Today our group had the opportunity to visit one of the schools in Grossefehn that houses the grades 5-10. Upon arrival one could tell that we were expected guests as we drew much attention from the students. We were greeted by Ellen, one of the English teachers at the school who directed us over most of our time spent there. Our group had it’s second encounter with a news reporter who worked out of the city of Emden that promised that we would make it into a different paper for the second time on our trip. The next several hours were spent parading about the school to be shown off to the eager students. Dane Schmid was literally the large center of discussion with the students, as Dane stands at 6’9″ and he had to constantly duck beneath the arches of doors. The English classes and their teachers were particularly excited to have us speaking to their students. In my experience, all of the students that I conversed with were very well spoken. We all ate lunch at the school cafeteria. After our journey into the school system we had an afternoon break before both our groups and our host families met up for dinner. The food was a traditional meal of a variety of meets including: sausages, ham, and a style of pork that resembled thick bacon. The meal was also served with boiled potatoes and the main Ostfriesland dish of Gruenkohl, a form of cooked kale. The meal was excellent and to top it off was a dessert that I can confidently say was the best that I have ever eaten! The dessert was a very sweet dish known as Rote Grutze that is a mixed berry pudding topped with a vanilla cream sauce. After we were completely stuffed we ended the night with sweet conversation and music that was sung by all, accompanied by accordion and guitar, late into the night.
Rote Grutze