Danke for visiting our blog! GAPP = German American Partnership Program. Students from Enumclaw High School lived with students from Karl-von-Closen Gymnasium for over two weeks. This blog documents their adventures. The students each contributed a blog post for an assigned day. To read this blog in chronological order, scroll down to the very end and scroll up to read in order. And if you'd like to hear the soundtrack of our trip, check out our GAPP 2022 Spotify playlist. But first, here are some memories from our trip - this is a slideshow. You can use the arrows in the top right corner to move faster. Each photo also has a comment. Enjoy!
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(Frau) Auf Wiedersehen doesn't mean just goodbye... it means - upon seeing you again! And although GAPP is now over and the students are back home, they will hopefully see Germany again! Friday morning was an early start for GAPPers and Hosts alike. Meeting at 3:45 am at the school was rough, but most students then slept on the 1 hour bus ride to the Munich airport. Upon arrival at the airport, we settled in for a bathroom break. Frau has a hand-held scale, and there were definitely some stressful moments of repacking to shuffle the weight around. Nobody was overweight when we checked in with our passports and IDs at the Lufthansa counter, thank goodness! And the beautiful view was enjoyable while we were waiting in line, too. Since Frau is staying behind in Germany for a class at the Goethe Institute (3 students are staying behind as well!) - Mrs. Pugh accompanied the remaining 12 students home. Frau was not able to go through security with them so the goodbyes were said and students went through. The first hour long flight to Frankfurt went smoothly, and the 10 hour flight to Seattle also, with just a slight delay. All students made it home safely - thanks to Mrs. Pugh!! Get some good rest, GAPPers! Great job! Speaking of Mrs. Pugh... SHOUT OUT to what an amazing GAPP chaperone she was! So supportive and fun. Looking forward to your next GAPP chaperoning gig in a few years!
(Kiley) In the morning I got up and I was SO tired, I don't know if any of the other students felt tired though. My host partner's dad drove Jasmin, Brittney, and me to school and then we walked to home room where we meet with Mrs. Pugh and Frau Holmquist!
We did a quiz on Quizlet phrases, phrases and words we might have used or needed while in Germany. It was matching so it wasn't completely out of memory, but I tried my best to do as many questions as possible from memory. Afterwards we did a GAPP evaluation which consisted of questions about our trip and what we learned and such. After that we tried some candy, they were called Brause Pops, and wrote thank you cards for our host families, thanking them for hosting us! We tried another candy called Dickmann's Schoko Strolche. We also turned in our blue folders. The blue folders had some "assignments" in them like questions about your host family, things you did on your trip, entertainment, things along those lines. Then we got our certificates for participating in GAPP as well as special gifts for each person that reminded Frau Holmquist of us. I got two best friend keychains that have German on them, one says "du" and the other says "ich" as well as "the world is better because you're in it" but in German, of course. As well as sweet and sour Haribo gummy bears holding hands. I got these things because my best friend is a German (love you Anna). Next we walked down to the town as a group to get ice cream! I ordered the ferraristi, which is vanilla (I switched it to mango because of lactose) and strawberry ice cream with strawberries and water sticks. It also had whipped cream, which I gave to Adelia. I killed three bees, two of which I drowned in my remaining ice cream. We then walked around looking at some stores, I got some Birkenstocks. We then went to a grocery store and I got gifts for my friends and family (pretty much all candy) as well as Holunder syrup because Holunder is SO good and we don't have it in America. Holunder is a flower, but it really does taste AMAZING! While we were walking back it started raining but I had an umbrella, but my bag also broke due to the rain so I just held all of my stuff together in the bag all the way back to the school! Our group then waited at the "black couch" until 1pm when our host partners came to pick us up. We showed each other things that we bought during our time in town and ate some lunch. I had a sandwich that my host mom gave me! My host partner had to stay at school until 5, so Frau drove me home where I ate pasta and a lot of the orange melon! I then went upstairs and began to pack since it's my last day staying with Jasmin and her family . I might have procrastinated on packing and found out Anna would be picking me up earlier than I had anticipated, so I rushed to finish packing all of my things. This is because I'm staying with Anna an additional 3 weeks. I had just finished packing when Anna showed up, I made her carry my suitcases downstairs (heheheheh) and she talked endlessly about how excited she is for the Blackpink comeback in August. Then Anna's mom, Anna and I drove to an internship thing Anna is doing with a guy named John who is apparently from England! At the Cafe-thing Anna is interning at I got to try Rhabarberschorle! It was really good. We listened to two people song a bunch of songs, one was in French, most were in English though. After that we went back to Anna's house, had some popcorn, and got ready for bed! (Lilly) When we woke up this morning we knew it was going to be a solemn affair, but it didn't make it any easier to accept Dachau's history. Dachau was set up on March 22nd, 1933. At first it just held political prisoners, but over the 12 years it was operational more than 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned. 41,500 of these people died in this concentration camp and the rest walked away changed on April 29th, 1945, when the camp was liberated by American soldiers. But we didn't start the day taking in this horrible history, so let's go to the beginning. The GAPP group was at the train station by 8 AM that morning with the weak wearing long sleeves to keep the cold at bay. We were tired and counting down the minutes until that train would come and we could fall right back to sleep within the comfort of their subpar seating. I was probably the third one to be found asleep. After the train ride we arrived in Munich where Frau Holmquist took us to our meeting spot and went over the information. Then, she cut us loose. Once we were in groups of course! We were given three hours to shop downtown, so my partner and I took full advantage and went to every shop we saw. Once the group reconvened, feet aching from our travels, we made our way back to the train station... Yay. On another train we sat and sat and sat some more. Sometimes people spiced it up by talking, but after a little while we were put out of our misery. Just to be put in a new one. We stood in front of Dachau and it was hard, knowing what was about to occur. A tour the lady gave us and as we received it I thought about all that she was saying. 34 barracks. Unnamed graves buried in the ground. Skeletons, for that is what they were, forced to work and survive in inhumane conditions. My eyes started to sting, but that was just the sunscreen I promise. "Arbeit macht Frei," the prisoners were told. Work for your freedom they said, as if they had any intentions of letting them go. In these two hours, as I stood there and listened I knew my perspective on humanity altered. Never again will anyone stand for such a thing. And it was this I said to myself as we waved goodbye to remind myself that we can be better than our ancestors; do better. As I glanced at my group around me I knew we would. Click on the pictures below to view the slideshow. (Haley) Today we gave presentations to some of the classrooms in Karl Von Closen Gymnasium. My group gave a presentation about American national parks. All of the groups were about an aspect of American culture. Our group (Trevor, Saiya and I) presented to 3 classrooms; one 10th grade class, one 8th grade class, and one 5th grade class. The 5th graders definitely had the most questions, they were adorable. Many of their questions were about American sports, like “what’s your favorite football team?” And “who’s your favorite soccer player?” After school, my host mom drove me home and my exchange partner, his sister and I played board games for a bit. Then I took a long nap and came down for dinner. For dinner we had Dampfnudel, which are sweet dumplings filled with jam with a vanilla sauce and a blueberry compote. My host mom likes her damfnudel with cucumber salad! It was amazing!
(Adelia) In the first draft of our GAPP plan- this day we had a bicycle tour in Munich. Instead, our group had decided upon visiting Saltzburg (we all visited Munich in the next coming days). A place seen in films, and even the famous composer Mozart’s own birthplace. The city itself was beautiful, just as are all old German cities. Their structures are painted bright colors, and the cobblestone streets are busy with tourists- all hoping to make memories in Europe. Some memories are caught in stone sculptures across the city, many of which are in the castle garden- others are cast in Hollywood films, or a photo album. First, the EHS GAPP group visited the gardens of one of many castles located in Austria. Upon seeing Mozarts home in Saltzburg, it was reassuring that we might guide ourselves through the tour. Not rushing as we looked through many displays, portraits and even a gift shop all honoring the composer. Later in the day, we divided into groups, many discovered comforts of home in Seattle (A well known coffee shop) others went in a more cultural way, finding Lederhosen and Dirndl in the many shops or simply shopping for their families. Salzburg was a surprisingly modern, yet old city in the country of Austria. Though it’s memories are welcome.
(Lukas) After an exciting but equally exhausting trip to the Alps the day before, I leisurely woke up at 11:00 am. When I made my way upstairs an hour later I found my host parents eating a late breakfast on the back patio. I sat down and we discussed ideally for a while until the topic of the fruit trees in the yard came up. My host parents explained that it was tradition to plant fruit trees whenever a child was born; They pointed out Simons tree which was the smallest one in the grove. After that Martin, (My host father), offered to take me on a bike tour around Massing, and of course I accepted. For hydration we filled our sport bottles with apfelschorle, which is a mix of carbonated mineral water and apple juice. I was given Simons old bike, which I was told he outgrew, but since I’m a “short king” it was just the right size. (Background: Both Simon and Martin are well over 6 foot). After figuring out how to shift gears on a bike much nicer than my own back home we were off. After a few minutes of easy riding we arrived at our first stop, the Rott, which is a small river that divides Massing into two sides. We took pictures and got back on our bikes. After a particularly long uphill section we arrived at Massing only castle; Schloss Hellsberg, which I was also told was the oldest building in Massing. It is now a private residence. Our bike ride took us up and down scenic rolling hills of Bavaria. We stopped only to admire the Churches we saw along the way. I was told there is a church every five kilometers. We saw two. We arrived back just in time for Mittagessen, (lunch). My host mother had prepared dampfnudel for us, which is a typical Bavarian food. I’m not a huge fan of super sweet foods, but I’d eat dampfnudel any day of the week. Afterwards we made plans to get what was described to me as, “The best Italian ice cream that you could get outside of Italy.” We hopped in the Volkswagen to drive to Mühldorf, the location of the ice cream parlor. Along the way we made a stop to see the Inn river, which is, as I was told, is the only Natural flowing river in Germany. I tried to verify this fact but wasn’t able to find anything confirming or denying this fact. The Inn flows eastward to Passau where it meets up with the Donau, which is the 2nd longest river in Europe. Icecafe Venezia is in the old market district of Mühldorf. It’s a family run business owned by Italian immigrants. The mother speaks good German, the son speaks good Bavarian German. They both speak good Italian. What was also good was the spaghetti eis I ordered; Because of course I had to try the real thing. We talked for a long time before paying the waitress and leaving to walk around Mühldorf. We visited the Inn again and skipped rocks. On the way back we stumbled into a weird side street filled with motivational phrases, weird art, and an alien. Back at home we ordered pizza. Mine had Paprika (red peppers), Schinken (ham), Zwieben (onions), and Oliven (ok I think you can guess this one). After seeing me attempt to eat with a knife and fork I was encouraged to just use my hands. The pizza was good and the day was great, and now as I’m typing this it’s getting quite late. Tschau. (Taylor) Today was a pretty relaxed day. After recovering from the dance before by sleeping in, I started my morning with a breakfast of bread and butter, along with a glass of iced tea. My host family and I spend time together and Sandra and I looked through her yearbook. At around noon, we decided that we would spend our afternoon at Naturbad Mitterskirchen, which is a natural swimming pool. We had gone to this a few days before, but it is still a very cool experience. We got to the pool at about one, and sat in a sunny spot. I read my book for a while before getting too hot and jumping in the pool. I only spent a couple of minutes in the water before getting back out and heading to our blanket. Afterwards, Sandra’s mom picked us up, along with Max in the front seat. We drove home and ate some snacks. Max and Sandra began to work on their project together while I got changed and relaxed in my room. I read for a bit longer and talked to my friends at home. After a couple of hours, Sandra finished her homework and we decided to head to the Volksfest in Gangkofen. We arrived around eight and ran into Lilly, who told us that there were people inside the tent. Sandra and I grabbed some caramelized almonds and chocolate covered fruit before going in to find them. Inside the tent was very crowded and loud. It was cool to see but not exactly my type of fun. We sat with the other for a little bit before leaving the tent with Coen. There, we found Haley and her partner. We joined them and went to the shooting game. After we had played that, we wandered around for a couple minutes to hang out and talk. After a bit, Martin and Max found us and we all talked together. Frau and Mrs. Pugh also came up to us and we talked to them as well. About an hour later, Sandra and I decided to leave. Her mom came and picked us up and we went home. There, she made some Schupfnudeln, which tasted a bit like cornbread, but I really liked them. We talked for an hour before I got too tired and decided to go to bed. I brushed my teeth and changed before falling asleep.
(Alex) Friday was so much fun with us visiting the elementary school and going to the ball. Personally my day started with a nice bus ride to school. Their public buses are like our gray hound buses with a little more space. We walked into town and realized we still had a while till. So of course we got some ice cream. I had a scoop of strawberry cheesecake and lemon cheesecake on a waffle cone. The kids were so shy at first but to warm up to us they showed us their favorite song, a little pancake song "I'm a pancake" over and over again. Then played some games read a book to them. It was funny because the kids apparently were all over one of the Americans asking for their phone number and Instagram. Something I learned was that apparently german parents are very cautious about their kid's photos online, and for that reason I didn't add the photos. Frau was so excited to have us try a Döner. It was ok to me but the yogurt sauce made me feel a little dizzy. When me a my partner got back to their house, we ate some Knedl their grandmother had made. So good but the eating everything on the plate was still getting hard to get use to. Getting ready for the ball was a little chaotic but made it on time. At first the german high-schoolers did a entrance and some ballroom dancing then they started adding in open dance floor songs, but us Americans didn't really get in till American song we knew where being played. It was such a fun night that lasted till 12:40. The Germans, Americans and the Spainuans got closer than ever.
(Nolan) The day started as most days do; with waffles. We were in a rush this morning, though, because we had to be at school early to take our covid tests. My partner and I tested negative, but one student ended up getting a positive, which was later proved with a better test to be false. We left the school around 8:15. About an hour into the drive, we arrived at something kind of like a rest stop with a little shop with food and drinks and souvenirs, and I bought an orangina, which is like fanta with pulp, a mountain dew, and some milka, which is chocolate (natürlich). Then we were back on the road. This drive was painfully long. But then, we got to Neuschwanstein at about 12/12:30, and wandered around the village until 2, got pommes und cola and visited a bunch of gift shops. Then we returned to the main square, and proceeded to hike up the hill. This walk was insanely hot and I felt like I might tragically perish. We stopped at the top driveway area and took some pictures, and split up to go to an additional sightseeing trail. Then we all returned and hung out until it was time for the tour; we got our tickets, and it began to rain and thunder... heavily. We waited for a while longer in the tunnel for our tour to begin. When it was finally our turn, the entire group had to book it to the gate through the rainy struggle to scan our wet tickets, and then run to the door of the castle. We went through a huge throne room, a bedroom, the king's salon, the grotto, and the singer's hall, but then this was the end of the tour. There was some completely amazing art; every single room was packed to the brim with references and homages to myth and legend. It was incredibly beautiful, but no pictures were allowed inside the tour, sadly. We were given little remote transceivers to hear the guide, kind of like a big group phone call. Then, we proceeded to exit, which took us through another gift shop, and then through a very weirdly long series of tunnels until we finally got out. We hiked back down the hill in the rain, which stopped shortly after, and we continued on down to the bus. On the ride home, I saw a fox chasing a bird in a pasture, which was crazy because I've never seen one before, even though we probably have these at home. We also passed over an enormous river, called Lech. II took a brief nap because I was very, very sleepy, but then I woke up, and Luca and I discussed morbius very heavily. We left at 5:40 pm, and got back to the school at around 9. My partner's older brother drove us home, and after a short bit of hanging out, we went to bed. (An additional note from our Corresponsent Nolan)
On our tour of Schloss Neuschwanstein, many students noted how short the tour was. In total it is supposed to run only 35 minutes. Along with my peers, I was curious as to why this was; however, as it turns out, Neuschwanstein can welcome as many as six thousand people per day, or 1.4 million people per year, which likely would make an extensive tour into quite the hassle. In addition to this, the history of the castle itself and its creator is entirely too tricky to explain in its entirety. The castle, commissioned by King Ludwig II, known also as the Swan King, is an homage to several of Ludwig's favorite artists (particularly Richard Wagner), literature, and motifs; for instance, his salon contains over 100 representations of swans. Originally, there were more than 200 rooms planned for the castle. Of those, only 15 were ever completed, and only a select few of those are available for tourists to see on the guided tour. Contrary to popular belief, the king built this palace out of his own personal funds freed up by the death of his father and by means of much borrowing; he was also found to have been exchanging political favors for money to fund his numerous expensive projects. For over 20 years, the construction of the palace was the area's main source of employment, but it was cut short abruptly in 1886 when the king's enormous debt caught up to him and he was detained, and then later found dead, under very suspicious circumstances. At the time of his death, the construction of this castle had put king Ludwig II around 8,000,000€ in debt; however, at the current ticket price and visitor rate, the castle could have been completely paid off in a half of a year. Indeed, not more than 6 weeks after his death, the King's relatives ordered the castle be opened for paying visitors, and it became a very well-paying venture for the family all the way up until the beginning of the first world war. The castle found yet another purpose in the second world war, when the Nazis used it as a storage space for artworks stolen from France. The castle is situated above the city of Hohenschwangau, a location so strategically irrelevant that it survived both world wars completely unscathed. In the end, Ludwig was dethroned not because he was spending state money recklessly, as many believe; rather, he was deemed mentally ill by his cabinet, disillusioned by the king's exorbitant taste, reckless financial decisions, and lack of concern for actual state affairs. How he truly died is not known, but his architectural legacy continues to supplement the economy he had so little concern with to this day. (Autumn) When I got to school Frau was already here and so I went to say hallo and she bought chocolate for us for the bus. We all met up at a couch in the school before we left. The drive was long but pretty with a glimpse of the Alps. We got to the salt mines and got in line only to find out the tickets were for another salt mine 15 minutes away, so we headed back to the bus to figure things out. Lukas said: “okay guys no need to be salty. We can shake this off because we are all seasoned travelers”.
We made it to the other salt mine and got our tickets no problem. It was a very modern building and had the same attractions as the other (but with better jumpers!). The mines were AMAZING. I loved taking the train into the cold mine and we even got to travel across a little body of water deep under the ground. The deepest part of the mine was 210 meters underground and at one point we crossed the boarder. We also got to ride down slides to go further into the mines. Afterwards, Frau bought us all lunch. I had chicken nuggets and fries because it was an option and I missed having meat other than pig. We ended up taking the bus home instead of the train because of the mix up it was already 4 and we got back by 6. It was my favorite part of the trip so far because of the fact we were deep in the earth and learned about the many ways salt is extracted from the mines. The Salzburg Salt Mines are the world's oldest salt mines available to the public view. They are used to mine salt, or "white gold". They were built by the Celts during the iron age. They used pickaxes to extract rock salt from the mountain. These mines have been used for over 7,000 years! From 1517 up until now. However, since 2007 it has also been used for visitors to tour the salt mines.
The tour takes you through the salt mine 650 meters, or 2,133 feet into the mountain. Throughout your tour you go "back in time" from today all the way back to when they first discovered the salt springs in the stone age!! Each spot in your tour you learn more and more about a different way people have mined salt, almost all of which involve water extraction! There is a short video in both English and German at every stop explaining how each time mined salt. You travel through the mine by train, foot, slides, and even a boat! On the boat there's a small light show on the rocks that depicts mining throughout the ages. For the tour you are given pants and a button-up jacket to wear over your clothes. The tour is about 80 minutes and costs 21,00€ for adults, 10,90€ for kids (4-16), 18,90€ for students (17-25) and for disabled individuals and their companions. There is additional information online and on site about prices for school groups and groups in general! It is an excellent experience and i'm so glad I had the opportunity to experience it!! (Trevor) I started off the day with a nice breakfast of toast with meats and cheeses on top. A peaceful air permeated the morning. At this point I felt like I was just starting to get my boundaries of this new place and culture. After driving over to the school I met back up with the other Americans in our homeroom. The plan for the day was to walk into downtown Eggenfelden and meet the Mayor. The Rathaus (City Hall) building was really cool. It was located in a small plaza with some fresh produce stalls and a clever rotating fountain. I certainly thought it fit into the town perfectly while adding some very interesting architecture. After meeting with the Mayor outside and snapping a few photos we went inside the Rathaus to talk more about the town. Inside the City hall the Mayor led us upstairs into the meeting room. Once we all found our seats neatly marked out for us with candy and drinks, the Mayor told us many things about the history and modern day aspects of the town. One of the most interesting things he told us about was that the first historical mention of Eggenfelden was in the year 1120. Making the town over 900 years old! This date was also woven Into the fine carpet hanging behind the head seat. After that we still had some extra time left so the Mayor took us into the basement of the Rathaus to show us many historical documents and records of the town, the document he is showing us in the picture is the architectural blueprints of a new church.
After the meeting with the Mayor ended we finished off the day with a fun scavenger hunt in groups, walking around town finding important landmarks. The task was really fun and competition was fierce. It ended with a sprint by my group and one other to the High School, the determined ending point of the scavenger hunt. (Saiya) Today we had a surprise visit from an old student! In the morning during our usual GAPP meeting, our former ASB president Kaden Bolton and his partner Bennie stopped by to share with us their thoughts and experiences from Germany and the GAPP program. When they were asked what they missed about their homes the most, Kaden responded that he misses (good) Mexican food, and Beni missed German bread when he was in America. He went through many great suggestions on what we can do for our exchange partners when they come to us, like taking them to Tacoma. Seattle appears on their list many times, but not once for Tacoma. Starting second period, we all dispersed to our second period classes. I went to 10C, which began with English. Although I expected it to be a breeze, the class was intense with literature and focused on the discussion aspects of learning, as opposed to the learning of specific words and phrases. It was a relatively difficult class, at about a 7th-8th grade level. Students often gather outside to chat with their friends, eating some sandwiches and fruit during their break. There are also a few Spanish exchange students. They will join on the trip to the Neuschwanstein castle, so hopefully we will become good friends with them too, although they will still be here much longer. I learned that French and Latin are offered here as well, so it seems language acquisition is key to German education. We later had Physics, which we moved down to a lab for. The instruction was less interactive than our Physics class at EHS. I am assuming that it is an efficient way to cover more information, and it is more demanding for the students as they must keep up at a more rigorous pace. The class was being taught at an introductory level, covering basics such as velocity and mass. Then came the second break, where students opted out of a snack but still met outside for a few minutes. The last class of the day was Geography, which was a challenging class. The only geography class that I had experience with was Human Geography, which focuses on the movement and change in people over time. This Geography class dealt with water levels in foreign countries, erosion, and other natural phenomenons in the world. Weather and landscape were key themes in the class. Later that day we had our welcome party. The party had well over 50 people, and the seats were filled outside and eventually inside. Everyone ordered food and drinks, talked for a few hours, and got to dessert. The German students had a lovely surprise for us and gifted us all matching sweatshirts to commemorate GAPP. We took partner pictures and a group picture. Later on, we stayed with our drinks for a little while. Overall, it was a great day and we got to know our partners much better. Good way to start the week! Hallo, this is Coen here. Today was one hectic day and I am so tired but I must write. I started the day with a pretzel and butter. We woke up at 6:30 to get ready then we left to go to the pool. We got there at 10 so it was a long train ride. At the water park there were so many cool slides. One of the cool slides is the one with a lot of turn’s and we all went at the same time to see who was faster. I feel like a lot of the slides were more dangerous than American ones. I definitely got some bruises but it was fun. The most obvious thing is that for a lot of the slides there was nobody there watching the people go in. Then we went got some food, I got Currywurst and It was very good. We stayed for a bit longer and went on a few more rides. When I went to change I noticed that the changing rooms have no lock you just push it open. That was very weird for me. Then we all went back to our houses. And that was our day!
(Martin) I had pizza for lunch today It tasted good. Chilled in the pool till around 2:30 when Max and I flew around this lake with a castle on it of King Ludwig. I did all the flying they did the sight seeing things seem pretty normal. There is not much change in landscape and its all relatively flat. The rivers are small as well. Their airport isnt locked which is weird. And circle shaped hangers too. Later we traveled to a bavarian witch burning there was no big fire and max was disappointed and so was I so we traveled the large distance back. Note from Frau: This is a picture of a nearby lake called the Chiemsee. The island is called the Herreninsel (men's island) and the white square you see in the middle of the island is a palace called Schloss Herrnchiemsee. It was built by King Ludwig II who also built Neuschwannstein. He was obsessed with the french king Louis XIV and modeled this castle after Versailles in Paris. Unfortunately, he ran out of money so the inside is a bit unfinished! He also only lived in the palace for 10 days!
(Britney) another successful day, woke up to eat some toast with strawberry jam and orange juice. Best orange juice I’ve ever had. We then took the bus to school and hung out in their homeroom until class started. We had a recap of our with our American exchange students. Then shadowed at an all german class, I got physics. We followed her exchange students to their dance classes and watch them get ready for their prom. I met many super nice Germans that came and introduced themselves to me. And I got introduced to some of Tobi‘s friends as well and we went to a little restaurant in the main city of Eggenfelden. We came back home and had a delicious spinach salad with potatoes and a fried egg. We went on a walk to the soccer fields to go watch a game. They had us try “Seli-mix” which is like an orange lemonade with Coca Cola. After it was done raining for a couple minutes, we all went to Tobi‘s house to hang out! Tschüss! Check out the slideshow below! (Bryce) We will begin our journey in Seattle. The students of the GAPP program are to meet at the airport by 11:15Am. As everyone arrives at the airport we start to check our luggage. After that, we start to weigh our luggage. After we got that done, we started to head to the gate. We waited for a little bit. Then after we started getting on the plane. We then sat in our seats. After eating 20 minutes or so the plane started to rumble and the boom we was off the ground. We started to head to frankfurt. Sadly we was looking at a 10h flight. Personally speaking that was very difficult. Only slept for an hour. When we arrived in frankfurt. You could feel the heat. I felt like i was in a hot tub or even a sauna. After the heat making us smell like muck. We got onto the plane heading to munich. That plane ride I slept the whole way. That was nice. After that we got onto a bus that brought us to our German students. They live in eggenfelden. the
Our departure from Seattle went so smoothly! We met at the Lufthansa counter, everyone got checked in (no bags were overweight, hurrah!) and we took our traditional group photo. As the students will soon find out, Frau loves a good group photo! We had made an "appointment" to go through TSA security... it's called spot saver at SeaTac - anyone can use it! Thanks to Martin's mom Teresa for the tip! She works at SeaTac and got us this great shot of our airplane on the tarmac. It was our home for 10 hours from Seattle to Frankfurt, Germany! On our flight the GAPPers got to sit next to their friends, and each one had a TV in the back of the seat in front of them for movies, TV, music, podcasts, etc. We got a tasty dinner in the air (with real silverware!) and then the lights turned off for "nighttime" but most students didn't sleep. ;) Before we landed in Frankfurt, we were given breakfast, but it seemed only the adults liked the vegetable wraps! When we landed at 9:30 am (German time) we exited the plane out the back and down stairs to the tarmac. We squeezed into buses that seemed to take forever to drive through the Frankfurt airport (it is the biggest in Germany!) and waited in long lines to get to customs. The students were excited about their passport stamps! The customs guards were very nice. :) Frankfurt airport had a lovely bakery near our gate, so as we waited for our next plane to Munich, we all visited the bakery (some of us more than once) :) There were pretzels with cheese, pretzels with ham, pretzels with butter and chives... there were so many things to choose from! Kiley's bread pillow would have fit right in to the bakery case. ;) The plane ride from Frankfurt to Munich was just an hour. The flight attendants passed out little water bottles and chocolates, and most GAPPers fell asleep, including Mrs. Pugh, who said our flight felt like it was only 4 minutes long! When we arrived in Munich, we found out that the bus our hosts sent to pick us up would be a little late - the bus driver had been a witness to an accident and had to give a police report! We had time to pick up our luggage (none lost, woohoo!) and also brush our teeth and freshen up after so many hours of traveling. Our driver found us and we all piled on the bus for the hour drive to Eggenfelden, where we would meet our partners at the Karl-von-Closen Gymnasium (our partner school). As we arrived to the school, we could see all of the host families and partners waiting for us on the curb. As soon as the bus stopped, it seemed that partners were finding each other and taking off... Frau ran around trying to get pictures of everyone before they left - she was unsuccessful! (haha - but will get more partner pictures at the Welcome Party on Monday). The partners gifted us with flowers, a balloon, and a traditional gingerbread heart, which read "Grais di" (Bavarian for "Grüß Dich = Hello/Greetings!") Everyone went home for an evening with their host families, and we would meet again in the morning at homeroom to start our day at school. On Tuesday (one week before the last day of school) we gathered for one last GAPP class. All semester we've been meeting during our Hornet Time (study hall) and learning about traveling to Germany. We've submitted all of our documents, learned about cultural differences in German homes and what to expect and how to behave during our visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp. Most of all, hopefully the students have gotten to know each other better and will have a good support system for when we are abroad.
At our last parent meeting, students were gifted goodie bags from GAPP - it's GAPP's 50th anniversary! One day a large box showed up with tote bags, t-shirts, water bottles, luggage tags, post-it notes, hand sanitizer, etc! How cool! Thank you, GAPP! At our very last GAPP meeting, we did a check-in to make sure Frau has everything she needs from students, we did some vocabulary practice with plates, cutlery, cups, and napkins, and practiced eating Pizza with a fork and knife like Europeans! We also put together our GAPP journals. Each student is responsible for bringing their GAPP journal to Germany. We'll be filling it out over there during our meetings and KvC classes. KvC is the abbreviation for our partner school, Karl-von-Closen. See below for a picture of where we'll be! See you at the airport soon! |
Photo used under Creative Commons from blanka9010609