Pegida

For those of you that have not heard, a few months ago there was a string of protests in Germany.  The movement is known as Pegida, which stands for Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.  It is opposed to Muslim refugees entering Germany.  I was mildly nervous about the protests, because Dresden was the center of the movement.  In many parts of the country, the protesters were outnumbered by counterprotesters and officials turned off lights for famous monuments in opposition, but in Dresden there were crowds of 25,000.  However, the movement has since died down, especially after its founder was revealed to have neo-Nazi tendencies.

I am relieved to say that I have felt more opposition to than support for Pegida.  I have seen graffiti saying things like, "F--- Pegida" or "Refugees welcome," as well as posters supporting refugees.  However, in the 2 weeks I have been here, I have yet to see obvious support for the movement.  Today (technically yesterday, by the time I am writing this), the group I was with passed by a large demonstration in support of refugees.

Wandering around Dresden

Today, I joined several people from my group in wandering around the Altstadt of Dresden.

We went back to the Frauenkirche.  We climbed to the top of the dome, where we got wonderful views of Dresden.

Afterwards, we went inside the church.  It was impressive, to put it mildly.

While walking around, we saw some sort of bubble-blowing performance (cue attempt at artsy picture).

Eventually, we found ourselves back at the Zwinger.  Originally, we had planned to visit one of the museums, but that plan was delayed when we found that you can get a day pass to see all of them.  We ended up exploring some other areas of the palace.

I ended up taking 270 pictures over the course of the day.  However, many of these were attempts to take panoramic pictures/using the high-speed setting to attempt to make better panoramas or trying to adjust settings to deal with awkward lighting.

Leipzig

Today, we visited Leipzig, the second-largest city in Saxony.  The visit started with going to a history museum focused on East Germany.  Apparently, the country was officially a democracy despite the obvious Soviet control.  However, rather than ballots giving people a choice of who to vote for,  the ballots presented a plan with the socialist party holding 90% of seats and gave people the option to oppose the plan.  In order to oppose the plan, people had to go through a complex and time-consuming process that effectively revealed opponents to the Stasi (secret police). 

The museum also showed what it was like to shop in East Germany.  Customers would have to wait for the cashier to get the day's items, a process that could take hours, and often only essentials were available.  There would occasionally be more "luxury" items like bananas, but they were very hard to obtain if you didn't have connections.  I have to say, I can't imagine needing to shop this way.

The museum had some exhibits on attempts to leave the country as people's lives became worse.  I think it is telling that people decided to leave with just the clothes they were wearing after construction started on the Berlin Wall because they knew it could be their last chance, and life was so much worse in the DDR.

Leipzig was the location of several major protests that helped lead to the reunification of Germany.  While a series of demonstrations and riots in the 1950s were violently shut down, the crowds that formed in 1989 were so large (upwards of 70,000) that the military was afraid to intervene and cause a huge massacre.

Afterwards, we went on a tour of the city of Leipzig.  It originally grew to prominence in the Middle Ages because it was on the crossroads of two major trading routes (the one going between France and Russia and the one going between Italy and the Baltic Sea).  After industrialization allowed mass production of items, they started the first forced-tour market (basically like IKEA).

The old "stock exchange" building

The old city hall was apparently built quickly using some old foundations, so part of the wall is not particularly straight.

One of the more famous buildings is the Thomaskirche.

It had a somewhat famous cantor from 1723-1750:

It sounds like every week, they have a concert featuring music by Bach, a local orchestra, and the church's boys choir.  I am thinking it would be nice to go some weekend.

The city was bombed during World War II, although it was not as badly destroyed as Dresden was, and many buildings, including all of the churches, survived.  Unfortunately, much of the rebuilding followed the DDR's complete lack of architectural style.

A house one of the mayors built by embezzling money from the city

Finally, here is a picture of the Nikolaikirche, the church that launched the major protests.

Hiking in the Sächsische Schweiz

Today, I went on a hike with most of the people in the program in an area known as Saxon Switzerland.  It is a hilly area with a lot of interesting sandstone features.

 On the way there, we passed through several picturesque villages.

When we got to the train station, we had to cross over the Elbe river on a ferry.  After walking through the village on the other side, we realized that we didn't entirely know where we were going, so we wandered along the road until we found something that looked like a trail.  There we found a cave, among other interesting rock features, but no real views.

After leaving there, we wondered on somewhat lost until one of the RAs asked for directions, which led us back to the village we started from through some woods with rock outcroppings.

Once we got back to the village, we found another trail that led us higher up in the mountains to some lovely views.

There were also some stone bridges built into the mountain (I think one of them was the one I saw from the trains)

All in all, it was a lovely (albeit somewhat chilly) trip.  Somehow, I succeeded in taking over 200 pictures.

Dresden tour

Today we went on a tour of Dresden.  I got to see some of the sights, and learn about the city's history.  The tour guide joked about Dresden not being too old, because it was only founded in the 12th century.  Apparently, at one point one of its kings effectively bought the throne of Poland, becoming known as King Augustus the Strong.

Augustus the Strong

There is a magnificent historic district in the center of the city, that has a mixture of architecture from different periods in Dresden's history.  One of the more impressive buildings that we saw was the Zwinger, a palace that Augustus built.  It is now a museum.

The inside of the Zwinger

One of the gates was designed to resemble the crown of Poland:

Another particularly impressive building was the opera house.

One thing I found really interesting about Dresden is how historic it looks, even though the inner city was basically destroyed in 1945.  During World War II, the city was a victim of a devastating firebombing raid that killed 25,000 people and destroyed many structures.  After the war, the city decided to rebuild the historic section the way it was before the bombing.  One building that particularly suffered was the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).  It was reduced mostly to rubble by the firestorm.  Unfortunately, the strict atheistic policies of the East German government prevented it from being rebuilt until the reunification 45 years later.  Interestingly, the new building was partially constructed from the ruins of the old building, leading to parts of it being different colors.

I've spent a few days doing orientation stuff.  I now have a bank account and a functioning phone.  Since most people in my group don't know any German, I have yet to really use it.  The most complex thing I have done so far is ask the cashier at the grocery store if I could pay with credit card (the answer was no).  At least it seems like people don't look at me and automatically know I am from America (granted, there was one time that one of the university officials saw my bewildered expression and said, "You're from the Boston program?").

One thing I have definitely enjoyed is the relatively low cost of food.  The meals I had at the campus cafeteria tasted better than Ratty food, and cost less than a fruit salad at Jo's.  One thing that has been mildly annoying is the lack of free water.

It appears that my dorm has multiple other international students.  Unfortunately, none of the other people in my suite are in my program, so I have barely talked to them.  Also, I am in a weird part of the building that is only connected via the first floor.

Arrival

Well, my first flight was delayed almost 3 hours and my second one had another delay, but I finally made it to Dresden.  At least I drove to JFK the day before, because many people were having trouble getting there (someone had to drive from Chicago).  Nothing particularly interesting happened on the flight except that I finally got to see Monsters University.  Near the end of the flight (but with over an hour left) I started listening to Mahler 9.  Naturally, the flight ended first.  I have barely slept since yesterday, but somehow I am still fairly awake.

Ready to go at JFK

My room is much smaller than my room in Minden, but at least it's a single.  We went on a shopping excursion, so I have most of the things I need.  However, I still need to put it together.

It's somewhat weird to think that I will be leaving the country in a few days. However, I am definitely ready to be going soon, because I have spent more time at home than I need to. Especially because many of my friends have been gone for at least a month.

I'm also looking forward to experiencing the lovely heat wave they are having in Dresden:







I think the Boston area broke its record for snowfall over a 30-day period in about 2 weeks, which has meant a lovely amount of shoveling. It's a huge amount of fun to have piles of snow that are so tall that you need to climb on top of them to move the top layer farther from the driveway so that you can put more snow on them.  Of course, my parents put off getting a snowblower until after the three major snow storms.  I guess that will substitute for me if this weather continues.  Hopefully, it won't interfere with my flight (they're currently predicting snow Saturday night and a chance of snow Sunday), but at least I don't have to worry about a connecting flight.

I'm mostly packed.  It's been somewhat difficult to figure out how to fit everything I need without violating Lufthansa's relatively strict requirements (only 18 pounds for a carry on, and the "personal item" can only be 4 inches thick).  Hopefully, I have everything I need, and the airline won't be too much trouble.