Author: Levi Cooper

This summer was my first time staying long term in a big city, which was a cool experience that I am happy to have had. Taking public transportation, walking everywhere, and everything being so close together is so different from the town where I live. I was very busy constantly, with class, weekend trips, and doing other things like going out to eat and doing laundry. SMH where we were staying had no AC so it could get very hot there, but at least the breakfast was good. 

My favorite weekend trips were Heidelberg and Cologne. Seeing Ludwig Castle was really cool, and we got a tour that explained the history to us. Heidelberg also has the longest pedestrian walkway in Germany and it’s very picturesque. The Cologne cathedral is an amazing piece of architecture and worshiping there and climbing up were both highlights of the trip.

Every Thursday our German professor Christoph would take us around Berlin and show us some cool stuff and talk about the culture. One time he took us to a place where people store their super nice cars, and we got to walk around and see all of them. Another time we went to the old airport and walked through it.

For lunch, we would go to a nearby bakery, the Mensa, Doner, or something else. After classes we would all get together in the cafeteria at SMH and grind out the homework. For dinner we would either have the group dinner or eat something we bought from Edika on the way back.

In my last week, I went with some other people to Italy where I spent a few days in Venice, Florence, and Rome. Rome was definitely my favorite, seeing all the ancient Roman buildings and ruins was incredible. Vatican City was also breathtaking to explore. Going through the museums, seeing the sistine chapel, and st peter’s cathedral were amazing. We saw works from famous artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, etc.

Overall, the trip to Germany was an incredible experience. Getting to know everyone on the trip, experiencing a different culture, and visiting all the historic places were unforgettable.

 The first picture is of a cool beetle with a horn I found after coming back with Caleb A. from tracking my phone down. That morning I had left my phone on a bus, so the whole day I was taking it using Find my Iphone on my laptop and watching it go back and forth on the bus route. When we got back after class Caleb volunteered to help me track it down by hitting a bus stop as soon as we saw it coming closer to the Hostel. We got it back pretty easily from a nice bus driver and found the beetle afterwards.

The second picture is of Ludwig Castle in Heidelberg. We got a tour of it, and it was really cool seeing inside and hearing about all of the medieval history and wars surrounding it. Very Game of Thrones like. There’s also an enormous old barrel in the basement. 

The third picture is of the pork knuckle I got at one of the group dinners in Koln. It was very very delicious. So was the sauce, and the potatoes. And the Beer. All the food we had in Germany was pretty good, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that I didn’t like. I really like trying new foods, and I was very impressed.

Overall, I thought that worshiping at high mass in the Koln Cathedral was very interesting and definitely an experience worth having. Because I attend a Christian Reformed Church at home it was obviously very different in many ways. Not unexpectedly though, I have attended catholic masses a couple other times before. What I liked about it compared to other masses I’ve gone to was the grand scale of everything. The cathedral itself is an amazing work of architecture and art both inside and out. I don’t know the names of all the things that happen during the service, but it was cool when they walked around swinging the incense. Everything was in German though, so it was disappointing that I couldn’t really understand any of it. 

I personally don’t mind that the cathedral is open to tourists, otherwise we wouldn’t get to go up the cathedral and see all of the amazing architecture. The religious purpose of the building is still there, it’s just also a tourist attraction afterwards.

For me, the visit to the holocaust museum was a harsh reminder of what happens when the wrong person gains too much power and the extent of the consequences of that. It’s really scary to think about how one person can take advantage of underlying angry sentiments in a populations to commit genocide on millions of people and attempt to take control of an entire continent. It’s very important for people to be reminded of this event and remember it so that nothing this horrific ever happens again. 

The way they laid out the museum starting from the beginning of the holocaust to the end, quotes from people, and explaining how everything happened leaves a big impact on whoever takes the time to read through everything and look at all the photos. Hearing about all the ways the Nazi’s developed to covertly exterminate the Jewish people in Europe left me with a pit in my stomach. It’s a reminder to me that it’s important to be hospitable, kind, and open-minded toward everyone I meet. I think it affects Germany as a country in a similar way. Walking around Berlin, you see a lot of recent WWII history. For example, in front of homes of Jewish people that got sent to extermination camps like Auschwitz are square metal plaques in the ground with their names and other information. Things like these and the holocaust museum are kept in Germany as a reminder of what happened, and to prevent it from happening.