Flensburg Field Trip

Yesterday, I got to accompany the 5th and 6th graders on their field trip to Flensburg, a city right on the Danish border.  We had an impromptu spelling lesson while waiting for the morning ferry, where some of the 6th graders pointed out which of the profanities carved into the shelter were written incorrectly. ("That should be spelled with C-K, right Ms. Meek?")  There are opportunities for learning everywhere.

Our main destination once in Flensburg was the Phaenomenta.  The Phaenomenta is a hands-on math museum with amazingly cool exhibits.  One exhibit is just two large powerful magnets that are repelling each other, and you can jump on one to try to force them together.  Another is a set of three chairs tied to different pulley systems and you sit in the chairs and see which system is the easiest to pull yourself up (My arms are sore today from that one). There were a lot of exhibits with mirrors, here's one where you write your name in the sand so it's reflected correctly:

This was one that shows body temperature.  (I'm in the upper right hand corner, taking the picture.)

Here's the wall of pi, where every digit has its own color, 3 is red, 1 is green, etc.

And here's an arch I built with one of the 5th graders:

And there was a lot more.  By far, one of the coolest museums I have ever visited (even better than the Chocolate Museum in Cologne).

After the museum, the students were allowed to explore Flensburg on their own in groups of three.  Of course, most of the children just ate at McDonalds and then bought lots of useless trinkets in various shops, but everyone made it back to the meeting point safely and without the aid of adult supervision.

I got to explore a little of Flensburg too.  A friend recommended that I go to the Beste Stuuv cafe, so I did.  It was decorated like a little old southern lady's sitting room and they used real china.  After I asked to see a menu (perhaps a dead give-away that I wasn't from Flensburg), an elderly German man sat at my table and asked where I was from.  Then he proceeded to get out a pair of glasses, take my menu, and read it out loud to me.  I'm not sure if he assumed that because I was American that I couldn't read German, but he didn't offer any translation except at the end, where he asked if I knew the word "Mohltied."  I didn't.  He said that he wasn't surprised and that it was Platt Deutsch for "Mahlzeit," (which I do happen to know.  Directly translated it's "meal time" but it's used more along the lines of "bon appetit"). 

The man recommended the Flensburger Toast and I ordered it.  It was a slice of toast with something that looked like jam but tasted more like ketchup (it definitely was made out of berries though), mustard, thin slices of ham, and pear halves, all smothered in edamer cheese.  It was hot and strange, but I ate it all and the old man told me about his son, who married an Austrian woman who liked to go diving.  The Austrian woman's family was very traditional and the first time the man's son went to visit, he ironed his own clothing and the woman's mother and grandmother stood in the doorway, watching him in amazement and saying over and over how they had never seen a man iron before.  At the time, I agreed with the old man that that was strange, but come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen a man iron before either, except maybe on TV.