#8 - More Family Time

 March 30, 2025 - Leipzig

It's hard to believe we've been here for a week already! Today everyone spent the day with their host family again. 

Praha writes:

Hallooo, Praha again, today my day started off by waking up around 10 AM. Yes, I know that’s pretty late, but it was a weekend 😔. My host family and I had a super traditional German breakfast, and I mean exactly what you might think. It consisted of Brötchen, Marmelade, hazelnut spread, all sorts of cream cheese, different types of cheese slices, and an egg. My host papa explained all the different types of bread, cream cheese, cheese, and where they came from. I can’t even remember them all anymore cause they all came from many, many different places. For example, cheese from France, cream cheese from Bavaria and Norway, and Danish bread. After breakfast, my host mom, Maria, and I talked about the differences between college in the US and in Germany. A lot of differences were noted.

I had requested this earlier, but my host family and I went to go see The University of Music and Theatre Leipzig which was founded in 1843, the first music conservatory Hochschule in Germany. It was really beautiful and historic as it was closed for years during WW2 one point, but all the people in the town came together to preserve the university, and they all contributed their money into keeping it running. It apparently even became a world wide effort too. My host mama talked about how she used to study their in her final year of uni, as they moved the library that used to be in the city center to being in music conservatory area. I loved how the different departments were a mix of the original old conservatory and the new modern efforts of preserving it.

Next we went to the Federal Administrative Court Leipzig which was coincidentally across from another court. Afterwards, Maria and I headed to the city center where we checked out some supermarkets and a bunch of cool stores. We also got to see the place where the famous German book “Faust” was based on. After getting some Leipzig magnets, we coincidentally ran into Kirah and Amelia who were also shopping there. Right after this, Maria took me to a cinnamon roll desert shop which was the equivalence to “Crumbl” in the US but with cinnamon rolls. Very yummy but too sweet. 

In the evening, we went to a grill hosted by Greta’s family, and we brought Caesar salad with us. A lot of GAPP families that lived nearby were there. Even though we all had different dietary restrictions, it was heartwarming to share a delicious meal with everyone. Greta’s family has an adorable cat named Yoda who is an extrovert! :) Later, the dads set up a campfire and we all had a Spezi. At one point I was talking with my host papa and the other host papas and some of my friends were confused why I was the only kid chatting with them. I said it’s because I’m balding and I needed some advice from the dads. (This is a joke, I was actually talking to them about German grilling culture) Anyways, I had a really fun time just chatting with everyone and creating more memories with them. I’m super thankful for Greta’s family for inviting us into their beautiful home, and creating this fun event for all the nearby GAPP families.

Sofia writes:

Yesterday, Emmy and Luise came over for a sleepover. This morning, we woke up very groggy after losing another hour of sleep due to the time change. But we still started the morning by baking fresh croissants with either Nutella or raspberry jam inside. I have had a very fun time learning to bake here because the measurement system is completely different. Except for when we made vodka pasta last night and decided no measurements were necessary. Back to today, the croissants we had this morning were honestly the best croissants I’ve ever had. While eating our croissants, we finished watching all the Twilight movies together. It was very amusing to hear how they had been dubbed in German. 

After we finished our movies, Emmy and Luise left, which gave me some time to catch up on my schoolwork before our evening plans. After our break, we headed to a trampoline park! While we have these in America, it was very different here in Germany. There was a changing room where you were supposed to change into "sport clothes." There were a lot more rules and also a lot of different games there. There was even a recommended path for which activities to do in which order. We worked up an appetite jumping, so we had dinner at a restaurant called Peter Pane, where we had burgers and fries. I got to practice some more ordering in German! 

After dinner, we went to play minigolf. This was definitely the highlight of my day. The inside of the place was decorated, and it was very cool. There was a story, and you were supposed to find a secret, but we didn’t figure it out, so we had to leave through the loser's door. It was my first time playing minigolf, so I was far from perfect, but I did get better towards the end. Everyone there was super nice and didn’t get mad when Emmy and I sent our golf balls flying across the entire building and accidentally hit the walls with our clubs. It was such an amazing day in Leipzig!

Luay writes:

Today Oskar’s grandfather took me and Oskar to this car museum after hearing about my interest for cars. The museum mainly consisted of older Audi cars and some other historic German cars. It was a really cool experience. I loved seeing how different the engines were before compared to now, and how they have been improved over the years. My favorite by far was the Audi Motorsport section where they had many Audi race cars which were really cool to see. 

Afterwards we grabbed some food at a restaurant and then on the way home stopped at his grandfather's house because he wanted to show me his old Mercedes. It was very very very cool and the paint was in great condition as well as the leather on the inside, considering the car is 27 years old. He let me sit inside the car! He also took me to his office and showed me some old car books he had and he even gave them to me and I thought that was really really cool of him. 

Later on we went to go-kart. I was really looking forward to it because we have been talking about it all week. I began to understand why most of us don’t have our license, but it’s ok because we all had fun together, and afterwards we stayed and ate some pizza all together. (There was also a very nice e36 m3 in the middle of the track. I almost crashed into the wall a few times while admiring). Today was DEFINITELY one of my favorite days so far.

That concludes our first (and sadly only) full weekend in Leipzig. Tomorrow we will take the train to one of Germany's most beautiful cities, Dresden. 

#7 - Family Time

March 29, 2025 - Leipzig

Today the kids (and their teachers) spent quality time with (host) family and friends. Their blog entries might be a little shorter than usual, but that's okay because they sent lots of pictures.

Anish writes:

After about six months of anticipation, the long awaited trip to the Sächsische Schweiz has finally occurred! And believe you me was it wonderful. The national park lies along the Czech border on the Elbe River, and is known for its rock formations called “hoodoos”. The strenuous hike up, marked by my being much faster than Carl and his dad, was well worth the beautiful view of the park and the ancient stone bridge. The longer hike down took us through a small valley that was equally beautiful. In all honesty the best hike I’ve ever been on! I can see why the Germans love it so much.

Speaking of Anish...

Tanmay writes:

Today was family time, and so my host family planned a visit to the Porsche factory. We started off with a tour of the factory where they showed us how they produce the cars. The tour went step my step showing everything from the skeleton to the engines of the car, and after the tour came the fun part. I got a ride from a Porsche GT3, which is a very fast car. This happened in a race track and we were going very fast (110 mph). The driver would randomly break, sending me flying. Without a seat belt I would not be here right now. He also drifted like 3 times, which was fun because it was my first time experiencing a drift. After that my friends and I went to the mall and did some shopping. While we were leaving we almost missed the bus, which was fun because we had to run like crazy (not the first time this happened since I’ve been here).

Random pictures from other kids:

And finally, a very important update from Lee:

The count is in! So far on this trip I have eaten:

- 3 whole pizzas 

- ⁠1 spaghettieis

- ⁠5 Fanta/Cola Beverages (Spesi, Mezzo Mix)

- ⁠7 Rosinenschenke/Rosinenbrötchen

- ⁠3 Rittersport Bars

- ⁠3 Döners (hopefully #4 tomorrow)

- ⁠3 Bratwursts

- ⁠plenty of water and vegetables

This will be an ongoing counter stay tuned (perhaps it could be fun for the blog too who knows)

Just FYI, Daylight Savings Time starts tonight in the Central European Time zone, so for the second time this month, we lose an hour. Hopefully that won't deter anyone from having a fun-filled Sunday. Gute Nacht!

#6 - Schule!

March 28, 2025 - Leipzig

Today some of our kids gave presentations in various classes. After school, some kids went bowling at the school's bowling alley while others explored Leipzig and spent time with their host families. 

Ida writes:

Hey from Germany! It's Ida! Today we had to drag ourselves out of bed early for school, which definitely wasn’t my favorite part, but hey, we survived. We started with Lana’s math class, which was a bit of a snooze fest, but at least I had Mariana and John to keep me entertained. 

After that, Mariana and Tanmay joined me to present to the elementary school kids. Honestly, that was one of the highlights of my trip! They were so curious and asked the funniest questions. I was a little nervous at first, but it turned out to be a blast. I even got a gift from one student, a big hug from another, and in the last class, we got to raid their candy treasure chest! Talking in both German and English was tricky, but it was definitely a fun challenge. 

Later today I met up with Lana and we hit the mall for McDonald’s with some of her friends, who were super funny and friendly. Then we headed home and took a long nap with her dog, Cooper. Later, we went out for some delicious Italian food and I got to experience a German grocery store. Everything is so organic, and some things were ridiculously cheap—I was in shock! Finally, we wrapped up the day with some Kinder chocolate. I’m so excited to see what the rest of our time here has in store—it's been exhausting, but so much fun!

Kelvin writes:

Today Julia‘s classes started at 2 pm, so I got to sleep in! After waking up at 10 am, we went to lunch at the school. While Julia studied for her biology exam, I went into the city with some of the other exchange students and we ate at a small café.

When biology finished, I headed over to Netto, the local convenience store, and got myself some Brötchen to snack on. I’m going to miss being able to get such fresh bread so easily in the US. It’s such a blessing to have all the prices include tax! It makes collecting coins feel so rewarding and the fact that the bread is so good yet so cheap is a miracle. Afterwards we went bowling and played some board games (one of my favorites, Skull!).

The highlight of my day was going to the Varieté, a small theater. We saw the current show, Die Welt von Otto Dix. Otto Dix was a German painter and the performance showcased some of his paintings and brought them to life. There were extremely impressive circus acts with acrobats, trapeze artists, crossbow shooters, crazy balancing acts, and hula hooping. This was probably one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life, and I was thoroughly impressed by everything that the actors did. I would definitely go back if I could. 

Everything at the theater was so well done! There was a live band and singer and the music built up so well to all of the high points of each of the acts. Every single performer was so talented! My personal favorites was a truly breathtaking balancing act. There were times where I thought there was no way the performer would actually stay on top of his board for so long, and it was so impressive when he actually did. Another act had crossbow shooters shooting arrows into increasingly smaller targets - it was so scary!

All in all, today was a great day, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to experience everything.

John writes:

Today started off with math class at the Gymnasium. After that was English class in which we were reading the Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. We started the class off with a murder mystery game. One student was secretly told they were the murderer. Everyone got up and mingled (auf Englisch!) with everybody else. If you were tapped on the arm that meant that you had been killed by the murderer and you would sit down. Then the class would try to find out who the murderer was. We voted on who we thought the murderer was for three rounds till we finally convicted the murderer; only three innocent people were killed. 

At 10:30ish lunch started. I had the Griessbrei soup with sugar and plum slices. The soup is like porridge in texture. It was very sweet; to me it would be better as breakfast food rather than as lunch food. After lunch there was supposed to be Politics class after lunch, but the teacher was sick so the class was canceled. So today we got a sehr grosse Pause. After the free period, we went to Bio class. Julia, Lusie, and Helene had a test to take. Frau Grodotzki, the teacher, gave Kelvin and me a worksheet and Isaac and Holden the same worksheet which was about photosynthesis and trees. Bio was the last class of the school day which ended at 15:40. 

Helene, Isaac, Luise, Katherina, Genna, Natalie, and I walked to the Starbucks on Grimmaische Strasse. After some coffee and iced coffee we went to Rosenthal Park through the Zentrum. After an hour or so we left the park and walked back into the Zentrum through Peter Strasse. We walked past the Altes Rathaus back to where we began in Grimmaische Strasse. The Zentrum of Leipzig is very pretty. The streets are curved and have no cars and are cobblestone. On each side there are very pretty buildings, some modern, some old. Most are five to seven stories tall. In the densely packed Zentrum, are Old churches and buildings like the Altes Rathaus dotted throughout. We ate at Vapiano which is an Italian restaurant. I had the gnocchi which were very good. Genna had pasta too and everyone else had a type of pizza. When we were finishing dinner Anish, Lee, Anabell, Holden, Emilia, Kira, Carl showed up. Helene, Genna, Katherina, and I took a tram to a bus/tram station where we parted ways. And Helene and I took a bus back home to her village.

Praha writes:

Hallooo this is Praha! Here’s my entry of last night and today! 

Last night:

Maria, my host papa, and I were in the kitchen debating whether to make Aubergine (eggplant dish), pesto pasta, or Kartoffel (potato) wedges with cottage cheese dressing. When we finally chose Kartoffel, our discussions somehow ended up about the rising prices of groceries. By the way, did you know that a cartoon of eggs here is less than €3?! My mind was blown. My thoughtful host papa made a scrambled egg dish just for me because of this. I also learned that many Germans own a traditional Italian espresso machine. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to use it. Maria and I also made our way to the Keller (basement), and I got to see how the storage compartments were split by the different families living in the building.

Morning:

As usual we made our way to school, but I didn’t have any presentations today, so I was in the classroom the whole school day. First was math which we all participated in by solving some questions. Somehow I understood the math that was being taught in German better than in English back in the US?? Anyways, after that, the students had German class. I would like to mention that I really appreciate the German/history teacher because he made the American students an activity to not get bored while the German students were taking their test about the book “Faust”. Our assignment was to read 6 translated versions of some lines from that book and decide which one we thought was the best and why. Even though I didn’t know much about the book, reading the first few lines made me drawn to it. It’s very poetic, and it makes you think about the deeper meaning to life. 

I also got my nails done after school for the first time, which was a really fun experience, however, communicating with the nail tech was difficult. 

Evening: 

We went to an orchestra concert! My host mama had booked tickets for us to go to the Gewandhaus-Orchester. First of all, I was super excited because I’ve never been to an orchestra concert (other than the ones I’ve played in, in our school orchestra), and also because it was supposed to be a big orchestra with many different instruments even having percussion and woodwind ones. When we got there, I felt like I was on the first class Titanic because everyone was dressed very fancy and acted posh. I sadly couldn’t take many pictures or videos as they restricted it in the concert hall. The first group that played was a wind ensemble consisting of a Clarinet, Bassoon, Oboe, Tuba, Piccolo, and Trumpet. Apparently this was a world premiere because it was the first time the wind ensemble played this specific Tchaikovsky piece arranged for them. It was amazing, wunderschön, so good that it even got me feeling sleepy. (IN A GOOD WAY). 

Next, we had this new, intriguing piano and string orchestra arrangement from one of Gustav Mahler’s pieces. It was a German premiere, commissioned by the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I think this one was the most breathtaking and speechless performance I saw today because there was also a contemporary ballet dance with it. I didn’t quite understand what the contemporary dance was trying to portray (it kind of felt random), but the dance combined with the intense smaller orchestra and timed lighting changes created a beautiful performance. It genuinely felt like watching a story unfold right in front of your eyes with all the different pieces evoking different feelings. The final part was the biggest orchestra having a huge variety of players and instruments all contributing to playing the pieces incredibly. The most surprising thing for me is how they were able to play for 40 minutes straight. Another thing I learned, is that after each performance by the 3 parts, the audience would just applaud for minutes. I guess it was a huge way of showing “bravo” and appreciation for their talent. I remember how the audience was still applauding even after 4 minutes straight. 

Today was definitely a long day, but it was certainly a cherished one, as it’s not every day you get to experience so many new things at once.