German classes attended the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival on October 3rd for their traditional field trip.
“These trips have been going on since I started here,” said German teacher David Blumberg. “The first trip was during the school year of 1997-1998.”
On this trip, the classes went into San Francisco for the day, stopped for lunch, and then went to see a movie.
The movie they watched was West Wind, a love story directed by Robert Thalheim, with English subtitles for individuals less fluent in German.
Freshman Ania Kossakowski greatly enjoyed the experience. The best part of the trip, according to Kossakowski, was hanging out with friends during the movie, while her least favorite part was having to miss a school day. “There was so much makeup work,” she said.
While it is a drag to make up the mountain of schoolwork the next day, Blumberg believes that the students enjoy the excursions. “It’s a nice chance to get out of the classroom,” said Blumberg. “I like talking with the students out of context, and they like seeing the films we go to.”
Senior Andrew Van Heuit, who has been on many German trips before, agrees with Blumberg, saying that his favorite part of the trip was lunch before the movie. “We met the people who presented the film without knowing who they were at the time,” he said. “It was very cool.”
On previous trips, the outcome was the same. Junior Jackie Redinger, who went on the trip last year, absolutely loved the experience. “We went to a German rock concert at the Goethe Institute,” said Redinger. “We saw Madsen-they were really cool and I like their music.”
“I try to do two trips every year, but I’ve done three trips for my advanced classes sometimes,” said Blumberg. “We went to Alcatraz one year. Students went through the audio tour, but they had to listen to it in German.”
The trip this year, according to Van Heuit and Kossakowski, was enough to get them both excited about the next trip. “I’d definitely go again,” said Kossakowski. “I thought it was so much fun.”
“I’d love to go again,” added Van Heuit.
