Our time in Magdeburg is coming to an end. In less than 24 hours we’ll board our Continental flight back to Newark and then fly into GSP. I hope you have all enjoyed the honesty and enthusiasm with which these 7 very special and unique USC Upstate students have documented their experience and in the process I hope they and you have learned something from it.
In the end, however, there were some experiences and sites that slipped through the documentation cracks and I’d like to share some of them with you:
The 1000 year old Magdeburg cathedral
The Gruene Zitadelle (green citadel) built in Magdeburg and designed by Austrian architect Hundertwasser.
The beautiful Elbe river that flows through Magdeburg.
The Magdeburg farmer’s market and white asparagus season.
Magdeburg is the home of Otto von Guericke whose experiments with two half spheres and a team of horses established the physics of the vacuum.
The beautiful Mueckenwirt beer garden on the Elbe river
The Bauhaus school in Dessau.
Wittenberg and the door of the church to which Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses.
Martin Luther’s church in Wittenberg.
And of course I could post these for days. Even though I had seen most of this before, this being the 5th group of USC Upstate students I have taken to Magdeburg since 2000, the real pleasure comes in seeing the students experience it for the very first time. Not only does such a trip provide a completely new perspective on everything from environmental issues, food, money, politics, history, travel, cultural differences, historic preservation, etc…..it is something that changes each and every student that experiences it, even if just a little bit. Each students comes back changed in some way. They might not know it yet…..but they will.
Hope you’ve enjoyed. Now I’ll let the students speak for themselves.
Herr C.
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