Thanksgiving has come and it's all over now!

We had a wonderful time yesterday here in Oberhausen. The day began with a visit to the Gymnasium at Gustav Heineman in Dinslaken, where we met with English teacher Shila Zini (who will visit the US next week) and headmaster Herr Bernd Saalfeld. We had a tour of the school campus and then we observed students making presentations in English about three holidays - Halloween, All Soul's Day and Thanksgiving. The presentations were a practice round for the evening event, where the students did a wonderful job of entertaining the audience at the LVR-Industriemuseum. (look back here for videos of the presentations in the next few days!)

After touring Feuerlaender in the Peter Behrens Bau, we met up with Greensburg Salem Assistant Principal Joe Maruchnik (I'm sorry Joe if I have spelled your name wrong!)and visited an AMAZING solar system exhibit in the Gasometer (there was a huge moon in the large former gas tank - my photos do not do it justice). We all took the elevator to the top of the Gasometer - even me with my fear of heights (and I have a photo to prove it). It was very windy up there!

Then we got ready for the main event - Thanksgiving is coming. We were honored that our American Consul General was able to join us for the event, in addition to the teachers and students from Dinslaken. We were treated to a wonderful performance by Thomas Schleper's band Sunday's Best - they did four songs - one German (written by Thomas), one American, one French and one Italian. They ended their set with a great rendition of "It's all over now, Baby Blue." After delicious pumpkin soup and turkey cranberry "cocktails," we once again enjoyed a performance by the NewLanders. Thomas and I joined once again to play the hammers on Coal Digging Blues - just as we did at the closing celebrations for Born of Fire three years ago.

It was a wonderful evening. I'm sharing just a few of the photos . . .