Getting Ready!

Posted by C.Kyte ,


Hey just wanted to make a quick post before we take off for our trip next week. For 12 days Wes, Anjali, Cody, Kelly, and I will be traveling to Zermatt Switzerland, Paris France, and Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Here's a little bit of what we hope to see..

Wes and I will get the chance to ride dirty (snowboard) in Switzerland for a few days, and we can't wait! Next we will travel to Paris for 4 days! In Paris, I get to see the Bowlby family which is going to be awesome. For those of you who don't know. The Bowlby's are the wonderful family I have spent a lot of time with over the years, especially with their son Justin. They even invited me to live with them when I moved back to Seattle. Justin is my best friend that passed away in 2007. I really look forward to spending time with them. After Paris, we are heading to Amsterdam to visit and sightsee! I can't wait for the trip and look forward to posting pictures and stories up when I get back!


Zermatt


Paris


Amsterdam

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Heilbronn, Germany

Posted by C.Kyte , Labels: , ,


Hello again! It was another great weekend, and arguably the best one yet. Cody, Wes and I set out to Heilbronn, Germany with our friend Claudius who is from there. He invited us to come home with him for the weekend and see the piston manufacturer he works for on Saturday.

Church of St. Kilian after 1945 bombing

We got there in the early afternoon on Friday and had the chance to see his parents family owned business which has been in his family for over 150 years. They sell high end mattresses and have 3 locations in Heilbronn. His sister Cosima met up with us when Claudius had to go meet his girlfriend and showed us around the city. It was amazing we got to go into the two highest towers in the city, one of which we could only get in if you are someone special. Cosima hooked it up! We got to go into the Church of St. Kilian which was initially developed in 1000AD. It was severely damaged by the allied bombing December 4, 1944, along with a majority of the city. The walls burnt out of the church after the firestorm. Parts of the High Altar were removed during WWII so it would not be destroyed. Only the wings were removed and hidden in a local salt mine..the rest perished and were rebuilt sometime later.

This is the High Altar located in the church today..notice the wings on both sides

After we did quite a bit of sightseeing we had a few beers then went to one amazing museum just outside of town called the Sinsheim Museum. It was crazy, there were planes everywhere, both inside and outside the museum. Classic cars like Mercedes, and new sports cars such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. There were old war planes, tanks, cars, trucks, and locomotives literally everything. To say it was amazing is an understatement.

You pop the trunk, I pop the hood. Ferrari.

After the museum we went to the home of Claudius's parents which was really great. I think we determined his home has about 15 rooms, it was pretty big. My favorite part was the train village his grandfather created down in the basement. Later that evening his parents treated us to a wine festival in the "boonies" as we described it to them. I had a delicious pork leg and white wine. Their family was very welcoming and we were very much appreciative of their hospitality, so we brought them wine!




I can't believe we did all of this in two days, but hold on there is more. On Saturday afternoon we went to visit Claudius's company. It was a very rare event, because they don't even allow visitors on a normal day so it was pretty special. His company manufactures pistons and engine blocks for Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, VW, SMART, military vehicles, container ships, cruise liners, and much more. We got to go in (without cameras of course) and see the whole process from beginning to end. We saw the mold they begin with followed by the machine which cuts and drills and shapes the piston. It is cooled in large pools and then dimensionally checked by a very detailed machine. Then it is moved to its shipping crate. Wes described it perfectly "It's like watching a real life show of How Stuff Works." Outside of the building they had many high-end cars such as the Range Rover, Porsche Cayman, Audi R8 and RS6. Each had a model of the engine block they manufacture sitting in front of them. It was something truly amazing to see.



Oh and by the way, we still are in school. We had poetry class last week, which is technically called "Cross-Cultural Management (A)," and part B starts tomorrow! Take care everyone.

Chad

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Stuttgart, Germany Day Trip!

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Hello everyone, I hope all is well! First I want to say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to my mom! I love you!


We went to Stuttgart this weekend and had an amazing time. Team America is into doing day trips on the weekend so once again we got up just before 5am and got in the 550 train! It actually is pretty fun being up that early. The train makes stops in little villages along the way and this trip we got the pleasure of stopping 20 minutes into our trip in this little village while we waited an hour for our connecting train. Let me share a short story about this little town of "Lauda." It ends about as soon as it starts. By that I mean there is nothing there. We arrived a little after 6 am and we walked into the coffee shop at the train station. We were greeted by a "firecracker" to say the least. Almost immediately our new friend was in out face yelling at us in German. About 5 minutes later we figured out that she was yelling at us to get out because she wasn't open. We only realized this after Kristin bought a coffee from her. It was really funny for 6am.



We made it to Stuttgart just after 9am and Cody, Kelly, Kristin and I made the journey by subway to the Porsche Museum! This was was the number one museum on my list to see in Germany. It was such an amazing experience. Many of you know I'm a car nut, and I dream about having a Porsche (which I will). The building itself is simply amazing. They actually offer tours just inform those interested about the building. It was opened in January of 2009 so it is very new. I walked around for a majority of the museum with my jaw dropped to floor. To see these Porsche's in person is just crazy. Notably the 959, which still to this day is one of the more rare to find of all Porsche's. In America there maybe are 5 to 10. Bill Gates bought one and it had to sit on the import docks in California for 2 years before he could take delivery because of all the crazy smog restrictions we have. I bought a really cool coffee mug too, so I can remember my trip every morning while sipping my coffee. Someday I will put it will sit in my Porsche cup holder.


After the museum we met up with Wes and Anjali at the Frühlingsfest which is a spring festival. Some call it a mini Oktoberfest. It included rides and all the carnival stuff that we are used too. The main difference was the enormous tents for drinking beer, eating roasted chicken, with a lot of singing and dancing! Explaining this place just doesn't do it justice. It was such an awesome experience! We rode on the Ferris wheel, a log ride, and a roller coaster! We all had an awesome time. I think one of the best part of these trips is having a good group of friends to experience it with. We all get along well and enjoy each others company, which makes sightseeing a lot more fun. We made it back just before 10pm and everyone was exhausted and happy.

1975 911 Targa

Last week, we had "Project Management" class. It was good and bad. We learned how to use Microsoft Project, sort of. The professor was form Texas and was very interesting to say the least. I think one of the biggest adjustments of being here is the change of professors from OSU that we are used to where everything is explained and gone over, or at the very least we have a text book to read from. Many of the students struggled dealing with her. I kept my usual sense of humor about the whole class, and I felt it went pretty well. I enjoy learning programs on the computer so I found it very interesting working with MS project. The only thing was the professor didn't know how to even turn on the projector screen...haha..it was an interesting class. We were definitely ready for the weekend after that week. On Friday, we got our class overview for this week. It came with a poem, so once again I'm sure we are in for a treat.


We got our 12 day trip planned out, and I'm really looking forward to it. It starts in Zermatt, Switzerland where we will be snowboarding for 3 days. Then we are going to Paris, France where I get to see the Bowlby family. I am really excited for that! That trip is followed up by Amsterdam, then a long train ride home. We originally were going to travel to Venice, but many of our friends here said that Venice is smelly and we would enjoy Amsterdam more. That isn't for several weeks though, so check back when you have time! Take care everyone,


-Chad

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Back from Berlin!

Posted by C.Kyte ,

Hello! Well we all made it back safe from Berlin. It was an awesome trip that was non-stop touring and site seeing. Each day started at 8am and went till at least 8pm then it was time for “extra curricular activities.’ Berlin to say the least is an absolutely amazing city. I was completely blown away with all of the history this city has to offer. It has gone through everything from Nazi Germany, bombing of nearly everything in WWII, the divide of democracy and communism symbolized by the Berlin wall, then the German Reunification in 1990 made it Germany’s capital city. To try and explain each piece of architecture and its history in Berlin that we experienced would take forever but here are some the cool things we experienced that I enjoyed:

We stayed at a brand new Hostel right next to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof main crossing station. Which is an enormous and beautiful train station. Deutsche Bahn (thanks Svenja) is the largest train company all over Europe. As a side note, all of these pictures were taken by Kelly and Cody so I give all of the credit to the both of them! I can only post several pictures on my blog so if you are interested in seeing pictures of our Berlin trip please go to my Flickr website athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chadpictures23/ my camera charger is missing so I am using Anjali’s amazing camera which she has been very generous about sharing with me!

We took a tour bus from Bad Mergentheim to Berlin, it took ALL DAY! In all honesty I did not mind it because it was really cool to 1) Ride on the Autobahn and 2) See all of the villages in-between. German law says that the bus driver must shut the bus off for 1 hour every 4 hours. So between that and people like my wonderful mother who needs to make 15 stops along a road trip the driving took all day.

The first day we got a very special tour which is not open to the public at the main government building of Germany. It holds all branches of government in the building. It’s a newer building that is nicknamed the washing machine because of its resemblance to just that. It was a very neat building. My favorite building we got to see was by far the Parliament building which is called the Reichstag. It was opened in 1894, and stands today still as It has arguably the most amazing history of any building in Berlin. It was in use from 1894 until WWII, where it was shutdown until being remodeled/rebuilt several times since the 1960’s. It wasn’t until 1999 that it was used as a modern Parliament building again. Along with being put back into use by the modern day German Parliament, a glass dome was added to the roof that allows visitors to see a 360 degree view of Berlin. When you walk into the dome you are given a headset and as you walk around the dome to the top you get to listen to an audio presentation explaining all the buildings and important structures you can see from the dome. Another neat thing about this building was the graffiti that was uncovered in a re-construction in the 1990’s. After WWII the architect decided during the first re-construction to cover the graffiti filled walls. In the 90’s those covering walls were torn down to allow the graffiti history to be visible. The graffiti came from Russian troops who wrote on the walls after the seizure of the building in June 1945.
After WWII

Current Day

From the glass dome looking down..

Cody and Kelly! I thought this was an amazing picture so its Blog Worthy!

This was a case with a gift from George W. Bush to Chancellor Angela Merkel - she is a big fan of film so W got her a bunch of American classic DVD's and CD's

We also visited the Holocaust memorial in Berlin that is dedicated to the to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was designed by Peter Eisenman, an American architect. Outside, it was very confusing and un-like any other memorial I have seen. For this I was a bit frustrated. The tour guide at first explained that the Eisenman wanted this memorial to be abstract, so my response was “Why? The holocaust was not abstract, why should this memorial be?” He told our group many questions like mine are asked, and that the architect Eisenman did not want any symbolism. The guide told us that this has drawn a lot of criticism over the years from many people across the world. As you walk through the cement blocks you have a very individual feel and this may be the intent of the architect to encourage guests to come up with their own conclusions. The second part of the tour was an information center located underneath the Memorial. It has many pictures, provided with text in several different languages. I spent quite a while in their reading and I found it to be the most important part of the Memorial.

This is the Jewish Holocaust Memorial

The wall was comprised of 2 walls this is one side..

This is the other side.

This is looking down at the 2 walls I have pictures of above, notice the watch tower on the left, which is seen in the photo above.

As I said we toured many things all day which was very cool, but at night we went out for some Berlin nightlife. The first night we went to several bars while the second night we went to the new Sony Center and watched a soccer game. The next night we went out to a Karaokee bar. That to say the least was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. “Sweet Caroline” was a hit. The last night was my favorite. We got a bunch of people and some beer and went down to the river and sat on the river edge looking out at the lights and buildings of Berlin. It was amazing!

Well I need to get organized for this week, take care everyone and thanks for reading!

Us guys having a beer in the sun during break! 7 -Man wolf pack!

-Chad

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