Friday, April 10, 2009
Mauthausen-Gusen
On our way to Germany last week, we visited the Mauthausen-Gusen Nazi concentration camp. This served as a slave labor camp in WWII where over 125,000 people were killed. This was labeled a "Grade III" camp which means it was intended to be the toughest camp for "Incorrigible enemies of the Reich". The purpose was to be extermination through extreme labor. We spent almost 3 hours walking through the camp and learning its disgusting and horrible history.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Howdy Howdy.
Finished month 2 of German Course yesterday. German grammar continues to befuddle me. However, I have to regularly keep myself from not losing confidence in language learning because once you're discouraged, you don't take the risk of attempting to speak to others and that's what I've found to be the best way to internalize the language.
Our Visa situation is not looking so promising...The Austrian government is unsure of how to deal with our group because this is a new program at Bethany and doesn't really fit into any of the boxes they have for foreign students. So we may have to look into some other options, one would be having to leave the EU (European Union) every 3 months. That would be a hassle and hopefully we can work out a better deal.
Our team has been making friends with the college-age group from an international church in Vienna. We had everyone over to our place for a get-together that broke out into a dance party. Countries represented were: Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Kenya, Canada, Switzerland, Indonesia, Texas (it's a country in my book...) They're a fun group and also some crazy dancers...
I'm heading off now to Deutschland (Germany) for the OM team retreat in Bavaria. I'm looking forward to this break from our classes and to foster the friendships within the team.
Peace to you and happy Osternfest (Easter)
Jake
Finished month 2 of German Course yesterday. German grammar continues to befuddle me. However, I have to regularly keep myself from not losing confidence in language learning because once you're discouraged, you don't take the risk of attempting to speak to others and that's what I've found to be the best way to internalize the language.
Our Visa situation is not looking so promising...The Austrian government is unsure of how to deal with our group because this is a new program at Bethany and doesn't really fit into any of the boxes they have for foreign students. So we may have to look into some other options, one would be having to leave the EU (European Union) every 3 months. That would be a hassle and hopefully we can work out a better deal.
Our team has been making friends with the college-age group from an international church in Vienna. We had everyone over to our place for a get-together that broke out into a dance party. Countries represented were: Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Kenya, Canada, Switzerland, Indonesia, Texas (it's a country in my book...) They're a fun group and also some crazy dancers...
I'm heading off now to Deutschland (Germany) for the OM team retreat in Bavaria. I'm looking forward to this break from our classes and to foster the friendships within the team.
Peace to you and happy Osternfest (Easter)
Jake
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