Rachel's in Germany!: Miniatur-Wunderland and new friends!

Yesterday and today were really cool!

Last night I went with a couple of the other international girls to Miniatur-Wunderland. It's a famous attraction in Hamburg. A little hard to categorize, because it's not a museum and it's not exactly an exhibit. In essence, it's model cities. But these are intense model cities, because they actually are automated and made to look like scale models of real life. Trains, buses, cars, ships, and even planes move on their own, and the lights change to simulate day and night. They have sections with Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, parts of the U.S. (Florida and Las Vegas), and of course the city of Hamburg. There is also a working scale model of an airport from which planes actually take off and land! The displays are interactive, so you can push buttons to see different things come alive. For example, the Swiss section has a mini chocolate factory that dispenses real chocolates, and the model of Hamburg has a replica of the Elbphilharmonie (the new building for the philharmonic orchestra, which currently is still under construction) that opens up, and you can see and hear a tiny orchestra playing inside. It's totally amazing. (Pictures at the bottom of this post!)

The white castle,
Hamburg's symbol

Cindy (from Virginia), Laura (from Spain), and Marni (from Australia) went with me. I had posted on the Facebook page for the international students and asked if anybody wanted to go, and Laura and Cindy got out of class at 4:30, so we met at 5 and spent the next two hours at Miniatur-Wunderland. After that, Cindy and I bought Hamburg mugs in the gift shop (they're the classic red ones with the white castle that is the Hamburg symbol), and it was raining when we got outside. So we decided to go get dinner at Hamburger Meile, which is the big mall near the bowling alley we went to the first week, because it was inside and it was on the way back home. We ended up having a really nice time together. Marni asked Laura about religion and politics in Spain, and that turned into a two-hour discussion (over chicken curry and chow mein) of the political systems, national ideologies, and ethics of each of our countries. It was really interesting--one of my favorite parts of study abroad so far has been to compare cultures and ways of life with the other students. Over the course of the conversation, we found that we all at least claim Christianity and/or Catholicism, and that we are at least sort of aware of moral and ethical debates within our countries. Marni actually asked me directly whether I believed that Jesus is the Son of God who died for the sins of the world, and I said yes. But I still wasn't quite sure by the end of the night where the other girls stood. That didn't matter though--it was still a great night of getting to know each other.

Well, this morning I went to my first orientation for what I thought was the Nude Painting class, and it turned out that it was a different class. The schedule they had given us was mixed up. Marni happened to be there too, because she was looking for the same class I was. We both had to go to the computer lab to scan and print some things, so we went down there together. I was having trouble with the printer, but thankfully Kenneth happened to be there and he helped me figure it out. (There was also another student named Jana who helped me download the files I needed. She asked where I was from, and it turns out that she just spent her last semester at CSULB as an exchange student there! So that was funny.) Anyway, after that, Marni asked if I wanted to go get hot chocolate because we didn't have anything better to do. So we went to the cafeteria and spent probably two more hours talking, and I was super excited to find out that Marni, as far as I can tell, is the real deal--like actually a born-again Christian! We talked about music, relationships, and our churches and families back home. Marni is from Perth, which is in western Australia, and her church is affiliated with the Anglican church. She said biblical truth is important to her, which is also important to me, and we both love art, C.S. Lewis, and Needtobreathe. So I was super-duper excited about getting to spend time together, because we are like-minded in a lot of ways! We went to the student art store after that, and then back home. Marni is actually on my floor in Georgi-Haus, so we are close by each other. She asked which church I'm going to while I am here, and when I told her about City Light, she asked if she could come with me when I go on Sunday! So all this is really cool . . . God rocks!

This afternoon I got a wild hair to go kayaking down the Osterbekkanal to the lake, rather than walking. We have access to a couple of free kayaks and canoes at Georgi-Haus--all we have to do is go to the room of one of the people on the "canoe team," and they will give us the key to the boat yard across the street. So Petra and I went kayaking. It was Petra's first time and she was doing pretty well, except that her kayak was evil and it had some kind of a weird tiller on the back that kept turning her to the left so she kept going in circles. It probably took us two hours to do a one-hour trip. I felt so bad for suggesting kayaking, because it was so frustrating for Petra, but in the end, she said she had fun. At least we got some exercise, and it was a pretty afternoon.

Also talked on the phone with Joey, the pastor of City Light. We're moving forward on my drawings for their "foundations of our church" series. Stoked to get to be part of it--especially because it involves drawing!

Indra continues to amaze me with her vocal talent. She played me some more of her recordings tonight, and they are so beautiful. A lot of them are collaborations with friends who also sing or play instruments. Listen to her cover of "Scarborough Fair" here.

Here are some pictures of Miniatur-Wunderland! Pretty amazing!

Sequence of models showing evolution of a city over centuries