Dresden

1 October 2013 Tuesday

We left our hotel at 7:45 this morning…(I thought we were leaving at 8 soooo I had to eat really fast).  We drove for three hours into DRESDEN.  We watched The Sound of Music on the way!!  And so for the rest of the day we were all singing “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes…” and do re mi.  I slept for the last part of the movie because I was up so late last night.

We made a stop at a cemetery outside the city to see this grave.  Kelsee is related to this man.  He came on a mission to Germany forever ago, and as he was getting off the boat, he fell into the water, which caused him to get really really sick.  He died two weeks later, and they couldn't afford to send his body back to the US, so he is buried here in some random cemetery in Germany.  But, because of this lots of people heard about the church and he still caused people to join the church.  Cool story!

DRESDEN.

This is a major city in Germany, and in 1945 (I think) it was bombed by first Britain, and then the United States (pressure into doing it by the Russians).  So the city pre-1945 consisted of small streets really close together.  The bombs ruined that cute aspect of the city, and because the houses were so close together (and made of wood) the bombs caused the city to burn to the ground.  So many people died, many weren’t even able to be identified.  People started running towards the river (this was February 13…cold) to save themselves from the fire.  One eleven year old boy told an account of how he was standing in the water up to his waist as dead bodies were floating past him, and he just had to push them aside and stand in the freezing water.  The US troops came down and machine-gunned the innocent civilians standing on the shore of the river.  There is some controversy about this because today that would be considered inhumane but I guess back then, since the countries were in a war against each other, it was normal to get orders to shoot the people like that.  So sad.  Today, the city has lots of open city squares, and the streets are wide and not too close together.  The buildings (that were standing in 1945, obviously) are charred black from the fires.  We got to climb up in the Frauin Kirche.  This was one of the oldest churches (or buildings in general) in Dresden, and it was totally blown apart.  It was rebuilt, but rebuilt with pieces that they found after the bombing.  So sections of the church are black and some parts are new.  We took an elevator, then stairs, then a circular ramp, then a tiny spiral staircase to the tip top of the steeple of the church.  So amazing from up there!!

they were having church below us...

We ate lunch in the market square place.  Most people got hot food…I ate yogurt and a granola bar and an apple!  We had over FIVE hours of free time after that.  We were given €10 to help out with museum tickets or shopping or food.  I guess Roger over-estimated the costs of all our trips, and so when we get surprise student discounts or group discounts, or when the hotel houses our bus driver for free cause I guess that is a policy, he will split up the money between all of us!  So good.  We bought a museum ticket for €7.50 (student price) to get into an art museum and the mathematics museum and the porcelain museum.  No cameras were allowed in these so that’s about all I have to say for them!  After the art museum for an hour and a half, we were pretty burned out of museums.  This past week has been BUSY.  But we forced ourselves to go in the last 2 museums since we paid for it.  I just couldn’t read any more information about clocks or compasses or porcelain….I just looked at them and they were pretty and that’s about it.  I’m such a disappoint to my parents, sorry guys.

random cute cafe!

some of the building ruins from the bombing that are still there fenced off

the river people jumped in 

opera house

inside the museum square place

When we were done I walked around the whole square on this upper balcony…there are four buildings connected together and this balcony goes all the way around.  So many burned details on the architecture!  It was really cool.  It was pretty chilly today though…like between 8-11 degrees Celsius.  I hate that I know the Celsius and not Fahrenheit so sorry about that.  Probably like 55 F.  

We met up to get back on the bus at 6:30.  We drove into Freiburg right to the temple parking lot.  We ran across the street to the grocery store before it closed to get dinner and breakfast foods.  Amy, Caelyn and I bought a frozen box of 3 pizzas for €2.50 so like 80 cents for each of us for a WHOLE PIZZA.  Good job.  I also got a mini loaf of bread for €.99, cheese for maybe €1.29 and a yogurt for €1.00.  It all added up to €3.something and I paid with my €100 bill hahahaha.  The people are always mad when we pay with big bills but that is what the ATM gives us sometimes!  And it is easiest to break them up at the grocery store rather than at street shops…so whatever.  Now it’s broken up and that’s good.  Oh then on my way out, there was a pastry shop…DUH DUH, I got a big yummy piece of bienenstich.

We walked back over to the temple, and got our bags out of the bus, walked up the temple stairs…across the grounds, and into the hostel on temple grounds.  How crazy is that!  So right now six of us are in a room, and the tiny temple is outside the window, and we get to sleep on temple grounds.

Everybody rushed into the kitchen in the basement where there are like three or four stoves and ovens, and sinks, and 6 fridges.  We put our stuff in the fridges and turned on the ovens and got COOKIN!  Tanner made like a meal of rice and meat and gravy.  The rest of us had pizza, or yogurt and bread and cheese, or premade salads or something.

We had a meeting in one of the bedrooms where we talked about tomorrow’s plans, and then we just talked about temples.  Almost everybody shared something special about the temple.  It got super spiritual.  Then we sang “I Love to See the Temple”…and then we sang “Näher, mein Gott, zu dir” (Nearer My God to Thee), and the Spirit of God (English, German, English).  Ahhhh some of us were crying.  We love music and singing!!  We kneeled down and Tanner prayed for us, a very thankful prayer for the night.  Even though he is big and loud and obnoxious most of the time, wow he is spiritual.  He is also one of the nicest people I know.

We are all showering and writing and getting organized for tomorrow.  We have to be out at 7:30.  It is 10:51 now.  No internet so this won’t be posted for who knows how long!!