Leipzig

For the second half of the trip we woke up early and took the train to Leipzig. Although in Germany, Liepzig has a lot of influence from Eastern Europe and it definitely shows through the architecture of the buildings. Our first stop was Nikoliakirche (or St. Nicholas Church). It is nationally famous for the "Monday Demonstration" which was a peaceful revolt against Communist rule. Civilians would gather at the church for a peaceful march throughout the city holding candles. The chandoleir in the middle of the church is representative of the candles held during the revolt which symbolized peace.



Our next stop was Thomaskirche, the final resting place of famous composer Sebastian Bach. The church was reconstructed numerous times inside and out. One of the most popular pieces that was reconstructed was the "Romantic Organ" into the "Bach Organ" because the old organ was considered unsuitable for Back's music. I was able to go inside the church during a service, but was unable to take any pictures. It was cool to see a church service conducted in German (and hear all of the songs in German as well).

One of our last stops was the Stassi museum. It was originally the Soviet headquarters and eventually turned into a museum filled with old photos, equipment and office rooms that were preserved. The most interesting thing about this museum was the second section they had where most of the Soviet archives were still kept.

People who were around during that era could actually come to this museum to check if their names were on file in the archives. This museum definitely brought to life just how much control and intel the Soviets had because we were able to see all of the photos and intel they collected over the years.

Shortly after we headed back to beautiful Berlin and I now this week I am in London for a week-long field trip with my program. We are given a lot of opportunities to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Oxford University and all of the main attractions in London so I will have a lot to talk about (pictures included) in my next entry.

Bis Dann!

Dresden

This past weekend I went on a trip to Dresden and Liepzig, Germany with my CIEE program. Both cities are in eastern Germany and had a lot more Soviet influence than Berlin. Our first stop was for the trip was Dresden. All of the students had to prepare a short presentation on a designated spot. My favorite two places were Frauenkirche and the Volkswagon factory.

Frauenkirche is a church that was originally destroyed due to bombing during WWII. It has since been restored (for the most part) and we had the opportunity to climb all the way up to the top of its tower. Despite the cold weather and rain, the view was incredible and we had a 360 degree view of the entire city.



At night we went to the VW Factory. This is one of Volkswagen's main factories where they hand assemble a popular luxery car in Europe called the Phaeton. Unfortuneatly we werent allowed to take pictures, but I found some online for your viewing pleasure!



The factory does not actually make parts, but rather just assembles the cars. There are three assembly floors that are complete with automatic robot/cars that deliver the parts for each specific car on time as it goes through the assembly line. Another cool thing was that the floor could wirelessly charge all of the workers tools (similar to how you can now charge your iPhone wirelessly nowadays).



What is interesting about the Phaeton is that it is highly customizable and the company focuses on meeting all of the customers needs. For example, a customer can come in and fully customize their car (which can take hours). Once the car finish production (the current waiting list is 5 months) the customer can come in and pick up their car in a private room with a private ceramony in which the keys are handed over to the owner.

Barcelona y Madrid

Sorry for the delay... I've been so busy between traveling and school that I hardly even have time to myself. Anyways... Midterms were finally over and the long awaited spring break had arrived. I had enough of the cold weather in Berlin and decided to meet up with fellow students from Merrimack in Spain. I got into Barcelona friday morning and was greeted by the sun as I walked off the plane. When we got into the city we dropped our bags off and headed straight to the beach for some sangria. After my first glass of sangria I came to the conclusion that no other country could make sangria like Spain. On Sunday we went to the FC Barcelona game against Athletic Club. Barcelona has some of the best fans in the world and it was pretty evident during the game in which 83,000 fans were in the stadium.



At the beginning of the next week I traveled back to Madrid and stayed there for a week. Madrid is very beautiful and the warm weather also followed me there. My friends lived next to Retiro park, which is one of the biggest parks in Madrid that has a giant pond in the middle in which you can rent boats and paddle around. My favorite part about Madrid was being able to see all of my friends, including my best friend Emily who goes to school in Texas... small world that she is studying in Madrid this semester. I definitely had to get used to Ciesta's, which is when everyone rests and naps from anytime between 1 and 7. It made it a little frustrating when I needed to get things done during the day, however.



As the days slowly dwindled away until I returned to school I had to come to the realization that I would need to get back into the groove of going to school everday and doing homework... which definitely made for an abrupt ending to my break. My semester is almost over its almost too sad to think about. Again sorry for the delay, stay tuned because this weekend I will be going to Liepzig and Dresden!

Ciao,
Evan