Lindsey: Day 17 and 18

On the first day in Munich we went on a walking tour Marian Platz in Munich. We saw really pretty buildings and churches that were built in the 1800's. A lot of the architecture in Germany was built or looked like it was built in the 1800's or built to reflect that style, such as the gothic style of architecture. Madison, Kira and I got a lot of our shopping done in the square, both for us and souveneirs for our family, but mostly a lot of shopping for us. For free time my group has really done a lot of eating, the food in Germany is so unique, fresh, and delicious, that is what I'm going to miss the most about Germany. America doesn't have nearly as good of food as Germany does. The Hofbrauhaus was a cool place was cool, but it wasn't that good of an experience for me personally because you had to be eighteen to drink their beer and I was really looking forward to trying the beer there because I heard it was really good. The castles like Neuschwanstein were very interesting and very beautiful. I was very glad I got to experience that. It felt like I was living in history which was amazing to be able to experience. I am glad I got to experience everything on this trip and I would love to come back again both with my family and on this trip.

Jude: Day 16

Howdy folks, cowboy Jude here to talk to you about Germany! Today started off just right with a 4am wake up call. Supposedly someone pulled the fire alarm! That was awesome. After that was done we had about two more hours of sleep. During that time I had a wicked dream about a komodo dragon which was attacking a bunch of mexican children. I ended up over sleeping because of that really random dream. I was so rushed I forgot my toothbrush but thats okay because my bud Matt Hoskins had a extra brush! So on the bus I slept for most of the time until we stopped at a old medieval town called Rothenburg. It was pretty cool it had a wall and moat around it. In that town we went to a famous Christmas store, which was huge. I didn't buy much just because everything cost so much. After that we went to a restaurant with a medieval feel to it, but it actually sucked because the service was so bad. We spent about two hours there all together. When we left I fell asleep really fast, then all of a sudden we were in Munich! Home of the FC Bayern Munich! Once we got settled in me, the Tan Man, and Rachel decided to walk around and go sight seeing we went to a park and an ATM. That's pretty much it. Overall it was a pretty successful day! Just remember people "WWMFD (What Would Micheal Flowers Do?)" -Joel Pridgen

Anna: Day 14 and 15

I would like to start with explaining the difficulty in which it is to type in this heat, let alone do anything in this heat. Up until Frankfurt, we have had perfect weather; 95 two days in a row is not perfect.
And so the adventure of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Woke up early to enjoy a full breakfast which included stealing extra rolls for the train followed by a two and a half hour train ride following the Rhein River. Throughout the passage, we saw many beautiful mountainside vineyards and castles, both kept together and destroyed. On the train, Cierra, Rachael, Kate and I were lucky to sit at a table. The night before, we went to a grocery store to buy snacks for the train and Cierra bought a huge snack pack that we all enjoyed. After getting off the train, we took a long walk to the hostel... in 95 degree weather. It was paid off by cold showers and the freedom to actually watch television in our rooms. That night, I was able to meet up with a friend of a friend who took me around part of Frankfurt and pointed out all of the museums here and the best ice cream shops. Unfortunately, I was unable to do any of those things, but I am more than willing to come back. The hostel itself is very hot and stale which make the outside area more comfortable because of the breezes, but we will have cool weather soon.

This morning, instead of going on a walking tour in the baking heat, we went swimming. It was wonderful to cool off for a few hours, but also nice to tan/burn. After we came back, we had a "chill" time, in which I was able to Skype my mother and lay down.  Around 6, half of our group went out to a very nice, American dinner where we enjoyed a wonderful steak and garlic mashed potatoes which was eventually followed by ice cream. We were joined by an exchange student that came to stay with the Tritt family in Kansas City a few years ago. He showed us around, in the cooler air, and took us to the Rathaus, city hall, and a small market area. We found out the this week in Frankfurt is America Week and there were flags every where. We felt very special, but I am not too sure many people new we were American, then again, I don't know how obvious we are. Now, after our hot two days, we await a long bus ride to Munich and we relax.

To briefly mention my personal family stay, I would have to say I was lucky to have spent it with such an amazing family. My host sister had two younger siblings, who were so funny and adorable, and two dogs, both of which were very hard to leave. I felt so comfortable there and I didn't want to leave. Once we got to Cologne, I was very homesick because I was going cold-turkey again into not having a complete family atmosphere 24/7.

I love it here in Germany, and I cannot wait to be able to visit again, and to spend more time in certain places. I already have a list started of the museums and sites I want to visit before it's too late. I  am excitedly looking forward to our few days in Munich and I hope they will be just as inspiring as the rest of the trip.

Johanna: Day 13

So, I am supposed to blog about this awsomely cool boat trip! We saw so many castles and cute houses. I'm just joking with you guys. In the morning Scheuerman said there was going to be lots of things to see and take pictures of...... not! We got to see coal refineries and industrial places... I slept on most of the boat ride because the sun made me very warm. Most of us fell asleep. Two and half hours later we arrived at Bonn, the captial of Germany a long time ago. We all got off the boat and went to find food. Everyone was really hungry from that exciting boat ride. We ate around the old market of this town. There was a lot to do in Bonn. From shopping stores to street venders. I ate with Joel, Natasha, Cady, Kate, Rachel Reidel, Cierra, and Anna. We ate at this really cool tea place, All most everyone had this "Eistee Strawberry Dream". It was an amazing strawberry tea. After everyone finished eating we all decided to go to the birthplace of Beethoven. This house was not made for a 6 foot 5 guy. Conner had some encounters with tops of doors and the celling. I am 5 foot 5 inches and I felt like a giant. The house's floor creeked every step you took. You definitely could not sneak out that house. The house was so old that it was warping in so the door ways were very crocked. After we went threw the whole house and saw a weird facial mask of his face when he died. That was weird. We went into a theater room and watched an abstracted interactive version of one of his plays. It was fun. So far my favorite place is Köln and my lest favorite would be Berlin. Berlin is cool and all but the atmosphere and people were not as friendly as it is was in Köln. I hope you guys enjoy my blog tonight or when ever because I never know. Oh temperature update roughly 92 degrees.

Cierra: Day 12

On our second day in Köln, we went to an amusement park called Phantasia Land. We got their around  11 o'clock and stayed until 6:00. Our journey began with a ride called Black Mamba, which is like the Patriot at Worlds of Fun but better. Next, we rode Colorado Adventure and then Mystery Castle. My group and I liked these rides so much that we rode them a second time. After being in the Mexico and African sections of the park, the next stop was the Fantasy section. Here, we rode Winja's Fear and Force and Temple of the Night Hawk, which was in complete darkness. It seemed that every ride I rode today had a section of total darkness. After the exhausting day at the park, all nineteen of us tried to jam pack onto the shuttle bus. But not all of us got on, we had to wait another 30 minutes till the other one came.
To end the day, all of us made our way to the lock bridge. This bridge contains hundreds and hundreds of locks with names and couples names. After our journey across the bridge, we went to go get something to eat. Rachael, Kate, Anna, and I walked around the other side of the Rhine and found a Mexican restaurant and had appetizers and drinks.

It is hard to think that our time here is a little halfway over, but the time here has been amazing. Berlin has been my favorite city and the family stay was much better than I expected. I HATE how many stairs there are and it seem that everyone smokes here. I love the history of Germany and the things I learn everyday. I can't wait to experience Frankfurt and Munich.

Racheal: Day 11

Today I woke up in Cologne and the group started the day off with a tour of the city. Our tour guide explained that the Romans created a colony where Cologne stands today and there is a museum dedicated to Roman artifacts. The museum is built around an excavated tile floor that depicts the Roman God Dionysos and dancing disciples that was discovered during World War II. The Cologne Dom, which is a Cathedral, began construction in the 13th century and wasn't completed for 600 years. The architecture of the Dom is Gothic and built 157 meters high to reach the heavens. The staircase I climbed to get to the top was 533 steps, spiraled, and two way traffic! You could see the whole city of Cologne from the top of the Dom and would have taken my breath away, but the 533 stairs already did.

The tour guide then took us down the Rhein and showed us historic Cologne. There were colorful buildings built in the 1600's. The buildings had five stories, the bottom was used for the business, the next were living space, and the top floors were used a storage. On the top of the buildings were wooden pillars used as a part of pulley system to hull junk through windows for storage. On top of one of the buildings was a little person who symbolized a saying in Cologne, it translated to rain, gutter, shitter. This represented the poor folk of the Medieval times who lived on the top floors and didn't have access to toilets, so they released their wastes in the gutter of the building and the rain would flush it out.

The little figure on top of the buildings is mooning city hall across the street, and the city hall building has a face built under the clock that sticks its tongue out mocking the mooning boy. When we stopped by the city hall, there were like 5 brides getting married! In Germany, a wedding is only legal if you get married in front of the city hall. One of the traditions after getting married is for the bride and groom to work together, cutting a heart out of a sheet, then the groom carrying the bride through the heart. We got to witness all of this during our hour long tour.

During our free time to explore the city, we ran into a "baseball" team. The teams were lined up across from each other with a beer in front of each of them and a beer can in the center of the playing field. A player then would through the baseball and try to knock of the center beer can. If the beer can knocked over, the other team had to grab the can and place it right side up again before the guy who knocked it over finished their beet. When the can replaced, the player stops drinking. The team who finished all their beer first wins. It was a very interesting take on baseball and fun to watch the enthusiasm the players displayed.

I learned a lot today from our tour guide and from the streets of Cologne and enjoyed every moment.

Fun Fact: Cologne gave the same name to their beer and language, called Koelsch and is the only language you can drink.

Joel: Day 10

I started off my day really slowly because my host person Niclas snored all night and that kept me awake until 2:00 a.m. watching some YouTube videos and Predator 2. After I woke up I ate breakfast with my host family and they gave me my presents (A Pacman plushie and some bones for my dog back home.)

Today we traveled by train to Koln and and people were sitting on our reserved seats on the train so we kicked them out and rode on a train for two hours, but there were a lot of people getting drunk behind me and they made a lot of noise and kept waking me up on the train so I didn't get sleep on the train.

My stay at my host family was awesome! We always did something fun like playing Xbox or going to a pool and doing belly flops off the diving board. My host person and Connor's host person, Adrian are good friends so we spent most of our stay in Schessel hanging out together.

When we went to Heide Park, which is the largest  theme park in Germany, I rode my first roller coaster with Natasha, Johanna, Cady, and Chandler. It was pretty crazy but also extremely fun!

Bye!

Joel

Matt: Day 9

Last night was our going away party in Kuhmuhlen. We started in an amazing picnic area in the woods but were soon driven indoors by the rain. After a delicious meal and several memorable photos, we headed to our houses. Then it was gift time. My family clearly enjoyed the presents from Kansas, and they even had a few gifts for me. One was a fountain pen, which are very common here. They gave me this because yesterday I was admiring the other German student's fountain pens, because of their rarity in the United States. 

In addition to these events, I had another interesting experience last night. The father in my home, who is the worst at English in the family, confusingly explained that a year ago he had ordered some kind of expensive cow from America. It had just arrived last night and he announced that they had decided to name it Matthew. His rationale for this decision was: "it comes from USA…just like you!" 

Last week, I imagined the family stay as being filled with intensity and awkwardness. Because of this, I almost dreaded it. Now, however, looking back on the last few days, I realize that it may have been the best part of the trip. Even though I did share some awkward moments with the family, these were outweighed by the incredible experiences that will be with me for my entire life. One in particular stands out in my mind. On wednesday me and my host went on a very long bike ride through the German countryside. The peacefulness was unimaginable. I hope that I will never forget this serene ride, or anything that has happened on this trip.

This morning we said goodbye to our host families at the train station. Even though I am sad that my brief life as a little German boy is over, I am looking forward to everything that will happen in the coming week.

Kris: Day 8

Yesterday was a really fun day. We started the day going to school as usual, but the school day was cut short for us by our field trip to Heide Park which is a lot like Worlds of Fun. The kids had a great time riding all of the roller coasters and seeing all of the sights. There was a drop tower which is a lot like the Detonator at Worlds of Fun, except that this is the highest drop tower in the world. The Colossus is one of the largest wooden roller coasters in Europe with the steepest drop in the world and the Krake is a roller coaster with a truly vertical drop that takes you into the mouth of a sea monster. We spent the entire day (about 10:00-5:00) at the park and then came back to school where the students all went back to their host families. So far I have heard nothing but positive feedback from our students about the family stay and all say that their host families are really nice. All of our students are coming to school with backpacks full of food from their host mothers which is pretty funny. All in all the family stay has been a great experience for everyone. The first few days the kids were, for the most part, segregating themselves German/American, but yesterday's experience at Heide Park was great because they were all mixed together and having a great time and speaking both languages. The bus rides there and back were fun because students were really exploring the language barrier with one another. For some reason it is really hard for Germans to say squirrel and our kids got a kick out of that. The German students had fun listening to our students try to pronounce some hard German words too.

We have really enjoyed the our stay here in Rotenburg and will be sad to leave. Friday we will head to the train station where our train will leave at 9:27 to Hamburg where we will change trains and depart for our next destination Cologne, Germany. We are all looking forward to our coming adventures.

Tanner: Day 7

No one in my host family speaks very much English so communication is limited to broken German and hand gestures but I get by because I am in German 4 so I can communicate on a pretty decent level but they talk really fast. They live in a small village of 240  and the village itself is 750 years old. The father's name is Franz, the mother's name is Kathy, and the daughter's name is Lilna and they own a farm with cows and horses. My german was surprisingly good when I talk to them but it is still not the best. I can't understand what Franz says most of the time because he has a fast, old, gritty, deep, smoker's voice, so when he talks it just sound likes one deep long slur to me. Communication between me and Franz is limited to grunts and hand gestures with a little bit of german mixed in. I've helped Franz out by driving his tractor around the farm and making hay. Over here the farms are much smaller and it is more of a hobby or second job. The region we are staying in is basically a forest. My family has showed me around the forest and it was really cool and we saw a bunch of the wildlife like deers, rabbits, and hawks. The people in the area really take pride in living in such a beautiful and natural land. Kathy is a really good cook and on the first day she cooked some bratwurst and some other delicious meat with potato salad for dinner. I think tomorrow they are going to have a friend who is a hunter show me around the area and look at the wildlife. Or I was going to go on a horseback ride tomorrow I don't remember. Overall I am starting to really enjoy my host stay even though there is a language barrier. Today the whole group went to an immigration/emigration museum in Bremerhaven. It was pretty cool because you were assigned a person who was immigrating to the America or "the new world". You learned about their reasons for leaving and how they did once they made it to their destination. There was also a section were you could trace your family's history back though census and immigration papers. I traced my family back 400 years to Whales, so that was cool I guess. The last thing we did in Bremerhaven was visit a WWII U - Boat that was built during the war but was never put in action. So we climbed through the boat and saw basically what it was like in a U - Boat which was also pretty awesome. Oh yeah I almost forgot about the school part. So my first class of the day was Musik Klasse, the lesson that day was dancing and the dance was the Disco Fox. I am talking about straight up saturday night fever disco. So I could't stop laughing in that class but little did I know I would laugh even more. The next class was English and the lesson for that day was black music. They were talking about hip hop and R & B and they called black music so once again I was laughing at the germans. Overall Germany is pretty cool and stuff.

Tanner

Ashley: Day 5 and 6

And on the 5th day... we traveled.

Yesterday we left Berlin. We woke up early in time to get to the train station for our 9:25 AM train to Hamburg. Unfortunately, that train was delayed and we had to find another train to jump on to make it to Scheessel in time. We boarded a big silver bullet train in Berlin and got off in Hamburg to change trains. We hopped on a different (double decker) train and headed to Scheessel where 17 very excited families were waiting to meet the kids.

Here's where the day took a turn for the worse. Brace yourself.

As we got to the train station in Scheessel to all the bright shining faces of some very excited families, I did a quick head count, which I've gotten very good at! I've learned to count quickly because moving on and off public transportation with 17 bodies that are not used to the speed or momentum of the system is quite a task. Kris and I have learned that one of us must be in front and one of us in back, just in case the entire group doesn't make it on a train - which happened last trip a time or two. Except this time I only counted 16, not 17. I counted at least 10 more times to double check I didn't miss a head somewhere. I kept coming up with 16. I stopped everyone and said "Guys, who are we missing?!". Quickly we figured out Kira was not with the group. By this time the train had left.

Queue panic mode now.

"What! Where is Kira!? Who was sitting by Kira?! How did no one see Kira?!"

After panicking, tweeting, a phone call home, a phone call to the train station,  and tracking of the next 6 stops the train was making, Kira was found.

Kris hopped on a train and headed for Bremen (about 30 minutes away) where Kira was smart enough to get off the train and make a phone call. They both rode the train back in to Scheessel and all is well. Kira is with her host family and my blood pressure has returned to it's normal rate. What an awful feeling!

Last night the kids spent time with their families. All the families were extremely excited to see and meet the kids. I'm sure most families had a planned activities or dinner in the evening.

Today the kids went to school with the German students and sat in on various classes such as Spanish, Gym, Math, English, and Music. There was a short school assembly where the "school director" or principal introduced the kids to the entire student body. The principal actually went on this very exchange back in 1985 when Carston and Carl first started the trip. The kids were also interviewed by a local newspaper reporter. They've made us feel important here!

Blogging may not be everyday seeing as how the kids are with their host families but stay tuned because we will update later on in the week.

Hope all is well at home! We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather here - 75 and sunny.

Ashley

Cady: Day 4

We (Johanna, Natasha, and I) started the day off slightly late when we all slept through our 7:00 alarm and didn't get up until 7:35.  We rushed to get ready in time to leave at 8:00 for a flea market.  It wasn't really what we expected.  It was more like a farmer's market along with meat, cheese, and various clothing items as well.

It started to sprinkle as we headed back to the hostel to split up for the day.  Today instead of our day being really planned out, we got to break into groups and choose for ourselves what to do.  Thankfully the rain stopped and it ended up being a pretty nice day to be out and about.  Johanna, Natasha, Chandlor, Joel, and I took the S75 to the Berlin Olympic Stadium.  It was a challenge to navigate ourselves, but we managed to make it work out.  We weren't able to go in the stadium, but it was still cool to look at the outside.  Then we headed to the Hauptbahnhof to get lunch.

Next we went to the Barbie Dream house experience.  This was my favorite part of the day.  We were basically the oldest non-parents there by a good 10 years, but we didn't care.  I really liked how it was my favorite color, pink :) We explored all around Barbie's house.  It was actually pretty entertaining place (even the boys enjoyed it)!

We went back to the hostel for a couple hours until we left for dinner.  We had dinner at the Block House as a whole group.  The baked potatoes were definitely the best mart of the meal.  After dinner we went to Haagen Dazs to get dessert.  It was different than a normal ice cream shop, in that we had to sit down and be waited on like a restaurant.  The ice cream was worth the extra step.

Connor: Day 3

The sun rises here at about 5 in the morning so it is hard to know when to wake up without an alarm. Today, Matt and I woke up when the sun first rose and then fell back asleep after we realized the alarms haven't rung yet. Two hours passed with all of us sound asleep and then us jumping out of bed thinking we overslept because the sun has been up a long time. It was only 7:15. So Matt, Tanner and I ate breakfast and then took a morning walk.

The group all got together and we headed off for the Brandenburg Gate by taking the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. We walked down the famous street, Unter den Linden, for about a mile to Alexanderplatz. After we got to Alexanderplatz, we saw the clock there and then split up for lunch. After lunch, we walked around Alexanderplatz and then went up the Television Tower. It was very cool being able to look out across the city and see everything. The best part of that was being able to see the very different and distinct architecture between East Berlin, West Berlin, and the new architecture where the wall stood. After that, we took the train to a burned down church near KaDeWe, but it was disappointing because scaffolding was covering the whole outside of the church remains for renovation.

Between the sun beating down on us and walking, several of us were tired and we headed back to the hostel. Since a group wanted to stay and shop, it was the first time we rode on public transportation by ourselves. We got back to the hostel without any trouble and decided to go play soccer at a nearby field. It was quite obvious which ones were American and which ones were German when we were playing. Myself, Rachael, Tanner, Matt, and Jude then headed out for dinner, and we found a restaurant called Hot Dog Soup. No it is not literally hot dog soup, but we did have delicious German hot dogs with soup as an optional side.

By far one of the best things about Berlin is being able to sit down on the tables outside the restaurant and eat and chill. One of the worst things about it here is having to pay to use the bathroom in public places. I've been able to experience a lot of the German culture on this trip and have learned a lot, with much more to come!

Connor

Kate: Day 2

Before anything else, I would like to say that once again, I'm sorry, to Anna, Rachel, and Cierra. OK... so my day started at midnight when I woke up after crashing at around eight o'clock from the thirty six hours of being awake.  Upon waking up I first checked my phone, which said in big bold letters that it was indeed 7 AM, and I knew that we all had to be downstairs for breakfast at 8 AM.  I woke everyone  up in the room up to get ready. Rachel went to take a shower, Cierra and Anna were stalling in bed and we were just talking. Suddenly Anna sits up and says, "it's midnight." After a lot of apologizing (especially to Rachel, you know since she took a rushed midnight shower) we all went back to bed for another much needed seven hours of sleep. So, that was our morning and I still feel really bad about it.

When the real day started we had a really good breakfast with rolls, cheese, meat, hard-boiled eggs, and a german version of Nutella. Very good. Everyone still seemed a little groggy and not that excited for the two hour walking tour of Berlin. But, it all went well and we were ready to start our day at 9 AM.  The weather was nice. Although, it got pretty hot towards the middle of the day.

The first thing we saw was the Haupbanhof, a VERY large U-bahn station with tons of shops.  Fifteen minutes later our tour guide showed up looking like a young lean Einstein, really the resemblance was startling. From the Haupbanhof we walked to the Chancellor's Building, the Reichstag, Bundestag Buildings, the Brandenberg Tor, and The Sony Center, where we had lunch.

Then it was on to a boat tour on the Spree river. We saw the Berliner Dome, the TV Tower, lots of bridges with scary man faces on them, and lots of German bike riders. There were other, more important buildings, but it's late and I honestly don't remember their names. Also on the boat was an aggressive photographer, who took pictures and then tried to sell them to us. Johanna and Cady successfully photo-bombed Sheuerman and Ashley's picture.

Then we split up. Those who were tired could go back and rest headed for the hostel and five of us went to the Siegessaeule (the tower of victory, with the lady Victoria).  This was a longer trip than we expected. The walk just from the U-Bahn exit to the base of the tower had to be at least one mile, probably longer. when we got to the base of the tower we had to walk around to find a way to cross the street of a very wide, very busy round-about. Then we had to find the entrance, which we found after one red-herring, which was pretty good for us. Anna and I climbed to the top-285 narrow spiraling steps. It was crowded and we were out of breath but we did get some pretty cool pictures and a much better sense of direction. When we got down, we watched a procession (Ashley, Rachael R, and Cierra had already seen two) which called for stopping the already halted traffic on the round-about. It was quite an ordeal.

Now the fun starts, we had decided that we were not going to hike the five miles back to the U-Bahn entrance so we considered one of those biker carts, a taxi; we even attempted to figure out the bus system.  Ashley bravely asked two female citizens about hailing taxis and learned that we were making it way more complicated than it needed to be. So, we hailed a taxi that carried four so we split up and took two taxis back to the Haupbanhof. Terrifying taxi rides, with no rules regarding driving. We got on the correct U-bahn train-in the wrong direction. We were almost to the end of the line when we realized our mistake. We got on the right train and got home almost an hour late. We all went our seperate ways for dinner and reunited to find raging karaoke in the hostel lobby.  Everyone has either gone to bed or is here in the lobby planning for tomorrow. Guten Abend!

Kate