Boothbay Region High School junior Eve Dolloff has already been to Germany and is ready to go back. Dolloff spent three weeks in Germany last year and now she and 12 other BRHS students are raising money for a 2018 trip.

The students will spend three weeks on the trip as part of the German American Partnership Program. Boothbay Region will send students to stay two weeks with families in Bad Harzburg. The town is a small tourist community about the size of Augusta located in central Germany, according to German teacher Ingrid Merrill. Bad Harzburg is near the mountains and is 190 kilometers from Berlin. 

For Dolloff, returning to Germany is a chance to become reacquainted with her host family and experience the German culture. She thoroughly enjoyed her first trip to the European country. “I loved it,” she said. “It’s a different culture and it’s interesting to see their customs and ways of doings things.”

She toured major German cities Hamburg and Berlin and is excited about seeing them again. Dolloff described both as being filled with German culture and history. “Both are really beautiful and there are a lot of things to do. We also learned about German history by visiting a nearby concentration camp in Hamburg.”

The trip’s main purpose is improving students’ German language skills and exposing the students to a foreign culture. Dolloff described several differences between American and German culture. She described German teens as having more “freedoms” or responsibility than Americans. The German school day is shorter. And German cuisine is both spicier and saltier.

Dolloff is also looking to reconnect with German friends. In September 2014, her German teen counterpart visited her in Maine. The relationship started slowly, but by the time Dolloff visited her the following spring, the two were fast friends. “At first we didn’t speak much to each other, but when I visited her in Bad Harzburg, it was like we were best friends,” she said.

The 2018 trip will be sophomore Jazmyne Lewis’ first visit to Germany. She studies German because of her familial heritage. Her relatives described German culture and history to her, but she wants to experience it for herself. “I’ve never been there, but I’m very interested in the culture. It’s a lot different than ours. In Germany, the drinking age is 16, which is strange,” Lewis said.

Other first-time visitors are anxious to see famous German landmarks. Sophomore Maddy Barter wants to see the historic castles in Gottingerode, which is near Bad Harzburg. Freshman Jacob Echols said he likes learning how to speak German and wants to witness the country’s culture firsthand.

Sophomore Cassidy Hicks is already familiar with German teens. Her brother participated in the GAPP program two years ago and the family hosted a German teen.

“It was interesting to see how similar American and German teens are. We play the same video games like Call to Duty,” she said. “It was also interesting hearing him speak English and piecing together what he was trying to say.”

The BRHS students will travel to Germany a year from now. They will leave two weeks prior to April vacation and return after the school break. Before they can depart, they must raise money for the trip. The trip costs $2,000 per student, and each student is responsible for their own spending money, according to Merrill.

GAPP is conducting various fundraisers for the trip. The program is selling Little Caesar Pizza kits for $20. Each kit has ingredients for making three pizzas; the kits are available until May 15. On May 2, a GAPP dinner will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club at 66 Montgomery Road. The dinner features bratwurst and other German dishes. GAPP will also sponsor a May 26 car wash from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Hawke Motors.

All the GAPP students study the German language in school. Regardless of their German speaking ability, they all have learned at least one phrase posted in Merrill’s classroom: “Ab nach, Hamburg!” In English, it’s “Let’s go to Hamburg.”