On top of being miserably homesick, then-freshman Sara Manos was the youngest on the Germany trip in the summer of 2019 and was only convinced to go by a friend who’d eventually backed out. Upon reaching New Jersey for the group’s layover, she’d called her mom and asked if she could go home, but instead, she was finally convinced to get on the plane and spend the week in Germany.

“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Manos said.

Before 2019, Creek students taking a high-level German language course had the opportunity to travel to Germany every year for ten days, five of which they spent exploring Berlin and the other five they spent with their individually assigned host family. But 2023’s trip will be the first since before the pandemic, with eight students and two teachers already preparing for their trip scheduled for May 30.

Even in the beginning stages of their preparations, the experience is largely student-led. Last Friday, students decided what they wanted to do and where they would go in Berlin. While they’re actually in the city, teachers will also give students various responsibilities.

“Every day I give the map to different students and they’re in charge of leading us around, so they figure out the subway and they figure out which line we’re taking and when we get off the subway or the bus or whatever it is,” German teacher Susanne Smith said. “The trip is not so much like touring, it’s really kind of teaching them how to travel so that later on they can do it on their own.”

Smith has her own customary assignments for the trip. For instance, to encourage students to focus on improving their listening comprehension, she sends students in groups of two to different cafes and tells them to simply sit quietly and jot down notes about the conversations they hear around them. According to Smith, one of the main goals of the trip is to have students “experience the language” rather than just learning it in a classroom setting.

The other five days in Germany will be spent with host families and at school with one of their host siblings. For some students, this is both the most daunting and exciting part of the trip.

“I’m a little nervous that I won’t understand everything they say,” junior Tamsin Miller said.

Junior Claire Conrad shares some of the same concern. 

“I am a little nervous about it, but my host student texted me a couple of weeks ago and introduced herself, and we’ve been texting ever since,” Conrad said. “We get along really well. I’m really excited about it.”

Having gone on the same trip four years earlier, Manos expressed that the unique experience of staying with a host family exposed her to how German culture differed from American culture.

“Every morning everybody sits down and has a big breakfast together,” Manos said. “They have like a meat spread and a cheese spread and they have fresh bread that they just got at the market and [it’s] just gigantic.”

Her usual grab-and-go breakfast routine couldn’t compare.

Besides being generous with their food, her host family was open and welcoming throughout the whole trip.

“I absolutely loved my host family,” Manos said. “I don’t think I could have gotten a better host family.”

According to Smith, one of the most valuable takeaways from the trip is overcoming the anxiety that comes with living with people students aren’t familiar with. 

“That’s huge to think: ‘I can live with some people that I don’t know for a couple of days. I can do it,’” Smith said. “I think that’s big. It’s the most nerve-racking [part] but it’s also the most rewarding.”

Despite only being in the earliest stages of getting ready for the trip, teachers and students alike eagerly anticipate the one-of-a-kind experience.

“I’m just excited to be able to be in a foreign country with a bunch of my friends,” Conrad said. “I feel like that’s a really unique experience that most people don’t get to have.”