fulbright blog.: Birthday, Christ Heavendrive, Leipzig, Poppies

I'm 23 now! And I made my cake last Sunday, so I've been enjoying it for several days.

Microwave popcorn in Germany always fills up the entire bag and they don't put weird imitation butter on it.

Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt, which literally means "Christ Heavendrive," but actually means "Ascension Day," so I went to church at the Augustinerkloster, which is a protestant church in Erfurt. It was pretty interesting - they had a live brass section that played.

On Friday I went to Leipzig because I wanted to see the Runde Ecke Museum and the new travelling exhibit at the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum. Above is a photo of Gera's train station. The Runde Ecke Museum was not very good. It was difficult to read, there were too many people there, and it was really dusty.

After the not-so-great Runde Ecke Museum, I went back to the excellent history museum in Leipzig. It's free and the travelling exhibit was "The American Way - Amerikaner in Deutschland." It was all about America!!! Here is the bit about the Fulbright Program!

Lufthansa planes used to be made in the US...

At the end of the exhibit, there was a survey on a touchscreen computer. One of the questions was "Do you like Americans?" I, of course, answered "ja," but the results were fairly close!

After I left that museum, I went to the Galeria Kaufhof, which is a high-end department store that has an import section. Erfurt doesn't have one. I wanted to see how much Pop Tarts cost (6 Euros for a small box, so I didn't get any), but then I saw this in the American foods section! This little bottle of mustard and I are both a long ways away from home.

After I got home from Leipzig I went for a walk to take pictures of the poppies. There are so many outside that it looks like that part from The Wizard of Oz when they all fall asleep. I also thought about that time in 7th grade that Mrs. Flud told us how to make opium.