Deutschland Part One: First Week in Leipzig

My View of Leipzig

So, due to the supreme lack of time to compile pictures or even check my e-mail thoroughly, I have neglected to post anything in the blog about my trip to Germany. For those who don't know, my company held a huge training event in Leipzig, Germany for two weeks, after which I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin for the weekend, and then to Stade (outside of Hamburg) to attend a meeting with my co-workers that work there and tour their chemical plant. The trip as a whole oscillated from extremely exciting to mind-numbingly dull, but overall the awesome outweighed the boring and it was way fun. So, I have decided to do this post in parts, as there are a lot of pictures, and lots to tell.

Leipzig Week 1

So, truth be told, I didn't really know what the first week of training was all about until it started, and apparently that was just the way that Dow wanted it, they let us have information as we needed it all week. Basically, the first week of training had a three fold reason: To get us excited about our careers at Dow, to network with other new engineers as well as multiple levels of company leadership, and to give us training and guidance that is much needed and very helpful to new employees in a large and confusing multi-national corporation. So, there was a lot of gettting to know people, a lot of speeches, a lot of interviews, and a lot of activities. The following are some of the activities we participated in:

Organ Concert at The Neues Gewandhaus

The Neues Gewandhaus and Fountain

While I prefer a full orchestra, this was a sweet awesome performance. The Neues Gewandhaus is one of the few cultural land marks that was reconstructed in East Germany behind the iron curtain. The recital included some Bach, some arrangements of Bach, and some Schumann that was out of this word. We also had dinner there afterward.

Inside the Gewandhaus and in concert. Check out those pipes!

The jazz band that played during dinner at the Gewandhaus

Around Town

So, in the little free time that I did have, I walked around Leipzig with some friends, here are a few of the cool places we saw:

This was a way cool building, there is a lot of architecture like this in Leipzig, and a lot of construction, so more is to come.

This is just me at the park in downtown Leipzig. It is kind of like Washington park in Portland, the Zoo borders the park on one side, and the city borders it on the other three.

I believe this is the old Thomas church, but this picture can give you an idea of what the streets are like. All of the side walks were cool cobblestone designs.

A few of my group members and I out to dinner a swanky restaurant.

Bowling and Futball
We had a fun activity mid week to watch the German National team play their quarter-final game in the Euro-cup tournament at a bowling alley. It was a lot of fun, and I lost horribly to guys that were a bit tipsy. I really am a horrible bowler.

Germany won their game on Wednesday, and so did everyone I bowled against . . .

So, that is about it for week one, I met some cool people, saw the sights, and was pretty much exhausted 24-7. Next post, the really fun stuff, there will be danger, daring and reckless driving!