Berline, Leiden, and Amsterdam

Tonight is my last night in Leiden, which is a little outside of Amsterdam. It has been a long time since my last post, so I will go over some highlights of Berlin.

First, I had a test on Wednesday in my Contemporary European Issues class, so I spent a lot of Monday and Tuesday preparing for the test. But, the professors don't always recognize that we have tests, so we had excursions these two days as well. The test went well, but it was difficult to study because of all the things we were going and seeing.

Two Monday's ago we had class in the morning, as usual. We had a guest lecturer who spoke on Christians during World War II, and more specifically Christians in Nazi Germany. The lecture was very good and informative. After this we went and saw a church that was constructed while the Nazis controlled Germany. This was an interesting experience. There were no obviously blatant Nazi symbols left in the church, but there was still some remnant of Nazi presence. The most interesting part of the church was the organ. The organ in this church was the same organ that was played at the Nuremburg rallies. Another part of the church that struck me was the altar. Around the altar was a carving of Jesus preaching to a bunch of people, and directly behind Jesus, to the left, was a soldier, a Nazi soldier I am assuming. I spent the rest of Monday studying, except for going out to dinner with our beloved guide, Gabrial. We sat around and ate and laughed and enjoy Berlin and our times with Gabrial.

Two Tuesday's ago we spent time in Berlin at two sites related to the Holocaust. The first site we went to was a new memorial in Berlin for all the Jewish People who suffered because of the Holocaust. The memorial was very interesting and powerful. It takes up a whole city block in Berlin and is essentially a series of concrete blocks. It is hard to describe, so if you are really interested look up a picture on google or wikipedia. Anyway, we spent about a half hour walking through the memorial and reflecting. After this we went to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. This museum was very different from any other museum I have ever been to. It was not so much about the exact experience of the Holocaust, but was more geared at explaining things through symbolism. One room was a 30 or 40 foot tall empty room that only had a small slit to allow light and air from the outside. This room was powerful in its ability to convey feeling alone and empty. Both of these sites were different from all the other World War II and Holocaust museums and memorals we have visited, and it was refreshing to see a different take on a memorial and a museum.

Wednesday was the test, which went well. After the test we went to Potsdam. While in Potsdam we saw the house where Stalin, Churchill, and Truman or Roosevelt (I don't remember exactly who), worked on drawing up the peace treaty after World War II. It was pretty amazing to see the house these men worked at and the desks they did their work from.

I am running out of time, so the rest will be highlights.

Last Friday was our first free day, and it was a good one. In the morning I went with a bunch of people to the Berlin Zoo. At first, I was skeptical to go to the zoo, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We were like a bunch of kids, running around the zoo, looking at animals and taking pictures. It was very relaxing, a nice change of pace from the rest of the trip. After the zoo we went to a delicious chocolate shop and tried all different types of chocolate. Good chocolate is becoming like wine and there is now chocolate tasting. Good chocolate is made with different percentages of cocoa, with a lower percentage being more of a milk chocolate and a higher being more of a dark chocolate. So we all tried different percentages of cocoa and decided which we liked the most. Next a handful of us went to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstage (German Parliament). These are two of the more notable monuments in Germany, so I figured I should see them before we left. After all this fun and site seeing I went and got my hair cut. The woman didn't speak much English, so it was an experience to have her cut my hair. I think she did a pretty good job. Then on Friday night I went out to dinner with a bunch of friends and packed up, because on Satuday we traveled to Leiden, The Netherlands.

On Saturday we arrived in Leiden much earlier than planned, which was nice because we had another test on Monday. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday studying. Monday morning brought the test and two hours of class. The test went okay, but I am taking the class pass fail so all I really had to get was a C on the test. Monday afternoon we went in to Amsterdam to two museums, the Rijkmuseum and the Van Gough Museum. At the Rijkmuseum we saw some wonderful Dutch art. However, I liked the Van Gough Museum much more. The Van Gough Museum has the largest collection of works by Van Gough, and they were impressive. The museum essentially lays out Van Gough's progression as an artist, which was interesting to see. I really like Van Gough's works. On Monday evening we had a guest lecture on current problems in the Netherlands and Amsterdam. The biggest issues are prostitution, which is legal, soft drugs (ie maraijuana, and here it is legal to possess 5 grams), and more recently immigration and Islam. The guest lecture was very good, very informative. Learning about contemporary issues from people who are living in these places has been once of my favorite parts of the semester.

Yesterday was a long day, maybe one of the longest of my life, or at least it felt that way. I could tell from the get-go that it was going to be a tough day. I woke up and already felt like I needed to go back to sleep. We had two hours of difficult class in the morning, difficult because it wasn't that interesting and I kept falling asleep. After class I grabbed lunch and we headed into Amsterdam. When we got to Amsterdam we met up with Brother Luke to walk through the Red Light District to his ministry. This was difficult for me. We walked through the district to a Christian community, the name of which escapes me, which was located next to one of the biggest sex theaters in Amsterdam. Then we broke up into groups of guys and girls to discuss what we had seen. Our discussion was fruitful, but for the most part I think the guys were afraid or uncomfortable to speak up, or maybe needed some more time to digest what they had just experienced, I know I certainly did. After our discussion we headed to the Dutch Resistance Museum. At the museum we split into four different groups and had a guided tour from the museum. To be honest I was drained and did not get much out of the museum. It was kind of a weird museum, and the majority of the writing was in Dutch, but the guide explained everything in English. One thing that really stuck with me was that less than one percent of the population was part of the resistance movement. After the museum we headed back to the train station and came back to Leiden. Last night was a lot of fun. First the Zoradi's took me, Newty, Ryan, Charley, Bo, and Nick out to dinner at a delicious Dutch pancake place. Nick and I split a dinner pancake with ham, cheese, onions, and mushrooms and it was fantastic. Then for dessert we split a pancake with apple, cinnamon, powder sugar, ice cream, and whipped cream. It was heavenly. One of the most fun parts of dinner was that while we were waiting for our dinner we had a double elimination rock, paper, scissors tournament. The Zoradi's are so funny, both Ryan and his dad are so competitive and love games. So anyway, I made it all the way to the championship game without losing a match, but then lost to Newty.

This morning I slept in a little, until 9 or so, got up, took a shower, and immediately headed downstairs to meet people to go into Amsterdam. We arrived in Amsterdam and headed to the Anne Frank House. I was surprised with how little was actual in the house, but in a way it seemed appropriate. I viewed it as a place to reflect on several things, for one the tragic story of Anne Frank's life and even bigger than that, the tragedy that there are millions other untold stories of Jewish people who suffered during World War II, and also a place to reflect on the bravery and decency of those people who helped the Frank's and others who helped Jews during this terrible period in history.

After that I went out to lunch with everyone who went to the Anne Frank house and Steve Zoradi bought me lunch, which was nice. Then I walked around Amsterdam with Becca, Brandon, and Madison. We mostly did some window shopping because we didn't really know what to see in Amsterdam. We also had a delicious raspberry torte in some little cafe. Then we headed back to Leiden and I have just been hanging out, went out to dinner with some friends, and am about to go back to the hotel and pack up because tomorrow we head to Brugge, Belgium

I am doing great. I can't believe I only have 6 weeks abroad left. I am looking forward to them, but also looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone I know and love again. I miss you all.
Love and Blessings,
Mikey