(no subject)
Well! Been a while since the last update, i will grant everybody that. This second session has been very chaotic, however. Last session we had thirteen students and about 6 or seven adults sharing this incredibly small center. This time it's 23 students and about 10 adults. At first, I thought for sure that it was going to be somthing I had a bit of trouble dealing with, but at this point I am loving life with these people. Although the vast majority are a little weird and not really my type of people, I have been able to carve out a nice little niche for myself and Brent, and luckily my friend Justus is here as well, so we have more than enough to keep ourselves busy. My classes look a lot better as well. The first is Holocaust Theology, taught by Dr. Cameron, and since I am already a bit of an expert on the subject, it should be something I enjoy...I hope, anyway. The second of my classes is taught by Dr. Moore, the dean of CAS at UP, so even though it's just a genetics course, something I know nothing about, it should at the very least be a great opportunity to suck up to the dean, something that I will NEVER miss an opportunity to do.
So we did take a few excursions over the last couple of days. On friday, we went back to the Obersalzburg documentation center in Berchesgaden, somewhere that I have already gone (second historical entry is from that trip,) and while not much new presented itself, I was able to review the areas that I did not exhaust myself with the last time I was there. So after that, we went to...you'll never guess...ANOTHER SALT MINE! YES!!!!!! This time it was the Hallstatt salt mine, which was affilliated with the "celtic" museum that we saw last session. This mine tour was very similar to the last one, but with a few notable differences. for example, there was no laser light show, but rather a series of extremely cheesy movies showing the relationship between this old prince/archbishop of Salzburg (who was a real asshole) and his monk companion, Jakob. What these had to do with salt mining was a little unclear, but I'm sure there was some sort of connection somewhere. More than anything else, it seemed like an attempt to introduce a bit of local history. Also, there was a boat ride in an underground lake on this tour, which was pretty cool, I have to say. However, it was just a salt mine in every sense of that statement.
However, yesterday we saw something that was damn interesting and had nothing to do with salt, which on this trip is always a plus. We drove out to the Chiemsee, one of the bigger lakes in Germany, and took a ferry out to King Ludwig II ("King Ludwig the Mad")'s last castle, Herrenchiemsee. This castle is an exact copy of Versailles, except incomplete. See, king Ludwig was very obsessed with the idea of an absolute monarch (unfortunately, he lived about 200 years too late for that) and he saw King Louis XIV of France as about the ideal for an absolute monarch, so he dedicated this entire palace to him. There is not a single picture of Ludwig (which, by the way, means "Louis" in German) in the castle, but the are about 100 of Louis XIV, and about half as many of Louis XV. In fact, there is even a cuckoo clock in which not a bird, but a tiny Louis XIV pops out on the hour. My theory is very simple: since it is well documented that Ludwig was a self-loathing gay man, it seems logical to think that the obsession with Louis (who was also gay) may have had more to do with self-identification and love than with politics. I would imagine that surrounded by images of this man whom he so admired, and whom he saw as the ultimate realization of himself as a monarch and as a person, Ludwig could be at peace. Unfortunately, Ludwig's penchant for building extravagant castles bankrupted the national treasury of Bavaria, and he was drowned by his advisors before it was completed. But what an amazingly beautiful place, and what an interesting ruler. Very, very interesting, to say the least. Well, a new week is beginning, complete with lots of homework, but I will keep everyone up to date on what is happening here as much as I can. Hope this finds you well!
Kevin
So we did take a few excursions over the last couple of days. On friday, we went back to the Obersalzburg documentation center in Berchesgaden, somewhere that I have already gone (second historical entry is from that trip,) and while not much new presented itself, I was able to review the areas that I did not exhaust myself with the last time I was there. So after that, we went to...you'll never guess...ANOTHER SALT MINE! YES!!!!!! This time it was the Hallstatt salt mine, which was affilliated with the "celtic" museum that we saw last session. This mine tour was very similar to the last one, but with a few notable differences. for example, there was no laser light show, but rather a series of extremely cheesy movies showing the relationship between this old prince/archbishop of Salzburg (who was a real asshole) and his monk companion, Jakob. What these had to do with salt mining was a little unclear, but I'm sure there was some sort of connection somewhere. More than anything else, it seemed like an attempt to introduce a bit of local history. Also, there was a boat ride in an underground lake on this tour, which was pretty cool, I have to say. However, it was just a salt mine in every sense of that statement.
However, yesterday we saw something that was damn interesting and had nothing to do with salt, which on this trip is always a plus. We drove out to the Chiemsee, one of the bigger lakes in Germany, and took a ferry out to King Ludwig II ("King Ludwig the Mad")'s last castle, Herrenchiemsee. This castle is an exact copy of Versailles, except incomplete. See, king Ludwig was very obsessed with the idea of an absolute monarch (unfortunately, he lived about 200 years too late for that) and he saw King Louis XIV of France as about the ideal for an absolute monarch, so he dedicated this entire palace to him. There is not a single picture of Ludwig (which, by the way, means "Louis" in German) in the castle, but the are about 100 of Louis XIV, and about half as many of Louis XV. In fact, there is even a cuckoo clock in which not a bird, but a tiny Louis XIV pops out on the hour. My theory is very simple: since it is well documented that Ludwig was a self-loathing gay man, it seems logical to think that the obsession with Louis (who was also gay) may have had more to do with self-identification and love than with politics. I would imagine that surrounded by images of this man whom he so admired, and whom he saw as the ultimate realization of himself as a monarch and as a person, Ludwig could be at peace. Unfortunately, Ludwig's penchant for building extravagant castles bankrupted the national treasury of Bavaria, and he was drowned by his advisors before it was completed. But what an amazingly beautiful place, and what an interesting ruler. Very, very interesting, to say the least. Well, a new week is beginning, complete with lots of homework, but I will keep everyone up to date on what is happening here as much as I can. Hope this finds you well!
Kevin