herbstmesse

Every year the city of Basel, Switzerland holds its annual herbstmesse, or fall fair. It's somewhere between the county and state fair and includes carnival rides, bright lights, and LOTS of German food. So on Thursday October 29, the entire BFA community took six buses down to Basel and we literally invaded the city. Most of the rides are very expensive (think $6-10 per ride) but every year BFA buys a huge amount of tokens for one very fun ride and then sells them to the students for a discounted price of 1 Swiss Franc.

At such an unbeatable price, the bumper cars are where the action is! There isn't a line for the ride, simply a big open pit of bumper cars and a platform around the cars where customers stand and wait. The hard part is getting into a car because as soon as the cars begin to slow down there is a panicked mass of bodies running, pushing, elbowing, and weaseling their way into an empty seat in a car. To start the engine you insert your token, then hang on for the ride of your life. From 6:30-7:30 the middle schoolers had dibs on the cars, and then from 7:30-8:30 the high schoolers took over.

At first, I only planned to ride two or three times with a few of my students...but once I remembered how much fun bumper cars are (and how much MORE fun it is to crash into your students) I quickly bought more tokens. I lost count because sometimes I rode with a student or friend who paid, but overall I think it would be safe to say I rode the bumper cars about 15 times. Yes, I am STILL just a big kid at heart. It was great to experience the German tradition of herbstmesse and also spend some time with my students outside the classroom.

Here are a few more shots of my students. I didn't take a camera to Herbstmesse, so all of these photos are courtesy of Greg Storrs, Jill Musick, and Michelle Phoenix. What would I do without blogger and facebook?