Calvin Engineering Summer Program in Germany 2017

Going to Wittenberg and getting to Worship in the church there on the 500^th anniversary of the reformation was a pretty cool experience. It was interesting to be in the very place where Luther started the change that engendered my own branch of Christianity. Continue reading “Wittenberg Church”

The Kölner Dom was absolutely magnificent. It was the very first thing you could see as you walked out of the train station in Köln and you couldn’t miss it. It rose far above any other surrounding buildings with its twin spires stretching over 150 meters tall. During our entire stay, it never got old just looking up at it. Going to the top, as you can imagine, was an incredible view itself in addition to the ornate carvings over every piece of stone all the way to the top. Continue reading “The Kölner Dom”

I’m going to be straight up with you, Germany has held a lot of surprises for me. Things that I didn’t expect, things that I didn’t know would be here, things that I didn’t even know existed, have all popped up throughout my time here. I arrived here not thinking that I knew everything, but neither was I aware of how many things I was completely unaware of. I like to think that I’ve adapted quickly and managed to readjust how I perceive my current environment, but there’s still so much that I have yet to pick up on. From the way that certain words are pronounced, to the different kinds of foods available, to the ticks and bits of micro-behaviors that differentiate how an American acts from how a German acts, there is a lot that I’m still learning. With that said, High Mass at the Köln Cathedral was quite an experience for me.

Continue reading “My Two Cents on the Scents of Incense”

The highlight of our trip to Cologne was the Cathedral. We visited the Cathedral twice, once as tourists and once to worship. Attending High Mass at the Cologne Cathedral was my first time attending a Catholic service and there were some similarities that I noticed with Protestant services. Continue reading “Blog Post #4”

On a typical Sunday morning, I am at church by 8 AM. I do not groan or complain because I have to get up early, but I get to church ready to worship God in a similar way to how it would have been done after the Reformation in 1517 even though we have an organ, microphones, and the like today. It has been 500 years since Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Schloss Kirche and today I worshipped at that church.

Continue reading “The Place of Reformation”

The streets:

In the streets of Germany you will find currywurst with fries and doner kebaps (the best street food to grace this place called earth). In the larger cities, you will find street performers and artists of all sorts. Coming across a talented performer/group on the streets is always a lot of fun. Narrow cobblestone alleys are quickly filled by our large crew.

Continue reading “What it’s like”

I am having so much fun in Germany. Here are a few pictures from our adventures.

There are way more nice cars in Berlin than back in Grand Rapids. Pretty much wherever we have been in berlin, there are always fancy cars. There are Porches, Lamborghinis, Teslas, and so much more. This is a Lamborghini from the Volkswagen museum. We were not allowed to sit in it, but it was still very cool. Made me wish Id have enough money to afford one someday.

This picture is from our singe day trip to Bremen. It is an old ship that was converted into a restaurant. It would be cool to eat there, but we did not get the chance. The funny thing about this boat is that there are bridges on each side that are too low for the boat to pass through, so its kind of stuck there.

Here is a map of the U-Bahn and S-Bahn routes though the city of berlin. We use these methods of public transport pretty much wherever we go besides school. These subways get you around the city pretty quick, if you know what you’re doing… which now I finally do. There were many times at the start of the trip where we were not sure which train to take and ended up going the wrong direction. Public transport can be fun as long as it is not crowded.

I was supposed to write a blog about Sachsenhausen after I went to see it. That was over two weeks ago, and I still haven’t written anything out. I guess I just don’t want to talk about it. It was a very powerful experience and it made me realize just how forgettable my life is to others. Walking through the camp I realized how many people were there, and how many people died there. At many of the camps and museums, there are several stories of people who did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust. Thousands upon thousands of people whose life is summarized into a paragraph. Continue reading “Better Late than Never”

The following are pictures of some of our adventures in Germany and descriptions of the pictures. Hopefully this allows those of you at home to get a better glimpse of what we are up to. Continue reading “Adventures in Germany in color!”