Weblog

So, Munich… is three hours away. Due to the long drive time, we forgot about having class that morning and left for Munich at 7:00. During the long ride in the boxes, I decided to read my theological books for class the next day. Otherwise, the rides there and back were an opportunity to engage in philosophical conversations concerning the difference between dating and courting (which I believe that there is no difference), dumb stories of what we did when we were younger (which included shoplifting yo-yos, gluing books to a desk, hitting a dog and hitting a cat) and playing with a corkscrew (“It's a small world after all!”).

We eventually got to Munich. The highlight of the trip was the art museum that we visited. We went around the art museum looking at priceless paintings from Europe's history while listening to audio commentaries provided by headsets given to us by the museum. Despite the goodness of the museum, there's not much to write about it. So, after the museum, we went around looking for a place to eat. A group of about six of us found an Italian restaurant where we ate. Then, Jim and I started roaming around the city looking for an Internet café. We looked around the city for nearly two hours and were unsuccessful in our efforts. Eventually, we gave up, found a café and ordered some beverages. Then, we went to our rendezvous with the rest of the group. When we explained our unsuccess, Dr. Castleman told us that of course we weren't going to find an Internet café in Munich. Apparently, it's a backwards town. It complicated things again because it's been some time since I've last had access to the Internet.

So, we visited a couple of churches, listened to an organ concert and then loaded up into our boxes. About an hour outside of Munich, we stopped at a Burger King and had dinner. The awesome part of Burger King in Germany is the mayonnaise stuff that you put on your fries that's actually quite delicious. After the three hour trip, most of the other people were too tired to do anything. So, they all went to bed. I decided to follow their example and sleep myself.

Today, I woke up and had a little breakfast before heading over to class with Dr. Castleman. Our class was over the issues of the Trinity and Christ's nature. Ordinarily, if I hadn't have hijacked my weblog to turn it into a travelling journal, I probably would be writing something about the issue like the kind of entries that I used to write, but now, my weblog has gone from a forum my rants to an explanation of how my day was. O well!

After class, it was officially our free weekend. For our free weekend, we have the chance to technically visit any place in the world but practically visit any place in Europe. Dr. Ostrander is staying behind in Margetshöchheim and going to be bicycling around Bavaria while we're gone. Dr. Castleman and her son are going to Wittenberg. Since they were going to Wittenberg, they offered to take us to Wittenberg where the four of us could catch a train to Berlin. The rest of the group decided to spare no cost and head to Prague. So, we loaded up into one of the boxes with the Castlemans and headed to Wittenberg. The ride was filled with complications as we encountered intense traffic along the Autobahn. We barely made it to the train station in Wittenberg before our train left. However, we still made our train.

Our train pulled into Zoo Station twenty minutes late (so much for German punctuality). We were greeted by a JBU alumnus named John. John is over in Germany as an employee of an American construction firm building a new embassy here in Berlin. He has generously agreed to put us up in his apartment for the weekend. He guided us through the transportation system of Berlin to his home while stopping for Chinese food along the way. After dinner, we decided to head down to Alexander-platz since that's apparently the place to be here in Berlin. We passed underneath the Brandenburg Gate and saw where the new embassy was being constructed. We then headed over to the Sony Center to view the massiveness that a world class city provides. Although the city was awesome to see up close and walk around, unless we were willing to spend money, there was really nothing to do. So we headed back to John's apartment. So, we're sat around and watched BBC for a while and then started some CSI on DVD while I pulled out my laptop and updated my journal.