Grüß Gott as they say in München. This is the 15th study trip of the University of Michigan Residential College Deutsches Theater, a company I started at the University of Michigan in 1985. We are so excited! Our trip this year is sponsored by the UM International Institute (Danke!).  The Residential College provided scholarships to the students on the trip (Danke!) RC Alumni also made donations that helped make this trip possible (Danke!). We will be shouting out "Danke!" on a daily basis at the top of our lungs to each of you, who made our trip possible. And as actors, we have the lungs (and good diction, I might add) to make our thanks heard across the Atlantic!
       I will be leaving early to make final arrangements, pick up tickets, etc. for our trip. The students will be able to see theater almost every night, and we will see lots of great art and will try our own hand at making art. We'll also have some fantastic alternative walking tours and art and theater workshops. (Shhhhhh!  The tours and lessons are still a surprise to the students.)
      This year's group is very small by RC German trip standards--only four students--and myself. It's the perfect group, and it reminds me of our first two study trips back in 2002 and 2003, which also had 4 students, though those trips were over Spring Break and we had a lot of snow and rain. With a small group, accessing museums, eating out, getting tickets, etc. is much easier than it is with our usual bigger groups. I can't wait (!!!!) to show the students "my cities" in Germany. Can't wait to take them to my favorite theaters, museums, and restaurants. And this trip will feature, as usual, city life as well as retreats to the beautiful countryside. Ich kann kaum abwarten!
      We will do our best to post something every day to the blog and we hope you will like seeing our pictures and blog posts. If we miss a day or two, never fear! It will likely mean that we are just too busy taking in the sights and having fun. On those days, you are welcome to visit previous blogs from our 2013 and 2014 trips (See links at the top of the page).