Dresden

Great and terrible. Everyday, these words prove themselves true. Maybe that’s just because life is life, but I think that they have been especially prominent since I left Iowa. They proved themselves again yesterday when I went to Dresden. We had the day off, so we decided to leave the comfort of the castle for the big city. Well, I actually have everyday off, so it doesn’t matter for me. The students didn’t have anything to do, though, so I was excited to go with them. We left the castle around 9 to go to the bank to pick up money and then head for the bus stop. Thirteen of us met at the bus stop: some students, one staff, one guest. That was the first part of the trip; just getting to the bus stop with everybody. The goal was to split into groups of 5 and one group of 3 because there was a special ticket price for groups of 5. The bus arrived at 9:45 to take us to Loebau, which is only about 15 minutes away. We were so excited until we realized that we had no clue what time the train from Loebau would be leaving for Dresden. All that we had thought of was getting on the bus to the first destination. We totally forgot about looking up times for the train to Dresden, our second destination. So when we got to the train station, we worked on locating a schedule. All of us were trying to find the next train time, when somebody asked, “What about that train over there?” There was a train on the other side of the tracks that was preparing to go, and somebody must’ve read somewhere that it was heading for Dresden. We quickly ran down the stairs, under the tracks, and up onto the train that we thought was heading for the city. Luckily, we were right. Unluckily, we had to sit between two sets of soccer fans headed to the Dresden FC game that day. It would not have been that bad, but they were loud and drunk. They smelled too. An hour later, after listening to team chants and songs, we got to Dresden Neustadt. The city of Dresden is split into several different parts: Neustadt (New City), Altstadt (Old City), and downtown. Some of us headed to the Neustadt where we were hoping to find a bookstore, secondhand store, and piercing store. The others headed to the downtown area to go shopping at the bigger American stores that had found there way into the old, historic German city. I went to the New City in hopes of finding a new book and deodorant. Our goal was to meet back together at the Dresden Neustadt station at 4:30 to catch the 4:45 train home. We headed out of the station towards, well we headed towards something, but we weren’t quite sure where. We didn’t know where we were going after we got out of the train station, and the problem about not knowing where you want to go is that you can’t find directions. My dad says, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” I used that sentence, and I led. It was like the blind leading the blind. We were just walking aimlessly through the cold weather looking for anything that looked interesting. It was really cold, like Iowa cold. We walked for an hour before we found an information center. We had been walking in circles around the area that we were looking for. The disappointment of walking around in the cold was great, but the pleasure and excitement of finally finding a place to go was greater. We found a street that had everything we could’ve ever wanted. It had restaurants, cafes, secondhand stores, 1-euro stores, jewelry stores, indie ethnic stores, photo booths, and lots of punk kids. We spent the whole day there, and they took lots of pictures, of course, because they are all photographers. It was really cold outside, so as soon as we left one store, we looked for the next new store to crawl in for heat. Before lunch, I found deodorant and chocolate. You might be asking yourself why deodorant is such a big deal to me. Well, apparently in Germany, people aren’t big on stick deodorant. You know, like the deodorant that all of us Americans use? Yeah, they don’t really have that very many places. I found it, though, and I was excited about it. So, we spent most of the day on that back-alley-kind-of-street, and then we headed back to the train station. After meeting up with the other group, we got on a train back to Loebau. Once again, we didn’t even think about the idea of looking up the time for the next bus to Herrnhut. Getting off the train, I found the schedule. 2 hours. The next bus wasn’t coming for 2 hours. By this time, it was really cold outside, so we ran across the street and found refuge in an ATM vestibule. It was kind of like a small room with several ATMs in it that had just enough space for 13 of us to wait in warmth. It didn’t take too long for all of us to be in the little room to get bored, until we discovered something. One of us found out that if you push the little buttons on one of the machines, it makes noises. The noises led to a dance party, and the dance party led to a music video on one of the cameras. 11 of us were dancing to the small noises made by the person pushing the buttons on the machine while one person was videotaping. The funny thing about that was, we were in an ATM vestibule. People came in and out to use the machines. We kept dancing until a van from YWAM came and saved us. It was a great relief when I got back to the castle to find out that dinner wasn’t finished. We were over an hour late for the meal, but the students were in charge of cooking dinner, so of course it was late. How can you expect four 18-year olds to cook a full meal for 50 people, and get it done in time? You can’t. They were basically experimenting with the stew for a couple hours before finally putting it out for everybody to try, and it was an hour late, which fit our schedule well. The meat was chewy, and there was a lot of red cabbage, but it was great to eat a hot dinner after a long day out in the cold. Overall, the day was wonderful. It was good to get out of Herrnhut and see people again. Sometimes, I think that YWAMers are the only people alive in this small village because they are the only people I ever see. All of the businesses close down when it gets dark, which happens around 4 pm. The village is basically is a ghost town. That’s why it was good to be in a city. I miss people sometimes. Now, it’s Sunday. We haven’t had much to do, but the students have been working on their photos. A wild game of Apples to Apples is going on behind the couch I’m sitting on, so I think it’s time to stop writing and starting socializing. Schoenes Sonntag.