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!).
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