News from Germany

4/8/08

Greetings from Germany!

Hey!

On Friday, we went with our buddies to Camp Dora, a WW2 concentration camp. Going there made the war seem a little more real than reading a history book. We spent the weekend with our host families. Andy, Thai, and Shalaya had a sleep over, where we ate a lot of junk food and watched Deutchland's Superstar (equivilant to American Idol). Sam went to Hamburg with her host family. Liz went swimming and to a castle.
Andy also spent the weekend with his buddy at a religious retreat for catholic youth. Ana went to a wedding and to the movies. We went back to the elementary school on Monday and finished the day with bowling.
We are all having fun and excited to come home. See ya!

Sam

4/7/08

Greetings,

The Germany group returned to the elementary school today to work with the students on an English project and in the afternoon a few students went bowling with their hosts. Tomorrow they will attend the last day of classes including a fashion show put on as part of Thai Hien's Global Link project.   Then they will spend their last evening with their hosts. They are hoping to send a final email tomorrow.

Lauren

4/4/08

The Germany group is celebrating Sam's birthday today with some surprises arranged by our group and their hosts including a Karaoke competition. Thursday they visited elementary school to help the German students work on their English and Monday they are hoping to return to work on an art project with them. Today they also visited a concentration camp which was an historical and emotional experience for the students.   In the next couple of days they will be enjoying their final weekend with their host families, and they hope to send another message on Monday.

Lauren

4/2/08

Hey everyone!

 
We are all doing well, healthy, and having fun. Yesterday, our trip to Berlin consisted of an 8 mile walk all through town. The city was beautiful and full of old churches. Everyone wants to live in the little apartments there now. Our guides were Mr. Grant's friends and they knew everything about the city! We even got to see a building with bullet holes from the war. Lunch in Berlin was delicious as well as the snacks we bought along the way. Besides the trip, everyone is happy with their families and is adjusting to the time difference. We just came back from visiting an elementary school. We were in a 1st grade class and they sung a lot of songs. We also watched a 3rd grade math class and the students knew a little bit of English. Tonight we will go to a musical, which we all are excited for. Until next time, tschüs! 

Thai Hien

4/1/08

The group was in Berlin all day today and could not get to email.  However, they were escorted through the city with friends of Pat Grant who have lived in Berlin since the time of the East German Republic. His local knowledge and personal experience gave the students a unique look at Berlin.   The students arrived home exhausted. Tomorrow they will visit an elementary school in Hildesheim and attend a theater production in the evening.

 Hopefully, they will have time to email us directly tomorrow.

 Lauren

3/31/08

Hello World,

We are surviving....

We got off the plane and it was cold...but it's sunny now. Seeing the city is fun, yet we're not big fans of all the walking. We toured Hildesheim and Hannover and we've gone to classes with our buddies. We went to a soccer game and it was bombich! The crowds were crazy and had songs for everything. We introduced awkward turtle, nose goes, and silly putty (but they still don't understand silly putty). They think McDonalds is really cool and they all assume that we all eat McDonalds.

Thai: Ayo! My family is probably the best in the bunch. They like to sleep and they eat lots of bread. We went to a photo shoot with my buddy's dance group "Milky Way Crew" and it was pretty bombich. I'm pretty sure that everyone knows that I hate animals but their cat is pretty bombich.

Ana: Hey. So my host family is pretty cool (they only speak German with me). They eat constantly, I'm having trouble keeping up, ha-ha. Anyway, this weekend I went to my hosts friends birthday party, we made chocolate truffles. Oh and my host families house is filled with creepy portraits with scary eyes that follow me everywhere. Its kind of like a scary museum.

Sam: So these past few days have been pretty interesting. My host family is like the perfect family. My buddy has a little brother who's about 12 years old and we're big time buddies. My host mother has been cooking sausage in every possible way and they keep asking me if I want ketchup? like cauliflower with ketchup? We've played Uno. My room here is gigantic ( they gave me the master suite) and also gave me my own bathroom.

Shalaya: So my family is pretty cool. The sisters are too scared to speak English to me, they think it's weird that I don't eat a lot. I went to her dance practice and photo shoot. I think the city is pretty cool and I've gotten used to spending a lot of time with myself (They think it's important to have some alone time so I've gotten to know myself better). There is a TV in my room, but I write a lot. Out of every person in our group, I see Thai everyday. I'm really looking forward to visiting Berlin tomorrow.

Liz: I am having a great time here.  My family never stops surprising me in the small farming town I live in. The family owns many tractors, and one for each kid. I practice yoga every night. I take the train to school each morning passing endless fields. I've discovered the new sport of handball and enjoy it a lot, although I don't understand all of the rules. There is a lot of soccer here, and the stadium for the soccer pitch was incredible. I walk a lot, especially since her town is so small we walk everywhere and see the same people all over. I went to an archery lesson and attempted to learn the game while being taught in German. Tschüss!!!

Andy: I really like my family, my host sister is really into music and she likes all these rock bands like Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, but she never knew that they were all from Seattle. So now she really wants to come to Seattle. We went bowling with her friends, but they were all afraid to talk to me because they are scared their English is not good enough, so they kind of ignore me. But I think they are getting more friendly with us. I live in a really pretty town and we drive by fields and forests every day. Sometimes we walk in the forest, and its really cool.

3/27/08

Unfortunately, the students were not able to get to a computer today to write a message. However, I spoke with Pat and he shared with me that everything is going very well.  The students are very happy in their families and today they had the opportunity to tour the school and get an introduction to life in Hildesheim. Tomorrow they will visit Hanover and will be sending us an update before they leave for the day.  In the evening one of the host families will have all the students to their home for a welcome party as well.

Lauren