Oberursel, Germany

Let’s just say that Arne and I’s Monday started a bit earlier than most. At 1:50 am, my alarm went off.  As excited as I had been to watch the NBA finals the night before, I could barely keep my eyes open now. I briefly considered going back to sleep, but decided basketball was more important. In fact, the NBA was one of the first things Arne and I bonded over in America, so to watch North Carolina’s own Steph Curry battle in Finals was a good start to the day. Except that immediately after said game, I fell back asleep in my bed, but not for long before the real morning started. After breakfast, Arne and I traveled the long distance of approximately half a mile, before walking inside the ruins of a medieval castle, with stunning views of the Frankfurt skyline. Next, we traveled to Hessenpark, a preserved village dating back almost five hundred years. At this historical park, we were able to walk through German houses, into two windmills, and pet goats, donkeys, and sheep. At the park, we dined on sausages (naturally). Returning to Arne’s house in the late afternoon, after our long day and short night’s sleep, we both fell in our beds and slept until dinner. Though we were tired, it was a good day overall.   ~Raiden

Since today is Sunday, we were able to sleep in a little bit longer. Today breakfast was light because we decided we desperately needed to go to the gym — too many German sweets.  On the walk to the gym we had an interesting conversation about how Germans don’t understand why we sometimes say the weather is “cool”.  They only understand that to be something that is popular instead of weather related.  The gym was the same as any one in America, just a little bit bigger and with some machines that I’d never seen before in my life.  The first thing I noticed was that they keep their gyms extremely hot, as well as the fact that it seemed like most people really disliked cardio and focused more on muscle building.  About halfway through our workout, your typical gigantic muscle builder came over and started giving me advice. At first I was a little bit terrified and only understood half of what he was saying,  but eventually I understood his advice.  It seemed that here in the gym everyone was as friendly as they are back home; every time you see someone you are greeted with “Morgen!”   But outside of the gym, it seemed that you didn’t normally speak to people walking by.   The view outside the gym was beautiful and inside the gym they had a little bar with drinks and protein for the people working out.  On the way home we stopped and had a chocolate croissant — amazing as always.    After showering and a quick nap (Mittagsschläfchen) we went to the flat downstairs where her grandmother lives and had lunch; it was cream of asparagus soup, salmon, and potatoes. I was shocked to see that they had white asparagus (maybe my parents didn’t give it to me because it was already hard enough to make me eat green asparagus). They kept saying that I was not eating enough because everyone here thinks Americans eat SO much food. A couple hours and a couple naps and Youtube watching sessions later, Olivia and Mara came over.  We met Janina’s cousin and drove into the city of Frankfurt. We had dinner at a restaurant named Helium.  Then we went back home and watched the American movie Wild Child.   Hope everything is well in America. Ciao!   ~Lindsay

Breakfast

On the train to Leipzig

View from train

View of Leipzig from Panorama Tower

Walking around Leipzig

Our first morning with our exchange students started out with cool and cloudy weather in Oberusel.   After a short and very relaxing German breakfast in my exchange partner’s front yard, we piled in the car and headed off to the train station to see his grandparents in Leipzig.  Of course we experienced some German traffic entering Frankfurt, but once we got through it all we were on our way to the train station at great speed and across a bridge giving us a wonderful view of the Frankfurt skyline.  When we got to the train station, we quickly jogged to the rails and hopped on an ICE (Intercity Express) train, where we sat in our seats and watched the countryside whiz by on our 3-hour ride.  Upon arrival we met with my exchange partner’s grandparents, with whom we had a wonderful time walking around the center of Leipzig where people where walking around, music was playing, and smells of good food filled the streets. We topped it all off with a view from Leipzig’s panoramic tower and a bowl of ice cream in spaghetti form.  Tonight I sleep in Naunhof, a tiny classic German town with only 8,000 residents, and it is very beautiful.   Overall another fun day in Germany, and as they say in German: auf Wiedersehen!  ~Dunning H.

Stasi prison at Hohenschönhausen

Outside the prison

Entering the Stasi prison

Prison courtyard

Learning about the prison

a prison cell and uniform

On the bus to the airport

Waiting game at airport

Waiting game at airport

Approaching Frankfurt

Host families at airport

Host families at airport

Dinner at Soylu Esspress

Haley with her host family

As any normal day in Berlin, our day started off strong with each member of the group receiving a high five from Dunning H.  Everything from this point forward was sure to be our best day yet, since by the night we would be reunited with our exchange students!  In addition, with a late meeting time this morning at 10:00, our day was already off to a great start! Once everybody gathered around with their packed luggage in storage, we set off for our last walk and sightseeing destination in Berlin, the Hohenschönhausen Memorial.  It was sad to think that this would be our last time in Berlin; however, we were all so excited to see our exchange students that our last walk in Berlin was bittersweet. With a mere seven-minute walk, our last stroll through Berlin barely got us 2,000 steps–much different from the 20,000 steps I got on Wednesday and Thursday!  The Hohenschönhausen Memorial is a prison that was built at the end of World War II and first served as the main Soviet prison for Germany.  In the 1950s, the Stasi (East German secret police) took over the prison and used it to detain and interrogate opponents to the communist dictatorship.   As we toured the rather large building and its surrounding area, we learned about the extremely harsh conditions and the inhumane treatment of the prisoners, who were often forced to confess to crimes they hadn’t committed.   As we walked around the multiple rooms of the prison, we learned that most of the furniture including the beds and even the paint on the wall is completely original and hasn’t been changed since the prison closed with the fall of the East German dictatorship in 1989. This not only made the Hohenschönhausen Memorial engaging and informative but also extremely interesting. After our tour of the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, our next destination was FRANKFURT! We hopped on a very nice Mercedes van with all our luggage and a packed lunch and took our last ride through Berlin. Once at the airport, we had to play the waiting game for a while, but nonetheless we soon boarded the plane to Frankfurt.   With the plane ride being only 45 minutes, we safely landed in Frankfurt, where we met our exchange students at the gate.  Everyone in our group then went their separate ways, only to be reunited later at Soylu Esspress, where we all indulged in a Döner with the whole exchange group. We couldn’t wait to see our partners’ school, so we all decided to walk to the Feldbergschule to get a glimpse of what it looked like before the long weekend. The day ended quite sweetly as we all tried German ice cream for the first time. After saying our goodbyes to our fellow classmates, we parted for our first night with our host families.  It has been such a fun and exciting day, and I can’t wait to explore more of Oberursel!   ~Haley H.

Looking up at the Ferrnsehturm (television tower)

The Fernsehturm

at the Fernsehturm

At the top of the Fernsehturm

The observation deck at the Fernsehturm

At the top of the Fernsehturm

a view from the Fernsehturm

Another view from the Fernsehturm

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

KaDeWe department store

famous sign at Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Haus am Checkpoint Charlie Museum

Near Checkpoint Charlie

Near Checkpoint Charlie

The East German Ampelmann

At the Ampelmann shop

At the Ampelmann shop

Untrwelten Tour (underground air raid shelters)

the Nikolaiviertel

Dinner at the Zillestube

Dinner at the Zillestube

Thankfully, we started off our day today on an especially good note, because after having gotten back to the hostel late last night, we were allowed to sleep in for 15 more minutes this morning. We ate breakfast at the hostel– lots of meat, cheese and Nutella.:)  After breakfast, we made our way on the tram to the Alexanderplatz to visit the Fernsehturm (television tower). Public transit comes in handy when traveling in a large group! The elevator to the observation deck on the tower took us 203 meters high in only 40 seconds… sehr schnell!  Although it was built as an architectural communist symbol, the views that the Fernsehturm offers tourists today are unbelievable. We found everything we had seen in the preceding days from the 360 degree view. We then traveled by subway to West Berlin.  On the square around the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, a church that had been bombed during WWII, there was a shrine dedicated to the people who were killed in a terrorist attack in a Christmas market this past year. Having seen this story on the news, it was beyond satisfying to join others passing by and paying respects. On a happier note, the group was set free for lunch at the biggest department store in Europe, KaDeWe.  Most of the girls ate ravenously to start shopping as fast as possible, while most of the boys stayed in the buffet area almost the entire time. Otherwise, the rest of the group wandered around and got in lots of steps. We then made our way back to the US sector that divided East from West Berlin,  Checkpoint Charlie. The museum at Checkpoint Charlie was nice because it introduced information about escapes from East Berlin in different forms: pictures, videos, text, and artifacts. The text was definitely helpful because it was introduced in both English and German, so if we didn’t understand a word in German, it was easy to check the meaning in English. The pictures helped towards the end when some of us fell a little behind from trying to read everything.   Additionally, the videos were beloved amongst all because they offered a break from reading and standing. The Ampelmann shop was a quick next stop during the day, which is one of the few things kept from the GDR. It is named after the little man on the traffic light that shows when you need to stop and go at crosswalks. We then went to my favorite activity of the day. Berlin is, of course, full of monuments and museums, but this was the first time we explored WWII history as opposed to the norm of GDR history. We explored one of the few air raid bunkers left in Berlin. All of the others were destroyed, but this bunker was made from previously carved space right above public transit and couldn’t be destroyed. Although we couldn’t take pictures, none of us will forget the outline of Haley H. from the 70-year-old light retaining paint on the walls. After a very full day, we ate dinner as a group in a restaurant in the Nikolaiviertel, and some had Currywurst for the third meal in a row. It was a very busy day, ending in 20,000 steps again! Good night!   ~Olivia H.

Morning walk along the Spree

Spree River boat ride

Spree River boat ride

Our guest badges for the Bundestag (German Parliament)

Conference room with a view

Our conversation with Markus Koob

Gifts from Representative Koob

Berlin Wall Museum on Bernauer Street

a section of the Berlin Wall

no man’s land with guard tower

Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood

Improv Theater at the Kulturbrauerei

Intermission at the improv show

We started our first full day in Berlin by eating breakfast in the youth hostel, then taking the U-Bahn (or subway) to Alexanderplatz.  Alexanderplatz is a bit of a center for shopping and is a large subway and tram stop area.  From there, we began walking along the Spree, which is the river that runs through Berlin.  We then followed with a boat tour where we could appreciate more of the architectural and historical background of the main buildings in Berlin.  Specifically, some that stood out to me were the Berliner Dom, which is a Protestant church, as well as the newer government buildings which dot the city with newer more modern architecture.  We then went on to the “Palace of Tears,” which was the main train stop which allowed access across the border between East and West during the time of the Berlin Wall.  It earned this name from the tears shed as friends and family parted.  We all then split up for lunch on Friedrichstrasse, which is another popular center for eating and shopping.  Perhaps the most exciting part of the day then followed, that being meeting Markus Koob, a representative of the German parliament.  We all sat around a conference table near his office and discussed both German and American politics, all in German, of course.  Afterwards we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauerstrasse, where we saw actual places where the wall once stood, as well as a replica.  We also enjoyed a small museum where there was a lot of good information as well as some cool pictures.  Then we split up once more for dinner in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, where I personally had Indian food.  We all came back together for the last event of the night, that being German Improv Theater in an old brewery building that is now an arts center.  It was hard to understand at times, but I could understand most context and details, as well as a few jokes.  Which brings us to the end of the day, where I now sit on the tram heading back to the youth hostel.    ~Meredith F.

Tegel Airport

A&O Kolumbus Hotel

A&O Ko.umbus Hotel

Berlin Cathedral

Berlin Cathedral

Gardens

atop the Reichstag

Hello everyone.
After a long overseas flight and a surprisingly strong thunderstorm during our bus ride from the airport, we  finally arrived safe and sound at our hotel in Berlin.  We quickly ate lunch and then headed off for a stroll to get some first impressions of the city, making our way from the Berlin Cathedral and reconstruction of the Stadtschloss (City Palace) down to the Brandenburg Gate.  Unfortunately, there are a number of building projects underway in this area, making it a bit difficult to see the beautiful boulevard of Unter den Linden in its full glory.  We finished our day with an early dinner and a short visit to the rooftop terrace and glass dome  of the Reichstag building, where we sang happy birthday to Lindsay,  Tomorrow our adventure will begin in earnest with a full day of touring in Germany’s vibrant capital.

For now all the best from Berlin!
~Frau Greene

Frankfurt

Oberursel

Feldbergschule

This blog has been created as a record of the 2017 Cary Academy student exchange trip to Germany.  We hope that you enjoy following along on our adventures as we tour Berlin and visit our friends at the Feldbergschule in Oberursel near Frankfurt.  Below is a video preview of some of the sights that await us in the German capital and in our host community.