Tuesday 7/13/10

The second to our last day of school here at the Freihof Gymnasium. Today we worked on our presentations "How strange are strangers" which will be presented tomorrow to German students and faculty. Our German partners helped with the translations. One more day here and we are off to Munich...it will be hard to say good bye to our new friends!

Monday 7/12/10

Today we had a blast canoeing on the Iller and Danube near Ulm. Most of us had absolutely no prior experience with canoeing before. We all made it, some more wet than others. It was a special treat when we arrived in the center of Ulm facing the gothic cathedral after canoeing for about two hours.

The heat is on...

We are up in the 90s again, except it is so much more humid here than in Spokane when it gets that hot, so the heat feels much more intense...We are sweating! Nevertheless, the kids did a great job at the Basketball game last night. They got fourth place. Although we definitely had some star players (Alec and Logan...) the team spirit was what amazed me most about this group. We had some kids fighting pretty hard that have not played B-ball since elementary school:) Everyone is off to an exciting weekend with their host families. Back to school on Monday morning for two periods, then on to Ulm for a canoe trip and a city tour.

Thursday 7/8/10

I can't believe 'we' (Germany) lost the soccer game yesterday, how disappointing. Alec didn't seem to mind though, hence he was wearing his soccer gear out again today:)
We got the chance to accompany an art class of the Freihof Gymnasium to a modern art exhibit this morning in Fellbach. After an amazing guided tour of the exhibit, we went to Stuttgart where a Freihof history teacher offered his services and gave us an exquisit historical tour of Stuttgart. He has published several books on the subject and was incredibly interesting to listen to. He gave his tour in English! Very impressive!
After that, there was some time for shopping, but most everyone was ready to return to Goeppingen at around 3PM due to the heat. Another nice day in Deutschland, we are so lucky!

Wednesday 7/7/10

What a great day at the Mercedes Benz Museum (so much great historical information about the invention and development of the gas engine and the motor car) and at the Stuttgarter Wilhelma (an amazing zoo with botanical gardens). Not much time for a lot of text today, since we are all getting ready for the Germany -Spain soccer game! Cross your fingers for Deutschland...:)

Tuesday 7/6/10

Another day at school... Students are preparing their presentations for the project: "How strange are strangers?" The next three days will be quite eventful with visits to the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Wilhelma (zoo), a public viewing of the German WM soccer game against Spain, a visit at the Art Museum in Fellbach, stroll through Stuttgart (as they are predicting the hottest temperatures yet) and the NBA tournament on Friday evening at the Freihof Gymnasium. Our team has some very enthusiastic players and cheerleaders already...wish us luck. The word out on the street is that the teacher team has been winning this game every year so far and we are hoping to break this record this year...;)

Monday and Tuesday, 7/5 and 7/6

Today and tomorrow we are going to be in school. I will attach a few pictures of the Freihof Gymnasium. In school our students will visit classes, give their presentations and interviews in English classes. We will have a homeroom today and tomorrow during which we will discuss exercises from our travel journal (ie. cultural differences, school life in Germany, host families etc...). We will also start working on our joint project "How strange are strangers?"
Great weather again today, sunny and blue skies...