Das stimnt

After quite a stressful Saturday night/Sunday morning Audry and I made it to Cincinnati where we got to spend a little bit of time with my family before my mom and dad drove us to the Columbus airport on Monday morning. It was a long drive up to Columbus from Cincinnati, and even longer waiting in line and actually flying. The flights were not too bad though, I watched plenty of movies to keep myself distracted. Audry even gave me a short German vocabulary lesson on the plane.
We finally arrived in Halle! After three plane rides and many hours later, Audry and I were picked up in Leipzig by two of the ceramic students from the Burg (Andrea and Dana). When we arrived in Halle thirty minutes later I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have never seen such interesting buildings and architecture. Even the cars are sooo different!




We arrived first at Audry’s flat, she put down her things and we explored the space a bit. Jenny, her roommate, was not there, but the girls who were showing us around made us feel right at home. They immediately made us coffee and we sat and chatted for a good 45 minutes. I couldn’t stand the waiting…I just wanted to see where I was going to live! I guess they are just very relaxed here. They finally took me to the flat I was going to be living in where one of my roommates, Anna, greeted us warmly. She also immediately served us coffee, tea, and biscuits ( I guess they could tell we were tired?!) We all sat together and talked for quite awhile about many of the differences between Americans and Germans. Audry and I were also poked fun of a bit for our lack of knowing the German language. (It seemed to be the common theme of the day) I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought that most of the Germans would be able to understand English better than they did. I have been doing my best to learn as many words as I can. Audry has been doing a great job trying to teach me!





After chitchatting for quite a while in my new home, Andrea and Dana took Audry and I to the Burg to see the ceramics studio. I was pretty much amazed! The building had been a castle at one point and it has been renovated into a school. On the ground of the castle were the ceramics studios (but in German it is “keramiks”), sculpture, printmaking, and industrial ceramics. The other design studios are located on another campus. To get to the ceramics studios you have to walk through the courtyard of the castle underneath and awning made entirely of rose bushes; which will be blooming shortly they say. Throughout the courtyard are enormous sculptures made of all different kinds of materials. The studios are great! I never thought the tour was going to end. Every time I turned the corner there was more space and art to see.
I am curious to see what this trip has in store for us… we are already leaving tomorrow morning for Berlin with some of the ceramic students who are having an exhibition there this week. All I can say is that it is going to be an adventure!