Lawrence Students in Eutin (2007)
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Lawrence – Eutin High School Exchange 2007 Report The first half of the 18th exchange between Gymnasium students in Eutin, Ostholstein and high school students in Lawrence, Kansas took place in the summer of 2007. Ten students from Lawrence High School and Lawrence Free State High School flew to Germany to stay in Eutin, Ostholstein, BRD from June 1 to July 8. Their counterparts will arrive in Lawrence on Sunday, September 30 for the second half of the exchange. A stop on the first day ‘walk-about’ in the pedestrian zone in downtown Eutin: Anna, Ryan, Jordan, Will, Emily, Laura, Allie, and Nick. The ten participants are listed below with the year of school completed the week prior to departure: Laura Drees, junior, Lawrence Free State High School Emily Foerschler, junior, Lawrence Fee State High School Robert J. Woods, junior, Lawrence Free State High School Anna Kuczera, junior, Lawrence Free State High School Jordan N. Moshiri, junior, Lawrence High School Will Pendleton, sophomore, Lawrence High School Alexandra Skarka, Lawrence Free State High School Erin Tomkins senior, home schooled and Lawrence High School Ryan Towns, junior, Lawrence High School Nicholas Vetter, junior, Lawrence Free State Five orientation sessions were held, 2 hours each, monthly from January to May. Those sessions covered a range of topics from packing appropriately to discussing how to interpret new and unfamiliar experiences. Our final meeting before departure was a ‘farewell’ coffee with our families on Memorial Day, May 23, at the Foerschler home. Friedemann Eisert coordinated the exchange again this year. Specific group plans and orientation meetings were conducted by the two teachers who accompanied the students toEutin, Phyllis Farrar (German teacher at West Junior High until January 2007, the World Languages consultant at the Kansas State Department of Education) and Ursula Kuhn-Laird (German teacher at South Junior High School). Farrar escorted the students to Eutin for the first three weeks. Kuhn-Laird met the group in Berlin on the third weekend, allowing Farrar to depart for home. Kuhn-Laird supervised until the group returned to Lawrence on July 8. Four Lawrence students look for a dry bench from which to view sailboats as a ferry leaves the harbor in Kiel. Others claim a spot at the back rail. This group was given a lengthy welcome at the Rathaus on Tuesday, June 5, followed by the traditional boat excursion on the lake. (See 2 articles attached.) This first week in Eutin was busy with events organized for the Lawrence delegation celebrating Eutin 750th anniversary. On Wednesday our students attended the dedication of a sculpture, a gift from the city of Lawrence to Eutin. That evening they taught and sang “Home on the Range” to the crowd of guests attending “Kansas Night (8th German- American Evening) and were accompanied by the Eutin guitar orchestra. Exchange partners in Eutin were split between the Carl-Maria-von-Weber- Gymnasium and the Johann-Heinrich-Voss-Gymnasium, three at the former and seven at the latter. Our students initially attended classes with their exchange partner, then were given a customized schedule. Once a day we had a class period during which all the Lawrence students met with the Lawrence teacher in the Voss school. The proximity of the schools to each other makes this quite convenient. In these class meetings, we discussed cultural differences, practiced the language, and made plans for various outings. Some activities were based on the “Travel Journal” provided by GAPP. School was in session approximately four weeks following our arrival. Exchange partners gear up for the canoe trip. In spite of the sunny picture, the weather did not cooperate. Activities in and around Eutin included walking tours of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Kiel, including a trip by ferry to the war memorial at Laboe and a close-up view of sailboats under way at the Kieler Woche. The group was given a detailed tour of the Eutin Sparkasse (a bank housed in a building connecting an historical apothecary shop with a modern energy effecient structure), a guided tour of the Landtag (state parliament) in Kiel, and a canoe trip on the Schwentine (a river connecting Eutin with several area lakes.) We were also included in a school class tour of the Hundertwasser art exhibit in the Ostholstein Museum. The Guitar Orchestra invited the group to their end-of year pot luck on a country estate, sharing slides of their recent trip through the USA and Lawrence with us. July 4 was celebrated in Hansapark, an amusement park on the Baltic. The guide in Lübeck gave the group high praise for their attention to detail during their walking tour. In Berlin, after visiting the dome of the Reichstag, the group headed for the Holocaust Memorial, just a short walk beyond the Brandenburg Gate. We enjoyed a long weekend excursion to Berlin leaving Eutin on Thursday, June 21 by train and returning Monday, June 25. The group stayed four nights at Pension Rotdorn, near the Heerstrasse subway stop. On our first evening in Berlin we visited Breitscheidplatz, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche, and Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The next day we toured the Bus 100 route from Bahnhof Zoo to Alexanderplatz, exploring many points of interest between the two, including the Berliner Dom and the DDR Museum. We also visited segments of the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial, Berliner Zoo, and KaDeWe department store. Sunday included a visit to a WW II concentration camp in Sachsenhausen, north of Berlin. Emily, Laura, and Anna recognize a familiar TV show (seen in German class back in Lawrence) in a mock-up of an East German apartment. The Eutin students will arrive on Sunday, September 30, 2007 for a five-week stay. Although one of the Lawrence students was a senior in May, she is attending the University of Kansas, so her family will still host her exchange partner. Outings are planned to Kansas City and Topeka. The group will attend “the Secret Garden” at the Community Theater; a ‘private’ concert at the KU Campanile carillon has been arranged. The Eutin students will be accompanied first by Birgit Steingräber-Klinke, then by Thomas Dretzler, who teach at the Johann-Heinrich-Voss-Gymnasium. They will leave on Sunday, November 4, for a short stay in Chicago before returning to Eutin. We very much appreciate support from the Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board, German American Partnership Program, and the Max Kade Institute for this year’s exchange. Submitted by Phyllis Farrar, September 29, 2007 .