Post 5 - Leaving Trier and onto Aachen

We packed up the bus and walked over to the Auguste-Viktoria-Gymnasium.  This is a grades 5-12 school in the heart of the city with about 2,000 students in several buildings.  We met with the director, Mr. Bernhard Hugle who described the program of the school and the training of teachers.  Participants in the program were grouped into 2-3 and went to classrooms.  I went with two other teachers to a 5th grade classroom for their English period.  In the lower grades, the students stay in the room and all teachers rotate to different classrooms.  It was just like any other classroom I have been in or observed.  Kids will be kids at that age.  We were asked about sports, where we were from and pets.  They had lessons in they're, there, and their and were reviewing for a test the next day.  For the next period I went to another building, in fact, modular portables as buildings were being renovated.  This was a 12th grade English class of 14 students reading a passage from Thomas More's Utopia.  Students had to find key words and they talked about utopian versus dystopian concepts.

We finished our visit at the school with a lunch if either chicken, fish nuggets, or fired mushrooms.  One problem I have here is that they serve carbonated water everywhere.  You have to specify "still water" if you want refreshing water!  We then went to the play area and discovered that there were students out there unsupervised.  This period last for an hour and a half and no supervision!  Crazy!

We then went to Ordensburg Vogelsong which was a National Socialist school opened by Hitler in the 1930s and had been in the hands of Britain after the war to 1950 and then as training rounds for Belgan Army from 1950 to 2006.  Much the facility is being renovated to improve its facilities to open next year.  We saw a statue with a quote that had been shot off of its man parts and inscription of Adolph Hitler's name had been removed by Allied troops.  This facility had been used as A school for Hitler's youth during the wAter.  Our guide stated that this is the place of the perpetrators and not a place to mourn like concentration camps.

We then arrived to Aachen and got to our hotel.  It's a quaint little hotel with 5 floors of rooms with an elevator for 4 floors.  My room is up on the 5th floor.  Walking the stairs for one floor is the plan!  

We went to dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Magellan's (pronounced Mega-Lon).  I had Turkish meatballs!  Yummo!  It was a late night as we left the restaurant at 10:30!