Choosing Germany

Choosing to go to Germany was a pretty easy choice for me. I am half German, and it runs deep within my family. I come from a long line of German last names, such as Hohulin, Heiniger, Helderle, Smith and many more that I don't even know about(yet). My mother's side of the family is almost purely German, except for the fact that they're also American. That was until my dad had to go and mess it up by marrying my mom, and now my siblings and I are German, Polish, English, and American. I have always wanted to know more about the German side of my ancestry, and the place that they called home. I am drawn to it by the architecture, the art, and the culture. Because my interest in German ran so deep, I actually decided to take German all four years of high school; I even became quite good at it. My older brother had also taken it, so we would talk to each other in German around the house to mess with our parents. I have since lost quite a bit of it from lack of practice, which I completely regret but have no time to remedy.

 

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

I tried to go on the Germany trip this past winter with my friend and roommate, Sarah Schoonhoven, but because it is an ACR course, I was not able to go because of my sophomore standing. That's why I'm so excited about this upcoming winter! Sarah has told me such amazing things about the experience, and about how she loves how passionate Professor Wolf is about the course. She has been giving me great advice about what to bring and what to wear, and some of the places that I should try to visit that she really enjoyed.

 

I had to stalk her Facebook to find this... shhh, she doesn't need to know haha

One of the main things that I am interested in, and what drew me to this course, is that we get to see a lot of the incredible castles and cathedrals of Germany. One of my life goals is to go and try to see as many German castles as possible before I can no longer travel. This experience will help me to finally kick start that goal! There are so many to explore and learn about; I believe there are about 20,000. That's a lot! 

Wartburg Castle. One of the places we'll be visiting!

There are many things I am sure that I will learn from this trip. I anticipate that I will learn a lot about the difference in culture from Germany to the US;probably quite the culture shock. There will probably be many hints of how the US was influenced by Germany culture, theory, art, and much more, and vice versa. I'm very interested in learning about the architecture, art, and music of Germany, especially the classical pieces because of my musical background(I have played quite a lot of Handel and Brahms.) I'm sure that there will also be lessons learned about the difference in view about what happened during the World Wars. As Professor Wolf mentioned at our last meeting, we will also be learning about Martin Luther and his 95 theses. And of course I expect to learn a little bit about each of the cities that we'll be visiting.

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