(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!
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(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