Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I'd like to remind everyone that the party continues for 12 more days! (Start singing the 12 days of Christmas!)

This was my first Christmas away from home, but it was still nice to spend it with various people in Germany. Between the two Christmas Eve services, I was invited to a seminarian's apartment with some others, and the food and wine were very delicious. I then skyped with my family a bit before going to bed; they opened the gifts that I had sent from Germany. Also, earlier in the day I got the book Broken by Jonathan Fisk in the mail (which I highly recommend to you), so I had to read at least a chapter that same evening. It's very well written and is in the same style as his video podcasts, Worldview Everlasting. I encourage you to check it out.

On Christmas Day, I played trumpet in the Brass Choir and went to two Christmas dinners, both of which were fantastic. The first one was at Prof. Barnbrock's house; we had typical German food and wine. The salmon was very delicious; it was wrapped in a pastry of some sort. That evening I went to Brent Smith's house with other Americans from the area, so I also got to eat some American food, which included ham and pumpkin pie. Afterwards it was nice to lounge around and digest the food. I talked with the adults some and played games with the Smith kids- Zachary, Katelyn, and Sophia. So it's been a good day spent with some very gracious people. Tomorrow is another service celebrating the Martyrdom of St. Stephan, then another on the 29th for the Holy Innocents.

Tomorrow I'm eating lunch with Pastor Wenz and his family, then heading with them to the "St. Paul" Oratorio by Mendelssohn in Bad Homburg. I'm really looking forward to it.

As promised, here's a photo from my visit to Berlin a few weeks ago for the baptism of Noemi Müller. Yes, my hair's longer than normal, but it's since been cut. From left to right, it's Marlon Hiestermann, Travis Berg, me, Noemi Müller, Simon Volkmar, Benjamin Müller, Sonja Müller, and Alex Rüst. All of us are or have been students at LThH, Oberursel.

An Update: Back to Berlin, Weihnachtsmärkte, and Bergfest at Oberursel

Classes have been continuing much like they started; I'm getting better at German (certainly not as fast as I would like), but the professors are becoming more and more understandable. We have three more days of school before Christmas Break, which is two and a half weeks long. I'll be staying here for that time; I'm very grateful for various families who have invited me to dinners and events during that time.

Last weekend I got the chance to visit Berlin again for the baptism of Noemi Müller; if you will remember, I stayed with Benjamin and Sonja while studying German at the Goethe Institut in September. It was very nice to see them again, this time with their new daughter. She's quite a cuttie and is nicknamed "Sonjamin," which makes me chuckle every time I hear it.

I'll upload more pictures with me holding Noemi when I get them from the Müllers.

There were six of us that traveled to Berlin from Frankfurt on Friday; group tickets make everything cheaper, which I was thankful for. We got in Friday evening and talked and chatted a bit. Travis Berg had made the trip from Ft. Wayne to be the "Patenonkel" (godfather)- he was in Germany two years ago and still remembers the language; we were about at the same level, which was comforting. He filled me in on the goings on at Ft. Wayne, which I don't hear much about anymore. There was also a secular Catholic German; girl there; she was a grade school friend of Sonja and had traveled in our group. It was interesting to talk about various issues, in spite of my broken German. We broke the two rules of conversation with new acquaintances: don't talk about religion, and don't talk about politics. It was hard to understand everything she was saying, but it was interesting to hear Benjamin respond to her concerns, until he retired for the night. After that, it was just Travis and I, but I don't think we completely got our points across; oh well. The religious points were about the Pope, tradition, Sola Scriptura, and Law and Gospel; and the political points revolved around the War on Terror and why America needed to go to war.

The next day, Saturday, Travis and I visited Simon Volkmar in his apartment; he had studied at Fort Wayne last year, and I made it a point to see him again. We gave up all pretenses of speaking in German; English theological (and political) conversation ruled. To be honest, I was relieved and eager to discuss theology and understand everything that the other people are saying. It was a treat, and one I don't have often. When we returned to Ben and Sonja's apartment (where we were staying the night), the religious and political conversations revived.

On Sunday, we all traveled via bus to the SELK congregation in Marzahn. If you remember what I said about SELK people and ordination, you should see them with a baptism. There was excitement among the congregation, and one of them even turned to me and said, "I wish we would see more of these." They just don't have many young families in the congregation, so the baptism was quite a big deal. The service was a normal Gottesdienst from their hymnal, but the baptism was in the middle of the service instead of at the beginning, as I'm used to. I don't think that having it in the middle is normal here either.

Afterwards, we all went back to Ben and Sonja's, packed into their apartment, and ate delicious food, talked, and drank beer. It was quite a good time, one that lasted the rest of the day. That night, instead of getting into politics or religion, we talked about literature and accents, both of which topics the three of us could discuss with some proficiency in German (sometimes in English). We watched Youtube videos of various English accents, and then some German accents. I learned how to distinguish Hessish, with it's now annoying "sh" sounds. Isch möschte gern nicht Hesshisch zu hören. In researching a good example, I found a hilarious video. For those who don't know English, just listen to the German's "sh" sounds. They get annoying after a while. Germans, I think you've love this.

On the way back, we traveled through Wittenberg, so I took a quick picture of the skyline, with the two churches (one is behind some trees to the left).

Moving on, Germany is known for its Christmas Markets. The best approximation is to think of a county fair but with a Christmas theme. There's a lot of stalls selling food, drinks, and crafts. There were rides at the bigger ones like Berlin, but not at the small one at Oberursel. Nonetheless all were very festive, and I heard a lot of English Christmas music. I drank some Glühwein (mulled wine), which was very tasty and did have a warming effect. I bought Christmas presents for my family, which they'll hopefully get before Christmas.

And then...Bergfest! Bergfest, which took place last Friday, was a bit like Reformationfest at the seminary. There was music, food, beer, and a talent show. I didn't take part in the last, I assure you that. The theme was "The 70s," so you can also be assured that I didn't dress the part. There were some very classy costumes and haircuts, though. (Some of the Germans told me afterward that I could've gone to an Army Supply Store, bought a uniform for cheap, and dressed up as a veteran, which would've provided some contrast to the hippies that showed up.) All the professors had something to perform for laughs, whether it was singing songs from the 70s, or giving a presentation about the sports, culture, and religion of the 70s. I was just waiting for him to make a jest about Seminex, but thankfully that didn't happen...otherwise Aaron Uphoff would've popped up saying "Seminex? What about Seminex?" (Sorry, inside seminary joke there.) The talent show was very well done, and the moderator kept us laughing.

Finally, I have a picture of the seminary for you. I realize that I don't put up many picture of myself, so I'll try to do that more often. This was taken with Prof. da Silva's camera and put on the Hochschule's facebook page. I hope I have permission to post it.

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Visiting the Gerhardts in Herford

Last year when I was considering coming to Oberursel, I found out that a good friend from Concordia University Wisconsin was also planning to study in Germany. I had met Matt Gerhardt when he transferred from St. Olaf's College in Minnesota to CUW, and we got to be friends as we helped in the prayer offices there and would talk about theology and church and university politics. He is a very talented organist and is studying at the Evangelical State Church Music Academy ("Hochschule") in Herford, Germany. It's fairly well known for its church music program, and he was accepted to study there this year. This past summer I attended his wedding to Rachel Karsten, and a few weeks later I flew to Berlin; they came in October, a few weeks before his classes began. We stayed in contact in October, and it worked out that I could visit at the end of October.

So I bought my train ticket, which would take me along the River Rhine before heading east through Cologne and Bielefeld to Herford. It was a bit slower and less expensive, but I had the time on Friday. I took some very beautiful pictures on my way; unfortunately some of them aren't in focus as much as I would like, no doubt due to the fact that I took them from a moving train.

Cool! A castle! (Can you see it?)

The River Rhine was very beautiful.

I got in mid-afternoon, and we talked a bit and caught up on how things are going. That evening, Matt asked if I would be interested in a presentation at his Hochschule about the theological implications of church music, given by a professor from the University of Tübingen. He was basically trying to say that it is only the Word of God that edifies the soul, in that it creates faith, so we should be concerned about which songs and hymns are played in church, but the musicians didn't receive it very well. A few were arguing that they wanted to sing the "Ave Maria" in their churches, even though it was blatantly Catholic, since for them the music is more important than what the words say. Others were pushing the notion that music edifies the soul by connecting one with God, but I didn't hear a very strong answer by the professor. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see and led to some discussions with Matt afterward.

The next morning I slept in a bit, since Matt needed to go into the Hochschule to practice organ, but we did a bit of sightseeing that afternoon. I took a nice picture of a river that we crossed.

There are three churches in Herford, and all have very beautiful organs. The first we visited was the closest, St. John's Church. It was pretty dark outside, but while we were inside, the rain started, and with it came some hail! So we just waited it out before continuing.

And finally, what you've been waiting for: a picture of me! with Matt! Yes, I know, I don't take many pictures of myself (or of my friends at Oberursel), but it's hard for me to give my iPad to a stranger just to take a picture of me. Furthermore, the reverse camera on the iPad is only good for close-up Skype calls, and not suited to catch backgrounds very well, otherwise I'd be taking more pics of myself. It was a bit cold, due to the storm that dumped hail on the city.

Next, we walked to the largest church in the middle of Herford, called the Münsterkirche. This is where Matt has his weekly organ lessons. We couldn't spend much time here, because they were preparing for a performance of some kind, but we snuck in when the practice ended.

I don't known why these double altars are popular, but I've seen them a lot in Germany.

From there we looked around the city center a bit and ended up at the train station. We said our good-byes, and I took a faster train back to Frankfurt, because it was already the evening. I got into Frankfurt at about 11, and made it back to Oberursel by midnight.

Hopefully we can see each other again soon; I know that Rachel is wanting to hear an English sermon, and both need communion, so hopefully they can make it to Oberursel sometime.

Finally, I made it to Mainz and Castle Frankenstein. There's really not much of a story with either, except that I missed the bus on my way down from Castle Frankenstein, and the next one wasn't going to leave for another 2 hours, so I walked 10 km to where the bus was going to be headed; it only took me 1 1/2 hrs (yes, it was a pretty brisk pace). That with the climbing up and down the hill meant that I was sore for a few days...

Oberursel Altstadt, Herford, and Mainz pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151245149848788.488729.500163787&type=1&l=a9cbc7b148

Castle Frankenstein pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151256754993788.490494.500163787&type=1&l=4f8b64e124

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Thanksgiving Day

I did have an American Thanksgiving here in Germany! Although my classes weren't cancelled, I was invited for a meal at Pastor Flohr's apartment- he's the pastor of the English church in Frankfurt, Trinity. It was a great meal with all the traditional fixings. The turkey was moist and delicious- both the dark and white meat; there was stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, German bread (which is much better than American bread, a suitable change to this meal), gravy, and AMERICAN FOOTBALL. As every American knows, a Thanksgiving isn't complete without football, so we let our food digest while watching the Lions' game. And then, for dessert, we had our choice of apple pie, pumpkin pie, or chocolate chip bars (there was enough to get a taste of all three)- plus they gave me half of the apple pie and some of the bars to take back! This, of course, was graciously shared with the German students who had happened to gather outside of the dorm for beer and smoking. They all agreed that the apple pie was " sehr lecker"- very delicious. So we all got a taste of an American Thanksgiving Day in one way or another.

Then, this past Saturday, I was invited to Trinity's Thanksgiving potluck, since most of the American's couldn't get off work on Thursday to celebrate. I was a bit late, but there was enough left for me to get a plate of food and some dessert. I didn't bring anything back with me, though, which is all right.

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Q&A Time!

After fielding the same questions from my relatives when I skype with them, I figured that you, my readers, probably have the same questions as well. So here's my answers to the oft-asked questions, sometimes with a hint of sarcasm, based on the unanswerability of the questions.

1. How is Germany?

A: Do you mean, "How is German doing politically and economically?" If that's the case, they're doing quite well; Germans are very industrious and orderly, and it's paying off in the long run. They keep giving money to Greece and Spain so the Euro doesn't collapse, but other than that Germany is going very well. There's no riots like in other cities, and everyone's pretty much gotten over WWII (and yes, WWII jokes here are appreciated among the youth- it's been neat to share them). Oh, you mean, "How do you like Germany and are you doing there?" In that case, please read all my previous blog posts. Sigh, ok. You've already done that I'm sure. I'm enjoying Germany and everything it has to offer. It's been great to visit the cities and the country and get a full perspective. Being from the country myself, I don't see how one can visit any country and not spend some time with the normal people in the country (bend your mind around my use of the double meanings of "country"). I've enjoyed traveling, but I've also enjoyed getting to know the people at the seminary here. So overall, things are going well.

2. How is German coming?

A: It's going well. I can converse with the other students, and while I can't understand them at times, I can usually follow a conversation based on the words that I do know in their context. There's much more that I need to learn, though. The professors are much harder, though, because they use more difficult words and phrases.

3. This question is more of a surprise to me, it's been asked by both sets of grandparents and various aunts who are worried about what I eat, "How is the food there?"

A: The food is very similar to America, to be honest. It's not like I'm visiting China where absolutely nothing is recognizable. Our diets are different, but the food is almost the same. I eat more wurst (like hot dogs and sausages) but less beef and chicken. Pasta is a staple, as is rice, and there's lots of soup. One thing I've never seen before is wurst in soup. One cuts up the wurst and eats it with the soup. All considered, the food is quite delicious, even if they do use less sugar, which is one complaint I have of American food- we put way too much sugar in our food. Finally, one difference I've noticed is in the prices- bread is much cheaper here, as is food in general I think. Clothing is very expensive though.

4. How's the beer?

A: Haha...this would follow the question about food. I have two answers to this question. If you only drink the light American beers and are used to watered-down beers, German beer will strike you as heavier and tastier, and it is. But if you're somewhat of a beer-snob (which I am, admittedly), there's not much variety here. Everyone drinks pilsners, and only pilsners. I'm used to buying good beer in America, and by "good beer" I mean stouts, porters, IPAs, and a few brown ales. (In that way, American beer tastes are closer to the English than to the Germans.) My dad brews beer, and I often go to micro-breweries to sample their taste. So in a way, German beer has been a bit disappointing. It's cheaper, and I like that, but there's just no variety, at least, not much variety between the 20 different brands of pilsners that one can buy. I did go to an Irish pub, though, and had a Guinness from the tap- it's almost making me want to go to Ireland myself and get one there. It was so delicious, and much better than the bottled Guinness in America.

Side comment, while we're talking about alcohol- their hard liquor ("Schnaps") is very, very sweet- almost sickly sweet. I'm used to a bit of a kick when drinking straight whiskey or other drinks, which is why Americans often need to combine it with Coca-cola or juices to get them down. I remember a quote from someone, but I can't find it online- it goes like this, "How do you know that it's bad for you, if it doesn't hurt going down?"

5. How are classes?

Honestly, see my previous blog post on this- not much has changed. Understanding the profs is still a bit difficult.

6. What's travel like there?

A: Germans are known for their punctuality and order, and it pays off in their train system. The network is fairly fast and quite punctual, so I've never had a problem getting to a place on time, given that I've planned my trip out beforehand with the Deutsche Bahn app on my iPad. And even if I get lost somewhere, I just need to look for the (H) sign nearby, get on the bus, and find my way to a train station. That's in the cities. Traveling between cities is very easy with the IC (inter-city) and ICE (express). If it's not too far away, I take the RB (regional bahn), because it's much cheaper. I miss my car and the freedom it provides, but I'm adapting here just fine. There's a lot more walking, though, which is good.

Those six questions just about cover more frequent questions I get. Feel free to comment below and ask more.

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Frankfurt! (or also "A Journey from East to West")

School began October 23rd, about three weeks after I arrived in Oberursel. I spent most of that time on campus, playing soccer, drinking, talking, and hanging out with the other students. I did make it into Frankfurt one weekend, and it turned out to be very interesting. I honestly didn't have much of a plan; I picked out two museums at least to visit, and looked at various churches that I could visit, and thought that those would fill up the rest of the morning and the afternoon (like the museums in Berlin). Oh how wrong I was. 

I left about 10, and first went to the Bibelhaus, a museum about...you guessed it...the Bible. The basement was about the text of the Bible, but especially the Old Testament, the main floor was about the NT and life in Jesus' time, and the upper floor held an exhibit of life in Abraham's time. There was a replica of the Isaiah scroll, one of the best preserved scrolls from collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls; it wasn't as impressive as one would think, since I'd seen another replica during the Dead Sea exhibit in Milwaukee (twice), and also have it split up into pdfs on my computer (anyone can find these pdfs online if they really have a burning desire to look at them). I downloaded them during my increased interest in textual criticism, which hasn't quite fully gone away. 

There were some Greek papyri (below is a portion from Matt. 25:41-26:39) and the beginnings of an exhibit on the Christmas story.


The New Testament room had some artifacts showing life in the New Testament times; there was a model fishing boat, instruments from the era, and a model of the heel bone with a nail through it, showing conclusively that criminals were indeed nailed to crosses (somehow in doubt among critical scholars prior to this find). After I was seen taking pictures of the boat, an employee informed me that pictures were not allowed. Oh. Oops. Considering that I didn't see "no photography" signs anywhere in the museum, I dutifully obeyed and didn't take any more pictures, but didn't delete the ones I had taken. Actually, that's a lie...I did take more pictures, in the room on the third story. The cut-away of the temple was just too interesting to not take a picture of it. But next time...next time I won't take pictures.

(As a side note, I don't understand this prohibition on taking pictures. I don't mind it if they charge for permission to take pictures, as several churches or cathedrals do, but I see pictures as advertisement. I know that most people don't have blogs and won't put pictures up on them, but I'm doing that while advertising for these places, and I really do encourage my readers to visit the Bibelhaus, the Ikone Museum, and everywhere I go, even if I give less-than-stellar reviews of different parts of the places. If I don't like a place, I won't take pictures of it and won't talk about it.) 

So after that run-in about pictures, I was more cautious about looking for "no photography" signs. The Bibelhaus took almost no time at all to explore...it was so small and mostly tried to teach more about Christianity to those of the population who had little to no idea of what was in the Bible. For me, it really didn't have much to offer (I say this as a theology student, mind you); I was expecting a lot more artifacts and more papyri. Nonetheless, it was worth my time, and I'd encourage you to visit it.

The next museum that I visited was an Icon Museum. This was a fascinating museum, but also very small- basically just one room with an open balcony, filled with icons. I didn't know what to expect coming here; I guess I knew it would be small, because icons can be very expensive, and there's really not many of them. Plus, the Orthodox tend to actually use them by praying to/through them, so a museum is not a normal home for icons. Nonetheless, here are some of the most impressive ones. (No, I did not ask for permission to take these pictures, nor did I see signs prohibiting me.) This is also where the alternate title to my blog gets the "East" part, referring to Eastern Orthodoxy, that part of the church that excommunicated and was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in the Great Schism. You'll see where I get the "West" part later. I had quite the time picking out which icons to show, but you can see the full collection here:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151214458918788.483894.500163787&type=1&l=29b50743c3

Something to help you read the icons: 

The Icon Museum was on the opposite side of the river to the city of Frankfurt; here is an absolutely beautiful photo of the city of Frankfurt from the opposite bank.

Before I crossed the river, there was a church near the bridge, so I decided to visit. It was the Three Kings Church, presumable EKD, but it was beautiful inside.

Finally I made my way across the river to the Römer District of Frankfurt; this is the old part of town, which was left in ruins after WWII. Nonetheless, everything was rebuilt with a mind toward restoration, so it has an old look to it (which is quite different from the modern "Neustadt," which is full of bustling commerce, bankers, and shopping. From here I mostly just wandered around, visiting places that looked interesting without really a plan toward anything. For if you remember, my only plans of the day were to see the Bibelhaus and Ikone Museum and a few churches, thinking that would take up my whole day. It was only 1pm by this time.

So the first thing after crossing the bridge that I noticed was a Historical Museum. It honestly didn't look very big at first sight, but I paid the entrance fee, took a map, and decided to see what it had to offer. At first there wasn't much; I could climb a tower that was original to Frankfurt and overlooked the river, and then see a room about the history and restoration of city. The tower held a display of the inner mechanics of a clock.

Before WWII: 

After WWII: 

The red is old (before the war), and the blue is what has been rebuilt since the war 

Another room held an exhibit about the third world countries involved in WWII (which I suppose is important if you're going to call it a "World" War). It wasn't as spectacular as you might think (I didn't take any pictures- see my above statement about my suggesting things to see), but I walked through it. Then, I explored the second wing, which had much more to offer than the map suggested. First, I went downstairs to the basement, which showed the foundations of an old tower built on this spot in the city wall. There was a model of what they think it looked like.

Next, as I went upstairs, probably 4-5 stories in total, there was exhibition after exhibition of various themes. This museum certainly wasn't like the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which went chronologically through history. This didn't have the space for that, but did have some nice exhibits, which focused more particularly on something in German culture or history. I enjoyed each one, and I'll summarize them here.

First: German literature and scientific work of the 19th Century. Fascinating stuff, especially since these fields of study were booming in this time of German unity. 

Next: Medieval Weaponry. You bet I took a lot of pictures here. :-) 

Coins and expensive things, which I tried to get a picture of both: 

China! (not the country...) Actually, it'd be more accurate to call this "porcelain."

Edit: After doing some research in the portion of the internet which is rhetorically abhorrent to me- Internet forums that feature rants by supposed experts over inanely stupid and pointless things, in this case being the difference between porcelain and china- I've found that I simply don't care anymore. China is porcelain is china, apparently. Tomato tomato, potato potato, my glass is empty either way.

Not far away was the center of the Altstadt, which was very beautiful and decorated neatly.

In this "Platz" was a church, the St. Nicolas' Church, and while it was small and probably not used much, it was beautiful.

Finally, I walked not too far away to the Cathedral (Frankfurter Dom). You can see it in the picture of Frankfurt's skyline, and it was quite a sight. I was very impressed with its restoration and accompanying museum. There was some construction or excavations in front of it; I couldn't exactly figure out what they were doing.

The first thing I did was climb the tower. It was probably taller than the Berliner Dom, which I also climbed, and it was certainly harder to climb- the passage was narrower, and we had to accomodate those coming down, none of whch needed to happen in the Berlin Cathedral, the way that it was set up. So it was a squeeze sometimes, and I got a kick out of some Spanish-speaking tourists counting the number of stairs on their way down. I realized that I haven't heard Spanish in quite a long time. 

Oberursel is that-a-ways -->

Walking down, I toured the cathedral itself, which took my breath away. I have yet to see Rome, but it's amazing how the Catholic Church can collect its funds and build such beautiful places of worship. Like almost every major building project in Frankfurt, red standstone from the nearby quarry was used in its construction. I saw the same thing in Mainz at the Cathedral there, and in many churches in the area.

And...here's the 1000th picture I've taken since leaving for Germany. 

After visiting the Cathedral, I went through the two-part museum nearby, and I got my fill of marvelous chasubles, thuribles, gilded crucifixes, and communion ware. The ornateness and cost of everything also stunned me. You can see a lot more here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151214458918788.483894.500163787&type=1&l=29b50743c3

 

A rose chasuble? Think again...the sign said it was supposed to be scarlet, for the red Sundays. 

So, having seen the Dom and its museum, I wandered a little bit more around Frankfurt's Römerberg before returning to the seminary. There's a few more museums in Frankfurt that I want to see, but I'll leave those for another, colder day. 

Fall is a beautiful time to wander around Frankfurt. The red buildings really complement the changing of the leaves, and I enjoy a little bit of a nip in air. It can get a bit rainy and overcast here, so I have to pick which days I can take pictures outside. Obviously overcast is appreciated, but I can't take pictures in rain. There's a few other cities in the Frankfurt area that I'm probably going to visit and tell you about. As the time of writing this, I've already been to Herford, three hours north of here, to visit some good college friends. I'll update you on that and give you the pictures that I took. So for now, Tschüss!