“Who of us is going to accompany the Indians during their trip to Regensburg?” asks a worried collegue of mine in our lunch break. As if I know such a thing five days in advance of the Indians’ stay in Germany! Of course the planning could have been already completed, but who thinks like that has surely never organized a student exchange yet.
It all started when the date on Tuesday was in doubt. Three of the German students told me that they have to take part in a football tournament and that we have to change the day of our welcome dinner to another evening. But if we move our potluck event to Monday it will collide with an exam. While I ponder how to get rid of that problem I receive an email: The landing stage of the rowing club has to be replaced and we have to cancel our rowing activity. “But when I put the Judo training onto Tuesday we could go rowing on Wednesday. I only have to rebook our bus!” While I shift more and more dates and activities into the right time slots I get onother mail. A sport club I couldn’t reach for a long time asks, whether thay can take part in our exchange project or not. I simply have to send them two possible dates and they would be happy to chose one of them. I decide to postpone the necessary phone call to the next day.
To calm myself a little bit I call some other partners instead. They should just verify some activities I booked weeks in advance. I shouldn’t have done that: The restaurant which was planned for our farewell dinner is renovating and we don’t have any replacement yet. But that doesn’t bother me any more: Rowing on Wednesday! Sport club on Tuesday morning and the Bavarian curling club has to be flexible and will be visited on another day!
And the college for the trip to Regensburg, who whas mentioned before? At least I can rely on me fellow teachers. But the solution for the remaining schedule will be thrilling. At least I still have five more days. What could go wrong in such a short time?