Day Four: The Hills are alive with the sounds of Salzburg

Guten nacht!!!

It is just about 11pm and I am finally sitting down to write another blog post.  We have had an extremely busy day filled with a wide variety of activities.  Let's start at the very beginning, because it is a very good place to start.

We woke this morning and congregated for breakfast.  The hotel's spread is pretty good.  There is a mix of cold cuts, pastries, and some hot items. The kids have been raving about the hot chocolate, but they are not really fans of the spreadable sausage stuff.  I am seeing many of them eating heartily and today that was a good thing.

We boarded our bus and began our journey to Salzburg, Austria.  It is was my first time to Austria and so I was experiencing it alongside the kids.  It was about halfway there when someone told me that the Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg.  I guess I had blocked that movie out of my mind since I was made to watch it as a young boy.  I had no idea that it was a popular with the kids today as it was.  Even before we arrived, they began practicing some of their favorite songs...including Some of their favorite things.  We left the bus and were welcomed with a beautiful day in Austria.  It was very warm and even as I type this I can still feel some of the heat upon my skin.  I don't think I'll develop a sunburn, but I might get a slight tan.  There was a Garden right in front of us and it was spectacular.

In the garden, we met our local tour guide.  She was an expert on Salzburg and on all things associated with the Sound of Music.  She mixed her tour with information about both and I think the kids liked it.  At one point, they all seemed to randomly skip down a vine covered path singing a song from the film...it might look familiar.

We made our way across the river and into the older section of the city.  A few us stopped for some pictures across from a church.

It also was Melissa's birthday.  We tried to surprise her with a cake.  This is the second year in a row that Melissa has shared her birthday with us on tour, but I feel like she will remember this celebration.  Ele, our Tour Director, purchased a traditional Austrian cake and we celebrated outside of the modern art museum.

Melissa having another birthday in Europe!!!

 After her birthday party, we walked around and found the birthplace of a musician named Mozart.  His house is the yellow one in the pictured below.  With that, our tour had ended and we had a chance for some free time.  Some of us ran to the local Starbucks and paid a pretty penny for a cup of Joe.  Some of us went back into Old Salzburg to buy souvenirs for family members back home.  Some of the stores sold toy Mozarts and some had these lovely chocolates named Mozartkugelns.  They are chocolate covered pistachio balls.  They melt in your mouth and are music to your taste buds.  I sampled one.  I also had a strange sandwich for lunch.  It was a double hot dog and it was all wrapped in bacon.  I had mine with spicy Dijon mustard.

We met by Mozart's house before departing Salzburg and the birthday girl asked to borrow my camera.  I included a sampling of her photos below.  As you can tell, Melissa has a knack for picture taking and Gianna seems to have one for modeling.

We left Salzburg and headed back into Germany to visit a Documentation Center.  As far as I can tell, the Documentation Centers are places where the German government has documented World War II activity.  Today's stop was on Obersalzburg.  A mountain about 12 miles away from the beautiful city we had just visited.  The mountain top hosts a bunker known as the Eagle's Nest.  Many people believe this was Hitler's summer home, but we found out that he actually preferred a house lower on the mountain called the Berghof.  Hitler was afraid of heights and was claustrophobic.  Both of these issues would make frequent visits to the Eagle's Nest unlikely.  The Berghof, however, was his mailing address for nearly all of the years he was in power.  The Berghof was destroyed by an Allied bombing mission on April 25, 2945.  Most of the mountain was hit.  The view Hitler had from the Berghof was of a mountain in Austria.

A view of the Eagle's Nest...the road up is still impassable.

Our hike down the mountain to the Berghof remains.

Remnants of the Berghof.

Hitler's view of Salzburg from the Berghof.

We then entered some of the nearly 400 miles of Bunkers built inside the mountain by the NAZIs. This was really interesting stuff.  I cannot post pictures here because they've asked for us not take them.  Apparently, white supremacist groups have been using them for some purpose.  We were inside the place that would have been Hitler's last command center inside the mountain when we heard the "closing in 15 minutes" announcement.  We rushed out to see that our beautiful day had turned into a rainy one.

On board our coach bus, we began our descent from the mountain and our return to Munich.  We hit some really terrible traffic.  It delayed us by over an hour.  To help pass the time, Ele played the Sound of Music on the TVs in the bus.  It held the attention of most of us for about an hour, but we soon heard laughter and noise coming from the back of the bus.  Those wishing to watch the film had to strain to listen during the most important parts, but I think we all understood that the weather and the traffic added to some frustration.

Well behind schedule, we arrived at our restaurant.  It was designed in a typical Beer Hall style.  We all sat at large picnic tables and began to dig into our dinner.  It was German meatloaf.  I really liked it, but then again, I have like most everything I've tried here.  Our vegetarians received a spicy dough ball.  I was able to try it and I liked it too.  We were running so late that we grabbed our dessert and headed to the hotel.  Here is where we are now. Tomorrow, we depart for Prague and the Czech Republic.  Our trip to Munich is nearly complete and I think the kids had a phenomenal time.  We've tried new foods, practiced our German, and became acclimated to exchanging Euros in our head...That all starts overt tomorrow!!!

I am wrapping up tonight's blog and then heading out to do room checks.  It is now 11:40pm and we have a 7am wake up call.

Mr. Lavoie currently packing up his suitcase for tomorrow's short 6 hour drive to the Czech Republic.

Day Three: An Easter Market and Surfing a river...just a couple of things we saw today!!!

First a couple of housekeeping items:

1. All are well, safe, and accounted for.
2. Our new friends from Canada are pretty cool.
3. For the kids reading this tonight, don't worry.  I am using my slingbox to watch the Bruins game.
4. It is in fact Day Three. Our flight was Day 1, our really busy transport day was day two, and here we are.
5. It's 4-1 Good Guys


Let me start by thanking my readers for giving me some early thumbs up on my blog.  I appreciate it.  I am sorry for such a short post yesterday, but we were all a little jet lagged yesterday and the internet wasn't working that strongly.  Here is a brief recap:

We landed in Frankfurt without issue.  We said goodbye to Senora Morando's Bell' Italia tour and headed to our gate.  Our flight was delayed.  We camped out for the moment.  They changed our gate.  We made haste to our new gate.  We got there in time to camp out.  We boarded our flight.  We taxied.  We sat on the tarmac for a long time.  We took off.  We landed about 1.5 hours after we were supposed too.  We met Ele, our tour director, and Joha, our Bus Driver.  We also met 14 friends from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  We drove to downtown Munich and toured Marienplatz.  We went through the Victualmart (an open air market).  We stopped for a quick photo.

A photo of the whole group did not make it across the International Date Line, sorry.

The May Day Pole in the Victualmart

 Our brief jaunt through Marienplatz was meant to be an orientation visit.  Ele wanted us to get a peek at the square in preparation for the following day's free time (That is today, Day #).  The place was pretty busy as the weather was fairly nice.

Sunny Day in Munich

Some Bavarian Architecture 

After our quick tour, we headed off towards dinner.  We were told that dinner would be Goulash.  I described it to the kids as a beef stew kind of thing.  They seemed content with the description.  It was roasted pork on a bed of pasta drizzled with a brown sauce.  They were no longer content with my description, but, for the most part, they enjoyed the meal.  For dessert, a custard was brought to each one to their places.  They thought it was going to be ice cream.  Only a couple of kids admitted to liking it, but I think peer pressure may have contributed to some saying it was gross. After dinner, we headed to our hotel.  We brought our bags to our rooms and had a quick meeting.  Afterwards, we were informed that a local Greek Orthodox church was going to be holding a ceremony outside.  There was a communications issue, but some of us caught a bit of it.

From what I understand, church leaders light a candle and at a certain point, they begin sharing the light.  This continues until all of the candles are lit.  It was neat to see.  When we were headed back towards the hotel, it was nearly 10:30pm.  One really neat thing was that there were so many people there, that they had taken over the street.  It is not a small street...it is really busy (even tonight at 11:30pm), but the people owned it.  So much so, that many of the cars were driving along the sidewalks to make their way home.

At this time, we all went to bed.  We woke up this morning and headed off towards Dachau.  If you haven't already read about our visit there, please click here.

After Dachau, we went to the Market der Sinne: http://www.markt-der-sinne.de/

It was a quaint little market filled with food venders and trinket sellers.  The kids fell in love with a dessert item. Basically, it was warm bread dough, rolled around a stick, glazed with sugar and flavoring.  It was amazing.  Many of us had great experiences communicating in a place with very little English being spoken.  This was an authentic German market.  I bought a new wallet, but declined a subscription to a German newspaper.  The kids were more than willing to try my pommes (French Fries), but no one wanted to taste my curry wurst.  Maybe later on the trip, lol.  On the way out of the market, one of the boys came up to me and told me how much fun he was having...that makes it all worth it.  With the seriousness of Dachau, we needed the Market.  With the food I tried at the market, I needed Mike's Bike Tours. (BTW, Bruins Win!!!)

Not all of took part in the next part of the story...from what I heard, they had a great time exploring Marienplatz and climbing to the top of the tower included in a picture above.  We made our way to meet our new bestie, "Besty."  Besty is a native German who was raised in New Zealand.  He was a handsome young man who made more than one of our young ladies blush.

Besty unlocking our bikes.

We took off.  Well, we slowly started moving.  It was the first time, in a really long time, that many of us had ridden a bicycle.  I had to remind myself which hand controlled which brake on more than one occasion.  I loved ringing the bell warning people of my impending arrival.  Besty asked for a brave volunteer to help him with a dangerous mission...so, naturally, I accepted.  It became my job to stay at the end of the line to make sure that no one got lost or separated...more on that later.

 

Joanie, Colleen, and I needed a reminder on how Bikes work, but we pedaled like champs.

 

The bike tour was great.  Besty was really funny and he took great care of us.  We drove through the English Garden and he made sure to stop frequently.  Because I was at the back of the line, no one saw how winded I got.  We stopped at a waterfall...a man-made waterfall (All of the English Garden is man made).

We also drove past a subtle memorial to the White Rose Society of Munich.  During the rise of the Nazi Party, not all citizens of Germany supported Hitler. The White Rose Society consisted of several students from the Ludwig Maximillian University and their Professor.  They created pamphlets that openly criticized what was happening to their city and their country.  By the time the seventh pamphlet came out, they were caught.  One member confessed and took sole responsibility.  None of his classmates, nor his professor, would allow him to take the fall for the charges.  They all demanded the same treatment as their friend.  The Nazis executed them using the Guillotine.  It is a tragic story, but it speaks to the whole point of our trip.  Even if they didn't realize it at their time, their efforts made an impact.

The White Rose Society Memorial

As we pedaled through the Garden, Besty told us about how people surf in the river.  Many of us did not believe him, but he proved to be honest afterall.  Here are some action shots...many of the kids took video.

It was nuts. Besty explained that it was too early in the spring for him to surf, but that he does in fact do it in the summer time.  We moved on and soon found our tour had ended.  Besty called me to the front of the group and presented an award for my dutiful service to protecting all in our entourage.  I took the liberty of stealing a picture off of the Twitter:

I apologize for the cuss word.  We all got a chuckle.

We met up with the rest of the group and headed off to dinner.  I got a lemonade that tasted and looked an awful lot like Orange Fanta.  I also got some amazing mashed potatoes.  I will reserve comment for the main course until after I post this blog.  Most of the kids were really happy with dinner...except that it did not include dessert.  These kids have a sweet tooth and because I am a sweet group leader, I recommended to Ele that we go to an Ice Cream store.  I received my second round of applause of the day (see above pic for my first).

We finally made our way to the hotel and I scheduled a group meeting at 8:30pm.  Without the kids knowing, Mrs. Alongi and Mrs. Mottola had secretly arranged with the German Easter Bunny to scatter some genuine plastic eggs throughout the hotel lobby and the outside grounds.  I made some brief remarks about the upcoming day and told them of the magical visit from the Bavarian Bunny.  Off the kids went, in a scramble, to find their quota.  I saw one kids poach an egg from the hands of one of his peers (I guess we could call him Eggs Benedict)...another one fried the competition and found all three of her eggs in a flash.  With hard boiled determination, one devil-ish student said, "Oh my, let me find another egg."  To which, another said, "Foo, you to young to find that egg."  Ultimately, they joined forces and all smiles seemed to be Sunnyside Up.

They were eggtastic at finding Eggs

She was so Egg-cited to find a blue egg.

They Egg-zited the hotel to look for Eggs

[Editors Note:  Writing Egg puns is harder than you think]

Hope you enjoyed our day...see you tomorrow!!!

Mr. Lavoie currently eggs-hausted from being so flipping creative with his pun-ative approach to this blog.  Hope you yokes enjoyed it.

Day Three: Our visit to Dachau

I usually try to find a catchy title for each blog entry, but I cannot do that today.  I am actually separating this entry into two different sections.  This one will be dedicated to our visit to Dachau and I will be posting again, later tonight, about the rest of our visit to Munich.

Our group outside of the entrance to Dachau's Visitor Center.

We were the first group to arrive at Dachau this morning and the weather was overcast.  As we walked past the visitor's center, our mood began to settle.  I think we all knew that the visit would be both educational and emotional.  The path from the visitor's center to the gate of the camp is gravel, but it surrounded by a forest with a deep green color.  You can hear a stream trickling past and there were numerous birds chirping.  It was a clear and deep sense of nature that stood out in contrast for the experience of visiting the first concentration camp.  Dachau served as the model for the rest of the camps built throughout Germany and the rest of Nazi occupied territory.  As such, there are some similarities between the camps that resonate with those who have learned about them.  One of the first things that you see is a sign made out of iron.  Usually, it is part of the entrance gate to the camp.  The sign reads:

"Arbeit macht frei" means work will set you free.  Knowing our past means we know the dreadful irony in that sign.  The camp is massive and it puts it into perspective.  There were thirty different barracks in which prisoners were held.  Only two of them are still standing in the camp, but the footprints of the other buildings are still there.  Dachau has an incredible museum in the old maintenance building.  It starts with explaining the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and the historic setting of post-World War I Germany.  The museum is a mix of pictures, signs, banners, and recreated images from the period.  Throughout the exhibit, there are multiple video presentations showing clips of events from the camp's history.  We also were able to watch a short video that documented the camp and its liberation.  It was terrifying.  The images of devastation are too unimaginable to describe on this blog and it was hard to imagine that people could be so heartless towards their fellow men.  With that said, however, we noticed some other parts of the documentary.  It mentioned, more than once, that prisoners assisted others when times were toughest.  That they created secret groups to keep hope alive.  In fact, it was one of these secret groups that alerted the 42nd Infantry Division, the famous Rainbow Division, of the atrocities happening in Dachau.  In our darkest times, when all humanity seems void, there are countless untold stories of bravery, humanity, thoughtfulness, and compassion.  It is a point that I find myself stressing to myself and others when times are the bleakest.  With the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings so recent in our thoughts, I envision those who rushed towards the injured and saved so many lives.  Humanity prevails...goodness wins.  It might be difficult to see, but I witness it first hand whenever I talk to students about these places and these times.  Kids want to be good.  Hatred is man-made, and while that it terrible, we can never forget that because man has made it; we can unmake it too.

Some of our students placing stones upon the tomb.

Ashes of the unknown concentration camp prisoner.

Our stones.

  Just outside of the maintenance museum rested a tomb with the remains of an unknown victim of Dachau.  It is a tradition in the Jewish faith to memorialize someone's memory when they've passed with placing a stone upon a sacred spot.  One of our chaperons, Joanie, had visited Winthrop beach and grabbed enough stones for all of us to pay our respects to this victim, and all of the victims.  Knowing that is was Easter, and that these stones came from home, and that our solemn ceremony meant something personal for Joanie made the experiences even more worthwhile. [Thank you Joanie, for thinking ahead while remember our past]  The stones are immortal.  This token of remembrance takes on that persona; making us connected to the past and to the future all at the same time.  It is a memory that I will not soon forget.

From here, many of us took separate paths.  Some explored the bunker.  Here special prisoners were kept isolated from the roughly 60,000 people interred at the camp at any given time.  Standing cells were built to torture political prisoners and a firing range stood near the gallows just outside.

The Bunker

The gallows were placed on the left while the firing squad stood near the center.

Others walked to the crematorium and the gas chambers.  While the gas chambers at Dachau were never operational, they stood as a chilling reminder of what we will be experiencing at Auschwitz in just a few days.  In the days preceding the camp's liberation, the Nazi's ran out of coal from hiding the evidence of their horrific behavior.  The crematoriums would never be used again, but the death toll at Dachau had already claimed a minimum of 40,000 victims.

The interior of prisoner barracks.

The Crematorium 

The entire process of horror was located in this building.  The prisoners entered on the left-hand side.

This fake shower room was actually built as a gas chamber.

The crematoriums inside Dachau.

Just behind the crematorium lay several memorials.  There are some that announce the location of firing squad positions and others marking mass graves.  When the camp was liberated the US Army dug at least two graves with over 1,000 casualties in each.  Finding these markers made me think of my father's uncle Ralph.  I recently learned that he had been photographed by a popular magazine carrying a survivor out of another liberated camp.  The WW2 generation has been called the "Greatest" Generation for the bravery, sacrifice, and dedication to the American ideal.  Knowing that many of these men witnessed such a place makes their perseverance ever more meaningful to me.

The modern Dachau is a reminder of how terrible things can get when times are at their worst.  It stands today to tell its story to future generations.  As we approached the camp, surrounded by nature's beauty, we knew how dreadful the experience might be.  We may not have been aware that the camp stands as a reminder of the resiliency of people of faith.  As I am not a religious man, I am reminded of the greater triumph of humanity when truly tested.  The stories of survival and of sacrifices to one's fellow prisoners are testaments to this.  There are other testaments standing at Dachau that help represent the unshaken faith of those interred within the walls of the camp.  Prisoners from nearly 90 different nations were held captive at Dachau.  They represented a wide spectrum of cultures, beliefs, and religions.  In their honor, and as reminder of the faithfulness of those who never lost their hope, stands several memorials dedicated to various denominations.  It was nice to see our students pausing at each one and paying reverence.  The sanctity displayed by these youngsters reassured me of my own faith in human nature.  I once again have found myself thinking of how fortunate I am to know such individuals.

Thank you for your time and attention with this post.  It wasn't easy to write and I hope I presented our visit in an appropriate manner.

Mr. Lavoie currently in Munich, Germany.

Quick update from our first day!

Writing from my phone, not my lap up! It's 945 in Germany and I'm attempting to stay awake until at least midnight. Outside of our hotel stands a Greek Orthodox church. Tonight they are having an our door candle procession. Some of us are going to try and catch it. The hotel staff recommended it. It is tougher than I thought it was...starting awake that is. I'm not sure I'll make it, lol. I'm also not sure if I'll post a full blog entry tonight...it depends on how I'm feeling.

I'll definitely be posting tomorrow as we have a super busy day. We are visiting Dachau.

Eurotrip14 Blog Preview

Typically, before departing on a tour, I try to type an introductory blog.  I did not do that this time.  I hope that this quick entry will suffice and give any new readers something of an idea as to what this blog is all about.  We are now cruising at roughly 35,000 feet.  The take off was smooth and the kids seemed to have settled down.  We are just over 6 hours from Frankfurt and I am on my computer.

This past week at Saugus High School was a hectic one.  We had grades due on Tuesday.  The single hardest transition for me, now that I am back in the classroom, has been building a schedule for grading items in a more timely fashion.  I swear I've been working on it, but I still find myself scurrying around last minute trying to finish on time.  We also had to have our evidence for evaluation submitted by Friday.  This is part of a new wave of education reforms in Massachusetts and it basically requires teachers to put together a packet showcasing their hardwork.  Much like with my grading, I procrastinated.  It is all submitted now and I am hopeful for a favorable review (Truth in advertising: I put this blog down as evidence of connecting with the community and families).

I arrived at Logan around quarter past 5 this afternoon.  I was able to sneak past the hundreds of kids preparing for their own #Eurotrips and check in with the Agents at the Lufthansa desk.  With my charming personality and friendly New England persona, I was able to convince them to provide me a seat with extra leg room.  I then scouted out a Dunkin Donuts and settled down in a comfortable nook in Terminal E to await the kids.  One by one they showed up...all excited, some nervous, and others anxiously waiting for me to tell them it was time to go through security so that their travels could begin.  It is important to note, at this time, that I witnessed my very first "prom-posal."  A young man, not traveling with us, had made his way to Logan with a sign asking Gianna if she would consider going with him to the Senior Prom.  He had a whole entourage with him...someone was evening videotaping the event.  She said "Yes."  As you can imagine the entire terminal erupted in applause (little exaggeration there).  Some of our group then found itself stuck in line behind another school and so we made the decision to have the larger half proceed though the checkpoint, but we were soon together once again.  Terminal E was jammed up like a piece of toast at breakfast time.  The place was packed.  We were able to find a spot to hangout and before we knew it, we were boarding.  The normal shuffle of seats began taking place and everyone found a place to sit.  Our flight has at least four different school groups on it.  That, to me, is super cool.  Adding to the neatness of it all is that one of the other groups is also from Saugus High School.  These kids are traveling to Italy with Senora Morando.  Some of them traveled with me last year and it is good to see them expanding their international horizons even further.  The first drink service has concluded and the German guy next to me is already passed out.  I am super jealous of those who can sleep on command. [Edited Post: At dinner, they forgot to give me a Coke Zero, I drank water instead]

Well, I am going to go.  I will be back on sometime tomorrow from Munich...everything has been going well so far and I am so very eager to see the excitement on the kids' faces when we get to the Marienplatz and we try some Germany street food.  There is a webcam positioned inside the square and if you look closely, in about 8 hours, you might be able to see us. Visit it by clicking here.

Mr. Lavoie, currently 35,000 feet above the Gulf of St. Lawrence, cruising at 630 mphs, and wishing I had asked for an extra bag of pretzel sticks. 

A Charming City by the Sea...

Being a student of history, I have always had a connection with the study of Sociology.  This fascination with the study of human behavior has led me to take notice of my surroundings and how people interact within them.  It has also led me to watch a lot of television.

I feel that TV, and to a lesser extend movies, can be a great indicator of how society is changing.  Perhaps the greatest example of this comes from an HBO series known as The Wire.  What starts, seemingly, as another good guy/bad guy, cops/drug dealer, crime show weaves an incredibly complex story that encompasses all of the various facets of a major American city.  In a span of 60 episodes, The Wire explains the world in which we live.  From the media, to our educational system, to corruption in politics, The Wire gives us a glimpse of how things really work...or how they don't work.  The show, the one with all of the answers is like a lesson in sociology...and it takes place in Baltimore.

The Wire is my favorite TV program.  I've watched the entire series four times and I am working on my fifth go around.  Because of that strange obsession, I kind of feel like Baltimore is a second home. (That and I am pretty sure that Baltimore's city planners stole a ton of ideas from Boston)  Instinctively, I jumped at the opportunity to chaperon a Saugus High School trip to the Johns Hopkins Model United Nations Convention.  It is something I've done before and I am excited to be back.  As we rode the 95 train out of Boston, I looked over the kids traveling with me and realized that this was the first time they were attending a major conference.  They were excited...a little nervous...and when we got there, a little insecure of themselves.  There were all sorts of kids getting off of private buses and wearing fancy school uniforms.  These kids spoke with big words and carried themselves with an air of superiority.  We told our kids that many of these other students are enrolled in Model UN courses.  We told them that these kids have been participating for four, or more, straight years.  We told them that they could hold their own against anyone at this conference.

At the opening ceremony, one of the Secretaries-General spoke to this point.  He told the entire congregation of about 2,000 students that whatever it was that compelled them to attend this conference, and whatever role that they decided to play, they would be in the room as important questions were debated, discussed, and decided upon.  They would be in the room.  I really liked that phrase.  I thought it fitting that he would make this reference and I began to think of the kids from Saugus...attending their first conference.  I thought "just being in the room" would be great experience for our kids.  I thought that by being in the room, they'd see how it was done and they'd carry those lessons with them into future conferences.  That's my fault, however, because I should have realized that our kids wouldn't want to be just in the room.  Not our kids from Saugus.  They don't want to watch...they want to do.

Ms. Payne and I have been making rounds throughout the different rooms.  We are in awe of the level of debate occurring.  We have also been impressed with the role many of our kids are playing.  Our timing has been impeccable.  We have seen nearly half of our conferees speaking within their committee sessions.  We have seen committee chairs complimenting our kids and their efforts.  We have seen our kids working with those others, who not long before had intimidated them, to complete the tasks assigned to them.  One of my favorite experiences was in the WHO committee meeting.  The chair of the committee, looking somewhat perturbed, was telling the committee that those who hadn't been speaking were going to be compelled to participate.  She then began reading the names of nations who had not been involved....our nation was not on this list.  Our student, a freshman, was not called.  She had been participating.

The Wire is a show about how society works...and doesn't work.  It is also a show about people.  As mentioned, it is a lesson in sociology.  I didn't quite realize that my students would provide me with another valuable lesson in sociology.  I've seen them grow this weekend.  They went from insecure and unsure of themselves; kids willing just to be in the room; to confident and courageous young adults.  This is the beauty of the Model UN.  While most of their discussions are well above my head, the transformation in our students is as clear as possible.  I was excited that we were headed back to Baltimore after a hiatus of several seasons, but I am even more excited to see what new episodes lay ahead of us in the upcoming years.

I am sorry for not posting a blog earlier, but we've been busy and there was an issue with me signing up for the internet.  We've been tweeting throughout the conference at @history01906 using the hashtag #shs_mun. Ms. Payne has also been tweeting at @Sachemslibrary.  I will also try to add some photos into my next blog.  I have to re-learn this whole blogging thing before April's trip to Germany.  Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoyed the read.

Mr. Lavoie, currently on the 14th floor overlooking the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards, and the rest of Bmore.