The Road to Freiburg

And so the journey continues for the mighty German class of 2011. We began our day precisely at nine o'clock on Saturday the 18th and the weather was, of course, rainy. What a start to our not so lovely adventure to France. We began with a two hour drive to the border or France where we broke off in our clans and dispersed throughout the city in search of the much needed food. My group and I were very fortunate to stumble upon none other than a wonderful Japenese restaurant where I enjoyed some wonderful California Rolls and my ice cold Coca-Cola from the bottle. We later learned that not everyone's adventure had gone so well, but none the less we continued our journey to Freiburg. Our next stop was at a bird castle where we immediately ran into some not so friendly looking creatures but as we ventured on we met the owls which stared at us with large glowing eyes. We were then awed with a spectacular viewing of some bird acrobatics and some information which regretingly we understood none of due to the language barriers. Hahaha. The most entertaining part of the show though was definitely the showing of the majestic American Bald Eagle which none to surprisingly did not listen to his French handlers. With our faces full of smiles and sides sore from giggling we headed towards the bus to finish the last leg of our drive to Freiburg. Once we arrived at the hostile we unpacked, got settled, played some volleyball and ate some dinner. Now here I sit peacefully typing on the iPad with the recollection of our France filled adventure. So to all I bid you a fare well and goodnight.

Joshua Strasser (a.k.a the bearded one)

Overall a great experience so far....

Well, we have had a heck of a time with WiFi... In the last few cities our Internet has been messed up in the hostels, so we haven't been able to blog. Today we arrived in Switzerland. It is a pretty expensive country and they are pretty proud of their McDonald's food here. It cost me 25 Franks for two people to eat at the golden arches $1=.85 Franks so we spent $30 to eat two "extra value meals"... Whoa!

The past couple of days were a nice surprise. We left a youth hostel that had not been updated since the mid 70's in Innsbrück and arrived in an amazing hostel on Lake Constance in an amazing town. The weather was the best that we have had since we arrived and we swam in the crystal blue lake with the alps as our backdrop. It was a much needed break from the go go go life that we had been living. The kids enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay an extra half day and swim some more.

On our way to Switzerland we stopped by the famous Rhine Falls. It is a beautiful waterfall that flows below an amazing castle perched on a cliff above. Now we are sitting in our hostel in Lucerne, where we will spend the next few nights. Honestly it is not one of my favorite hostels (just barely a step above Innsbrück), but we are enjoying the first free Internet of the trip and, hey!.... It works!!

Kris Scheuerman

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland is EXPENSIVE.
4.50 for apple juice. Ouch.

lots of bus riding. LOTS. 4 hours yesterday. 2 today.
We've seen a castle, a fortress, and a palace.
Bowling last night. Germans bowl weird, only nine pins. in a diamond. on strings. much smaller balls.
I didn't play. but it was funny watching everyone try to play.
The weather is crazy. We walked in to the hostel today and it was nice and sunny, we came out and it was cold and rainy.
The half Frank is the smallest coin. and there are five Frank coins. Weird swiss people.


Brandon

Update from the Eagle's Nest!

Today we packed up and headed out of Salzburg, Austria and made our first stop at a salt mine! The mine was pretty cool and we all had to dress up in crazy jumpsuits, then at the end most of us bought ice cream that tasted more like whipped cream which isn't too great of an ice cream flavor. After that we drove up a winding hill to get to Hitler's bunker (it was 6,000+ ft high in the mountains). I got some amazing pictures, although they would have been better if it was sunnier. All-in-all it was an amazing time up in the mountains, my personal favorite stop so far. Then we had a sleepy 2 hour drive to Innsbruck, Austria. I'm pretty sure everyone was asleep at one point (excluding the bus driver). Unfortunately we will only be here for tonight so we only got a glimpse of this amazing city. Tomorrow we are headed back to Germany for a day then going to Switzerland! That's all for now! Tschuss!
Logan Peifer

Hostel Life/ Munich 101

So. Many. Teenagers. 4 flights of stairs (with a 50 pound suitcase). Tiny showers, 4 per floor. Shenanigans galore. Trips to Penny Markt (just think of of an average ALDI's, German-ified) for "American water", gummy bears (goldbären) and this awesome German pop called Mezzo Mix. The life, of a typical Youth Hostel kid. It's pretty fantastic.
Like last night. All we did was hangout in our room with about 10 other kids from our group, toss around our soccer ball from the top bunks, and laugh about pointless things. And it was fantastic.
Around the hostel, you can find a park, Subway, an amazing German bakery with pretzels that Brandon Keenan is OBSESSED with, and apartments. It's cute. Not to mention all the attractive Germans. Inside, there are 2 buildings, one with all our rooms in it (I'm on the forth freaking floor) the common room, vending machines and such, and another building where we eat breakfast.
And Munich. Holycrapola. It's dandy. There's so much to do, I feel like I've seen about 1/237 of everything here. We've spent alot of time in the City Center, where the famous Glockenspiel and Rathaus are. Google it. Pretty impressive. And of course, shopping. We've hit up H&M, the apple store, and Saturn (crazy awesome electronics store where I got some glorious over the ear headphones). The public transportation is marvelous. There are street cars, the S-Bahn (trains) and the U-Bahn (subways). We've already conquered the U-Bahn, which has 8 different subways going 16 different directions. I honestly would give up my car to have this kind of public transportation in Kansas. We've also visited the insanely large Deutsches Muesuem, a palace, huge parks, eaten LOTS of food, and bunches of other stuff.
From Deutschland,
-Kayci Lineberger

WIFI issues at the Hostel....

Sorry everyone for the delay between posts. The wireless Internet at the hostel has been down for the past couple of days and we weren't able to post anything. It has been a busy time so far here in Munich and the kids have already found out why I told them to pack some comfortable shoes..... We have walked all over this city. During our stay in Munich we got to see a castle, the Olympic stadium, open air markets selling all kinds of stuff, the world famous Glockenspiel, a park in the middle of the city that is bigger than New York's Central Park, and the kids have had plenty of time to explore the town center with tons of shopping and restaurants. We got to eat a traditional German meal in a quintessential German restaurant filled with all of the atmosphere one would expect. The kids have also gotten to utilize the amazing public transportations system of Munich.

Unfortunately, just as they all are starting to feel comfortable with the city of Munich and finding their way around, we must depart. Tomorrow we leave for Austria where the hills will be alive with the sound of 21 teenagers from Kansas. Salzburg will be quite a change from the bustling metropolis of Munich. The kids will finally get a glimpse of the Alps(if the weather cooperates more than it has thus far).

Our German Chaperone Henri has brought his 2 and a half year old son along on the trip and the kids have really taken a liking to him. He is an avid soccer player who likes to kick just about everything in sight (including my shins) and pretend he is shooting soccer balls into the goal. It is really fun to watch my students talk German to a little kid.

So far things are going great! I haven't heard any complaints about the food. Everyone is trying new things and for the most part really liking them. Of course there are some exceptions, but for the most part all is well.

I will post again real soon, until then..... Auf Wiedersehen

Kris Scheuerman

Sara's german adventure

Well hallo people in america! I've had a bunch of fun. Took awhile to get my money since NOONE accepts my beautiful travelers checks! I've had really fun using the trains even though it's a tad confusing. We went to some Olympic tower and saw basically the whole city of Munich. We have walked a bunch but that's good for me! We met some very interesting people. We went shopping and watched the glockenspiel and saw a German protest. We are going to a concentration camp today! But I like the weather and do not miss the hot weather in Kansas. But I am going to go now so auf wiedersehen!
Sara Kraff.

Lost in Translation

I apologize to all of you for not getting the itinerary out. I know many of you have been waiting for it for some time. I am unable to forward it via email because I am unable to log on to my yahoo account in Germany.

So, here it is on the blog...

June 8 - Arrived in Munich, Germany and checked into youth hostel. Visited Olympic Stadium.
June 9 - (Munich) Visited Nymphemburg Palace. Journeyed downtown for lunch, shopping, and the Glochenspiel. In the evening we ventured to the English Garden.
June 10 - (Munich) Plan to visit Dachau concentration camp and explore the city in the afternoon.
June 11 - (Munich) Visit museums.
June 12 - Depart Munich for Salzburg, Austria.
June 13 - Salzburg and Berchtesgaden Germany
June 14 - Driving to Innsbruck, Austria.
June 15 - Visiting Neuschwanstein castle on our way to Lake Constance.
June 16 - Heading to Switzerland through Liechtenstein.
June 17 - Sightseeing in Lucerne, Switzerland.
June 18 - Headed back to Germany and staying in Freiburg in the Black Forest.
June 19 - Exploring the Black Forest and visiting France.
June 20 - Depart to meet host families via train.
June 21 - Students visit German school and spending the evening with host families.
June 22 - Spending the day in Bremen and back to host families for the evening.
June 23 - Spending the day in Hamburg and back to host families for the evening.
June 24 - Going back to school and spending the evening with the families.
June 25 - Depart for U.S. And arrive in KC at approximately 9:30 PM.

Hope this helps! Kids are excited to keep blogging. Stay tuned!

German Fun

While flying for about twelve hours, sleeping some of that time and being served meals, you would think that we just would want to drop dead but once we took the little break by dragging ourselves to the hostile through public transportation we explored the streets of Germany, with the buddy system of course. Though some of us have started to be thoroughly exhausted, we have enjoyed our time so far. We have an opportunity to see the Olympic Stadium tonight and some have already agreed to go. Right now we are relaxing in the youth hostile, playing games and some even sleeping. Our trip through Germany has just begun and I can't wait for more. Hope you all are having an amazing time at home.

Love,
Rachel Knapp

Arrived alive!!!

Well, it was a very long and uncomfortable flight with some rough spots of turbulence, but we landed safely in Germany and hit the ground running. Many of us experienced the public transportation system for the first time. We took the subway and S-Bahn from the airport to the youth hostel and are currently waiting for our rooms to get cleaned so that we can get settled in. I don't know if we all will be up for it, but we will be hitting the town once the rain lets up.

Stored our luggage and kids had a little bit of time to explore our current neighborhood and hopefully use some of those language skills they learned in class.

More to come soon.

-- Kris Scheuerman