This past week I was staying in a youth hostel in Cologne with the 46 other Americans for our Seminar with PI. We had many talks about our experiences so far and how we expect the year to go further. An important topic we discussed was the function of Youth Ambassadorship and why it's important. I found it important because it focused me onto my goals for the next few months and what I have to improve.
When we weren't in the meeting room we were either eating a meal at the youth hostel or on a day trip. Wednesday, we saw the cathedral or course and visited the building where the Gestapo headquarters used to be. It was shocking to see the brutality and efficiency that organization was capable of in putting out any resistance to the government. The most interesting fact I learned from our tour is that the platforms 10 and 11 in Cologne, the two I use to get between Bergisch Gladbach and the city, were solely used in the past for the trains that were bound for concentration camps. Thursday, was spent in Bonn meeting the mayor in the town hall, asking her our questions and visiting a museum over the history of West Germany between the Second World War and the present. Friday, we took a tour of Cologne's historic Altstadt at night. Not much to report on that since I've lived here for 5 months and been to the city countless times already. Saturday, we were visited by a government official who is an American equivalent of a Congressman, to discuss topics of Domestic Policy in Germany, German Foreign Policy, and relations between our two countries. I was given the chance to ask him a question that I've been pondering for a while now. I might have only lived here for a short time, but the character of Cologne, as I've learned it, is a very proud and independent one. Of course that means proud and independent on a German level, but my point stands. Therefore, I wanted to know if the centuries long tradition was still a reality today, or if the identity of the people here is truly 'German' rather than Kölsch. In other words: is Cologne a city in Germany, or is Cologne a city of Germany? The answer I got didn't surprise me that, with the information technology and inter-connectivity of the 21st century, the cultural values of the Kölner are just that: cultural, They no longer extend to shape their political ideas or sense of identity or loyalty. The exception to this being any time you bring up "the village down the river" Düsseldorf, then you will be confronted by a cacophony of a dialect, I don't really understand, explaining to you the greatness of The City of Churches.
I enjoyed the lessons I learned during the seminar, even if the lack of free time and fully blocked schedule did drag me down some times. It was a good refocusing of my goals, that made clear to me the things I want to accomplish in this next half-year.
When we weren't in the meeting room we were either eating a meal at the youth hostel or on a day trip. Wednesday, we saw the cathedral or course and visited the building where the Gestapo headquarters used to be. It was shocking to see the brutality and efficiency that organization was capable of in putting out any resistance to the government. The most interesting fact I learned from our tour is that the platforms 10 and 11 in Cologne, the two I use to get between Bergisch Gladbach and the city, were solely used in the past for the trains that were bound for concentration camps. Thursday, was spent in Bonn meeting the mayor in the town hall, asking her our questions and visiting a museum over the history of West Germany between the Second World War and the present. Friday, we took a tour of Cologne's historic Altstadt at night. Not much to report on that since I've lived here for 5 months and been to the city countless times already. Saturday, we were visited by a government official who is an American equivalent of a Congressman, to discuss topics of Domestic Policy in Germany, German Foreign Policy, and relations between our two countries. I was given the chance to ask him a question that I've been pondering for a while now. I might have only lived here for a short time, but the character of Cologne, as I've learned it, is a very proud and independent one. Of course that means proud and independent on a German level, but my point stands. Therefore, I wanted to know if the centuries long tradition was still a reality today, or if the identity of the people here is truly 'German' rather than Kölsch. In other words: is Cologne a city in Germany, or is Cologne a city of Germany? The answer I got didn't surprise me that, with the information technology and inter-connectivity of the 21st century, the cultural values of the Kölner are just that: cultural, They no longer extend to shape their political ideas or sense of identity or loyalty. The exception to this being any time you bring up "the village down the river" Düsseldorf, then you will be confronted by a cacophony of a dialect, I don't really understand, explaining to you the greatness of The City of Churches.
I enjoyed the lessons I learned during the seminar, even if the lack of free time and fully blocked schedule did drag me down some times. It was a good refocusing of my goals, that made clear to me the things I want to accomplish in this next half-year.
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