Thank You, Goethe Institut et al.

If you have never read a blog before, this is how it works. You scroll down to the bottom to find the first entry and then work your way up to the very last entry that was posted which would be today's. It is designed so that those who are following the blog as it is written will have the most current information at the top and not have to scroll all the way to the bottom each time. For those who are reading a blog for the first time, begin at the bottom and then click on older posts to begin at the very beginning of the first page. When you are on the first page, go to the bottom of the page, find the first entry and work your way up to read what happened in chronological order.

This may sound trite, but this was certainly a trip of a lifetime! We visited places that we never would have had the opportunity to see, such as the Federal Foreign Service, or meet and talk to executives of the world's third largest bank in the world, the Deutsche Bank, had we come as ordinary tourists. When we visited the Reichstag, we were allowed in immediately instead of waiting in line for 1 1/2 to 2 hours as many others. We were always treated as dignitaries and housed and ate at four and five star hotels and restaurants. The camaraderie that resulted among us after two weeks of traveling together was amazing. None of us knew each other two weeks earlier. We were were from all over the United States and the only thing that united us was the fact that we all taught some form of social studies. Most of my colleagues were high school teachers. A few were middle school teachers. And you could count on one hand the number of elementary school teachers in the group. But by the end of our journey, we became, as one guide in Berlin put it so succinctly, "one, big, happy, German family"!

Munich, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Heidelberg

This morning we visited a pre-school in Munich that was quite amazing. The youngest child was 2 years of age and the oldest was 6 years old. All I saw was happy children who interacted freely with the visitors. The rooms were small but each room had a loft with clear bubbles and other openings that the children could use to play with classmates and use their imaginations. There were huge glass windows that ran from the floor to the ceiling. These windows allowed for the outdoors to become a part of the indoors and make the room appear much larger.

The children were from many different countries. They had paper flags hanging from the ceiling. It reminded me of what I do with my second graders when we have Heritage Week. Each child had two flags. On one side was the mother's flag and on the other side was the father's flag. They even raised tadpoles just like we've done in class. Great minds think alike!

I got down on the children's level and greeted them and then asked them their names. They were the cutest children. They smiled and giggled. When I asked them for their names they told me and asked me my name. Then they asked me how old I was. I answered indirectly and told them that I was old enough to be their grandmother. I proceeded to ask them if they would like to be my grandchildren. The first boy laughed and said "yes". The next child, also a boy, smiled then ran away. They loved being asked their names because that question always attracted more children. I loved seeing a group of children who were exploring and interacting in positive ways with each other. Each classroom had a huge bathroom with several sinks as well as commodes. But the interesting thing about these bathrooms is that they also had individual toothbrushes belonging to the children to not only talk about dental hygiene, but to also put it into practice.

This school is unique because its goal is to teach good nutrition by serving only organic foods and educating their parents on how to prepare healthy meals using organic foods at home. Parents are invited to school to learn to cook healthy meals. We saw one class where parent and child were interacting by measuring and mixing ingredients in a bowl. The school has a complete kitchen and even a child-size stove where parent and child can cook together. This has become such a popular school which teaches not only a pre-school curriculum, but healthy eating, as well. They have a waiting list each year.

In Frankfurt we met with Deutsche Bank officials. It was a refreshing experience, to say the least. How often do you get to meet with corporate executives who encourage ethical responsibility and feel that it's education, not money, that makes the world go round? That is exactly the philosophy of this, the world's third largest bank. This corporation has been around for a long time. It was founded in 1870. The thinking of the executives is so extraordinary. They encourage nature over machines, rethinking of "crazy ideas", and they're involved globally to help people help themselves. What an incredible model for corporations all over the world!

We traveled to an organic fruit farm in the evening to sample not only the organically grown food, but the apple wine they produce. The owner of the winery can be seen in the photo above. He is explaining the process and which type of apple was used in the first wine we tasted. There were several other wine samples that graced our lips, but most of us preferred the first apple wine made from crab apples. After enjoying the organically grown meal, we all exclaimed, "Das ist gut"!

Tomorrow we visit a graduate school of philosophy and theology run by the Jesuits. Two research assistants will speak to us about economic and social ethics. Later we will travel to another university in a town named Darmstadt. Here we will learn about the designs that a team of graduate students engineered and fabricated to win international awards for energy efficiency. They were the winners of the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon in 2007.

Our last full day together will be Friday, July 25th. Our two weeks will end with a visit to the city of Heidelberg. After viewing the castle and spending a few hours in the old city we will stop at a winery to sample the wine and spend our last evening meal together before going home on Saturday.

Goethe's Residences in Weimar

Last week we also visited Goethe's residences in Weimar. He lived in this huge house in the city but he also had a residence out in the country. We walked from his home in the center of Weimar to his home in a secluded area that is now a park as big as Central Park in New York. As we climbed up and down steps to get to this lovely home, our ears were greeted with beautiful violin melodies played by individual musicians along the way.

Goethe's country home remined me of a French Impressionistic painting. Part of it can be seen in the photo above. The house sat high on a hill with an array of seasonal flowers surrounding it. The small wooden fence on one side was covered by the tall shrubbery that hid the amazing palette of colors until you happened to walk up the stone steps to the house. It definitely was a stunning surprise.

From the research that I did on Goethe before I left and the commentary of some of our guides I got the impression that Goethe was really "full of himself". They of course, never used those words, but the description of his demeanor and his feelings toward other contemporaries made me come to that conclusion.

During our time in Weimar I found out that Goethe actually worked in the Anna Amalia Library. He was a very inquisitive and creative individual. Besides writing Faust, poetry, and other works, he also dabbled in drawing and collected an assortment of objects including bones from dead animals to study. Because of Goethe and the Anna Amalia Library, this picturesque town became a very important city in the 1870's.

One last item about Goethe's country residence ... the park sourrounding it has 85 different types of trees of which only 30 are native to the area. Many of the trees were imported from the United States including the tree which stumped native Germans for many years until a Japanese tourist told them that it was the Kentucky coffee tree. If my memory serves me correctly, that tree is the unofficial state tree of our neighbor, Kentucky.

When we are in Frankfort on Thursday we will visit the home where Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born into a family of privilege and wealth. Can't wait to see where this literary genius was born!

Anna Amalia Library

I have a few minutes before I have to be outside the hotel with my packed bags ready for the train station for a three hour trip to Frankfurt. Their trains are very comfortable and extremely fast. In fact, one must get on and off the train very quickly. I'm all packed and have a few minutes to write before we leave for the train station nearby and wanted to catch you up on a few places that we visíted last week which I failed to write about. One of them was the library in Weimar that housed medieval manuscripts, historic maps, and rare and first edition books, including important collections of Bibles and sheet music.

This library was built in 1691 and has the largest collection of Goethe's work including his well-known work Faust. In 2004 the library had an electrical fire which destroyed 50,000 historic books. We saw some of the damaged books and other pieces that they are restoring. The books and other historical materials are in different stages of either irrepairable damage or can be restored to some extent. Those that they are unable to restore at this time, are being housed in a climate-controlled room which they can bring out at a future date when new technology might allow them to restore the books and documents close to their original conditions. You can see such a book in the photo above. The library reopened in October 24, 2007, the birthday of the Duchess for whom the library was named when it was founded more than 400 years ago.

Schools, Art, and BMW

We began the day with a visit to a state educational system of Bavaria that oversees the quality of education for children of all ages and is heavily involved in educational research. It is a fascinating system and part of the presentation was made by an elementary teacher. Since we are not visiting an elementary school as was originally scheduled, I approached Claudia to help me make contact with another elementary school teacher so we could e-mail each other and upload pictures of what we are doing in our classrooms. I would also like to do an art exchange with this second grade teacher and include the German children's artwork with my class' for our spring art show in May. I have other ideas which I would like to implement and hope to get the ball rolling when I return home.

Another highlight of today's visits was the Bavarian Art Museum in Munich. What an art collection! You can find Rafael, da Vinci, Murillo, El Greco, Frans Hals, van Dyck, Canaletto, Rembrandt, and the largest collection of Peter Paul Ruebens' work in the world. There are many more artists represented but unfortunately we did not have time to view every piece. The German people have rebuilt after both wars. They restore rather than destroy. And the museums are always bustling with people from what I have observed. I just love being surrounded by so much art!

Our final destination took us to the BMW complex, part of what you see above. This particular building is formed to resemble four cylinders. I know all the guys in our family would love this museum. They have historic and futuristic cars all on display. The latest model is powered by hydrogen. If you order a BMW, you can pick it up in the building across the road which is connected by a skywalk bridge of sorts. By the way, BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works, not British Motor Works, as I thought. The Olympic Park where the olympics were held in the '70's is just across the way. Remember Mark Spitz and the Munich tragedy? That's where it took place. The building where the Israeli athletes were housed, known as Olympic Village, is nearby.

Speaking of olympics, we rode on the Olympic Highway which Hitler had constructed before the war as part of his autobahn plans and which led to the area where the 1936 olympics were held. Ohio's own Jesse Owens won his four gold medals here.

Since my time at this computer is limited, I have to end even though I have not mentioned all the other places that we have visited. We leave for Frankfurt tomorrow after a morning visit to another Munich site.

By the way, did you know that Munchen, the German spelling of Munich, means little monk. It's a symbol you see in many places. I've taken a photo of that, too, Is it any wonder that my camera card has read "memory card is full"?

Munich, Ettal, and Mittenwald

I haven't written in the past few days because we have been getting back to our hotel very late at night. Last night we returned from the opera house in Munich where we were treated to a contemporary version of Verdi's "I Masnadieri". The view from the front balcony was unrivaled! You could see everything that was going on from every corner. It was superb!

We've just returned from our evening meal and visiting Marienplatz where we saw the Neues Rathaus (the new town hall) where the glockenspiel (or carillon) is located. Pictured above is this town hall that looms 259 feet in the air. It was built between 1867 - 1909 in the Flemish Gothic style. The bells in the glockenspiel are struck by hammers and the figures perform the Schlaffertanz (the cooper's dance) which was originally performed in 1517 in Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the Black Plague. The column of St. Mary sits in front of the town hall and was erected in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Swedish invasion. The statue of Mary was sculpted earlier in 1590 and has four different symbolic figures on the four corners at the bottom of the pedestal representing the city's overcoming war, pestilence, hunger, and heresy. This sqaure is known as Marienplatz and is the heart of Munich. During the Middle Ages the square was used as a market place and as a site for tournaments and festivities. The square was named Marienplatz to invoke the Virgin Mary's protection of the town from the cholera epidemic.

This morning we visited a Benedictine Monastery in the Bavarian Alps in the town of Ettal which is near the Austrian border. The monastery was built in 1330 by King Ludwig I. What an interesting place! They have an international boarding school with students from all over the world including the U.S. Our group was split into two groups. One group sat in a high school lesson, and the other group (the group that I was in), sat in a fifth grade class. Students are all the same all over the world! We also visited the nearby town of Mittenwald where we saw how they make violins from beginning to end by hand. A student has to not only make 10 instruments, but be gifted in playing them. Naturally, students have to be accomplished violinists to be accepted to the school. They only accept 12 students per year although they have four times that in applications. Bavaria is a very colorful part of Germany. Many of our images of Germany come from this area.

We visited Buchenwald, the former concentration camp while in Weimar last week. We were told that the word buche means buckeye. Wald is the word for forest. There were a lot of buckeye trees in this area which was a park before it was turned into a concentration camp.

Another place we visited before coming to Munich was the library in Weimar that housed medieval manuscripts and rare books, maps, and first editions. This was another very exciting place to learn about and visit.

My time is running out so I must end this blog for now. I will try to keep in touch. Love to all.

An Introduction to Beautiful Weimar

We are in this idealistic town of Weimar with perfectly layed cobblestone streets, houses with flowerboxes, newly swept sidewalks, and friendly people. Actually, all the towns that we have visited thus far have had very congenial residents. But the best part of all is that we are staying in a five star hotel. An enormous chandelier in the lobby greets you against polished brass, dark mahogany wood, and marble floors. All the gleaming glass and mirrors give you the experience of being someone of great importance. The rooms are equally plush, some with chandeliers for lighting. It is the end of another well-traveled day which began in another community about three hours from here.

Bitterfeld-Wolfen is the community where we began the day. It is a region that was probably the most polluted area in the entire world. There was so much industry in this town over the past 150 years that the pollution finally caught up with them. A local TV station taped the lecture/discusssion and then asked for a volunteer from our group to do a brief interview. Chris Spaman, the youngest member of our teacher group, graciously volunteered. While in this area, we visited the site where numerous innovations in technology were produced. I was surprised to learn that one of them was Agfa film, a film I preferred to Kodak when I bought my first 35mm camera in college and used it overseas. I favored Agfa over Kodak after a professional photogrpher had shown me the brilliance of Agfa's colors. I continuted to use Agfa until they stopped producing it and Kodak bought them out. We went a little further in this industrial park and saw how they replicate photos onto canvas and produce the now popular photo books. There is so much to tell about how the people are working to clean up this area and all the new products that came from this area. There are many stories to tell when I get home.

We also visited a Benedictine abbey from the 12th century in the small town of Thalburgel (put two dots over the letter "u"). It is still used for services today when the minister comes from the nearby town. At other times it is used for music concerts and art exhibits. We were also lucky enough to hear a young man play the pipe organ as we sat in this sacred place. The music transcended the cold stone columns and the stone floor. We were swept away to another world for a brief 15 minute concert.

Our final visit today was to a third community called Thuringen (two dots over the letter "u", again) where they specialized in ceramics. Everything is made by hand like it was in the 1500's when they first began making ceramic bowls and cups. I bought some things and had them shipped home so I wouldn't have to find room in my already heavy luggage.

I forgot to mention that I ate at a bakery-deli called Lindner in Berlin. I took a picture of it for Angela and her family. It was a really neat place.

My minutes are starting to run out so I better say auf wiedersehen!

The Berliner Morgenpost

We have already visited the Cultural Bureau, the Deutscher Bundestag (their parliament), the German Federal Foreign Office, the representative of one of the other federal states that we will visit, Thuringia, the Federal Ministry for the Environmnet, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, their teachers' college, the Goethe-Institut in Berlin, a private charity, the office of the mayor of Berlin, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charley, the bridge where spies exchanged information during the Cold War, the Brandenburg Gates, a Holocaust memorial that took up the space of about half a block, tripping stones, several museums, and one of the daily local newspapers, the Berliner Morgenpost. We have been constantly on the go and are always expected to take notes and ask questions. We have had several lectures already and it is always hard to find time to write, but I will do my best to let you know what new and interesting things I see and learn about every day. I know that I am already behind, but I will touch on only one visit of the three we had today.

The Berliner Morgenpost is a daily local newspaper in a beautiful skyscraper with a gold frame and glass walls. It was founded in 1898. Obviouslý, it is not the original building. There is so much to tell about this important institution, but I will have to give you an earful when I return. To enter the building we had to show our passports, have our backpacks go through a security screen, and we had to go through a metal detector just like the airport. Only this time they gave us visitors' badges with our names and other informaton on them. We had to return the badges at the end of our visit, but I politely asked if I could have the paper insert with my name and the girl at the desk said "Ja" and smiled as she handed it to me.

The heads of the newspaper visited New York and Washington, D.C. before deciding to model their building after the Washington Post. They have 400 reporters, some who work exclusively on line where they keep track of the type of news that their Internet readers like to read. The entire paper is published on the Internet and can be viewed FREE. They still have 155,000 subscribers of the hard copy. Alex Springer, the head of the newspaper in 1965, chose the site for the current building because of its proximity to what use to be East Berlin with the Berlin Wall dividing the two sides. He placed a huge sign (smaller than the one found in Times Square in New York) to give news to the East Berliners. The Soviets responded by building skyscraper apartments to block the view of his messages. He always said that he did it because he knew that one day East and West Berliners would be one again. Many laughed at his dream of reunification. Sadly, he died four years before the two parts of Berlin became one again in 1990 after the wall came down in 1989.

The Berliner Morgenpost is awesome! It has your standard elavators but also an open, constantly moving elevator, just as the one we saw at the German Federal Foreign Service. We were told at the foreign service office that it was so their agents could get on and off from one floor to the next in a hurry. I could see where that type of elevator could be an important part of a newspaper. We were not allowed to ride the perpetually moving elevator at the foreign service office, but the newspaper allowed us to ride that particular elevator down when our visit was over.

Better go. Blog at you later! (I'm getting better at memorizing where buttons are so I can get more out of my minutes.)

Rappelling

As we were getting ready to take a bus to our first guided tour after we arrived on Sunday, we paused outside our hotel to view the plaza. A crowd of people had suddenly gathered near us, and began looking up and speaking in German . So we all turned to look in their direction. Our eyes discovered what all the commotion was about. Two men were scaling the glass walls of our hotel. Welcome to the antics of the young!

Some of us actually spoke with the two men who were in their twenties. They had a table in our hotel lobby. I asked them what the purpose was of their feat, thinking it was a marketing ploy. They smiled and answered that they do it on an almost daily basis because it is FUN. I inquired further about the hotel's attitude toward what they do. They answered that the hotel didn't mind. It was then that I knew that this had to be part of a marketing plan.

I would have liked to post a photo of the rappelling but these German computers will not accept my cables so I will have to wait until I get home to post photographs. Sorry! I should have known I was in trouble when I couldn't find certain keys and the letters on the keyboard were in different places.

Scenes From My Hotel Windows

This is my first opportunity to use the Internet Cafe here in Berlin. The keyboard is slightly different so I have wasted precious minutes trying to navigate through this computer in an attempt to get everything to come up in English. At this rate, I will be lucky to write an entry before my minutes are up.

My colleagues and I have corner rooms at our hotel. That means that we have two different views of the city. From one of my windows, the gigantic globe-like radio tower looms over the city. The tower is a reminder that this part of Berlin was once known as East Berlin during the Cold War. From my other window I see the old Town Hall with its beautiful clocks on all four sides. The Domed Cathedral's cupola can be found to the right of the Town Hall. This exquisite Lutheran Church is no longer used for church services but is used for musical recitals throughout the year, instead.

We went for lunch to a German restaurant that served sandwiches so we could eat and run. We were going on our first of many walking tours after a quick bite. Getting wornout is the quickest way to get your body adjusted to the new time. It is wet and dreadry, but that won't dampen our spirits. We're ready to visit the Cultural Bureau!

An Afternoon and Evening in D.C.

My airplane out of Columbus was two hours late. That made it risky to make my connection at O'Hare in Chicago for my flight into Washington, D.C. When we finally landed in Chicago I noted the departure time of my connecting flight on the kiosk and realized that I had two minutes to get to the gate to my connecting flight on the opposite side of the terminal. I quickly ran with my two bags, camera, and purse to catch two escalators down and then go across the bridge to reach my gate (without knocking anyone down). I arrived at my gate just as the plane was boarding. Once I got on board I took a much needed restroom break as other passengers were filing in.

Getting on the Metro was an experience! It's not that I haven't been on one before, it's that I've always had my husband to rely upon and I wasn't toting two bags, a camera, and a purse. But a Metro employee came to my rescue. He helped me get on the correct train so that I was able to emerge in the middle of Chinatown in Washington, D.C. as per the institute's instructions.

I came across some interesting "Walk" and "Do Not Walk" signs here in D.C. Some of the streets were so wide that seconds counted down to let you know how much time you had left to cross the street safely. You can see the image above.

After finding my way to the Hampton Inn, I freshened up and went to the Goethe-Institut branch in D.C. There the staff introduced themselves and the German consul came to welcome us. An ice breaker activity ensued before we were refreshed on German courtesies and institute guidelines.

Our airline tickets to Germany were distributed and then we previewed a film on contemporary Berlin. What a progressive city! We also viewed the premier of a new Goethe-Institut film which we were asked to critique. The film noted that the current mayor of Berlin was schooled in Ohio! It didn't say exactly where in Ohio. I will try to find out tomorrow.

The evening ended with a sumptious Mediterranean meal consisting of some foods that I would classify as Middle Eastern, such as the stuffed grape leaves. We had German beer and wine to compliment our meal. I "hooked up" with another second grade teacher from Kansas. It's amazing how much Vickie O'Neal and I are alike.

No pictures yet. Must get to bed to get up early for our morning meeting and an intensive German language lesson. Then it's off to Berlin by way of Frankfurt.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

It has finally come down to the wire. I have to decide whether or not to take my laptop with me. On the plus side, everything is ready to go and I know exactly how to navigate this laptop to get the results I want. It will only take me a few minutes to upload the photographs and a little longer to write the commentary. On the down side, this is an expensive piece of equipment and I will have to carry it with me wherever I go. I would hate to come back to my hotel room and find it missing. But carrying this laptop all day can become a real burden. I know because I have transported it back and forth from school on a daily basis. And that was only a few minutes worth!

I've tried walking up and down the stairs with my luggage as was recommended by members of the Goethe-Institut. This is to prepare me for the lugging of baggage at the older train stations where escalators do not exist. Sometimes this has to be accomplished at a fast pace.

After several trips of going up and down our flight of stairs here at home (15 steps to be exact), I realized that it wasn't as facile as I thought it would be. This trial test was without my laptop! It was at that moment that I decided not to bring my laptop. I will use the Internet cafes that are available in big cities instead. That means that I may not be able to post every day, but I will do it as often as I can. As far as the photographs go, I will see how much time I have to upload them after my journal entry into the blog. My thinking is that I can always load those photos onto my blog once I return from Germany if I don't have a chance to do it while I am overseas. I'll keep you posted.

Independence Day

As the day nears to my departure for Germany, I am learning to use a technology that has been around for a while ... blogging. This morning I am learning to upload photographs in preparation for my blogging overseas.

Today is Independence Day 2008 and family will be visiting this weekend. It is wet and dreary outside, but pride in this country's birthday swells, even in the heart of this Croatian. I am thankful that my parents came to this country many years ago when I was just a child ready to enter first grade. I didn't speak English at that time, but by the end of first grade I was speaking three languages: Croatian, Italian, as well as English. Once we arrived in America, my parents were eager to become U.S. citizens. But according to U.S. law they had to wait five years before they could apply for U.S. citizenship. They used those first five years to go to school to learn to speak English and were schooled on the history and laws of this great country. Given that my younger sister and I were of school age and had attended school in the United States since first grade, we, along with our parents, became naturalized citizens five years after we had arrived in America. On the contrary, my older brother and sister who were teens when we had arrived, were required to go through the same process as our parents. Today is a great day to be an American ... native born or naturalized!

Anticipation

Each year the Goethe-Institut's Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP) awards scholarships to social studies educators throughout the U. S. to study in Germany. This year I was one of those lucky educators. I am a second grade teacher for the Diocese of Columbus at Notre Dame Elementary in Portsmouth, Ohio.

The anticipation of the orientation in Washington, D.C. and the travel throughout Germany to meet with German educators, government officials, the business community, the media, and the Germans themselves has made it difficult to fall asleep at night. I can't wait for the adventure to begin!