Live from Dessau - Episode 4

Our first week went by in a blur and the second week is already half over! I cannot believe how quickly the time seems to move here. Our project is going to be really fun and really challenging for an eight week session. We are responsible for the maintenance and restoration of a large building complex that was severely damaged during the second World War. Hugo Junkers used the site to construct metal air crafts and he is an icon in the field of aviation. There are two significant structures on the site, the daylight hanger and the lamella hanger. The lamella hanger is significant because of the method of construction. It was built entirely from parts that Junkers used in his aircraft manufacturing and has a completely open floor plan because of the material system.
This is one of the hangers on the site...

This is my friend Ainsley at the site...

This is the other hanger that we will be restoring.

Okay now for a quick note on recreation in Dessau. One of the most fun things that I have done here is seeing a movie at the theater in German. Some friends and I went to see the new Robin Hood movie and it was completely in German with NO SUB-TITLES!! I understood maybe 5% of what was being said, but really enjoyed being in the theater trying to figure out the dialogue. I am planning on seeing more movies while I am here...I think next up is Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. (Action movies are easiest to watch because everyone can pretty much understand what is going on.)

In a few minutes I will be hopping on a train to go to a small conference for the program. There is a lecturer from Harvard there so hopefully I will not have to listen to the lecture via a translator like I have so many times already :).

Our first German language class was today and it was a lot of fun, so hopefully in another couple of weeks I can start blogging in German and English!

Sorry for the choppiness of this post, but getting acclimated has taken a little longer than I thought. So many thoughts are memories running through my mind from just the first week and a half, its hard to narrow then down and know what to type.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the blog and I will do my best to post pictures later this evening!

tschüs!!!

Live from Dessau - Episode 3

So I think I have figured out the image problem, at least temporarily. This is just a short entry to showcase the campus and city that I will living in for eight weeks. These images are courtesy of my roommate Don (another UK student).

This first image was taken as we were touring the Bauhaus facility on day one. The way that warm and cold gray scales work with color is really great and highlights the simple construction methods.

This image is of one of the buildings on campus. Those are the bikes that Don and I will be using to get around the city. It has been really nice to only have the bicycle as a means of transportation. It makes me really want to use mine that much more when I get home.

This is picture of a fountain in one of the parks near our apartment building. Really short walk from home and has a nice little restaurant to grab a brat and enjoy the nice weather.

Live from Dessau - Episode 2

The Wanderers and My First Day of School.

PICTURES ARE UP ON FACEBOOK, FRIEND ME IF YOU CANNOT SEE THEM ALREADY!! HOPEFULLY I CAN GET THE BLOG FIXED SOON!

I don't even know how to start describing the last couple of days. Since I left Berlin on Friday morning, I have had one adventure after another! We made a pit-stop in Wittenburg on Friday to see the church that Martin Luther is believed to have nailed his 95 theses to. It was a beautiful church in a wonderful little town. (It was at this point that we realized that the further we got from Berlin, the harder it was to find someone that spoke English, but I'll get into that a little later.) This is a picture of the cast iron doors that have been engrave with the 95 theses (am I spelling that right).

Then we headed to Dessau to find a place to stay for the last two nights before our apartment was available. This is where the adventure really started. Every place that we tried to stay at was completely full, and no one could tell us in English where to find a place to live. We eventually drove to Aken, which is a little town about 4 km from Dessau and met a woman there that ran a bed and breakfast. Her house was also full, but she was gracious enough to call another place that she knew that may have some rooms available. With luck, there was a hotel in Brambach that had two rooms for the night so we said we would take them and we were on our way. (Just to let you know, Brambach consists of one street with about 20 buildings on it.) We stepped out of the car and into a postcard.


The hotel & restaurant was right on the river and we couldn't believe that a place so beautiful would have rooms on such short notice...well, it turned out that they didn't!! The person that booked our rooms had accidentally looked at the wrong day when she said that they had rooms available! We could not believe what was going on! Then, an older couple that was in the hotel heard about our situation and said that we could stay at there bed and breakfast in Steutz, which is 20 km outside of Dessau. After several minutes of communication breakdown, a young man that was with the couple came out to help translate. We agreed on a price for the rooms and breakfast for two mornings and we set out. I slept like a rock that night...

Saturday morning started with a delicious breakfast courtesy of Herr und Frau Lisso and then we were off to Leipzig, the home of Thomaskirche and J.S. Bach. The church did not open until 2:15 so we walked around the inner city for an hour or so and then waited in line to go in. We thought we were just going in to take some pictures and see the organ, but we sat and waited until 3:00 and we got to witness a full service and performance by the boy's choir there. They sang original Bach choral pieces and it was amazing. Then we sent back to the Lisso's cottage and hit the hay.

Sunday was the day we were all waiting for...move in day! We met Don and Ainsley (both UK students) at the front of our apartment and then it started to finally hit us... we are going to be here for 8 weeks!! I am rooming with Don in a dorm style apartment with a small kitchen area and bathroom. I will upload some images of the dorm once it has a little more life, meaning some posters...

Our campus is beatuiful! We had orientation today at 9:00 and took a tour of the Bauhaus and the Master's Houses. We also headed out to the site of our project and started to gather ideas for concepts for our design projects for the summer. These are some shots of the campus area.


We have a pretty busy week ahead, but I think it is good to jump right in and get going. Right now I am sitting in the basement cafe of the Bauhaus and can't believe how lucky I am to be here! This is going to be a fantastic program and I hope you all enjoy following along!

Live from Dessau (but this time Berlin) – Episode 1 Day of Arrival

Cody and I getting ready to get on our flight to Berlin!

Wow!! What an exhausting experience that just was. I arrived at the Cincinnati airport with my friend and classmate Cody at 8:30 in the morning on Tuesday, and after a long layover at JFK and by far the longest plane ride I’ve ever been on, we arrived in Berlin at 12:00 noon (Local time) on Wednesday. The plan is to stay in Berlin until Friday and see some sights before heading southwest to Dessau for the next eight weeks.
After checking into our hotel with our other friend and classmate Margaret, we set out on foot to see some of the amazing sites of Germany’s most famous city. Just down the street from our hotel we stopped at the new Holocaust Memorial designed by Peter Eisenman. It is a beautiful arrangement of extruded rectangular prisms, each representing a different number of casualties based on its height. It was amazing to walk through the grid of monuments because as you moved towards the center, the shapes seemed to swallow you up, while at the edges they are merely benches or a small step.




Our next stop was at the Brandenburg Gate, which was the backdrop for many historic moments during WWII. The bullet marks that can still be seen in the masonry act as a solemn reminder of what happened in the not too distant past. Today, the platz (plaza or square) in front of the gate was full of life and entertainment.



Later in the day we made it to the Berlin Cathedral, which was absolutely breath taking. The “Berliner Dom” can be identified by its multiple green domes and ornate decoration on the exterior. We were lucky enough to grab a sneak peek of the inside before a service began…and it did not disappoint. The space under the dome seems so much larger on the interior! Gold ornament lined the walls and vaulted spaces and large paintings depicted the life of Christ along the ceiling. Definitely a must see for anyone in Berlin!
This a picture of Cody, Marge, and I across the river from the Berliner Dom.


Then we headed over to the Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum. We are planning a full tour tomorrow, but we wanted to see the exterior and just get a glimpse of one of his best works. Set in a more under-developed part of the city, the museum stands alone as a testament to modern architecture.



We finished up the day by visiting the US Checkpoint (Checkpoint Charlie) and the remains of the Berlin Wall. The parts of the roads on which the wall used to stand have been replaced with a strip of stones to remind people of what used to divide the country.




I am sitting back in the hotel room now and I believe that jet lag has finally caught up to me. I am going to watch some German television, to work on my communication skills of course, and then hit the hay. I want to say thanks again to everyone for all of the support!