Wir essen in Essen!

The German word Essen translates to "eating" in English. I find this to be a rather odd name for a town, so I decided to see if there are any towns in the U.S. called "eating". I quickly realized that this is an impossible thing to google for obvious reasons. What I did find is a list of the worst U.S. city names, and I thought I'd share it with you. http://www.toptenz.net/10-worst-named-cities.php

Anyways, my trip to Essen last week was amazing. The Krupp Foundation treated us like kings. We toured the old Krupp factory which is now a museum, toured and ate a delicious lunch at the Villa Hügel which is basically like the Hearst Castle of the Krupp family, went to the art museum in Essen, went to the Philharmonic in Essen, and toured the new Krupp campus. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

The first is of the Villa Hügel, which is basically a giant mansion where the Krupp family once lived. If you click on the picture you can see that the table in the back room is nicely set. That is where we ate lunch. no big deal.








The second picture is of the room where we ate lunch, the yummy dessert, and one of the higher up Krupp Foundation people (though I don't remember his name or title). Also, notice the card on the table... that was our menu, specially printed for us!










This photo shows the awesome Krupp elevator with two elevator cars on one elevator shaft! woah! It's apparently the only one like this in Europe.

This is a view of the Krupp campus from inside one of their main buildings. Notice the footpaths through the lake!










German word of the day is: die Stiftung, which means foundation. I learned this word on the tour of Villa Hügel. The tour was in German and everyone kept talking about the Krupp Stiftung and I had no idea what it was. I finally raised my hand to ask what the Krupp Stiftung was, and discovered that the Krupp Stiftung is what is paying me 3000 euros this summer... oops. I guess I should have known that one. :-/