Already in Munich!

Where has this week gone? We're writing to you from Munich, now. Yesterday we spent the day in Dresden, where we just soaked in the history of the city, observed the beauty in the architecture, and walked along old cobble-stone streets. We have many pictures to put up, and today forgot the camera when we left for the internet cafe. I'm hoping you all are currently getting emails from the students.

I also want to let you know about something else we've been experimenting with over the past few days. Frau Meyers had an excellent idea to play a little game where for a certain part of the day, the students can ONLY speak German. So, the first day, she had them speak from lunch until dinner, and whoever went the longest without saying a word in English wins. The first day we played, Renae won, and yesterday Ryan was the winner. The best part isn't about who wins, but that we've been hearing so much more German now. Even when we're not playing, even when someone gets out of the game by slipping up by speaking English, they keep speaking German! It's wonderful to hear, and was an genious idea by Frau Meyers.

Today, we did something I think was exactly what we all needed. We spent most of the day on the bus. We rode from Dresden to Nuremberg for 3.5 hours, and then did a short tour with the tour guide, a bus tour of the Nazi Rally grounds, and then shopped and ate a little before getting back on the bus to go to Munich (another 2.5 hours). After all of the walking over the past days, it was nice to get a load off our feet for a day and relax and take in the hilly Bavarian countryside.

We are now checked into our Munich hostel, and are hopefully refreshed enough to go on a looong (nearly all-day) walking tour of the city. Frau Meyers, Ellie Meyers, and I also want you all to know just how thankful we are to have these kids on our trip. They are all so responsible, eager to learn, respectful, and are just plain funny at times. The group has really gotten along well with each other, and all of this has made this week go by so smoothly. It looks like I will be able to finally get some pictures up tomorrow, so until then, we bid you all a good night!