|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Did the severe irony of this story make everyone else's jaw drop?!
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=4444956&page=1
People get so offended that their indisputably militant social movement is being compared to terrorists and so? That's right--send death threats to the person who's making the comparison! Just like terrorists would! Lunacy...
| | |
| I just got back from a winter conference for the Reformed Presbyterian denomination. Among other things (in particular, people having a fund-raiser so that I could have the $5.41 necessary to have my transcript sent to IU--this allows me to get my master's a year after I actually earned it), we had a talk on how dangerous it is to judge people in an erroneous way. This reminded me of an excellent article I read by Ken Sande:
http://ccef.org/enews_JBC_Nov_07.asp
| | |
| This semester I'm going to help teach a Bible study on the book of Romans, and I found the following quotes about a very cool book: "The epistle to the Romans is the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest gospel, which is well worth and deserving that a Christian man should not only learn it by heart, word for word, but also that he should daily deal with it as the daily bread of men's souls. It can never be too much or too well read or studied, and the more it is handled the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes."--Martin Luther (a very similar quote is attributed to Tyndale) "[Romans is] the most profound writing that exists."--Coleridge Apparently the early church father Chrysostom had the epistle read to him two times every week. Isn't that amazing?! Well, I'm really excited about this study, so if you all have any favorite Romans resources, holler! | | |
| come back, Krusty, COME BAAAAAAAAAAACK.
(you've just been hacked by the Pudge... consider yourself lucky; it could've been much MUCH worse) | | |
| *One of the most versatile expressions in German
So jaywalkers says that I'm able to post photos on my blog even though I lack "xanga premium" status...since when did they change THAT! I just might be on the lookout for a digital camera so that I can take pictures of...mmm...math problems? Ok, maybe I'll just mooch all the pictures off of my sister's camera. Here they are!
Chapter 1: Jetlag, feet that are bigger than mine, and Roman ruins
So as we established earlier, the best way to beat jetlag is to stay up for most of the flight to Germany, close the roladen (amazing garage-door-like-window-blinds that REALLY needs to cross the ocean soon) and sleep for a good 11 hours. For the first few days of my visit, I just bummed around the house with jaywalkers, tubbes, and strawberry while slowmo was visiting his dad back in the states.
Here I lag on the couch with my neffe watching a highly engaging Baby Einstein video.
Jaywalkers, chillun's, and I went to this ancient Roman town called Trier (like the US, Germany has north-south schizophrenia; the southern part was under control of the Roman Empire and shows strong Roman Catholic tendencies, whereas the northern part is more Protestant). At any rate, Trier is OLD and has a Roman bath, and huge black gate aptly called the Porta Negra, and a basilica with this charming fellow on the front door. Inside was the seamless garment that Jesus was allegedly wearing when he was crucified.
It was COLD that day.
As much as Tubbes likes taking baths, today was NOT his day as there was much wailing and despair immediately after this picture was taken. This place had a massive tunnel network where you could get pretty disoriented. I don't think Constantine ever came to bathe though because they couldn't get the bath water to maintain an appropriate imperial temperature.
All around the town were these enormous white feet that I believe were symbolic of Constantine(?). I got my picture taken next to said feet, but for some reason it wouldn't upload. Oh well. So after this we went back home for a little more relaxing before the big road trip.
Chapter 2: Rothenburg ob der Tauber: Innovative solutions for high traffic volume and tourists that haven't been yodeled at
Uber e-props to jaywalkers for finding this town. We picked up slowmo at the Frankfurt airport and headed for Bavaria, stopping at Rothenburg on the way. Just picture taking a walled town from the 16th century, putting a crazy accordian-toting yodeler in town square and there you have Rothenburg ob der Tauber. In the winter, Germans have this incredible tradition of opening up a bunch of little stands in the town square where you can amass a trove of gluhwein (spiced wine), bratwurst, and all kinds of little knicknacks that are unique to Germany. They call these little shindigs "weinachtsmarkts" and there isn't a better manifestation of quaint German culture to be found. Farther down in this post I will post an aerial view of the weinachtsmarkt in Ulm.
Witness the crazy yodeler as he butchers folk songs and makes random barnyard animal sounds throughout:
This is the "rathaus", or town-hall:
Devour a tasty "schneeball" between yodeling acts. Basically a ball of fried dough adorned with cinnamon-sugar or chocolate:
After walking through an enormous store that is filled to the brim with Christmas decorations all year round (really these people are in their own little world) we ventured out to a restaurant where I gobbled down some bratwurst (Austin calls all tubular meat "hotdogs" and anything else is "chicken"). And don't let the tall glass fool you, that's really apple juice I'm drinking. And Austin's eating candy that looks a lot like jacks.
While everyone went to bed at some horrendously early hour, krustinator set out to investigate the town. Like good Germans, everything was closed by 6PM, so I was free to prowl about the city at my leisure. I walked around the city as much as I could on the wall, and took some neat shots on the way. The frost was just coming out as I went, and there was NOBODY on the wall besides me.
This is the main gate leading to a bridge the goes over the moat. All kinds of arrow slits and openings inside the wall to pour hot oil on invaders.
View of the outside of the wall
Traffic control!
This is the walkway that went around the majority of the town. The possibilities for a water balloon launcher are unlimited.
Chapter 3: Big mountain in Austria-1, Krustinator-0
The next thing on the itinerary was the lovely Alpine region of Tirol in Austria. These pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the mountains and the sky, but it will have to do. One thing I didn't think about when I went skiing was that yeah, high altitudes may mean colder air temperature for the most part, but they also mean that there is no protective layer of fluffy clouds keeping the blazing sun off of me as I waddle around a mountain on two sticks. Let me tell you folks, I was DRENCHED in sweat by mittagessen.
Nobody on the slopes that I met spoke any English, but I could usually get a torrent of friendly advice in German with an "Ich bin neue." E-props to the ski-lift guide who mercifully went down the mountain before me to demonstrate how to actually control my speed.
The bad part about getting lunch on this particular slope is that you have to brave part of an advanced slope before you can settle down to some liver knodel. After rolling down half the mountain and leaving ski-wreckage strewn behind me, somebody kindly picked up my things for me as they were whisking down the mountain and I had some lunch! Now, I know Germans like beer, but did they really need an octagonal outdoor bar fenced in with plexiglass blaring some generic ACDC song? Haha.
 
This picture really doesn't reflect the relief I felt at coming off the mountain with all limbs and essential organs intact.
And finally, here's the mountain that I was skiing on:
jaywalkers is in the market for a suburban:
On the way back from Reutte, we stopped at Ulm where the largest steeple is found. Somebody conned me into climbing it, and even though I could only go up halfway because of all the ice on the steps, I was still able to snap some nice photos of the market below:
I think the first level was a few hundred steps that began to look progressively more and more like this:
Chapter 4: Frohe Weinachten!
Meanwhile, back in Reifenberg, Santa was hard at work distributing plunder and loot to all the various dwellings. In this rare photo, we find Santa exhibiting one of Strawberry's presents for all to see:
Strawberry at work:
Slowmo leads a double life as a soccer player, and so when his team had a Christmas party, we were invited to come and partake. Sure looks a lot like something I saw in China!
Chapter 5: I guess I'll go eat _ _ _ _ _
You guessed it! After Christmas we took a short trip to Worms to meet one of jaywalker's blog friends and to see the sights. Here Luther appeared before the Emperor Charles of Holy Roman Empire fame, but rather than engaging in the debate that he expected, he was treated as a heretic on trial (Two questions: "Is this your work", "Will you recant"). Luther delivered a brief speech where he protests his treatment considering that his work contained vast amounts of Scripture. Included in his speech is the famous "Here I stand". Rather than see Luther burnt at the stake, Frederick the Wise "kidnapped" Luther and accomodated him in his castle at Wartburg, thus beginning Luther's exile and the famous but possibly apocryphal account of Luther throwing his inkwell at the devil.
Here's the cathedral at the site of his trial:
Somewhere close to this cathedral was a massive monument to the continental reformers including Calvin, Zwingli, Melancthon, in addition many of Luther's close associates:
Chapter 6: Paris
After the Worms trip, I made my way to Paris on a big bus full of Americans desiring to horde Parisian knicknacks, take some photos of them at famous places, and maybe have a brief history lesson along the way. While I was appreciative of the cheap price of the tour, the ham and cheese crepes, and some of the major sites, I'm afraid that I didn't form any sentimental attachments as I loomed in my lofty seat in the bus. That's why I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures and get to Chapter 7 before I go to bed.
  
 
Notice all the cool mathematicians whose names are on the side of the tower!
Chapter 7: Ich bin ein Berliner!
By the way, I ate a Berliner while I was in Worms. It's kind of like a jelly doughnut.
So, Berlin was the last (and craziest) chapter in my tour of European ways. I had about 15 minutes to pack for the trip as it was rather spontaneously decided that I was to go. True to form, I forgot to pack anything that I actually needed (like warm clothes, deoderant [but did I really NEED that?], soap, shampoo, map) so I really got off on the wrong foot. Arriving in Berlin around 6PM New Year's Eve, I wandered around trying to find the bed&breakfast I was going to stay at. Somehow I got completely disoriented because my map didn't enough detail in it, so it took another hour and a half to locate the b&b only to find it was full! So I started trying other random hostels and hotels only to find that they were also full.
Things were getting a little scary at this point. It was getting dark, there were crazy Germans running around drinking booze, shooting fireworks into the air and at complete strangers coming out of the subway, nobody I met spoke any English, and I was starting to contemplate renting a nice box near the Spree river so I could have shelter and a water supply.
Around 9:30, I finally found a hostel with 8-person dorm rooms at a forgivable price, and so there I stayed for the rest of the trip. Life was much better after this, as I saw all of the following:
Kaiser Wilhelm church--took a hit in the steeple by an Allied bomb. Never repaired, but the French donated a bunch of glass to build a strange looking tower
Berlin Wall--or what's left of it. I even bought a few chunks cuz that's what tourists do. Also purchased my very own "Achtung--Sie verlassen jetzt West-Berlin" sign...very cool!
Checkpoint Charlie museum--fascinating chronicle of a number of escape attempts by East Berliners including jumping over the wall, building hot air balloons, digging tunnels, driving large trucks at high speed through the wall, hiding people in between two carved out surfboards, and nailing two suitcases together and cutting a hole in them so that a person can fit.
Topography of Terror museum--built in the ruins of the SS/Gestapo headquarters. Ominous
Germany Ministry of Finance--notable only for the fact that it was the former Soviet Ministry of Ministries. Ha!
Reichstag--German legislature building. I think it beats ours. When I first saw it I thought it looked so stupid because they had this big glass dome on top of a gorgeous classical building. Then I saw what the dome was about! Check out the pictures on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_building
Chapter 8: Wittenburg
OK, I'm tired. I'll write this section later.
| | |
|
