And that kids, is how Deutschland won the World Cup in 2014

I couldn't resist the title, but in all seriousness, GERMANY WON THE WORLD CUP!!! Being in Germany so far has been an amazing experience, but being here during the World Cup was a dream come true. And to make it even better, I was able to be here in Germany when they won their 4th World Cup! As much as I will never forget a lot of the things I have seen and done here in Germany, the fact that I can say I was in the Country that won will be something I will tell for the rest of my life.

 

 

 To top all of this experience off, who happens to score the winning World Cup goal for Germany? Why its number 19, Mario Götze, which I had been saying all World Cup needed to be playing more. So you could say that I picked the right player on my jersey before i went to Germany.

Here is a picture of what the main city in Stuttgart looked like after they won the world cup, lets just say this is one of the more tamer pictures I took, meaning there were people standing on street lights and lighting off fireworks in crowds of people. Either way, Berlin was even crazier I am sure. Unfortunately, when we went to the main city after the game to see how crazy it was we missed the last train back to the University which ran at 1 in the morning, so what did we do? Did you guess wait till 5 in the morning in the subway system until the first train came around? Because that is what we did.... trust me that was a long night.

Well, that is pretty much it from me for this, my adventures will start to be slowing down as I get closer to flying back to the States, and working in the lab to get my research done. It is hard to believe that I am less then a month away from heading back. Until next time!

Jonathan Stahl

Berlin, Köln, and Frankfurt

What a busy two weeks it has been. Sorry for the length of time it has taken me to post another blog entry but as you can imagine with the German National team making it to the final World Cup game (which I will be watching tonight, Go DEUTSCHLAND!, sorry Racheal) to working in the lab I have barely had time to write. But no worries I am still doing well and have a lot to share.

So starting off, Berlin.

I know not the normal Berlin picture, but I mean there is a lot of cool buildings in berlin. In fact, this is on top of the Berliner Dom, or the Berlin Cathedral. It is an amazing building, luckily, thanks to the United States and other countries funding it, Russia decided to rebuild it instead of tearing it down after World War 2. Next on the list, the Victory Tower, which also has a very interesting story. It was originally built after Germany defeated France before WWI, well when France/Napoleon went on their little conquer spree they didn't want Germany to have it because it embarrassed France, so they relocated it to France. After some time, Germany wanted it back and demanded France returned it, so it has been moved a lot.

Of course I went and saw the Berlin Gate, along with the Berlin Palace and the Reichstag. However, in order to take a tour of the Reichstag you have to make reservations.... 3 weeks in advance. So instead of going in I have some nice pictures from the outside.

This is going to be a long post, okay so if you want to see other pictures they are all on my Facebook under Berlin. I also went to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin which was cool to see.

Köln,
Moving on, Berlin was all last week or July 5 to July 7th, so fast forward to this weekend and we have both Köln and Frankfurt. I must say both are very nice cities, Frankfurt of course being one of the biggest cities in Germany. I didn't spend a lot of time in Köln mostly because I was only wanting to see the Dom, the Bridge, the Rhine, and the Roman Museum. And luckily, they were all right next to each other.

You are welcome to make this your new desktop wallpaper if you would like. It is a pretty awesome picture, not to toot my own horn or anything.

Frankfurt,
So as some of you may know Frankfurt is known for its airport along with some very impressive skyscrapers, Goethe's House, and the Opera House. But what is the first thing I do when I get to Frankfurt? If you guessed went to Chipotle, congratulations you have won bragging rights to knowing me better than others. Besides it being a bit more pricy then in the States, it was something that I can't wait to get back to in the States. As I was leaving the mall that Chipotle was in I got to take a free ride in the Audi E-Tron, which is Audi's new car coming out soon that runs on either full electricity, or a hybrid of both electricity and gas. I learned two things from this experience, first being that if I had the money to buy the car I would because I didn't even notice much of difference when it was running on electricity and the hybrid (well done Audi). But secondly, because while running on electricity we went 170km/h on the autobahn mind you. Which for you standard unit people, is about 106 mph. So what I am saying is, the E-Tron is a huge step for both Audi and German cars in general, running on electricity is becoming more and more of a reality.

Luckily, I took the second day I was in Frankfurt to site see and even though I have yet to go on top of the Empire State Building, being at the top of the Main Tower in Frankfurt is one beautiful thing to see.

Well, now that I have pretty much wrote two weekends worth of Germany into one post I think I am going to stop here. There is so much more I would love to talk about so if you have any questions about the blog posts, or the bazillion pictures I have put on Facebook, don't hesitate to send me a message. Now as most of you know, tonight is the Final World Cup game between Germany and Argentina. Me and my friends here are ready to cheer Germany on to hopefully their 4th World Cup Victory.

Until Next Time,

Jonathan Stahl

München Germany

I finally made it, I got to go to Munich and see my favorite soccer clubs stadium, and it was amazing! The stadium is huge, and in fact can hold up to around 71,000 fans. Depending on the seat you get it could cost you anywhere from 150 euros to 300,000 euros a season. Trust me though, even though the 150 euros seems cheap enough there is a very long list of people all trying to get these cheap tickets. The chances of getting them would be like winning the lottery. Allianz Arena is home to FC Bayern München and fun fact, each season the players on the team get a brand new Audi that they have to drive around for the season, when the season is over and the new one starts guess what, they get another brand new Audi. I only assume they end up returning the previous Audi but either way that isn't even part of the contracted amount of money they get. Also, currently the stadium has three different light options for the outside of the stadium, they can light it up Red (usually done when Bayern has an away or home game), white (usually when the Germany national team plays) or blue (when the other less known Munich soccer team plays). If you haven't ever seen pictures of the Allianz Arena when it is lit up you should, I would post a picture of it here but unfortunately when we went to the stadium it was not late enough in the day for the stadium to be lit up. This is a model version of the stadium that was in the Museum however.

There are so many more facts about the stadium I could ramble on about but for the most part what you need to know is, the stadium cost about 340 million Euros to build.... which is about 480 million dollars.... which was built back in 2005 so the numbers may be a bit under what they should be for today.

 

Well now that I have pretty much talked your arm off about the stadium, let me talk to you about the rest of Munich. The BMW museum is pretty amazing, it of course has a lot of cars and bikes that BMW made and it also has a small section of Rolls Royce cars.

One of my favorite cars at the BMW museum though, would have to be this car.

The BMW car that was used in the James Bond movie, Goldeneye! Now quick side note this was the car model that was used, not this exact car I am standing by. But still pretty awesome. Now next to this BMW Museum is the Olympic park, however there was a bike race going on so we were unable to get very close to the stadiums used.

Now, no trip to Munich would be complete without seeing the main city, and man is it a pretty city. One of the biggest churches I have ever seen sits in the main city.

Along with this church there is also a lot of other government buildings and churches. But if you ever end up making it to Munich there is one place that you absolutely must go. And that is the Hofbräuhaus. It is one of the biggest beer gardens in Munich and is pretty famous or its atmosphere. Not only is the 1 liter of beer good, but of course the food is as well. If I had more time in Munich I would have defiantly tried to drink more because there is so many different types of beer that they have.

 Well I think that is all I have for now, oh one quick side note! The 1 liter of beer that they have at HB, it has about 7% alcohol in it so in American beer you would have to drink about 2 liters... but trust me if there is one thing I have learned while in Germany. It is that beer in America has a while to go before it reaches German level.

Till next time,
Jonathan Stahl

 

Ludwigsburg Castle

Ludwigsburg Castle,

this castle is by far one of the most amazing things I have visited so far since being here in Stuttgart. It is a gigantic castle with a beautiful scenery around it. As you can some what tell from the picture above, and yes that circle behind me is in fact a gigantic fountain. It is hard to describe the castle in words, trust me it is better to see it in person then to look at pictures but I will give it a shot. The picture above is the "backyard" of the castle and is actually built somewhat into the ground. By this I mean that if you go in through the door and walk to the other side you will be on a balcony overlooking the courtyard which looks like this. 

Again, there is a fountain that is in the middle. As you can somewhat see on the right, there is in fact a wedding reception taking place. The day I went to the castle there was six weddings that were taking place in the castle. So it is a popular place to have a wedding. Anyway, the castle is also surrounded by gardens on three of the four sides. Which of course are all quiet amazing looking. 

As you can probably imagine the castle was built more for leisure then it was protection. In fact, it was built by the very man that started the city of Ludwigsburg, who died before the castle was completely built. Another interesting fact about the castle is that they wanted to use marble in the inside of the castle but since it was not a big resource in Germany, they instead used other material and then made a paste like paint to cover the walls and make it look like it was marble. This also allowed them to use different colors instead of just one. Unfortunately, pictures where not allowed to be taken inside the castle, even though one of the guys in our tour group kept falling behind so he could take pictures... But anyway, for the most part there was a lot of rooms. A cool feature of the castle as well was you could stand at the very end of the castle on the Kings side, and look all the way down the hall to the other end of the Queens side of the Castle. 

If you ever make it to Stuttgart, I highly recommend taking a trip to Ludwigsburg and seeing the castle you wont regret it. Well that is all from me for now, I will have more soon as I am heading to Münich on Saturday. So stay tuned! 

Jonathan Stahl

First Week in Germany

Hello to all my readers!


It is hard to believe that I have been in Germany now for a week already! Luckily, today is a holiday here in Germany so I thought today would be a good time to catch everyone up on what I have been up to. It has been an amazing time so far though. I am working in a lab here at the Stuttgart Campus (more like the science part of the campus). So far research is going well, I have already made part of the molecule that I am suppose to be making. Here is some pictures of the lab I am working in.

Its a pretty big lab actually, there are 5 graduate students that work in the lab. It has been cool to work in the lab though because it is so much different then labs in college courses. Mostly because, you are able to work at your own pace, meaning if I am working on a reaction for the day, and get it done early, I can leave and go home. Also, it is nice to be able to work on something that I have more control of how I complete the lab instead of being told how to exactly complete the process. In the lab I am working, it is very common to go eat lunch and then after lunch to go have coffee break right after. Which I find very relaxing. It is different though how much more relaxed everyone seems to be here when it comes to there jobs, for example, most places are not open past 4 during the week and no stores are open on Sunday. 

Old Castle

Luckily I didn't spend all my time in the lab this week, and was able to go and see the Altes Schloß (or the old castle) in Stuttgart. Unfortunately, the castle was closed when we arrived so I was only able to get pictures of the outside of the castle. It is also next to the New Castle which is currently being used for the German government building here in Stuttgart. However, it is still a very pretty area to be at especially during the weekend when everyone is out on the lawn relaxing.The New Castle is the one that is pictured below, I couldn't get a good picture of the whole building because the statue that stands in front of the building is being repaired.

New Castle

New Castle

I was also able to go to both the Mercedes and Porsche Museum here in Stuttgart. Now a lot of people like the Mercedes Museum more then the Porsche one because it is 8 stories tall were as the Porsche Museum is only 2. But the Porsche museum lets you sit inside of a Porsche.... So I mean you can decided for your self which Museum you like better.
It was still a very cool experience to go though both Museums and see all of the cars that were on display, especially since Mercedes had such a high influence on the first cars that were made. Also, at the Mercedes Museum, you were given an audio tour which allowed you to listen in on whatever you wanted to at the Museum instead of having to hear the same things over and over again. Which is why I have headphones on in the Mercedes picture. I also got to see the outside of the Mercedes Benz Arena which is were Stuttgart's Fußball team plays. Well short of uploading all 150+ pictures I have taken so far this week I think this is about it for this week. Hopefully you enjoyed the read. Oh, I almost forgot! The beer in Germany is in fact the best beer I have ever had, just thought I would mention that.

Till next time!

Jonathan Stahl

Arrival to Deutschland

Hallo,

As you may have heard, I arrived in Germany safely on Monday. It has been a very interesting adventure so far. Mostly just becoming familiar with how the U-Bahn and the S-Bahn (two of the public train systems) work. Along with learning enough of the language to be able to navigate around. Being in Germany, you find out very quickly that they really like carbonated water. And most of the bottled drinks are only kept to room temperature. I start doing my chemistry research tomorrow around 9:30 am which is the typical start time for jobs. One big thing in germany is that most shops and stores are closed after 5 or 6 everyday. Bars being one exception. Also, my posts on here may be less frequent because I still do not have Internet in my room. Thus, I have only my phone for internet. Anyway, greetings from Germany!

Danke Schöne, 
Jonathan Stahl

The Trip to Germany

Hello to everyone reading this, and welcome! I have been trying to think of the best way to start this off so that readers can keep up on my trip while I am in Germany this summer. Yes, you read that correctly, I will be in fact in Germany this summer in case you hadn't heard yet. So here we go this will be the beginning of what I hope will be an amazing adventure and I can't wait to share it with all of you!

As some of you will very quickly figure out, I am not the best when it comes to grammar so if you notice some issues in these posts I sincerely apologize! 

So to start this off I just wanted to say that the amount of preparations required to spend a summer in another country is a lot more then I was expecting. As some of you may know, I have only ever flown once and that was to Washington DC in the 8th grade. So this is will be the first time I have left the States, and as you can imagine it has been a bit different trying to get everything ready. Luckily for me I have had a lot of help from some of my friends. Who have been overseas and I wanted to take a moment and sincerely thank them! It has meant a lot to me that they have been willing to help me with all the questions I have been throwing at them.

I will be in Germany for most of the summer, leaving June 1st and returning August 16th. I haven't decided how often I will be posting on here yet but I hope to make a post at least once a week once I make it Germany. Again thanks for read and I hope that this will be enjoyable for those wanting to keep up on me while I am in Germany this Summer!

Danke!

Jonathan Stahl