When I did my summer student exchanges as a German teacher, my favorite city in all of Germany was this little city on the border of Baden and Bayern called Dillingen. It was a perfect exchange, small town Idaho meets small town Germany; however, young people are so strange in situations like that. Some of the high school students felt "bored" with the fact that they were in a rural environment without shopping malls and discos who knows what. For me it was how I still picture heaven. In the evening when I jogged before swimming laps in the small city's Olympic size pool, you could hear the sound of a Cuckoo. I had never heard one, besides the one in my grandmother's clock or the faculty meeting rantings of several high school principals I worked with during my teaching career.
Dillingen was a special place for me. I lived with Willi and Erika Martin during that exchange, and during the first visit, I took my son Cles. I put pictures on an earlier blog showing the house where we stayed, a beautiful spot I will never forget. Erika was the cooperating teacher, since she taught English at the school we visited in the city. Willi taught elementary. Cles went to school with him every day. It was an adventure that Cles and I will never forget. There is just something about living in a small town that is totally different that what you experience in a large city.
Nördlingen was a city near Dillingen where we visited that still had portions of a medieval wall. Rothenburg is the city most tourists are familiar with when someone mentions an old city wall, but Nördlingen is the one you want to visit too. And while there, especially during my second trip with students from Idaho Falls the second year, Erika often had essays and tests to grade in the spring. Willi and I would go for afternoon drives in his BMW. He showed some beautiful spots in Germany. I only wish I could remember the names of the places.
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