suzsmile
New member
Hi All,
Just trying to catch up on some of the threads since I got back from Germany. The trip was good until we got to Berlin. The students stayed with German gymnsium students for 2 weeks and we all had a blast. But sightseeing in Berlin with 20 high school students, who have been staying up late and are still trying to get all their Math homework done, can be very trying. To top it off, the weather was horrible in Berlin - cold, drizzly, sleety, gray, with snow on the ground.
Things in Germany, at least the state I was in, are as bad, if not worse than here. The school system in that state cannot afford supplies for any science labs or any major maintaince projects in the schools. They can only afford routine maintaince and my students were surprised at how dirty the school was. One of the teachers in the German school stated, in front of my students, that the US is responsible for the global economic crisis. My German friend is furious about this statment and will be taking care of it. My friend also has money invested with Deutsche Bank and is having all kinds of problems with them. She wants to get her money out of that bank and cannot. Then to top off the whole 19 day trip, we got to the airport on Tuesday morning and the ground crews were on strike until 11 AM for an 8% pay raise! My German friends had told me not to worry that the ground crews had struck last week and wouldn't do it again. Needless to say, our original flight was canceled, we missed our connecting flight, missed the second possible connecting flight, had to fly to Toronto, and finally got into Philadelphia 7 hours late. Over half of the kids were sick on the plane and were home sick after we got home and the other teacher with me is also sick. My bag is still somewhere between here and Toronto (it was finally found in the Toronto airport on Friday and was supposed to be delivered yesterday! No such luck!). And I'm supposed to do this again in 2 years! I almost kissed the ground when we got off the plane in Philly!
Just trying to catch up on some of the threads since I got back from Germany. The trip was good until we got to Berlin. The students stayed with German gymnsium students for 2 weeks and we all had a blast. But sightseeing in Berlin with 20 high school students, who have been staying up late and are still trying to get all their Math homework done, can be very trying. To top it off, the weather was horrible in Berlin - cold, drizzly, sleety, gray, with snow on the ground.
Things in Germany, at least the state I was in, are as bad, if not worse than here. The school system in that state cannot afford supplies for any science labs or any major maintaince projects in the schools. They can only afford routine maintaince and my students were surprised at how dirty the school was. One of the teachers in the German school stated, in front of my students, that the US is responsible for the global economic crisis. My German friend is furious about this statment and will be taking care of it. My friend also has money invested with Deutsche Bank and is having all kinds of problems with them. She wants to get her money out of that bank and cannot. Then to top off the whole 19 day trip, we got to the airport on Tuesday morning and the ground crews were on strike until 11 AM for an 8% pay raise! My German friends had told me not to worry that the ground crews had struck last week and wouldn't do it again. Needless to say, our original flight was canceled, we missed our connecting flight, missed the second possible connecting flight, had to fly to Toronto, and finally got into Philadelphia 7 hours late. Over half of the kids were sick on the plane and were home sick after we got home and the other teacher with me is also sick. My bag is still somewhere between here and Toronto (it was finally found in the Toronto airport on Friday and was supposed to be delivered yesterday! No such luck!). And I'm supposed to do this again in 2 years! I almost kissed the ground when we got off the plane in Philly!
