Wednesday March 8th, 2011 (Kelsey Gustaveson)

Wednesday Part 1-Leipzig:
Did you know that Bach was buried in Leipzig? Well, I saw his grave there in St. Thomas Lutheran Church today! Leipzig was an awesome city filled with much history, music, interesting food (not that all of the food isn't interesting here), and a beer that got many mixed reactions-

Feelings towards Gose (beer only found in Germany):
-It tasted like olives mixed with cabbage mixed with salt water (Hannah Peterson)
-It tasted like blood! (Kristen Long)
-I liked it. It tasted kind of like citrus. (Veronica)
-Potatoes and B.O. (Matt Clark)
-Sour Patch Kids mixed with Bud Light (Zach Boggs)

I personally didn't try Gose so I can't tell you for sure which of these reactions is accurate.

Leipzig played a major role in 1989 democratic revolution when its residents organized in protests. My tour group- Boy Sam, Sam Deal, Katie Weinel, Adam, and Allison- visited a museum which discussed the protests and the revolution. However, this museum was in German making it very difficult for us to understand much. Yet, another personal motivation for learning another language. This trip has been so great but I feel like I have missed out on so much simply by not being able to communicate with people.

Wednesday Part 2- Wittenberg:
We were greeted in Wittenberg by an adorable little German lady. She and two other East Berliners shared their stories of life in East Germany. These stories really put things into perspective for me and made it all more real. It seems crazy to me that just 20 years ago, Germany was divided and part of it was under Communist rule.
One of the things I have enjoyed the most about this trip has been getting to see and worship in German churches with the local people. Today we went to the Ash Wednesday Service in the church where Martin Luther preached over 2,000 times! This too was mostly in German but it was fun singing the German songs, having no clue of pronunciation or meaning of the words, and finding commonalities throughout the service-familiar tunes, the tradition of putting ashes on the forehead, and, my favorite part, communion. For communion we all got in big circle near the alter. Germans were giving communion to Americans in German while Americans were giving communion to Germans in English. This was a very moving thing to see and experience.

Wednesday Part 3- Karaoke!:
We're staying with students studying at Wittenberg college that know all of the cool night hang out placed and they recommended Flower Power to us. We discover that Flower Power is a bar straight out of the 70s- velvet on the walls, flowers everywhere, rainbow tables, Beatles and Led Zeplin posters. But wait...it gets better. Wednesday is Karaoke night at Flower Power! For some reason since day one we have all been wanting to do Karaoke so this was perfect! The locals laughed at us as the girls sang Shania Twain and Faith Hill and the boys screamed Creed. Carolina in my Mind by James Taylor was on the playlist (how perfect?!) so of course the group swayed and sang it together.