GAPP 07 Journal Assignment:
July 3 Jordan Shultz
July 4 Jenny Mosier
July 5 Greg Kedenburg
July 6 Andy Richardson
July 7 Meaghan O’Rourke
July 9 Jordan Nohle
July 10 Kristey Simmons
July 3 Jordan Shultz
So we all met at 10:30am at the Syracuse airport. It was my first time riding on a plane so I was nervous. The first plane was very small. It was a smooth flight. We landed in Detroit, then we had a long four hour lay over. Most of us went to eat, or shop, while some people (Mr.Juczak) took a nap. The second plane was a very nice plane equipped, with T.V.'s and about twenty movies, and games. The second plane ride was the longest flight, it was about eight hours long. They served us dinner, and breakfast on the plane. For dinner we had chicken with a weird tasting rice with a packet of cheese. For breakfast we were served a dry egg and cheese sandwich on an English muffin, yogurt, and a fruit cup. Since I was sleeping when they brought breakfast, I only got to eat yogurt before they took my plate. We arrived in Amsterdam and had to get our carry-on rechecked and our passports stamped. There was a layover about an hour long, so some of us got something to eat. Since we weren't used to the layover, some of us had burgers for breakfast. The third plane was small and old. It was different than the other two because we took a bus to the plane and walked up the stairs rather than going to the actual terminal. They served us a little meal of two sandwiches and a drink. When we arrived in Bremen we had to retreve our luggage and find Frau Prekel. We only had to wait about 15 minutes then we got on our bus which was the final leg of the trip to Emden. The bus ride was about 2 hours long. We arrived in Emden to see all of our German partners hold colorful signs and gifts. We went home with our families, got tours of our town, and houses. We met our families and began our month long stay in Emden.
July 4 Jenny Mosier
Today was our first day at school. There are lots of people including a plethora of obnoxious middle schoolers. The people aren’t as considerate in the hallways as they are in the United States. They push and shove and hit your bag, and then they never apologize or say excuse me. I never thought of American high schoolers as being polite, but compared to these students, we are angels. I also thought it was strange that the other German students scarcely noticed us. When the Germans come to our school, I’m sure everyone will turn and notice them.
My host family is very nice. I still feel rather uncomfortable, but I’m sure time will cure that. My host sister’s little brother is always peaking around the corner at me. He’s so cute! If he can’t find me he says “wo ist Jenny?!” We all eat breakfast and dinner using little cutting boards rather than plates. I love them; they’re so adorable.
My biggest adventure happened that evening. Kristina, my partner, and I biked to the welcome party at Amke’s. Unfortunately, the bikes here are mammoth! They don’t make them for 5’ almost 2” Americans. I couldn’t even get on the first bike. By the sweet grace of God I managed to get on the second bike, albeit wobbling and almost crashing in to the shrubbery and Kristina for a few seconds until I steadied myself. Kristina traveled there really slowly. Kellie and I found out afterward that they were going slowly because we Americans couldn’t handle it! Pish posh. It’s a lot easier to bike on this flat land than it is where we are from. When Kristina and I finally arrived at Amke’s I knew getting off the bike was going to be bad. I’m embarrassed to say that I fell right over. What made it worse was that I was laughing hysterically and she was not. When it was time to go home, Kellie tried pulling me up on my bike, and then my guest father came over and picked me up and put me on.... how embarrassing but really quite funny.
From now on I’ll request to speak more of the German language. My partner is so excited about speaking English that it’s it makes speaking German even more difficult. Today there was a crying child sitting on the back of his mother’s bike. Oddly enough, I found comfort knowing that no matter what language the people are speaking, babies still cry in the same language.
July 5 Greg Kedenburg
Rathaus On July 5th, the GAPPers all took a trip the mayor’s house of Emden. We got there by walking through the city, while also looking at the sights and finding out other information about the city. We eventually ended up in the Rathaus, or CIty Hall. There, we were treated to tea and buttered raisin bread. The tea was superfantasticidocious, and I unfortunatley did not get a piece of the bread because of the hoggish habits of Mike Baszto. Then, we listened to a speech given by the vice mayor of the city, as the more important mayor apparently had a more pressing engagement. The speech was translated by Frau Juczak, and she did a fantastic job I might add. Then, I was forcibly (by Frau) made to stand in front of various individuals that I did not know, and read a letter from Barry Ormsby in a language that half of them did not understand. Seemed kind unnecessary when you think about it, however politically correct.
July 6 Andy Richardson
On the sixth of July we went to the VW plant in Emden. The tour was interesting in that they showed how they make the chassis for the Passat Variant and the Passat Limo. For me the plant was awesome because my father works on the finished product back home at FX Caprara when there is a problem and for service. Contrary to popular belief the plant is all animated except for one building where the assembly line is not operated by robots but by people who put on the finishing touches on the engine and the chassis. The way the chassis is put together is by robot spot and laser welding. The laser welding is very dangerous to humans because of the zinc given off by the galvanized welding stops oxygen flow to a person’s respiratory system. But this process apparently is more efficient and uses less energy.
Instead of training their personnel for all car creation, VW instead basically trains their personnel to be computer technicians to operate the robots on the assembly line. Those robots are all connected to a computer box that lists the function of that robot and what that each one is doing. In the plant there is even an automated parts carrying system that uses little “floor” robots to carry parts to different places on the assembly floor. These robots are “smart”, they will not run into you or run into obstacles because they have seeing sensors and touch sensors in the front of the robot at floor level.
The tour finished with a visit to the employee lunchroom where we ate and got some souvenirs from the tour. What I think is that mechanics should visit these car plants to see what and how a car is made so they can service them better.
July 7 Meaghan O’Rourke
Germany is amazing. It is almost too difficult to describe in words, how awesome it is. I have yet to find something negative and no anticipation of doing so either. I am so grateful to our teachers, the Juczaks, Herr Bingle (Vati), and all of our parents who have put so much endless work and effort into this phenomenal trip of a lifetime. Vielen Dank.
Out of all the cultural differences, the arhitecture seems to be what fascinates me the most- at least so far. Everything here seems to be fancier, maybe it’s just the appeal of having gone across an entire ocean for the first time, but I’m not sure. All of the houses, both old and new, are made of brick or some other kind of stone. The refrigerator in the ktichen is designed (well almost disguised is almost a better word) to be a part of the kitchen cabinetry; the concept of this is a bit interesting to me. Even going into public buildings things seem to be a bit... well I want to say ritzier looking; yet the atmosphere is relaxed.
Riding bikes to most every place is definitely a staple in the North German lifestyle. In fact, Mr. Bingle had talked it up so much, this is definitely among the things on my “must do” list; however, the average German, I’d say is no shorter than five foot six, which is undoubtedly much taller than the four foot ten inches I stand at. Because of this height diffrence, I have yet to ride my bike to school or into town, as they have all been much too large for me! My unsuccessful attempts to simply ride the bikes out of the driveway have been quite humorous, but Frau Prekel’s bike seems to fit me well.
So far as a group we have had tea with the assistant mayor, Frau Risius; toured the Rathaus Museum, and also toured the Volkswagon Factory (as the vehicles are manufactured in the city). In the upcoming weeks we have scheduled trips to Hamburg and Bremen. I have also already done so much with my host family. In fact today, I went into the Netherlands with my family. What surprised me most, was that they do not always check or have a customs point to go through at the border.
Hopefully all is well for all of you back home. Bis spaeter!
July 10 Kristey Simmons
The day started with getting up at 6:00am. Took a shower, got ready, ate breakfast, and packed my bag with everything I would need for the day’s activities. This day was going to be full of lots of walking, miniature trains, shopping, eating, and dancing.
We all met at school at 7:30am. We were cold and tired. Everyone loaded up the bus and we were on our way to Hamburg. On the three and a half hour bus ride, we discovered the bathroom that was located in the bottom of the bus and were already planning to eat at McDonalds for lunch.
When we arrived at 11:00am, the sun was shining and was the perfect day for an outing. First, we went to Miniatur Wunderland. A museum for miniature trains. Here we saw tiny towns, fairs, and cities. We saw professionals building a new landscape and we enjoyed seeing different lands sculpted with tiny figurines. There were fairs, ski slopes, saloons, harbors, and country sides. We got to see the control room where these little machines were powered from.
At 1:00pm, we headed to the harbor. At 1:15pm, we set loose to go get lunch. Finding out that McDonalds was a thirty minute walk, some of us settled down at a small cafe. After eating pommes frites mit majo [french fries with mayo], we got ready to head back to the harbor. As we headed out, our beautiful day turned into a wet and rainy one. A couple of us huddled under an umberella of a small cafe. There we bought some ice cream to wait for the rain to let up.
At 2:15pm, we headed to the docking station. After a couple of minutes of searching for our boat and boarding a couple of the wrong ones, we found our boat. This boat was called “Anita”. After everyone found a seat, we pulled out and headed out on our tour of the warehouse island district within the city. During this tour we went through an old lock, where the government used to check boats before leaving and entering the harbor. The locks also control the water level within the harbor, which has tidal level changes daily even though the city and harbor of Hamburg are 60 miles from the open sea. It is technically on the Elbe River, although it is Germany’s biggest port city. Then we turn the corner and there we find the huge ships. Some are used for the German Navy. On them, there were bright orange life boats that looked like little submarines. The captain told us that these life boats are the safest method used today. Towards the end of our tour, we pass one of the largest container carrier ships. This ship carried 6800 containers in one load. One container goes on one tractor trailer. As we pull into our dock, we see a Lion King shuttle boat. This was carrying passengers over to the Lion King Theater that was on an island in the middle of the harbor.
At 4:00pm, we were let loose again. But this time it was to go shopping. After riding on a subway for the first time, we headed off to the shops.We stopped at a gummi bear shop, a couple of clothing stores, McDonalds, and a book store. We turn back to go to the theater. After almost getting lost in the subway, we come to the theater just in time!
We went inside and found our seats. The show, ‘Dirty Dancing’ by Eleanor Bergstein, started. Remind you it was in German. So it was a good thing that most of us had seen the movie a couple times before hand. Because if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have a had a clue what was going on. At 10:00pm, we went into intermission. During our ten minute break, we stretched our legs, ate, went to the WC, and bought some souvenirs. Then we had to go back to our seats to watch the rest of the show. It was really cool, especially the mobile multi-media sets.
At 11:45pm, we pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. There are a lot of people sleeping and the people who aren’t, are finding someone to sing with and make noise. We are expected to pull into the school parking lot at 2:00am. Thank the Lord that we aren’t expected to be to school until fourth period tomorrow!
July 12 Jennie Illingworth
Today we visited the Papenburg-Meyer Shipyard after school. It was about an hour an a half bus ride from Emden. When we first arrived we were taken into a large corridor where our tour guide told us about the ships they build. He showed us models progressing from the first ship the company built in the 1700’s to the latest model. They have just finished building the AIDA-DIVA in April from where it traveled to Palma de Mallorca. The shipyard is also building a ship for Walt Disney World that has a theme of ‘Remember the 30’s’. They have orders in place through 2012. Each ship costs around 315,00,000 Euros or ~ $400,000,000 and takes about a year and a half to build.
We then proceeded to view the ships now being built. The ships are constructed from large pieces of metal that are cut within a fingernail’s width of precision to form the curves of the hull. This must be constructed very precisely. The AIDA-BELLA is an immense cruise ship that will be finished in April 2008. Each ship holds over 2000 passengers and 1000 crew members. Inside it is like a small city with restaurants, tennis courts, stages for entertainment, and exercising centers, all of which are made and installed there. We all learned a lot from this trip and I thought it was very interesting and something I have never learned before.
