#Daniel'sDEtravels

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 11: May 17, 2017

It’s going to be hard for me to express to you just how excited Daniel was about today’s trip. I’ve been talking about how much fun @smpyle and I had in Tübingen back in 2013, so his expectations coming into our trip today were pretty high. We took public transit - three different trains - to reach Tübingen, which made the trip considerably longer than if we had used a private bus. However, in an effort to save money for the students, @drscottclemson and I had decided to travel via public transit any time we possibly could. Because our first train was running late, we missed our second train and had to wait ½ hour at the station for the next regional train to arrive. It was an Abenteuer, for sure.

We got to Tübingen and immediately walked to the Boxenstop car and train museum. It’s actually a toy museum with some classic and unique cars in it as well. Our thought here was to be in line with the automotive aspect of the program - I’ve not heard from the students their take on the experience. I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure I’d include it again in the future. Daniel, on the other hand, thought it was amazing and wants to go back. So there’s that.

Also, DT discovered a love for the tuba - something he and I of course share (I played tuba for a decade, give or take). He’s still a bit small to play it, but he’ll get there.

After the tour we sent the students out to explore, and Trav, @liketheoceannotthetree, Madeline, and I went with CEPA coordinator Laura to find some lunch. We went to a restaurant right next to the university (Tübingen has a large and well-respected university) called Saints and Scholars (how could we not?) and… I may or may not have had a burger. It may or may not have been excellent.

After lunch we wandered and did a bit of book shopping (I found a couple of board books for the boys! So exciting.), then we walked to the main bridge across the river to meet the students for our boat ride. In Tübingen, a city split by a river, there are iconic boats called Stocherkähne (similar to gondolas, not totally the same though). We were able to book two of them and have a peaceful, hour-long ride up and down the river. Our guide and pilot, Jakob, is finishing up his studies to be a doctor (a real doctor, not like Trav and me). He works on the side in the spring and summer to give Stocherkahn tours. Like every other German I’ve ever met, he apologized for his terrible English then proceeded to speak impeccable English. So rude.

Toward the end of the tour he let people try piloting the boat. @carolineingermany and @marleygoestogermany did it in our boat, and @blaineeads did it in the other boat. Did anyone else pilot the other boat? I think someone else did, but it was while I was piloting our boat and I missed it. Also, I got to pilot it through the narrow gap between the island in the middle of the river and the base of the bridge - they call it the “eye of the needle,” so I got to thread the needle with the boat! Pretty cool.

After the boat ride we all rested at the biergarten next to the boat rental site and cooled off after an hour in the sun. Oh, and we all got sunburned. Some of us more than others. I’m saying I got sunburned, to be clear. It was me. The rest of the day was uneventful - we were able to catch a train straight back to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof and bypass the two intermediate regional trains. 

When we got back to the hotel Laura wished us safe travels and a lovely rest of our time in Germany - she was leaving that same evening to head back to the CEPA offices in Ingersheim where she and Camille are interning. Tomorrow: Bosch tour (thank you @tayloraiken !)

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 16: May 22, 2017

Today was class time in the morning - @drscottclemson had class at our actual classroom here in Berlin. The students presented their mid-term projects for his class - they had to invent a new technology, advertise it, and then discuss communication about it via art, government, &.... something else. Three channels. Right Trav? Yeah. Anyway, they did a great job - really impressive. So, the bar is pretty high for the final project in my course! 

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this yet... Last year, basically everyone had a nickname. There was Bevin (Ben & Kevin), Biscuits (Emily), Weird Uncle (Trav).... You get the idea. This year, we don’t really have any good nicknames for the group. Trav is still the weird uncle, but... none of the students have any that have stuck. Oh, wait - sorry, I forgot.... They’ve had four different nicknames for me... but the two that have stuck are “Dad” (obvious), and “Kyle Powers.” It all started when @blaineeads thought my name was “Dr. Powers.” And then she thought it was “Kyle Pyle.” Somehow, the two got spliced, and now I’m Kyle Powers. The best part is, mostly only Trav actually calls me Kyle Powers (directly, to my face) - but the name keeps popping up all over - like in the movie poster pictured above, where the students in one group gave co-executive producer credit to “me.” So there’s that. 

After the morning class, we had an Abenteuer at the DDR museum. Daniel Tiger was particularly impressed by the thorough and well-preserved glimpse into life in the DDR. 

Buying groceries

Watching the evening news

Hiding among the toys - can you spot him?

Appalled by the obvious governmental control of the vast number of media outlets

Playing a bit of foosball

Learning about possible professions in the DDR. 

After the tour, Trav and I went wandering through the nearby neighborhoods. We stopped in at a little Italian corner bistro because we saw Arancini (little fried yummy southern Italian goodies - had them in 2013 during my Milan trip). 

The ones we got yesterday were.... disappointing. Oh well, good lesson there, I suppose. Like getting sushi at the grocery store in Kansas or something. 

The rest of the day was grading & other work - super exciting, I know. Tomorrow: Medical History Museum (Trav’s Fave!) and BMW motorcycle factory (get excited for silly motorcycle riding pics!)

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 12: May 18, 2017

Today’s main event was a tour of Bosch in Stuttgart - like our parliament tour, it was an unexpected tour and was unplanned before we arrived. One of our students, @tayloraiken, had an internship with Bosch in Charlotte. Her supervisor there reached out to let her know that we could do a tour of the Bosch location here if we wanted to (yes, please!) - so thank you again Taylor! 

The tour was fascinating - it was a great look into the world of factory automation and into Bosch’s efforts to transition from a technology-centric organization to an IT-centric organization. Their current mission is to cultivate solutions for their customers that encompass the entire spectrum, from hardware to software, in one complete package. Our guide, Daniel, was a good tour guide and gave our students some excellent insights into a world we don’t usually get to see. 

The students had the rest of the day free to work, rest, and explore as they needed & had time. @drscottclemson, @liketheoceannotthetree, Madeline, and I got together in the evening for a really lovely final-night-in-Stuttgart dinner. We went to an authentic Schwäbisch restaurant called Och’s und Willi’s - I’ve really got to start remembering to do the annoying tourist thing and take more photos of my food. I had lamb with a small salad and fries, and it came with a homemade garlic & herb butter - let’s just say it wasn’t the healthiest meal I’d ever had... but it was super yummy-tastic. 

After dinner, Trav selfishly went to have dinner with a friend of his from college, so Sarah, Madeline, and I went and got gelato and watched the sun go down over Stuttgart. 

And... then we all had to get back to the hotel so we could get packed up to leave in the morning for Berlin! 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 10: May 16, 2017

Today was a bit of an odd day - we really didn’t know what to expect when we headed out to find the parliament building. In case I’ve forgotten to say it since I first mentioned it last week (seems like a year ago) - Agnes (friend from GAPP, which was my high school study abroad program) works for the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg, the German state we’re currently visiting (Stuttgart is the capitol). She told us she thought we might be able to get a tour while we’re here. Well, she messaged to let me know that we could join a U.S. military group who would also be having a tour if we could make Tuesday morning work. So, we said yes! In the meantime, Dana - our contact from AFRICOM - messaged @drscottclemson and me to tell us that she and her parents were going to be on the same tour! (Of course, our first thought was “How did you know we’d be there....?” But obviously they had to get permission from the US group to have us join them.)

When we got to the parliament building (which we’d walked past on our first day walking tour, and is pictured above in B&W) we spent some time having some class discussion and figuring out some housekeeping for the upcoming assignments. While we were talking, Agnes messaged me that she could see me from her office window and that she’d join us soon (it turned out she had to hurry off to a meeting and she wasn’t able to join us until after the tour ended - her colleague gave us the tour).

We walked over to where Agnes directed us, and met a couple of people from the U.S. military group. We made some good connections that might lead, eventually, to some good future collaborations. We’ll see! 

The tour itself was not very long, maybe an hour - it might have been less. We entered the parliamentary hall where full sessions are held and got to sit in the seats of the deputies. I was Sylvia Felder, a member of CDU from Gernsbach - married with three kids. I must say, it was a bit odd to realize we were all just hanging out in the seats that the legislators of the German state sit in during their 5-year term to figure out the laws of the state. 

The tour consisted of Agnes’s colleague explaining the political system, then allowing us to ask questions and discuss how the German system differs from the U.S. system. I realize that the way I’m writing about it sounds..... all a bit dry. But it was actually quite interesting, and neat to learn about how different the German system is from the U.S. system from within the hall of Parliament. 

When Agnes came to join us after the tour ended she told the students they were welcome to go sit in the executive/legislative leaders’ chairs at the front of the hall. So of course we all went up - @kattakesgermany was Präsidentin and had the bell to ring the session to order. Daniel’s favorite part was definitely getting to ring the President’s bell.

Definitely the best part of the entire process was after the official tour when we got to sit for an hour in Parliament and discuss the communication processes that governments engage in with their publics - Agnes let the students pick her brain and we had a rather involved discussion about the differences between the US system and what we tend to find in Europe. I found it interesting, anyway! 

Trav then proceeded to act like a member of Parliament screaming at the Präsidentin about some crazy thing or other. 

Unfortunately, we had to hurry out so that Agnes could get to another meeting, and I forgot to get a photo with her! 

After the tour, Trav had class in the park. It was an incredible day for it, too - sunny and in the 70s. We went over to the market we walked through on our first day to find some yummy bits for lunch, and the rest of the day was for work and rest! 

Tomorrow: Tübingen. 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 9: May 15, 2017

The theme for this week (Week 2) is: Uncertainty! Today we’ve got Ecoland (no idea what we’re going to find there), Tuesday we have a tour of Parliament, Wednesday we’ll go to a toy museum in Tübingen (at least we know the city is pretty!), and Thursday we’re going to get to tour Bosch! We’ve done none of these things before, and don’t know what to expect at any of them. Los geht’s!

We started out the day with a 1.5(ish) hour bus ride from Stuttgart to a tiny little dorf right outside of Schwäbisch Hall. The bus driver is moonlighting as a bus driver (he’s actually a forester and farmer who works on international development projects, and is waiting for a project to start in a month or two - so his participation in the tour today was quite fortuitous!), and we had a nice conversation along the way. Daniel wasn’t even worried that we were going to die on the way there or the way back, so I’d say he was a good bus driver. 

We started off with a brief introduction from Rudolf Bühler (in the green hat above), the chairman of the farmers’ association we were visiting. He’s actually quite a well-known figure in the region, as he is responsible for finding and revitalizing a pig breed that was thought to be extinct (it’s called Mohrenköpfle locally and has a very distinct appearance - if you can’t tell from this sketch, the head and the butt are always black and the body is always pink):

I’m not sure that I could adequately describe everything that Ecoland and the association do. This video will help add some insight into their organization - it’s about Seeds of Hope, the partnership they form with small-scale farmers around the world to secure organically-grown spices for their food, and in turn to help lift these farmers out of poverty:

So.... the Farmer’s association consists of more than 1,000 local farms, all small-scale farms, who work together as partners to farm with organic techniques and maintain high standards of quality. They also have the Seeds of Hope initiative for the organic spices. They’re able to work within their partnership system to ensure that all members of the association can receive better-than-global-market prices for the meat that they produce and sell. In this way, small-scale farmers are protected and don’t have to simply sell off their farms to larger, industrial farms (as has happened so much in the U.S.).

We got to have a great tour with Hardy, a former farmer (he lost it when, upon inheriting, he had to pay out an inheritance tax/disbursement to his siblings - he had to sell the farm to pay it off) who now works for the association:

We learned about the organization, about their global partnerships and developing with small-scale spice farmers, and about the pig breed that Bühler saved and they now raise. From 1983 when he first found the pigs that were supposedly extinct to now, they’ve managed to raise from about two dozen pigs up to about 70,000 pigs. It’s an incredible organization, and we were really impressed with their work. 

DT with spices!

@kconne3 with DT and the pig sculptures!

Cute little piggies!

DT really bonded with them. I was concerned they might try to eat him. 

Hardy and our bus driver - just chattin’ about some pigs!

We had an incredible day, and we learned a ton. This was a definite, 100% win. 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 18: May 24, 2017

Today was non-stop Abenteuer, from beginning to end. We started the day with a guest speaker in my class - Luke Lalor, from Alpha Pool Content Marketing (https://alpha-pool.com/) - he also happens to be one of @drscottclemson‘s most bestest friends. Trav’s oldest friend, actually, I think? Anyway, he also does some really interesting work building branded content, campaigns, and a variety of PR products for a variety of clients - from Lexus to Bacardi, they’ve worked with people across a very broad spectrum. Luke spoke with the students about a variety of case studies and projects he has worked on, and provided some wonderful insights for students preparing to jump into careers that will (for the most part) be highly related to what Luke does. 

Luke Teaching: Action Shots

Important Concepts

Trav being cute

Daniel Tiger insisted on getting in the photo, he was very impressed with the presentation. 

After Luke’s talk, the students had a few hours free. Some of the students found a cute French patisserie a few days ago, so I went and checked it out. I tried a little coffee flavored meringue.... it was deeeeelicious. Creamy, fluffy, coffee flavored air. I walked back to the hotel and had some free coffee in the lobby while I ate it. YUM. I didn’t even let Daniel try it. 

We all reconvened in the lobby a bit before 6 to head down to Max-Schmeling-Halle (handball arena) near Mauerpark to see the Berlin Füchse (foxes) play against the Magdeburg.... team, I have no idea what their mascot is. They didn’t bring anyone with them, like a frog or a cow or something, so I have no idea. We’ll say they’re the Frogs. They’re probably the Eagles or the Falcons or the Rattlesnakes or something, but I’m saying Frogs. 

Every seat had a large piece of card stock printed with an inspirational quote and a player photo, and they were designed to be folded into fans and beaten against the metal poles (handrails) to make lots of noise. It was so loud! And super fun. Trav used his to practice his fan language. 

“At home is where everyone believes in you.”

“At home is where you rise above (or maybe “go above and beyond”).”

Trav practicing. He’s getting better at the fan language. Pretty soon he’ll be able to order food without proposing marriage. 

We were cheering for the dark green jerseys, by the way. 

Daniel thought it was a bit too loud, but he mostly really enjoyed himself. 

At the end of the game a kid went out to play hand ball with the mascot. Super cute. Oh, and the game ended in a tie, 25-25. We were down by 3 with 2 minutes left in the game (almost impossible to come back from that), and somehow we (and by “we” I of course mean “die Füchse”) managed to steal the ball back twice and score to tie things up. Right at the end there was a foul against the frogs, but the guy who did the penalty shot missed, so... tie! In league play, handball is able to end in a tie. Trav and most of the students were really annoyed that there wasn’t JUST ONE WINNER, but the Germans were all okay with it. Actually, the Berlin fans were super excited about it because they thought the team would lose, and then they came back to tie. So, win-win. 

When we finished up, Trav, @liketheoceannotthetree, Madeline, Madeline’s mom (here for a few days visiting) all went to get a bite to eat. we ate at a fancy-pants restaurant just down the road from the stadium. I had a pork sandwich and sweet potato fries, and I’ve got to say.... it was excellent. 100% would order again. 

It... was definitely healthier than it looks in this photo. Probably. Maybe. 

It was a good day. Tomorrow: Class in the morning, then Sachsenhausen in the afternoon. An emotionally exhausting excursion right before the weekend! 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Weekend 3: May 26-28, 2017

This weekend was a huge Abenteuer for @drscottclemson... because he left on Friday morning to fly to San Diego for ICA (International Communication Association conference). He was there Saturday all day, then flew back on Sunday/Monday. Needless to say... by the time he got back, he was fried. 

Friday morning we had class (back in the classroom at Aletto, our hotel we stayed in last year! Ah, memories....) - we had a discussion about PR ethics & dialogic communication in PR, then the students had time to work on their final projects. I took the video team ( @blaineeads, @sam-rochford, @marleygoestogermany, and @izzybelledavis ) to Neuersee (new lake) in the Tiergarten so that they could see it as a potential place for shooting spotlight videos. 

Blaine & DT checking out the petting zoo from the park overlook

Video team preparing to shoot Izzy’s spotlight video

The rest of the class stayed back at Aletto to get work done and prep their projects. Friday afternoon was free for travel and work, so we sent the students off to their respective planned & unplanned Abenteuer(s) .

Friday afternoon we reached out to see if the students wanted to go check out KaDeWe (http://www.kadewe.de/) - the biggest, fanciest store I think I’ve ever been in. It’s got 7 floors, and from bottom to top you’ve got luxury goods (perfume, makeup, etc), Men’s clothes, women’s clothes, entertainment, yummy nibbles (everything from food kiosks to tea/beer/wine/tobacco/chocolate kiosks to...... bakeries. So many bakeries). None of the students decided to go, so @liketheoceannotthetree and I went and wandered through the store, then we got yummy baked goods at one of the bakeries. 

Saw this and thought “H would love that!!” - but it’s 2000 euros. So DT took a photo with it.

Bee sting cake! (Bienenstich) - it’s sponge cake, custard, more sponge cake, then topped with an almond/honey praline.... it was one of the most delicious things I’ve had. I’m thinking about going back for another piece. 

At KaDeWe you can get Skippy & Jif! Every American student’s dream. 

Thinking about #GBBO, @smpyle! Sachertorte here and Prinsesstårta below!

Saturday was mostly a work day for me. Took a jaunt around Tiergarten with Sarah in the afternoon for some fresh air, but then came back to get more work done while she continued on for more exploring. 

Getting ahead of myself - went to a church service at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Sunday evening. It was beautiful. Also, I was lost much of the time - all in German. But still a neat experience. Oh - the church pictured here is the ruin of the old church and is a memorial now, the new church is beside it... I didn’t capture a photo of it. See the it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm_Memorial_Church

Oh, and there was a Lamborghini. NBD. I think I saw six this weekend. It was a pretty weekend for driving your ultra luxurious sports car around, I guess. 

Sunday I went in the morning and rented a bike so that Luke and I could take a cycling tour around Berlin. It was a gorgeous day for it! Fortunately I had remembered to get sunscreen the day before.... because otherwise I’d have been red as a ripe tomato. We met in Potzdamer Platz, then rode through the city to Badeschiff, a manmade beach area on the edge of the Spree (river that goes through the middle of Berlin) with a swimming pool submerged in the river (not river water, normal pool that just happens to be submerged in the river). 

Construction near the MB Arena and East Side Gallery, bonkers how many cranes there are over here.

Panorama of the Spree

Duck-face selfie in front of the massive blue Badeschiff duck. I know, it’s epic.

Oh, and then we went past the Bald Eagle enclosure at the zoo on our way back to Europa Center to get lunch and drop off my rental bike. 

As I mentioned above, in the evening I went to a service at the Gedächtniskirche (memorial church). This is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation - Luther and his 95 theses and all that - so the topic of the service was about Luther and some of his contemporaries and lessons we can learn for today. It really was neat to be in a service there, but I think for our final Sunday I’ll go back to the International church I attended our first weekend in Berlin. 

Monday begins our final week! We’ll get a tour of Olympia Stadion on Monday, the Autostadt on Tuesday, Teufelsberg on Wednesday, and the Communication Museum on Thursday. Thursday morning the students will present their final projects in my class. Friday-Sunday afternoon are free for the students (we’ll be grading frantically), and Sunday evening is our farewell dinner. And like that, it’s all over and we’re headed home. How quickly the time does pass.  

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 17: May 23, 2017

We’re reaching the point in the program where two things happen: (1) the days are less frantic and activity-filled, and (2) I begin to forget to take photos. It’s a good thing there are 15 people doing Tumblr blogs for this year, because without those I’d be really bummed about the photos I’ve not taken. (Note: Sometime this week, maybe today, I’m going to go through and re-blog posts from the students, but not necessarily class-related posts. If the post has photos I like or want to share, I’ll re-blog it.)

This morning, the group went (ohne mich) to the Medical History Museum. This was class time for @drscottclemson, so I took the opportunity of an open morning to finish grading of midterms. I finished grading just in time to scarf down a sandwich and get downstairs for the group to travel to the BMW Motorrad (Motorcycle) factory. Up until a year or two ago, all BMW motorcycles in the world were manufactured in Berlin. Now, all except the two models that are specifically for SE Asian markets are made here. For their markets in India & China they produce smaller motorcycles that are more in line with those target markets. 

Our tour today was with Martin. He’s been working at the BMW motorcycle factory for 4 years, and is also working on his MS in Physics. We never did quite figure out why he was studying Physics, or what he plans to do with it once he’s done... But he was a great tour guide! 

You’re not allowed to take any photos during the tour except in the Communications Center, which is where the tour starts. The entire tour is a customer engagement tool. When you enter the Comms Center they have free coffee and water, as well as a half dozen motorcycles on stands that you can sit on and take pictures with. Which of course everyone did. Daniel Tiger was particularly excited to get to try out driving a couple of the motorcycles (it’s okay we didn’t have helmets on because it was just pretend!)

This was the third time I’ve been on this tour, and I think this may have been the best time yet. Martin was great, and he showed us more of the factory than we’ve gotten to see before. He had great stories about the factory, the employees, the local culture, and about being a motorcycle driver himself. I think we’ll request him again in the future! 

After the tour we collected Trav from the hotel and walked across the park to a Spanish restaurant - it’s maybe a two minute walk away, and it has really good reviews. Turns out, the reviews didn’t lie! It was an excellent meal. @liketheoceannotthetree, Trav, and I each tried a different kind of seafood dish. Sarah had a seafood salad (salad topped with grilled seafood) that looked fantastic. We each shared around some of our respective dishes, and hers were all grilled - tasted amazing (I didn’t get a photo! Sarah, did you post one?). Trav had monkfish, which was in a yummy, buttery sauce, and topped with a few different kinds of seafood extras - I’d never had monkfish before. I’d try it again!

Even though both Sarah & Trav had yummy dishes... I think I won with mine. It was salt-crusted sea bass.... and it was soooooooo good. They bring the fish out encased in sea salt, break away the salt, scoop out the meat, and just leave the meat on your plate. It came with a bowl of savory, buttery spinach, and potatoes with two different kinds of sauce (one green, very cilantro... @smpyle would have loved it; the other more tomato/spicy). 

It was a great dinner, delicious and very restful. A nice time to unwind. And... then we got caught in a downpour as we went to leave the restaurant. We finally just ran for it and got drenched before we made it back to the hotel. Abenteuer!

Tomorrow: Luke Lalor’s talk in my class, and handball in the evening!

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Riding the go-cart at Tempelhofer Feld! Also, I totally failed to capture any of us in the video here... I think I got their feet? @liketheoceannotthetree & Madeline (Adele)! 

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Weekend 2: May 19-21, 2017

(Like Weekend 1, I’ll post an overview, then a few additional photo/video posts)

This weekend was super eventful, only for entirely different reasons from last weekend. Friday we got up early and met Camille to make our way to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), so that we could travel from Stuttgart to Berlin. 

Daniel enjoying his last breakfast at Ibis Styles in Stuttgart - he was particularly fond of the little apple-filled pastry. 

Au revoir, Camille! 

@drose275 & DT at the train station in Stuttgart

The students were all a bit sleepy, but everyone was up and ready to go basically on time. And then... as we’re getting onto the train, @carolineingermany got stuck on the platform. Fortunately, Caroline is a rockstar and did brilliantly - she connected with a conductor and got on a different train to Berlin. She got to Berlin about 1.5 hours after we did, and @drscottclemson met her at the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin. Hopefully her Abenteuer is the most eventful thing we have happen this year! For the rest of us, the train ride was warm, but uneventful. 

We were greeted by CEPA coordinator Marianne at the train station, made it to the hotel, and within 1/2 an hour were back out for the history tour. It was great, but by the end everyone was pretty fried and ready to nap. Or, well, go to bed.

Daniel, always wanting to upstage the tour guide. @liketheoceannotthetree enabling. Tsk tsk!

Note: The gentleman in the grey shirt sitting next to @tayloraiken was not part of our group... and after we took this photo, he got up and walked away. 

^This is on many of the sewer covers in Berlin - it’s designed with many of the iconic landmarks in the city (TV tower, victory tower, Reichstag, etc). Pretty neat! 

Saturday & Sunday were divided between work (grading, etc), and taking some time to explore and see the sites. On Saturday we went out to Tempelhofer Feld and rode a go-cart around (Sarah & Madeline & I did - Trav was a fuddy duddy. Several of the students went too, but we didn’t see them the whole time! It’s a huge field. @sallycbolt I think went, and maybe @marleygoestogermany too? Who all went?)

On Sunday I got up and went to church at the Berlin International Community Church - it was really interesting, because their mission is to be an international church to an international city, so there were people there from all over the world. They do everything in both German and English (though the preaching was in English) - it emphasized for me how much English is still an international bridge language. People from every continent (except Antarctica, obviously - no penguins) were represented, and English created a bridge for interaction during the service. After the service I went over and got some coffee.... at Starbucks. And I wrote a Tumblr post, so I was productive. 

In the afternoon many of us went out to the Mauerpark (Wall Park) to see the huge flea market and look at the Bear pit karaoke. It’s... an amphitheater full of people and there’s karaoke. It’s pretty neat to see it. I’m going to post a couple of follow-up posts now with photos & videos from our Saturday/Sunday outings!

[drpyleclemson-blog]

Day 5, May 11: Happy birthday, dad! How does it feel to be *cough*ty one years old? :)

Today, Daniel, the students, and I got to see one of my most favorite places - Schloss Ludwigsburg! Ludwigsburg Palace was built as a hunting lodge and getaway (read: place to spend time with his mistress) for one of the Dukes of Württemberg in the early 18th century. It has been well-preserved and looks now very much like it would have when it was in regular use in the 1700-1800s.

We took public transportation to Ludwigsburg and had a 2.25 hour tour of the palace. I’ve gotten to tour this palace four times now, and this one (with British expat tour guide Louise) was almost certainly the best time. She was wonderful! I also got to ring the bell that the queen used to summon her Page to bring her hot chocolate. Pretty neat, I know. Daniel particularly liked the gardens - they were his favorite thing. He also loved the "Märchengarten" (fairytale garden) and insisted on posing with the donkey sculpture. He has good taste.

After the tour, we walked into the city center with Laura and Camille, then we sent the students off to have lunch, see the sights, and experience the culture. @liketheoceannotthetree @drscottclemson and I quickly found the city market in the city’s market plaza. It was a typical market day (flowers, fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish), and we found a vendor who happened to be selling…. wait for it…. horse sausage sandwiches. Unfortunately, we got there at the end of the market time and they were out of bread. No horse hoagies for us. Next time!

Instead of a pony panini, we went and found a Döner shop where Trav and I got “Lahmacun” (Turkish pizza), and Sarah had some falafel. It was super yummy! Also, super inexpensive. Which I think is the very best kind of lunch… right @smpyle? Daniel loved the Lahmacun - he couldn’t get enough.

After lunch, we walked down to the mall so that we could have a bit of gelato (because obviously), and so that Sarah could get her phone fixed. She’s had no end of problems getting her phone activated since we arrived. We went to Vodafone, but they were not particularly helpful. Hopefully it’s all cleared up soon.

While we were finding Vodafone, Trav went to find the prison museum in Ludwigsburg. Because he’s super creepy and likes bizarre things. He has a video post about it, you can find it in his feed. By the time we left the mall we had about an hour til we needed to meet up with the group, so rather than join Trav at the (we assumed) depressing museum of depressingness, we went back over to the palace to walk the grounds and see the amazing (and elaborately cultivated) gardens. A few of the students had gone to do the same thing - it was a perfect day for it. After this post I’ll be uploading a video from the gardens - you can see the gardens, the big fountain, and the rear portion of the palace.

At this point it was time to head back, so we hoofed it up to the city center and met up with everyone just in time to walk over and catch the bus.

Tonight’s mission is to knock out some work and be ready for the trip out to visit the Hubers tomorrow! (Note: if anyone who doesn’t already know happens to read this post, the Hubers live in Haubersbronn, a tiny village that’s part of Schorndorf, which is a small city 20 km or so outside of Stuttgart. They were my host family during my GAPP study abroad program in high school. I get to spend the weekend with them. I’m super excited.)

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Day 4, May 10: Today was an odd day in terms of capturing what we’re doing via photo and video - we spent the morning and part of the early afternoon at USAFRICOM- United States Africa Command, the command branch of the US military responsible for all operations on the continent of Africa(africom.mil). Because of the highly secure nature of the installation, we weren’t able to take any photos of our time there. Rather than go into great detail about the experience, I’m going to wait until my students have completed their weekend blog assignments, and I’ll re-blog their posts about the experience.

Also, since we couldn't take photos at AFRICOM, I posted pretty photos from my balcony. It was a gorgeous day!

Wednesday afternoon was fairly uneventful - I ate some lunch in my room then did some work. What was really exciting was my evening today - on Tuesday when I posted FB photos about our visit to the MB arena, Benni Walther (a friend from GAPP, my high school exchange program) reached out to see if I would have time to get together for dinner. We chatted for a while, then agreed to get dinner tonight (Wednesday)!

He dropped by the hotel and picked me up. When we got to the restaurant, he told me, “I have a surprise for you!” He had invited two other GAPPers to come to dinner! So Benni, Agnes, Yvi, and I had a great reunion dinner at the 1893 restaurant, which happens to be the restaurant attached to the Mercedes-Benz stadium. Turns out Benni is a BIG Stuttgart VfB fan. I think maybe everyone here is. It’s like living in Arkansas - you are a Razorback fan because you live there and it’s your team. (Don’t look too closely at that analogy, it sort of falls apart under close scrutiny.)

To maintain my trend of having real Schwäbisch food every day up to now, I had Rostbraten (roast beef) with roasted potatoes. As Mary Berry would say, it was scrummy. (If you haven’t binge watched all three seasons of Great British Baking Show on Netflix, go do it now. Stop reading and go watch.)

While we were talking I learned that Benni is now in real estate, Yvi is a teacher, and Agi works for the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg (the German federal state where we are now, the capitol is Stuttgart). She does tours for people, and gives tours in English! So we’re going to see if we can squeeze a tour of the state parliament into our week next week. Fingers crossed!

And of course, Daniel Tiger made an appearance. The GAPPers thought DT around Germany was a fantastic idea, and they were honored to have a photo with him.

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Day 3: May 9, 2017

Daniel had a full day today, with two tours and our welcome dinner! We were on the go from 9:00 am until after 9:30 pm. Daniel and the students were great - even though they were all still feeling jet-lagged and exhausted from hitting the ground running, they kept up and stayed engaged until we were all back and ready to call it a night. Nice job, students. Ich bin stolz! 

First, we kicked off the day at the Mercedes-Benz Museum near the city center of Stuttgart. If you’re ever in or near Stuttgart, you really should check out this museum. It’s really well done, and there’s a brilliantly curated blend of automotive history, technological history, and general history (local, national, and international historical milestones to add context to what was happening with the company). I’m quite impressed. Daniel was also impressed, but was more excited to see the cool-looking cars (if you look close at the Mercedes sign, you might find Daniel in it!). 

After the tour we grabbed a quick bite at the cantina, then hurried over to the arena for our second tour of the day. Daniel was quite impressed with the stadium and the facilities. He was bummed we won’t be here to catch the next match - it’s the weekend after we leave! Daniel thinks we should try to catch a match next time we’re here. I agree. We got to see the locker rooms, the press room, the “pitch” and the players’ seats (so comfortable!), the view from the big fans’ section, and the VIP boxes. Our tour guide, Stefan, did a great job. 

Last but not least, we wrapped up the day with our group Welcome Dinner. After a couple of hours of downtime at the hotel, we gathered in the lobby and made our way downtown to Brauhaus Calwer-Eck (brewhouse on the corner of Calwer street). We got to have a tour of the brewery (it’s just a big room in the back of the restaurant, really quite a small operation! It was pretty neat to see all of it), and then a “typical Swabian meal” - Swabian is the English word for what the local people & dialect are called. We had Leberkäse, Maultaschen, Steak, Bratwurst, Kässpätzle, Sauerkraut, salad, and a delicious berry sauce with ice cream for dessert. Dinner was... incredible. I really don’t have words to describe how good it was. Even our picky students (I’m looking at you, @kattakesgermany, @alliemiles-studyabroad) found things that they liked. Daniel thought dinner was just about one of the best things he’s ever eaten. He particularly liked the Maultaschen - and the ice cream! 

After dinner we sent the students off to find their own way home. @drscottclemson and I firmly believe that this is an enriching and character-building experience for the students. Tomorrow, AFRICOM! We can’t take photos there, so tomorrow may be a little light on the photo side of things. We’ll see. 

Bis morgen!

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Photos from the Schloss Ludwigsburg grounds and gardens! @smpyle, you really need to come take these photos. You're way better at it.

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Weekend 1: May 12-14, 2017

This weekend (Friday-Sunday) I got to go see the Hubers! This post is going to be the overview with a series of Daniel Tiger photos (note: "overview" doesn't mean "short." I've never been called too concise). After this one, I'll post three separate times with photo highlights from each day. Get excited, it's going to be a wild ride. Or, well... okay, maybe not. But it was still a beautiful weekend - even with the rain. Los geht's! 

 Friday morning was a bit hectic at first, because I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish before I left.... and I woke up 45 minutes later than I had planned to. So... I didn't finish the laundry I had planned to do Friday morning (note: it's super easy to manage international travel if you're willing to pack light, do laundry in your sink/shower, and plan ahead far enough in advance that you can have dry clothes when you need them). I finished the work I needed to for class, and I finished packing. I think having (clean) clothes packed was more important than having clean clothes to wear on Monday.... right? So after a quick breakfast with @marley (good chat, Marley!) I ran off to the U2 metro stop. Because the German metro system is incredible, it was really easy to pick up the right ticket and find my way via Schorndorf to Haubersbronn. 

Heidi and Shaka (their 10 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback) were waiting for me at the train stop! I have to say, modern technology and apps like What'sApp make international coordination and travel planning WAY easier. Friday was a slow day. Heidi and I went for a walk with Shaka, chatted and shared photos, and went for a reminisce about the good ol' days. Heidi took me in to Schorndorf so that I could see all the ways that the town has changed since I was here last. The biggest change is to the high school. Burg Gymnasium (Castle High School) got its name from its style - it looked like an old castle/fortress. It was awesome. But... it was also old. And they needed more room. So they demolished the whole thing and are building a new school. Because like the show, school must go on, they've constructed a container building to function as the temporary school for now. I've seen things like this many times in Europe, but never in the US - it looks like a building, but when you look closer you can see that it's a structure composed of shipping-style containers. In the afternoon I went with Heidi and Shaka to Shaka’s dog training school. I sat and had a Fanta with DT while they did their practice. 

 Paul got home in the evening and we had a nice quiet dinner of Weißwurst (white sausage), pretzels, and a massive sort of radish I've never had before. It was surprisingly good (normally I'm not particularly partial to radish, but this was good. @drscottclemson says maybe it was a daikon radish, which I still haven't heard of but there you are). 

 Saturday was supposed to be rainy, but it ended up being gorgeous - cloudy on and off, but not stormy. Other than a couple of walks with Shaka, the big things today were helping Paul with yard work (earning my keep) and going to Andi's big handball game. So, if I understand correctly, handball in Germany is divided into professional level, regional highly competitive but amateur, and less serious hobby teams. Andi has played for the last 8 years on a regional team, but at the highest level (essentially division 1 amateur handball). He's really good. Holds the club record for scores in one game good. Did I mention Andi is maybe 6'6"? Super tall. Anyway, this was the final game of the season, and Andi's final game with the team. He doesn't have time to continue playing at this level (think practice 4 days/week and games every weekend). So we went to the game, and Andi's team won! (Also, it’s SUPER loud and everyone wears ear plugs). After the game they had an end of season party and a send off for Andi and the other player finishing his time on the team. 

 Sunday was restful. We had a big breakfast, then went for an adventure to see the extraordinarily well-preserved medieval city of Esslingen. Evidently, because of the gorgeous old homes in Esslingen, a US general ordered that the city not be a target for bombing during WWII (so that the generals would have a nice place to stay when they got there). It rained the whole time we were walking around the town - but as we were getting ready to head back to the car... the sun came out! And it was suddenly a warm, sunny day. So we went to a Biergarten and had a snack before we wandered back to the car. Sunday night Andi was able to come back over for dinner, which was really nice. He didn't have much time to hang out this weekend, unfortunately. He's a math teacher, and after grading all of these big final exams for his class, they told him "oh, we need you to grade for this other class too." So he's had to work through much of the weekend. Dinner tonight was pork, dumplings, Blaukraut, and sauce (like an au jus). After dinner I got my stuff and Andi dropped me back at the train station in Schorndorf. 

Once I was back in the hotel in Stuttgart, I spent a good chunk of the evening talking to Sarah, mom & dad, and Michael & Julie. It was Mother's Day, so hopefully everyone had a nice celebration. Sarah's college roommate (also named Sara) came to visit, so Sarah had someone there to help celebrate her in my absence. Now we're off for another week of fast-paced, nonstop adventure!

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As we get ready for the 2017 Germany study abroad program, my son decided it would be good for me to have Daniel Tiger as a travel buddy. So over the coming weeks I'll be posting here with the hashtag listed below (#Daniel'sDEtravels - DE is Germany, if you're unfamiliar with country codes in Europe). Today, Daniel helped me get lunch at Chick fil A on our way to the airport, said goodbye to everyone (everyone may or may not have been misty-eyed), oversaw my check-in process, then helped @drscottclemson and me find our gate. Now, here's hoping for a "schöne Reise" and safe travels!