GERMAN –AMERICAN EXCHANGE December 28-January 18

GOAL -Create an international relationship with a German Montessori High School  Create a connection that will enable the school to participate in an ongoing exchange program with this school.  Allow for emersion into German culture that cannot be experienced through class or tourism -Allow the students to experience German culture  Travel  Food  Life  Language  Family

ROUGH ITINERARY : BERLIN - Leave from Bluegrass Airport on Dec 29 th ( 1200$)arrive in Berlin, Germany on evening of 29 th -Stay in a Youth hostel while we take a German tour of Berlin on the 30 th.  The youth hostel experience is essential to understanding “travel” culture in Germany, Pfeffersbett, Doubles from €24.50  Students will have the opportunity to go shopping in the market for food and cook at the hostel, or eat out and partake in the international food culture of Berlin.  Sachsenhausen (a concentration camp) is open on the 30 th from 9 am to 3:30 pm. The train ticket is 3€, 45 minute ride/ walk. -Celebrate New Years on the night of the 31 st at Berlins world famous celebration.  Students will go into downtown and see three of the Holocaust memorials that are in the city.  Before we go the students will have some reading to do on the artists who designed these memorials and Germanys Vergangenheitsbewältigung.  Normally people will find a spot on the river, sit on the capital lawn, watch the laser light show at the Brandenburger Tor, enjoy carnival rides in the city center, or watch the amazing fireworks show. -Leave for Dresden on the 1 st. On the train the students will work on their Berlin projects.

ROUGH ITINERARY: DRESDEN -Leave Berlin on the 1 st, train ride is ~ 3 hours (40€-80€, bus 16-20) -Check-in to hostel (20€-40 €) depending on the type of room - Baroque architecture at Zwinger Palace -Tour the city, go shopping, settle in, do reading on Opera house. -2 nd Students will have the day to explore, write their papers, read, etc. -Go to the Semper Opera at 7pm and see Königskinder for € per person  Write paper on experience citing readings.  -- Leave by bus the morning of the 3 rd for München ( € )

ROUGH ITINERARY: MÜNCHEN -Arrive on the 3 rd Check-in to hostel (20-30€) - See more Baroque architecture, compare to Dresden  -write paper -4 th We can go to Dachau (22 min train ride, 3 euros) 2.5 euros for audio tour or guided tour, in German and English -- paper on this (comparative) -For the remainder of the day they can tour the city, shop, relax, write papers. -5 th We are picked up by host families and head to Penzberg!!

ROUGH ITINERARY: PENZBERG Neuschwanstein (huge beautiful castle that overlooks Alps) (1 hour drive from Penzberg Winter Olympics (ski lessons, rent skis, rock climbing) City Museum (Penzberg Mayor was murdered by SS officers because he wanted to surrender to Allies to save his city, lots of history here) Going to school with host brother/ sister Immersed in daily life Big dinner last night with all the students (maybe parents) Fly back from München with 2 stops, Amsterdam and Philadelphia

FUNDRAISING AND DONOR OPPORTUNITIES - magazine sales, car wash, lawn mowing, yard work in fall, selling German stars, Selling advent calendars… Elks Club German Society of Louisville Marikkas DAAD (The German Academic Exchange Service) Grant Finder