Germany Blog Dec 9th

Today began with a press conference a the LVR museum. Dr. Schleper, Stephanie and I were there as well as two teachers, Mrs. Reiber and Mr. Schleck. Some of the students also attended. We had reporters from one newspaper and two magazines. After Dr. Schleper and the teachers spoke, I said a few words and the students presented me with their journals. After the conference I got a chance to send some emails and do a little bit of work online before we left for lunch. Authentic Italian food at a restaurant near the museum. It was very good! We met with a teacher from the third school after lunch. Mr. Gormanns from the Gymnasium-Gustav-Heinemann-Schulzentrum has a great idea for a video project. I will find him a teacher to work with in Greensburg-Salem once I return. After the meeting we went to the new Ruhr Visitor Center. They had a lot of new technology - video screens that slid up and down a timeline to tell different stories of industry. All of the buildings on the site were also part of the factory at one time. Now they've been transformed into exhibition spaces, event halls and lots of other things. At the Henrichshutte Ironworks in Hattingen, the site has been transformed from a working mill to a preserved place to show the process of making iron and tell the story. They have a fun mascot for kids - a blue rat! The curator led us on a tour - it was pretty amazing walking around these huge machines! We rode an elevator to see the top of the blast furnace. The images and stories of the people were throughout the site.
The Dortmund Christmas market was the last stop for the day - it was really fun. It is like an outside fair, with little booths that people make food to sell and also artwork, candles wood carvings. Lots of stuff. There were displayes of fairy tale scenes and lots of traditional German food and crafts. The Christmas tree there is 45 meters tall - made up of 1700 individual trees. It was awesome!