Bremen, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, and Schleswig-Holstein

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, but i've also been very busy.

(Niedersachsen)
To start off, the weekend after we went to London, we had two day trips with the German Politics and Culture class. The first was to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp from WWII. The camp was originally a residence for workers at the nearby military base, and then later was converted to a prison of war camp for captured Russians. The concentration camp portion of the camp was later built by the holocaust prisoners, completely separate from the Russian POWs. While Bergen-Belsen was not an extermination camp, thousands of jews, gypsies, and other minorities stil died in Bergen-Belsen. Unfortunately, most of the camp was burned down to prevent the spread of disease when the camp was liberated by the americans, so all that is left was the basic infrasturcture (military transportation and train line) and the memorial museum, which included a series of video interviews that related the stories of the experiences of survivors that went through Bergen-Belsen.

(Bremen)
The next day, we took a quick train to Bremen-Burg to make a change to go up to Bremerhaven (A port that is part of the Lander of Bremen, but is not physically connected to the original Lander). We were informed at this point that the train to Bremerhaven was delayed by 1/2 hour, and then later that the train had broken down and was cancelled (fortunately we had the teachers with us who could understand the german announcement at the station). We were able to call ahead to the Bremerhaven emigration museum and get an extension on regular hours for our group and then catch the next train up to Bremerhaven. The Bremerhaven port was a major port for emigrants to America and all over the world, and the museum gave a very good feel for what it might have been like to emigrate across the ocean (it won the best european museum of the year award last year i believe). The museum was very interactive and simulated the boarding process, life on a ship, and the arrival and testing process (I passed the written test, yay!).

(Jacobs)
The following weekend us Lafayetties hosted a pajama party for Jacobs which we had organised with some help from the college. We started off with a presentation about Lafayette College for the Jacobs kids, which to no surprise was pretty sparsely attended. To my surprise however, the party went pretty well the rest of the night and a good number of Jacobs kids came (the fact that one of the DJs was from Jacobs and knew more international music might have helped). Lauren (from Lafayette, studying in Madrid) also arrived on Friday.

(Schleswig-Holstein)
On Saturday we took a train up past Hamburg to Lubeck. Lubeck was a very cool medieval town. The old town was on a small island built in the twelve hundreds and remained unaffected by the destruction of the two world wars. The entire town was paved with cobblestones and had amazing architecture throughout, including the hospital, which looked more like a decorated fortress than a medieval hospital. Lubeck is known as the "city of 7 spires," which can all be seen sticking above the city from afar. We attempted to find all 7 while in the city, and were eventually successful, although they're a lot harder to find when you're actually in the city. In food news, Lubeck has some of the best Donner that i've had in Germany, and is also famous for it's Marzipan candy, which we also sampled :)
We then took a very slow two-car train to the town of Travemunde, which looked like the middle of nowhere when we first got there, but once we got down to the port (on the Baltic Sea) it was much better. A random notable feature: there are millions of ducks in Travemunde, which will come right up to you and quack and hop in hopes of getting food.

(Bremen)
Today we went to the Bremen Stadium to see our local Bundesliga team, Werder Bremen, take on St. Etienne (France). The game was packed and we ended up right next to the St. Etienne fans, who were yelling, singing, and cheering, non-stop throughout the entire game. It was definitely an experience to be in the stadium and to feel all the energy during the game, much better than an american football game in my opinion. In the first half of the game, we were located directly behind St. Etienne's net, and Werder managed to keep good control of the ball and keep it on our half of the field, eventually scoring the first point of the game right near us. Halftime remark: that was the most efficient bathroom i've ever been in, it's amazing how many people went through so fast. During the second half, Werder seemed to have much less control, but that wasn't all bad, because it meant that once again the ball was usually on our side of the field (teams switch sides at halftime). The game ended 1-0 and we then made our way through the huge crowd back towards the tram stop. There were tons of mounted police and riot police blocking off the exit of the St. Etienne's fans for their protection from the Werder fans, and we nearly got run over by the horses. Overall a very cool experience, that I would not mind doing again if timing permits.

(Pictures, Bremen Parliment + Rathous, Oldenberg, and Hamburg take 2 are still to come, now i have to do hw)