Oberursel, Germany

Sunday, June 9: Farewell Party

Landgasthof Saalburg

Farewell party

Farewell party

It’s hard to believe that today was our last day with our friends at the Feldbergschule in Oberursel. We celebrated the exchange this evening with a farewell party at the Landgasthof Saalburg, a traditional German restaurant located near a reconstructed fort that was once part of the Roman frontier in Germany (“Limes”).

In follow-up to this evening’s festivities, we would again like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our host teachers and our host families for the wonderful time we have had here in Oberursel. We will be returning to North Carolina with very fond memories of the time we spent in the Taunus region. While a few members of our group will be staying on in Europe a while longer, most of us will be flying back to Raleigh tomorrow, where we look forward to reuniting with our family and friends. Until then, all the best from Germany, and see you very soon! ~Frau Greene

Saturday, June 8: Last Weekend with Host Families

the Kaiserdom in Frankfurt

View of Frankfurt

Frankfurt Town Hall

Paulskirche

Frankfurt riverfront

Cocoa

Kleinmarkthalle

MyZeil shopping center

Commerzbank building

Dorade fish

Today was the very last Saturday of the 2019 exchange trip to Germany that we will ever have for the rest of our lives. That being said, it was quite the fulfilling one. It all started out with me waking up today at around 8:47 AM. I proceeded to get ready for the day in great anticipation of the absolutely splendid breakfast that awaited me upstairs. After finishing getting ready, I raced up the stairs and immediately helped out in the setting of the table. This is quite a necessary step in eating breakfast, as one cannot thoroughly consume one’s food without first making sure the place where one will be consuming the food is properly prepared for food consumption. This is also a step that I have aided with whenever I have gotten the opportunity, as it is quite respectful to do and also interesting to see each individual family’s customs with respect to how they set their table. Once the table was fully set, I indulged in quite the delicious breakfast of absolutely fantastic bread with my choice of multiple varieties of jam and jelly, in addition to Nutella, one of my favorite spreads for a sumptuous morning breakfast. This was a common breakfast that I had on quite a few occasions during my time here and thoroughly enjoyed at every single experience. Once breakfast was finished, we entered into the vehicular transport form known as the automobile or colloquially “the car,” and then drove on the Autobahn to Frankfurt. Driving on the Autobahn is a very different and interesting experience, because there is no set velocity limit on many sections of this exciting option of travel, but almost all of the cars still maintain a sensible speed at almost all times. Upon arriving in the city of Frankfurt am Main, I converged with a small multitude of people made up of other Cary Academy students, their respective exchange partners, and some of their respective exchange partners’ respective families. We had quite the entertaining and enjoyable time strolling around the streets of Frankfurt and were able to climb over 300 steps in the Frankfurt Dom to see a truly spectacular view of the city. This was quite the unforgettable experience because of the history behind the building in addition to just how magnificent the cityscape is. Our group then ventured into a small sweet treats shop and café, where I indulged in a delicious drink of high in temperature liquid that is derived from the cacao plant, which was subsequently sweetened with a variety of quite fascinating types of sugar. We then journeyed on to the famous Kleinmarkt, where I savoured and enjoyed a magnificent panini with the rest of the group. Sadly, my day in Frankfurt with the group had come to an end, but there was one more stop before I finally left the city. The final destination in Frankfurt of the day was the grandiose MyZeil shopping center, in which I got to visit an outlet of one of Germany’s biggest technology store brands, Saturn. Although I had previously presumed my day of seeing other people I knew from the United States of America was over, I saw both a familiar figure from my residence of education walking with his parkour-loving host student, in addition to the familial members of another colleague of mine from the place I attend to develop my own knowledge who is well known for his second place finish in the NCISAA Division I State Championship Boys Mile. This truly brings to mind the German phrase that “Frankfurt ist ein Dorf,” which can be roughly translated to “Frankfurt is a village,” which means that you will run into a lot more familiar people than you might expect. After quite the hard and yet rewarding day of locomoting throughout Frankfurt, I got to quickly experience the beauty of the architecture of the Commerzbank building from the inside, and then sought out the family’s transportation device. We once again utilized the vehicular transport form of the automobile or “car” to return home to the Beyerle household. Slightly later that evening, I enjoyed a thoroughly delectable dinner of sausage and Dorade fish from the Mediterranean, which is a brand new food I was introduced to on this very day. Throughout the day I had been conscientiously working on my usage and skill level of German, whether it was just with small talk or ordering food. However, one technique I have found supremely conducive to my German education is that of consuming German visual media in the format of TV or movies, as one is able to be exposed to multiple hours of non-stop German in an engaging and lively manner. That technique was once again put to good use as I chose to view a German film of the “Krimi” variety, which was a murder mystery film. Although I wasn’t able to exactly guess who the killer was, the visual media experience was quite the entertaining one and was a fantastic end to a fantastic day. In summation, today was quite the amazing one and a great last Saturday ever of the 2019 Cary Academy Exchange Trip to Germany. ~Kyle M.

Friday, June 7: Anne Frank Educational Center

Anne Frank’s childhood home in Frankfurt

Anne Frank Educational Center

interactive exhibits

discussing ads

waiting for the U-Bahn

riding in the U-Bahn

group dinner

Leo, the neighbors’ cat

Today, I got up at 6am and got ready, and ate a breakfast of yogurt and fruit. Today, like every other day, my host family has not failed to have Nutella at breakfast! Afterwards, we headed off to our last day at the Feldbergschule. It was cold this morning, so I was glad I had a sweatshirt. To get to school, we walk to the bus stop, take the bus to the train station, and take the U-Bahn to the station near school, and then walk the rest of the way. It takes about 45 minutes, but it doesn’t feel that long because you’re moving the whole time, as opposed to sitting in a car. Once we got to school, the first class I went to was Ethics and Religion. The students were talking about what a paradise is and what it means to be in a paradise. Afterwards, we had a break and then went to the second class, Biology. I was really happy to go to this class because it was the first science class I had gotten to see. The students were doing a worksheet on mitosis. It was hard to understand in German, but I remembered some of it from my Biology class, which really helped. The teacher was definitely stricter than the others; she was the only teacher to correct and edit our class summary sheets! After Biology, we left school and went to Maya’s. Leaving was a little bittersweet because we won’t ever come back to the school. At Maya’s, we ate sandwiches and hung out. By then, it had warmed up a little, so we sat outside. After a little over an hour at Maya’s, we all met at the train station for a field trip
to the Anne Frank Educational Center. We first got to do different interactive activities with tablets to learn more about Anne Frank and about discrimination in general. These were very interesting because we had never done anything like this before. We were at the center for a very long time, and after we were done with the interactive exhibits, we looked at print ads and had a discussion about discrimination in both words and images. After the Anne Frank house, a group of us went to Annika’s for dinner, which was great because we were all starving. Afterwards, we all hung out and talked, plus we taught the German students some new group games! Overall, it was a very fun day and a great way to spend our last day at the school. ~Olivia Z.

Thursday, June 6: English Class Presentations

Introductions

Small group discussion

Presentation

Small group discussion

Weltladen fair trade shop

Fair trade explained

Sampling fair trade chocolate

Sampling fair trade coffee

Fair trade plastic alternative

Learning more about fair trade

Visiting classes

Traveling by U-Bahn

Meeting up in a restaurant

The day started early at 7 AM, where I ate the traditional and delicious German breakfast prepared by my exchange mother. This breakfast is composed of multiple assortments of breads, sausages, cheeses, and fruits, giving me an abundant source of energy to start off the day. Joshua (my exchange student) and I then rode down to the Feldbergschule with the bicycle, allowing me to feel the temperature change from the previous days. The temperature dropped from the mid 30s to the high 10s (degrees Celsius), giving me a feel of how the temperature is like in Germany.

We started off shadowing the English class, where we gave the presentations about US culture that we prepared back in Cary. Since these presentations were in English, they gave us some time to rest from our full immersion in the German language.

Later in the day, we made a short visit to the “Weltladen,” a fair trade shop in Oberursel, where we learned about sustainability and sampled some of the products.

After finishing the day with history class, Joshua and I rode the train back home. Something that has greatly surprised me is the German awareness on climate change. We had learned this in the classroom, where we studied the increase in popularity of the Green party of Germany during our politics unit. However, there is a big difference between learning about German culture in a classroom and experiencing it first hand.

As the evening approached, we ate a traditional German dinner composed of boiled potatoes, sauerkraut, and sausage. This dish defines what German food is all about: simple, yet nutritious and filling. For dessert, I had strawberries and I ate them while watching a “Krimi”, German-loved detective film, with Joshua’s older brother, Jonathan.

To end the day, Joshua and I went to a typical German restaurant, where we met up with Ryan, Matthew, and their exchange students. To our surprise, they served us our drinks in very large portions, something that we did not see during other parts of the trip. We had a good German “Prost”, enjoyed our drinks, and took the U-Bahn back home. Living these new but exciting experiences with my classmates has created great long-lasting friendships that will continue in the future. ~Max F.

Wednesday, June 5: Fieldtrip to Mainz

Mainz cathedral

old town Mainz

Central Mainz

Gutenberg Museum

Helping with the print demo

Rhine riverfront in Mainz

houses along the Rhine

ice cream stop

Mainz city wall marker

touring Mainz

Berlin souvenir

State Theater in Mainz

touring Mainz

Mainz cathedral

inside Mainz cathedral

View over Frankfurt

Today, we went on a class excursion to Mainz early in the morning around 8 o’clock. First, we went to the Johannes Gutenberg museum to learn about the history of Johannes Gutenberg, a pioneer in the printing and translation of the bible. We got to see all the interestingly intricate details of how Gutenberg accomplished his prints, including the dyes that were used, the small pictures, and the marks that were made in the prints. It was mind-blowing to see all the steps one had to take to print a book, and even more so having to scribe it by hand. Later, Max even helped in a live presentation of the printing format and got to take the scroll that he printed with him. After the museum, we were given free time to eat and explore Mainz and its Altstadt for around an hour and a half. Many (if not all of us) got pretzels and pizzas from the local Ditsch, a very popular and common food chain in Germany. We enjoyed the well-priced and delicious delicacies while taking in all the vibes of the city. Afterwards, we walked around the city and along the Rhein river while Frau Burgbacher gave us a small tour of the city. Having studied in Mainz for several years, Frau Burgbacher pointed out some mega-cool key locations in Mainz, including one of the first hospitals established in Germany and the remnants of the former city border wall of Mainz. While walking along the Rhein, the group stopped by a popular ice-cream joint called N’Eis (funny play on words) to try out the wide, delectable choice of flavors (raspberry, mango, cinnamon, and more!) as well as to cool off from the unusually hot temperature in Germany. Our stay in Mainz concluded with a look at the Mainz Cathedral, a massive church that was in the heart of the city. The inside of the church was very imposing, and reminded me of the Duke Chapel in North Carolina.

Soon it was time to go back to Oberursel.

On our way back at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, we separated into two groups. Some of us continued back to Oberursel, while Kenny, Philip, Max, Xavier, and I rode the train to Frankfurt to spend some time in the Altstadt. There, we shopped (mostly window-shopped) along the Zeil, the main shopping street in Frankfurt, and continued to enjoy the unvarnished city.

Later Philip had to leave and so took the train back home, but we met with Eva, Matthew, and Sara and their exchange partners and again separated into two groups.

Max, Kenny, and I went on our own way up to the top of St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral to see the city from above. The sight was pretty epic and we could see the whole city! We stared in awe at the immenseness of the city and the barges on the Rhein narrowly missing the bridges. We finally finished up a long day with a small snack at a local restaurant with some of the classic German “green sauce” and Frankfurter Schnitzels, caught the train back to Oberursel, and ended a lovely day trip in our stay here in Germany. ~Ryan C.

Tuesday, June 4: Classes at the Feldbergschule

Feldbergschule Oberursel

Break

Lake by Feldbergschule

Lunch

Target language reading

Social time

After many days of constant travel, new experiences, and draining activities, I was looking forward to a more relaxed day of attending classes with my exchange partner Maxime and spending the afternoon at home. And, although this slow-paced, relatively-normal day happened to coincide with the singular day that I have describe in detail on a minimum-three-hundred-word blog, that might not be a bad thing. After all, part of the goal of this exchange is to experience the everyday parts of German life rather than be an American tourist in Germany.

Luckily, Maxime didn’t have any classes right at 8:00 AM, so we were able to sleep in a little longer. The first class of the day, accounting, began at 9:50. I was interested to see what topics the class covered since no similar class is taught at Cary Academy, but my lack of accounting knowledge made it hard to understand. Nevertheless, I learned more about the grading system in German schools from the teacher talking about an assessment that was given back, and I got a feel for the subject.

After a twenty-minute break came the German language class. At this point in the school year, grades are mostly finalized, so the class watched a movie about the life of the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I ate a tasty lunch generously provided by Maxime’s mother outside during the following break and then headed back into the classroom where accounting was taught for math class. Here, as in accounting, the teacher went over a math test from earlier involving exponential functions, which I luckily already knew about. And, finally, the school day came to an end, and Maxime and I drove home by bus.

Though the the temperature outside exceeded thirty degrees Celsius in the shade, I decided to bring a German National Geographic magazine out into the back yard and attempt to read an article or two. The magazine was a great source of new vocabulary, which I happily added to the new words list required for our exchange portfolio.

Maxime and I walked later that evening to meet up with a Paige and her partner Julia, but the walk back was perhaps the most valuable. As the sun began to set and the air cooled down, I appreciated the natural beauty of the farms and houses surrounding Bad Homburg. And, the unhurried walk home gave us time to talk about the differences between German and American culture: the way teenagers behave, the way schools work, the way food tastes…

Well, that’s enough for today. I now know how valuable it can be simply to have a conversation, and I don’t feel so anxious now! Things are going well here in Germany, so don’t worry about us too much. ~Tommy F.

Monday, June 3: First day at the Feldbergschule

Feldbergschule

Morning gathering at the Feldbergschule

Oberursel old town tour

Town Hall mural

Bakery stop

Welcome poster

in the Cafe Vielfalt lounge

“Pfand”raising

Welcome from head of Feldbergschule

Welcome party

Exchange group 2019

Afternoon storm

After an adventurous introduction to Frankfurt in the break period leading up to today, it is finally time for the first day of school at the Feldbergschule Oberursel. We started our day off as all should, with a one and a half hour math class in which I partially partook in a class discussion about sine functions as the class extended further into the subject. After the class ended, the group entered the Feldbergschule’s café for a debrief on student schedules. Shortly after we were greeted with a plethora of delicious German snacks, as both the German and the American students enjoyed a buffet. After the snacks had been quickly consumed, we soon segued into our final class of the day. René and I headed off to a more interesting topic as we entered our economics class. The class was taught partially in English, which was helpful for me to comprehend and actively participate in the class. In fact, when going through the economic scenario readings which were entirely in English, the American exchange students saw themselves with an advantage in understanding the material. And just like that, after being released 40 minutes early, it was 1 o’clock and the school day was over. After a somewhat tiring day of school classes, we returned home by train, where the weather was beginning to kick up as we could tell by the wind blowing ferociously in our direction on the walk to my exchange family’s house. The rain quickly passed, however, just in time for training with René’s soccer team. After several jokes about the new MLS player recruited to the team, we began our training. As it had been over a year since I had last stepped on the soccer field, I was nervous that I was a bit rusty. But it did not take long for me to discover that the small local team in Niederhochstadt was a little bit rusty as well. And after a long practice of hard work, we headed home for the day. ~Philip W.

Four Day Holiday Weekend in Bavaria

Birthday celebration

Munich town hall

Central Munich

New shoes

Olympic Tower

View from Olympic Tower

For this entire long weekend, Julia, her family and I have been about three and a half hours away from the rest of the exchange group near Augsburg, Germany to celebrate the 82nd birthday of Julia’s grandmother (see picture above). Yesterday we visited the main part of Augsburg city, and while it was nothing less than gorgeous, it couldn’t be compared to Munich, which is where Julia, her father, and I took a day-long excursion to today.

As seen in one of the pictures above, Munich was PACKED with people. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever seen more people in such a small area. If you’ve never been to Munich, specifically within the main parts of the city, I definitely recommend it. My experience was definitely a 10 out of 10 (once I bought shoes that didn’t give my feet blisters, as seen in picture above). To best describe the city, I ask that you imagine a large open concrete field, and then line that field with small shops. Beyond what in Munich was solely shops and small cafes, the city was historical, beautifully made and purely gorgeous.

When we first arrived in the city, we decided to take a double-decker-bus-city-sightseeing-tour. I wish I could say this was my favorite part of this excursion; however, the ‘20 minute tour’ turned into an hour and thirty minute tour around the city. We sat in direct sunlight, and in backed up traffic for much longer than we paid for. While the experience of the tour wasn’t the greatest, I did learn some of the history of the city. We learned about the outdoor opera house, the Hofbräuhaus, and all of the most monumental buildings. Before the tour fully ended, Julia, her father and I got off the bus and decided to fully embrace the impact of the city by foot.

One would think that I wouldn’t learn as much about the history of the buildings this way, but my host father is comparable to both Bill Velto (I have permission to call him Bill) and Mr. Coven, in the way that he knows everything about everything and in the best way. He knows the history of every building, every monument, and every blade of grass. Luckily he knows all the small details that makes it so interesting to learn about and to experience.

After buying small gifts to bring back to my family, new shoes for the sake of pain-free feet, the best potatoes I’ve ever had, and too many single Euro coins lost to public bathrooms, we walked to the English Garden, comparable to Central Park in New York City. Here we saw people enjoying their day while sunbathing, small kids laughing while playing in the fountains, and countless smiles. A small (mainly calm) river traveled through these gardens, making the experience more serene. This small river moves under the main parts of the city, and where the tunnel opens to lead into the English Gardens, a rush of water is constant. Imagine a white water rafting course condensed into a few feet. Here, we watched surfers jump into the rushing water and try to surf on this wave. I don’t think I saw even one of these surfers stand on their board for more than five seconds before diving under. With that being said, it looked insanely fun. Beyond watching the surfers, we walked both sunny and shaded paths while in the gardens, and this is where I’ve been closest to the wildflowers, which are more diverse in Germany than in North Carolina, and in my opinion are much more intriguing. I genuinely believe I could spend days exploring Germany just discovering and falling in love with the wildflowers.

After the English Gardens, we got in the car very ready to get back to Julia’s grandmother’s house an hour away in Augsburg; however, we made the last minute decision to drive 10 minutes further to the Olympic Park in Munich, where the Olympic Games were played in 1972. Here, just like in Berlin, we went to the top of the Fernsehturm, and to say I was speechless might be an understatement. From the top, we could see the Alps. In the picture above, where it looks as if it was taken from the top of the world, you can make out the outline of the Alps on the horizon. I could have lived on the top of this building and never gotten bored of the view. So much to see, and so much to learn from the view.

Today’s excursion to Munich was incomparable. ~Paige G.

Sunday, June 2: Two More Reports from the Weekend

Frankfurt old town panorama

Frankfurt skyline

downtown Frankfurt

On Sunday I woke up around 9. In Germany, the sun rises much earlier than in America, and it was initially hard to sleep in past 5:30-6:00 am. Now I am used to it, but it was confusing the first few days! My exchange partner’s mother made us a nice breakfast of croissants and fruit, and Rexy came over a bit later. We were all going to go into Frankfurt together, but Monique (my exchange partner) wasn’t feeling well, so she dropped us off at the U-Bahn station to go into Frankfurt. The ride was amazingly short, and soon we had gone from a small town to a massive city. We walked past an old square quickly on our way to the boat tour. The weather was extremely hot, and we were sweating by the time we reached the boat. It was worth it when we started moving down the river and saw the incredible skyline of Frankfurt behind us. After the boat completed its round trip back, we disembarked and walked back into the city. It was interesting how quickly the buildings went from modern stores to old traditional German buildings. We wandered around a square lined with these old buildings, then walked for just a few minutes and found ourselves on a street lined with sleek storefronts like Gucci and Burberry. There was a festival celebrating the firefighters of the city, and one square was filled with old models of fire trucks. A large shallow fountain was nearby, and to ward off the heat a bunch of small children were splashing around and playing. It was nothing like the stereotypical idea of cold, serious Germans. I can’t imagine something like that happening in the center of New York or a large city in America. Overall, the day in Frankfurt was hot but an interesting comparison to other larger American cities. ~Sara M.

Breakfast

Bad Homburg

Spaghetti-Eis

Bike tour break

Today, we slept in, per usual. After waking at about 11 AM, Mikal and I went downstairs to an excellent breakfast of Brötchen (sections of baguette cut in half) with Turkish sausage, various fruits, and Apfelsaftschorle. Please keep in mind that the picture above regarding breakfast was after we had eaten, not before. After wasting some time at home, Mikal, his parents, and I embarked upon a biking journey of grandiose proportions. From Steinbach, we traveled through trails and visited Bad Homburg and Oberursel, among other wondrous places. Prior to this journey, I was unaware of how naturally beautiful this entire area was; I was truly amazed by what I observed. A highlight of the trip was when we stopped near a castle in Bad Homburg to enjoy some Italian ice cream. After hearing so much about it during German class, I felt compelled to try out the fabled Spaghetti-Eis. The fact that a master of culinary practices possesses the ability to disguise ice cream as spaghetti, whilst maintaining the former’s refreshing, frozen glory, accurately displays the astounding progression of humanity. During another break for drinks at a local brewery (I drank orange juice), I had a productive discussion with my host family about the elusiveness of perfection regarding the use of German grammar. At the same place, we briefly saw two familiar looking, German-fluent American tourists. For me, it has been most helpful to speak always in German, and to ask (in German) every time I make a mistake. I then try to incorporate the newly learned word or speaking tactic into the following conversations. After about seven hours of being out, we came back home and wolfed down a tasty dinner of curried fish with rice. Mikal and I then listened to music for a while before heading to bed. Overall, today was a splendiferous experience that allowed me to witness the wonders of nature, get a solid workout in, consume delectable foods, and better my understanding and usage of the German language. ~Xavier

Saturday, June 1: First Weekend with Host Families

Münzenberg

Riding competition

Currywurst

After I woke up on Saturday, I was greeted with a fresh German pretzel for breakfast. As I enjoyed my tasty treat, I thought about the bread and other pastries that I am able to get at home in the US, and started to realize how spoiled I am getting with all the amazing food here. Following this, we took a scenic drive out to Münzenberg for a horseback riding competition that my exchange student was competing in. The views from the drive were absolutely beautiful, and I was able to see the small towns and nature that Germany has to offer. After we arrived, we spent time getting the horse ready for competition and watched other riders take their turn. It was so interesting for me to be able to see the differences and similarities between horseback riding in the US and Germany. For one, we were able to drive to the competition, ride and return home all in one day. However, in the US, competitions are usually very far away, making it so that riders and horses have to stay overnight at the competition. For lunch, I decided to try my share at a German classic: Currywurst. I went all in and had it with fries with mayonnaise and it was delicious! After lunch break, it was time to show, and Mariana did an amazing job. We then had to wait for a few hours to hear her placing, but it was worth it because she scored her first placing in M level dressage! For this, she won a cool ribbon and even some carrots for her horse. We even got to cheer her on as she rode in the victory gallop! It was so nice to get to spend the day outside in the gorgeous German weather. Finally, I got to learn lots of horse-related terminology in German that will be very useful once I return home. I can’t wait to experience the rest of this amazing trip! ~Eva H.