2023 Blog
D303 German Exchange Program
Since 2011 St. Charles East and North high schools have provided our German language students with a rare opportunity: to experience school and life in Germany for 3 weeks. GAPP in this case does not mean a hole in your learning, but stands for German-American Partnership Program. Through GAPP, North Stars and Saints live with a host family of a student who attends our partner school, Sankt Ansgar Schule (SAS). In the fall, the SAS students visit St. Charles to attend East and North. This 2-way exchange creates lifelong friendships overseas. SAS is a private, Catholic Gymnasium, which is a college preparatory school from grades 5-12 with around 800 students. During this 3-week exchange, students follow their hosts to their classes and participate in the lessons. Improving students' German language, experiencing German culture, making new friends and memories are all advantages of the GAPP exchange. We also have lots of fun with field trips and activities as you will see through the following student blog posts.
D303 German Exchange Program
A GAPP in your Education
After stopping in Ireland we arrived in Hamburg
I arrived in Germany on Saturday after a long flight. Everyone from Sankt Ansgar Schule was waiting in the airport to greet everyone from Saint Charles. All the exchange partners had signs made and were very excited to see us. Afterwards, we went home with our families. I was very tired but even so, I felt very welcomed and accommodated by my family. We had a welcome dinner that was very good and started doing activities right away. On the second day, we had a good dinner to celebrate my host partner's grandma's birthday. Before, during and after this I spent time with my host partner and her brother to grow closer bonds and get to know them much better. So far the exchange program has been fun, interesting, and I have been able to form stronger connections with my host partner even after only one day of being in Germany and I cannot wait to see what the next two weeks have for me.
~Declan Brown
DAY 1
DAY 2
First day of School
Today was the first day of school! We got a quick tour of the buildings and we met some of the teachers here too. There are a lot of breaks in between classes, which is really nice. The day goes by really quick too. After school, a lot of people got Starbucks and went to the mall. Later in the evening we also had a picnic and the food was realllyy good- there were so many pretzels and different German foods to try. All of the students played soccer, football, and volleyball together whenever we weren't eating. The whole day was really fun!
~Norah Rooney
DAY 3 - City Scavenger Hunt
Today was the second day of school, so we experienced several new classes each. After school we all competed in the Hamburg Rally, a city-wide location hunt. The first location was Dockland, an office building that looks like a ship and is in the harbor. The Rally caused us to use Hamburg's public transport system, including the trains, buses and ferry. This eventually lead us to the Hamburg Town Hall. After we got to all the locations, and took pictures, we had to turn the paper in and see who won.
~Benjamin Morton
DAY 4 - Bullenhuser Damm
Today was a very fun day at school! We had our first hour meeting with the Americans and we were able to talk about some of the experiences we’ve had so far! After this I had religion class and I met my partners class teacher, Herr Vehmeyer. This teacher is Hungarian as well as German and we were able to connect because of this. We talked a bit during class and we got to know each others' backgrounds in relation to being Hungarian. I was surprised to hear that he had been to my tiny village in Hungary with less than 500 people! This is very uncommon because many people have never heard of my village. Not only had he been to my village, but he had also stayed in my grandparents guest home and he had met them and talked to them! He remembered many things about them and it was very interesting to hear about his time with them. After this class, we went to Sport Klasse and we played dodgeball which was very fun. The rules are slightly different here than in America but I think we all found the German version a lot more fun. After school we had a trip to the Bullenhuser Damm memorial and Rose Garden for the Children of Bullenhuser Damm. Here we learned about a small snippet of the tragedies that people faced during the Holocaust. This memorial focused on the children and prisoners who were sent here for execution. The children were sent here after a deranged Nazi doctor had done elaborate tests on them to attempt to cure tuberculosis. The memory of the children and prisoners of the Bullenhuser Damm lives on through sharing their devastating story with the world so that they will never be forgotten. In the rose garden memorial we can see small plaques to commemorate each child and prisoner. Each individual plaque is written in the vernacular of the child or prisoner. Anyone may plant a rose in the rose garden in memory of the victims.
~Anna Buvary
Rose garden at Bullenhuser Damm
DAY 5 - 6/8/23 Miniatur Wunderland
On Thursday at Sankt Ansgar Schule we had a long school day (8:15-4:00). As usual, the Americans went to our classroom to talk about our "Roses + Thorns." My takeaway that day was that many Germans don't walk their dogs on leashes even though they are typically such big rule followers. After 1st hour, Evan, Hayden, Declan and I went to our classroom for a two hour long class. After this class we had an hour long lunch break and hung out until we had to go back to class. After school we all took the train to the Miniatur Wunderland, which is a model train world with exhibits from all over the world. Everyone split up and looked at things at their own pace. My favorite was the huge mountains that were really only as tall as me. When we left it was hectic because some people had to take a different train as our group got split up in the traffic. In the end, we all made it back to our host partners and went home. That night I went straight to bed because the whole week was so fun but also exhausting.
~Madison Loveland
On Friday we and our partners were excused from school so we could go on an excursion to Bremen. We got on the train at about 8:30 and arrived in Bremen about an hour and a half later. The excursion began with a tour which took us to notable churches and political structures dating back hundreds of years. We learned about the history of Bremen and its repeated religious conversion. We were also given a tour to look at stores and apartments in the old medieval section of Bremen, which all had their own unique history. After the tour Philip, Olaf, Johann and I went to get Starbucks and explore the rest of the city. We went to what seemed to be an underground mall and bought water guns to mess with Evan and Rocco. After we got back to Hamburg, I went with my partner to get ice cream, where we saw smoke coming from Hafen city and got alerts on our phones. It turned out to be a fire at a construction site. Overall it was a really fun day and Bremen seemed very interesting.
~Keelen Kassenbrock
DAY 6 - Bremen
DAY 7- Beach Day
Today I went to the beach with my host family for the first time here! The weather was very nice so we went swimming for a little while. After that we went to a restaurant on the beach for lunch and walked around for a little while. It was a really fun day and I'm looking forward to the rest of our time here. So far Germany is great! My favorite things to do are explore new cities and try new foods.
~Mia Clark
Day 8
On this day the German students had a concert and it was amazing. They had rock bands that played American classics with some insane vocalists and guitarists, but the highlight of the night was absolutely when the band played Hotel California and the drummers and guitarist went absolutely ham and shredded that song. The next group of people to play were the concert bands and they did amazing, they also played with some amazing tone and quality. Their woodwinds were the best and played with such amazing sound quality and vigor that they sounded like the best band there.
~Ben Cooper
Today was an awesome day in the GAPP program, as well as the beginning of the second and final full week with our host families! There wasn’t a dull moment for multiple reasons..
First off, it’s a Monday, the first day of the week, and that means that it’s back to school! But.. we’re all still kinda getting used to how school works here in Germany, so we’re all sticking together and joking around with our buddies while they continue to show us around and help us understand how everything works like they’ve been doing so expertly so far. And… that’s pretty much our whole morning and the start of our afternoon, until we all met up to head off to the Chocoversum!
It was everything that we’d all been hoping for and then some more, even though we had to split up into two groups. The tour though the exhibit that showed off every stage of chocolate production, from the coco plant to the finished product, was masterfully made and easy to understand, as well as the added addition of making our own chocolate bars along the way. By the end, I’d dare say that each of us had a new appreciation for the complex process that goes into making that delicious treat, and we all made sure to get some for the road at the end of the tour.
~ Hayden Techter
Day 9 - Chocoversum
DAY 10 - School day
Today was just a normal school day for me so here are some of the classes we had. First, all the American students meet up and practice the presentations we are giving tomorrow on minority communities in America. After that I went to geography class where the teacher had us point out our county and talk about the heritage that we see most represented in that county. After geography we had a 20 minute break where we all hang out and eat snacks. After that we had French class, one thing that I find interesting is how many languages Germans learn. It's common for them to learn at least 3 languages usually consisting of English, French, and Spanish. Then we had religion class where the whole class went to the church. The last class of the day was German which is like their English class for us. They got into groups and made scripts to make a play on the text they were reading from. After school me and my exchange partner went to get ice cream and then we finally took the train home and hung out there the rest of the night.
~Abby Schuldt
DAY 11- School Day
Today was just a regular school day. We didn't have anything planned for after school. I had chemistry for the first time and the teacher asked us a bunch of questions and we could only speak in German which was pretty difficult but definitely useful. Our presentations were today and I think they went pretty well. The class that I went to was great. I exchanged numbers with a really nice girl who spoke pretty good English and the teacher in that class was amazing. She was so cool and asked a lot of questions. After school, Emilia and I went to the mall which they have a bunch of. And I got a book that I've been wanting for a while and a couple gifts for my family. Then we went home for a bit and ate some food. When her parents got home we drove to the Stadtpark and had a bit of a picnic and played some games. After that, we went out to this Turkish restaurant and had some really good food that was almost entirely meat but with a really good salad. We went home and I called my mom for the first time since coming to Germany. I got to see my cat which was really sad because I haven't seen her in far too long. After that I just went to sleep because it had been a very long day.
-Roan Collyer
DAY 12 - School Day
Thursday wasn't too exciting overall. It was just another regular school day and I was bouncing around classes like usual. We had to present our presentations, Keelan, Charlie, and I. We presented on the Latin American population in the United States in Olaf and Phillip's class. Their teacher is really nice but there weren't many questions afterwards. After school, Olaf, his Parents, and I all went to the Hamburger Mile, a mall about roughly a mile long and we walked around for a while. I ended up purchasing a Lego set which I do not regret in the slightest. We got dinner at an Afghani restaurant and it was really good food. I believe what I had was called mantu. Afterwards me and Olaf went back to his house and we chilled for the rest of the night. It had been a long day considering we had gotten up at 6:30 and went to bed at like 23:30 or so. Overall it was a fun day.
~Evan Lagana
Day 13 - Lübeck
Today, we took an hour long train ride to a town near Hamburg called Lübeck. On the train, I sat with Sophie, Milou, and Mia. We played Uno to pass the time and listened to music. When we arrived in Lübeck we looked at a beautiful church and the city gate. Then we got 4 hours of free time to explore the city. I was in a group with Mia and Sophie. First, we went to get marzipan (a Lubeck specialty). Then, we got a dish called flammkuchen, which I had never heard of. It was basically a thin pizza crust with cheese and toppings. Then we looked at shops around the town and met back at the train station to go back to Hamburg.
~Quinn Bryant
DAY 14 - Going Away Party
Today was our Going-Away Party as we packed for the evening preparing for the long train ride awaiting us. There was so much food (bread, sausages, and fruit in particular) at the party. I had initially planned on spending a lot of time outside at the party, but sudden downpour led to a change of plans, and I, along with a few of my friends took the opportunity to take a train out a neat record store near the city center. The store specialized in electronic and hip-hop music, which happens to be a genre which I enjoy a lot (I spent a little more than I'd care to admit). After this, I took a nice relaxed evening and apart from some table tennis, packing my belongings, and writing a thank you note, I rested the evening away.
~Evan Steinhauser
DAY 15 - Last day in Hamburg
Today was our last day in Hamburg. Keelan, Charlie, Ben M, and I (+ our exchange partners) went to an amusement park called Heide Park. Keelan, Charlie and I (+ our partners) arrived first. Altogether we all went to one of the seven big rides, called, The Desert Race. The coaster went from 0 to 100 km/h in 2 seconds which was shocking to hear after the ride ended. We rode all seven main rides, and Krake, Desert Race, Flug Der Damonen, Scream, Big Loop, twice; whereas, Toxic Garden and Collossos we were only able to ride once. Collossos and Scream were my favorites. Collossos was a classic roller coaster with an almost straight down ramp leading to a high hill that pulled the blood from your brain, making you lightheaded and almost blind, and lifted us off of our seats. Scream was a 103 meter drop tower and was at least five seconds of thrill.
~ Rocco Lowe
Day 16- Munich
I met lots of cool people today. The day started by waking up early and going to the train station with my family. Everyone said goodbye to each other. I even got to say bye to Leo a boy whos not part of the exchange but is a cool dude. Then we left and some people were emotional and crying. I was sad but did not cry. Then on the train my seat was taken which turned into a blessing as I met Jan on the train who was a man about 30 who spoke good English. We talked until the train stopped in Berlin where we got our seats back and Jan got off. the rest of our train ride was uneventful. I watched Tv the whole time. We finally arrived in Munich where we then explored downtown a little and then went out to eat. We had Goulash which was fine and some Apfel strudel which was bad. Then we went back to our room where we all messed around in each others rooms seeing who had the biggest and nicest which (spoiler alert) was me. We then all opened our back windows to talk where then other people in the back of the building did the same. We met two south Korean men who were both 26 named Su and Tong. We also met a lady named Caddy from Arizona who was 30. We also met a boy about our age named Marcus who was from Utah. It was exciting and interesting to meet all these people and a day where I expected to be filled with a train ride and nothing else turned out to be a fun and enjoyable experience.
~Nolan Brown
DAY 17 -Full day in Munich
Today was our first full day in Munich. We woke up, ate food at the youth hostel and then met up with our guide for a city tour! We learned about WW2, saw a beautiful cathedral, and walked through the streets of "Old Munich." We then had some free time and broke into groups to explore the city. Some of us to decided to get food at a cute little Mexican restaurant and ate ice cream before heading back to the youth hostel. Later in the afternoon we all met up again and took the train to the BMW museum! To end the night we went to dinner and then had a Mario Kart tournament.
~ Sawyer Kannaka
Day 18- Salzburg, Austria
Our Salzburg day started at 7:30am. We went to the Hauptbahnhof and rode a two hour train to Salzbug, Austria. On the way we passed by mountains and beautiful plains and farms. At 10:02am we arrive in Salzburg and met with our tour guide. From the train station she lead us through the city to the Mirabell Palace and we passed by Mozart's birth place and learned the history of how he grew up. We were lead to the city center and learned about the history and the creation of the Mirabell castle. Then we had some time to go around the city and do some shopping and socializing (it was wayyyyyy out of my tax bracket ;) ). After that we went to Hallein to see the Salzwelten Salzburg to tour the old salt mine. It was 20x more fun than I thought it would be. It was extremely fun with slides, a boat, and a couple trains in the tour in the cave. We had the most entertaining tour guide as well. After that we headed to eat dinner and then took the train back and was in Munich by 10pm. Very tiring but memorable day!
~Juliet Ndonga
DAY 19 -Full day in Munich
In the morning we went to the Deutsches museum and we saw many things about human history. There were real planes and a rocket in the building. They had some cool bridges in the bridge exhibit. After we left the museum, we walked about a mile to the river in Munich where people surf near the bridge on a wake created by the flowing water. On the river, me, Evan, and Rocco all went swimming in the cold fast flowing water. We swam for about an hour and a half and in that time we rode the current and climbed onto a bridge from the river. Many people were trying to climb on top but only a few made it, me and Evan were two of them. The river was awesome because it was extremely hot outside and the water was extremely cold and refreshing. After me, Evan, and Rocco left the river to go to Saturn. At Saturn, Evan bought a game. Me and Rocco met up with Keelan and Ben and then headed back to the hostel.
~ Charlie Hodge
More coming 2025!