6.24.2003
I haven't really said anything about our host family. We are staying with Birgit Gill-Habl who is a biology (and sometimes english) teacher at the school in Oppenheim. Her husband's name is Volker Habl and he is also a teacher but at a different school. They have two children (which is the norm here), a boy and a girl. Phillipp is 17 and enjoys futball (soccer) very much. Johanna is 14 (but looks 17) and likes to hangout with her friends. Having two kids is very common, having one kid is slightly less common, and having more than two kids is almost unheard of. I'm not exactly sure why, though...
We live in Mainz, Germany which was great today because it meant Juile and I got to sleep in! The day consisted of a tour of Mainz and it was wonderful. You can see many of the things I mention here:
http://www.mainz.de/english/index.htm
We started the day just walking through Mainz and getting descriptions of some things from the German students. They had prepared a few facts for us. We got to see the oldest house (they call buildings "houses") in the city which was neat. Apparently Mainz originally had a wall around it to protect them from intruders but then they were punished for some dissagreement and the wall was taken down. Therefore, the very rich started to build houses out of brick and stone to be protected. People still live in the building but it is more like apartments now.
Then we visited the Gutenberg Museum. Johannes Gutenberg invited movable type. It was incredible to see all the old bibles and we also got to see a demonstration on how the original machine worked. His life was a shame, though, because he borrowed money to invent it and then the lender wanted it ALL back immediately. He was unable to do that so they took his invention and he hardly made any money on it! Then Mainz was destroyed and the original machines were lost. Pity. My understanding was that they took care of him until he died, but it just didn't seem right that they took it away from him. Oh, well.
Then we had lunch at a restaurant that was incredibly far away. We walk everywhere here and it gets old after 6 or 7 miles. The food was terrific, though. :-)
Then we saw two cathedrals. Amazing. The first one we walked into was humongous (literally called "The Dom") and that was nice, but they're all big. But then...this choir...my knees buckled. It was the most beautiful thing I've heard. I couldn't help but cry at the majesty and glory of the sound. It turns out that the London University choir was there performing. I cannot do it justice...it was surreal. The notes were perfect and echoed throughout the church. Just really a beautiful experience. God was enthroned on our praises today and I liked that a lot. Julie and I both needed that experience today...we didn't want to leave.
We ended our tour by visiting another cathedral wit windows by Marc Chagall. He was a Russian Jew and it really was a huge deal for him to provide windows for a European Catholic church. He made them while in his late 80s! He died in 1985, I think. This is a great site with pictures:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~dap/Werkstukken/Christelijke%20beeldtaal/Chagall%20Mainz/Chagall_Fenster_Mainz.html
Overall it was a wonderful day. It was very hot again (high 80s here which is very unusual...they even shorten school because it's so hot to them!) but we're cooling off now and resting. Tomorrow we will visit Frankfurt.
I will try to write about our trip to Vienna as soon as possible!
We live in Mainz, Germany which was great today because it meant Juile and I got to sleep in! The day consisted of a tour of Mainz and it was wonderful. You can see many of the things I mention here:
http://www.mainz.de/english/index.htm
We started the day just walking through Mainz and getting descriptions of some things from the German students. They had prepared a few facts for us. We got to see the oldest house (they call buildings "houses") in the city which was neat. Apparently Mainz originally had a wall around it to protect them from intruders but then they were punished for some dissagreement and the wall was taken down. Therefore, the very rich started to build houses out of brick and stone to be protected. People still live in the building but it is more like apartments now.
Then we visited the Gutenberg Museum. Johannes Gutenberg invited movable type. It was incredible to see all the old bibles and we also got to see a demonstration on how the original machine worked. His life was a shame, though, because he borrowed money to invent it and then the lender wanted it ALL back immediately. He was unable to do that so they took his invention and he hardly made any money on it! Then Mainz was destroyed and the original machines were lost. Pity. My understanding was that they took care of him until he died, but it just didn't seem right that they took it away from him. Oh, well.
Then we had lunch at a restaurant that was incredibly far away. We walk everywhere here and it gets old after 6 or 7 miles. The food was terrific, though. :-)
Then we saw two cathedrals. Amazing. The first one we walked into was humongous (literally called "The Dom") and that was nice, but they're all big. But then...this choir...my knees buckled. It was the most beautiful thing I've heard. I couldn't help but cry at the majesty and glory of the sound. It turns out that the London University choir was there performing. I cannot do it justice...it was surreal. The notes were perfect and echoed throughout the church. Just really a beautiful experience. God was enthroned on our praises today and I liked that a lot. Julie and I both needed that experience today...we didn't want to leave.
We ended our tour by visiting another cathedral wit windows by Marc Chagall. He was a Russian Jew and it really was a huge deal for him to provide windows for a European Catholic church. He made them while in his late 80s! He died in 1985, I think. This is a great site with pictures:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~dap/Werkstukken/Christelijke%20beeldtaal/Chagall%20Mainz/Chagall_Fenster_Mainz.html
Overall it was a wonderful day. It was very hot again (high 80s here which is very unusual...they even shorten school because it's so hot to them!) but we're cooling off now and resting. Tomorrow we will visit Frankfurt.
I will try to write about our trip to Vienna as soon as possible!
