More from Cologne

More scenes from Cologne...
This is from the top of the Cologne Dom! I climbed that baby, my second Cathedral tower in Europe actually. It is no wonder how the Europeans stay fit, even when they go on trips, they go and see really old buildings with tons of stairs!

Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the Bundes Republik Deutschland! He was also the Mayor of Cologne for many years, leading up to the Nazi Regime.

A picture of the Deutsche Welle building. It is one of the main news channels, much like CNN in Germany. We visited in nearby Bonn.

The bells of the Cologne Dom!

The last standing Amerika Haus in Germany. The US had built many of these throughout Germany following WWII. It was a reading room, letting Germans read books in English etc., as many libraries were destroyed at the time. It also sponsored many events for Germans to come and learn more about the United States.

Some scenes from Colonge for Mid-Year Seminar

So a couple of weeks ago I had to spend the week in Cologne for a Mid-Year Seminar for my program. It was a great time, I got see many of my friends in the Program who I had met in Radolfzell and even D.C. right before I left.

This is an interesting scene from inside the Cologne Dom, this is supposed to hold the bones of the Three Wise men who visited Jesus after he was just born. It has been housed here since the late-Middle ages.

Here is a side shot of the Cologne Dom. It when finished in 1883, the tallest building in the world. That actually didn't last very long, because in the city of Ulm in Bavaria built a bigger tower in its cathedral about five years later. Then the skyscrapers started popping up...

A distant shot of the Dom, from across the Rhein river.

Chan, and Tyler Moore. Chan is a friend from Radolfzell CDC, and Tyler I shared my dorm room in D.C., all the way back in July! ( I can't believe I am halfway through this year!!!) This other dude, I have no clue, who he is. I guess he was just sitting there and saw a opportunity to be in a picture.

Emily, Tyler Ashton, and Mike- all Radolfzellers. It was definitely great to see everyone again!

More from Berlin and Prague

Some more pics to enjoy...
Prague...
Church of Our Lady before Týn


Berlin...
The inside of the Sony Center

This is the Monument to the murdered European Jews. If you walk through the monument, you'll be surprised how easily lost you can become. The stones are much higher up then they appear.

Prague and Berlin

Over the holidays I took the opportunity to do some travelling sine i had so much time off and visited Prague and Berlin, where I brought in the New Year at the Brandenburger Gate! It was a great time. Anyway Here are some of the pictures of both cities. The reall shame is that my battery ran out and I didn't get as many pics as I wanted, especially in Berlin. In no particular order here are photos....

Here is a section of the Berlin Wall. It is crazy how you can walk anywhere in the middle of the city and casually cross where the wall was. 20 years ago, I would have been shot for doing something that is so simple. Simply amazing when one thinks about it.

This is St. Vitas Cathedral at the Prague Castle. Amazing, especially with all the snow... It was built almost 800 years ago, and the castle complex (it is like a little city in itself) was built in 850 A.D. Amazing to think how old this place and city really is...

This is the Sony Center in Berlin. It is more impressie in person (or maybe I could take a better picture...) Anyway it is supposed to light up at night and look similar to Mt. Fuji. You can also catch movies in English there, so I got watch my first movie (in the theater) in english, in a long long time. It was Woddy Allen's new film, Match Point. I am glad I didn't try to watch this in German, considering, I would have been bored because I wouldn't have understood half of what was going on. Right now, watching movies is good excercise for my german, but it is better if I have watched the movie in English before like Harry Potter or if it is a simple adventure movie, like King Kong. Ones that are heavy on dialogue are too hard...

A look at Prague from the castle.

St. Nicholas Cathedral in Prague. I went to a concert here for Christmas music. The Christmas market in Prague was still going on for the week I was there, even after Christmas was over. In Erfurt, the Weihnachtsmarkt ended before Christmas even came, so it was a pleasant surprise.

These are some more photos of Prague.... very beautiful all of it.

Check out the new Link: Steve Stands For Opportunity

My good friend Steve Nicholas is running for the West Virginia House of Delegates, 12th District in Jackson County. Very friendly territory for Republicans. Right now the representative is Mitch Carmichael. Pretty much a carbon copy Republican, same platform and talking points as every other one. So Steve is facing the hard task(s) of running a first time campaign. He's got a Web Site, so check it out and see what he has to say. Good Luck Steve in the primary, though right now it doesn't look like he'll have an opponent. We'll see!

Guten Rutsch!

Alright I know it is a little late with the Happy New Year greetings and I haven't posted in quite awhile, but I have been busy doing a little more travelling. I spent Christmas in Erfurt with a really nice family here, the Seidels. Their daughter, Anika, was an au pair in the states, in San Fransisco and my tutor assigned to me by the University of Erfurt. I signed up for a program that the City of Erfurt sponsors for all the international students at the University and the Fachhochschule, called Fremde werden Freunde (which literally means Strangers become Friends) and the Seidels became the "Friends". They are a great family and it was a really nice time. Germans celebrate their Christmas a little different in the States, namely giving of the giftson Christmas Eve (Heilige Abend or Weinachtsabend) rather than on Christmas Day. Germans also get the day after Christmas off as well as the the third day of Christmas (No huge blowout sales to move all the excess inventory like the States.) It was a modest and very fun evening. I baked the family an apple pie, which the family had not tried before. So it was a first for me too, as I have never even attempted to bake a pie on my own (and I made the crust too!) Ich bin Stolz! We attended a church service and afterwards we sung german christmas carols and then family exchanged gifts. The family was really nice and got me a gift of darjeeling tea and an Erfurt mug! I had merely burned a couple of cds, one of bluegrass music and Buena Vista. They really seemed to enjoy them. We then played a few games and soon it was quite late and I had to go home. It was great to spend the holiday with a real nice german family. I count myself lucky. Here is the apple pie I had just prepared and ready for baking. I don't get an A for presentation, but it was tasty.