Sand, palm trees, tropical birds & GIRL SCOUTS!

During April our Girl Scout Troop #001 (yes, the only East German Girl Scout Troop), visited an amazing place! It is called Tropical Islands and is an indoor water park, this building was where they stored Blimps, as in Goodyear, except here it was probably not Goodyear, but Augustus' Reifens! Anyway, this building is so massive you could put 8 football fields inside. The building housed 3 huge pools, slides, volleyball courts, restaurants, saunas/spa, a rainforest walk with live birds from the tropics, mini cottages and houses, and our digs, tents on the sandy beaches. We had such a blast! The place was so huge they had hot air balloon rides inside, it was just amazing.






The pools actually never close, so you can swim ALL night and yes, some people did, we tried to sleep, but probably only slept for about 4 hours, so worth it though. We had some very tired kids by the time we went home...






Fortunately our car ride home was only about an hour and 20 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. Of course, the girls are ready to go back to this place again-anyday!


One interesting thing is a couple of months ago when we visited Berlin we went to the top of the TV tower and we could see Tropical Islands from there. These pictures probably don't really show the size, it is just too enormous.

There's a whole big world to enjoy in Istanbul, Turkey

Jacoba had the privilege of going with 16 other students from Dresden International School on a trip to Istanbul, Turkey during April. She stayed with a host family that was absolutely wonderful and spoiled her rotten. The only major disappointment for her trip was the weather, it was really damp, cold and very rainy. As you'll see in the photos, the weather didn't wipe away her beautiful smile, she enjoyed every moment.

The group actually went for a Performing Arts Festival, so their activities included theatrical presentations, making pieces of artwork, viewing other students artwork and touring the International School & City.

Here are some highlights directly from Jacoba.

Best Memory: My host family-they really were super nice, some other kids host families tried to be "American" but mine showed me lots of cool Turkish stuff.

Best Food: Turkish Meatballs-they were really buttery, it's like they would melt in your mouth.

Best Drink: Turkish Tea (only with 2 sugar cubes, though!), I even bought some to bring home and they drink it in these really cool tea cups (now my Mom is trying to buy some, they are small and she thinks they must make the tea taste even better.)

Funniest Experience/Event: The weather was horrible in Istanbul itself, and the funny part is, it was the best weather Dresden had seen yet! And, we were sitting in traffic (which was really bad) and when I looked over I saw a man walking down the street selling bread in between the cars. The bread was on a big stick he carried over his shoulder.



Thoughts about my host family: Very generous, kind, and outgoing. Only one member of the family spoke English to the extent I could understand her, but it wasn't so bad. The daughter translated a lot, and at the end of each sentence was: "If you want".

For example, "We can go to the beach and have ice-cream after dinner, if you want".

Or, "We can go to a really famous mosque, and have Macaroons, if you want."

They had 2 cats, and each had a name that was really hard to remember, I apologize... On my first night there, one cat fell asleep on top of my suitcase! I was very touched, I remember my Mom telling me that my first word was, "cat", so it seems just right.



What I saw at the Istanbul International School:

1 word: ART

make it 2words by adding: GALORE

There were several art pieces hanging up on the walls, and each was unique in its own special way. I had the privilege of going to the art room, where each art piece that was a work in progress. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, the students there seemed to be really creative and talented.





What I learned from being a part of this group/trip:

There is a whole big world to enjoy, and if you can`t enjoy it, at least try to.

Toys for all the good girls and boys...

Ruby and I went on a road trip last Saturday. We originally planned to visit the city of Seiffen, near the Czech Republic border, back in December but because of the major snow & ice and hectic schedule we decided to wait. I am really glad we did because the 2 lane road there for 65 km was so narrow and winding it would've taken 4 hours to get there instead of one and a half. Instead, we drove through beautiful rolling countryside and farms, and later scenic forests and lakes. Our first photo is of some old castle ruins that we came upon during our drive.

We made it to town and went straight to the Toy Museum. We could tell instantly that we were going to like this place. This area is known for the wooden hand carved Christmas decorations and toys. It is charming. Originally Seiffen was a mining town but because of hard times and the difficult work conditions placed on miners, they started carving wooden toys and decorations; this was convenient because of all the nearby wood. It grew into a major business and today these lovely wooden pieces are shipped all over the world. The pyramids are extremely popular here in the holiday season, in fact, Dresden claims to have the tallest wooden pyramid. The Dresden pyramid is displayed every Christmas season at the local Christmas Market and holds a Guiness World record. The museum is great for children and provided several hands-on wooden toys to play with as well as information about how they make these toys. It is good that we've been practicing our German because there were no English translations, but it was basic enough that we could figure it out. We worked up an appetite looking at the museum and opted for a local biergarten for lunch. This was no ordinary biergarten, it had a pyramid built into the exterior of the building.

All throughout town are wooden carvings (note: even the street signs are decorative). After lunch we spent a couple of hours snooping around, shopping and finding some very special items. I also recall a mandatory stop at the local bakery. On our way home we came across a really wonderful windmill on top of a hill. We just HAD to stop and get pictures. So our windmill photo has nothing to do with our little Seiffen visit, but it was too good not to share. And, now we know who Santa calls for backup when he gets just too busy, these folks can make some wonderful toys and decorations.

Stasi Museum in Dresden

Last week I had the opportunity to tour the Dresden Stasi Museum and receive an English guided tour, this was the main office for this area. The Eastern part of Germany has been through many, many changes, for example, Dresden was horribly bombed during WWII and after that came the separation of East & West Germany, creating the DDR (Deutsche Demokratiksche Republic) and control by the Russians. The Stasi, or secret police was created to keep people in line and discourage any type of rebellion against the government. Since we arrived here I read an interesting book called, Stasiland, and it really sheds some light on what it was like to live here during that time and how difficult it was.

The first part of our tour was the very lower, basement level, this area was mostly part of the Russian controlled cells, the Stasi section came much later. It was dreadfully cold and damp, and was very unpleasant. We were fortunate because we had on warm clothing and were only below for a short time. When individuals were arrested they basically had the clothing on their back and nothing more. If you were arrested in winter maybe you were lucky because you still had on your coat, others were not so fortunate. There were approximately 150 prisoners there at one time and it was a very small area, so it was crowded.

As we went upstairs we learned that the Stasi really prided themselves on messing with people's minds. That was their best method of torture. Lack of sleep was constant and they used this a lot to get people to confess to things they'd never done, the prisoners were only allowed to sleep on their backs with their heads turned to one side and their arms laying on top of the blankets. The wardens would continuously disrupt them all night long if they didn't keep this position. Most likely the most frustrating and horrible part of this situation is that there were so many spy's that NO one could be trusted for fear you would be reported or arrested. So many false accusations were made and people arrested for virtually nothing, they didn't even know what they were supposed to confess to.

Family members, neighbors & co-workers could all be spies, it is difficult to think that anyone living here during that time could have had any joy, or trust. One story was about a small group of women that would get together and discuss politics over tea. The Stasi found out that one of the women suffered from depression, so they would sneak into her house and move stuff around, take things for days and return them later, switch things out of her mail, hide things, all done to make her think she was totally losing her mind, which she wasn't, they just really messed her up-incidentally, she quit the group and didn't feel up to talking politics anymore. That is exactly what they wanted.

These photos show the Solitary Confinement Room, people were left in there for days, totally in the dark with just one small stool. Also shown, is the horrible showering conditions, the warden would always be there and sometimes after 2 minutes, the warden would cut off the water and the poor prisoner wouldn't be allowed to rinse off the soap. Most cells held 2 people but some had 3, you couldn't even talk to your cellmate because they could potentially be a spy. Also shown, is the Interogation Room, here you would be brought to make your confession, often you would have to wait forever and frequently start to doze off, (which is what they wanted) at that point the warden would say thanks for confessing and your trial be requested. People would be so disoriented and sleep deprived they wouldn't recall what they had had happened. Trials were done in groups and you had the chance to meet with your lawyer the day before, although the lawyer was just there to tell you (already) how long your sentence was going to be. What I find so fascinating is that these things were still going on up until 1990. People would cross the street to the other side so they wouldn't have to walk in front of the building.

Even more interesting is learning about the adjustments that have happened and still need to happen between East & West Germany. Although there is no longer a physical wall many Germans feel like there is still a huge separation between the two sides. Our guide explained that his dream is for the future generations to not know, feel, see or learn of a separation, that Germany is truly one land without any dividers. After reading the Stasiland book and seeing this place first hand, it really makes you stop and think.