Advertisement
Published: July 21st 2008
As cheesy as it sounds, it seems like only yesterday that we all met at Hanhoopsfeld School on a bright and sunny afternoon for the welcome dinner. Now, three short weeks later, we met at Anne-Catrine's house on a showery cool evening for the farewell dinner.
We all slept in the day after returning from our overnight adventure that provided very little or no sleep at all. The longest that I heard of from the kids was 8pm to 10am, a solid 14 hours. The mood was festive at the start with the students hanging out upstairs. The flash of cameras could be seen bouncing off the stairway wall and at times we had to speak up downstairs in order to be heard over their laughter which the walls could not contain.
Parents, teachers and siblings mingled downstairs for hours. It was awesome to hear all the great and funny stories that the parents had to relay to us. There are a few of our kids who are on the verge of becoming adopted by their German hosts!
It was at the end of the evening that the realization that the end was quickly approaching dawned on everyone.
Goodbye's were said to Shayla Brown, who's family is flying over to meet her and then travel to Prague. There was a real mood shift amongst the kids as the party wore down with a few refusing to say goodbye just yet. I'm thinking we're going to see a few tears at the airport.
When Heidi and I left with our hosts, we were astonished to find that it was already 10pm!
As I sit here now, it is 1am Hamburg time, 4pm Burlington time. In two hours we'll be heading to the airport. Shelby calculated that our total travel time will be spot on 24 hours! We'll meet at the airport at 4am, 7pm Burlington time. The second flight in will arrive in Seattle at about 7pm the next day!
I'll definately be updating the blog when I get home, and will be adding to it for the next week or so with videos and pictures that I was unable to post here in Germany. Stay tuned!
For now however, wish us luck as we embark on the last chapter of the 2008 Edison/ Hamburg exchange!
See you all in Seattle!
-Ben
Advertisement
Tot: 0.307s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0666s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
