Wilkommen!

Megan's reception was terrific...she is feeling safe, comfortable and loved. To give an idea of where she stays (with the Bachmann family), here are some pics.

Travel Day!

Our flights were fine (but long) and we all arrived safely.  Our juniors did a food related debate at JFK and all travelers were their audience. It's not enough for Northpoint to just travel in bright blue shirts; we must attract attention with a live, intelligent debate.  Many people stopped us to ask who we were and what we were doing while traveling.  I am always impressed but the clarity and purpose in my students responses to questions of what kind of school we are.

Here are some other travel photos just for fun...

Stayed up all night?

somewhere in the Midwest?

German Exchange: Round Eight

Hallo Deutschland Austausch 2015!!

Are you ready?  

Departure from NELA:  

3am Thursday, April 23.

Leave a comment that lets us know you've been here.

The Final Day: Cu Chi Tunnels

Saturday, June 15, 2013

The final day has arrived and I think I speak for everyone when I say, “It is time to go home.” However, on the inside we all want to stay!

We couldn’t go home until we had another jam-packed day. Today we started with an early wakeup call and headed up to The Cu Chi Tunnels. This was a very famous village for many Vietnamese troops during the Vietnam War. It was famous for all the hidden underground tunnels that were used to house the men and women living in the area. They were also used for hiding from American troops, and this whole complex system allowed them to communicate without being spotted. From personal experience I know these tunnels are small as small can get. Our tour guide allowed us to climb through the first hundred meters and my knees were already killing. But this was not the only thing we learned while we were there.

We explored many of the fighting tactics, homes, and weapons used by the Vietnamese. From exploring this vast area, we could see the difficulties of day to day life whether it be avoiding an attack helicopter, or learning to carve by candle-light in a dark cramped tunnel. It gave us a different perspective on the whole war. To me personally, it showed that the U.S. really had no fighting chance to win whatsoever. The Vietnamese recycled everything and would put themselves at such a discomfort but they survived and thrived in the area. Today was a great wrap up day to just squeeze a last bit of knowledge into our brains before we set sail on our torturously long ride home.  That is of course after we go bowling. See you all back in America!

~Dane DeRouin

The American War of Aggression in Vietnam

Friday, July 14, 2013

 Northpoint students in front of the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), where North Vietnamese tanks entered, officially winning the "Vietnam War," which, in Vietnam, is called "The American War of Aggression."

Being an American citizen, I think that it’s good to know about the history of your country. Today when we went to a museum about the History of the Vietnam War, it seemed that most of us had little idea of what happened in the war. We learned about why the war started, America’s impact in the war and other countries’ impact in the war. At the end of the day when we discussed what we had learned, we all seemed to be interested in the stories about Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a defoliant that the American soldiers sprayed on the Vietnamese jungles because they believed that soldiers were hiding there. The poisonous gases were sprayed by planes in hopes of destroying the trees so that the soldiers couldn’t hide. But because of the harmful gases, many people then and in the future were negatively affected by it. We found that it was very important for us to learn about the history of wars so that we can learn from mistakes and educate the future generations to come.

~Arielle Abrams

Vietnam vs. Cambodia

Thursday, July 13, 2013

Arriving in Vietnam, I saw many differences right away. For one, walking down the street we aren’t constantly asked for a tuk-tuk ride because there are none here. Motorcycles cover the streets. It’s difficult to be here because the people know less English than in Cambodia, where a lot of then know English. Ho Chi Minh City is far more western then Cambodia. Another observation that I made was it seems that they are far less likely to show their niceness towards us than Cambodians.

-Abbey Rodriguez

Excursions: Caves & The Beach

Wednesday, July 12, 2013

The group this morning headed off to the caves and got to explore one of them. In my opinion, the cave was very cool and it had a temple that people have built to symbolize Hinduism. There were a couple times when I thought that I heard some bats in the cave as well. It wasn’t that scary to be in the cave. I could tell that the group was having a great time exploring the area around us. There were a lot of stones that looked like elephants, including a big one that was just outside the cave that the group went into. The day was really hot but going into the cave really cooled everyone down.

After going to the caves, we headed over to a beach to swim and relax. We had a nice lunch by the seashore. It was clearly a beautiful day to go over to the ocean. Everyone had a great time. At the village where we stayed at, some of us got to swim in the river. It started to pour down rain but no one seemed to care about the rain. Now I am getting ready to fall asleep and be ready for the next day.

~Ali Anders