Saturday, June 23 - Gabe

Today was a super sad and emotional day.  We are leaving our host families and taking a very long train so Salzburg, Austria.  Almost everyone cried except Caleb.  After the extremely long train trip, we arrived at Salzburg JUFA Youth Hostel and ate dinner.  After checking in to our rooms we went downstairs and hung out to watch Germany win their match.  We hung out in the rain on the patio and celebrated before returning to our rooms for a night of rest.

Saturday, June 23 - Gareth

Today is the first day away from our homestay.  We all had to say goodbye at the train station and it was really sad for everyone.  It was really hard to leave my partner Clara and her parents Frank, Suzanne, and Phillip.  We had an 8 hour train ride.  We had a little stressful moment on the train when we ended up in the wrong cart of the train and we had to drag our suitcases through the crowd.  It was awkward.  The train ride got better once we got settled and we played Head's Up and other games on the train.  We got to Salzburg, Austria and the hostel around 7.  We had dinner and then settled into our rooms.  We watched the World Cup and Germany won their game that night! I am excited for travel week.

Bettkastel 2018 Slideshow

All of the kids were asked to submit photos they took during the homestay and Kat and Kira put them into a slideshow that we played on Thursday night during the farewell party.  

Friday, June 22 - Elisha

School today was soooooo boring.  All everyone did was sit around and hang out if they didn't go to church to wait for their final grades, so I stayed in the classroom to do my bullet journal for July, which was peaceful.  The last day of school seemed like ours in watching the seniors leave, except everyone seemed like a senior.  Everyone in GAPP met up at a local ice cream shop down the hill form the school for a treat, which turned into a 2 hour hangout, but it was very nice.  After eating and talking, half of us walked to a local grocery store to buy snacks.  German grocery stores have a lot better food than us, and they are just cooler in general, but not sure how though.  The shelves seem shorter than American grocery store shelves and there's no aisle just for cereal!  I'm not sure how they live without cereal, but they do.  They have a super small selection of boxed mixes for cakes, muffins, etc, which was nice to see compared to us having anything you can think of in a box.

Our original plan was to see a German rapper in Saarbrueken that night with Mona and Hannah but we were all too tired so we just went to the big shopping are with Gabe and Flo tagging along.  We all rode the train together and we split into two groups where we all just shopped.  I spent 70 Euros on one sweater and have no regrets.  We went into H&M and all tried on ice cream hats and played awards with them.  We almost missed the train again (we nearly miss it almost every time), so we had to walk really fast and we made it.  When we got back home we went to the local garden to meet up with everyone again and have one last hangout in Germany.  We played star tipping and took Polaroids of whoever got spinned to make them blind and dizzy and to get a funny Polaroid out of it.  We all made our way to the Doener and pizza shop to eat and get warmed up since it was colder out.  This night was also a bittersweet moment.  At midnight everyone sang happy birthday to me and gave me a big group hug and then everyone gave me a hug individually.  They planned that beforehand and it made me cry.  I usually hate my birthday but everyone in GAPP made it the best one yet.

Friday, June 22: Last day of school @ VdL - Peter

We started the day off by going to a church service dedicated to the students moving up by graduating their grade.  We later went to school for the students to get their report cards.  Their grades go from a 1 -15 with 15 being the best.  After all of the school stuff we went to go eat ice cream with the big group and then I hung out with some of Seb's friends.  At night we had a party with the Americans and the Germans at the Orangerie.  Late at night we decided to star tipping which was really fun, then we wished Elisha a happy birthday by singing to her at midnight.  We then called it a night and said goodbye to some of the people we wouldn't see at the train station the next day.

Thursday, June 21: Kira (Farewell Abend)

Thursday morning we went to school and practiced for our "talent" show that night and then I went to go play a game for the last lesson of the day.  We played a game from France where you had to throw a big ball as close to a smaller ball as you can.  My team lost but it was really fun!

(NB from Frau S:  today was "Wandertag" at school, so there were no classes.  Each class decided with their form (homeroom teachers) what they were going to do for the day.  Frau Buhr's 7th grade decided to hike and then get ice cream after, the 5th graders were playing group games such as tug-o-war and blind man's bluff, the 10th grade was learning how to play boules).

Bettkastel 2018!

Later that night, we had our goodbye party.  We had Emma singing "Riptide", the Spice Girls, Drew sang "Demons", Peter played guitar, Gabe sang "A Whole New World", Emma and Drew sang a duet and then our group dance.  Everyone did really well and the Germans loved it!  We also had a fingerfood buffet and gave our host moms flowers and just hung out talking about the trip.  It was bittersweet because it was so much fun but it reminded us we have to say goodbye in a couple of days.

I am definitely going to miss my host family, more than I thought I would, but I am excited for travel week!

Thursday, June 21: Selfie Day!

Hannah & Mona

Thursday was Selfie Day, so I asked the students to take a selfie with their partners to put up on the blog.  I have to transfer pictures from my phone, but here are a few to get started...

Clarah & Jill

Zoe & Pauline

Drew and Sofia

Gareth & Clara R.

Kat & Sophie

Elisha & Clara K.

Izzy & Michi (Michelle)

Gabe & Florian

Peter & Sebastian

Emma & Nalie