Germany, Summer 2009 SST unit

Ice Cream Quiz (Answer Key)

27 Jul 2009 15:34 EST

If you have not read the previous entry, "The Ice Cream Quiz," stop! Go to the previous entry to test your knowledge of your favorite German SSTer’s dessert tastes. The bus carrying our students to the Frankfurt leaves in about an hour from Jena.

The Ice Cream Quiz

26 Jul 2009 11:47 EST

Family and friends of returning SSTers can (and should) find that the person returning from SST may have changed somewhat during the experience. New insights, new interests, new tastes, perhaps greater maturity are common. The changes Jo-Ann and Joe have noted since the beginning of May are things we think build on and strengthen the identities our...

Safely back in Jena

26 Jul 2009 11:12 EST

Trains (and one car) brought eight of our group back from service locations to Jena on Friday. On Saturday morning, the three who had been working at Siloah also returned. (They stayed a bit longer to help Siloah put itself back together after the 1,100-tent retreat that ended there on Friday.) In the afternoon we got together to begin processing...

Neufrankenroda – Leah, Matt, Nick

14 Jul 2009 15:37 EST

Allmenhausen – Gary and Patrick

13 Jul 2009 09:14 EST

[www.chuba.de...] -- On Friday, Joe and Jo-Ann headed to Allmenhausen, a small village near the geographical center of Germany. Gary and Patrick are living and working at CHUBA, a retreat center operated by the German YMCA. One of their tasks here is to help clean up an ancient schoolhouse across the street from the CHUBA house. Later this summer...

Kloster Volkenroda – Sarah and Mark

9 Jul 2009 04:29 EST

[www.kloster-volkenroda.de...] -- On Wednesday, Jo-Ann and Joe drove to visit Mark and Sarah at Kloster Volkenroda. Kloster Volkenroda is operated by a Christian community known as the Jesus-Bruderschaft (Jesus Brotherhood). In the 1990s, the group came to the ruins of an abandoned monastery in Volkenroda and began the slow process of transforming...

Aue – Rosemary

9 Jul 2009 03:40 EST

Chemnitz – Josh and Aaron

5 Jul 2009 03:06 EST

[www.heilsarmee-chemnitz.de...] -- On Saturday, Joe and Jo-Ann headed to Chemnitz to visit Aaron and Josh at the Heilsarmee (Salvation Army). Over the years, German SSTers have had service placements at several different Heilsarmee locations in eastern Germanyâ€”all of which have proven to be interesting and challenging. In Chemnitz, Josh and...

Ilmenau--David

2 Jul 2009 05:31 EST

[www.cjd-ilmenau.de...] -- Jo-Ann and Joe started the round of service visits with David in Ilmenau. Ilmenau has a population about the the same size as Goshen and a university that was founded in 1894. (Though with 6,200 students enrolled in various engineering fields, Ilmenau and Goshen are not identical twins.) David works at the CJD or Christliches...

Family farewell event

13 Jun 2009 17:45 EST

On Friday afternoon, we gathered at Lutherhaus , a local congregation that has been extremely supportive of our program over the years, to prepare to become hosts for those who have hosted us during the first half of our SST experience. Following the lead of the 2007 group, we began slicing, dicing, grating and crushing the ingredients for a Northern...

Weimar

11 Jun 2009 17:23 EST

Berlin, Days 2 and 3

5 Jun 2009 14:43 EST

Berlin, Day 1

5 Jun 2009 14:32 EST

Tuesday morning found all of us in the right place and on time as we left Jena to head to Berlin. The train arrived 10 minutes late in Jena, but delivered us 10 minutes early to Germany’s capital. We took public transport to our youth hostel and then headed back to the center of what had been West Berlin. There we got on a double-decker bus to...

Erfurt

31 May 2009 16:57 EST

On Thursday afternoon, we traveled on to Erfurt, Thuringia’s capital, and home of Germany’s largest intact medieval city center. Rising above the rest of the city is the impressive Gothic cathedral where Martin Luther was ordained. Not far away is the university where he studied and the Augustinian monastery where he took monastic orders. During...

Buchenwald

31 May 2009 16:16 EST

[www.buchenwald.de...] -- On Thursday we spent most of the morning at Buchenwald, the former Nazi concentration campâ€”just about a week before President Obamaâ€™s planned visit to the same site. Between 1937 and 1945 about one-quarter of a million people were imprisoned at Buchenwald, with more than one in five of those prisoners meeting...

Schott Museum

31 May 2009 15:50 EST

[www.schott.com...] -- On Wednesday afternoon, we visited the Schott Glass Museum, beginning with a stop at the Schott Villa. Beginning in the 1880s chemist Otto Schott developed new formulas for glass, improving its quality for use in optics. Later advances made it possible to produce stable, heat-resistant glass for household and industry. He ...

Ascension Day hike

21 May 2009 13:58 EST

Ascension Day (May 21) is a holiday in this region, so Jo-Ann and Joe led a small group of students on a nature hike through Jenaâ€™s Pennicken valley. We left early to avoid the more boisterous holiday hikers who dominate midday and later hours. The beginning of our hike was accompanied by the sound of the waters that for centuries have patiently...

Off to Kindergarten

21 May 2009 12:41 EST

After language instruction and lunch on Monday, we gathered at Engelplatz in the city center to catch the tram out to one of Jena's ten municipal kindergartens. Upon arrival, Frau G. and her colleague treated us to fruit, cookies, and coffee. They told us about some of the goals and challenges of providing quality childcare in Jena. This year 130...

Naumburg excursion

14 May 2009 10:48 EST

On Wednesday afternoon we caught the train for Naumburg, a town about 40 km northeast of Jena. In 1028, Naumburg became the seat of a bishopric and its most important landmark is the cathedral, built in the 13th-15th centuries. Throughout the Middle Ages Naumburg was a market town, profiting especially from trade in the blue dye derived from the ...

Botanical garden

14 May 2009 09:47 EST

Sprinkled throughout Jena are many sites well-suited to help us consider scientific themes. On Tuesday afternoon, most of us visited the botanical garden with Jo-Ann. Begun in 1586 as a small medicinal garden, it later became a pleasure garden for the local duke. In 1794 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe turned the garden into a research center for the...

Jena tour

9 May 2009 17:02 EST

On Thursday afternoon--jenakolleg's Kerstin P. took us on a thorough tour of Jena's historic center. A full week here in Germany and the first twelve hours of on-site language instruction helped us understand more than we did during the brief tour when we first arrived. After traipsing through the garden of German scholar-poet Friedrich Schiller...

First week

6 May 2009 14:16 EST

We spent our first weekend with our host families--beginning the mutual acquaintances that are essential parts of our SST experiences. On Monday, most of us were out the door by 7:30 a.m. to head for our first morning of language instruction. Our first teacher, Christel B. soon had us working collaboratively on our German. At noon, Joe and Jo-...

Safe arrival in Jena

30 Apr 2009 12:01 EST

Our group, minus one who will arrive Saturday, arrived safely in Frankfurt, Germany almost an hour ahead of schedule this morning, excited but tired. Midway through the 4-hour bus trip from the airport to Jena, most had drifted off for a brief nap. A second wind came when we arrived and unloaded our luggage at the Christliches Gymnasium , the private...

Anfänge /Beginnings in Jena

21 Apr 2009 18:25 EST

Joe arrived in Jena April 15 and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jo-Ann at the end of this week and the students the following week. Conversations with individuals, seeing what is the same and what is different in the city, memories of earlier SST Jena experiences--all contribute to the anticipation of what the 2009 unit will learn and experience...