Soccer and economics

in frankfurt, Germany
lookin mighty sexy outside the european central bank
some weird lookin street performers in heidelburg
Old town in Heidelburg
6 of us just happened to be wearing dark pants and a white shirt. guess its bound to happen when we all are living out of one suitcase each.
this and next photo are part of heidelburg castle

thought i'd throw in one last update in germany before we head off on our 9hr+ bus ride to prague, czech republic tomorrow. we had our test saturday morning, which was harder than the last (got a high B, means i got to study hard for the next one). we have a steady stream of homework now, which involves readings, small write ups on our business visits, and an economics essay and project coming up soon. I spent the rest of saturday walking around town, denny and I went and visited the castle that over looks Heidelburg (which we ended up seeing as a group on sunday. oh well). a few of us went out to a small club that night but our small group of americans were the only ones dancing. still had a good time though.

sunday we went to church. so far in my life I've been able to experience the great blessing of worshiping our Lord in English, Chinese, Spanish, Lithuanian, Russian, Czech, and now German. so awesome. despite that it was crazy hot in the church, had a good time singing and fellowshipping with German Christians. Sunday afternoon was spent touring the castle again, doing homework, and watching Germany beat Poland in soccer for the Euro 2008 tournament. a couple of us went to a bar (we didn't drink, policy of IBI) and watched the game. European fans are absolutely crazy. After Germany won, cars covered in German flags were honking and people screaming over an hour and a half after the game finished.

Today we had the opportunity to go to Frankfurt where we visited the European Central Bank and Deutsche Bank. These visits were beneficial because I know now I do not want to be a banker or be involved in any matter with banking. boring. the presentations were interesting (long) but overall was a good experience.

I'm spending the rest of the night studying and packing for our trip tomorrow. Hope all is well where ever you may be reading this.

whoops

my bad. published the last post without actually writing anything.

tuesday morning we heard from an american making mexican food products selling to the russians. really interesting and he definitely knew what he was talking about. was interesting to hear about all the difficulties he faces working in the russian system and all the loopholes he has to go threw. it was also interesting to hear about how putin (the leader of russia) is disliked by much of the world, but the majority of russians like him because he brought some stability to the economy after about a decade of chaos.

after spending 2 hours in traffic (normal in russia) we made it to the airport and flew to amsterdam (tuesday night), ate dinner about an hour outside the city, and spent the night there. wednesday we took a bus for about 8 hours to get to where we are currently staying, heidelberg, germany. on the way we stopped at koln germany and saw a really cool cathedral (and even got to walk up to the top).

today (thursday) we had three hours of class (i got a 93 on my last test. holla. our next one is Saturday). we then went to a John Deere factory and had about 4 hours of tours and presentations. interesting, but long, so i got bored pretty quickly due to my short attention span. i've realized through my travels i really don't do well with guided tours. i space out about 10 minutes into it. so imagine a 2 hour guided tour through the factory. amazing, but long.

last night a bunch of us spent a few hours walking around town, and now i am currently hanging out with a few friends in a little cafe that happened to have free wireless. tomorrow we have more classes then a tour of a Dailmer (buses) factory. i'm spending the rest of the night checking up on the news and ready two chapters for economics. shoot me an email, love to hear from you.

bored in traffic. i'm actually the only one awake.
parking in russia. cars on the sidewalk.

we flew into amsterdam and spent the night in a hotel about an hour outside the city. so beautiful.
we stopped in koln, germany for a few hours for lunch. sweet cathedral we found.


a sweet view from the top of the tower of the cathedral in the previous pics
germany
taking a stroll in heidelberg germany where we are staying for 6 nights
feeling mighty hick.
denny and i gettin ready to go on a visit of one of john deere's biggest factories in mannhiem germany.

weirdest thing ever. i actually have some down time to sit and think. its pretty much been non stop since we got to russia.

From Russia with love

cool building
McDonalds in russian.
outside the cool mansion thingy.
me and tanner


me and jenna (from messiah) on our boat cruise on the moscow river.
me and kaylin. yeah, she's that short
part of an outdoor memorial on the spot where russia stopped the german advance in ww2.

no trumpets in this park (actually means no honking)
tanner, myself, kaylin (mt. vernon nazarene), and sam (eastern mennonite university) at a circus in russia. way good times. saw a poodle do a backflip. who would've thought? unfortunately, no bears were part of the acts.
outside a sweet huge cathedral. my attempt at being creativee.
no matter where i go in this world, i never fit.
me and nick (from florida and attends eastern mennonite in virgina) in front of the sweetest cathedral ever.
one of stalin's creations in honor of himself. i think this is now moscow university.
tanner and john (biola) and john (messiah) in front of some sweet russian architecture
john crowell from biola. i love this photo.
out in red square. so cool.

me and denny. two small town boys livin it up in moscow.
on the bus ride from lithuania to latvia
russia!
me with yomi and wairimu (both from messiah)
bekah (messiah) and zach (mt. vernon nazarene)
more gold tops in russia
hill of crosses

me and john crowell (biola)
one of my favorites from the hill of crosses

one of our corporate visits. this is a company in klaipeda, lithuania who make these plastic polymer thingys that are eventually made into bottles, plastic wrap, etc.
me and ben at a pier overlooking the baltic sea (lithuania)
it seems like every restuarant we go to gets crazier and crazier. this one had a huge playground complex on it. this little ride was tons of fun. we even got our program director and my academic advisor, dr. webb, out on it
more hill of crosses
another favorite from the hill of crosses. i apologize for the disorder of my photos. still haven't figured out how to load them chronologically. if i had more time i could figure it out.

well, due to my lack of internet access in russia, i haven't had the opportunity to update this, but i've got like 10 minutes left on my tab in this internet cafe in my hotel so i'll do what i can.

monday and tuesday involved a lot of classes and few corporate visits (one was to Jazaki wiring where they made electrical harnesses for cars and another where they made plastic stuff) wednesday was a test (still haven't figured out what i scored). thursday we hoped on a bus for a 6hr drive to riga latvia where we had lunch then jumped on a sleeper train for a 17hr overnight ride to moscow russia. on the way to Riga we stopped at a place in Lithuania called the Hill of Crosses. An amazing history and also a beautiful location (check it out in wikipedia). the train ride wasn't to bad and the beds weren't too short but overall a good time. since being in russia we have been to the kremlin, toured around the moscow metro, gone to a circus, been to a couple different outdoor markets, seen lenin's tomb in red square (creepy), gone on a boat trip down the moscow river, gone on a bus tour around moscow, taken a ton of naps on the bus cause we hardly sleep, gone to a russian baptist church (2hr service), and walked around this huge mansion complex (oh yeah, also ate a ton of hot dogs). alright got to fly will update later.