COBA in Germany

Ciao Bella!

2009-08-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delayed posting...we had a jam-packed weekend! We saw everything there was to see in Rome in 2 days, which means I am definitely ready for a foot massage when I get home. Any volunteers?

Tomorrow, we make our final presentation to the Leipzig Eagle's Basketball team. Say a little prayer for us that we get rest tonight and do our best tomorrow. We have worked hard - now we're ready to WOW them with what we've found! We'll post some highlights of the presentation later.

And now, a preview of the Rome post to come!

raspberry and chocolate.

the forum.

Highlights: Gelato. Oh, and the history was amazing too... :)

Lowlights: Rome may have some of the worst bathrooms and smelliest men. Yuck.

But overall, the trip was incredible and Rome is definitely my favorite place I've ever traveled to! Look forward to more pictures soon.

3 days. Then home.

Love yall,

Sylvia

Beachside in Berlin, then Rockin' in Roma

2009-08-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning we had a much needed restful morning, then we set out for Berlin!

Upon arrival, we navigated the massive underground system to find our awesome 1 star hotel, and then to see a few new sites in Berlin.
To our amazement, we discovered our new favorite place! We went to the East Side Gallery, which is a 2 Kilometer stretch of the Berlin Wall left intact, but now artists have been commissioned to paint on different parts of it. It is really cool!

But...the best thing we found was behind the Wall, along the river. Someone brought in a ton of sand, and set up a beach front type area. There was lawn chairs and food and drinks galore!

Sylvia and I sat and enjoyed the people, good music, and evening atmosphere along the river for a while, but then realized that we needed to go back to the real world

We grabbed some Calamari and Pommes for dinner...
And headed back to get a good night's sleep before our 4am morning wake up call to get to the airport on time.

Friday

So I'm going to give a basic rundown, with a lot of pictures, because that's the best part!

4:20AM, leave our hotel to catch the series of public transportation vehicles that eventually reach the airport which is only 4 Kilometers away.

Anyways we reach the airport a little over an hour later, grab some breakfast and settle in to wait for our flight at 7.

9:00AM Arrive in Roma!

11:00 Set out to see the sites, we began, of course, at the Colosseum.

After this we grabbed an over-priced, yet tasty, pizza lunch from a local vendor and set out to explore Palatine Hill and onto the Forum.

The Arch of Constantine

Palatine Hill

Part of the Roman Forum

The lofty history accompanying these three sites alone is incredible. I feel like I should have someone from the discover channel, preferably with a British accent following me around explaining every rock that is placed "just so, because of this or that," but maybe that's why some people pay for tour guides.

Gotta love all the FREE and tasty water in ROMA!

Either way, the whole area was incredible

After The Forum, we took a long walk over Capitol Hill, and down the other side, stopping for our first, but not last Gelatto!We hit the Pantheon next, with it's amazing design, and breathtaking frescos, and everything else! Don't worry, we grabbed another Gelato near the pantheon.

Next, I dragged Sylvia on a little personal quest of my own, We went to see my alltime, out of the way, favorite Roma Attraction, the Church of Santa Maria Della Vitoria. It's a Tiny Church filled with works by Bernini!

The Ectasy of St. Theresa, Bernini
read Angels and Demons Lately?

Watermelon snack on the way to the churches
Another amazing Santa Maria Church
We had dinner with some Jen, Josh, Brad and Phillip in the Campo di' Fiori at a Pizza place, then headed for a night walk across Roma.

First, Piazza Navono
Then,Four Rivers Fountain in front of the Pantheon
The Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
and We Finally dragged our tired and dirty feet back to our hostel for an some sleep!

The Turtle Always Wins

2009-07-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

After a long week of working hard, we had a little time to play.

We met early in the morning to finalize plans for the project before everyone took off for the weekend, and then we set out for some fun in the sun....Canoeing down the Elster River.

It started as a sweet innocent canoe trip along the beautiful canal behind our apartments, but then developed into a little something more...as would any water event where boys are involved.

Introducing, the Tortoise...
And the Hare...
It started some some innocent splashing...

Then some ambushes...

Then some tippie canoe...
Followed by revenge!
If we had to end up in the River, the boys were coming down with us.

They Turtle might seem slow and weak in the beginning, but he Always wins the race!
Poor Boys...
Don't worry, we all made it back safely
After cleaning up, we headed for a tour of Amazon, and had a great time learning about the different processes that our good go through before landing on our doorstep. We saw the delivery and shipment stations, as well as the sorting and picking lines.

It was amazing to see how much of the process was done by people instead of machines! Our tour there was very informative, and Amazon seems like a great company!

Today, we are headed to Rome for the Weekend! It's going to a wonderful experience full of history and excitement! We'll be back on Sunday for more work work work, and then give our final presentation to the Eagles on Tuesday Morning!

We'll be seeing you all soon, Less than a week!

Love, Jenny

All wrapped up in Prague...

2009-07-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY:

By Saturday, we were already pretty exhausted! Not only were we in a new place, but we were having to try to communicate in a completely new language (fortunately many people spoke English!) and deal with a totally new currency. (I got jeans for 299 CK....it sounds expensive, but that is only about sixteen American dollars!)

We decided to explore our side of town before going to the main part of the city. Amazingly, we found an amazing monument by wandering around with no map - it was called the Vysehrad, a gorgeous fortress with a huge wall that looked out over the city.

Inside was a church and a graveyard. Unfortunately, we missed seeing the church by about 3 minutes! I still got a few pictures of the inside though, through the glass in the door.

The inside of the church. The ceilings were so beautiful!

Another gorgeous graveyard.

View from the wall

Prague is so pretty!

After the wall, we headed to the "mini" Eiffel Tower in Prague. The line to ride up to the tower was at least an hour and a half long, and would probably cost about 10 euros. So we (some of us reluctantly) decided to trek up the mountain. It was rough work! After that walk, I could definitely feel the effects of the German food I've been eating! It was worth it though. Now I can say I've been to two Eiffel Towers!

It definitely looks a lot taller in real life than it actually is! This tower is only 60 meters high in comparison to the 273 meter high Eiffel Tower.

The Jewish Quarter is closed on Saturdays, because of the Sabbath, so we saved that for Sunday. After having seen most of the sights we wanted to, we headed to the old town square for some souvenir shopping! We successfully found a decent crystal place. Not the cheapest (we had lots of warning NOT to buy cheap crystal in Prague!) but reasonable with what seemed to be pretty high quality crystal. Some of you reading this should be excited - there may be some crystal headed your way!

It only rained for a few minutes on Saturday, and we ducked into the Salvador Dali exhibit in the Old Town Square. Laura and I had both studied Dali a lot in our middle school and high school Spanish classes, so it was cool to see a lot of his work outside of the textbooks. In case you didn't know, though, Salvador Dali was CRAZY. Talented, but crazy.

This was one of his coolest pieces of work. I couldn't see it at first, but this is a collage that from far away looks like Abraham Lincoln. It was so weird - you can see Lincoln so much better through the camera's lens! Without it, Lincoln is much more difficult to see.

This was the view out of the exhibit. There was a folk dancing competition in Prague this weekend, and there were people dressed up everywhere we went! Can you see the crazy headdresses?

Jenny, Laura, and I waiting for the bus.

We had dinner at a great local restaurant - it wasn't easy to find, but it was a little underground restaurant on one of the main streets. We think it was much more of a "local" place rather than a tourist restaurant. I had good intentions of trying some more good Czech food, but when I saw some of the interesting choices (pork knee) I opted for familiar chicken breast. Maybe I'll be more willing to try the native food in Italy...pizza and gelato? I can do that!

Our basement restaurant - I wanted to find an underground pizza place recommended to me by family, but this was a good substitute. Thank you for all of the Prague advice, Terry!

We all were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. One more day!

OK mom you were right...I should have brought my Chacos! Sperry's are not the most practical shoes for miles and miles of walking.

SUNDAY:

We didn't sleep in on Sunday, but we went straight to the Jewish Quarter. This was probably my favorite part of the whole weekend.

We went on one of the strangest tours I've ever been on. One ticket covered six different places, so we had to walk all over the quarter. It was definitely worth it! There were signs posted everywhere not to take pictures, but we managed (along with almost all of the tourists) to sneak a few. It was too amazing not to photograph!

All of the men were asked to wear a head covering. Brad was not thrilled to be wearing his Yarmulke, but he was a trooper.

This is the Jewish cemetery. For many years, any Jews in the Czech Republic had to live in this small area. They were also only allowed to bury their dead in this cemetery - over 100,000 people are buried here, some as many as 12 people deep! As you can see, all of the headstones are piled on top of each other. It was incredible.

Click on this picture - it should open in a bigger view. This is inside of the Pinkas Synagogue. Painted on the walls inside of this synagogue, there are over 80,00 names of Czech Holocaust victims. It was very moving and also amazing how precisely the names were written.

A picture of the ceiling of the Spanish Synagogue - I wasn't looking when I took this picture because the man behind me was asking people to put their cameras away. The ceiling was so ornate!

This is a picture of all of the people who gather to see the Astronomical clock every hour.... and this was a Sunday morning!

After stopping in a few more souvenir shops, we ran back to the hostel and then to the train - literally. We had an hour to get from the Old Town, to our hostel to get our bags, and then to the train station. In Prague, trains do not run on time like they do in Germany (we're spoiled, I guess...) so we were racing through the streets like typical crazy Americans. We arrived at our train five minutes too late - but thankfully, the train was delayed 20 minutes! Definitely an answer to prayer!

This was the double-decker train we took back to Leipzig. It was not a fast "ICE" train like the one that we took on our way to Prague, but it was ironically about 20 degrees colder than the "ICE" train.

When we returned, all of the students met in a group to discuss our weekends. It was great to be together again and to laugh at all of the experiences we had.

This is the only other travel picture I have so far. Grant, Branson, and Collin went to Paris! This weekend was the end of the Tour de France, so it was pretty crowded.

As is our tradition, we ended the evening with our communion in plastic shot glasses.

This week is going to be our last full week here! We are excited, but we know we'll be tired at the end. We are talking to players, interviewing staff of the basketball team, thinking of creative ways to promote the team around Leipzig, and working on our final presentation. We have a long way to go, but I know that our final presentation will add a lot of value to this team.

Last night, the girls went out with one of our German friends, Elfi. She is a businesswoman here in Leipzig, and it was great to hear about her experiences living and working here. Hopefully we'll see her again before we leave!

Love you all! Thanks for reading!

-Sylvia

Czech us out...In Prague!

2009-07-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a couple days, so Here's the Catch up!

Thursday Morning:

Me, Sylvia, Brad, Laura and Josh all set out for an Adventure in the Czech Republic! We were a little unsure when we headed out because the train system is quite confusing and we have Eurail passes, but we aren't sure when we can use them and when we cannot use them! Luckily, our train trip went more smoothly than we could have planned it in a million years--We had someone watching over us!

View from the Train

We made it to Prague in only 3 hours from Leipzig, somewhere around 4:00. We put our stuff up in the hostel and got settled. The lady from our hostel was way over-enthusiastic, but incredibly sweet! She gave us maps and directions all around the city, not to mention our hostel was one of the safest places I've ever been!

We made it!

She directed us to a local restaurant for dinner, which had best (and cheapest) food ever!

This is known as Chicken Cake...The Czech translations were a little off

After dinner we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves so we decided to explore a nearby park! We had lots of fun playing on their version of playgrounds, which are more like workout machines with sand under them, but either way it was a wonderful evening!

The girls in the Park

We were Pretty Exhausted from Traveling, so we turned in quite early. I'm pretty sure I was asleep before 10, which must be a record! It was a fun first day and we need some sleep for the days to come!

Friday:
Our Hostel lady brought us breakfast of Stracciatella (cookies and cream) yoguhrt and bread with Tea and coffee!

With full bellies we headed off to the Old Town Square, where we planned to meet for a FREE tour of PRAGUE! Our Tour guide's name was Stef and this was her first week working tours, but she was hilarious, and a great guide! Very knowledgeable.

Stef always looked like she was dancing when she talked

Second Breakfast

We started off learning about the Old Town Square. There were rivalries in the Churches in the square, so there are several surrounding it. The weekend we were there, the square was hosting some sort of folk music festival from several European countries. Quite entertaining.

One of the Churches in old Town Square

The Best Part of the Old Town Square, and the First stop on our tour!
The Astronomical Clock!
formed with Zodiac signs, and other mystical designs, it predicted time date, moon phases and much more!
It puts on a show, every hour, a statue rings a bell and the 12 apostles appear
it's Quite funny, because everyone runs across the town square to see this on the hour, but the performance is very small, and almost comical
Definitely my favorite part!

After the old town square, We obviously had to move into the New town Square! It was the largest square in Europe! In the new town, there were quite a few modern shopping areas, but also what is called the Powder Tower, where in the War, Gunpowder was stored at the top of the Tower...seems like an easy target for the enemies to me...

Powder Tower

We stopped for Lunch at a popular local spot with incredible food!

BOHEMIAN BAGLES!

We then progressed into the Jewish Quarter of the city, which we revisited on Sunday, so more about that later! it was really a neat area though!

The Spanish Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter...Those two don't quite match

After the Jewish Quarter we began to wind down the tour towards the river, where we sat and listened to the rest of Prague's amazing history!

First Sighting of the castle in the distance!

After the tour we decided to head for Charles Bridge and then to the Castle.

Church before crossing Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge
Heres the legend on Charles Bridge, Rub this side of the Statue for Good health

But not this side!
(don't worry, I didn't touch it! We wanted to be extra-careful in Prague)

Next, we took the Long hike up to the Castle! We made a friend along the way

He Scared me and I screamed Ridiculously loud!

STC

The first View from the castle stairs out into the Beautiful city of Prague!

Here is the Cathedral at the Castle, it was stunning!
Another City View from the top

After a LONG day of Walking, the girls opted for some shopping and a little napping in the local park. We grabbed a snack of Fresh Cherries, yum and enjoyed the beautiful day and weather!

The best snack!

We were feeling a tad-bit homesick for the evening so we made an American night out of it! We headed to the Hard Rock Cafe ( A cultural experienc in intself) for a deliciously expensive meal! So worth it.

At the Hard Rock

Our Waiter Appreciated Texans!

Then as a special treat, the girls went to see a showing of HARRY POTTER! I've been waiting months for the release, as were the other girls, and it was worth every penny, or Czech crown anyways.

The Theatre sign

All in All, It was a wonderfully exhausting day! Two more adventure filled days to go!

Love,

Jenny

Only a week and a half left? What??

2009-07-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

We were looking at the calendar today and realized how quickly the time has flown! It is amazing how what was once such a foreign place has now become sort of a "home" to the 16 students studying here. Even though we don't speak the language, we have developed a strange familiarity with the city of Leipzig. I may be speaking for myself here, but this city will definitely be missed!

Our first night in Leipzig. Hard to believe this was only 2 1/2 weeks ago!

One thing that is really different from home is the service here! At home, service is fast and efficient, and the server brings your bill as soon as you are done eating. Waiters and waitresses are paid differently here, and aren't as concerned with turning tables as people are in America. Service is very relaxed, to say the least, and you have to practically hunt your waiter or waitress down before you can pay! Last night at the Safari restaurant, I think our waiter just plain forgot that we were even there... I went inside to find him and he helped us right away.

Here's a little German lesson for you:

"Zahlen bitte" (zah-lin bita) means "may I pay?"

Today was a pretty average day! Our group is exhausted. We're learning so much, inside and outside of the educational setting, that our brains are all on overload. We worked in our teams again today and will meet tomorrow morning to begin preparing our final presentation to the Leipzig Eagles team. For those of you who haven't been following, we're working on a marketing project to increase awareness of the women's professional basketball team, the Leipzig Eagles. We're working on totally re-vamping their image. It has been a huge task so far, but we're having a lot of fun and learning so much!

Follow the Eagles on Twitter! Search for LeipzigEagles.

You can also find us on Facebook and become a fan. (Do it if you're cool.)

Tonight was group karaoke night, and we had a blast! The singing wasn't the greatest quality, but it was definitely an A for enthusiasm.

Brad started off the evening with Elton John's "Rocket Man" (The hat was for inspiration.)

"Sweet Home Alabama"

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Typical Karaoke! Gotta love it.

(I couldn't resist posting this picture...Jenny's face is hilarious!)

Tomorrow, after our group meeting, we will all go on our first free travel weekend! Our group is splitting up and going to several different places. Students will be traveling to Paris, London, Munich, Denmark, and Prague (that's us!). So check back for updates on Sunday!

And tonight I have to give a shout out to our youngest faithful follower that I'm aware of.

Thanks to Brooke Kehl for keeping up with us! Miss you, friend. :)

Pray for no rain this weekend...seriously,

Sylvia

Put on your Adventure hat

2009-07-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

The past two days have included many great adventures around Leipzig!

Yesterday was a good work day for all of our teams. We had time both in the morning and all afternoon to get some things accomplished for our project. The clock is starting to tick on our project so we all made time lines for the next two weeks!

For lunch, Sylvia and I had our first adventure. After the Hong Kong Bistro incident, we were both a little hesitant to try Asian food again, but we decided to try out the Vietnamese Asia Bistro. The menu was almost impossible to read and the lady cooked the food on a tiny grill in front of us, but this adventure definitely payed off! It was AMAZING, and we will return frequently I'm sure!

After a hard day's work, we decided to attend a local Bach Concert, outside the ThomasKirche (The Church where Bach worked), in the City Center. Despite bouts of rain, we enjoyed an amazing concert while sipping some coffee and hot chocolate, and Eating the world's most amazing chocolate cake from the Bachstueb'l, a nearby cafe.

cappuccino

Laura's Amazing Apple Streusel

After the concert we adventured in search of the student life or a local band. We went to a recommended local hangout, but it appeared that there was a Gothic concert going on, so we opted for another option. We found a restaurant out in the middle of a Huge park, called the Glas Haus. We ordered our new favorite German snack, Pommes!

Eating our Pommes!

Today has been a whole new adventure! It was another big workday for the groups. My group went on a long search to find the city hall. This is what we found first...

This is the Court house, not quite town hall, but we were getting warmer...

This is a Fox we saw in a parking lot on our quest for the Townhall! Crazy!
Finally, we found it

Once there, my group experienced the language barrier in full force today. We were trying to figure out how to get a permit for the Eagles to set up an exhibition in the City Center. However, the lady helping us completely misunderstood our request, even though we used mostly German, and she eventually gave us directions to the Eagle's stadium. Defeated we went home, but learned valueable lessons in the differences between German/American culture, and also the difficulty of doing business with a language barrier.

This afternoon, Laura and I stumbled upon a HUGE market that apparantely only comes twice a week! I bought some fresh strawberries and bell peppers and Laura got all the incredients for some amazing fresh pasta, yum!
at 4, our group went for a tour of the DHL corporation. They workers all work from 9PM to 6AM! It was cool to see the incredible technology that allows thousands of packages to be scanned, sorted, and sent out in a matter of 24 hours in many cases. It's brilliant!

Yes, we actually had to wear these awesome vests on our tour

Our final adventure of the day was actually a Safari...to dinner! Some of the boys saw a safari places for dinner, and asked if we were going to take the journey. Well of course we can't say not to an adventure! Grant, Colin, Sterling, and Branson all ordered mystery foods, and liked them. I suspect Grant will be returning again because he LOVED his dinner. Miriam and Lindsey ordered Ostrich meat with vegetables for dinner, and Sylvia and I split Antelope meat! It was amazing.

Antelope Meat, topped with some sweet potatoe fries!

Luckily, dinner included some awesome authentic African Entertainment.
This guy sang Authentic African chants, complete with animal noises, drums, and tribal dances! It was a fun, entertaining dinner!

We hope to keep the adventures coming the next couple days, while working hard on our project. it is going to get harder over the next couple weeks as we approach crunch time, so remember us in your thoughts and prayers!

We appreciate all your comments, prayers, and support!

Love,
Jenny

The hills are alive...Salzburg/Bavaria Day 3 & 4

2009-07-20T15:31:00.001-07:00

....with 40 degree weather, pouring rain, and freezing cold ACU students!

SATURDAY, we spent the entire day in Salzburg, Austria. It was a great day! (Minus the cold weather and rain.) Jenny, Rebecca, Laura, and I set out on our little adventure.

Umbrellas were definitely a necessity all day long...

We visited the Festung Hohensalzburg, or the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a huge and gorgeous castle that looks over the entire city of Salzburg.

The view from the top of the castle.

There were lots of artifacts in the museum but there were 3 exhibits that I really liked:

1. These are iron sculpted soldiers in fighting stance. I have never seen a display like this, and it was really cool!

2. An old ceramic oven. The colors were so vivid.

3. A flashback to the old days - an ancient bassoon! (For those of you who don't know, as nerdy as it may be, I used to play the bassoon in middle school and high school.) Seeing this made me miss playing!

After the castle, we went to see the nearby Catacombs, located inside a gorgeous cemetery. Each grave was overflowing with colorful flowers and decorated with ornate wrought iron. (We were told that part of the Sound of Music was filmed here, the part where the Von Trapps were hiding from the Nazis.)

One member of our group decided that he would pay to be buried here some day. We'll see how that works out...

Across from the Catacombs was the oldest bakery in Salzburg! It has been in the same place for 800 years, and they still sell huge wheels of bread made with the original recipe.

It was a little bland (to say the least!) but I actually liked it.

Laura and Rebecca eating our huge loaf of bread.

We decided to all split the big loaf, and then we each got an individual sweet raisin bread, which was amazing, and I don't even like raisins. We ate those on the way to the highlight of the trip....THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!

We got our tickets and boarded the bus. Our tour guide was a little crazy, and loved to sing - loud, off key, and occasionally in German. She was fun though, and we had a great time.

This was the start of the tour. Can you tell we're excited?

Here is a list of all of the sights we saw:

- The gazebo where Liesl and Rolf kiss.

- The front of the house, including the long yellow wall Maria walks along as she is singing "I have Confidence."

- The lake the children and Maria fall into.

- The house the director wanted to use as the Von Trapp house, but wasn't permitted to.

- The trees the children hang out of along the road as their father returns with the Baroness.

- The church where they married in the movie.

- The church where they were actually married.

- The abbey.

- Mountains used in the movie.

- The Maribel Gardens, where the children and Maria ran and sang.

It was a four hour tour, and worth every euro we spent. In addition to all of the movie landmarks, we saw some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery we've seen yet. Can you see how blue the water is? And we were dry and warm, which was a blessing that rainy day!

After the tour, we hurried back just in time to see the Domkirche. It was so ornate, and probably my favorite church I've seen so far. The ceilings were incredible.

Exhausted, we piled back onto the bus and headed back to Shönau, where we stayed in Bavaria. We ate a delicious (but expensive) dinner of Cordon Bleu, and then headed for bed. What a day!

SUNDAY:

We got up early and boarded the bus back to Leipzig at 8:30. (Ok so its not that early, but give us a break - we're college students!) Professor Winegeart and Miriam arranged for us to stop at Dachau, one of the German concentration camps during the Holocaust. I guess excited isn't exactly the right word, but I was very interested in seeing the camp. I'm so glad that we were able to make this stop.

The front gate reads "Work will set you free."

The bunkhouses where prisoners slept. They also each got a locker for personal possessions. I'm not sure if each family was awarded one, or if it was one per person, but it was unreal to actually realize how little these people had.

The restrooms inside of the bunkers.

I can hardly even look at this picture. Approximately 206,000 Jews were housed in the Dachau concentration camp over a 12 year span, during which there were over 31,000 deaths of prisoners. This is the oven where most of those bodies were burned.

It was an unforgettable trip, and I'm sure that all of the students will continue to process their thoughts about it over the next few weeks.

We got back to Salzburg at about 6:30 that night. We were all tired, but met at 9:00 for a devo in the Winegeart's apartment. It was so great to be able to get together and reflect on our day at the concentration camp. One of the guys in our group brought up a very profound point during our discussion. He spoke about Jesus not only dying on the cross for us, but for the guards of Dachau as well....WOW. That got me! Professor Winegeart led us in a great devo, and we spent some time in prayer together and shared communion. It is definitely times like this that will make this trip so memorable.

Thank you all for your comments! That is what keeps us going. :)

Dreams really do come true....

Miss you all so much,

Sylvia

Yode-le-hi-hoooo, Bavarian Day 1&2

2009-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Alps

On Thursday Morning, our group departed around 7Am to set out for the Bavarian Alps and a day in Saltzburg Austria. We all were excited as we departed, because first, it's a vacation, but second, it was going to be our first experience on the Autobahn. Unfortunately, our bus couldn't quite drive at the anticipated Autobahn speeds we were all hoping for...German bus rules are quite different from American ones. We had to make 25 minutes stops every 2 hours, which definitely makes the trip a little longer...we Finally arrived 9 hours later, safe and sound to our BEAUTIFUL Hotel in the Bavarian Alps.

This is our Hotel on the side of a Mountain
We had an awesome playground at one of bus stops!

On the First everning in the town of Schönau where we were staying, We headed off to explore the sites. Right down the mountain from our Hotel is the lake called Königssee or King's lake. Although it was quite warm outside, we all went to put our fet in the lake, and realized the water was not exactly the same! It was probably between 45-50 degrees! The girls mostly just ventured standing in the water, but a few of the brave boys decided to take the plundge! Brave, or just Crazy.

The girls in the Cold water

The boys

Roomates all Braving the Cold water!

For dinner the first night, I decided to brave the unknown and try something new and unknown. I ended up with 2 Liver dumplings, Saurkraut and Mashed Potatoes. It was definitely a little different, and took a little getting used to, but I am very glad I tried it out!

Liver, and Saurkraut, and 'taters OH MY!

It's the little things in life that can make or break a day, but after dinner Miriam, Sylvia, Lindsay and I took a walk. We encountered a McDonalds along the way, and as it was cooling off for the evening, I wanted to get some hott tea. Well, to Sylvia's absolutly delight, she ordered Water at McDonalds and they actually gave her still, non-sparkling water. Here at almost any restaurant or gas station, the only water to be found is either mineral water or sparkling mineral water. They do not serve tap water.

Day ones was a great adventure, but we were all exhausted after exploration and a long day of travel

Day 2 Adventure Time

Our first full Day in Bavaria! I began the day with a Wonderful breakfast of amazing cofffe, and bread with Nutella ( only justifiable on vacation).We then headed out to took to Hitler's Bergrestaurant Kehlsteinhaus, or commonly known as the Eagle's nest. A present from Hitler's captains and other officials, this location became a retreat for Hitler to escape the city, while also being able to gaze upon both Germany and his homeland Austria. It was beautiful up atop a Bavarian Mountain. It was hard for me to imagine all the war-torn ideas that occurred there years ago while in such a beautiful location. The view from the Nest was impeccable, The picture at the top is the view to the German side of the mountain.

Later in the day, thr group decided to take a tour of the Lake Konigssee. We toured around on a beautiful boat down the 8 KM long lake. It took about 48 minutes to get from end to end.

My favorite part of the day was halfway through the boat tour. At one end of the lake, you can get out of the boat and hike about 15 minutes to another small lake that is considered part of Konigssee. We all stepped off the boat and it began pouring rain. Of course it was hott and sunny when we left the other part of the lake so none of us had brought any rain gear. We hiked in pouring rain, but arriving on the other side, and trekking through the rain with friends, while seeing the beauty of creation around us actually brough about a moment of pure Joy. It was absolutly beautiful that day, the rain and all!

The backlake in the Rain

The ladies all soaked at the backmost lake
Dripping wet

We finally made it back to the city, and decided to walk around a bit so we would dry off before dinner. We did some shopping ( no mom, I haven't gotten your souvenir yet, but it's coming!) for a while. Then, Miriam, Sylvia and I split off from the group to have a very Authentic Turkish Kebap stand for dinner. I ordered a Kebap with Kase (cheese), sylvia got a Durum, which looks like a giant Burrito, and Miriam had something I don't remember how to prounounce, but looked like a pastry crust filled with meat and cheese. Yum! This was my alltime favorite Kebap dinner in Germany.

We went out to explore the city that night, and to our astonishment, one restaurant was playing good 'ole American country. And not just any country, but Johnny Cash nontheless. We stopped to enjoy the music for a while, basking in the brief return to America, but we welcomed with open arms the return to yodeling society. German traditional culture is a very rich and wonderful environment to live in and learn about.

I'll leave you with this, there was definitely no shortage of Lederhosen on our vacation to Bavarian.

I thoroughly enjoyed the traditional German Culture!

Look for more pictures at the top of the blog in the Picasa Web Albums. In case you didn't get enough, here are all the pictures from our endeavors! Enjoy

Love you and miss you,
Jenny

When in Germany, do as Miriam does.

2009-07-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

This month, we've been so blessed to have Miriam Drehsel accompanying us on the trip. Miriam is a graduate of ACU, and ACU have hired her to be our "cultural guide" while in Germany. She has given us "survival German" lessons (with the help of the lovely Miss Lindsey Winegeart), answered endless question about the German culture, translated everything for us wherever we may be, gotten us directions, and so much more. She is Jenny and I's "Germany Mom." The three of us are roommates, and she takes care of us.

Miriam and Nancy at church on Sunday.

Miriam was raised in Heidelberg, Germany, but her mother is from the US, so she has traveled back and forth between the US and Germany most of her life. Needless to say, she is a very cultured person and understands both the American and German cultures very well. I actually know Miriam from home - her grandparents attended my home church in Houston, but I have been so blessed in getting to know her better on this trip! We have had a great time reminiscing about the old days at Southwest Central. :)

Miriam is in the process of beginning an amazing ministry in Bulgaria helping mistreated women. Here is her website - it isn't completed yet, but put this in your bookmarks and keep up with her. I'm calling it now.... Its only a matter of time before this girl is on Oprah!

http://www.houseofrefugebulgaria.org/index.html

Thank you Miriam for being a constant source of encouragement and for all that you've taught us! We're so glad that you're with us on this trip.

Kebabs! Yum!

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Today was a very long day. We met in our groups this morning and continued to work on our individual group projects. We met all together this evening and shared what we've been working on. We're really excited and confident that our work will truly benefit this team. We have a lot more to do. Stay posted for continued updates.

Chocolate croissants make the best break from working. Rebecca and I were going to split one, but they brought us two instead. Bummer, right?

Our internet has been going in and out in our apartment, so our group's new favorite hang out is the Back and Snack, a local restaurant/bakery/coffeeshop. Dangerous... my wallet seems to be lighter each time I leave there!

Jenny and I took our lunch break at the local Hong Kong Bistro.... we'll just say that German Chinese food is not quite the same as it is in Abilene. I think we'll stick to brats from now on....

After a long day of hard work, we celebrated the birthdays of two of the people in our group. Rebecca Patterson turned 21, and Brandon Smith (one of Austin Winegeart's buddies along for the trip) turned 16! Happy birthday to you both. We enjoyed gorgeous (and yummy) cake topped with fruit made by Nancy, Lindsey, and Miriam.

Before the cake though, we celebrated birthdays with a German tradition that Miriam taught us. Turn up your volume!

We are all singing "Hoch" in the background, which means "high." This brings a whole new meaning to the Birthday Chair!

Now, happy belated birthday to Lindsey! I only have a picture sorry! Apparently, you can only have one video per post.

After the birthday party, me, Jenny, Sterling, Branson, Grant, and Collin walked around downtown for awhile. We were trying to find one of the oldest coffee shops in Leipzig, but got lost and just settled for the first open outdoor seating we could find at a restaurant. We had a great night, laughing and telling stories!

Jenny and I relaxing on a porch swing at our table in the City Center. This is just another part of the relaxed atmosphere that I love so much in Germany.

We leave tomorrow morning at 6:50am for Austria! I was humming the Sound of Music soundtrack all day yesterday, and cannot wait to visit. The Sound of Music is my absolute favorite movie in the world, and it honestly never occured to me that I might someday be able to visit the place where it was filmed. This will be the trip of a lifetime for me.

Unfortunately, we will not have Internet access this weekend. So our next post will be Sunday night. So aufwiedersehen for now, but get ready! Sunday will most likely be our longest and most picture-filled post yet.

Thank you to all of our many followers. Not only are people in Abilene reading this blog, but there are people across Texas as well as the US reading, and even some faithful German followers. Keep on reading!

This is for you Touchette,

Sylv

**If you didn't notice already, we've added a Picasa photo stream to the top of the blog.

Click there to see even more photos!

I think I've adjusted, it's hot!

2009-07-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

So, here's a shout out to all of you in West Texas, Today, it was 25 degrees Celsius which translates to approximately 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Today, I though I was hitting a heat stroke, I actually got so hot that I felt sick. I know I know, nothing compares to the constant temperatures over 100, but it's amazing how the definition of "hot" changes just from a week in 50-60 degree weather. But it's a good sign, that I am adjusting to the climate here, and maybe the culture as well! This morning, we began with a "Survival German" class! Very important for our time here. We learned everything from "Can you help me?" (Können Sie mir helfen?) to "Should we meet downtown this evening?"(Sollen wir uns heute abend in der Stadt treffen?). Don't worry mom, you taught me well, I won't use this line on cute strangers!

After that we headed out in our 4 small groups to work on the Eagles project. My team happened to work on Event planning, and we made quite a bit of progress this morning. We came up with Half-time shows that the Eagles could possibly used to boost entertaiment factors at games, and low cost ways to have exhibitions for the girls, to increase their publicity. Our work time was very successful!

Sylvia and I riding the streetcar to BMW

So, do you remember those movies in the 80's where Robots suddenly develop brains, and take over the world. Well I don't remember those movies either, because I really wasn't born yet, but, if I did, I would have witnessed the recreation of those fears in REAL life today! We visited the BMW factory plant here in Leipzig, and we actually got to witness firsthand production of those envied vehicles. Whoever said you can't buy happiness has never been to the BMW factory! Just Kidding, but it's amazing to see them start to finish. I just wish we could have been the Test Drivers!

Mom and Dad, Graduation Present? (In my dreams right?)

The Robots that created the cars were some of the most Amazing Technology that I've ever witnessed in my life. The precision and accuracy and timing of each movement is incredible. It's like nothing ever misses a beat (although I'm sure it does from time to time). The first room we entered had sparks flying. Our guide did not seem at all perturbed, but I was pretty convinced that either the "robots", as our guide called them, were about to come alive and chase me through the factory, or, if they didn't catch me, the flying sparks sure would. Either was, the factory was a great experience! We couldn't take picture inside though, so we took a few outside!

Obviously, the logo

Beautiful Ladies, Beautiful Car, Perfect Picture

So after the long day of walking through the plant, Sylvia, Lindsay and I headed out for some downtown shopping, but ended up not buying anything, because Sylvia and I decided it's probably more important to eat for the next month, rather than just wearing our new clothes.

I know today already sounds JAM packed, but our whole group decided to end the Day with a little friendly competition. Winegeart suggested that we all go play a little Ultimate Frisbee in one of the parks nearby. It was my first time to play, but definitely won't be my last!

Ultimate Frisbee Team 1

Ultimate Frisbee Team 2 (obviously the best team, who won)

Here's Grant Explaining instructions to all the Newby's

Austin Winegeart made some Amazing Catches (Thankfully he was on my team)

My Final "Hurah" for the evening consisted of a jog through one of the local parks. This would not necessarily be significant, except that, I FINALLY found the Leipzig youth nightlife. I went to a new park tonight, and to my astonishment, found what seemed like the entire University population, sitting and visiting with friends, playing guitars, listening to local street jazz musicians, or laying gazing at a beautiful setting sun! I'm hoping out group can join the locals soon!

Ciao--Love,

Jenny

Today, I missed home.

2009-07-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Another Berlin favorite - detailing on the Gates of Ishtar in the Pergamom museum.

This is a two-day post, sorry! We got behind on our Berlin trip, so we're using today to catch back up.

SUNDAY

After the weekend in Berlin, Sunday morning came too quickly! We met at 9:30am to go to the Leipzig English speaking church. It was about a 30 minute walk from the apartments, which gave us plenty of time to wake up.

Church was great! The songs were mostly new to us, but we did sing "All in All," which most of us knew. The pastor was speaking about family, and his sermon was very interesting. After church was the best part though - it is common across Europe to have a time for fellowshipping after church. They set out snacks and drinks (the boys were lined up practically before the "Amen" of the closing prayer) and we just talked to the members for about half an hour. I made a friend! Her name is Anna, and she is a Romanian Theology student at the University of Leipzig. We talked for about 20 minutes, and she invited Jenny and I to go shopping with her and her flatmate, Sara sometime in the next few weeks. Sara is an English studies major, and she is "keen" on meeting English-speaking people. Needless to say, Jenny and I can't wait to get to spend more time with them!

Lindsey talking to the lady with the baby, Albert. (I can't remember her name!!)

This is my new friend Anna!

Brad, Rebecca, Laura, Jenny, and Jennifer enjoying refreshments after church.

The beautiful Leipzig Church building.

Our group in front of the building.

On the way home from church, we found a slide hidden away in some trees. The boys tried all sorts of different ways of standing up and going down the slide, including with shoes, without shoes, and with jackets under their feet. The girls opted for the safer method of traditional sliding - sitting down. I'm sure we'll be back there several times on this trip!

Jennifer sliding down the slide - the normal way.

Moms, close your eyes...

This is Sterling being a little riskier. (sorry its sideways)

Jenny, me, Lindsey, Nancy, and Miriam. We were onlookers of the sliding, not participating.

Jenny and I went to lunch with Rylan and Catherine Shewmaker. They are so precious, and we will miss them! (They left us today.) Good thing we all live in Abilene.

The afternoon was catch-up time for resting, and we met together for a devo tonight. Of course we had to make some cultural adjustments for communion, so we had the grape juice out of plastic shot-glasses! It was the closest thing the Winegeart's could find to traditional communion cups - and we were impressed to find anything at all on a Sunday afternoon at the train station! I wish I had a picture, but I'm sure you can imagine. :)

After the devo some of us went out to see what the "night life" is like in Leipzing. We found out that its pretty slow on Sunday nights, so we just ended up hanging out in a restaurant. We had to run to catch the train to make it home in time, and that was probably the most thrilling part of the nightlife that we experienced!

MONDAY

Today we began research for our marketing project for the Leipzig women's basketball team. We met as a group this morning for about an hour. We had an International Business lesson, and talked about the value added tax (the VAT) which is 19% in Europe. This explains why a lot of items in Europe are more expensive than we can find in the US.

After our IB lesson, we split into two groups to begin researching for our project. The first group stayed in the apartments and did web research. We analyzed about 20 sports websites, comparing and contrasting features as well as user-friendly aspects to see which teams had superior websites. The other team headed out "into the field," and went with camcorders to interview Germans around the city about their knowledge of the team. Most Germans did not want to be filmed, and the general consensus was that most people don't even know that Leipzig has a women's basketball team. But we're here to change that!

By the end of a long day, we have broken up the project into our four teams:

Group 1 - Build a brand

Group 2 - Who is our market?

Group 3 - Promotional Events

Group 4 - Sponsorships

We'll be working on this project for the duration of our trip, so look forward to more updates.

Today was the first time I really, really missed being home. Jenny and I planned on cooking again tonight, and the guys were thinking that Mexican sounded great. We headed to the grocery store in search of ingredients for Enchiladas. Bad news though, there are no tortillas to be found in Leipzig! The Mexican restaurants here have to buy weekly from a tortilla wholesaler, so they don't sell tortillas to customers. I couldn't believe it, and that was probably my first real sad moment here in Leipzig. If anyone would like to overnight us the necessary items for enchiladas, we would greatly appreciate it! So pasta it is tonight. We'll have to do a little more research before we do Mexican.

Family Dinner #2: Pasta, Zucchini, Bread, and Cheescake

Disclaimer: Grant is not sticking up his middle finger. This was about the 4th picture we took on self-timer, so everyone was being goofy.

We just found out that we'll be touring BMW tomorrow! I wish I was getting all of my souvenirs there...I bet you do too!

I miss tortillas.

-Sylvia

I am a Jelly Donut, Berlin Part 2

2009-07-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

Berlin Again

After a great first day in Berlin, we set out to make it a great Day 2! We began with a good breakfast at a Bakerie near the hostel, then some of us headed off to LEGO land! Well, Lego land was 16 euros to get in, so we bypassed it, but we did get an awesome picture with a Giant Giraffe!
We hopped back on the underground after legoland in Potzdamer Platz, one of the central underground stations. We headed to Alexander Platz, where we arrived back near the TV tower, and the location where our bike tour began yesterday. Near this area is what the Germans call Museumsinsel, or Museum Island. I could have lived here! Museum after Museum, plus some pretty amazing churches as well. We headed to one of the most famous ones, and in my opinion, the BEST, the Pergamon Museum.

The Babylonian Gate of Ishtar
Authentic Recreation of the Alter at Pergamon

After the Pergamon, we ate a good lunch of Brats from the local (very safe) vendors in the area as we strolled through the marketplace.

Yum! The best cheap food possible here!

We then wanted to go back to the Brandenburg Gate, but, when we arrived, there was a giant festival going on. We went to explore, and realized it was a special olympics awareness There were teams playing wheelchair basketball, and other teams playing volleyball in the seated position. It was amazing!

At the festival, there were many activities you could to to simulate what it was like to be a handicapped player. One activity was Blind soccer. The participant put on almost blinding glasses, and the goalie shouted "here" so you could know where to kick it! Branson successfully scored a goal, so I decided to try. Well, I wasn't quite as successful. Look carefully at the picture and see what went wrong..

My shoe landed closer to the goal than the ball did, I guess I'm not cut out for Blind soccer

Our time in Berlin was pretty much up, so we hopped back on the underground back to the Berlin Hapt BonHauf. Sylvia and I slept pretty much the whole way back to Leipzig. It was a great, but exhausting trip!

This last little picture is going to be a Berlin Trivia game. Look carefully at this picture, and if you realize what is Missing, be the first person to let me know! Hint: Think about local news.

Week 1 in Germany is through, but we have many more great things to come! This week, we're going to hit it hard on our project for the Lady Eagles, and begin some street interviews! It should be challenging and fun.

The TV Tower

--love, Jenny

"Ich bin ein Berliner" Berlin, Part 1

2009-07-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our first weekend trip - Berlin, Germany! We left Leipzig yesterday morning, and got back tonight, completely exhausted.

Be forewarned, this post has a lot of pictures!

I took about 300 this weekend, and it was really hard to narrow them down for the blog. So I hope you enjoy...

Branson on the train ride there, preparing for the weekend!

Yesterday, we all stuck together as a group and went on a Fat Tire Bike Tour of Berlin. I had never been on one before, and it was awesome. It did rain a little bit, but that just kept things interesting. Our tour guide, Francis, was hilarious. He made lots of politically incorrect jokes, and we were laughing all day. Berlin is a beautiful city with so much history, and he did a great job of telling us where we were, how long it had been there, and how many times it had been bombed. Berlin took a lot of hits during the world wars, and is still under reconstruction.

Our tour guide, Francis. He was great! (If you are ever in Europe, we highly recommend the Fat Tire Bike Tours. Its faster than walking, and you get a great tour. Plus, its good exercise!)

There are still many parts of the Berlin wall that are intact and in their original places. Other pieces have been carefully removed and are displayed among the city. The graffiti on the wall was incredible, and so colorful. Some graffiti has been more recently added, but you can still see some of the original graffiti in places.

Jenny and I by one of the Berlin wall fragments in Potzdamer Platz. Peace!

I love the graffiti!

We got to see a large section of the original wall, still in place. There is now a fence protecting the wall, so that people won't deface the wall, or take parts of it for themselves to sell.

We rode by the last standing two-man sniper tower in Berlin. It was a very real reminder of how brutal the separation between East and West Germany was. There were two men in each guard tower. That way, if one guard tried to escape over the wall, the other would shoot him. If one guard refused to shoot an escapee, the other guard would shoot the escapee, then report his partner. Sometimes, however, the two men would become friends and try to escape together. The tour guide told us that only 12 guards successfully did this, and I thought that was an unbelievably low number!

This is a picture of Checkpoint Charlie, which was a US Government checkpoint through which many people escaped to Western Germany. It was great to see an American flag!

I thought this building was so beautiful. It used to be a German protestant church. The Prussians liked it so much, they built an identical building right across the square from it for their people to worship in. Creative, right?

Here are all of our bikes in front of the Jewish Memorial. The memorial isn't intended to represent anything specific, it is open to interpretation. There are 2,711 cement blocks in rows, which looked to me like unmarked tombs. It was a beautiful memorial, and after just watching Schindler's List last week in preparation for the trip, especially meaningful.

Our group in front of the Reichstag, similar to the Berlin Capitol building. We were so glad the whole Winegeart family was able to join us this weekend.

After the tour, we split up into smaller groups for dinner and to stay the night. The rain set in again, and we realized we didn't know exactly where we were going!

Time to get out the map.

Sterling and Jenny and their umbrellas. The rest of us roughed it in our rain jackets.

Overall, Day 1 was great, even with the rain! We did have to walk a lot, but it was worth it to see the city. We'll get to go back several more times (Berlin is sort of like our travel "hub" for the rest of our weekend trips) so we'll get to see even more. Sorry this post was so long, but its hard to fit so much into a blog post! I guess I'll have to save my "stupid American tourist" stories for another post. Check back again tomorrow.. Jenny will post about Day 2 of the trip. Have a great night!

Love yall

-Sylvia

Day 3, The Apprentice Challenge

2009-07-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first step in our COBA apprentice Challenge. This morning, we went to visit with Head basketball coach of the Leipzig Lady Eagles, Ritz Ingram. We had a wonderful and entertaining breakfast with Ritz and the league President as they explained the dynamics of the Lady Eagles previous seasons. He charged us with the task of helping him increase the visibility of his team (and basketball in general) in the Leipzig community. We left with excited and bursting with ideas! We had discussion time later, and I feel ready to take on the challenge. I would share some ideas, but I don't want anyone reading the blog (hem, hem--my coauthor) to steal any ideas!

After our meeting, we took a few pictures for the press here in Leipzig in front of Thomaskirch, and then headed to lunch at a GREAT downtown, cafe restaurant. I enjoyed a thoroughly incredible meal of Mango Chicken and zucchini. At lunch we actually got to meet one of the players, I couldn't quite catch her name though. I thought about asking for an autograph, but, I didn't think that was the best idea. She seemed really great!

Basketball Player for the Eagles

So, after the hub-bub of a great lunch with the group, Sylvia and I ventured for some shopping. Particularly for watches, so we could actually be on time places without the use of cellphones, a hard adjustment for the both of us. But really, what we witnessed next made my day. One of my favorite things here in Germany is the diversity of people we get to see! For Example:

An interesting couple, out walking their three giant dogs, wish you could have seen this in person

After a complicated trip to the German Supermarter, some research time in our apprentice groups, a few of us settled down for some good home cookin'. What better way to break in our time in Germany, with a little Chinese food! Although the apprentice challenge was a tough one, I think the hardest moment of the day was trying to decipher how to cook Chinese Milk Rice, reading the directions in German. But everything turned out OK in the end.

Dinner with Sterling, Colin, Grant, Sylvia, Jonathan, and Branson

After another successful day in Leipzig, we ended the day with Ice Cream, and a movie with the group in Professor Winegeart's flat. The movie we watched helped us prepare for our upcoming venture to Berlin, and it equipped us with a greater understanding of the East and West German Mentalities!

Wish Happy Birthday to Lindsay Winegeart! It was her Birthay today in Leipzig!
Stay tuned for our Adventures this weekend in Berlin

I love you and miss you all!
-Jen

The Leipzig Experience

2009-07-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today was our first full day in Leipzig and we are so tired! We did a lot of walking today, and our feet are almost as tired as we are! Stephen Shewmaker gave us a tour of the city today, and we got to see a lot of interesting places. We visited several old churches (including the one that Bach played in), ate brats at the train station, visited the University of Leipzig Student Library, and toured "The Center," which is sort of like the downtown area of Leipzig. We also learned how to ride the trains, how to exchange our money, and how to try to ignore to the stares of Germans who enjoy laughing (and pointing) at huge groups of American tourists.

The group in The Center.

Detailed ceiling art at the Nikolaikirche Church

The entrance to the student library.

My favorite picture of the day!

Thomaskirche (the church where Bach played)

Me, Jenny, and the Shewmaker's daughter Alexandra outside of the Thomaskirche.

Today, we also met with an American named Crister Garrett, a professor at the University of Leipzig. He talked with us for about an hour about the German culutre, and we learned a lot about East Germany before and after the wall came down. It was very interesting, and we enjoyed speaking to someone who spoke English!

We finished off our evening at a restaurant called "Bar Fusz," which means "Barefoot" in English. The waiter spoke a little bit of English, but informed us she couldn't find the English menus. We tried to read the menus, but we were definitely in over our heads. Some of our group decided to use the method of closing their eyes and pointing something on the menu to order, but when they landed on "fishcurry," they changed their minds quickly. Most of us got schnitzel, which was an excellent choice. It was a great first German meal!

Things I love about Germany:

1. The relaxed atmosphere

2. The green trees

3. The food (so far!)

4. The architechture

5. The weather! (The high was 65 today)

Things I am still adjusting to:

1. The time change (I literally thought I was going to die this morning when we woke up.)

2. Being stared at everywhere we go.

3. Learning to respond in German, "danke" instead of "thank you"

4. The sun rising at 5 am. Thanks to British Airways for providing an eye mask for sleeping.

5. Adapters and converters...I hope I don't break anything!

Tomorrow: We meet with a man from the Leipzig Eagles pro women's basketball team where they'll present us with a business challenge for us to solve in teams...stay tuned!

I'll leave you with a picture of last night's sunset....it was a sunset to rival the West Texas skies!

Love you all.

-Sylvia

The Longest Day

2009-07-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

I now have a new appreciate for the 1962 film "The Longest Day" because that is how I felt today. We left the US at 5:30 (American time) in Monday and arrived here Tuesday night at about 7:00(Deutch time). We flew right past nighttime, so basically, today has literally been the longest day of my life! Leipzig is beautiful! It has a very hometown feel, even though it's quite large. After arriving, we had a not-so-native treat for abendessen (dinner), PIZZA, and afterward Sylvia and I went out for a little exploring around our neighborhood. Nothing says, "Welcome to a New city" like getting a little turned around on our first night! So for the first night in Germany, I must say Auf Wiedersehen (Mostly because that's the only thing I can say in German!)and goodnight!

Jenny

Today is the day!

2009-07-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its finally here, but it is! Today we leave for Germany....

Leave DFW at 5:35 PM.
Arrive in London at 8:20 AM. (Tuesday)
Leave London at 10:40 AM.
Arrive in Frankfurt at 1:20 PM.
Run as fast as we can to catch our train to Leipzig!

Then maybe...sleep? We'll see...

Please keep our group in your prayers today (and tomorrow) - for safety and no lost luggage!

-Sylvia

5 Days Till lift-off and I still don't sprechen Deutch

2009-07-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

For my first entry, I’ve been thinking about all the things that I will not miss while in Europe:
1.West Texas Cockroaches
2.Blistering heat rash from walking outside to my car
3.Midnight research papers in the middle of summer
4.Greasy American fast food (well maybe just a little)
5.A hot house because air conditioning is expensive when you pay your own bills
5.And…Summer bugs in general

BUT more importantly, I will MISS:
1.My Family, The whole BIG lot of them!
2.My housemates
3.All of My friends and workers
4.Sonic
5.West Texas Sunsets
6.So you Think you Can Dance
7.Walks on summer nights
8.and peaches and cream (a summer snack my Dad makes, a little cheesy, but it will be missed)
9.and YOU!

But never fear, because posting is here! Keep up with our adventures through Germany over the next month! Send some love and emails, so we will at least think we’re missed and we’ll post pictures and stories about what life is like here.
5 Days Until lift-off!
- Jenny

The Countown (Officially) Begins...

2009-06-25T09:01:00.001-07:00

With only 12 days left in the United States, I am growing more and more excited about this trip! We seem to get a new email every day, some reminding us about pre-departure assignments, others about last minute packing tips and schedule updates.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

Monday July 6: Depart from DFW Airport at 5pm

Tuesday July 7: Arrive in Frankfurt Airport at 1:20pm
Friday July 10: Day trip to Berlin
Monday July 13: First day of class
Tuesday July 14: Tour of BMW
Wednesday July 15: Tour of Porsche
Thursday July 16 - Sunday July 19: Group travel to the Alps
Thursday July 23 - Sunday July 26: Free Travel - Prauge
Thursday July 30: Day trip to Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther
Thursday July 30 - Sunday August 2: Free Travel - Italy
Monday August 3: Final group presentations
Thursday August 6: Depart from Frankfurt

I can't believe we're going to fit all of that (and much more) into only a month! One thing is for sure, it will be a month to remember.

Check back for more pre-departure updates!

-Sylvia