Funny Joke...

So I subscribe to these 'jokes' and 'sayings' from Beliefnet.com and this was today's 'Daily Joke'. I mean, admittedly, you see it coming, but still...if it were 'real' that would be HILARIOUSLY funny! ;)

In the end I would say: be careful what you say! I've been learning that AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN! ;)

Daily Joke
10/28/2008

My First Confession

A parish priest was being honored at a dinner on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his arrival in that parish. A leading local politician, who was a member of the congregation, was chosen to make the presentation and to give a little speech at the dinner, but he was delayed in traffic, so the priest decided to say his own few words while they waited. "You will understand," he said, "the seal of the confessional can never be broken, however I got my first impressions of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I can only hint vaguely about this, but when I came here 25 years ago I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first chap who entered my confessional told me how he had stolen a television set, and when stopped by the police, had almost murdered the officer! Further, he told me he had embezzled money from his place of business and had an affair with his boss's wife. I was appalled! But as the days went on, I learned that my people were not all like that, and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of understanding and loving people." Just as the priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and give his talk. "I'll never forget the first day our parish priest arrived in this parish," said the politician. "In fact, I had the honour of being the first one to go to him in confession."

Aaron's Studies: Take 3

So I just got done with another research trip. This time I was up north of Berlin in a state called Mecklenburg/Vorpommern to do some refugee interviews.

This is Schwerin castle in the capital of Mecklenburg/Vorpommern, Schwerin...and it's the state's parliament!

Nice....







This is called 'Ritterstrasse' = Knight Street...so yes, John Ritter = John Knight...
















I just thought I'd give you a 'look' for Schwerin. My dorm is going to do a trip later on there, so I'll probably have more/better pictures then and more info to give...















Schwerin has a zoo and their 'thing' is the Nashorn (Nas = nose; Horn = horn), did you figure out what a Nosehorn is (that is one of the reasons why I love German, it just says things HOW THEY ARE....) (Just in case, you are still lost, it's a Rhino ;) So the idea is that businesses can 'adopt' one of these Rhinos (money goes to build the habitat in the zoo for the Rhinos, etc.) have it decorated and get a lot of publicity through it. They're just sitting there in the main Market Square.



So back in the day, when Schwerin was a Slavic city, a German/Teuton named 'Heinrich the Lion' came (1160), killed the Slavic king and made the king's son his vassal (oh those were the days :( anyway, so the Lion is a symbol if you will of Schwerin....

There is Schwerin Cathedral in the background (Schwerin, like most of northern Germany, is Protestant).....





A view from the other side....


















You see these all over Germany. Tablets to the 'honored dead' who gave their lives for the Fatherland back during WWI.....

What a waste of energy, talent, people...life!

I hate war!








After doing 4 interviews in Schwerin I was driven to a town nearby called Crivitz.

This is a picture of me with Herr and Frau 'H', we shall call them. I met Frau 'H' at a large German refugee meeting about a month ago in Schwerin. She not only agreed to be interviewed, but ALSO offered that I could stay with them in Crivitz AND arranged for a plethora of interviews for me. They fed me and took care of me and I am very thankful for their kindness...




I thought this was interesting...another memorial to the 'fallen dead', but this one is from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871! Hmm...










This is a view of the Crivitizer See (Crivitz Lake) with the church in the background....












The town was old-style and cute - it reminded me of Colombia, Ireland and Britain mashed together....












Another view of the Church (built in the 1300's!!!)... let's go in, shall we?

The inside has medieval wall paintings (in Anklam (see earlier blog post) they told me that after the Reformation the 'Prods' just whitewashed the churches...now they're finding the early pre-Reformation paintings on the walls - I'm just assuming that this is the case here in Crivitiz Church)...

After an interview I made my way down to the lake and enjoyed a 'sit-down'. Ever since President Monson talked about 'enjoying the journey' I can say that has really been the case in my life - I've 'gotten help' to enjoy the journey more.... ;)

Then I heard a gaggle of geese! And I kept on waiting for them to fly over and waiting and waiting and then FINALLY....in a large V-ish line they were all heading south (I've decided birds that fly south are the smart ones!)...if you count them, I think there are almost 100!

(Click the picture to see better...)

All over Germany people have these little huts and gardens - reminds me of the Russian Dachas I've seen on TV...

This is a memorial in Crivitz to the 'Death March' of concentration camp prisoners from Sachsenhausen (camp near Berlin) and Ravensbruck (women's camp). The Nazis wanted to march the prisoners north and put the concentration camp prisoners on ships and then sink them (it happened with some). And this memorial thanks the Soviet Army for saving people from the death march.

People, don't take this question the wrong way but....if people truly 'believe' something and then act according to that belief, at the very least my brain can say 'they did this because they believed such-and-such'. If the Nazis truly believed in what they were doing, i.e. killing 'sub-humans' into the millions, then why did they go to all the trouble to try to 'cover-up' what they had done? Know what I mean? If they truly believed in it, why were they taking down concentration camps left and right and trying to get rid of the 'witnesses'? To me that equals even more...guilt...does that make sense?

After an interview I saw this house. I saw other houses (but not all) in the area with this kind of roof, making me think it is a 'Mecklenburg' roof (it has a 'dragon' on the end, making me think of the whole Scandinavian/Teutonic Knight history of the area...)

Here is a man..oops, sorry, sexist, human-made lake in Schwerin ;)

There is Schwerin Cathedral in the background...I thought it looked really cool...made me think of a Scandinavian city....

The Cathedral during the last rays of the day...

And then the Cathedral and Pfaffenteich (that is the name of the human-made lake) at night...I'd love to go for a walk around it during the summer...nice....

I said goodbye to Herr and Frau 'H' and goodbye to Crivitz (where I would sleep at night) and then headed off to Schwerin for my last interview.

Herr and Frau 'H' let me know that because I'd have a bit of time to kill I could go take a peek at Schweriner See (Schwerin Lake).

Wunderbar und beautiful, no?

More....

And behind the boats is Schwerin city....

This was my last interview, Herr 'K'. He built this 'Waldschule' (Wald = Forest; Schule = School) near Schweriner See. He lets the kids come and learn about the life of trees, how they grow, animals, etc. I thought it was all very imaginative and cool for the kids!

As Herr 'K' was driving me to the Hauptbahnhof (Haupt - Main; Bahnhof - Train station) I saw this!

BEAUTIFUL VIEW, eh?! Hmm, hmm....

So on my way back to Berlin I came across the windmills...I want one for my house! I'd never have to pay for electricity again! ;)

So, that was another introduction to what I do...I was tired from all the travelling and interviewing, but grateful - I've waited a while for all of this to happen...

Berlin Wall Student Trip

While I was interviewing my German refugees, one asked me to come along on an 'exchange student' activity. We would follow the old 'Mauer'/Berlin Wall. We began on top of the Europa center. I LOVE VIEWS! It brings a whole new perspective to a place and this did for me concerning Berlin!The Europea Center and the area you can see down in that photo was the 'in' place in old West Berlin and what was always the sign of what the capitalist West could offer East Germany if it ever changed its mind...

The 'long red line' is Kurfurstendamm (Prince-Elector-Street(?), we'll say. NYC's 5the Avenue is to NYC, what Ku'damm was/is to (West) Berlin....

The 'blue' line is Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church that the West Berliners left up after the war as a reminder of what war brings and the 'yellow' line is the 'new' clock tower for the new church which is behind the old Memorial Church.


From the previous photo you can see where I live off in the distance. Any fan of my blog will recognize what's in 'red' as my Funkturm! The 'Radio Tower' of Berlin that was built in the 1920's. (see past blog posts for any additional info on it)

And then off to the left is the old American 'listening' station - apparently they could 'listen' to Moscow from there.




'Stand in the place where you live, now face North!' We were facing west and now north. I did an interview with another refugee in that area and that tall tower is the old TV receving tower for West Berlin (that apparently most East Germans watched! How frustrating would that have been...you could actually see what was going on everywhere else, but never go there!)






This is facing east now, looking down in 'red' is KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens - apparently the largest shopping store/mall in continental Europe - '2.500 types of cheeses' as our guide said...mmm...cheese...) This was still all old 'West Berlin'. Off in the distance in that rectangle is the 'tower' from Tempelhof Airport, where the 'Berlin Airlift' (or 'Air Bridge', in German) took place.

The blue was 'No Man's Land', but now it's Potsdamer Platz. You've seen this as well in old blog posts. I'd just like to point out that 'Mt. Fuji'-looking thing off to the 'blue' left is the Sony Center and it turns different colors are night, every night.

The two towers in black are the churches on Gendarmenmarkt (also in old posts). In between those two churches is another area with it's church. This area is called Nikolai Quarter (also, see old posts) and this where Berlin started over 750 years ago!


'Lady in red...is...posing for my picture...' There she is, the goddess of Victory on top of the Victory Column where Barack Obama spoke (see old post) surrounded by the 'Tiergarten' (old royal hunting grounds, but now park)....

There in red is the Reichstag and that is where we're headed next....

We saw Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish memorial and then as we got nearer to the the Brandenburg Gate there were TON O' COPS and yelling, etc....

IT WAS A PROTEST!

They were protesting 'Big Brother' - seriously! It was a protest against 'ID cards', video cameras being everywhere, etc....

Oh what we give up for 'security', eh? Being that it was all near the Reichstag, I just find the irony beyond crazy!

This is a shout-out to Brad in AZ! Here is your new American embassy all pretty and sparkly. I didn't know this, but apparently we had that land since the early 1900's, but then during the Cold War nothing was there, but now we've got it back. DUMB IDEA! Everyone comes here to protest! The American authorities were paranoid about security, but wanted this area for the embassy! If you want security you do what they did in Bogota. The embassy there is a 'compound'. Probably 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile of flat, nothingness grass (with sensors all over). One entrance from the road, where you drive to the 'building' of the embassy (that sits all alone in the middle)...and then you have EVERYTHING underground! If you want security, that's wht you do! Anyway...just an opinion....

This was a definite 'AHHH (angels singing)' moment - the Gate just looked beautiful right then....

So we (the students) hung out for a while, I said goodbye and went straight for the Brandenburg Gate to see what was going on. It was all over :(

;) But there's all the cops, with the Gate and the moon in the background. 'Que bella e la luna!'

I went and waited for the bus at the Reichstag...even though my camera takes pictures that I didn't/don't see, I still thought this one turned out ok...

Que bella e la Reichstag! ;) haha....

Day of German Reunification = 3 October

So I've explained in earlier posts that the guy in the red is 'Ampelmaennchen' (little traffic light man) and the guy in the green is the 'traffic light guy' from old 'West Berlin'. So I liked this poster, it was made for the day of German 'Unity'. Even though there is still not a whole lot of 'unity' in Germany (the 'Prussians' here don't seem to like the Bavarians 'there'; the 'Wessis' (old West Germans) and the 'Ossis' (old East Germans) seem to still have difficulties understanding one another; etc.), HOWEVER, I would still like to tell the world that I still think it was a miracle from God that this all happened the way it did! ;)

My Mom said she never thought to see the Berlin Wall 'fall' in her lifetime. Additionally, East and West...the 'end' was supposed to be "THE END", as in a nuclear war and we're ALL 'gone'. But instead, a little mistake from an East German governmental speaker ('out of small and simple things') caused thousands to form lines at the East/West Berlin borders and then they eventually just decided 'we don't care! Let's do it!'

What a wonderful day! And I hope that more of these types of days where humanity 'finally just decides' to change things, will come!

Soviet Soldier Memorial

So the other day as I went to interview one of my German refugees in 'old-East Berlin', I came across this memorial to Soviet soldiers who died during 'the Great Patriotic War' (I think that is what the Russians, still to this day, call WWII).


I found it very interesting, surprisingly 'peaceful' and beautiful - and I did feel a 'reverence' of sorts there.











The 'Battle for Berlin' in the end (and even then who knows for sure/there are different totals), but more or less, 'they' say, 30,000 civilians died; 30,000 German soldiers died; and 30,000 Soviet soldiers died. As I said, I don't know if these numbers are true, but....





Did I mention I HATE WAR! This is no 'peacenik' thing either, this is a 'what a waste of everything/humanity' disliking for war...anyway...







How's your Russian? Well, it clearly says "expose your head (take off your hat)! Here are Soviet soldiers, heroes of the great Fatherland-ish War, 1941-1945. To eternal peace bedded (laid down). They gave their lives for your future."













Oh oops ;) Did you all see this one? How embarrassing...ok, so I cheated. The same message is written opposite in German ;)


That is honestly an idea that I wonder about, if it was new or if the Soviets claimed it during WWII - that they were 'liberators', come to Germany to save the German people from Hitler and the fascists....





And oh did the East German government ever catch on to that idea! Probably in some respects because they were forced to, but it also made it 'nice' to see the Soviets as 'liberators' rather than occupiers.....

A view of the whole thing...

Like I said, it was very peaceful there....

I loved the 'order in nature' of it all - nicely designed (I think it was built in 1947 - it was written in Russian, but looked like a 'we made this in 1947 - 1949' 'signature' on two stones by the entrance....

Those are plaques with the names of the soldiers, and I am big-time assuming that the 'green' areas are where these soldiers are buried (but I've seen that in other graveyards in Berlin - and in another Soviet soldier graveyard in Potsdam).

On the front, in Russian, it talks about 'to eternal rest...the Soviet sons who fought for the independence of their socialist Fatherland and who gave their lives for the freedom and progress of Mankind.'

And then on the back in German...

There were a PLE-thora of hammer and sickles all over I must say...

'Not in vain was the death and spilt blood of the Soviet heroes.'

'In vain were not the grief and tears of the mothers, widows and orphans.'

'They call to fight for the lasting peace amongst peoples.'

I must be a li'l Commi - I love this stuff! It's so moving...amazing how the East German communists/Soviets used their war dead to get the East German people to 'follow along' with the 'new system'. Hmm....

The names of more fallen soldiers...

A quote from Stalin AKGCH! Let me just say that Stalin killed MORE of his OWN people than Hitler did, and Stalin killed more people TOTAL than Hitler (this does not mean I like Hitler), just amazes me how Stalin is considered to be 'less' a monster than Hitler...I guess because of the whole 'racism' thing....but still....

STALIN = ARGH-ACH-UGH-BLECH!

(This talks about how the Red Army fulfilled its historical responsibility honorably....)

This was the 'skylight' of one of the 'urn' portals...

Mosaic for communist times....

And another mosaic, near the entrance...


All in all, I truly enjoyed my time at the Soviet Soldier Memorial. It's odd, but when I think about it, some of the soldiers there could have been some of the hundreds/thousands of Soviet soldiers who raped/killed German refugee women along the way....did I mention I hate war?