SFHS GAPP 2023

Today started with two pieces of bad news: The rain we had expected since we landed but never came finally started to fall. And Luana and Emil were sick and therefore missed the city tour of Leipzig, which luckily was not a walking but a bus tour. The tour was in English, and we learned a lot about the incredibly rich history of Leipzig and its many famous sons and daughters. What I had not known before, for example, was that Schiller wrote the original text for what later became known as Ode to Joy (made famous by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) in Leipzig, and the “joy” referred to the good times he had in the city with his friends. After the tour, it was back to school, which meant it was time for the first round of presentations. The American students visited various English classes and talked about topics such as life as an American teenager, American sports, the US school system, etc. Hallie and Brendan dared to visit the elementary school children who just started to learn Engli...

  Today we took the train to Dresden, state capital of Sachsen (Saxony). First we visited the Deutsche Hygiene-Museum , established in 1912. Going there was not a subtle commentary by our hosts on our personal hygiene, but according to its website, the museum got its name because “at the time, hygiene was understood in a broad sense as an expression of progress and modernity. Accordingly, hygiene was the catchword for a society that was organized based on scientific findings; one that would enable both individuals and whole sections of the populace to lead a healthy life.” Afterwards, some of us hurried to the Frauenkirche , which was completely destroyed in the infamous fire bombing of Dresden in 1945 (it took 60 years to rebuild the church), to catch the daily Orgelandacht , a short time of reflection accompanied by beautiful organ music. The complete history of the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche can be read here . The main event of the day was a city tour with two guides...