Levi Cooper Blog Q#4

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.

Levi Cooper Blog Q#3

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.

Kai Blog post Q6

What did you find the most interesting or perplexing about visiting Wittenberg? Was there anything unexpected that occurred during the trip or that you learned while visiting the city?

I found Wittenberg to be a very peaceful place with little to no tourism in the area. It was very nice for once to not have to deal with any other crowds, so we could just make up our own as a 40 person crew :). I did find it a bit weird that there weren’t more people but it could be due to the fact that the site itself is not a hugely prominent spot for many other events, or even being a center of religious happenings, it was just the hometown of our favorite protestant hero: Martin Luther.

We went through the museum and then saw his house, but unfortunately we had a mishap with our train and ended up missing the service! I really wished we could have seen it! However, sometimes things happen. We tried to get off of the train at Wittenberg and it wouldn’t open, so over half the group got stuck going to the next stop then turning around and having to head back. It was not a fun time.

All of the traveling kind of put a damper on things, so I do think that I would enjoy going back to the city again to see everything, especially when I am less tired. It was really cool to be able to experience what I saw, and it meant a lot to see where my faith practice started.

Kai Blog post Q8 – Elevator Speech

So how was Germany?

It was great! It was really an experience that I will never forget. We had a great time in a lot of ways, from traveling to bonding over bad homework assignments. We got there and were super tired, but then adjusted to everything kinda quickly, because we started our classes at the Berlin Technical University that same Monday. We saw a lot of cool sights the first couple days, from the Berliner Dom (the berlin cathedral) to the Berlin Wall and Brandenburg gate. We spent most of the weeks just doing classes, running to the store every afternoon, then doing homework until late. We would watch movies or hangout in the evenings!

So where did you travel?

During the planned “course” time, we went to Heidelburg, Wittenburg, Lubeck, Bremen, Koblenz, Cologne, Orienianburg, and then we traveled to Hamburg on one of the “off” days. Most of the trips were pretty planned, but we had free time to also explore the city. My Favorite was Koblenz, or Hamburg, just because they were the coolest/ we had the most fun there. In Koblenz, we sat in a square for a while and tourist watched and listened to music and had good pasta, and in Hamburg we saw Minatur Wunderland and had Hamburgers.

What about your travel at the end?

We went to Venice, Florence, and Rome for a week. It was a lot of travel, and I am glad we went, but I was exhausted by the end. We saw most of the cool must-see sights, so there was a lot of sightseeing and things there.

Thats great! Are you going to go back at some point?

Hopefully, but not for a while :), 6 weeks was a lot, but totally worth it!

*Elevator opens and I run away*

Kai Blog post Q4

We went to Köln and worshipped at the Cathedral a few weeks ago, but it still had the greatest impact on me personally, as the sheer scale of the building was awe-inspiring to look at. I couldn’t even see the full height from the plaza in front, and unless you had a view from one of the other buildings next to the cathedral then it would very difficult to see the whole building at all.

We had a sense of the scale as we steeped off the train at the Hauptbanhof in Köln, but it really wasn’t until we went inside that we were able to appreciate it more, as it provides a sense of perspective. I cannot remember who said it, but someone was discussing the architecture of the cathedrals in Europe, and why they have the emotional impact that they have, and they stated that “to have a sense of the vastness of a space you have to have something to constrain it, something to limit your eyes, so that you can truly see the scale.” This makes sense, as if you look at the sky, you wouldn’t be taken away by the vastness of the great blue, but it is only when there is something to frame it against you have the sense of emotion and feeling that accompanies being in such a place. I felt that the Köln cathedral was a phenomenal example of this concept.

I would say that this feels different from any church that I have been in from the United states, by far. I have been in some big churches for Catholic mass (my family goes on holidays to mass, but to protestant churches otherwise), and they just didn’t compare. The history and cultural impact that some of theses cathedrals have on the community that surrounds it in each city means that you need a significant structure to truly provide a meaningful experience.

Having gone to catholic masses before, I though that the service was pretty similar in structure to the other services that I have attended, despite the fact that it was entirely in German, and I really didn’t get much of the message. I did appreciate that amount of ceremony that the church underwent with the organ and the incense and the hymns, which are all such a attention grabbing method of keeping your mind focused on God.

The tourists outside really shocked me, as we were able to go and worship, but then were able to see the church as a historical site right after. It was a bit of a whiplash because it was so organized and just felt like another church, but then it turned into an commercial enterprise within minutes which was really surprising. It feels like that shouldn’t be a case with such a holy site, but I guess that is what you have to do with a multimillion dollar historical site that you have to maintain. Despite this, I appreciated being able to look around and also see the spires of the church. It was quite a sight.

Caleb Agar Q8

My time in Germany this summer will be something that I remember forever and will look back on with good memories. Traveling to school everyday with classmates, figuring out European public transport, and weekend trips to see amazing places. I had so much fun learning the culture of another country by being there instead of learning in a classroom back home. It was always entertaining when we tried to talk to people in German, sometimes it worked, other times the conversation ended in English. By far the most awkward moments were when someone would say something to the group in German, and no one knew what they said, so we would just look at them and each other with blank looks until someone finally asked if they spoke English. I loved going to Heidelberg and seeing the castle and countryside, even though it was raining. Seeing the cathedral in Koln was breathtaking and it was just hard to grasp how large the building was. Bremen was a really cool town where there were so many small old buildings pack together so tightly. Going to Wittenberg was a very climactic experience since almost all of us Calvin students weren’t able to get off the train at our stop because the door wouldn’t open, and we had to continue on and come back, missing church. My favorite part was our free week. For my free week, my dad came and we traveled around Germany and a few other places throughout the week. Due to a delayed flight, my dad missed his flight from Munich to Berlin, which caused a bit of a headache, but I ended up taking the to Munich and meeting him there, since we were planning to be there the following day. From there, we visited Neuschwanstein castle, the tallest mountain in Germany, and drove a mountain pass into Austria for an evening. From there, we stopped in Heidelberg on our way to rent a racecar to drive around the Nürburgring race track. Driving on the Nürburgring was a major bucket list item and it was really fun, but also extremely scary at the same time. From there we drove to Amsterdam for the next night, before we headed to Berlin. For the week, we rented a car so that we could have a little bit more freedom to explore. We were able to go on the Autobahn and go as fast as the car could go in places. We managed to make our little Volkswagen go faster than its top speed, and we were dying of laughter for hours because of how ridiculous it was. It was such an amazing experience and I am so glad that I came.

Tristan Carne Q8

My time in Germany was great, met new people, made friendships, and learned. Starting off it was quite chaotic, finding our way to our housing was a great ride. 20 people with huge luggage bags taking public transit in Germany for there first time was not, a fun time. After getting to our place 3 hours later we were glad to find out we have to share a dorm size room with 4 people, no a/c, no fridge, no stove, no freezer, no blanket, just to to have our balcony door shut every day by the cleaning crew creating a oven. Anyways, overall the experiences was great, got to see some really old castles, more churches than I can count, and explored many different regions of Germany. My most memorable experience was watching Kai shove Levi 6 feet into a bush and running away (it was a joke). Overall the study abroad experience was, an experience, great time with good friends, and fun times taking public transit.

Sam Klaassen – Elevator Speech Q8

My experience in Germany is one that I will never forget. I’ve appreciated every minute of it, from the weekend trips exploring the country, to the culture shock of different language and food, to nights spent studying. Things that I’d never thought about like A/C, the use of public transport, and the simple fact of being an American became part of my daily life. I gained a vast perspective here because I’ve realized how many other cultures really exist with their own intricacies. Some of my favorite experiences were seeing buildings like the Koln and Berlin Cathedrals, exploring smaller cities like Bremen and Heidelberg, and traveling throughout Bavaria with my mom for our last week. Additionally, I didn’t think that I would be making so many new friends.  I’ve realized that when living together in a place that none of us know, we learn to help each other in a different way than in America, and I will always be thankful for these relationships.  These six weeks in Germany have truly been a life changing experience, and I would encourage any other students to be a part of it, even (and especially if) they feel that it’s outside of their comfort zone.  It has opened my eyes and helped me grow as a student and as a human.

Sam Klaassen – Q5

This is picture of me and a few of the other students jumping in the Baltic Sea. This was a spontaneous decision that we made during our free time in Lubeck, and it was so worth it. There were many things like this that I didn’t necessarily plan to do on this trip, but ended up being memories that I’ll have for life!

This is a picture that I took of our breakfast area at St. Michael’s Heim. Even though it doesn’t look like much, this is the room where we ate many breakfasts and instant noodle dinners. It quickly became our homework spot where we spent many hours studying together.

This is a picture of one of the many water bottles that I had to buy. Unlike the United States, I found out that there aren’t places to get free water in Germany, so when you do buy a bottle you can get a huge 1.5 L like this!

Sam Klaassen- Q4

The worship experience at the Koln Cathedral is vastly different from that of my home church. The most prevalent difference between them is my Christian Reformed style versus the Catholic style. While my church is a simple building that just suits our needs, the cathedral is a huge, ornate building full of murals and statues. I found that the Catholic mass was almost ritualistic. The leaders of the service all wore the same traditional clothes, and used things like incense and communion pieces. Comparing this to my church, my church leaders wear whatever they want, and do not have such an exact method for worship. My Reformed church seems more focused on personal relationships and concepts, while Catholic mass seemed like less of this, but had a somewhat more serious and respectful tone, which I liked. 

I thought that the tourist aspect of the cathedral slightly defeats the purpose of a church. While I really enjoyed seeing the cathedral, and was really impressed by its architecture and size, this brings a material aspect to the church. I believe that being a Christian is having a personal relationship with God, and the distraction of physical things can be unhealthy. Even though this worship is not what I am used to, and not what I think would be best, I enjoyed this trip and was very impressed by the Cathedral itself.