SFHS GAPP 2023

This weekend, the fireworks will reach their crescendo as everyone is spending Easter with their host families. Instead of our usual two bloggers, we’ve asked everyone to briefly share what they’ve been doing, along with a couple of pictures. So, in no particular order, here we go: Ashley writes: Today my host family and I decided to visit some of the castles in Potsdam, near Berlin. We also went out to eat delicious pizza and soup.   Sanjay writes: Today I had some delicious ice cream, and then we went to a castle ( Burg Mildenstein ) and played an escape room game. Afterwards, we started driving to Prague, and I tried this new drink called Kofola; it has an interesting flavor. Branden writes: Today my host family and I traveled to one of their friends homes which happened to be a farm. After meeting everyone I got to visit all the animals like sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, cats, rabbits and their dog. Later we painted eggs together and played Settlers of Catan through the nig...

  The aftermath of the Holocaust and World War II have profoundly shaped German society and its education system as a whole. The specific facts are taught mostly in the curriculum of 7 th -10 th grade, and almost every student goes on a field trip to a concentration camp memorial at some point. Today it was our partner school’s 10 th graders turn to go on such a field trip to Buchenwald (near Weimar, about two hours away from Leipzig). The school allowed our students and their GAPP partners to tag along. We prepped our students for the experience as much as possible yesterday, but nothing can really prepare you for an experience like that. From the moment the introductory film started playing, everyone fell quiet and became aware of the atrocities that took place in the very same spot where we were sitting. That feeling became all the more real as we entered the camp through the same gate the prisoners had to walk through and saw the infamous sign “ Jedem das Seine ” (to each his...