Het is koud daar! (It is cold out there)

This is my current weather forecast

This is what I had to buy today because it is supposed to get even colder (5*F)

This is what it looks like outside our Youth Hostel, I tried to make a snowman, but it is REALLY Dry Snow, so that wasn't possible.

On a Brighter Note

This is my last week of Christian Worldview Class. That means next week is Reading/Travel week. I have chosen to stay in Germany and do mission's work through the church that the AmBex Director attends with his family. I will be staying with the Beaches, who are missionaries here in Germany. They do missions work with the Military Families' children over here. That is what I get to help out with. Hopefully, I will be able to travel a little within Bavaria (that is the German State that I am living in, in Germany), while staying with the Beaches. Then the week after that, we start a new class for two weeks.

Sad blog post, please be read before letting children read

This weekend we visited two Nazi Concentration camps: Flossenburg and Buchenwald. It wasn't only Jews killed, it was also homosexuals, gypsies and other "misfits" of society. So sad, killing people just because they are different. However, on a good Note, the Germans have tried to make up for it.

Flossenburg:
In Flossenburg over 100,000 people went through it.  There are over 30,000 documented deaths plus more undocumented from the things the Nazi's put them through. When they arrived at Flossenburg, they were examined by a doctor. This doctor either said they were suited for "Heavy Work", "Light Work," or "No Work" Those who where suited for "No Work" were automatically killed.  One mother hid her 2 year old son in the garbage can during roll call for 4 years, once the Nazis' discovered him and were going to kill him (because this was a working camp), he slipped through the crack thanks to God.  He survived to be liberated.  The Heavy workmen had to work in the near by granite quarry with no protection and minimal tools for 12 grueling hours every day. Many were killed by falling rocks. They were also only given one short break to eat a thin soup around noon. They had to walk through the town of Flosse twice a day, but the towns people just ignored them or threw rocks at them. At Flossenburg they could see the old ruins of a castle on the top of the hill. This gave them hope that there was something more to life then just the concentration camp.

Buchenwald:
Over 238,000 people came through Buchenwald. over 24% died there. It was a concentration camp not an extermination camp. It was much larger than Flossenburg. Buchenwald had over 45 external smaller camps. After WWII was in full bloom, the prisoners were forced to work in factories to make the airplanes and tanks for the Nazis' to fight in.  They sabotaged the machinery as much as they could without getting caught. They helped the Allies win the war in the only way they could. In April 1945 as the Nazis' were trying to get rid of the evidence of the camp and were killing off the prisoners. A prisoner got off a radio message "they are exterminating us" in Russian, German, and English to President Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, and the Russians. Within hours President Eisenhower had troops focusing on getting to Buchenwald, and within two days the camp was liberated. Even though it was liberated, people continued to die because of how far they were gone. When we got there it was -7*C. It was cold so cold it hurt to breathe. I had to tug my ears under my cap because it hurt to have them outside it, it was SOOOOOOOOOO COLD. Both camps were covered in snow when we visited them. It was fitting. It was hard for us to imagine standing out in the cold for roll call every morning and evening without our coats, sweatshirts, hat, gloves, and many layers of shirts and skirts or pants. I can't imagine standing in -7*C weather for hours in a shirt, pants, boots, and hat. The people that survived were truly given strength by God to survive it.

The Germans have tried to make everything right. They parade young school children through these camps as early as First Grade. They don't ever want their children to forget what happened. Even the museum in Flossenburg was in English so that British, American, and Canadian people can read about what happened. Sadly everything was in German and French at Buchenwald (Pronounced Boo-k-in-vald). In some ways that was good so that I didn't have to read about all the horrors a second time. I will attach a few pictures. I am only going to attach the nicer ones. This is all that I could upload right now.

Flossenburg Concentration Camp Entrance

 

Where Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A person who tried to kill Hitler, was excecuted.

What they put up to remember Bonhoeffer permanently 

The Snow was deep!

Tombstones of prisoners that the USA Amy made the citizens of Floss bury with a dignified ceremony after making the citizens dig up the mass undignified graves.

Classes and having fun

Because we are trying to fit a WHOLE semester in 2 weeks there is a ton of homework. The first day we had an hour of reading and 1 page answer session for that reading. (That wasn't sot terrible) However, Tuesday we had 3 & 1/2 hours reading and three one page responses due and a page response to a song or movie that related to secularism. Then today (Wednesday) We had over four hours of reading and four one page responses to questions from that reading. And we also had another page response to a song or movie that related to Darwinism.  Then we had a full fledged paper due tomorrow. However, our teacher seeing that this syllabus was wearing us out, postponed that paper until next Wednesday. [That was nice of Professor Kersey =)] Tomorrow we have nothing due so we finally had a day to relax and rejuvenate. Most of the girls took naps. Friday we leave for our first session of tours. We are touring some concentration camps this weekend. So, because we won't be in Regensburg at our regular Youth Hostel, I probably won't be able to post until Sunday night when we get back. The youth hostels we will be staying in either don't have internet or charge per the hour for it. So I will try to update this tomorrow, and then possibly Friday morning (not likely) and the I will try to post lots of pictures Sunday night after I get back. So now if you don't here from me for a few days, you know why. Here are a few more pictures from our trip to the Neuschwanstein Castle visit a few days ago.

 

The kind horses that pulled me up the hill, the one on the left was named Phylix (pronounced Feel-ix)

10 out of 11 of us girls posing in front of Neuschwanstein Castle

Me posing next to the Outer Wall Entrance

 

A water fall next to the road that leads from town to Neuschwanstein Castle, I walked down instead of taking a carriage

This evening we went to dinner at a traditional German Restaurant and listened to traditional live folk music. It was fun. I tried some new foods and a new kind of drink (non-alcoholic of course). It was a fun filled evening with 11 teenage girls and our girl leader and her mother and our one guy (our professor). Some interesting things happened that were unexpected but it was all fun.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I will try to borrow some of my friends pictures and video of the music and post them another time.

Long Days

We have class from 8am-noon of the same class with a 5-10 minute break every hour to every 1.5 hours. This morning I woke up to snow. It had only been snowing ten minutes but had already covered everything.  Class with Professor Kersey move right along and rarely seem to drag out. I just have about 4 assignments due each day. Please pray that I get everything done on time.

Food!
I am having an interesting situation with the food here, due to my food allergies and things I just can't stomach.  Besides Breakfast I don't know when the next meal will be that I can eat everything. I usually find one thing (usually a bowl of pineapple or jello or pudding) out of a few to eat but hardly ever a full meal besides Breakfast.  So at Breakfast I am eating lots and lots of food.  Then at lunch and dinner I eat as much as I can, but yesterday it was Liver Dumpling Soup for lunch. I just couldn't stomach more than  half a bowl full (if that much) and the other thing to go with it was something like pancakes, that were almost burnt on the bottom and then torn up and sprinkled with Powdered Sugar, served with Applesauce. The day before that was squid. I had once as a child and was okay with it, then I had it a few years ago and couldn't stand it, this time I ate a little, but not much. I usually get a good two meals a day from a combination of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  However, when I find something that I can eat and stomach I eat lots of it.  So I eat huge breakfast, and then whatever I can stomach during the other meals. And Yes, I am trying the different strange foods over here that they are serving! =)

Disney Castle

So two days ago I spent four hours each way on a train to visit the castle that Disney based all their Princess castles off of. It is a real castle in Germany. It is called the Neuschwanstein Castle.  It was built by Ludwig the II. He was the ruler of Bavaria. He started construction on it in 1868. Construction ended when he was made to step down from the throne by his people, who were tired of paying taxes for their Ruler Ludwig the II's Building Projects. He only spent 172 days in it. It has never been completed, construction stopped in 1892. However it is beautiful to tour and take pictures of.

 

Oh did I forget to mention that I got to take a horse drawn modern carriage up to the castle =)

Oh, and I got to talk about horses, the whole way up, with the driver

 

Me with the castle in the background, I am standing on a platform that is a couple hundred feet above the ground and it has half inch holes everywhere (they are to drain water) You just don't look down :)

The castle, I shot this looking through the outer wall's door

More of the castle, those are origional paintings 

 You weren't allowed to take any interior pictures, so I don't have any but it was ornate and beautiful inside. I would have posted shots from the other side but it is currently under preservation construction right now and the outside is covered in scaffolding. In addition, I forgot to mention that everything was covered in snow. On the ground there was between four inches and six inches, where it had been plowed to the side of the road it was one foot plus deep and clean. Unfortunately, it was above 32*F, so it was starting to melt while we were there. But it was still fun to play in!

More Snow=More Pictures

It snowing at the Hostel and snow is covering everything

The first snowman I made here

Me and my friend Elizabeth with snow falling

Me with my two snowmen

Elizabeth writing in the snow

Her throwing a snowball at me [In retaliation I might add =)]

SNOW!!!

It started snowing this evening. Here are a few pictures. It just started and it is sticking, plus we are going to the mountains tomorrow. So we should see LOTS of snow then. 

Snowing

Picture in the Snow

More snow

Snowing at my Hostel

Catching it on my tongue

Snow!

Already accumulating after 5 minutes

LOST!!!

I had an adventure today. After classes and a couple hours of homework I decided to walk to the mall. The whole trip (there, shopping, and back) takes about an hour or hour and a half or shorter depending on how long you shop, or if you get lost.  So I had absolutely no trouble getting to the mall. However, once in the mall I got lost.  There is an H & M store, that when we were taken to mall by one of our leaders, we visited. I had seen an umbrella there that I liked, but wasn't sure if I needed. So today I decided to go buy it. We have a group trip tomorrow, and it might snow/rain. So once in the mall I didn't see a map and I thought I knew where it was. Well I got thoroughly lost for about 20 minutes. I finally found a map, and found the pharmaceutical that I knew was where I entered the mall. So I slowly worked my self back to that. (You can't really ask directions because they will usually answer you in German and I am still mastering directions in German) Once I got back to the entrance that I had come through (There are at least four others, I'm not kidding you) I was about ready to go back to the Hostel. Then I saw on the map the store I was looking for. So I decided to try one more time to find it. I did, bought the umbrella using a little German and English then hastily made my way back to the Hostel. One the way to and from the Mall I got some pretty pictures. I also took a few during the day when it was snowing. Unfortunately the snow didn't stick. (This seems a lot like in Oregon at my house when it snows and doesn't stick.) So here are some pretty pictures.

 

Big fluffy flakes of snow in this picture, but they're hard to see
It was taken out my room's window

This is my Youth Hoste;

A picture taken of the scenery off the steel bridge

St. Peters in the distance

My Youth Hostel from the Steel Bridge

 Pretty Scenery off the Steel Bridge, St. Peters on the left in the distance

St. Peters

Typical Oregon (I mean German) Weather

So it has been below freezing since I got here. However, Last night a storm moved in. We were told it was supposed to snow. NOPE. Just like in Oregon, at home, when the storm moves in, the temperature rises, and we get rain and floods instead of snow and whiteouts. In some ways this is better. Because, at home when it snows, school is canceled. Unfortunately, here even if it snows, we have to go to school since our classroom is just down the hall. If it had snowed out, we would have wanted to play in the snow instead of doing schoolwork. Yep, just like when I was homeschooled, there were and are no snow days.

Regensburg Pictures

Here are some pictures from our "Tour of Bishops" yesterday.
Basically it was a tour of lots of churches in a 4 block area. It was also
a tour of Old Regensburg for us to orientate ourselves with Old Regensburg.

 

Picture of the River, Countryside, and Old City
St. Peters is in the top left with the two steeples.

Old Stone Bridge built in 1150, The building on the left housed Salt that was mined in Saltzburg
Salt was called "white gold" it contributed to a lot of Regensburg's wealth.

 

Metalwork of Jonah and the Whale
If you look carefully, you can see a stagecoach on the top of the hanger, it signifies good food or good eating, and it is from when the horse drawn coach would stop here.

 

This stone building is remnants of the Roman's Outer Wall from when the Romans occupied Regensburg

 

St. Peters,
Started Construction in 1250,
It was completed in 1860,
Their are French influences in its structure
1/3 of St. Peters is underground
The High Bishop of St. Peters gave his life so that the Americans wouldn't bomb Regensburg in WWII

 

(I think it is a) Statue of Charles the 5th,

I took a picture of it because it was a statue of a horse =) 

Regensburg

Today we had from 12:30-4pm to wander anywhere we wanted. I went in to Old Regensburg with some other girls. I sent off a few postcards, bought some more postcards, bought a mug for tea in our classroom, and bought a crepe with Nutella, (Ask my mom if you don't know what that is). Then I decided I needed to come back to the hostel and do a few internet errands and then get to homework. =) So I left the other girls wandering around Regensburg and walked about a 1/2-a mile back to my hostel. I am proud of myself of getting back on my own with no problems. It took me a full week in Qingdao, China before I would go anywhere by myself. Now I will try to do the rest of my internet errands, and then get to homework.

Mission

We were reminded yesterday and again today that our purpose first and foremost is our evangelism to the community. Even if we don't do specific evangelism deeds, we are constantly being watched. Our behavior is what they see Christians as. It is almost all Catholic here. Even then, we have been told that most people only attend on Easter and Christmas. Sad. We are the light to these people, even with just our everyday actions. It was a wonderful reminder about why we are here in the first place.

Es ist kahlt!

I woke up to 18*F weather this morning. Brrrrr! Then we decided to walk to the mall in it. It is very cold out there. I bought a few necessities including a hat since I was convinced to leave my Cowgirl Hat at home. Next we ate lunch, now I am on the last few minutes of my free time, and then we start orientation/geography class.

Pictures!!!

 Here are a few pictures, I tried posting these twice last night but the internet was having issues. So here they are now.

 

A Famous Painting in the Art Museum in Munich

A Painting of a Knight killing a dragon

 

The Countryside on the way to Regensburg, it looks just like Oregon

Here

I arrived in Munich about 6pm last night. Then I had dinner and helped search for the last AmBex Student that hadn't arrived yet. We finally found her. Then we went to bed about 9pm. So I didn't have a chance to update this. Now I am in Regensburg. My main place for this whole trip. Earlier we went to a famous art museum in Munich then drove here. In the Art Museum I took lots of picture. Next I unpacked, and now I am writing this. I will try to post pictures later. I was there for over 5 hours but they gave me food and other vouchers to make my stay more pleasant. I had more of an adventure of getting from the Munich Airport to my Hostil. It involed asking for lots of directions and using a little of the German that my mom forced me to learn the last week before I left. I survived and had an easier time of it then the girl after me.  Thanks for all the prayers everyone especially the ones about me being stuck in Amsterdam.

Stuck in Amsterdam

My flight from Portland to Amsterdam was delayed landing due to flap errors. I missed
my connecting flight by 2 minutes. I am now stuck here for over 5 hours. Please pray that I am
safe here and that I make it to my hostel in Munich Germany safely since because I am getting in
so late I will not have anyone meeting me, just directions of where to go. Thanks everyone.
Missing YOU

One Last Ride

I got up extra earlly this morning to ride Milo one last time.
We had an awesome workout and a lot of fun. I will miss her lots.

Shots

This morning, the doctor's office called and told me I needed two shots before I could leave. I was not happy. I react badly to shots. The last time I got a hepatitis shot, my arm hurt for a week. When I got my flu shot this past Fall, my arm hurt for 3 days, and the ache spread all the way up to my ear. They hurt when I got my shots today! Please pray that I will recover much faster then last time. I do not want an aching arm while stuck on a plane for 12hours.

In the Midst of Things

I started really packing tonight, and am almost completely packed. When I was starting to pack, my cat decided he didn't want me to go to Germany, and sat on my lap so I couldn't pack. =) He later climbed into my suitcase and started to get comfortable in it. I will miss him and my horse a lot. Here is a picture of us tonight.

Packing! I have started packing. I can only bring one underbaggage for free. I should do fine. Plus I have been working on my German with my mom. I learned numbers today, so she decided for tonight's Yahtzee match that I have to say everything in German. This could get interesting. only 4 days til I leave.

Last Sunday before I leave

I am going to miss so many people. The prayers from them are so welcome.
I had fun with my last Children's Church, I brought cupcakes for them and they really
enjoyed them.  The left over cupcakes went to the guys at the church afterwards. I think
they might enjoy them even more than the kids =)

Shopping

Tomorrow I am going shopping with Ruth, Lizzy, Mom, and Becky. Ruth will be picking up items for the return trip to China, and I will start buying the items on my "to buy" list for traveling to Germany.

Less than 2 Weeks before I leave

I leave on January 13th, it will be my first time flying internationally without family.
I am already starting to make lists of what to buy before leaving and what to bring.
Thanks for all the prayers everyone.