HALLO DEUTSCHLAND!
Highlights of the German Links trip
By Arlene Cleveland
Click here to see pictures of the Germany trip
The LINKS German Exchange Program is an opportunity offered by our Gratiot-Isabella Intermediate School district. In this program schools in the RESD are matched with schools in the Mecklenberg-Vorpommern region of Germany. This area is in the former East Germany. It is not far from the Baltic sea and is a major farming area. Villages are small and farms dot the landscape. Potatoes are a major crop. Beal City's partner school is Hagenow. In the fall, students from Hagenow came to Beal City for a two week visit. They have studied English in their school and this is an opportunity for them to practice with real English speakers and learn about our culture. While the German students are here, they attend school on some days and participate in many activities including a visit to our state Capitol, tour of CMU and attending Beal City and CMU games if possible. On weekends students take trips with their host families to interesting sights in Michigan and share family life. They try American foods, listen to music and have a good time.
This year the students form Hagenow visited Beal City in October with their chaperone Mr. Thomas Braatz. In April it was our turn to travel, so on April 12 about 60 students and chaperones form the GIRESD set off on the long flight to Germany. Each of theparticipating schools was matched with a German partner school. The students from Beal City were Daniel Schafer and Amie Neubecker, who went last year, and Angela Gross, Joe Streng, Megan McBride and Samantha Schafer. Mrs Heintz and Mrs Cleveland were chaperones. We arrived in Hagenow on Friday afternoon and had the weekend with our host families for a little time to rest and then enjoy activities such as a trips to the Baltic Sea, a trip to a Snow Park with indoor skiing, and just time to get to know our host families. I think our students got together everyday as a whole group, Germans and Americans, to have a meal, watch German TV(Germany's next top model) or just hang out. Mrs Heintz and Mrs Cleveland were invited to dinner by Hagenow teachers and Principal Annett Noack where we discussed our schools, students and similarities and differences in educational systems. German schools do not have sports teams that play for the school as we do. Their students may play as part of sports clubs, separate form the school. It seems our system gives students a stronger sense of identity or connection to their school. Our days in Germany flew by with as many activities packed in as possible. We had a Ludwigslust County tour day in which we visited the Ludwigslust Castle and church as well as a carriage museum. Also on that day we toured a local juice factory, nature preserve and had a boat ride on the Schalsee, a large lake. The lakes in that area were formed by glaciers just like the ones in Michigan. Our whole trip taught us about how many similarities we have in culture and geography. We took a train to Hamburg, second largest port in Europe and had a spectacular view of the city and docks from the clock tower of St Michael's church. The Queen Mary II has a dock in Hamburg. One of the longer days was our bus trip to Berlin. We saw memorials to the Berlin Airlift and comemorations to the Holocaust victims and Checkpoint Charlie from WWII. Each student can tell you much more, there is too much to record here. This was an intense, real-life learning experience that is difficult to match in a classroom.
Our last weekend had beautiful spring weather like the rest of our visit this year, so people visited Hamburg for a soccer game, went to the Baltic or visited sites along the River Elbe and former GDR border.
April 23 came too quickly and we had to leave our German families and friends with promises to keep in touch and visits planned for the future.
