Spicheren Hoehe

First of all, I would like to remind you, the reader, of this publication's priorities:

1. All content generated during PPP abroad experience
2. Moderate interest in history and background contect relevant to theme of post
3. Not grammar
4. Not spelling

I have noticed the featured video today has plenty of errors. It takes around an hour and a half to re-upload it.  I hope you forgive me, and know that I know that I am not going to become an editor.

Photojournalism. It's the future.

Today I took a bike ride to Spicheren, a French village near Kleinblittersdorf.  We went to go check out an old US tank.  The 70th Infantry Division liberated this part of France and has a few memorials commemorating their achievements.

The area was also fought over during the Franco-Prussian War, part of the wars leading to German unification:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spicheren

You can use your browser to translate this, if it interests you:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spicheren

Here is a video with embedded content (subtitles) and HD for your viewing enjoyment:

The Casemates of Luxembourg

Thursday was a holiday and I was invited to tag-along on a trip to Luxembourg.  A friend of mine, Nicole, offered to give an Irish exchange student and his friend a tour of Luxembourg.  We got to see more of the 'castle' - something I found supremely cool.

Gibraltar of the North, the old castle Luxembourg, is a geological gift from Ares, the god of war. Grammar.

There is a 'peninsula' - if you will- of cliff-ed stone right next to a river valley.  This outcropping is what was turned into a fortress as early as the 10th century.  The model below attempts to show the outcropping and primitive fort:

Here is the modern day view looking down this peninsula of rock in a green sea of trees.

The first Casemates of Luxembourg were built by the Spanish in 1644.  They were continually expanded by each subsiquent occupier (Austrians in 18th century) and now stretch over 23km underground.  In 1867, they were abandoned in the name of neutrality, but this here brochure says they weren't able to destroy them for fear of collapsing parts of the city that was build above them.

Here is a view into the lower peasant city of Grund (literally: ground).

During the two world wars, as many as 35,000 people took shelter in the Bock Casemates during air-raids:

The main Casemates I walked through are from the mid 18th Century.

Pretty views:

We did a lot of walking up and down hills.

GoPro probably took 3000 pictures:

I really fell in love with the views from the bridge, which looked up at the tunnels and fortress we started our trip inside of:

Unfortunately I spent the majority of the trip sneezing

Because everything was in bloom.

There was a cool little museum on clothing from Eastern Europe:

And we went to the royal palace (again for me):

And we played around in the park below the city:

This kid wasn't amused that we were climbing on 'his' rockclimbing wall:

Germans! Just Like Us!

Convertibles are fun and mess up their hair!

They play football too!

I met up with some American friends and we went to the Saarland Hurricanes Semi-Pro team.  Saarland won 60-0 against Mainz, but it was still fun.  The fans were more like NHL fans than NFL fans, which was unexpected an entertaining.

 They have to mow the lawn as well!

 With rabbits!


They scream for ice cream!

Pinocchio Eis.

 They make delicious pizza! With Salmon!

They have birthday parties and enjoy bad Tex-Mex and Margaritas!

I was invited to the birthday dinner/drinks of a classmate/friend at the local Mexicanische Restaurant.  My entire Power Plant Technology class was there- it was nice to see everyone again. And this time I could actually talk to people because my German has improved!

    

A Love (Photo) Story

There was once an american who experienced his first dark, wet, terrible northern winter.  He wasn't sold on Kleinblittersdorf.  But then spring came and despite a few bad days, everything got prettier and better.

Along the running path on the French side, looking at the friendship bridge:

Dog Island, where there are always at least 3x as many dogs as people:

A bench up on the hill:

I live by the church down there.

It's a nice place to walk to (Fitbit points) and enjoy life (catch your breath).

I think Carlos has finally accepted me. He waits by the bike storage room more oft than not for me:

And he thinks my apartment is his apartment:

Flugzeugausstellung Hermeskeil

It was pooring rain on Sunday so Fabi and I decided to go for a drive to a mainly outdoor airplane museum.  Our mutual love of airplanes is great...

My boss used to be a mechanic for the air force and worked on the Starfighter, a supersonic nuclear bomber, which is pictured below.  Every week he remembers funny or interesting stories about his time in the air force.  It was nice to see the plane that I have spent hours at work talking about and looking at.

The museum had lots of engines and turbines cut apart so you could see them.  I enjoyed it immensely and thought about boring Fabi to death with information about them:

We got to look at and inside some really old planes. It made it really clear to me why people used to be afraid of flying:

The Super Constellation, that I have also heard a lot about:

According to my boss, amateur historian and engineered transport enthusiast, this is the same Super Constellation used by the US to spy on Russia during the Cold War.  At one point in time, the German Chancellor was invited to Moscow to see the return of POWs.  The US decided this was a great chance to spy, so they swapped the nose-cone of the plane out with one that had cameras.  Because of international law, the airplane of a diplomat is protected from certain seizure and searches.

So along the way, the pilots experienced "technical difficulties" that caused them to veer of course and conveniently over points of interest.  The USSR officials were suspicious but the pilots acted like they had no choice.  When they landed, the Soviets were suspicious and wanted to search the plane.  The German diplomat (who had been drinking a lot on the flight) distracted them and fought them off.  But the pilots realized that they were going to lose the argument and came up with a story.  Because the flight was Lufthansa, an airline, they had to go back to Germany and do business, they couldn't just simply keep a plane around while there was official business.  So the pilots took off and went right back to the hangar, where the original nose was put back in.

To appease the Soviets, they flew the same plane back to the USSR and let it be inspected. They did such a good job that the swap was never discovered.

This is what I learn at work.

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I liked being able to see a lot of European and USSR aircraft I had never seen in person.

This helicopter was my favorite as a kid:

And this one is now my new favorite:

This massive helicopter is big enough, and strong enough, to fit my childhood favorite inside.

After exploring for an hour or so we went to the local cafe, which happened to be inside of a Concord:

 ... I probably should of taken a picture of the outside...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I also made apple pie as a thank you for the awesome sweater a co-worker knitted for me.  It tasted OK.

Randoms

The weather has taken a turn for the better.  It stays light very late into the night, which means people are loving the town-square of Saarbruecken.

That photo was taken as I walked back from a lecture on "Religion and Evangelism in the United States" at the Volkschule (University for the People).  The audience was mostly current students of a class on religion, and their average age was around 65 I would guess. I think that the Volkschule program in Germany is a really great idea, and it was cool to see it in action.

The lecture was really good. It was given by a philosopher with lots of US experience, and by a theologian who lived in the US for over 20 years.  The audience also had a fair share of theologians, which meant that the conversations and questions were really interesting. The main theme of the structured part of the lecture was a history and demographic of the evangelical churches in the US.

There is a lot that can be said about the experience and some of the topics covered- I'll cover just one or two parts.

The last subject before questions was on WASPS (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) and their influence east coast culture and politics (all but 4 US presidents have been Protestant).

Questions naturally and immediately went into how religion and politics mix in the US- particularly how religion became important after the 1980s, as they perceived it.

Two thoughts:

1.  The audience (and lecturers) didn't approve that candidates in the US 'must' declare their religious position if they are running for office. They blamed it a little bit on JFK for being Catholic (he was forced to say he was also american) and on Reagan.  In summary, the audience was really skeptical about candidates' declared religious experiences.

2.  The audience wanted to understand the influence of religion (religious values) in public education within the US.

In particular, one man reallllllyy couldn't understand how some students were banned from reading his favorite book, "The Awakening," on religious grounds within the USA.  He kept asking questions, frowning, pausing, and then asking the lecturers again to clarify if they actually meant what they were saying (I think he was hoping he had been lied to).  His inquiry ended with:

Man: "But the Americans are famous and proud of their bill of rights and the separation of church and state, how can this happen?"

Lecturer: "It happens partly on free speech, and partly because communities have lots of power over themselves..."

Man cuts lecturer off: "-but they always talk about this big wall between church and state!"

Lecturer: "We all know it is easiest to dig a tunnel through a thick wall"

In my opinion, the lecture in general and these two stories represent a very condensed sample of questions I am asked and conversation topics directed at me while I'm here in Germany.  I think that it was very cool that there were even people interested in the topic and that there was a venue to learn about it.  It was also two hours full of the dry wit that makes many Germans absolutely hilarious.
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At work, I was using google and typed "What is the difference between" and google suggested hilarious things for me. So I typed it in German to see what the suggestions were as well.

What is the difference between ___________  ||||| Was ist das unterschied zwischen___________

English suggestions: mass and weight, speed and velocity, weather and climate, heat and temperature...

German suggestions: peanut butter and marmalade, a duck...., iphone4 and iphone 4s, and peanut butter and marmalade again!

I looked it up and apparently the suggestions are heavily influenced on region and land.
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 David visited and we got a ride to see the Saarschleife. Pretty, despite the rainy day:

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One day we checked out a burger place and it was honestly the best burger I've had. Goat cheese and pesto (Click on the hyperlink!):

I may have gone back this week to confirm that the burgers are actually the best in the world.