After ten days overseas spent in Rome, Italy and Bietigheim-Bissengen, Germany I feel like I have gotten a full experience of the cultures. Seeing things in world history books and experiencing it first hand are two completely differnet things and I cannot believe that I had the chance to go on such an amazing trip with such a wonderful group of people. Leaving Germany and trying to get onto the bus without crying was probably one of the hardest experiences of my life. Getting on the bus and leaving my host family behind, seeing them waving from the sidewalk, was heart-breaking because I feel like I definitely have a new family thousands of miles away. The one thing that truly struck me as we were pulling out to go to the airport were the Musikschule students holding an American flag in front of the buses keeping us from leaving. I think everyone on the buses that could see what was going on was crying from it.
Jumping back to the night of our last band concert in Germany, I feel like I need a moment to reflect. After the final concert, I realized that it was my last time playing my flute with a set of amazing band directors on a stage in a wonderful country. It was a little hard for me to play the last piece of the concert knowing that it would be the last notes I played within District 99 bounds, but I feel a sense of accomplishment at everything that we have done in Germany during this exchange, and it made it better. I realized that I have my whole life to play my instrument in college and wherever else I end up, and I know that the experiences that I have encountered will never leave me during my journeys ahead.
So, after eight and a half hours on a plane, a trip through U.S. Immigration, and an hour long bus ride, we are home in Chicago. It's very bittersweet to leave behind everyone I have met overseas, but I know that one day I will go back to Bietigheim and visit my family and friends again. Danke schön to my family and to everyone that I met, to our amazing band directors, and to all those in Germany and the United States that made this exchange possible!
Showing posts with label Stephanie Gillen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephanie Gillen. Show all posts
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
A Day at Neuschwanstein
Well....today has been a day full of a lot of sleep for all with over seven hours total clocked sitting on a bus to get to and from Neuschwanstein Castle. Thankfully, the bus seats are very comfortable and we had chances to get out and stretch our legs a little bit at an Autobahn rest stop. We arrived at Neuschwanstein castle around midday here in Germany and we had a very long walk up the Bavarian Alps to be able to tour the castle. Let's just say that twenty minutes of hiking up a very large mountain is not the easiest hiking trip I have ever attempted.
When we finally made it to the top of the mountain, we were allowed to tour six or seven rooms inside of the castle. To say the least, these rooms were breath-taking. The paintings on the walls depicting Norwegian legends and the amount of jewels that were placed into the purple marble pillars, a symbolism of royalty back when the castle was built in the 1800s, and the gigantic chandeliers were beautiful even though they had been replaced by Bohemian blown glass as our tour guide informed us. The sad thing about the castle was that King Ludwig II only lived in the castle for 172 days until he unexpectedly died, so most all of the rooms on the second floor of the castle, the guest bedrooms, were all unfinished, and also other areas of the castle were unfinished because when the king died, construction of the castle was halted. King Ludwig II was told the day before he died that he was mentally insane, the next day he was found dead in a lake in the Alps near the castle, and he was only forty years old when he died.
The singing room was the last room that we visited in the castle and is one room that is definitely worth mentioning in blog post tonight. The room was absolutely gorgeous, take my word for it because we were not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside of the castle walls, because there were so many amazing paintings on the walls and jewels placed into everything that it was just amazing for lack of a better word. The room had only been completed for three days and then King Ludwig II died so he was not able to sit in the hall that was specifically built for private opera and singing performances for himself. Mrs. Roselieb went up onto the stage and began to sing a little bit of opera so we were able to hear the magnificence of the hall. As musicians ourselves we were able to appreciate the hall a little bit more because of the greatness of the acoustics and everything!
The last thing that we had the chance to see at the castle was the view of the ravine, the waterfall, and the castle from the bridge higher up in the mountains. A group of students including Brian K., Scott B., Stephanie M., Stephanie M.'s host, and myself hiked up to the bridge and we were greeted by an amazing view of the castle and all of its surroundings. If only my phone would cooperate with me I would post one of the pictures that I took, but alas, technology refuses to agree with me on this trip. I'm glad we had the chance to see this castle, as it was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle, and the sights that I saw will never leave my mind. A picture is worth a thousand words but seeing it for real instead of on Google Images was absolutely amazing.
After a long bus ride from Neuschwanstein, we made it back to Bietingheim to spend the night with our host families. Kaitlyn W. and I had a very fun time with our host family playing a German game, translated to English it is called The Game of Pig and has a basis in German history! Kaitlyn and I also taught our host family how to play ERS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Ratscrew) which was a lot of fun to teach.
Thank you to my host family, Stephan, Ava, Christina, and Elisabeth Hartwig, for making this trip an absolutely incredible experience for me this far and I cannot believe it is coming to close in just a few days. Thank you to our amazing directors Mr. Teague, Mr. Williams, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Roselieb for making this trip possible for all of us and for a phenomenal concert last night. Finally, thank you to the mayor of Bietingheim-Bissengen, Mr. Heir Kessing, for greeting us yesterday and welcoming us to your beautiful town, the Musikschule band director, Mrs. Sandra Kaltenbrunn, for helping set up this wonderful trip for all of us on this side of the planet and being a wonderful guest conductor on the national anthems last night, and thank you to Reimund Schiffer for the many wonderful years working with our band program in Downers Grove and for guest conducting "Procession of the Nobles" at last night's concert.
When we finally made it to the top of the mountain, we were allowed to tour six or seven rooms inside of the castle. To say the least, these rooms were breath-taking. The paintings on the walls depicting Norwegian legends and the amount of jewels that were placed into the purple marble pillars, a symbolism of royalty back when the castle was built in the 1800s, and the gigantic chandeliers were beautiful even though they had been replaced by Bohemian blown glass as our tour guide informed us. The sad thing about the castle was that King Ludwig II only lived in the castle for 172 days until he unexpectedly died, so most all of the rooms on the second floor of the castle, the guest bedrooms, were all unfinished, and also other areas of the castle were unfinished because when the king died, construction of the castle was halted. King Ludwig II was told the day before he died that he was mentally insane, the next day he was found dead in a lake in the Alps near the castle, and he was only forty years old when he died.
The singing room was the last room that we visited in the castle and is one room that is definitely worth mentioning in blog post tonight. The room was absolutely gorgeous, take my word for it because we were not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside of the castle walls, because there were so many amazing paintings on the walls and jewels placed into everything that it was just amazing for lack of a better word. The room had only been completed for three days and then King Ludwig II died so he was not able to sit in the hall that was specifically built for private opera and singing performances for himself. Mrs. Roselieb went up onto the stage and began to sing a little bit of opera so we were able to hear the magnificence of the hall. As musicians ourselves we were able to appreciate the hall a little bit more because of the greatness of the acoustics and everything!
The last thing that we had the chance to see at the castle was the view of the ravine, the waterfall, and the castle from the bridge higher up in the mountains. A group of students including Brian K., Scott B., Stephanie M., Stephanie M.'s host, and myself hiked up to the bridge and we were greeted by an amazing view of the castle and all of its surroundings. If only my phone would cooperate with me I would post one of the pictures that I took, but alas, technology refuses to agree with me on this trip. I'm glad we had the chance to see this castle, as it was the inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella's castle, and the sights that I saw will never leave my mind. A picture is worth a thousand words but seeing it for real instead of on Google Images was absolutely amazing.
After a long bus ride from Neuschwanstein, we made it back to Bietingheim to spend the night with our host families. Kaitlyn W. and I had a very fun time with our host family playing a German game, translated to English it is called The Game of Pig and has a basis in German history! Kaitlyn and I also taught our host family how to play ERS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Ratscrew) which was a lot of fun to teach.
Thank you to my host family, Stephan, Ava, Christina, and Elisabeth Hartwig, for making this trip an absolutely incredible experience for me this far and I cannot believe it is coming to close in just a few days. Thank you to our amazing directors Mr. Teague, Mr. Williams, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Roselieb for making this trip possible for all of us and for a phenomenal concert last night. Finally, thank you to the mayor of Bietingheim-Bissengen, Mr. Heir Kessing, for greeting us yesterday and welcoming us to your beautiful town, the Musikschule band director, Mrs. Sandra Kaltenbrunn, for helping set up this wonderful trip for all of us on this side of the planet and being a wonderful guest conductor on the national anthems last night, and thank you to Reimund Schiffer for the many wonderful years working with our band program in Downers Grove and for guest conducting "Procession of the Nobles" at last night's concert.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
First Day with the Host Families!
To be honest, today has made me NOT want to leave Germany in a few days. The adventure to Tripsdrill with the German host students and a ton of people from the band and my first ever public viewing of a soccer game in the Bietingheim mall was just plain shocking. It's difficult for me to explain Tripsdrill, but to explain it simply, it is a smaller theme park with a large wooden roller coaster called "Mammut"(German for "Mammoth), a few larger water rides (imagine Splash Mountain but with bath tubs and the raft ride in Six Flags), an animal park a very short walk from the park itself, and a few other rides. The rides were a lot of fun and we had such a blast being with the host families for the day!
The animal park part of Tripsdrill was absolutely amazing and you probably cannot find anything like it in the United States. Tripsdrill is surrounded by a large forest so they were able to put the animals in their natural habitats basically and allow us to get very close to them or even pet them in certain cases. A few people in our group bought deer food for a few euros and we were able to coax the deer over, they ate right out of our hands, and we were able to pet them if they allowed us! Imagine a buck or a doe coming within three feet of you in some cases. All in all, the trip was amazing and I am so glad that I got the chance to visit the places that we did today.
Jumping forward to tonight, my host, Elisabeth H, Kaitlyn W., and PJ O. and Faisal K., and their host went to the public viewing in Bietingheim was one of the most shocking yet fun experiences of my life. To imagine the intensity of the fans of soccer here in Germany is to combine the intensity of the fans of football, baseball, and basketball and combine them. The amount of people that were at the viewing was amazing and for my first viewing of a soccer match on television, it was so much fun. Every time the Deutschland team scored, the Germans would start chanting words we could not understand and would go absolutely insane yelling, waving German flags, and throwing things into the air to celebrate the goal that had just occurred. Deutschland won the game against Denmark and on our way to our car, almost every person in the parking lot was honking their horn to celebrate and were yelling "Deutschland" out their windows. To say this day was fantastic would be an understatement and I cannot wait until tomorrow for the U.S. Army Band Clinic and Heidelberg. Thank you to the German host families and those that made tonight such an amazing night for all.
Gute Nacht Amerika!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Welcome to Roma!
Ciao from Roma!
The only words that I can use to describe Italy and Rome are breath taking. The buildings and the sight seeing that we have done so far on day two of our overseas journey has just blown me away with how beautiful it all truly is.
Today was an amazing day with our first stop of the day being the architecturally beautiful Vatican. The Michelangelo paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the gardens of the Vatican, and the many marble monuments, frescos, and mosaics were enough to complete any day with a smile. I thought as we were walking up a set of stairs past a set of marble pillars and I thought that all of these columns, statues, and monuments were all hand carved, placed, and made with the help of no machines and it made me appreciate the Italian culture and everything as a whole so much more. The Vatican was a wonderful place to visit and it was a great way to start off the day even though the jet lag from the plane rides is still hitting me hard.
The next place we visited were the Catacombs of San Callisto where we had thirty minutes to walk through a small section of level two of the catacombs. After a hot day out in the sun in the Vatican, the coolness of the catacombs was a refreshing feeling for all of us. you know that the Catacombs of San Callisto consist of four levels and take up over 37 acres of land? Well, when we heard it as a group we all gasped as our guide told us about how the catacombs were like a labyrinth underground and could get easily lost. Having the chance to see the catacombs was an amazing experience as well and knowing that 500,000 people were buried in the catacombs and over forty percent of them were children was very shocking news.
The final place we visited for the day was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is probably one of the more amazing things that I have seen in the city so far because of the immensity of the fountain and just how phenomenal the marble statues are that are placed around it. We had time to shop while we were at Trevi Fountain and we had a very relaxing time eating gelato, shopping through the small souvenir shops, and some of us walking the two miles to the Pantheon. I am so glad we had the chance to visit Rome and very sad to see it go tomorrow night but, I threw the coin into Trevi Fountain and did not look back so I WILL see Roma again before I die! If the legend holds true that is. Tomorrow night, we are off to Germany and I will finally get the chance to meet our host families!
Buona Notte Roma!
The only words that I can use to describe Italy and Rome are breath taking. The buildings and the sight seeing that we have done so far on day two of our overseas journey has just blown me away with how beautiful it all truly is.
Today was an amazing day with our first stop of the day being the architecturally beautiful Vatican. The Michelangelo paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the gardens of the Vatican, and the many marble monuments, frescos, and mosaics were enough to complete any day with a smile. I thought as we were walking up a set of stairs past a set of marble pillars and I thought that all of these columns, statues, and monuments were all hand carved, placed, and made with the help of no machines and it made me appreciate the Italian culture and everything as a whole so much more. The Vatican was a wonderful place to visit and it was a great way to start off the day even though the jet lag from the plane rides is still hitting me hard.
The next place we visited were the Catacombs of San Callisto where we had thirty minutes to walk through a small section of level two of the catacombs. After a hot day out in the sun in the Vatican, the coolness of the catacombs was a refreshing feeling for all of us. you know that the Catacombs of San Callisto consist of four levels and take up over 37 acres of land? Well, when we heard it as a group we all gasped as our guide told us about how the catacombs were like a labyrinth underground and could get easily lost. Having the chance to see the catacombs was an amazing experience as well and knowing that 500,000 people were buried in the catacombs and over forty percent of them were children was very shocking news.
The final place we visited for the day was the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is probably one of the more amazing things that I have seen in the city so far because of the immensity of the fountain and just how phenomenal the marble statues are that are placed around it. We had time to shop while we were at Trevi Fountain and we had a very relaxing time eating gelato, shopping through the small souvenir shops, and some of us walking the two miles to the Pantheon. I am so glad we had the chance to visit Rome and very sad to see it go tomorrow night but, I threw the coin into Trevi Fountain and did not look back so I WILL see Roma again before I die! If the legend holds true that is. Tomorrow night, we are off to Germany and I will finally get the chance to meet our host families!
Buona Notte Roma!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Off to Europe!
Wow, I cannot believe last night was our send-off concert and we are leaving for our 4,800 mile exchange tomorrow. With only a little over twenty-four hours left and an entire suitcase still needing to be packed, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the immensity of this trip that we are about to go on because we are about to stay with families we have only talked with through social media and visit cities that boast thousands upon thousands of years worth of history. (We'll be standing where some of the most famous Roman emperors stood!)
Up until just last night during our final send-off concert, the whole idea of traveling overseas and participating in this trip just didn't feel real to me. Reading the itinerary over again this morning, I thought having the chance to visit places such as the Vatican, the Roman coliseum, numerous castles in Germany, and visiting the United States Army base are things that only happen once in a lifetime. So, as I start to pack my bags to leave, I think over this idea of once in a lifetime, and I remember why I signed up for this trip at the beginning of the school year.
I would like to thank Mr. Teague and Mr. Williams for being awesome band directors throughout the week and truly pushing us to be the greatest at all of these pieces. (Super special thanks to Mr. Teague for taking the picture during rehearsal yesterday morning!) The pieces that we will be playing in Germany are sounding fantastic and it would not have been possible without your help!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Team Blogger!
We've assembled a terrific team of six student Bloggers: three from North - three from South - three men - three women ... who are all excited to serve as your eyes and ears while the D99 Honors Band travels through Europe.
Introducing 'Team Blogger' ...
- Marjorie Fera, DGS French Horn/Trumpet (Senior)
- Stephanie Gillen, DGN Flute (Graduate)
- Cameron Nichols, DGN French Horn (Junior)
- Dan Reeter, DGS Clarinet (Senior)
- John Shimanek, DGS Trumpet (Junior)
- Joe Vitti, DGN Tuba/Trombone (Senior)
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