Zillertal and Weimar

Today is no school so I thought I would update my blog. If you are wondering why we don’t have any school, I’ll tell you. First of all, it’s only my school, St. Michael Gymnasium, that doesn’t have school today. Second of all, today is basically a teacher work day, but who knows what is actually going on. One thing that is a bit interesting is that there aren’t really school districts here like in the States and each school is more independent. I’ll take my free day as an opportunity to fill you in on the last two weeks.

Four days after getting back from London, Sven, Ralf and I went to Austria. We got there on Thursday the 11th and returned on Tuesday the 16th. The trip down to Zillertal took 10 hours! A lot of that had to do with the weather conditions. Normally, there is no snow on the Autobahn because so many cars are traveling so fast and the snow simply melts. That day however, it was snowing like crazy all over Bavaria and the snow was sticking on the Autobahn. Luckily, we made the trip safely! The skiing in Austria was amazing. We skied three days in Kaltenbach (Hochzillertal/Hochfügen) and every day was sunny! We could not have lucked out more on the fantastic weather and snow conditions. The snow was not very fresh, but once the sun and the people softened it up a little bit, it was like a dream. The crowds were huge however, and sometimes waiting in the lift lines can be pretty hectic. We also skied the two “Talabfahrts” of Hochzillertal. A Talabfahrt is a run that goes all the way from the top of the mountain to the valley (where the gondolas start, ticket counters are, and parking lots are). This is pretty special because most of the snow at the bottom of these runs is all artificial so the groomers have to work pretty hard to keep that well kept. Unlike at Christmas, the camping platz was covered in about 6 inches of snow. It was definitely pretty, but the snow is sometimes hard on the tents that are attached to the trailers. A couple of the poles on our tent had slipped a little bit under the weight of the snow, so we had to put them back into place again. I feel incredibly lucky that my host family takes me on trips to see places like Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Holland…places that I might not get to see otherwise (or as a tourist in 20 years).

After getting back to Lammersdorf at 5pm on Tuesday the 16th, I got up at 5:30am the next morning to go to Weimar. I was in Weimar from Wednesday until Sunday the 21st. Weimar is in Thuringen, one of the new (since 1990) states in Germany. You probably recognize the name from history class (Weimar Republic, etc.) I went to a seminar with 48 other Americans, all of whom are the CBYX recipients from ASSE (California, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada). Every year, the scholarship recipients go to Weimar for a 5 day seminar. A lot of times it is called the half time seminar, but in reality, the half way point was January 14th and as of today, I have been in Germany for 6 and ½ months and have exactly 4 months left.

Anyway, Weimar is not especially well known as a city full culture and life, but I think it is a perfect place to visit if you don’t want to be in a huge city, but still want to get a good taste of history. Weimar was home to Schiller and Goethe, two of Germany’s most famous writers. In addition, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, and Hans Christian Anderson lived at some point in the city. More recently, the Bauhaus movement took place in Weimar. In the late 1920s and early 30s, architecture took a turn as extremely basic houses with horizontal lines instead of vertical lines and many intricate decorations began to be built. This part was interesting because we walked through a new development of these Bauhaus style houses in Weimar and they look very modern, so unlike the stereotypical German house. As you can tell, Weimar has a lot to do with culture and the arts of Germany and the entire world. On the other side of the culture spectrum, described by one of our German seminar leaders as “unkultur” or not cultural, is the former Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald, located on a hill above Weimar and about 10 minutes from the city center by bus. I had never been to a concentration camp, but I had heard a lot about them, from teachers, films, and books. Even when one thinks they know all about the horrors of these camps and how the prisoners were treated, all of that becomes more real when one actually visits a camp. I can’t describe what it is like to go to one of these camps, but I can only say that it is just something one has to do in life. Until you have seen the barracks, the cells where the prisoners stayed during their last night before going to the crematorium, or the crematorium itself, the horror of the time of the Nazis is just something there, but not quite real, not quite believable even though you know it’s true. This was a very sobering part of the trip, but as the next generation to lead the world, we must see was has been done so we can make sure that it happens never again.

In addition, we visited Erfurt, the capital of Thuringen. We sat in the parliament there and visited the Rathaus and the mayor. We listened to a talk about the government in Thuringen and some people asked a couple politicians questions about their opinions on certain problems. The mayor gave us a speech about her duties and what Thuringen has to offer in Germany. Erfurt was interesting for me because it has a street train, unlike Aachen which has buses.
I really enjoyed getting to see all the kids again. Of course I get to see Leilani and Kayla almost every day, and I have seen some of the kids from Aachen a couple of times, but being able to see some of the kids who I hadn’t seen since Washington D.C. was really fun. We had an 11pm curfew and that gave us the chance to go into the city of Weimar and hang out a little. It was definitely a crazy time, but I got to talk to lots of kids and that was really interesting.

It’s so weird for me to think that a year ago I had just done my interview and was about to find out that I had gotten accepted into this program. It’s sometimes weird to think that my sister could be here next year, sitting on her bed and writing a blog post about Zillertal and Weimar. Good Luck Sal!

I’d like to let you guys know that I know when I’m coming home. I’m really excited, but I still can’t comprehend how fast the time has gone and that I really only have 4 months left in Germany. I leave Germany at 12:20pm on June 23 and arrive in Washington D.C. at 3:00pm on the same day. No the flight is not 2 hours and 40 minutes…there is a 6 hour time difference. I’m hoping to fly out of D.C. at 5:50pm and arrive in Seattle at 8:25pm, but I’m not sure yet what will happen. Either way, I can’t wait to see all of you guys this summer!

Carrie

Lammersdorf, Germany
February 23, 2010