Thank Yous...

I just want to say a bunch of thank yous...
-to Roseann - you were a great travel partner and I appreciate how easy it was to work with you as a team mate with this group!
-To all the team at IKG, especially to Verena who hosted me and was the lead organizer, Hagan, who helped with the organizations and guiding, and Hellmut, who was the driving force in getting these exchanges going. I also want to thank Oliver and Marin (sp?) for being such great hosts for Roseann.
-To all the kids - you have been a great group to travel with and we really enjoyed watching you grow as travelers and, now, as citizens of the world.
-To all the IKG families who did such a good job of hosting our students
-To all the Powell River parents - thank you for your trust and for doing such a good job with this wonderful group of young people

We look forward to hosting everyone in the Fall!

RP

Our Last day in Germany

Wow, what a day it's been! It is very late so I will try to keep it brief, but there is a lot to share.

Our day started with a short gathering at the school before walking to the train station to catch the 9:47 train out of Tuttlingen to begin our journey to Rothenburg. It was a time of sad goodbyes for all of us. Our Tuttlingen hosts have been wonderful, giving us all such great experiences and the chace to experience German family life, schools and communities. Words cannot begin to describe our appreciation for our experiences. We all feel very excited at the opportunity to offer back the hospitality and experiences we have had here.

Goodbyes at the Train Station

After a journey of three trains and a bus ride through a very different part of Geramany, we arrived in the medieval city of Rothenberg. A quick check-in to the Pension Elke, our home for tonight, then a walk to the Crime and Punishment Museum. This museum portrayed the legalistic history of Western Germany and featured a variety of the torture instruments used in times past along with some of the ancient documents and images that reflect just how long the process of seeking justice administered by an authority has been a part of European history. Not to mention, Mr. Perrault got some ideas for some new furniture for his office...

A quick break for dinner and then we met in the Market Sqare for the Nighwatchman's Tour. This was a very interesting tour of the old city led by an actor portraying a night watchman from days gone by. While offering a very humourous monologue, our host led a tour of about 200 people through the streets of old Rothenburg, offering glimpses into the history of this place.

Afterword, we went on a brief walk along some of the Old City Wall. Thank goodness modern safety guidelines have added railing to this wall - very interesting and exciting.

This is likely the last post on the blog for this part of our journey. Thank you for sharing your kids with us for this great adventure. They have been a wonderful and keen group. They will have many stories to share with you when they get home and start preparing to host their Tuttlingen partners!

Thursday Already????

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week. As I sit down to read this, I am so surprised that is was Monday when I last posted an update.

Well, how has the week been...

Tuesday - Tuesday was the first day that reflected how an exchange is supposed to be. We all fell into an easy rhythm, with the feeling of good connections with or families and routines well established. Students arrived at school in the morning, went to class with their partners, we went swimming at the Friebat (the wonderful outdoor pool discussed last week), and then went home with their partners when they finished class at 12:30.

Wednesday was the big event day. After meeting at the train station at 5:40 AM (yes parents, your kids will get up that early when a day full of amusement park is the reward), we boarded the train for three hour ride to Europa Park. We traveled with our IKG partners. A great time was had by all, eve with a little rain - ok, it was a big rain for about an hour. Both Ms. Dupuis and I learned, though, that our students are now becoming seasoned travelers as they had all brought extra clothes with them in preparation for any weather.

Europa Park featured a number of European countries as the themes for rides, displays and food. The place was not too busy, keeping the line-ups for rides reasonable. This lack of a huge crowd related to the timing in the school year. Students here are still in school for another 2 weeks. Even Hagen and I ventured onto one of the rides. Sorry, we didn't buy the photo reflecting the terror in our faces.

Today (Thursday) saw the kids in school again for a couple of presentations. Then, a brief Tuttlingen debrief and then either to class or downtown for some last minute gift shopping. Thursday afternoon and evening had all of us attending a BBQ at the Richtler's farm (Kyren's partner). After a brief tour of the dairy cattle ("very cool!"), we enjoyed a pot-luck featuring meats brought by each family.

So, here we are, late Thursday evening. Souvenirs are purchased and crammed into overflowing bags. Canada is about to experience one big gummy bear invasion. Students are resting in anticipation of another train ride, this time wiht full bags, and I am off to my last (sadly) sleep in Tuttlingen.

Not sure if I will be able to get one more post in before getting home, but will do my best on Friday.

Internet for me has been intermittent, so photos will be added later.

RP

Monday #2 and our weekend in Tuttlingen

After a week of touring, seeing amazing sites and, believe it or not, shopping, we all got back together this morning. After Friday's send off at 12:30 with students heading in all different directions with their parnters, it was an exciting morning as we all got back together to share stories from the weekend. Most of the stories were of wonderful times and great experiences, while others had some sad experiences, even among some great times.

For us teachers, we were treated to a wonderful Saturday with our hosts, Verena and Hagan as they took us to the Lake of Constance region. Mr. P's son, Jorday, joined the group for the weekend, taking a weekend away from his current home in Sweden.

Verena, Ms. Dupuis & Hagan at Lake of Constance on Saturday

Monday started with students once again going to class with their partners and three of our students sharing the presentation that Amanda assembled. As with our last presentation, the students did a great job, sharing information about home and building interest and enthusiasm among their German counterparts (i.e.: grade 9 students). The IKG students are fascinated that we live along the Pacific Ocean and that we regularly see bears.

This morning's presenters

Monday was also a busy day of touring some of the major businesses of the Tuttlingen area. The morning started with a tour of Aesculap, one of the world's major manufacturers of medical technologies. We saw production facilities that make a wide range of products from simple scalpels, clamps and scissors (to very complex and intricate versions of these) to artificial hips and knees and complex orthoscopic surgical equipment. Unfortunately, we were not able to take any photos in this facility. This tour was a first-hand demonstration of the high quality craftsmanship and pride in one's work that the Tuttlingen area is known for. We saw many people still involved in the manufacturing of these very high tech and very sensitive instruments.

Monday afternoon represented a major shift as we hopped on our bicycles and headed north to Wurmlingen to torn the Hirsch Brewery. After watching a brief video about the brewery (in German, of course), we had free samples and a tour. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the Hirsch brewery is also a bottler of many types of soft drinks including the local Coca Cola bottler along with many other sparkling fruit juices (yum!) - these are what made up our free samples. There were several points about this tour that represented some key learnings that we have all experienced about life here in southwest Germany.

The first of these is that the use of bicycles as transportation is very commonplace. On the way to Wurmlingen, most of the students rode bicycles on the network of paved bike paths in the region that are designed to support both recreational and commuter cyclists. There are hundreds of km of these trails in the region that also serve as service roads for agriculture. The bikes we rode reflected the spirit of recreational and commuter cycling, very different from what we ride back home in Canada.

Another key element of both tours was the value placed on a high level of quality and craftsmanship. Both businesses were spotlessly clean and all of the people giving our tours spoke with pride of how their businesses served their customers and their employees, how they had strong safety records and how they maintained strong connections to the families that had founded and still had interest in the businesses.

A third value that was reflected, especially in the brewery tour, was the recycling and efficient use of resources. The brewery included a large infrastructure that supports the re-use of all bottles and cases.

Students in front of cases of empty bottles

As we road back to the school, the students shared their wide ranging enthusiasm for being on bike, zipping through the trails to once again meet up with thier exchange partners. Everyone was a little tired today after busy weekends.

Tuesday will see us doing a little more touring in Tuttlingen, some time swimming and more time with partners. Everyone is done at 12:30 Tuesday, so many have activities planned for the afternoon. Wednesday is our big excursion to Europa Park, and then Thursday is our last day here in Tuttlingen (we head to Rothenberg Friday, the Frankfurt on Saturday and home...wow, where has the time gone!).

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday have been very busy days for our exchangees.

Ferin, Amanda and Ryan went into a grade 8 English class to do our first presentation. They did a great job. The students in the class didn't ask a lot of questions during the presentation, but the teacher reported to me that they asked a lot once our students left. They were fascinated that we would see so many bears and that the water that was in the presentation was the Pacific Ocean. Our three presenters shared how doing this, they realized that we all are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

It was great of these students to volunteer, as they had to stay back at IKG while the rest of the group went to the outdoor swimming pool for the rest of the morning. It was a warm morning, just right for enjoying this amazing facility (http://www.tuwass.de/freibad/index.htm).

Our afternoon was spent doing some geocaching, an activity led for us by a grade 8 student at the school. This involved a big hike up into the woods and hills above Tuttlingen. We were treated to a wide view of the valleys that feed into Tuttlingen, not to mention a wonderful surprise when we finally found the treasure. Turned out that a squirrel had made its home in the rock where the treasure was stored, and it was not very happy when Malcolm and Ferin disrupted it's Wednesday afternoon nap. Only one student got lost on the way home, but she was quickly found and now has a great story to tell and a newfound knowledge of the importance of sticking with a group :).

Some of us learned a new word today, "gesundheitszentrum." Kyren got to spend the end of his first day getting an examination and x-ray on his gently broken little toe. Though it is not a major break, it has slowed him down. His good cheer and positive outlook through the whole thing couldn't mask his disappointment that he would have to spend at least a few of his Tuttlingen days on crutches.

Thursday saw us meeting at IKG at 7:30 and then heading off to Strasburg, France. It was just a quick trip to the city. But, on the way, we stopped at the Volksbaunhaus, an open air museum showing life in the Black Forest. Our host, Verana, bought both of us teachers each a piece of real Black Forest cake - oh my it was tasty!

We hopped back on the bus and traveled over to France. In a day and age of secure borders and caution, it seems odd to cross from Germany to France with only a sign saying "France" to welcome us. Stasburg is a very old city with a very ornate and interesting cathedral and a deep history. The students had some time to explore the Market Square area before heading onto the Ille River for a torn of the city's extensive canal system. Though we had both an open-air boat and a rain shower . . . the tour was an interesting chance to see the connections between the deep history of Western Europe and the modern world.

On the way home, we stopped at a clock shop,once again in the Black Forest. We saw the world's largest cukoo clock and had a short break before continuing back to Tuttlingen.

There is not much feeliing of being homesick among the group anymore. The participants are reporting to us that they are very comfortable in their homes and that things are going well.

First Days in Tuttlingen

The theme of the day on Monday was identifying similarities and differences. It was the first day that our students went to school at IKG with their partners, and it was also the first time on this trip that Ms. Dupuis and I had some insights into the workings of the German education system.

In the morning, we were welcomed to the school by the principal and all of the staff. It was the first of what will be many experiences of someone speaking to us in German while we patiently wait for the translations. It was a great feeling to be so warmly welcomed into the school and to be so positively received.

The staff and students have been very accommodating and have jumped at the chance to practice their English with us. All of us feel grateful for this, as it seems to be a struggle to learn German phrases. Some of the students, though, have been working very hard at picking up some German (apparently I am a "silly moose"). As the days go by, we have all found it a bit easier for our minds to work with the German language and we all find ourselves picking up little phrases here and there.

Ms. Dupuis and I were treated to a tour of the school by our host teacher, Verena. We were very impressed at the school facility and the openness of the building. We were also very impressed by the gymnasiums (using the word here in the traditional North American sense), and that the school had access to so many sports fields and facilities for student programs. It is challenging to our training, though, to see how much open and self-directed time students have at school, even the young grade 5 students. Students start at different times on different days. Some classes start as early as 7:30 and some as "late" as 9:00. Students are able to go home for lunch or to use this time for their studies or, as happens often, to leave the school. This variety of start and finish times is accommodated by a strong public transit system. Students generally seem to make good use of this time as the school and the families have strong expectations for how students will do in school.

Our students themselves had some interesting observations about their classroom experiences, including just how similar the classes are. Even when they don't know the specific details of what is happening in class, they are still able to get the gist of it as the processes are very familiar to them.

After their classroom experiences, our students had some time with their partners to either go home for the mid-day meal or to get in some shopping or touring about the town. The public transit systems here are very convenient and our students, with their partners, have found that it is very easy to get around using a combination of buses and trains.

It was this public transit system that we all used, German and Canadian students, to travel out to Seitingen-Oberflacht to tour the local church, the museum (where we saw artifacts from the Alaman who were an early Germanic people who lived in this area.

The tours were organized by the parents of Edgar, Hunter's partner, Herr and Frau Welte. Our hosts for the tours also treated us to a traditional German meal of wurstsalad (sausage salad). This salad was made using a secret family recipe that people would travel from far and wide for when Herr Welte's parent ran a restaurant.

This was popular among some of our students and, for others, it was... well...a challenge to the pallet. I wonder if after two weeks the kids will be craving food they now have to work at to eat? It was very generous for the Welte family to host and feed us and we are grateful for their hospitality!

Tuesday morning the students gathered at the school for our tour of Tuttlingen. This was led by the English department head, Hellmut Dinkelaker, who was also the person who initiated the exchange program. We met two of the deputy mayors, one in charge of planning for the city and the other in charge of the schools. We were also taken to one of the towers on the Rathaus (city hall) for a birds-eye view of the city. After the tour, the students headed off with their partners, many went swimming and others went on to a wide variety of activities all over the Tuttlingen region. Wednesday, we will have a tour of one of the medical instrument manufacturers, spend time in class and also more time with host families. On Thursday, we will all be traveling to Strasbourg, France, for a tour of that city, including its famous canal and cathedral.

Our First Weekend

Still no luck on posting the photos. I will post the photos to the Facebook group site and will, unfortunately, have to stick to text here for now.


Sooooo, Our travel to Tuttlingen....

Saturday morning started beautifully, with a wonderful breakfast at the Vi Vadi Hotel. All of the participants cleaned their rooms and took care of all that needed to be taken care of - Thanks to everyone for being such great travellers!

The joy of travel is that no matter how munch you prepare, glitches always happen. As we were checking out, our payment would not work (it eventually did - turned out it was a problem with the hotel's machine), but the delay meant a bit of a sprint to get to the train. Once on the train, the conductor tried to explain to us that we had actually got on the wrong car on the train (though the right train) and that the train cars split off down the road in Augsburg. A quick run to the correct car meant that we were now on our way to Ulm.

Ulm was beautiful. The cathedral that we saw there was started in 1377 and finished about 150 years later. It was an amazing building, but only part of a tour through a Danube River Vally town that is steeped in both history and modern conveniences. It was in Ulm that we also connected with our hosts for the exchange, Verena and Hagen. They were able to hone their already strong tour-guide skills as the took us around Ulm.

Some of the kids making the most of the wait in Mengen


After a brief lunch stop along the Danube at a Lions ("Leos" in German) sponsored festival, we headed to the train for Tuttlingen. Shortly after getting on the train, we discovered that an accident on the tracks would mean that we would have to get off the train in Mengin, then take a bus to Sigmaringen (the Germans have a saying, "may you never have hunger, pestilence, or to to spend time in Sigmaringen" - it rhymes in German). This delayed our trip by an extra couple of hours so that we didn't get into Tuttlingen until just about 6:00. So, after a mildly adventurous day, the Brooks and IKG kids finally got to meet each other. This is one of the best parts of the exchange. Both of us got to see the nervous excitement, the greeting and the expression that says, "so now what?"

So, on Saturday night, the students were off to the homes of their exchange partners. We are looking forward to Monday morning and hearing all of the stories of how their time went and what they did. We do know that at least two students went to the Lake of Constance. I am certain the stories will be great.

On Monday, we will meet with the students and then they will attending school with their partners and doing a scavenger hunt of IKG. Later in the day, we will tour a small museum before heading to one of our host family's home for a wurstsalad dinner and a gathering of all of the participants and families. Should be a very full day!

We are Now in Tuttlingen

After a train ride with only a few adventures and an interesting and enjoyable day in Munich, we have now arrived in Tuttlingen. It is late right now, though, and I am off to bed so will update on Sunday night.

Rod

A Full Day in Munich

Friday, July 1st


It was an interesting and challenging day for the participants today. As the students began adjusting to a new time zone, several reported waking up as early as 3:00 this morning and not being able to get back to sleep. Others were up and out at 7:00, going for breakfast long before our 8:30 planned meeting time while announcing to Munich our presence. A gentle reminder that not all hotel guests rise so early was very well received.

Experiences of a German breakfast were positive, with many familiar foods. We have finally figured out the labyrinth of streets around our hotel and this was evident as we made our way to the train station to purchase lunches and to meet our guide for the day. We were all very impressed by the cleanliness and efficiency of the WC at the train station, though nobody was very keen on the 1 E cost to use them...

At 10:00, we met our host, Keith, from Radius tours who served as our guide for Dachau. I have been impressed with how quickly everyone has come to accept that train travel is just the way to get around here. As we left the train station for Dachau, we learned much about the history of Munich and the surrounding area.

Dachau was a very moving experience. The students, in fact all of us, were challenged to understand how the actions of the Nazis and, specifically, the SS, could have happened. It seems incomprehensible that people could treat other people with the level of disregard for basic rights that was displayed at Dachau and other concentration camps. As a part of the tour, we watched a film about Dachau. It was an awaking to see that the images in the film were of the place we had spent our day experiencing. All of the travellers will have much to say about this when we get home.

The late afternoon and evening were spent once again touring the Marienplatz area. Today, we took the students to the centre of the area and gave the students a brief time to shop and to get food. We then took a walk around the area, visiting several of the sites including the Bavarian Palace and the English Gardens.

In the end, all of us were tired right out. A great state to achieve after a day of experiencing a major historical site and the life of a very big and very old city. All of us are looking forward to our trip to Ulm tomorrow and to moving on to Tuttlingen to meet exchange partners and families for the first time.

I am still not able to figure out how to load photos to the blog today, but will hopefully get them up on Saturday or Sunday

We Have Arrived

Well, we have made it to Munich safe and sound. Our travel plans went off without a hitch, though we were not able to pack as much into the day as we had originally hoped. As I type this, it is about 9:30 PM here and the kids are all in their rooms exhausted from a long day of travel, new experiences, the bustle of a big city and trying to come to terms with all they have already experienced.

We were able to most of what we had planned today. However, because our plane got in a little late and because of a long line-up at Passport Clearance, we were not able to make it to the Deutsche Museum today.

The students did enjoy the train ride in from the airport and the Marianplatz area, which is just a 10 minute walk from our hotel. Many students ventured into the world of Germany Pizza and other baking for dinner, but there were a few who were very curious to find out what a German Big Mac would taste like ("just not quite the same...").

Friday, Canada Day, will see us getting up and meeting for breakfast at 8:30, and then heading out for the Dachau Memorial tour at 10:00, a tour of the English Garden and then likely back to the Marianplatz for more interesting sites.

If there are photos here, that will be wonderful. Because I have signed in to do this blog on a German internet service, the instructions have all come up in German. Photos might just have to appear after I get some guidance from a German speaker.

Getting Ready to Travel

Just two more sleeps until we are ready to leave Powell River on the first leg of the 2011 Brooks-IKG exchange. The students and staff are very excited and look forward to this year's exchange.

If you would like to read the blogs from previous years, you can go to http://brooksgermany.blogspot.com

Enjoy!
RP