John's Pictures

Stuttgart & Heidelberg (Jan 19 - 22)
Visiting former host sister/ 6990 inbound Marlene in her hometown Stuttgart!

...with Marlene and her brother Michael in front of the Stuttgart Schloss...

Marlene and I with the Heidelberg Schloss in the background.  Marlene's brother
                         studies at Heidelberg University.

View of Heidelberg from the Schloss (which means castle by the way...)

All of us - Marlene, Michael, and mom Elfi working our way through a complicated board game.... (Remember Herr der Ringe, Charly and Arne?)

Winter Scenes of Apolda and Oberndorf

 Lutherskirche in Apolda

View from my bedroom window in Oberndorf

A snowy Apolda as seen fromt the top floor of my school...

New Years Visits

Rita Galle lighting real candles on the Christmas tree....

With Katharine, Jurgen, and Rita Galle.  Jurgen was one of the first German in exchange
                        students to come to district 6990!

Gut Langert, the house where my mother and uncle lived as exchange students

Christmas Season

Visiting the Erfurt weihnachtsmarkt with friends

Erfurt Weihnachtsmarkt

German Country music fest with Jordan, Alex, and our host parents

Army of chocolate santas that assembled in our house during the Christmas season...

Dresden (Dec. 9-12, 2006) 

Weihnachtsmarkt in front of the Frauenkirche

We were met by fellow Distr. 1950 inbound Tomoyo, from Japan...

Rebuilding Baroque Dresden

Baroque Architecture

Host Sister Uli and I with the Sisteen Madonna....or, at least the gift shop version...

Patiently waiting for exchange student John to finish up in the art museums.....

 .....and waiting...

finally!  He’s done.  Just enough time for one more historical sight….the Semper Opera   house….

 Snow!  This was fellow outbound Jordan ’s first time ever seeing so much….

Picturesque scenery….almost all of the buildings in the town are covered with black slate tiles like these…

Trying my hand at glass blowing….

Some unusual traditional crafts…. (for mom)

My host father and sister, decked out in Faschings gear

The Faschingsgarde

Gathering on the Rathaus steps

Stealing the key to the city from the mayor.

Those amazing hats, which my host dad told me are descended  from the tradition of medieval court jesters

Katrine & Heins, my second host parents.

The three Amis at Fasching….

Called up on stage….where our photo was taken for the newspaper…

View over Stralsund

My host grandmother’s tobacco shop in Stralsund

Taking a break from the long birthday celebration

The chalk cliff beaches at the disputed northernmost point in Germany .

A random reminder of home at insel Rügen

On the Baltic Sea , insel Rügen

Visiting “relatives” in Hamburg .

Rostock

Market square and Marienkirche in Rostock

Astronomical clock in the Marienkirche in Rostock

Croatia & Venice (October 9-14, 2005)

062 – The Amis….

033 – the tour group…

034 - ….and the chaperones.

083, 027 – What country are we in again? ….Oh, right, Croatia

Another picture of Croatia

130 - …..ok, now we’re in Italy ….

067 – My host parents arranged for all the nearby exchange students to meet at the

          Zwiebelmarkt.  The hats are from Kostritzer, my host father’s brewery…

077 – ….with a Zwiebelsopf (onion braid).

Rotary Orientation (October 1-3, 2005)

003, 045 – “Our” castle, where the orientation took place.

020 – The whole group…(inbounds & rebounds)

022 - ….with Tomoyo ( Japan ), Jordan ( Arizona ), & Helen ( Pennsylvania )…

055 – I imagine that anyone who has been involved with a Rotary orientation can understand this picture.  Sometime around 1 in the morning, Saskia from New Zealand decided that she needed to learn the pledge of allegiance.  This is the result of her endeavours.

My Birthday (September 22, 2005)

My surprisingly large German birthday dinner! (Fellow exchange students, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.)

Even though I have known for a long time how much my host parents love western things, I was still surprised when they all of a sudden pulled out all this western gear and started singing Johnny Cash songs…

Berlin (September 24, 2005)

The Brandenburger Tor from Behind

and from the front!

The new Holocaust Memorial with the Reichstag (glass dome) and Brandenburger Tor in the background

Host parents before marathon.....

......and during....

The view from Tante Anke's apartment.

We happened upon the beginning of the parade!

The interior of "our" beer tent....

Durndls & Lederhosen everywhere.

My host parents & Tante Anke.

The whole group...

Host father Frank with "our new friend Werner"

That classic Oktoberfest scene....

Oktoberfest Hearts

The Italians posing as Bavarians that Tante Anke complained about.  (My host father excitedly staged this picture....)

The rides (unfortunately after the chicken & beer....)

Some carnival art (For Mr. Levenson)

After Oktoberfest....

For Mom & Uncle Johnny....

The Domberg.  There is a Japanese wedding party in the foreground

One of the two Gothic cathedrals on top of the Domberg

Outside Dom St. Marien on the Domberg

This candelabra was made in the 1100s.  It is the oldest freestanding sculpture in Germany and one of only two surviving hollow cast bronze sculptures from the middle ages.

Weimar (August 28, 2005

I love my new home in the country . . . . . but what makes the slow pace and beautiful scenery even better, is the fact that there are two big cities only 20 minutes away .   One of these cities is Weimar .   It is famous for being the home of Goethe and Schiller, two famous German authors .

Host family and I with Goethe & Schiller, the dynamic duo of Weimar . . . . . .(My mom thinks Goethe, on the left, looks like Bill Clinton . .. )

Goethe is everywhere in Weimar . . . .

Host sister "Uli" and I on a carraige tour of the altstadt .

The Residenz Schloss in Weimar .

Host father Frank in the courtyard of the Residenz Schloss .

Goethe's house (or one of them) in the Park am der Ilm, the "Central Park" of Weimar .

View into the park from Goethe's house .

Die Wartburg & Lutherfest, Eisenach  (August 21, 2005) 

he traditional donkey ride up to the castle

Die Wartburg

Marktplatz in Eisenach

Martin Luther's House 

Lutherfest

With "Katarina von Bora", the wife of Martin Luther, unfortunately, no sighting of the great man himself . . . . .

except for this . . . . . .

in grosse Hund (for Naomi)

The crowds, bursting with excitement...

The mascot..

The zuperstar!  Jan Ulrich.....a.k.a the German version of Lance Armstrong (Real fans would probably cringe if they read that!)

Hans Heppner (Heppe)....doesn't look to happy just before his last race....

This guy (can't remember his name) won second place in the Tour de France last year....

An important moment in cycling history.....from behind.....

Mephistopholes & Faust....

The Apolda Rotary club is hosting three American exchange students.  We will rotate through three host families.  This picture shows the three of us with the graduate students who were our private German teachers for the first week.  Fellow exchange students Jordan and Alexandra are on the left & right...

My host father celebrated the end of the first week of school with a Barbecue.  He is at the grill (looks familiar) and the other four host parents are in the background.  (L to R.... Gunther & Ute Hhase, Heinz & Kathrin Lauer)

Church interior

All of a sudden my host grandfather started playing the organ, and even though he insisted that he didn't know anything.....he was actually pretty good!

steeple interior

views from the restoration scaffolding

My house from above.  My host father can be seen just to the right of the table.

Views over Oberndorf.

The church spires in the background are in Apolda, where my high school is located.

August 29, 2005

This afternoon (Aug 29) we had coffee with my host grandparents.

A few houses in the village have traditional murals like this one.  The shild on the left is Oberndorf's coat of arms

This symbol represents fire fighters and is painted on the wall of the local fire station.

Perfect gardens everywhere....

Fachwerkhaus (half timbered house)

This tasted as good as it looks....

Meine Gast Gross eltern Wolfgang & Helma

Leaving MIA!

My host mother, Connie

Connie and I in front of my host grandparent's house

My host parents and grandparents(left to right:  Wolfgang, Helma, Connie, and Frank)

Grandparent's house

Fields outside of Oberndorf

My host grandmother's house

(L-R) My host mother, uncle, and aunt.  In the background is a public pool where my aunt and uncle organize races and events.  The pool was built in the 1920s.

Gegge Musik at the Carnival Club Olympics

Me running in the beer crate relay!

Host parents with my first real German Bratwurst!

The locally brewed beer