Wittenberg University

As our 10 day tour of Germany comes to an end, I must reflect on all of the places we’ve been. First, we spent only a few minutes in Munich before we continued on a plane to Berlin. Two nights in Berlin, then onto Wittenberg and Merseburg. A night with our hosts in Merseburg, then we frolicked in Leipzig. Leaving Leipzig, we travelled to Halle! A quick excursion to Eisleben, another night in Halle, then onto Erfurt! After a quick stop in Eisenach, we enjoyed two nights in Mainz. After Mainz, we return home!

I believe I can speak for the entire choir when I say that this trip has truly given us memories that will last a lifetime. Everyone was able to experience beautiful and unique places and share it with the people in the choir. Although blogging about our experiences is beneficial in trying to portray our experience, it simply does not do the entire trip justice.

As my co-blog goddess has time and again pointed out, THERE WILL BE STORIES (and pictures), so be prepared to sit back, listen, and enjoy the picture of Germany that we want to be able to share with you.

We have an early morning tomorrow, which means most of us are waking up at 5:30am for a 6:20am breakfast (that’s 12:20am Ohio time). We will be home (or back in Ohio) around 9:35pm. Wish us luck!

Upcoming blogs will be mainly contain reflections of the trip and top 10 favorite places/people/things during the trip. Hope you all have enjoyed the blogs and stay tuned for more!

-Blog Goddess #2

P.s. If you haven’t figured out who this is by now, you will find out tomorrow!

Today, we had our last supper in Germany… well, our last day really. What a day it was! We arrived in Mainz last evening and all promptly fell asleep. It’s been a tiring tour! But, today we were promised some well-deserved free time (if I do say so myself). But first, we went on a wonderful tour of the city of Mainz. We saw 1,000 year old cathedrals and saw the church at which we would be singing that night – St. Stephans. Many of us were overwhelmed by the church as soon as we set foot in the building. The stained glass was the work of Marc Chegal. WOW. The windows were mostly blue, so when the sun shined in the whole church was tinted. If the sights of these last churches weren’t overwhelming enough, the sound was  (dare I say?) even better. We loved singing some of our favorite pieces and hearing the chords ring out for what seemed like forever after we had finished. After we saw the church we got THREE WHOLE HOURS of free time. We shopped. Expect stories and stories. Then dinner and our final concert. It was a great way to end the tour. The church was full of a wonderfully appreciative audience and a very emotional choir. This being the seniors’ last concert and our last night in Germany we were full of sadness and joy; each song was extra special to all of us. The concert went spectacularly, I’m happy to have ended my stay in Germany this way.

After the concert, we had a lovely walk back to the hotel. The choir, being the fun-loving, American bunch that we are, sang the entire way back. Lean on Me was sung first; by the time we finished, we had people arm in arm looking out windows. My favorite moment, however, was when the men of choir sang Billy Joel’s For the Longest Time to a woman who was looking out her window. Windows were opening and smiling faces were appearing. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Tonight we plan on celebrating our seniors, our tour, Martin Luther (duh), and resting up for the trip back home.

We plan to post pictures as soon as we can, along with some reflections from the blog goddesses and a few members of the choir. Thank you all for your thoughts and support – it’s been a truly amazing trip.

Soli Deo Gloria,

BG1

Blog Goddess #2 here!

Today held a difficult tour for the choir to complete: the Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial.We completed this tour in the morning before continuing to Erfurt for another tour from Silvio.

Before walking the grounds of the exhibit, most of us viewed a movie discribing the establishment and history of the camp, then we continued following an audio tour around each of the buildings, either reconstructed or original.

Choir member Breanna Heilicher comments, ”I felt a deep connection with the experience of touring the camp because of my Jewish heritage. It was a hard experience to completely absorb because of the reconstruction aspect of some of the buildings. The most compelling parts were the foundations of the buildings and the personal stories that were included in the exhibit (especially the gas chamber building). I have a family history of German-Austrian Judaism, which compelled my thoughts to the realization that my family’s fate may have been affected by the events of the Holocaust had my grandfather not left Austria when he did.”

Touring a place such as this historical exhibit held a challenge for each of us in a different way. We all were affected by the realization that such a place as the Buchenwald Concentration Camp exists. It is important to understand that the  Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and places like it, are important to world history and the development of the world as a whole. To honor and remember such places proves important to the current younger generation.

In the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, this quote is written on the wall of the entrance to the museum:

“It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say.” – Primo Levi.

On a much happier note, we performed our second to last concert at St. Augustine’s Church in Erfurt to a full house! We also sold most of our CDs that we had left! Each and every performance has increased our strength as a group and changed how we interact with each other and the people who come to hear us perform.

Only 3 days left in Germany! We miss you all!

Guten tag from Leipzig!

I was hoping to be able to upload some pictures of our trip today, but I’m having a little difficulty getting my camera to talk to my computer…but I’m used to communication issues by now (Get it? Because we’re in Germany).  Oh well. I’ll keep trying, but I may have to upload a mass amount at once when we’re back in the States.

Anyways, what a trip it has been thus far! Since my lovely co-bloggoddes last posted, we traveled to Wittenberg, Merseburg, and Leipzig, sang “A Mighty Fortress” about 20 times, saw breathtaking churches and organs, met our host families, fell in love with our host families, and overall continued to enjoy countless once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Berlin was wonderful. It was exciting for us to see the big city and its interesting pre- and post-war architecture. But, at least for me, the arrival in Wittenberg was where my trip became something I will never forget. The town was adorable and quaint; a one mile long road filled with shops, cafés, restaurants, and beautiful buildings went through the town. We started our time in our sister city by seeing THE DOOR. For those of you who don’t immediately know which door I’m referring to, I’m talking about the door to which Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses. What a treat. We moved into the church and sang “A Mighty Fortress.” Repeat: I sang a song, written by Luther, in the church where he nailed the most influential document in Lutheran history. It was quite apparent that the choir felt this magnitude. I, personally, have been dubbed the person who can no longer make it through a song without crying whenever we are in a beautiful church. I’m quite alright with that. The amount of experiences just like that one that we have had in the past two days is amazing.

We were supposed to sing for the Lord Mayor of Wittenberg, but he unfortunately got tied up with some diplomatic mayor stuff. But we still enjoyed singing for some of his staff and some “Wittenberg in Wittenberg” people. We sang in the church where Luther preached and saw Luther’s house. WOW.

After some shopping and eating, we headed to Merseburg where we sang in a very old, very cold church. It was much less ornate than the others we’ve visited, but no less impactful. Hearing the last chord of a song linger for seconds and bounce off of  century-old walls is an amazing experience – I highly recommend it. After dinner and a short rehearsal, we met our host families. Some spoke more English than others, some spoke none at all. Many had children who served as translators. All were welcoming and kind. People were taken all around the town to see different things. I saw a 5,000 year old grave that was just recently found. Another group saw (and licked) a salt wall. The group that went with Heepke’s (our resident German) aunt’s family bonded quickly with there two children, regardless of the language barrier. I’m positive we’ll all come home with great stories.
We sang this morning at the church, ate lunch and had a short while to explore Merseburn, and then traveled to Leipzig where we had a tour of the city. Oh, and sang in Bach’s church (you guessed it – I cried).
Now we are at our hotel getting some R&R – we’re about 3 miles from anything at all, so it looks like we’ll be staying in for the night.

Because I have no pictures (grumble grumble) that’s all I have for now. We’re thinking of everyone at home and having an absolutely astounding time.

Tschüss!

Bloggoddess #1

For those of you keeping up with the status of our tour of Germany, we are traveling to Wittenberg today to meet and perform for the Lord Mayor and later, traveling to Merseburg to stay with host families.

Sunday and Monday were mostly spent traveling and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of the airports! Yesterday was our first tour day, which included a tour of Berlin with a local native of Berlin, and a boat tour on the Spree River. During our tour of Berlin, we were also able to visit the Holocaust Memorial located in the middle of the city. It was a challenging yet important exhibit to experience and was appreciated by all members of the choir. In the evening, we performed at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church for a very lively group of listeners who even requested an encore! 

Most of us are still adjusting to not having cell phones, but it is enjoyable to be separated from the habit of being dependant on our communication devices. The time change is also quite a change (it’s a 6 hour difference from Ohio), but all the jet lag should be out by now! Almost all members of the choir will also remark on how different and challenging it is to be in a country where they know nothing or very little of the language, but we are constantly trying to learn new words and phrases!

Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!

-Blog Goddess #2

We made it! I see that I am the first to post something on here. It was a very long plane ride. Our flight began with 4 people leaving earlier from Columbus to Chicago, 3 people meeting us in Chicago and 29 people leaving from Springfield. It was hectic trying to keep up with everyone, but we all made it. One piece of luggage from Chicago arriving later tonight and one piece of carry-on luggage left back at the Munich terminal.  Of course, it has all our concert programs!  Maybe we’ll be lucky and it will all show up.