Mystery Tickets....

as if this trip couldn't get any more complicated...our train tickets to München are lost in the mail between Schwerin and Boise... I get to run around trying to get them replaced. If worse comes to worse, we will have to be at the train station early to convince the Zugbegleiter (conductor) to let us on with the original letter from DB.  Supposedly this will work, according to the lovely lady we spoke to this afternoon on the phone.  I personally would rather have the tickets in my hand. 

Today was Aktion Werktag at school, where each class had to come up with an idea to raise funds and awareness for schools in Rwanda (partner state of Rheinland-Pfalz).  I saw some a group of students (not anyone that I recognized though) in Mainz in front of the Römerpassage shopping center raising money by singing.   I am excited to hear what our GAPPies were up to today when we meet at 16:00 for a wagon ride (Fünfzelfahrt)  through the wine country around Nieder-Olm. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't rain.  There was a bit of a downpour about an hour ago, but it looks like it is clearing back up. 

1st day of school at Gymnasium Nieder-Olm

Well, here it is, Tuesday already and we are meeting at school for the 1st time since arrival on Sunday afternoon.  I am excited to hear from the students to see how their weekends went.  

We have an official welcome from the principal, Mrs. Christel Frey in the library at 9:00 and then the students will spend the whole day at school with their partners and will see how different (or similar) a German college preparatory secondary school is from Boise, Meridian, Timberline and Mtn View High schools.

Finally arrived safely!

We arrived on time but 2 days late in Frankfurt this morning at 11:30 am.   Everyone's luggage mangaged to make it on the flight.  Our pilot pointed out right before takeoff that the plane was overweight (344 tons!) and we had to divert to the longest runway at DEN to manage to get the beast off the ground safely.  I have no idea how the flight went for most of the group on the way over as I was sitting in the middle towards the back of the 1st section of economy.  We were blessed with a Boeing 747-400 Jumbo that was outftitted with the latest technology from 1992 or so. We'll just leave it at most of us did not try to watch the movies as the 13" screens were hanging in the aisles.  We were also packed in like sardines, literally.

Everyone came off the plane in high spirits and skipped down to customs. It was a little lonely at the Flughafen, with only 2 passport control officers working and no one at the "nothing to declare" lane for customs. .  It was very funny to see our entire group stop talking the minute we came around the corner from customs.  I hope their tongues have become untied and they are getting to know their partners for the remainder of this afternoon.

Frau Burkholder, Herr Zeimentz and I took a nice walk around Hahnheim and Selzen after lunch, mainly to stop ourselves from falling asleep, although I will admit to a 15 minute catnap in a Gartenstuhl auf der Terasse.  A teacher has to catch a nap sometime, right?

Back with more tomorrow, after my brain catches up to CEZ (central European time).

Still Stuck!

Currently we are in Denver, waiting for our new, re-booked for the 3rd time flight.  Hopefully, we will make it Germany on Sunday along with our luggage.  The GAPPies wanted to know if we could stay longer, now that we will arrive on the 3rd day of our trip.  How I wish we could!

We're stuck!

Still stuck in Boise with a flight delay. Hoping after 24 hours, we will actually get underway and make the flight to Frankfurt in Denver. The kids are holding out well.  I don't think I've ever seen 1 teenage boy eat so much in such a small span of time. Yes, Patrick, I am talking about you.  :-)
Oops!  Gotta go, it's actually time to board!