8.August 2007 The official farewell meeting

We are about one week away from departure day of our 2007 delegation.We are so pleased to have been able to recruit three wonderful young students AND their active parents as well.

Today we have been invited to the office of our county commissioner Landrat M. Mueller for the official farewell ceremony.

Mr. Mueller gave a friendly pep talk and expressed his eagerness to meet with our three kids in Belleville in mid-october again when he gets there as a member of the 2007 DAFK delegation.This trip was again initiated by our President Bernd Broer and DAFK's secretary Dr. Allendorf. The latter will once again act as the watchful and experienced guide.One mission of the tour is to deepen our ties with our sister city Belleville and to also try to find a way to put our 90 days homestay - and the teacher exchange programs on a more permanent and stable basis.

16.August 2007 Departure

Thursday August 16,2007

I left the house early in order to be at our local PAD airport in time for the departure of our 2007 participants. Ealier this year we had chosen three very promising students for our second 90 Days Exchange program: Carolin S. and Nils S. ( both attending the Pelizaeus Gymnasium )and Jan Sch. ( attending the Goerdeler Gymnasium ).

The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt was scheduled to leave at 9:05 and when we gathered at 7:45 we realized that we had arrived much too early.This gave us time to fill out additional, more stable baggage labels and to exchange some final " do this and please don't do that" vows.There was exitement and anticipation in the air.I took a last photo of our trio and we all wished them luck as they walked through security.Their hopefully fanstastic voyage had finally begun.

When I was driving home I felt thankful and relieved.Everything had worked out well in the end:our friends in Belleville had found three open-minded host families,the schools here and there had cooperated and DAFK had successfully managed the selection and logistics processes.The parents had bonded a bit as well through an initial meeting at the friendly home of the Schulze family.Doris R. from Belleville happened to be in town and was thus able to provide all of us with important details and documents.Robert Berns, a member of our very first delegation, stopped by as well and thanks to his brilliant DVD based slides the 2007 team was able to share the experiences Robert,Felix,Gesa and Maren had had in Belleville back in 2005.

19. August 2007 First Reactions

Sunday August 19,2007

When I activated my computer this morning I knew exactly what I wanted to do: to thank the parents for their feedback about the flights to Belleville and to read the blogs of our three adventurers.

The good news were that all three had successfully cleared immigration and customs - and there were also posted concerns because one of them had been singled out for a more in-depth questioning...and you wonder why....I assume these officiers followed strict rules and procedures and that all acted with good intentions....but it leaves you wondering if an American teenager arriving here at Frankfurt Airport for a short visit with perfect papers and documents would have to go through the same somewhat intimidating process?

And continuing with the good news: all three were able to catch the delayed flight to St. Louis where they were eagerly awaited by their families and taken home from there....wow! this whole journey from here to there must have been longer than 23 hours.....

Jan Sch. writes about his short trip to Kentucky...the sister of his new friend Luke went off to college there this weekend accompanied by her entire family - a great ceremony in the life of any parent.Even the University of Paderborn will have its parents week this upcoming November...and it leaves me wondering to what campus I will be accompanying my own daughter in about six years or less....I was also pleased to read that two of our students had been over to their schools to get either aquainted or to collect materials.

Writing this blog in English is fun and I wonder as I type away who will be the readers of my thoughts and how transparant and real can I be before I step on somebody's "holy" toe??