My Day Off

Leipzig

Our first outing while here in language camp was to visit Leipzig for a day. I slept through the bus ride and woke up right before entering the city. The charter bus parked just off the highway and our group of 50 students and 6 teachers unloaded for a tour. Our first destination was the Thomaskirche, the church where Bach played his music and was buried.  It was a tall church with Gothic architecture and stained glass artworks. We paraded from there through a Passage with top-end restaurants to the Nikolaikirche. This church was the staging area for the "Peaceful Revolution" of the German people during the days of the GDR. The interior of the church was my personal favorite of the churches I've seen. The pillars were a pastel pink marble topped with green frond-like sculptures. The combination seems odd but it was a very nicely designed environment accompanied by a grand organ playing throughout the hall. Partnership International got us a museum tour to learn about the history and life in East Germany from 1945 to the fall of the Soviet Union. The entire city was beautiful from the interior alleyways with stores to the large looming arches of the churches.

Sunday

Sunday was a gift from the staff, they gave us an entire day off from lessons and meetings. I took advantage of this by waking up at the exact same time as I would on a normal day: 6:40 am. Our potential trip to the store was canceled by the sudden realization that most shops and stores are closed on Sunday in Germany. Our substitute was a walk around the edges of town to see the boundaries of our little Hedersleben. Today was the first clear day since we got here so I enjoyed wearing my shorts in a 70 degree breeze. At 4:00 we came back to get prepared for a small Concert in the monastery by a traveling orchestral group. It was a full orchestra playing several pieces by Mozart. I was interested to see two singers a bass and a soprano travel with the orchestra to sing classical pieces. My friends and I got group pictures in our nice clothes after and returned to the monastery to share our days over the one wifi network on the entire grounds.