all too often take for granted.  I forget how stir-crazy I get when I cannot escape city life.  I finally have a room with enough shelves for all my books.  Only, I don’t have my books!  I’ve spread what I have out as much as I can to make it cozy and homey, but I still have 8 cupboards, 8 shelves, 1 drawer, and the giant box under the bed completely empty.  Oh how much fun I could have organizing here!  There is no question that I will accumulate more things, but hopefully not enough to fill my space!  Filling it with cookies would be okay.

Saturday I spent a lot of time reading.  I’m beginning to realize I have A LOT of work to do on my Wartburg classes before Christmas!  Five and a half books down, 6 or 7 to go and some papers to write.  This is on top of learning Deutsch and I’m sure that any work I will need to do for classes here will take me longer than ever to complete.  But, I must remember to have fun.  This isn’t about being a scholar.  This is about living in another culture, learning a new language, and understanding the world in a new way.

Sunday morning I went with a couple new friends for worship at die St. Laurentiuskirche.  Apparently the state of being lost and confused in services is not just an ELCA seminarian thing.  I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t figure out what page we were on!  I’m not sure whether to be more amused or more troubled by this.  When the seminarians can’t figure it out, how do we expect everyone else to follow, much less visitors?!?  What does this mean for church leadership?

In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk around town.  As I was walking, I noticed a nun behind me, happily singing down the road.  I stopped at a cemetery gate and waited.  She walked right up and started talking to me.  Sister Sofie gave me a tour of the cemetery and we managed to communicate most things but I have to work so hard at understanding the current words that I forget everything else we’ve said.  I can only focus on one word at a time!  I wandered through the rest of Diakonie Neuendettelsau and down the street to watch horses being brought in for the night under a beautiful sunset before making my way back to campus in the dark.

And, FINALLY, an address:

Alyssa Augustson
Waldstraße 15a/ 75
91564 Neuendettelsau
Germany

Pax.

The Last Week in Dresden

So, for an update on my last days in Dresden…a long list of what I did and saw:

Climbed to the die Frauenkirche’s dome.

Alte Meister Galerie (Old Master’s Gallery)
Here I saw Raffael’s Sistine Madonna among hundreds of other paintings.  I still haven’t figured out why the most famous paintings are famous.  Why is the Mona Lisa so much more famous than Giuseppe’s work?  Or Wenzel Lorenz Reiner?  Or Johann Georg de Hamilton?  Good thing nobody asked me!

Galerie Neue Meister (New Master’s Gallery in the Albertinum)
LOTS of paintings from the past 200 years.

Skulpturensammlung (Scupture Collection in the Albertinum)
Some very strange modern sculptures, such as a very large pile of 3-ring binders, boards, foam, metal things that looked like smashed up bed springs (you get the idea)…all stacked very squarely in a cube.

Städtische Galerie Dresden – Kunstsammlungen (Municipal Gallery and Art Collection)
Art ranging from the 16^th Century to the present contemporary art.

Rüstkammer (Prince’s Armoury Collection)
Wish I’d have had this as a resource for my History of Christianity Crusade Horse project!!!  Described as “one of the world’s most outstanding collections of parade arms, armour and costumes” from the 16^th-18^th Centuries including various weapons (lots of cool knives and swords), various suits of armor for both knight and steed, and jousting equipment.

Festung Dresden (Fortress Museum)
You’d never know by looking at the Brühl Terrace that it sits upon the remains of the royal residence of Saxony!  Inside, one can see the last remaining city gate and the oldest stone bridge of the city.  There are also some pretty neat stone spiral staircases, guard rooms, battlements, military chambers…

Early Friday morning, I left my little apartment in Dresden and headed for Neuendettelsau.  It took a little over 6 hours by train with 3 changes.  My train into Nürnberg was 15 minutes late, giving me 2 minutes before the next one was to leave.  There I was, once again hauling my 98473475839 pounds of Trödel (junk) up and down the steps trying to get to my next train in time.  I am forever thankful for the lady who stopped to help me up the last set of steps!

Pax.

On to NEUENDETTELSAU!!!

Today was the last day of German language class #2.  Success.  I have much to write, some of it already written, however not to my satisfaction.  I must give my internet back shortly as I head for Neuendettelsau in the morning...so a detailed update will come soon after I arrive and get internet sorted out.  Hopefully early next week.

Pax.

ä, ö, ü, and painful grammar...

Well, it is once again Sunday night and I was planning to write a good update on this very full past week. But, after 7 hours of studying yesterday and another 3 hours tonight, I'm tired and frustrated and it's 11:30...waaaay past bedtime!

However, as offensive as it may be to some, I must share the ridiculous conversation I had with my auntie this afternoon about my attempt at German. I guess it can't be offensive if it is about my attempt at German and not German itself???  No, only to my cous' who doesn't like the "V" word--beware Jessie!

It went something like this:

Auntie:  "I probably can't even MAKE some of the sounds!"

Me:  "It's hard to make serious vomit noises.  Then combine them with the right mouth shape."

Auntie:  "You even have to have the right mouth shape??????"

Me:  "To get the right vomit accent."

That about sums up my current frame of mind, so I'm going to bed.

Pax.

Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz

Königstein Fortress from Königstein

Saturday was our Goethe-Institut Ausflug ("Outfly" or "exkursion") to Königstein Fortress and Nationalpark Sächsische Schweiz. Six of us ditched the tour of the fortress (we felt kind of bad for doing so) in order to go explore other parts of Sächsische Schweiz like the sandstone mountains and the Bastei bridge. It was totally worth it! The fortress was neat, but the bridge and mountains were unbelievable.  There are so many pictures I want to share!

As much as I dislike walking, this was good, more like climbing than anything else. Up and up and up... There was a point where I wished for my friend, Becky.  Long story short, she carried me piggy-back style part way up to Harney Peak during our trip to South Dakota.  All because I was complaining about her and my mom making me walk that far.  I went because they told me there was a gift shop at the top of the mountain.  All we found were BLACK clouds followed closely by a hail storm.  There we were in our shorts and sandals and nothing but cameras on top this crazy mountain.  Pure tourist.  Anyway, there wasn't a gift shop at the top of this climb either, but there was a bar.  Almost as good.  We didn't stop long.  We were running out of daylight which meant we were also running out of heat.  The view was breathtaking, both out of beauty and height.  I'm usually the one seeing how far over the edge I can hang.  I didn't do that here...completely.

Little orange "spot"?  That's a rock climber.

Then there is the bridge...the Bastei.  This is what initially motivated me to plan additions to the Goethe-Institut's tour of the Königstein Fortress.  After a couple hours of hiking and climbing, we reached the bridge.  Only, I didn't know it was the bridge.  It's hard to see when you're standing on it.  We got our tea and candy at the bar (to the music of a Baptist group out "evangelizing" tourists--I can't imagine climbing all that way carrying instruments!) and then I made the group backtrack across the bridge to the gate to the "real" view.  Go figure.  It's free to walk across the bridge but there's a fee for seeing it?  €1.50 later I was on metal bridges looking very far down between the grates under my feet.  The only thing that would have made them better is if they were swinging bridges.  ("What is your name?  What is your favorite color?...")  Anyway, it was all worth it.  The loop back to the main trail from "The View" also took us through the ruins of a rock castle.  I can't imagine living that high up with cliffs every few feet!

Bastei Bridge among the sandstone mountains.

This was a needed trip and was very refreshing.  In Dresden, I am beginning to go a little stir-crazy like I tend to do in cities.  What a perfect day to be out exploring the beauty of Saxony.  Class continues to be enjoyable and some days are easier than others.  So soon this course will end and I will move on to Neuendettelsau...about the time I get things figured out in Dresden!  By the way, I managed to buy the right milk after class today.  I'm sure my friends were wondering about my sanity as I had a refrigerator full of cheese and a carton of lactose-free milk.  Oh, and my latest plan...I'm picking up glass bottles along the side of the road as I walk.  I'm learning which ones I can turn in for money.  Thanks to Richard, I'm up to €1.36!

Pax

People watching...

What amazing things one has the opportunity to see when one takes the time to just sit and watch.

 Pax.

Tag der Deutschen Einheit und Die Frauenkirche

Looking across the Elbe toward Dresden's Altstadt.
Bottom left corner is the Aussie boy that bought me a beer.
We sat on the hill and watched the sun set.

I apologize for missing a week! I was planning on catching up only a few days late and the last half of the week and most of the weekend Internet has been fickle. Much has happened in the last week and tomorrow, week 2 of class begins. This course is much more difficult than the previous course. I am thankful for the weekend but also look forward to joining all the other students as we learn with and from each other. My new friend, Lynette has kept me busy with everything from exploring the city to watching YouTube videos of "Winnie Puuh" auf Deutsch. 

Typical "East German" architecture in Dresden's Altstadt.

3 Oktober, 2011 marked the 21st anniversary of German unity, Tag der Deutschen Einheit. This day is the celebration of West and East Germany uniting, following a series of events that began early in 1989 with openings in the Iron Curtain into Hungary. The fall of 1989 saw the non-violent demonstrations of the Friedliche Revolution (Friendly Revolution), the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, and in March of 1990, the GDR's free elections. The Unification Treaty and the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany led to the official unity of Germany on 3 Oktober, 1990. Here in Dresden there was much celebrating, loud music, tents with crafts and of course, food.

die Frauenkirche

http://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/startseite+M5d637b1e38d.html

Check out the "History", "Reconstruction", and especially the

"Peace and Reconciliation" links!

This past week was the first week of class in Dresden. I have been here a week and a half now and what a difference there is between Bremen and Dresden. Unintentionally, I chose two cities, one in the former "West" and one in the former "East". Much less English is spoken here in Dresden, the city is not as "kept up" as Bremen is, and whether intentional or not (I make no judgement) a mild sense of hostility from the locals. Yet, the reason I chose Dresden has already been worth everything: die Frauenkirche.  From the first time I saw this church in 2009, I was drawn to it, and still now, I feel deeply connected to it as it speaks to me about myself and my relationship to God and to the world.

Die Frauenkirche was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in February, 1945.  It was left a pile of rubble, as a memorial, until 1985 when the process of restoring the church began.  It was not until 2005 that it opened.  You can see in the picture a few black bricks.  Those are the original bricks usable after the bombing.  Inside die Frauenkirche, the old spire cross is now displayed in its blackened and bent form...as it was left when the building collapsed.  What draws me to die Frauenkirche is the restoration of the old--with many of the same materials--into a new creation; new beauty while still bearing the scars of its painful past.

http://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/turmkreuz+M5d637b1e38d.html
Link to pictures of the old and new spire crosses and their stories.

Pax.