Carl

June 19/20^th:

Today was our travel day; it was really fun.  When we arrived in Boston at Logan airport, we checked in and passed through customs without a hitch.  We had about an hour and a half to roam within the gates until we boarded the plane.  We left at about 5:00 and got there within 7 hours, about 6:00 in the morning Germany time. As soon as we got off the plane in Frankfurt, we headed over to the train station.  It was a typical train station and it was fun to experience what we had recently learned about trains in German class. We took one train to Mainz (it was an ICE!), which took about 20 minutes, and then we took another Regional Express to Neustadt. The latter train ride took 2 hours and took us through the beautiful countryside of Germany. We then went to the school (KRG) to eat a snack of thin "waffles" as they called them, but they were really more like crepes.  We then went home with our host families.  We had about 3 hours to rest and unpack, an we all gathered soon again for a very nice potluck dinner at Laura Müller's house in Neustadt.  We had a nice barbeque and returned home to get some sleep.

June 21^st:

Today we had our first day of school; it was really great.  I could understand a little in the English classes, but it was hard to understand anything from the social studies or French classes.  It was really interesting to walk through their classes; there are many differences in the US.  The school is a cement building that is symetrical on on all sides, and it's very easy to get confused.  After school, some of us walked to a local bakery and got some delicious pastries.  We then went home with our students and I went on a walk with mine.  Neustadt is really beautiful: it has a nice mountain village feel; and it’s not too crowded. We ate a late dinner at my house and I went to bed.