VIENNA

Last weekend, I made a trip to Austria to visit my cousin who's studying abroad in Vienna.  It was great to see him as well as the city.  (He lives about an hour from where I live at home, so this weekend was probably the most time we've ever seen each other!)  It was a very historically preserved city, and German is the official language of Austria (even more practice)!

Austria's Parliament Building

In the marketpalce...

My cousin, Kent, and I.

Easter Break

This spring turned out to be wonderful!  I finished school for break on April 15th, and we went back in on May 2nd.  I was fortunate to do so much.  The first weekend I was able to visit my first host-family from Geilenkirchen (about an hour from where I am now) where I lived for my first month to learn German.  It's so nice to visit them; when I visit them, my German seems tremendously better.  (I couldn't do much in summer when I lived with them, and my last visit was in November!)

Shortly after I returned, I traveled all the way to other side of Germany (in the east) where my relatives.  They live in the city of Leipzig (about 520,000 people).  My grandfather, Bodo G. Gebauer, has his entire family living there (his sister, his two nieces, nephew, and their children, and those children now have very young kids).  It was nearly ten years since we last visited them in Germany (summer of 2001 was my first visit).  There was so much to talk about since it's been just about a decade!  The best part...I can actually speak German now!  It was a great way to spend Easter with a part of my family that I have not seen in a long time.  They were able to show us all around their city, Leipzig (where my grandpa lived), and we checked out one of the oldest cities in the Sachson province, Dresden.

My mother's cousin, Petra, is in the middle with her husband on the left.

We're standing in front of the St. Thomas Church.  My grandpa sang in

the St. Thomas Youth Choir when he was a young boy, as well as attend school there.

A statue of the Reformation Leader, Martin Luther, in Dresden.

The city of Dresden...

This is called the Frauenkirche ("women church," if you translate it).

After World War II, nearly the entire church was left in ruins,

except for the dark black charred section if you look to the left. 

The two twin boys of my mother's cousin's (Petra from the photos) daughter.

Parts of Leipzig where my relatives here live, and where my grandpa grew up as a child.