Germany: March 26th

Halo from Germany (That's how they say hello)! German is a very difficult language to understand and speak. Although, I have mastered the word for thank you, danke. It is pretty much all I can say to people. If I bump into someone accidentally I will say danke, and every time the waiter clears my plate I religiously say danke. I use it for thank you, you're welcome, and sorry. It’s been fun to try and "speak German."

Anyways…when we arrived in Germany it was rainy and cold and has stayed this way for the two weeks that I have been here. So I am feeling your pain over here about winter going on and on. Today we have like 3 inches of snow on the ground. It’s so weird because we haven't seen snow since Alaska 3 months ago.

Our hotel in Berlin "Pension Funk" was the former apartment of Asta Neilson, an old German silent movie star during the 30s and 40s. After World War II most of her apartment had survived the bombings and was later turned into a hotel. Most of the furniture inside the hotel was either hers or was from that same period. In Berlin we went to a lot of what I would call "culture events" We saw a Tchaikovsky ballet, a Bach cantata, and orchestral\choral concert, all inside these grand old cathedrals and concert halls in Berlin. It was a good experience for me to sit through these events as I am not very cultured in the areas of fine arts.

We visited the National History Museum of Berlin, the Charlettenberger Palace, the Botanical Gardens, the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Pergamon Museum and the Egyptian Museum.

One of my favorite things we did in Berlin was seeing the bust of Nefertiti. I don't really know why or how but upon leaving Egypt I have become fascinated with seeing her. So, I have been building up getting to see the Nefertiti in Berlin since we left the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. But it was one of those things that you are totally excited for and you build it up in your head, and then when you see it, it actually lives up to your expectations… definitely not a disappointment. The Nefertiti is gorgeous, if you have no idea what I am talking about you should look her up. The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is below average when compared with the one in Cairo. They really should give the Nefertit back to Egypt and keep it in the Cairo Museum. But what do I know about art and politics.

Another really neat thing I did in Berlin was the Check Point Charlie Museum. This is the site of the division between U.S. occupied West Berlin and Soviet occupied East Berlin (The site of the Berlin Wall). The museum documents the many ways in which attempts were made by East Germans to escape to West Germany. They tried insane things and many died in their attempt to escape through, over, or even under the Wall. Hot air balloons, construction vehicles, makeshift airplanes, and tunnels were used to smuggle people into West Germany. The museum was fascinating and I could have spent another two hours reading all the stories and looking through all the pictures.

We also had a few good nights in Berlin, including Saint Patrick's Day. But you will have to ask me about those when I get home.

After a week in Berlin, we left by train to go to the city of Hamburg. We are staying in Blankense, which is like a suburb of Hamburg. We spent Easter Weekend here, so many of the stores and little shops were closed for most of the time, which was sort of a bummer. We went to an opera in Hamburg, Don Giovanni. I actually liked it! Yeah, I know me like opera? Pretty weird, huh? I went to church on Easter Sunday, and of course the whole service was in German. But I tried to mouth the German words in the hymns and I new when they were saying the Lords Prayer because of the pauses, etc. It was definitely an experience! Easter was a hard day to be away from family, but we made the most of it here and even had an Easter egg hunt.

Monday we went to the city of Lubeck, where we saw many old churches: Saint Mary's and Saint Jacobs (where we went to Easter Monday service). Tuesday, we went to the city of Luneberg (that's a U with the two dots above it), where we again visited two churches with great big pipe organs. Then, we visited the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. This was a very solemn experience and one that I don't think I can put into words so I am not yet going to try. But 50,000 people died at Bergen Belsen even though it was not an extermination camp. It is also the camp at which Anne Frank and her sister died in just a few days before the British liberated the camp.

Well, I think that is it about Germany, and a lot of weight off my shoulders for getting out all these emails before I come home. I am really very excited to come home. Although, I have had a truly amazing experience and seen some of the most beautiful places in this world, nothing can compare to home. It’s not so much Ohio or Hiram it’s the people that live in these places, my family and friends that make up my home. I really miss you guys! And before I get all emotional on you, I have to go to class, the last one of this trip!

See you all very soon! Like one day soon! :)

Peace,

Megan

Turkey: March 11th

Hello from Turkey! Well, actually from Germany because I didn't have time to write a big long one from Turkey. I know I come home tomorrow, but I figured I would try to pump these last two emails out.

Turkey was awesome and could possibly be my favorite country that we visited on this trip…but its close between Turkey and Thailand. For half of our time here we stayed in the capital city of Istanbul, where there is a lot of history (formerly Constantinople if you know the song). In Istanbul we visited the Hagia Sofia, the last remaining ancient wonder of the world that is still standing. It is a giant dome used originally as a cathedral and then later used as a mosque. It was built in the 5th century by Constantine as a way to introduce Christianity to the people. The inside was enormous, with great big doors leading in. Half of the structure was filled with scaffolding because they constantly have to repair. It would be neat to see it without any scaffolding, but I don't know if that will ever happen again.

We also visited the Blue Mosque, as Turkey is primarily a Muslim country. We took a boat ride down the Bosphorous River, which runs through Istanbul, and was very important in trade in the early days. On this boat trip Aysen, our tour guide for Turkey, brought along some local college students studying law at the university. Of course, I began talking away with them and asking them all kinds of questions. You know me. So after the boat ride they asked us if we wanted to go out with them later on in the evening. I was so excited to finally get to talk to a person my age and learn about their lives in Turkey. We met them at Taksim, which we are told is the equivalent to Time Square (It’s the most famous street in all of Istanbul for nightlife, etc.). So, we drank with them, and talked politics with them--I had a blast!

We left Istanbul and traveled down the southwestern coast of Turkey where all the ancient cities are. We visited Troy, Pergamon, Heirapolis, and Ephesus. It is really hard for me to separate what I saw at each one because they all sort of blur together for me, but I will try.

Troy I must say was a bit disappointing with out Brad Pitt :) It was not as well-preserved as some of the other ancient ruins we saw. The man who excavated Troy didn’t really take his time with the process and he was no archaeologist. At Troy, you can see several (I think up to 9) of the cities of Troy. The ancient city was often attacked and destroyed but was rebuilt many times because of its key geographical location.

Pergamon was next and was much more preserved. The ancient city of Pergamon sits atop a huge hill that you have to wind up to get there. Daises and buttercups were scattered over the ruins. It was really quite beautiful with the sunlight reflecting off the ancient marble... one of those moments. In Turkey there are the most beautiful blue skies I have ever seen. Wait until you see pictures from the ruins, you will not believe how bright blue it is! It’s definitely not the same sky we have in Ohio.

Ephesus was the last ancient city we visited and was the preserved the best of all the ruins I saw. Here there are so many areas of the city that are practically undamaged and some areas that have been restored. The most famous of these is the library of Ephesus, which was restores not too long ago.

We also spent a night in Izmir at a really fancy hotel …which was really nice.

I had little to no expectations for Turkey but I found that I loved it! Like most Americans I had no idea that so many ancient cities exist in Turkey. It was definitely a great experience to be able to talk to with people my age in Turkey. They asked us a lot of questions about people in the U.S. and what we thought about the upcoming election, Iraq, etc. It was interesting to see their perspectives and likewise I think for them to see ours. One guy, Baris told me that a few summers back he had cancelled his trip to the U.S. When I asked him why, he told me for fear of discrimination because he is a Muslim. It made me realize how much impact (positive and negative) one event or person can have over the views of someone else. I hope we gave them an honest and positive portrayal of American youth. They certainly showed us a good time in Istanbul. I actually chose to write about this encounter for the Travel Writing course I am taking. See, I actually am doing work over here. It’s not just all sightseeing!!

FYI I can’t find some of the punctuation on this German keyboard so my apologies for any grammatical errors :)

Also, I fly home tomorrow but I hope to be able to get the email about Germany out before I leave. Today is the last day of class so who knows how long it might go.

Peace,

Megan

UAE and Egypt

Hey Guys! It's me again… I am sure you are getting sick of these emails cluttering up your inboxes, but here I go again. I've been to two countries since I last wrote: Egypt and the UAE.

We arrived in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) located nearest to Saudi Arabia. It is the wealthiest and fastest growing city in the world. Dubai was founded only 50 years ago along the Persian Gulf and it has grown outrageously fast, mostly due to oil. There was so much construction everywhere; every road it seemed has something new popping up on it (or the road itself was under construction). Because it is such as young city, all the buildings look brand new. Even the ones that look old are designed to look old, but they are really new. There is so much modern architecture. You have probably seen the famous hotel in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, it's the world's largest hotel. It's the one on its own island and is shaped like the sail of a boat. Dubai is also currently building the world's tallest building. This building you can see from just about anywhere in or around Dubai.

We stayed in the UAE Youth Hostel. It was really nice for a hostel. We met these guys, (and I know what you're thinking and it's not even like that) who were carrying around a volleyball. So, I naturally asked them if they played because I wanted to play. They said just for fun, but that they did "Athletics," which I guess means track. Well, turns out they are members of the Algerian track team training for the Olympics and staying in Dubai for 10 months. Leah and I hit the ball around with them for quite a bit. Let's just hope they are better at running than they are at volleyball. :)

Also, in Dubai we had a free day, so a few of us decided to go to the Dubai Women's Tennis Invitational. We missed Federer and Nadal by just a few days. We would have seen Sharapova but she dropped out because of the flu. But we did get to see Muresmo, which was cool (I think she won Wimbledon a few years back). This was my very first tennis tournament, and it was a lot of fun. We had pretty good seats and could see the court really well because it was a small venue.

Another day in Dubai, we went on a desert safari in which we drove over the desert and got amazing pictures of the sun setting over the dunes. After they took us to a show where we ate dinner, we got henna tattoos and smoked sheesha (which is hookah). Sheesha is a cultural thing in the Middle East; most all restaurants offer it on menus. Then we got to see a belly-dancer. Inevitably, I got pulled up on stage, along with Lindsey, and I drug Leah with me. We had to "belly dance" in front of everyone. It was fun and we got into it. By the end, practically the whole class, including Denny, was up on stage with the belly dancer, and we have the whole thing on video. We were only in Dubai for a few days so we were really limited on what we got to see.

In Egypt, we saw all the sites: The pyramids, the sphinx, the Egyptian Museum, etc. All of this in one day. It was crazy to try and process all the information and the sights we were seeing. The pyramids really are all they are “cracked up to be.” It is amazing that they were built over 4000 years ago. I think that is really what impressed me the most--how old everything was and how well preserved most things were. We got to go into one of the pyramids, which is really tiny and you have to crouch down to get in there. Not really much to see inside, or of what we were allowed to see anyways. We took tons of pictures in front of the pyramids and the sphinx…all of them gorgeous of course.

Then we went to the Egyptian Museum. This is where King Tut's jewels and such are. We got to see the famous King Tut head piece that covered his mummy, no pictures here though which was a bummer. But, the elaborate detail of everything that was in his tomb with him was nuts!!! And everything was so well preserved. Hundreds of necklaces, jewels, gold boxes within boxes within boxes, gold chariots, beds, chairs, dried food (THAT IS STILL PRESERVED), tools. You name it King Tut needed it in the after life. His body was placed in so many decorated boxes and boxes. Similar to those dolls, I think they are Russian, that you have to open boxes upon boxes to get to the doll inside and when you do it's really tiny. You know the ones I'm talking about? The Egyptians used the same principle for ensuring safety of the body of their kings and pharaohs from robbers. The truly amazing thing about this was that Tut was found in the Valley of the Kings, his was the smallest of all the tombs found. He died at age 18 so you can only imagine the extravagance of other kings and pharaohs.

Today we went to a bizarre place with lots and lots of little shops selling necklaces, shirts, souvenirs, etc. And let me tell you, those Egyptian men running the shops they will charm you left and right. That's how they make their sales they just talk to you like a friend and get you to feel comfortable so you will trust them to give you a fair price. They are very good at it; they totally talked me into a price I didn't want to pay. But oh well, it's all about learning right?

Well that's all I have for now. It's off to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow morning. Here we will meet back up with our other professor, David Anderson. I think everyone is really looking forward to having David and his wife back with us… they are so much fun. Turkey is the second to last stop on our journey and I can't believe we have less than a month left of our trip. The time has gone by so fast. We've just been so busy going and going and going I haven't really had a chance to process all that I've seen so far. I hope this email finds you all well and don't worry Spring is coming soon. Today starts March after all :)

Peace,

Megan