Tuesday June 22, 2010

Today we were given a tour of Neustadt by a resident who has lived her whole life here in the town. We walked from our Gymnasium to meet her at the Banhof Station (Train station) and then toured popular sites of Neustadt. We learned the history of many of the locations, such as various fountains and even the oldest building in the town, which was erected in 1604. It was exhausting to walk around for quite some time, especially since we were all a bit tired still and hunger was setting in. Our teachers gave us 25 minutes to spend wandering the Nuestadt streets for food, then shortly thereafter we walked back to Gymnasium.

We arrived just in time to catch 7^th period, which was English for our student’s schedule. It is interesting to hear how many of the students interpret the text in their books; the teacher pointed out that it is difficult to find books that have simple vocabulary for their levels. However, their English more often than not is exceptional. Here, school ends at 1:50, so there is plenty of times left in the day to do things.

I met my friend Carry and her host Katrina at the Marketplatz (market square) after I arrived home and ate my lunch (which is really dinner here) and we went into various shops. One store that we both loved especially was H+M, a European clothing line that many Americans love but cannot order from in the states. I bought 2 pints of strawberries (Edelberry) for my host family and when I arrived home we ate them with ice cream. I walked home by myself for the first time and I was very excited that I didn’t get lost.

My host mother and older host sister Charlotte then took me on a tour through Neustadt to Spayern. We went a special route so that I could ride on the Auto-Bahn, even though it was a bit slower than the usual roads they take. When we got to Spayern, there were four main cathedrals that we visited. The most famous of the four was the Speyer Cathedral, which the Pope visited once a while back. After touring the beautiful streets of Spayern, we went down alongside the longest river in Germany.

Our Hanover High blog has pictures that I took of the castle and some history too:

http://hhs-gapp-trip2010.blogspot.com/

Before bed I was served a special German cheese cake and also a special drink called Bionade. It is an all-natural drink that has fruit concentrates. It is not too sweet and it is bubbly, and is also not something that they drink on a regular basis. They save it for special occasions.