We are now three days into our trip and things are going well for the group. Jetlag is subsiding. The weather has given us cool evenings, rainy days and warmer temps. Today is to be the warmest day they have had in a few weeks. The students are attending classes with their partners and yesterday familiarized themselves with Fulda by taking part in a Stadtrallye. Lennart, one of the German students prepared a form with pictures and questions for each Ami. They also got a map of Fulda and had to then find locations, answer questions and get themselves to the Rathaus. A good exercise in orientation to a new city, map reading, following directions etc.. After two hours, we all met at the City Hall or Rathaus, and were officially greeted by the mayor of Fulda. He was vey professional and very welcoming. Each student got a bag of books, in English, about Fulda, and German government. After a complimentary Apfelsaft, the members of our group went their separate ways, in the rain.
A trip like this involves a lot of adjustments and the students seem to be adjusting very well. I have adjusted to hard rolls, hot tea, birds singing by my bedroom window and cows mooing in the distance. I have also had to adjust to the German keyboard for typing these blogs. The y and the z are in different places along with the caps. lock so I am constantly backtracking to make changes. Ah yes, cultural differences!
As soon as we can figure out how, we will down load pictures.
Frau Tuinstra
Hey this is Billy. Today we went to Merkers. This is a salt mine where the Germans in World War II tried to hide treasure from the Americans. The treasure consited of gold, paper money, and artwork. When we first arrived we had our guide tell us what we would be doing and what kind of protection we would have to wear down in the mine. He said that we be going down 500 meters in 90 seconds.When we went down the 500 meters most of our ears popped. We put on our hards and blue shirts to cover our clothes and us from all the dust and salt int he mine. The whole mine was about 28 kilometers. Since it would take us all day to walk that far we took a yellow truck. At its deepest point in the mine we were 1800 meters under the earth. We first went to a room that can be used for almost anything. Some examples are concerts, soccer games, birthday parties, and etc. They were bulding a ropes coarse and a rocket so astrounats can train in the mine. This will help them get ready for life in outer space. We then went to the vault where all the treasure was stored and laiter found. The reasons that America found the treasure was because they were tipped off about the treasure. So once they were in the mine they saw all these boxes and crates that lead straight to the treasure room. The Germans had to move fast with the treasure because they feared that Berlin would be taken soon and didn't want the treasure to fall into the wrong hands, but it did anyways. We could bring a kalium rock with us so we could remember it and we also got some table salt.
ReplyDeleteNext we went to the city of Eisenach. This city is where Bach has his house and the same for Martin Luther. Some people went on the Bach tour others just went shopping and walking around. After this we went to Wartburg. this is a castle where Martin Luther went and lived for ten months because people were trying to kill him for things he wouldn't do. This is the place where he translated the New Testament to German. It is rumored that one night when he was writing the devil came. Martin Luther fought the devil by throwing ink at the wall. This rumor got start from Martin Luthers friends saying he fought the devil with ink. Also Sister Elizabeth lived at the castle when she was only 14. The family that she married into didn't like her because she helped the needy and poor people. Well thats it for know from Germany.