4 days and counting...

From Frau Wyatt!

What a day! We left early this morning at 7am for Berlin by bus. Everyone has behaved so well. And in spite of being tired after Germany's win last night for the European Cup, everyone arrives happy without a complaint. It has really been a privilige to work with this group for me. They always seem to be having a good time.



Our trip to Berlin was varied. Some of us visited the Foreign Affairs Building for a special ceremony honoring 25 years of GAPP. Since everything was in German, and rather difficult to understand, comprehension was rather tough. BUT, they behaved so well. I've never been more proud - well maybe during the interview I was prouder! Lizz, Preston and Millie spoke very eloquently when asked about our exchange. You would think I coached them. They said everything I would have hoped to hear. It was truly one of the best birthday presents they could give me.



The rest of our group toured the Pergamom Museum and then the entire group met up at the TV Tower. Shopping was one of the main concerns for most of the students. Things are so expensive here - but it is really a chance of a lifetime. I believe they thought about their purchases and made good choices. Don't panic if their account looks drained! Our day in Berlin was certainly costly - but I know their purchases will help them remember their time spent in Germany.



Well, I guess I need to remind you about Sunday! 4 days until we return! We will be arriving at 4:05 pm on Lufthansa 444 this Sunday, June 22. We will meet you at the Arrival Gate right outside of Baggage Claim. If you have any questions, please let me know or call someone on the list I gave you prior to our departure. I know all of the kids have had a great time, but I also know they are looking forward to coming home to see their family.

Ava

Ich bin ein Berliner

Today we woke up pretty early, we are going to Berlin! We got to the Bahnhoff (Bus station) and loaded up, I sat with Lee, we talked a little bit about Berlin and some of the stuff he had seen while he was in germany. I let Annika and Ina borrow my iPod, I know they didn't want to here Lee rant, I didn't really either, but I had to be polite. We got there, and instantly we saw the Brandenburg Gate, it was HUGE. We got off the bus, and Frau Wyatt took her little SondersAmis (Special Americans) and Pia and Maggie to go to GAPP anniversary conference. I know, I didn't tell you this becaue I learned this on my 4th day here, it is a really big oppurtunity, it is the 25 anniversary of the program, and we were invited to participate. Well, apparantly, while Lee was giving me a little talk about Germany, I was supposed to be getting ready for it, which meant getting into my khakis and shirt. I had to change on the way over, no big deal, except for we were in the street with tons of people. Nothing says 'foreigner' like running down a street full speed in boxers, throwing on oversized khakis and a black shirt. I don't know how the Naked Cowboy does it everyday in NYC, guess its just born in you. The whole thing was in german, so I kinda zoned out, there was a choir, which was really wierd to me. The doctors of the program gave a long speech, we were kinda listening until a man came up and wanted an interview. We agreed, He works for a radio station in Berlin, and wanted to ask us about our exchange. We answered some questions, got some photos, and got his information because he wants samples of work and audio stuff from our class next year to help his project, he reminded me of Dr. Tidwell a little bit. We then had a reception in the hall, I tried some caviar, it wasn't too bad. The whole thing was brought by Sodexho, I can't remember if they still make the hospital food, but they did a nice job at the party. We then left to meet up with our Berlin group. We went on to some shops and hung out for a bit. We went into a mall, and of course, all the girls ran off to go shopping. Liz, Millie, Sam, Daniel, Katarina, and I decided to go to the Hard Rock. We were planning on walking, but Daniel, our lifeline, decided on the U-Bahn (Subway) we got there in 30 minutes tops. It was a pretty small little place, but had alot of really cool stuff, Guitars from Metallica and Guns n' Roses ( I think they were the main focuses of the restaurant) I had a burger and some gay little drink called a Crushed Velvet. Its Virgin, don't worry, I can show you how to make one at home. I bought some small geshenkes for Will, Jess, and Hunter. We then went back, met up with everybody were along section of the wall was still remaining, we took some pictures, then walked back to the bus to go on a 'tour' which was basically us passing the holocaust museum, checkpoint charlie, and the Brandenburg Gate. Gator and Matt bought Schweinsteiger jersey ( An offensive player for germany, who got a red card last game for literally beating the crap outta the other team for fouling him, every Ami loves him for that) We started our ride back home. Annika sat with me so I didn't have to put up with Lee's rants. The ride back was pretty good, we got off, said good bye to everybody and then went home in Maggie's Father's car. We watched the end of Italy against France, Italy won 2-0. I then went to sleep.
Tchüss

Yesterday: Schneider Factory and the Public Viewing

Yesterday morning, we went to Frau Bunge's 6a english class. We answered some questions about America, which I guess we all are kind of used to getting now. There was a kid there who just moved a year ago from New York, so he was fluent in english. We pulled out some American candy (Whoppers and Sour Skittles) and the kids went jumping off the walls. We left from there and went to Chemistry and Biology in that order. The americans talked about home, about some of the things that happened in the school year, I guess I feel we are all connecting now on a more personal level. Trying to survive in a foreign country brings people even closer than you think they could be I guess. We then went to Math, and I was less than happy to learn about Geometry in a foreign language, even less english, so I played some Solitaire (Barbara says the germans call the game 'Patience' I guess I can see why) on my iPod. We then went out to the front entrance where we hang out for breaks, and we all walked to the Schneider factory. We got there and gotr a little history on the company, that it was made in Wernigerode a really long time ago, and are apparrantly one of the highest quality makers of fountain pens in the world, sounds like a fun tour huh? It actually wasn't too bad, I think Hines would have stroked if he saw all the expensive equipment they had and all the techie stuff they used. We walked through every step of production, where we picked up some free 'samples' on the way, our tour guide was really cool, he said he didn't see anything and even got us some from the line. We walked back to the school after this, and I walked home with Annika and Sam, I walked the other half alone. Pia was in religion class. Barbara cooked me fish with green beans and potatoes, which was really good, but I am starting to miss my mom's cooking. She then left, she had an appointment with another patient that afternoon. I thought I would watch some German TV, and try to get a feel for what was going on around the country, but I feel asleep upstairs. The next thing I know, Barbara woke me up, I fell asleep for 3 hours! We then walked down a short way to Nikolaiplatz (Where the bands all played on Rathausfest) to watch the public viewing. All of the Amis living in Wernigerode were there, with thier partners of course. Everyone there was nuts, there were about 600 plus people there, all decked out in hats, flags, face paint, you name it, they had it. We watched the game, Germany scored really quickly. We left at half time to the Venezea. I got a Hidlebeer (Blueberry) Serbet. We walked back and watched the rest of the game, with no more scoring, The whole place just went insane, flags and hats went flying. Some car went off, I guess it got smashed. Germany will play Portugal now on Thursday, who are apparantly the best team. We then walked home, no drunks tonight thank God. I fell asleep pretty fast, because we went to Berlin today.

Happy Father's day from Goslar!

I woke up at around 8, and we had a pretty good breakfast. We then went to Johanniskirche for the Protestant service. The student teacher for english class, Lee, I don't remember mentioning him, but he is from North Carolina, and is getting his masters here. The service was dedicated to him, because I think he leaving this week. They made up a really funny song about him, and all the stuff he did here. I understood almost all of the service. We then went to go to Goslar to see those Silver Mines I told you about. We saw the miner's showers, break room, and changing room, and then went down into the mine. It was freezing, dripping water, and really low ceilings. We learned about the history of the mine, and saw the water wheels which powered everything inside the mine. We walked (climbed really) up 191 stairs I think to get to the light. We walked around and saw a few museums (I took alot of picutres) And went back home. I slept again, Rathausfest kicked me. We then ate some strawberry cheesecake. We watched the news and Barbara showed me some family photos. We then went to go pick up the pizza. We were having Tuna fish Pizza, yeah, I know it sounds wierd, and it probably is, but it was really good. We then watched the Portugal game, and later the Turkey, Czech Republic game, Turkey won 3-1, in a complete landslide. I had another beer and then went to bed. It's about dinner time at home, but it's midnight now, so I'm going to sleep.

Tchüss

Glücklig Vater's Tag!

A second round of Rathausfest

We woke up last morning at around noon, Rathausfest kicked me pretty hard apparantly. We ate probabley the biggest breakfast I had ever eaten in my life. Barbara, Lorenz, Pia, and I then drove to Goslar to go to the Kaiserpfalz, which was basically like a huge mansion for the Kaiser to stay in while he traveled through his Holy Roman Empire. Apparantly Goslar was one of the Kaiser's favorite areas, because of the copper and solver mines here, which are some of the biggest in the world. There were two statues of the Kaiser riding horses, of course, given the age of the statues, they were greener than the statue of liberty. We went inside, and went into the banquet hall, were the room was covered wall-to-wall paintings of the Holy Roman Empire, Martin Luther, and the Crusades, they were absolutely gorgeous. We then went into the Kaiser's sleeping room, and saw his crown, sword, scepter, throne, etc. We walked around the grounds, and then went to Goslar's Rathaus (for those of you wondering, it does not mean 'Rat House' but Advice House, it's basically the town hall) Again, thanks to the Kaiser, the room where the Öberbergermeister (Lord Mayor) debated, was called the Homage Hall, This was filled from ceiling to walls with the twelve apostles, and thier story. We went outside, and went into a cafe. I had blackberry and Johannisberry crepes. We then went home, I crashed for about an hour. Eberharb made steak, french fries, and green beans. I ate they were going to take it away from me. We joked around alot, and then watched the Spain-Sweden game, Spain won 2-1. I pulled out the Jelly Belly's, and Barbara fell in love with them. Pia and I then went dow n to meet everybody at the Rathausfest. It was really cold again. We saw bands playing songs from all different eras, the Drummer looked like Ringo Starr, the guitarist was Slash, and they threw in some extras, the keyboard player reminded me of Geddy Lee, they played stuff we all knew, Brown Sugar, Hard Day's Night, (randomly) YMCA. We then walked around some more, and we saw a guy playing accordion. Everyone got out their cameras, and they all got a picture of me hugging him, which I think scared the crap outta him because he packed up his stuff and left like 5 minutes afterward. We then walked over to a bench, and somehow got everybody to fit on it. It was cold, so Annika became my own personal hot-hands, and Maggie gave me a neck rub. Awesome. We walked over to the bridge to watch the fireworks. We watched them for about an hour, it was still pretty cold, so Annika was getting kinda close to me, haha fine by me. We then left, got a hug from all the Mädchen (remember that, Jess?) It was a little after midnight, so the drunks were starting to get out of the bars. Pia joked with me that I would have to fight off some drunks, I thought she was just being funny...We were walking home, no big deal, We got to the gate, the back one, where half of the original was destroyed during WWII. The door dips into a doorway so you cannot see it until you are right there, oh and the lights are beside it, so it is really dark in the doorway, sketchy huh? Pia pulls out her key, and some guy in a black hood stumbles out of the shadows. I thought it was Lorenz, he likes to scare Pia, well I figured out it wasn't him... I told Pia to back up, not like she needed me to tell her. I think he was too drunk to hardly notice where he was, let alone talk, he was muttering something to his girlfriend in the doorway, Pia and I decided to take the long way home to the front gate. I checked back every couple of seconds to make sure the drunk wasn't following us. We got inside the front gate, and I think I still heard him out there. We then went inside, and I crashed as soon as my face hit the pillow.

Tchüss

Today, Die Welle und Rathausfest

Wow, this was probably the best day since we got here, even though the weather was really wierd. It was pretty cold this morning, so I brought my jacket. We went to Ami's and then Latin. We then left to go to the theatre. It was a small little theater that only had 3 or 2 different showings. We were going to watch Die Welle (The Wave) We had seen this in German class last year, so we knew what was going to happen. Apparantly, the old, what actually happened version was too boring, or did not create a strong enough statement. The movie had a very harsh ending that really disturbed alot of us. We then went back to discus the movie, and left school. We went home and we ate some awful tasting egg pancake things with cranberry sauce, which was probable the least favorite thing I had eaten since we got here. Lorenz and I then watched the Queen's Tennis tournament, with Nadar killing his competition. I fell asleep, and I guess Lorenz did too. I think I remembered Pia taking a picture of me sleeping, so I guess expect that to show up in you e-mails soon. I woke up, and we left for Rathausfest, I was expecting some dinky little party with just some food. I was really wrong... There were atleast four live bands playing at different areas throughout town. There were food carts and little stands everywhere. There were people dressed in middle age stuff, like witches ( some legend in the Harz region) I took a picture with some dude that looked like a Hobbit. We went to the Jungplace, which was a field with some stuff for teens to do. It was kind of boring, with some awful punk band, and later, some little white boy rap group. We got wristbands as we went in, because all of the americans were 16 or older, which meant we could buy beer at the party, but none of us did, Frau would have killed us. We chilled there for awhile, and then left to go see other stuff. We ate a turkish pizza, which was more or less like a Moe's burrito. We then had some mini funnel cakes. It was really cold at night, which was pretty good for me, because the americans had to help keep the germans warm, haha. We walked over, across the Market place and listened to a really good band play. They played all of thier songs in english, including, You really got me by Sting (and everyother band that recorded it and called it thiers) Pia and I had to go home after that, we walked off to Smoke on the Water, which I had to explain to Pia how it was the one guitar riff everyone knew how to play, even if they don't play guitar. We walked back home, it was about 11:00, so it was really dark, we stayed on the big streets. We went home, and met with the family's friends, who had a dinner party while we were gone. After they left, Barbara handed me a shot glass, I got a little anxious when she pulled out some bottle with a cream colored drink. It was called Ost-Eier-Liqour (East coast-Egg-Liqour) They told me it was really strong, but whatever, bottoms up! It was actually pretty good, but pretty strong. We then said goodnight, and I went upstairs. I have no clue what were are doing tomorrow, but I know I will be busy.

Tchüss

Back to School:Yesterday

I got to wake up really early yesterday, which felt like a gift from God. It was really cold today, even colder than when we went to do the Autostadt. We went to our normal classes, Latin first. I really like this class because even thoug I don't speak a lick of Latin, the teacher lets us work with the other students, learning vocabulary, and teaching them some english. We then went to our Ami's class. We went to both Chemistry and then Biology, I basically slept through because I knew everything they were studying pretty easily. We then went to Gym class, where we played Fußball against the germans, we were doing pretty well, until they got ahead of us. They won 3-1, I guess they can beat us at something. We were done, and walked to the ghetto looking gym to play some basketball with the germans. We played for awhile, the Ami's were winning about 8-6, until Isa fell. She was knocked out pretty bad, and it looked like to me she might have had a concussion, she remembered everything, and could feel all parts of her body. We called the ambulance just in case. We later found out that she had bruised her tail-bone. Apparantly she gets hurt alot, and I felt like I was one of the few people who was seriously worried. We left for home, and ate a lunch of Pork cutlet, fried potatoes and steamed carrots. We then left to go to the school's paper, we hung out there for awhile, I walked Millie to a restaurant where she was going to meet some people for the soccer game. Pia, Maggie, and I left to go home, it started to rain, and again, my bike tire popped, I'm cutting back on the Currywurst and Döners, I swear. We watched the game, Croatia gegan Deutschland. The game was a little boring, so Maggie, Pia, and I talked. Eberharb made me a beer mixed with sprite, I think he called it a Radler, it was really good. After the game (Germany lost 3-1) we hung out in the kitchen and had Hawaii toast, which is toast with ham and pineapple slices. After that, Lorenz and I tried to figure out how to jack music from my iPod onto his flashdrive, we are going to give it another shot tonight.

This was yesterday, I am going to Rathausfest tonight, so I will write about that later tonight.

Schönes Wochende!

Yesterday: Am Thie and Shloss Today: Autostadt

Yesterday we went to the school's track, dropped off our partners and left for Am Thie gymnasium. We got there and were met by three girls from the last exchange, I remembered two of them from Biology class, but they didn't remember me, dang. We went into the school, it is a pretty modern building with air conditioning, thank God. We went to French class after that and watched Moulin Rouge in German, which was really wierd because I thought the movie was trippy in english. We left there and took break. We met a girl from Tennessee who was staying for a few weeks, like us. We talked about the south and I think that made everyone a little homesick. We then went to English class, we were asked questions about America and how we live. We then went to another break and talked with Tennesse girl and Sophie some more. We left for home, Pia talked to me about sport events, and how alot of kids had to go to the hospital from heat exhaustion. We went home and ate asparagas soup, and later waffles with applesauce, which was really good. I crashed for about half an hour, and Liz and Nele came to go with us to Blankenburg Schloss. We got there, it is a whole castle full of tunnels and caves and rooms built entirely out of the top of a mountain! All of the walls were sandstone, the castle was in ruins, probably from a war back in the middle ages. We went back and immediately Lorenz took me to his Jazz practice. I heard them play, and we then left to go see the play. On the way, my bike tire popped, again, I think it's all the beer and Currywurst...We walked to the school and watched probably the wierdest play ever. It was about teenage love and some other things I won't get in to. We walked outside and chilled with Lorenz's friends, who all spoke english really well. We walked back home, grabbed an Erdbeer Eis (Strawberry Icecream) and got home in time to watch Greece play Switzerland. Barbara and I talked more about Dalton.

I got to wake up later this morning, because Pia was on a Track team trip. Barbara took me to the bus station, and we went to the Autostadt. I slept on the way over. We got there, it is a HUGE city just built for making cars and designing. There were exhibits from all Volkswagen companies, Audi, Bentley, ect. We designed our own cars, looked at all the new tekkie stuff they had (jealous, Mark?) We went on a guided tour of an Volkswagen assembly line, which was really cool. We had some currywurst at the restaurant there, then left to go home. On the ride home, I fell asleep. When I woke up, Katarina fell asleep and basically fell on my shoulder, not a great wake up. We left and went to the Venetian for, you guessed it, Eis. I couldn't remember where exactly the house was, the streets all look the same, so Mi and some other girl swung me by there. When I got home, Barbara took me shopping, we went to the German version of Wal-Mart and bought things for Mexican tonight. We got back, and I think I am going to watch the Czech-Poland game tonight, or go for a run.

Tchüss

Gymnasium am Thie- High School in Blankenburg

Another hot day today. We travelled to Blankenburg to visit another high school. We were greeted by the entire school - overwhelming to say the least! The afternoon was left open for everyone to do their own thing. Everyone is really tired. Tomorrow we have a nice long bus ride to Wolfsburg to Autostadt - a mni amusement park / VW plant. We really have a full day scheduled. I am reminding students to check their email and write home as often as possible. Let me know if you are not hearing from any of these guys.



Having fun in Germany, but really tired!

Ava (aka "Frau")


From Frau Wyatt- who is very diligent about updating those of us left behind!

A picture from the Brocken

Thanks to Frau Wyatt for this picture!

Der Dom

Today I think I overslept, Pia looked a little bit anxious this morning. She has to write a test for her religion class after school. I'm freaking out a little too, I have to make a presentation for the Eleventh class, Lorenz's class. We go to school, have sozialkunde ( Its a little like economics and government) We talked about the american government systems. Everyone wanted an Ami's help with the paper. We then left for the other building, about 5 blocks away. We go in, and go to a really big class with people our age. Some girl, I think her name was Anne, was doing a presentation about Hiedi Klum, all in English. She finished, and nobody really paid attention, because it's Heidi Klum, whats there to know? After that, the Amis went up, all of our presentation were not so great, atleast, I didnt think mine was. Afterwards, we had break, and we talked with some students from Russia, not too bad looking either haha. We went to Math, which turned out to be Trig, holy crap, way over my head. Luckily, our germans came and got us, they got to skip Latin because the teacher was not there that day, I guess they don't have substitutes. We went to the Venezea again, and I got some Tiramisu ice cream. We then went home, and I crashed on the bed for about an hour. I woke up, and Nele and Liz were downstairs, I remembered we were going to der Dom, one of the oldest churches around here, which was built arouns 800 A.D. We left for the city, it was about a 30 minute drive. We got there, and I saw the most beautiful church I had ever seen in my life. It was even larger than St. Patricks Cathedral in NYC. We went inside, oh my lord, it was even more beautiful inside. It is a gothic church with huge stained glass windows telling stories from the New Testament, like the crucifixion and the ascension. We talked to the lady at the doorway about america, apparantly she has a son in South Carolina. We talked about S.C. for a minute, and she was so excited about us coming there, she let us sneak into the Cloister, its like a garden where the monks would pray and meditate. We snuck through there, and Barbara told us a little about the Iconoclasm that happened here. We walked around the garden and looked at all of the artworks there. We snuck back into the main hall and walked out. We went to a cafe and I had some huge piece of cake, and an Apfelschörle ( I need to show you how to make one when we get back, its my new favorite drink). We went back home, and Me and Lorenz decided to go the school play. We rode our bikes there, but we were too late, the seats were full, so we chilled with Lorenz's friends and played hacky sack. They asked me about America, and of course, I was happy to tell them all they needed to know. We left there and watched some of the Netherlands-Italy game. Tomorrow We will got to some castle ruins

Tchüss

Picture of Brocken Hike sent from Pia

Hikin' up the Brocken, Germany's Fußball spielen mit Poland

I woke up REALLY late today (at about 8:00) and went downstairs. We ate out on the porch, and they made me eat so much I though I was going to bust a gut, they joked with me that I couldn't leave Germany until I gained about 5 more kilograms. We put our packs on and drove up the Brocken to our starting point. We started off on a pretty steep trail, I didn't think it was so bad, but I guess not everyone went to Philmont, did they? Alot of people were getting tired pretty fast. Sam, Gator, Lorenz, Duc, Millie, Lauren, Marcus, Chris, and Me took a different path. This one was shorter, but more steep. We raced up the rocky trails, we had to jump from boulder to boulder, (not like buzzard's roost, no 100 foot falls) We walke don for another hour, and cmape back on the main trail, barely missing the other group. We walked up another huge road, and after another 45 minutes, we reached the top. The top has a hotel and a radio and television signal station, and a small museum about the national park. Duc and I bought some french fries with some fruity ketchup, and had a pretty good lunch. I fell asleep at the table, and I think I might have gotten messed with while I was asleep. We then went up to the museum, it was a little like a nature center at our national parks, but alot nicer. We left there, took a few pictures, and walked back down. Some of the people who were too tired took the train back down, and the people in Ilsenburg needed a headstart to get back. We took the easy trail down, and got down alot faster than I thought I would. We then left for home, Lorenz drives like an F1 racer, dodging cyclists and whatever else is in the road, apparantly everybody drives like this, so I guess they think we drive like old ladies in America.

We went home, and I worked on my presentation for tomorrow. We ate some pizza (I'm starting to miss Iron Gate) and played some ERS and speed. We walked into the living room and watched the soccer game. Its kind of like a huge tournament with every country going against each other. Germany played against Poland. It started off without scoring, Germany took the lead. Lorenz and I drank another one of those really great Czech beers during halftime. Germany scored again, and kept Poland from scoring the rest of the game. Lorenz asked me about our Cherokee heritage, so I told him all I knew about Clementine (thats her name, right?) and he asked me if she was painted up and threw tomahawks. I love these stereotypes they have, its just something you have to hear to understand. After the game, I went upstairs. Tomorrow we are going to walk around the older parts of Wernigerode, this town is so pretty, all of the houses are timberframe and have red roofs, it kind of brings you back to the old days and makes me forget just how ridiculously big Wernigerode is, even though everything is so close together.

Tchüss

The weekend

After school yesterday, I took Pia, Maggie and Annie to the local guitar shop. It was a pretty small shop with a few guitars, all from some company I didn't know. The shop owner let me try out all of their basses. They were probably the worst basses I have ever picked up in my life! We left and went to the park. We played some more ultimate frisbee, I think Marcus and Chris are starting to like frisbee alot. We left after about 4 hours to the school concert. It was a choir show with alot of American music, ABBA, Queen, ect. Their accents were so strong we couldn't understand them hardly. Afterwards we left to the Venetian for some Gillatos (I think thats how you spell it) We left for home pretty late, I had a beer with Eberhält and Barbara and we talked about immigration in America and Deutschland, slavery, and Native Americans.

Today I woke up at about 8:30, a gift from God after waking up at 5:30 every day. We walked to the school, got on a bus, and went to the concentration camp, I think it is called Langensteid. It was covered bz forest, the guide said it was because they tried to cover it up when the war was over. We left there for Hexentanzplatzen (The witches dancing place) It was a little like stone mountain park, We rode a ride that was like the concrete sled at Öber Gatlinburg. We ate seom waffles that tasted like funnel cake, and then left for home. On the way back, I showed some germans how to play ERS and crazy eights. We got home at around 4, and Barbara fixed me the best pork roast I had ever had in my life, we ate it with Sauerkraut and potatoes. Afterwards, I showed them Gin Rummy, which is apparantly different then German Rummy, either that I just started making up rules. We played that and then we made the boiled peanuts mom sent. They were really good but Lorenz and Pia didnt like them, Eberhält ate them like I was going to take them away from him. We ate some Strawberry pie after that, and then some pretzels and Beer ( I know, don't be surprised if the plane is flying crooked when we come back)

From Frau Wyatt: Schloss=Castle

Several of the students were taking exams today so 8 of our students were "stuck" looking around Wernigerode. I know they would have rather been in the classroom ;o)

Close to 1:00 we walked to the castle. I think all were amazed at our tour in English. The castle was at the top of our "best stuff I've seen list". I know many are unaware that our Germans paid for our tour. 5 Euros doesn't sound like much but multiplied times 11 it translates to around $85! Everything just seems so expensive here!

June 5th: Schloss

Today we had a short day, we went to Latin, which was the hardest thing I have ever done since we got here. We had to translate Latin to German, and conjugate words. I met some people, so it wasn't so bad. We left to the castle, it is very old, and has a very deep history. There were many rooms with silk walls, armor suits on walls, silver, brass, and gargoyles everywhere. We took alot of pictures. We came back to the city and played Ultimate Frisbee in the park. It was 4 Amis (Americans) against about 15 Deutches. Again, we killed them, so bad that we had to change teams with two Amis on each team. After that, we chilled in the park with some crazy girls, ditched them and went to SubWay. We taught the guys about shooting paper and ice out of straws, I think we almost got kicked out of the place it got so bad. Earlier today some guy told me there was a guitar shop in town, I was going to go check it out after school, maybe pick up some stuff for people. We are going swimming tomorrow.

Tchüss

Udate from teacher Frau Wyatt

Paraphrased from e-mail by Frau Wyatt

At 12:00 it was so hot they cancelled school! No air conditioners so students can't concentrate. I want to work here and I think our students want to stay here! It doesn't happen very often (never in the past 12 years for me!)

We had our welcome party last night and everyone brought a delicious salad and dessert as well as lots of different sandwiches to choose from. Everyone seems to be enjoying trying everything.

Today we got to run around downtown Wernigerode on a scavenger hunt. We had a lot of fun and saw some great shops. I don't want to alarm you - but it will be expensive for the kids to bring back gifts. I know they are enjoying the time here but the conversion rate is so bad. Todays' ice cream in the ice cream shop was 4 Euros for a small- they called it a small ice cream - but for American standards they were gi-normous! $6 per ice cream seems like too much for an ice cream!

After our ice cream we went to meet the Ober Burgermeister - the Lord Mayor. I was so proud of Lizz, Millie and Preston. They dared to ask him a question (s) in German! Truly - I am in awe of what they are accomplishing. They are always so happy and upbeat and they try everything. This is probably one of the best groups ever - I hope I can still say that in 18 days!

Thanks to Frau Wyatt for the Update!

Mein Geburtstag

My first days were such a culture shock to me, everyone dressed so differently and acted so different. Today we played dodgeball, Amis gegan Deutsche, (Americans versus Germans) and We won 4 games out of five. It was a long day for me, every one knew it was my birthday, and all of the little 5th graders sang for me. We ate cake for breakfast. Later, after school, we went around town on a scavenger hunt, looking for different landmarks in the town square. We went to an Ice cream shop, and I had the best Ice cream I have ever had in my life. We then went to the city hall and talked with the mayor (der Öberburgermeister) We talked about in the history of Wernigerode. We then went home, and I am about to go eat lasagna.

Tchüss

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

Preston,

Have a great birthday,

Love,

Mom, Dad, Riley & Amelia

First Day

We arrived in Frankfurt today at around 8, 2 in the morning in america! We missed the early flight, so we waited in the airport for 4 hours for the next flight. We touched down in Hannover at around 3, 9 in the morning. Everyone's baggage came in, so we went to meet our germans. We got on the bus and drove to Ilsenburg. We dropped half of our people there and continued to Wernigerode. The town is very beautiful, with timber frame houses and cobblestone streets. Barbara von Rosenburg showed me around the town a bit, and then we ate dinner (Stuffed Peppers) I was very surprised how well I was greeted, I feel like a family member. Both of Pia's parents are very nice and funny, (They said thank you very much for the gifts, mom and dad) We just now finished watching the news, and I am about to go see what else we have planned. Tomorrow I start school

Tchüss

They are off!

Preston left today at noon for Germany! He downloaded movies on his ipod for the long flight!