Class Trip

I just got back from a week in the Black Forest (Freiburg/Feldburg) with my new class from school! The trip went really well, all of the students are nice, as well as the the two teachers that went with us. We had 2 full days days of travel and 3 days of doing stuff. Here is an overview with plenty of details ommited.

Day 1: I went with my host father to the maain train station in Hamurg to meet the class in the morning. I shook some hands and said hello to some people, but my interaction was slim to none. On the train, a nice girl invited me to sit next to her for the ride, I accepted. During the trip (which lasted about 6 hours) I played Uno, solitare, listened to music, and enjoyed to scenery. Other than the fact that train traveling takes a long time, I think I prefer it to flying. The ride is very smooth, there are no security lines or confusing airports, the train goes through the countryside so you can see the land, as well as through the cities so you can see them too, and the seats are very spacious. After the train ride, we took another train, then a bus (I gave my seat up to an older lady), and we arrived at the youth hostel in Feldburg. I got a room with five other classmates (bunk beds) and fell asleep pretty fast.

Day 2: Day two was the climbing day. It was really cold and raining, so instead of climbing on the mountains we played some games as a group in the morning, and climbed trees and boxes in the afternoon. The rain turned into heavy hail, and then into sun, but back into rain. In the evening, people pulled out ping pong paddles and a group of about eight of us played ping pong for the remainder of the evening.

Day 3: On day three we all went into the old section of Freiburg. The town was very nice, there was a big cathedral, some pretty old buildings, and every street had a small canal running down it (There is a local "rule" that says if you fall into the canal, you must marry a Freiburger). We had a tourguide for a while, but she spoke incredibly fast so I had no clue what she was talking about most of the time. After the tour, we split into groups and explored the city. Everybody's first stop was McDonald's, which seems really popular here. Remeber a earlier post where I said everything costs money in Germany? If you don't believe me, go to a McDonald's in Germany and see how much Ketchup and Mayonaise cost. (0.15 Euros per packet) After McDonald's we had some real ice cream (cinnamon, caramel, and vanilla) which was delicious, and we headed back into town. After dinner, we went to the youth hostel's "disco" (an empty pool with lights and speakers) with another school group. I danced for an hour and half with the rest of the group, it was pretty fun, but they said they'll take me to a real disco which is much better.

Day 4: Day four was entirely Europa Park! (Germany's biggest amusement park) I went on all the big rides. The first ride I did was my first roller coaster ride ever! Suprisingly, I really enjoyed it! I went on the Swiss Bobsled ride first, then the Russian MIR ride, then the Silver Star (It was so scary I couldn't scream), and the Eurosat, which was indoors (there was no light so you couldn't see what was coming!). The Silver Star is Europe's highest and biggest roller coaster, so it was pretty frightening for my first day riding roller coasters, and we even waited an extra half hour to sit in the front row. It was my favorite ride of the day I think.

http://www.europapark.de/lang-en/c259/default.html

Europa Park website.

Day 5: After packing and cleaning the rooms, we went on a hike up the mountain that the youth hostel was on. It was about four kilometers I think and in the winter it is a ski mountian (the whole area was a ski area, but not steep at all). From the top, you could see Switzerland and Mont Blanc (France). I wrote a message in the guest book at the top too. Something odd I noticed in the trainstation that I had also seen at the city fair was a stand that sold surgical and medical implements. Scalpels, forcepts, hammers, those things doctors sting in your ears to look at your brain, all the pokey things the dentist uses, everything you need to be your own docter you can buy at the train station. On the train back I played a gruelling two and a half hour poker game, we called a tie game (there was a lot of poker playing on this trip). After that, I answered generic questions about America and myself.

All in all a fun week, I think I made a bunch of friends already and I'm looking forward to school on Monday! Sorry for the long post without pictures, hopefully I will get some from other students who had cameras and post them later.