World Tour at the Language Villages

Today was International Day (i-day) at the Concordia Language Villages. We got to spend most of the day visiting two of the fifteen different languages offered at these camps. We started out at Lac du Bois, the French camp, where we got to be part of a ceremony that honored their 50th year as a language camp. They now have three different sites just for French!



I was blown away the minute we walked into the camp, from a remake of the Eiffel tour to the replica French building where the dining hall was housed. I would have thought I was in Paris if I didn't know any better. The whole idea was captivating, the idea and vision that these founders had was unbelievable. They were truly ahead of their time and still go above and beyond any other language program. During the ceremony, different people shared their personal experiences of Lac du Bois and how it had changed their entire life, whether they came as a three year old camper or weren't introduced to the program until they were already in a foreign language teaching position. The emotion that was conveyed though their messages, and the way it affected me, reaffirms that I couldn't be in a better position. It is so awesome to see that so many people share my passion for language as well as teaching.

So we enjoyed some wonderful French cuisine, oh I should mention that the campers are submersed in the food culture as well. They are introduced to all sorts of foods that the cultures of their language have to offer. Delicious!



After that we headed to Waldsee, the German site, to celebrate and explore all that International Day had to offer! Going to the German site was a special treat for me because I could get a grasp on just how accurate these camps are. I felt like I had flown back to Germany. From the street signs, to the building structures, to the recycling bins, they have thought out every single aspect of the camp to make it as real as possible.


We were greeted by 10 different sites, including Spanish, French, German, Norwegian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and more! Each group entered with their own chant in their corresponding language with motions and dance moves too. It was such an amazing experience to see all of these kids speaking different languages, yet coming together to celebrate each and every culture represented. Such an amazing day! So inspirational and exciting to see full emersion at its best!





Each language site was able to come up their own presentation of how they wanted to demonstrate culture found in their language. Pictures above show a Chinese interpretive dance with oriental fans as well as a Chinese dragon, and a Spanish Flamenco group wearing the authentic polkadot outfits! Amazing how they can transform these kids in just two to four weeks!

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Location:Bemidji, Minnesota

'Sightrunning' in Bamberg

So for my last day in Bamberg I thought it would be fun to do the 'sightrunning' tour that the tourist office offered. You may be wondering..what the heck is that? And it is exactly what it sounds like..a running sight seeing adventure of Bamberg. I went and signed up yesterday but when I got there today with my ticket, the 'running guide' didn't know a word of English. Hmmm I thought...well what can be the harm in it we'll just run and use lots of hand gestures. And that is exactly what we did.

Now, I guess I should have thought this through a little more before I signed up to do this in one of the hilliest cities in the world...but I survived! So my guide and I, oh did I mention I'm the only one on the tour, which was probably good because our German/English sign language would have been lost on anyone else!!









So this is my guide. Notice that he is in front of me and a very old man! Hats off to him because he is in amazing shape...he hardly broke a sweat until the half hour mark! We trotted all around the city. At the beginning, the lady in the tourist office told me that he was excited to show me the whole city, especially from up above..oh goody, more hills!








We went up to where the monastery was as well as the oldest and newest churches. The first one was built close to the year 1000 AD (numbers and years were easy because all languages have fingers to count on)!!

While we were up there we also went to the rose garden again and we even 'stopped running to smell the roses' haha!









He also showed me some magnificent views from above the city. I don't think I could have ever found that place without a local. We were up and down all kinds of side streets, but it made me pretty knowledgeable of the layout of Bamberg.








Four miles and an hour later we had had a great time together, even though I was huffing and puffing the whole way. It is a great way to see the city...even if the locals look at you like your nuts as they order their next beer!!

Tschüs Germany! It's been great! And thanks for such an awesome time Jim! I had a blast!

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Location:Bamburg, Germany

Touring Berlin by Bike

We thought it might be nice to experience Berlin on bikes even though the weather had been a bit iffy. And what a great idea! We took the 'Fat Tire Bike Tours' and our tour guide was an Irishman who had moved to Berlin a few years ago and really new his German history. He took us all around the city, stopping at all of the important stops, but the nice thing was that we never got tired bc the bike got us everywhere so fast!






First off was the 'Dom' (cathedral). It was so beautiful and surrounded by water, like it was in it's own little island. (That's our tour guide by the way). At this stop he also talked about the 'TV Tower' which was built when the East and West were split. Supposedly they were competing with each other for who could have the tallest building.





We then went off to see some other sights one really interesting one being 'Hitler's Bunker' where he spent the last 6 weeks of his life before he committed suicide. The bunker had walls and ceilings that were about 10 feet thick. The whole thing had to be destroyed and nothing remains because they want no reason for someone to put up a remembrance of such a horrible person. He then took us to a watch tower to show us how small they really were. They had no heat and unimaginably cold. You were given some whiskey when on duty to take off the chill.





After we headed to the Jewish memorial that was quite fascinating. It takes up over 5 acres of land in the middle of the city. It is designed with large gray blocks mostly 4'x6' and ranged in height. Some you could easily sit on while others were way above your head. As you walked into the middle of it you seemed to get a sense of disorientation, maybe a portrayal of what the Jewish people were feeling as they walked into the camps (just speculation).











Our last stop was a big grassy knoll in the middle of many old, beautifully constructed buildings. It was a perfect place to end the tour and thank God for such a beautiful day! We could not have asked for better weather!! We all bought ponchos just in case, but we didn't even need them!

Location:Downtown Berlin, Germany

Berlin Wall

What an amazing experience it was to go to the Berlin Wall. I had never really thought to much about it, I was only 3 years old when the wall came down in 1989, but I am amazed at all that I learned. It was also quite shocking that this wall only came down about 20 years ago. It's like I was standing in the making of history. Usually in our history lessons, we talk about something that happened many many years ago, but this is history that the people of Berlin are still trying to work through. Unreal.

So we went to three different parts of the wall during our stay in Berlin. First, we traveled to a part where you could see the separation between the two walls and all of the obstacles that one would have to go through to escape. They also had a look out tour that you could climb up into so that you could get a bird's eye view of what it looked like as a whole.

We then headed over to Checkpoint Charlie (the American checkpoint between East and West). There were pictures there showing how people used to try to fit into compartments in cars, disguises, anything to get across to the other side. We even heard a story of a man who took a woman across who looked like his wife, stole her passport and brought his wife back instead (a date gone really wrong)!

Saving the best for last, we then headed to the largest remaining part of the wall that is now called the 'East Side Gallery'. Many artists have come from all around the world writing and painting inspirational murals on the walls. I would say it goes a good mile long and demonstrates the freedom and 'life' that the East Berliners now have. Beautiful.

We also wanted to learn a little more about the Communist lifestyle and how it affected the East. So we stopped by this great museum called the 'DDR' (Deutsche Democratic Republic). It was such an interesting Museum that explained the 'Brain Drain' and how the Communists tried to keep everyone under them. They censored most types of music from the West, all newspapers that did not share their political views and were only allowed to travel in other Communist countries. Again, I cannot believe that this was going on right here in Germany just 20 years ago. Unbelievable.

Ohhh Hamberg!

We checked into our 'psychedelic' hostel in Hamberg and were very interested in seeing what this place was about. We met our new friend Peter who had designed each and every one of the rooms with a different, over-the-top theme. Jim's room had one whole wall of zebra wall paper, while our room was decked out in bright pink, flowers, and beads over the window. A very fun place to be!





We then hit the streets to
explore. Unfortunately Mother Nature wanted to rain on our parade. With umbrellas out and rain coats on, we headed down to see the harbor. We decided to sit on one of the floating docks under cover and have some fish and chips (we were told that we needed to try to seafood). Pretty delicious.



Once the rain calmed down we walked around the city and found a 'beach party'. Since it's cold most of the time and there aren't to many beaches found in Germany, they like to recreate the beach scene in the center of town. They have music, lounge chairs, and little cabana bars posted up in the center square. The funny thing about it was..right as we were going to sit down and enjoy, a torrential rain storm came up! So we retreated inside.

The next morning we went downtown to explore some of the things our travel book told us not to miss. One of them was the in the Platz der Kinder, 'The Bullenhuser Damm Memorial', which is a rose garden planted in honor of children who were subject to medical experiments during WWII. The designer of this memorial did a great job putting up plaques in honor of each child as well as a description of who they were and where they came from. It was a very sad memorial, but opened our eyes to the injustice that was happening. It was kind of surreal because there is a playground located right behind the memorial, so as you are walking through you hear children laughing in the background and playing. I think it is a sign that gives us hope for a better future.


We also visited the 'Planten un Bloomen' which is the biggest Japanese Garden in all of Europe. The rain held off just long enough for us to enjoy and then we headed off to our last stop BERLIN!!!



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Location:Hamburg,Germany

We're on a boat...in Köln

First of all, we must discuss the hostel that we stayed at in Köln. It was situated in the middle of a community living building, and each room was designed by a different young artist. We were cool enough to stay in the 'tree' room. We had large pieces of bark painted all different crazy colors hanging on the wall and on the opposite side, petrified wood went from ceiling to floor with an interesting 'forestesque' background. Quite interesting, and a really nice place to stay!!


While driving into town we saw a breathtaking view of the cathedral and knew that that had to be our first stop. We headed down to the 'Dom' and tried to take in the massiveness of this place. It was so beautiful. We took a self guided tour around the inside and reveled in all of the stained glass windows that surrounded us. The pipe organ also accompanied our visit. Very pleasant indeed! As we walked out the other side, we finally found a view where we could try to capture the whole thing in one photo (still very difficult to do).


After that we walked down to the river where we met up with the Rhine again and decided to take a little boat cruise. We really wanted to get some views of the city from the water. I really liked the way the harbor was lined with both new and old architecture. My favorites were these buildings that literally hung over the water and as you went up the elevator you could see out over the entire river.


Right next to those were old warehouses that were converted into luxury apartments. Very cute!


As the boat turned around at the other end of the river we also got amazing views of the cathedral and downtown Köln. Thank you sun for coming out during our boat tour so we didn't freeze to death!



Oh yeah and p.s. this how Jim likes to sightsee!! Just kidding! He was just taking in some much needed rays of sunshine!!



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Location:Köln, Germany

Location:Köln, Germany

Off to Heidelberg

So I think we all agree that Heidelberg is one of the CUTEST cities we've ever been to. It's right in the Rhine River and almost all of the houses are over 300 years old. It was one of the only cities that was not destroyed during the war because all of the bridges were blown up so that the enemy could not get across to the city.


We climbed to the top of the city where we toured the famous Heidelberg castle and took in some amazing views of the city. Inside the castle was one of the biggest wine barrels ever made. In it's working days it held something like 220,000 liters of wine. This was made yearly for whoever lived in the castle at the time.


There were ballrooms and bedrooms that were decorated to the 'T'. My favorite was the one with the mauve spiral staircase going throughout (pictured here).


Our hostel was perfectly positioned in the center of town and we could walk to all the sites. They even had a deal on 'schnitzel', and we really liked it! I would say the first day of our tour was quite a success!

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Location:Heidelberg, Germany