A Picture is Worth a Trillion Words….
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
By Katrina Denny
A few picture with captions to entertain. Note that the picture captions are below the pictures they relate to.
First some pictures of traveling and the building we are staying in.
At last, we are boarding the plane to Amsterdam. It was a close call though for some however, because three students had gone to a resturant and when we had started boarding, they had just gotten served their food. Lets just say those burgers were injested rather quickly.
A few of us on the plane from detroit to Amsterdam. Since we all were sitting in the same area, we had the misfortune of dealing with a rather unfriendly flight attendant. However, her rudeness was made up for by us having our own personal televisions, where we could watch a ton of movies or watch the plane flying over the ocean. I myself enjoyed the movies 300 and Blades of Glory.
Well aren’t we a good looking group waiting for the tram (otherwise known as the Strassenbahn). In this picture we are at the airport getting ready to head to the Teerhof Gaestehaus.
The building on the left is the Teerhof. This is the building that all 11 students and Professor and Mrs. Sykes are living. The students are staying in small apartments with a bathroom and kitchenette. Our rooms are located on the top floor, or if you look in the picture the row of white rooms at the top of the building. The Sykes are staying a floor below. We are all really jealous because they have bigger windows and less flights of stairs to go up and down.
The view out of our windows (which don’t have screens so we get and influx of bugs with the changing weather). Nicht schlect, oder? That side of the river is known as the Schlacte and would not be complete without many resturants, beer gardens, and always tons of people.
Now for some views of the apartments we are staying in. I think three view should suffice.
I know that you all are dying to see some pictures of the area around us. The few that I’ve chose give a good variety of the small town that we are making our home, Bremen.
These are the towers of St. Petri Dom. Note that you can see these from our windows (you can go and check the picture above if you want). Most of the gang attended church here on our first Sunday morning, which is a considerable feat considering our jet-lagged bodies. After much debate on what type of church it is, it should be duely noted that this is in fact a Lutheran Church.
It is just our luck that a building just to the left of the teerhof is being built, so we get to listen to and walk through construction every day. Prof Sykes thinks it is a learing experience for all of the civil engineers to be able to watch this new building being built. But for everyone else, well, its just kind-of annoying.
A typical streat in the residential area of Bremen.
This picture is a view of the Wesersee, a small branch of the Weser River. On the banks of the Wesersee many people lay-out and go swimming in the river, because boats are not allowed in this part. Betsy and I were laying on the wooden dock/pier thing where people would jump off into the river.
Some of the boys eating lunch at a cafe on the street. While there are many of adorable cafe’s available, it is a very expensive option of eating. This is how we ate until we discovered the beauty of buying groceries. Our new favorite store: Aldi.
Ohhh yea…. that little thing called school, and engineering, and homework….
Here we are on the first day of school heading to our classroom. This picture is actually on the Universitaet von Bremen Campus. The campus was littered with grafitti, and there are protests going on to preserve free education for everyone. Its a very interesting environment to be around for a bit. The Mensa is quite good, with tons of food for pretty cheap. Right now however, students are still in class and will be done next week after they finish writing their exmas. So after that the campus will be pretty dead and we’ll be able to sit together at lunch.
This is our classroom for the first week. Don’t we look ready to learn? :)
Well since this entry took me an hour and a half to compose, I sure hope you enjoy it. Even though I’m sure you are astounded by my incredible ability of writing, I think the pictures do a better job of describing what is actually going on over here in Bremen, Germany. Leave some comments and questions!
The long flight across the pond
Monday, July 16, 2007
By Lisa Andela
We started out from Grand Rapids on Friday afternoon about 3:30pm. The flights went really smoothly all the way to Bremen. In general, there were no major delays or hold ups. All our luggage showed up at the Bremen airport with us and we got on the tram to go to the guest house where we will be staying for the coming weeks. We were all quite exhausted. Some of us slept, some of us quickly unpacked, but most of us went out on the town to explore. The Stadtmusikantan festival was going on when we arrived in Bremen. Stadtmusikantan is the legendary tale of the donkey, dog, cat, and rooster who traveled together to become musicians in Bremen (look it up, it’s an interesting tale). The festivities included many little kiosks to buy food from and vendors. For dinner, the students went to Becks am Markt. It was a great place to eat, and was located right in the city center. We learned quickly about the German culture as it differed from America.
First of all, we noticed a significant amount of bikers around town, as well as a popular use of the public transportation. Germans seem to strive toward cleaner alternatives. With the same concept in mind, they seem to strive toward cleaner waste management as well, and it became apparent that recycling was all the rage. Unfortunately, we also quickly discovered that German culture does not include free tap water or free refills for your drinks. Bummer.
With all these discoveries in our minds and new food in our stomachs, we finally let our confused, jet-lagged bodies fall asleep.
Early Days
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By Aubrey Sykes
After several meetings at Calvin College, a group of 11 students elected to take their Engineering 202 and a second course in the German language in Bremen, Germany during the summer of 2007. This program is led by Professor Sykes who will also be accompanied by his spouse, Mrs. Nyna Sykes (Business Manager-Christian Classics Ethereal Library, CCEL.com).
On April 22, the students gathered at Professor and Mrs. Sykes’ home for some refreshments, a few (more!) administrative details for the trip and courses, and an opportunity to get to know each other better. The students are: Lisa Andela, Lindsay Arnold, Steve Brink, Katrina Denny, Tim Hirschberg, Ian Hoffbeck, Elizabeth (Betsy) Huyser, Tom Kok, Jon Lotton, Doug Spencer, and Danny VanderSpek; due to an earlier, very important personal committment Betsy Huyser could not join us.
Upon finishing the Spring 2007 semester, all prepared to regather at Calvin College on 9 July for 4 days of Statics and Dynamics, before flying to Bremen on July 13.