Amsterdam

Last January 30 until February 1 I joined a trip to Amsterdam. The trip was organized by the Studentenwerk as part of a study tour. Every semester they organize different activities for students like visiting major cities in Europe, cultural activities, theatre, sports, etc. We arrived in Amsterdam around 8:30 am and we started the city tour promptly after checking in. First we took a boat for a city round trip through the canal. We visited Anne Frank’s house and Madame Tussaud’s House of Wax, where one can see wax figures of major Hollywood stars and other famous personalities.  A most recent addition is Barack Obama’s statue.  Amsterdam is also known as the city of bicycles, which have always the right of way. There are also a lot of coffee shops where you can take drugs legally. Well, Amsterdam has a lot of things to offer. It is a very beautiful city and quite big. There are a lot of parks, canals, restaurants and bars. I just love Amsterdam.

Protest

Last January 26 there was a big demonstration among students here in Freiburg. They protested against the tuition fee requirement of 500 Euros in the University. They were determined to boycott it and to demand the maintenance of free education. It was a long march that caused traffic and inconvenience in the city area. In solidarity with my fellow students, I joined the said demonstration. The funny thing was that I landed in the front line with my friends, holding the major demo-banner and facing the police and control marshals. Well, that was a very successful demonstration although there was an uncontrollable incident when the participants ended up running through the other street which was out of the control area.

Homily

During this semester I enrolled in a homily course. We are a group of 10 and most of the students are lay. I delivered my first homily last January 29 with very positive results.  It had a good impact on the students. My homily was about faith, trust and healing. In my homily I related my personal experience and shared much about the Camillian ministry and spirituality. I also shared about the meaning of faith in the bible and concretised it in my personal experience and my experience with sick people. It was, of course, not easy to put the ideas together in five minutes but I was able to fit them into the structure of my homily. My teacher highly appreciated the work and the group learned about the Camillian spirituality and ministry.

Concert

The Uni-Choir Freiburg will stage a concert on February 6. This is the culminating activity for this winter semester. The concert will start at 8:00pm at the University Church. We will be singing the works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in celebration of his 200th birthday. It is entitled “Hear my Plea”. After the concert we will be dining out. It is also a sort of thanksgiving for the successful semestral concerts and activities.