"Here's to the Heroes" - San Diego Area

After staying some days in LA and Orange County I was driving to San Diego to visit Belmont Park at The Mission Beach and Sea World San Diego. I had a great time. The weather was awsome and the scenery very beautiful. At Sea World San Diego was watched very entertaining animal shows like the famous Shamu orca show. The park was very patriotic, having the slogan "Here's to the Heroes". Military members and their family get free entrance whenever they want. At the binning of the main shows people who serves or served for the army had to stand up to listen to the national anthem and get a round of applause. I haven't seen such a thing so far...

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Six Flags Magic Mountain

On the 13th of July I visited Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA. This amusement park has 16 (!!) different types of roller coasters. So whenever I am in the area I try to visit this park. Almost every coaster typ is represented: Sitdown, Flying, Standup, Floorless, 4th-Dimension...
Five of them are designed by the legendary roller coaster designer Werner Stengel from Germany, for example the world's first modern steel roller coaster to feature a 360-degree vertical loop (build in 1976). Some are just crazy...

Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach

Before the Summer Institute started I spend some time in Southern California to enjoy the beaches and amusement parks as I am a roller coaster enthusiast. Some of the participants of the program asked me to show photos I made to get an impression of what I did in California. I thought it would be a good idea to use my blog to share:



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Hello World :)

I am so exited to take part in a Summer Institute at Eastern Washington University to become a "Leader in Education".

First of all I want to say "THANK YOU" to the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Commission for giving me the chance to profit from this unique program. In Germany we were only able to apply if we had a migrational background - which I do not have. So I am more than happy that I had the possibility to step for another participant who cancelled shortly before the program started.

At my hometown Unversity in Essen I study ESL, social sciences and mathematics to become a secondary school teacher (year 5 to 10). With help of this program I have the change to exchange views on educational issues with other students from Europe (France, Spain, the UK, Scotland, Germany) and the USA, increase my knowledge about the American school system, get an inside into the culture and history of the U.S., and to improve my English speaking and writing skills.

Apart from having courses about educational leadership, the way of teaching in America and the use of technology in the classroom, we also visit a lot of schools and places like Seattle, Portland, Washington D.C. But we are also going to have a lot of fun with our peer mentors and teachers during activities like bowling or watching a local baseball game.

From time to time I will publish photos and texts about our activities and courses on and off campus on this blog. But I will also post answers to question that our instuctors gave us during classes. I am looking forward to share my EWU-Experience with you readers and would be happy if you like to comment on one or the other post.