Oktober: Part 2

As far as the rest of the month goes, it’s been fairly good here. Still adjusting to school, still going to fail every test I take.

In my class with my host sister Zoe, there are two other exchange students, which is incredibly rare, since usually the only exchange student in the school is the American from North Penn. One girl is Japanese, and the other is from Ecuador. It’s somewhat nice having two other girls sitting through the same classes not processing what the teacher says, but I can see how that could be frustrating for the teachers and other students. Where as I talk to the other classmates in German, speaking with the other exchange students is always a funny sight, we kind of have a ‘Denglish’ thrown in with a little Japanese and Spanish, whatever works for us. They both haven’t had as much School German as I have, so their German is a little behind mine, but I give them both a lot of credit, because when they’re not speaking German they have to speak English, which is already their second language.

I am forever thankful that the German school system requires much less tests and quizzes, because if I were in the same position I am in now at my high school, I’d be dead. The other day we took our first math test, and I only have three more for the rest of the school year. It’s mind blowing! And not to mention that the German’s are a lot farther ahead than us in math, in class 10 we are already doing what is standard for the 12^th grade in America. (Calculus, how exciting!)

We’ve done a lot of small weekend traveling, including a small town in Bavaria called Nürnburg; Ipf, a mountain where a meteorite hit thousands of years ago, ad an ancient Celtic civilization resided; and Schönenberg Kirche, which would have to be the most stunning and ornate church that I have seen in all of Europe, and all the same, it was where my host mom would go when she was little with her mother to mass on Sundays. Zoe and I also went to Aalen’s very own Römer Tag, or Roman day. Aalen is located on a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to the remains of a Roman emigrant civilisation, and celebrates every year with a weekend fest at the Limes Museum. The event reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia of all things. The die-hards had tents set up and fire’s going despite the cold and slight drizzle. There was an arena for horses, and the acceptable attire was chain mail, cloaks, and leather shoes.  It was very nicely done, with medieval jousting and the whole nine yards.

Another highlight of October was when I had the chance to meet up with Johannes, our exchange student for two weeks all the way back in 2010. He was nice enough to stay in touch with my family, and when he told me he would be in Aalen for a weekend, it was a perfect opportunity to talk and catch up. It really is a small world, you never know when your life crosses paths with someone again, and things were just like they were for his short visit to America, except the tables were turned, I’m now the one on foreign soils.

And after that I was headed off with the host family nach BERLIN! 🙂

Schubart Gymnasium

Einen Schönen Guten Morgen!

It’s already been a month since I’ve been in Germany. Whew! Crazy to think about. Which means that school has started, and I’ve already completed my first three weeks! And that I’ve really procrastinated posting this… whoops!

So school here’s a lot different than North Penn. For one, it’s only about the size of my middle school, Penndale, with around 900-1,000 students, pretty large for the area, as apposed to the 3,000 students at North Penn High School.  Another huge difference is that the students are from 5^th grade to 12^th grade, 10-18 years old. Its definitely a little strange seeing kids half your size playing and running around the halls, with the older kids not seeming to mind at all. Somehow I think the students at North Penn would have issues with this.

The class that I’m in is considered 10^th grade, the reason being that the 11^th and 12^th grade classes are at a much faster pace to prepare for the Abitur, or German equivalent of the SAT’s, and since I am not planning on taking any Abitur, the 10^th class is a good place for me to be.  Plus I’m with my host sister Zoe, and without her being able to explain things to me I’d be completely lost. So a big shout out and thanks to Zoe!

We are with the same students most of the day, and usually stay in one classroom, and the teachers come to us.  All of the students are friendly, and we also have an exchange student from Ecuador and one from Japan, who also find German an incredibly complicated language.

A big perk of German school is that we also don’t have afternoon classes each day, and for me I have Monday and Friday afternoons free. It’s quite liberating! We also get an hour break when we have school in the afternoon, and we’re free to go into town and buy lunch, or do just about whatever we like.

Most days I ride my bike to school with my host sisters, and riding through the town early in the morning with nobody but the shopkeepers opening up and the street cleaners, it’s pretty surreal.

I enjoy almost all of my classes, despite the fact that I can hardly understand what’s going on. The ones that I find most difficult are Chemistry, Physics, and of course, Math. It doesn’t help that they’re neither my strongest subjects, nor my favorite, and when the vocabulary is completely different, it’s a little hard to comprehend. On the other hand, I love that I have French more than any other subject, and although the classes here are much farther ahead of what I had been learning last year, it’s still enjoyable for me. Except for the fact that I’m swamped with twice the work… the textbooks explain and define everything into German, and I hardly understand that, so I come home and translate it myself. It makes my head hurt, but I really think it’ll be worthwhile.

I also have German, Religion, Biology, Music, Art, Politics, History, and English. I think it’s great that we can have so many subjects, and still have less instructional time in one school day that back home! History, Politics, and English are bilingual courses, which for me means they’re a breath of fresh air: English! Never, ever take for granted being able to understand what is going on!