Submitted by Josiah Taylor on the 2024 Winter LLCU program in Germany …
Redunitz-Thornberg
For the second week in Leipzig we started out by going to the BMW plant, which showed us the ins and outs of how the plant works. The plant had a lot of robotic elements and many people working inside of it. Overall the plant was absolutely massive, I wish I was able to take pictures but inside we weren’t allowed too. For the next day we went to a cooking course and we learned how to make potato pancakes and duck. It was a lot of prep and lots of cooking time, the bartender was super nice and he really made the whole experience and process the best. After the cooking class and into the next day we were assigned groups and were tasked to go around the city and check out some regions of the city, I was assigned with Tom, Catalina, Ethan, and Noah, we were given the region of Reudnitz which is the southern part of Leipzig, when we went we saw many parks and many graffiti covered buildings. We were also assigned to make a presentation for the region scouting and we included a video of a guy in the park skateboarding as well as some pictures of the buildings, we got some food and then we left. We also were able to visit Dresden which is a city near Leipzig, where we saw many important landmarks such as Der Zwinger, Frauenkirche and August the Strong statues. Dresden was fantastic, lots of really important history is associated with the city and it was fantastic to explore Dresden and have fun with others in the group.
Visit to Rammstein Store
For the third week, at the end of this week, I traveled to Berlin on the free weekend. I left on Saturday to meet with a friend in Berlin to hang out with for a little while and also visit the Rammstein Store. When I first got to Berlin the City was a little iffy for me but it was because we had gone to the northern part of Berlin where it’s a little bit less museum-ish. Just like in Leipzig there were Doner places and other international food to get. I definitely think that Leipzig is better but it may just be because I know the area of Leipzig better and I have been all around Leipzig. After hanging out with my friend and getting some food and just traveling around the city I went to the Rammstein store, the store was only open one day a month and it just happened to be the day that I had free so I had to go, I took a train to Berlin and it was a very pleasant experience, I talked to a couple of people on the train in german and it was a very good use for practicing and learning more German. At the Rammstein store I spent a lot of money, I got a jacket, a sweatshirt, some cologne and some drinks for my Mom. Overall being in Berlin for the short time I was there, it was nice and a super good experience to start in the city.
(Submitted on January 31, 2024)
