Overseas Adventures...

During the April break, we took a few vacation days to visit friends and travel in southern Germany. Here is the condensed version of our trip! We flew to Stuttgart and spent a few days with Stef and Chris Coleman in Tubingen. We got to see Unterwegs, the Globalscope location in Germany that they work at, and the town they live in. Tubingen is an adorable university town and we really enjoyed our visit. We spent Easter weekend at the Coleman's apartment and enjoyed an Easter service in German. :) The four of us took a day trip to the Black Forest to go hiking. The weather was beautiful and the scenery couldn't have been better. We took a day trip to Lake Constance, or Bodensee, a large lake in Europe bordered by Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. We visited a couple of towns along the lake and even took a ferry boat ride.

We left Tubingen and spent a few days in Munich. Munich is such a cool city and we had incredible weather while we were there. We saw almost all that there is to see in Munich as far as tourist attractions go, including a day spent at Dachau concentration camp memorial site. That was a powerful experience that we would absolutely recommend. We even managed to take every form of transportation in the city, bus, train, tram, tube, and lots of walking. And we ate as much gelato and pastries as we could!

Then we spent a few days in Frankfurt visiting Justin and Marisa Jackson. You can find out more about their cool story on their blog. The Jacksons were great hosts and showed us all around Frankfurt. We ate an amazing schnitzel at their local neighborhood restaurant. The food in Germany is incredible! We saw all of the city and also got to spend some QT catching up and hanging out with good friends. It was the perfect end to an awesome trip!

We flew back to England just before the Iceland volcano erupted and were very thankful that we did not get stuck on the continent like some of our other team members did. (Stranded in Italy!) We had a week and a half to get prepared for the summer term at Canvas. We really enjoyed our time spent in Germany and hope to go back one day! Here are a few photos from the trip. For more photos, check out my facebook page.

Hanging out with Stef and Chris in Tubingen

Alli in Switzerland, Mike in Germany

Lake Constance

Hiking in the Black Forest

Catan in its natural habitat

Dachau concentration camp memorial site

Nymphenburg Palace in Munich

Under the Euro symbol in Frankfurt

The Spring term for the University of Birmingham ended March 26th and the Summer term begins April 26th. The students have four weeks to spend at home, on holiday, or studying in preparation for "Exam term" or the Summer term. The Canvas staff decided to end the Spring term with a big party to celebrate the year and have fun with our students. We called it the Canvas Village Fête. A village fête in England is the equivalent of an American county fair with games, booths, prizes, etc.

We decorated Canvas with streamers, balloons, bunting, and we even had 10 bales of hay provided by a Canvas alumni who lives on a farm. We had ring toss, hook-a-duck, wellie wanging, and more. Mike made the game washers. There was face paint, fake tattoos, a photo station, and an art station. We made chili and loads of cakes. The highlights of the evening were sumo suits and barn dancing.

Everyone had a blast! We're even thinking of making it a yearly event! Tons of students came and brought their friends, so there were lots of new faces. Here are some photos for you to enjoy and there are loads more on the Canvas Facebook Page if you are interested. Cheers!