Live from Dessau - Episode 2

The Wanderers and My First Day of School.

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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!