Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Happy Fathers Day!

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HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!



Last week in Germany, this amazing trip is coming to a close. We are in our final week of classes here in Germany and man has the time flied by. What an awesome time it has been. I have made some awesome friends and ones I will see again. I got some pictures to share from Anjali and Wes of our trip that I really liked. I'm looking forward to getting home and finishing college this summer. I have classes starting the day after I get back, which actually I will be one week late for. I can't wait to get water skiing again too.

This is the theater from that sleezy movie with christina agulerra

Yeah, so this is the city of Paris. Pretty similar to Bend with its buildings and bridges as you can tell.

This is inside the home of Quasimoto, nice place!
Cody and his sunburn

I have a habit of running into the middle of the street to get the picture

The biggest LV store in the world mom


Wes playing dress up

Some old fart stealing money from the fountain..how terrible

The World Cup is well under way, which is a huge deal here in Germany so I got all geared up and have become quite the fan!


I can't wait to see him! One week!
Looking out from the top of the Eiffel Tower

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Heilbronn, Germany

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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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Posted by C.Kyte , Labels: ,






Hello to anyone reading this!


I'm gonna post updates throughout my trip on here, and Facebook. For some of you I'm sure your already tired of the facebook updates everyday, but this blog is going to jump out like some fog.

Anyways, school started were taking German and its really hard. I am enjoyin learning it because everyone here speaks it.

We have been eating alot of pizza, its really good here. Everyone has been really friendly to us as well. I live in a pretty sick dorm with a bunch of students here.


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