Gegenbesuch der Amerikaner vom 23.6.- 2.7.24
Nach längerer, pandemiebedingter Pause fand in diesem Schuljahr erstmals wieder ein Austausch mit unserer langjährigen Partnerschule in Contookook, New Hampshire statt. Nach einer großartigen, ereignisreichen und bereichernden Zeit an der Hopkinton Middle High School und in Gastfamilien an Ostern (siehe Bericht unten) waren nun ab dem 30. Juni unsere Gäste zum Gegenbesuch in Lindau. Die Gastschüler wurden auf verschiedene Klassen verteilt und besuchten den Unterricht am BOGY, wenn nicht gerade Ausflüge stattfanden.
Der offizielle Teil des Besuches begann mit einem Empfang im alten Rathaus durch den Stadtrat und Städtepartnerschaftsbeauftragten der Stadt Lindau, Jürgen Müller
Am Dienstag ging es für die Amerikaner am späten Vormittag zu einer Stadtführung auf die Lindauer Insel.
Im Anschluss daran kamen die deutschen Partner dazu und wir begaben uns auf eine Panoramafahrt auf dem Bodensee. Abends stand dann der Besuch des Sommerkonzertes unserer Schule an.
Am Donnerstag schließlich ging es für alle Teilnehmer auf einen Städtetrip nach Augsburg, inklusive einer Stadtführung durch die Schwester unserer amerikanischen Kollegin Sally Olson, die seit vielen Jahren in Augsburg lebt und die in der Vergangenheit als Stadtführerin gearbeitet hat. So besuchten wir unter anderem den Goldenen Saal des Rathauses und die Fuggerei.
Das folgende Wochenende verbrachten die amerikanischen Schüler mit den Gastfamilien, aber es wurde abgerundet durch ein von den deutschen Schülern organisiertes, geselliges und emotionales Abschiedsfest im Foyer des BOGY mit einem zum Video zusammengeschnittenen fotografischen Rückblick auf die ereignisreiche Zeit und einer Ansprache und Dankesrede von Schülerinnen beider Gruppen.
Am Montag, den 1.7., stand dann noch eine Wanderung für die amerikanische Gruppe an. Wir fuhren von Dornbirn aus mit der Gondel auf den Karren und wanderten dann durch die Rappenlochschlucht. Auch ein kleiner Abstecher in die benachbarte Alplochschlucht durfte nicht fehlen.
Am Tag darauf hieß es dann schon Abschied nehmen, was einigen äußerst schwerfiel. Es ist zu erwarten, dass aus dieser Begegnung, wie auch schon bei früheren Austauschprogrammen mit unserer Partnerschule, die eine oder andere längere Verbindung entsteht, denn es wurden Freundschaften geknüpft und es werden schon die einen oder anderen Reisepläne geschmiedet. Natürlich haben die Schüler mitunter auch die Erfahrung gemacht, dass trotz der generell empfundenen Nähe der deutschen zur amerikanischen Kultur doch Unterschiede bestehen, die es zu verstehen und zu navigieren gilt. Jedoch ist die Entwicklung eines Verständnisses dafür, dass nicht jede auf der Welt Situationen und Umgebungen soziokulturell gleich bewertet und dass Völkerverständigung bedeutet, auch andere Sicht- und Verhaltensweisen anzuerkennen, ein zentrales Ziel des Austauschprogrammes.
Alles in allem war es eine für alle Beteiligten, auch die begleitenden Lehrerinnen, einzigartige und im positivsten Sinne lehrreiche Erfahrung, und wir freuen uns auf den nächsten Austausch, der im September 2025 mit dem USA-Besuch seinen Anfang nehmen wird, und für den die Organisation bereits in diesen Herbst beginnen wird.
Waltraud Hartwich, Manuela Walter und Kerstin Thöres
USA Besuch vom 25. März – 12. APRIL 2024
Im Folgenden nun noch die Tagebucheinträge der Schülerinnen und Schüler während des Besuchs in den USA, angereichert mit ein paar Fotos. Der Bericht ist ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt, also ein Tag je Schüler bzw. Schülerin.
Monday, Mar 25
Today, we went from Lindau to Boston by bus. We left at 7 in the morning and drove to Munich. Then we checked in, went through the security, and boarded our flight to Iceland, which lasted about 3 hours and 40 minutes. We were relieved when we safely landed, especially since we were on a Boeing 737 MAX. After boarding a bus, we flew to Boston on a Boeing 767, a flight lasting 6 hours. Some of us tried to get some sleep, others listened to music or watched some movies on the entertainment system. Unfortunately, that wasn’t as easy as it sounds because it was quite loud.
When we landed in Boston, we had to enter the US first before we could get our luggage. After leaving the airport we finally saw the skyline of Boston and knew that we were at the end of our long journey.
From the airport, we took a bus to Chinatown and walked to our hostel, where we settled in. We had some free time to grab food and water before going to bed and getting some rest.
Tuesday, Mar 26
On March 26th the jetlag caught up with us, leaving many of us exhausted. As it was, Kaspar and Bastian hadn’t felt great boarding the plane in Germany. Adjusting to the new time zone certainly didn’t help their recovery. After a filling breakfast and refreshing shower, we left the hostel to explore the history of Boston in a Hop-on-hop-off bus tour, which had 14 different stops for different periods
of time. We learned astonishing facts about colonial, post-colonial and modern Boston. The bus driver, who also was the tour guide, gave us information about the man who brought the news that the sailors arrived. His name was Paul Revere and he had eight children with his wife and another eight children with his wife’s best friend after she passed away. We also learned that the dome of a building was gold because they replaced the copper after it turned green. After the two-hour ride, a few of the students took the opportunity to buy souvenirs. The highlight of the day was the squirrels in the park which ate roasted seeds out of a student’s bare hands. Before everyone could do whatever they wanted to do in their free time, the students took the opportunity to test their teachers, staying in one place while the teachers were walking on their own, thinking everybody was directly behind them. It took them around 150 meters to realize that that was not the case which was screamingly funny for the students.
Wednesday, Mar 27
Today we again started our day with a filling breakfast, while enjoying the company of other international guests also staying at our hostel. After everyone finally got ready, we put all our luggage into a tiny room and left to catch the next subway ride to Harvard.
When we arrived at Harvard, we had some time to spend, since we got there before our guided tour was going to start, so we used the time to get some food and coffee at local bakeries and shops. We soon had to return to our agreed upon meeting point, where we met up with our tour guide Luke. He
was a student studying at Harvard, so he was a real expert on navigating the campus and telling all the fun stories about buildings, life at Harvard, sports and so much more. We looked at the (outside of) students‚ dormitories, some lecture halls, and the library. After finishing the tour with the story of the war between the two student newspapers, we had some time left to go into souvenir shops to buy gifts and souvenirs. After spending our time buying food and souvenirs, we went back to our hostel to pick up the luggage and headed to the bus station to go to Concord.
After waiting about an hour for our bus to be ready, we eagerly got on the bus, excited to finally meet our exchange partners for the first time. Once we finally arrived at the Concord bus station our exchange families were already waiting for us, equally excited to see us in person. A few pictures and even some tears of joy later, we all headed off with our “new” families to their homes.
Thursday, Mar 28
Today was the first day of school. We had to leave the house earlier because we had to pick up our schedule for our school lessons. My first class of the day was Literature and Comp which I attended with Linus. The students had an assignment to create a kind of poster about a book they read. The poster should include drawings and the message or lore of the book. After that we went to chorus class which left us speechless. Their choir was unbelievably good. They were singing Bohemian Rapsody and even Latin songs. After that we had a break in which we visited gym class. We watched them play basketball and then we played badminton. I wanted to try the school lunch, so I got in line and bought a pizza and a salad. The salad was fine, but I think the pizza was a little raw. After Lunch we had Chemistry, but we didn’t understand much. My last class was Study Hall, so I just waited for time to pass. At home my partner’s dad explained to me how this community works and showed me around. To sum it up it was a great first day in which we experienced a lot.
Friday, Mar 29
Today we got to sleep in and didn‚t have to go to school because the teachers had some kind of workshop. This meant that we had a long weekend before us.
Since we had a lot of time in the morning, we just chilled a little and then decided to go to Target. On the way there I realised that the driving in the USA is even worse than in Germany. And the roads are also horrible.
When we arrived at Target and went in, I was surprised by how big everything was even though I already was in Walmart, which is much bigger, the size of the store was still a surprise for me. But the most surprising for me was the fact that they had everything in that store. From baby clothes to candy or cooking materials. There was something from everything, at least it seemed like it.
After we bought some Easter candy from Target we continued our drive through Concord and my exchange partner showed me around a bit in her car and told me about the different places. There were restaurants, stores and much more. We then stopped at a bookstore where they have an isle with mildly damaged books for a way cheaper price. I decided to buy a hardcover book for only around six dollars, which is really cheap.
Afterwards we drove back „home“ and ate some leftover pizza for lunch.
My exchange partner than had a doctor’s appointment and while she was in I chatted a little with her mum and stayed in the waiting area of the doctor’s office.
We then went to Marshall’s, a store that also has a lot of stuff and is on the cheaper side. We wandered through it and looked at the stuff. My exchange partner and her mum bought a few things whilst her little brother was waiting for us in the car.
After that we had to figure out what we wanted to eat for dinner, so we decided to go to a local supermarket, Market Basket, there we went grocery shopping and found out what we wanted to eat that night.
When we arrived back home, we again just chilled for a little while and cuddled for some time with the dogs.
Then we enjoyed the pasta and steak we bought earlier in Market Basket for dinner.
After dinner we proceeded to watch the old Footloose movie, which was really fun. Meanwhile and afterwards we again cuddled with the cat and the dogs for some time. We also planned our trip to the beach at the next day.
Then we got ready for bed and went to sleep.
Saturday. Mar 30
We got to sleep in since it was a Saturday and began the day slow and just with some chilling.
We then proceeded to get ready to leave. We were planning to drive to the beach, since I love the sea and water, I decided to take my bathing suit even though my host family told me that it’ll probably be too cold.
We then drove to the „seaside village” near Massachusetts. A tourist village that was relatively empty given the fact that it was winter.
We then walked on the beach, and I decided to go into the water with my feet and proceeded to walk through it and over the sand. I decided against going for a swim because it was kind of windy which made everything pretty cold.
My exchange partner was looking for sea glass almost the whole time we were there, and she found some cool stuff.
Because it was really sunny weather there were a lot of dog owners and other people there to take a walk. We even saw two horses that walked through the water for some time before we headed back to the car to drive back.
In the afternoon, we drove to Hanover to visit the Dartmouth Campus. It wasn’t my first time visiting an Ivy League School, but I was still blown away by its beauty. The building itself is amazing, the weather was good too, and I fell in love with the old dorm buildings and the town. Compared to Harvard, there were almost no tourists, and I was finally able to see real college life. We also went into a few buildings and had a picnic on “the Green”, like we were students there. At the end of the day, this experience really changed my way of thinking about school in a positive way and inspired me to work harder.
Sunday, Mar 31
Waking up on Sunday I was surprised with self-made pancakes and maple sirup. Since it was my first time ever trying it, I had high expectations and wasn’t disappointed either. It was also special, since it was the sirup we bought the day before, during our visit of a sugar shack. After that tasty breakfast, I started packing my backpack and put on a cute outfit to start the long trip to Burlington. We drove through the breathtaking scenery of Vermont, and I was taught a lot about its history. After two hours of driving, we finally arrived in the beautiful town next to the Lake Champlain, which is a lot larger than our Lake of Constance. We then went shopping, checked out a famous restaurant, walked along the lakeshore, tried wave boarding and bought a delicious ice cream in the end. Although I was exhausted when we arrived back home, we still watched „the Amazing-Spiderman” and my perfect day in America came to an end.
Monday, April 1
Today was a typical school day in the USA. I woke up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for school. The first block was Civics, where we played a fun game of Kahoot and had a Bingo session about laws. In the second block, we had Intro to Law, and learned about famous murderers. One of them was Ted Bundy, who was active in the 1970s. He was known for his charm and looks but committed terrible crimes like burglary, kidnapping, and murder. Another murderer we learned about was Jim Jones, who led a cult in Guyana and caused many deaths using poisoned Kool-Aid. After the second block, we had a nice break before Study Hall. After that came AP Calculus, where we learned about integrals. It was interesting but due to its complexity it was quite challenging since this was an advanced class and couldn’t be compared to our math classes. Later in the day, I had Academic Advisory, where not a lot happened. After school, I waited for my exchange partner who had track practice. We explored a supermarket in the area which was quite different from ours. Then, we drove back home. I did some sports at home too. Overall, it was a busy day filled with learning and activities.
Tuesday, April 2
As every day when we have to go to school, I got up at 6.45 am to leave the house at 7.40 am. Today, we took the bus at 8.25 am to visit the state house in Concord. Until 10.15 o ‘clock we were shown a wide variety of rooms, offices and halls. In order to make good use of our stay in Concord, we were allowed to go until 12.45 pm, in small groups, in cafes or shopping. In the afternoon, some students went to the Lacrosse demonstration for about half an hour, where the two coaches explained Lacrosse to them, and they could then watch the boys’ practice. Otherwise, we all had free time until 7 pm, because then we met with all the participants of the exchange for dinner.
Wednesday, April 3
Today was an exciting day as we headed to the Millyard Museum in Manchester, and this time, our American exchange partners joined us. We hopped onto the yellow school bus and after about 45 minutes, we reached the museum. Inside, we played a fun scavenger hunt game and learned all about Manchester’s history and its old factories. By lunchtime, we were back at school, but then things changed because there was a big storm on the way. All the activities planned for after school got canceled, so we got to hang out with our exchange partners. Some of us decided to go rock climbing with other exchange students, which was fun! We had a competition to see who could climb up the wall the fastest, and at the end everybody was exhausted. Later in the evening, we got invited to dinner by some family friends. It was a perfect end to a day filled with adventures and new experiences.
Thursday, April 4
During the night, there was a blizzard, which led to a “snow day” (a day off from school because of too much snow). This snowstorm also cut some houses, like the one Jakob is at, from the electricity grid. Luckily, the house I stayed at with my exchange partner, James Stone, wasn’t affected. Being away from school for a week, Jamie had to catch up to the other students in terms of schoolwork and thus had to stay at home to study. So I went with Lukas, Jakob, Trigve, and Thomas to a trampoline park, but when we arrived, it was closed. After that, we went to Target and thought about what to do next. Thomas had to go, so Lukas, Jakob, Trigve, and I bought an American Football at Dick’s, a store that sells everything which falls in the category of sports and went to Trivge’s house. After putting on proper clothes, we went outside into the snow and played some American football, which was very fun. When we had enough of it after some time, we headed back into the house, which still hadn’t any electricity, to eat some chocolate and drink something. While playing a bit on our phones, Jackson and Linus called us and told us that the gym at school was open, so we decided to go there, and we went. At the school we met Jackson and Linus, and we played some basketball and volleyball. After about an hour I was picked up by my exchange student Jamie, who had the Idea to walk up a little hill next to his house and ski down. We then skied through the forest that covered the hill back to his house. Happy about how the day went we then ate dinner and relaxed for the rest of the day knowing that tomorrow will be a snow day too.
Friday, April 5
Today we had a snow day again, so we were able to sleep in.
I got up around 9 a.m. to have some breakfast. There were bagels for breakfast.
At around 11 a.m. Evie and I set off to meet up with friends (Flo, Basti, Gavin, Arne, Annie, Jordan). The plan was for us to go sledding. As soon as we all got to Flo’s house, we went outside and had fun in the snow. After a few hours we went back inside to enjoy hot chocolate. However, Gavin and Arne didn’t stay because Gavin still had something to do. After we finished our hot chocolate, everyone else went home too.
We arrived home around 2 p.m. and were greeted by Evie’s dogs. We put our wet shoes next to the wood stove and put on something dry.
Basti, Gavin, Arne and Annie came to Evie’s place at 7 p.m. We then went down to the basement with snacks to start our movie night. First, we watched “Cars 3”, then Gavin and Arne left. Afterwards we decided to watch “DUNE”, but because this film would take too long, Jordan and Annie spontaneously decided to sleep here. Basti was picked up at 11 p.m. during the film. After ”DUNE”, we watched “Grownups”. When it ended around 2 a.m., Evie and Annie went upstairs to sleep and me and Jordan stayed in the basement.
Saturday, April 6, Sunday April 7
4:20. That’s the time my alarm went off on Saturday, April 6th. An unusual time for a teenager to get up, you may think, but just as unusual were my plans for that day. A city known worldwide. Probably the most famous city in the entire world. Every girl’s dream. New York.
So, I got up at 4:20 to start the four-hour ride to the city that never sleeps. Me, Grace, her sister and her mother started our way to Concord to meet Aunt Laura and her son. As a group of 6 we drove south and while the kids were sleeping in the car, the moms safely got us to our goal. After finding our parking spot, we quickly walked to our first sight: Times Square. At 10am there were gladly not many people so we could see the colorful billboards and take some pictures.
Our next stop was the bus station to start our journey on a hop on hop off bus.
It didn’t take long until it was time to get off again because we reached the world’s most famous building. At first, I was scared to go to the top of the Empire State building but after reaching the 86th floor the view stunned me. You could see the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Broadway and much more. On the inside, there was a museum showing for example different movies that had the Empire State Building in them or celebrities that took pictures on the top. We saw pictures of Taylor Swift, Mariah Carrey, Zendaya, and Zac Effron. Now we were in a rush to get our reservation for the ferry that goes around the Statue of Liberty. o, we quickly got back on the bus and went to the ferry. We came across China Town, Korea Town, Little Italy, Wall Street as well as Brooklyn Bridge. After getting off, we ran to get to our ferry and just made it. After passing the security (like the one at the airport), we went onto the windy Hudson River. On one side you could see the stunning skyline of New York City and on the other side, there was the giant green lady looking onto the river. I was impressed by seeing the statue I only knew from pictures on the Internet and still couldn’t believe I was tually in NYC. After this cold and windy boat ride, it was time for a lunch break, so the group started walking towards the World Trade Center. On our way there we came across the 9/11 memorial, where the Twin Towers used to stand. Today there are two giant square holes with water inside and the names of the dead victims on the sides. There were even some white roses symbolizing the birthday of the persons that died.
Finally, it was time for a very deserved lunch break in the World Trade Center. Part of it, the Freedom Tower, is the tallest building in the city now.
The next stop was supposed to be the worldwide famous Central Park but after taking 1.5 hours to get back to Times Square because of the bad traffic, we decided to leave this one out this time. But it wasn’t time to go home jet, so we bought some souvenirs as well as doughnuts. In the end we visited the 3‑floor tall M&M store and bought some M&Ms for the way home. After this really long day where we tried to see as much of New York as possible in just one day, we decided to start the way home. (For pictures, just look at my Instagram or ask me )
On the next day, I could gladly sleep in. So I got up around 11 am. The only thing planned was the Farewell dinner in the evening, so we decided to just stay at home at relax that day. We watched a movie and went on a little walk, before we got ready for dinner.
Arriving there we talked for a little while and then went on to find our seats. We listened to some Thank you speeches and then finally got our food. There was steak and mashed potatoes, as well es cooked carrots and broccoli and a salad buffet. It was really delicious.
Now it was time to watch the slide show Mrs. Behner prepared with pictures we sent to her. It was funny and nice to see the trip summed up and what the others did while being here. The evening ended with a dessert, that everybody brought and a group picture.
Even though I did not do much that day, I was still tired and went to bed when we got home.
Monday, April 8
That day was the day of the solar eclipse. Our plan was to go to school until 1:30pm and then watch the moon cover the sun at Hopkinton Library. But after 20 minutes in German class Kennedy came to my classroom and told me that we ‘re going to Luneburg (Vermont) with her boyfriend Nate and his twin brother Travis to see the eclipse. So, we drove to Nate’s house to pick them up and got breakfast at the local store of Hopkinton in connection. After the short break the journey began. Because everyone wanted to see the 100% coverage of the sun, a lot of people drove to Vermont that morning. There was so much traffic that the usually 1.45h long ride took almost 3h. Anyways, we had a lot of fun in the car and were really excited to see the eclipse, so time flew. We arrived at the lake house of Travis‘ and Nate’s mum at 1pm. The place was beautiful, and it was a sunny day, so we sat outside and played games. Then Kennedy and I wanted to go kayaking in a tandem kayak. It was my first time on a kayak, so I was thrilled to do it and consequently had a lot of fun. Two times we almost fell into the half-frozen lake but luckily that never happened. Followed by that the moon started to slightly cover the sun (at 2:15pm). It took the moon until 3:30pm to cover the sun 100%. It was a once in a lifetime experience because there was a sunset in the middle of the afternoon and nighttime for three minutes. For me it was great and sooo exciting and entertaining. At 5pm we had to leave because Kennedy had Lacrosse practice at 7:45pm and we expected traffic. And there was traffic. So much traffic that we arrived in the school at 8:15pm. Kennedy practiced until 9:15pm. After this long day of almost just driving I finally fell in bed.
Tuesday, April 9
I got up at 6.30 a.m. ate breakfast with my host family and went to school at 7.30 a.m., where I attended my classes as Math (Algebra 2), AP Computer Science, Study Hall and French 3.
The Math Class took a test while we worked on some assignments that the teacher gave us. At AP Computer science, we helped some of the students with their project. During Study Hall, we kind of had nothing to do, so we just hung out in the library and in French 3 we talked about our weekends and vocabulary.
After school we went to get lunch at the Riverside Pizza restaurant. Straight afterwards me and Jakob went to the girls Lacrosse game, which they unfortunately lost. By the time the game was over, we headed back to Hopkinton High-school to watch the Boys’ Baseball game and support them. They also
lost the game, but it was a lot closer than the girls Lacrosse-loss. When the game was over, me and Jakob went to the local Supermarket to grab snacks and drinks for the movie night at Kennedy’s House. Before the movie night started, we went to our homes to get ready. After some time, everybody arrived at Kennedy’s house and we decided to watch „Cars” from Pixar, because it was an experience like travelling back in time to our childhood. After the movie was finished, everybody went home. I had dinner with my host family, we had pizza again. After the dinner we watched some Baseball of The Pittsburgh Pirates and afterwards a movie on Netflix called Skyscraper.
Wednesday, April 10
Today was our last full day in America. I woke up at 7:10 am and had a bowl of cereal with milk before leaving the house at 7:40 am. After Block 1, we headed to visit the Shaker Village. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a tour guide who provided us with fascinating information about the Shakers‘ way of life, technology, and education. The tour concluded around noon, and we returned to school on the yellow bus.
After school, I decided to grab pizza with my exchange student and a friend so we could watch the Boys’ Lacrosse game. The Hopkinton Hawks dominated the game, winning by over 10 goals! We then went home to freshen up and relax for a bit. Later in the evening, we headed to a friend’s house for dinner where we enjoyed some delicious tacos. Overall, it was a lovely day, and I truly cherished my time in the US.
Thursday, April 11, Friday April 12
I went to bed late tonight since I had to pack my luggage. I woke up at about 6:30 am to get my remaining stuff packed and get ready for the day, my host family and I set up a plan the night before to get up early and take one last picture together. At around 7:30 Tommy and I started
heading to school, we already put all my bags in his car. In school, I couldn’t go to two of my classes due to exams. In lunchbreak I got a school meal which was tacos, they were amazing.
Sadly, I had to say goodbye to all my American friends that day. After school, we met up at the bus station to head to Boston, but beforehand Tommy and I went to Crumbl Cookies one last time. At the bus station, my host parents were already waiting for us. Gladly, my host mom got me some lunch from Popeye’s to take onto the bus. As the bus was about to leave, I said my last goodbyes to everyone and thanked my host parents for everything we did together and for having such a wonderful time with them. Of course, I also had one last chat with Tommy. When we arrived about 1.5 hours later at Logan International Airport, we checked in easily and went through the security check. We had about 1 hour before boarding started so I just went to get some snacks in the duty-free shops. I slept almost the whole first flight. In Reykjavik Airport we had to go through the passport check to enter the EU. Entering the plane to Munich, I already had that feeling like I was home. After 3 long hours, we finally arrived back in Germany. Getting out of the plane, grabbing our luggage, and exiting the airport probably took less than 20 minutes. We used the S‑Bahn to get to Munich train station where we had some spare time to get lunch since it was 1 pm. The plan was to meet up directly at the platform our train was leaving from, of
course, Jakob and I got there on time. Our train ride took roughly 2,5 hours, but it felt like an eternity. When we eventually reached our destination, Lindau, it felt like summer. When I got home, I was both happy and sad at the same time – happy because I had an awesome time in America, sad because we had to leave already. But ultimately, I felt grateful to have had this wonderful opportunity.