Fotos!

I have posted many of my photos from the trip on here, but more are available at my Photobucket site:

http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn303/potatopunker/

Kitten

The Deutsch enjoy animals as much as Americans, including kittens, the following are pictures of the Robin's schwester's kitten:

Fußball!

Unfortunately, this blog seems doomed to skip around between the psat and present as today is now Thursday and I still have photos and stories from the last five days to post, but that is okay; blogs are not ocnfined to strictly linear chronological organization!

Last night Germany won the European Football (soccer) quarterfinals, and will play the winner of today's Spain-Russia game. Unfortunately I was feeling sick so I stayed home from the biergarten, but did watch the last 45 minutes here at the house with Robin's father. It was an intense game and Turkey played quite well, but Germany prevailed 3-2.

To give you an idea of the enthusiasm for Soccer in this country, HERE IS VIDEO of the celebration on the streets of Germany's victory in the semifinals against Portugal one week ago (keep in mind this is in Rinteln, a small town in Germany, the celebration in bigger towns like Hamburg and Berlin are bound to hav ebeen many times larger, especiually for last night's game).

Evening of Friday, June 20: party!

The concentration camp toured earlier was forgotten as most of us students (aside from Larry and Linda) relaxed and drank alcohol with our hosts.



Here is a link to the Facebook photo album of Timm Ender, who hosted the partyy and posted 22 pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000332&id=1367851297

Heidi and I enjoyed going down the slide:







Eventually, I got tired and fell asleep on Timm's couch, where Unicorn joined me for a nap (picture on Timm's Facebook). When I woke up, Robin told me we were going to go to another party. I thought he was joking, but found out how wrong I was when we we ended up a dance club, where I was handed a Vodka and Red Bull and was told to dance by Kami quite authorititavely. I eventually did, because everybody in Europe dances like white guys, so I was in good company.

By the time we finally left, it was morning, and I was ready to pass out. I took a picture of the sky above Robin's house before hitting the sack:

Bergen-Belson

The concentration camp of Anne Frank and site of the deaths of 2,000,000 Jews, Soviets, communists, gays and other prisoners is a beautiful place now filled with fields, trees and monuments that were it not for the presence of, it would be impossible to tell the horrors of what went on there.

The stone main building is built of harsh cold concrete that radiates totalitarian authority (others took pictures which I hope to post eventaully, but for now, my words will have to suffice).

I have German in my blood. This is part of my heritage as much as slavery, capitalism, the Iraq War, the genocide of Native Americans, and every other horror. An infinite moment of silence is not long enough to reflect upon and truly appreciate the terrible things humans are capable of.

Lyrics to a german Song I am learning on theguitar about Footbal

Dieses Jahr geht das Fußballwunder weiter
Wir sind da und wir werden Europameister

Es geht wieder los zieh das Trikot an
Wir stehen hinter euch wie der 12. Mann
Wir wollen den Pokal glauben fest daran
Jetzt sind wir und nich die Ander'n dran
Wir stehen auf und wollen euch kämpfen sehen
Egal was kommt wir können alles drehen
Der Fußballgott wird uns zur Seite stehen.

Dieses Jahr geht das Fußballwunder weiter
Wir sind da und wir werden Europameister

Nanananananana
Wir geh'n zusammen in die Geschichte ein
Nanananananana
Lasst uns einnmal alle Helden sein

Dieses Jahr steht unterm Fußballstern
Das Stadion kocht das Ziel ist nicht mehr fern
Ihr schafft das Jungs
Wie beim Wunder von Bern

Dieses Jahr geht das Fußballwunder weiter
Wir sind da und wir werden Europameister
Nanananananana
Wir geh'n zusammen in die Geschichte ein
Nanananananana
Lasst uns einnmal alle Helden sein

Dieses Jahr geht das Fußballwunder weiter
Wir sind da und wir werden Europameister

Nanananananana
Wir geh'n zusammen in die Geschichte ein
Nanananananana
Lasst uns einnmal alle Helden sein

Stadthagen

After leaving Die Schule, we walked directly to old town Statdhagen, passing many interesting buildings, including houses, a castle, a cathedral.

The black path shown is the foundation of a wall which long ago separated partsof feudal Germany.



































































I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside of this cathedral. I had a strong feeling of spirituality in the place, despite the fact that I am not Catholic or Christian. I felt something like a pull on my legs in front of the altar, and after everybody left, I sank to my knees and prayed for something indescribable aside from its positive energy and hope for a more peaceful world.