Advent

The last few weeks flew by, and considering that it was also Advent, they went really fast. After our trip to Berlin, I insisted on having a Turkey dinner one night, in celebration of Thanksgiving. It ended up pretty darn good for being the first time my family had even seen a turkey, (Truthahn) let alone prepare it. I got most of the staple traditional foods in, and it was just as good as being home. (And major thanks to my uncle for giving me some pointers.)

December was great; we had two consecutive weeks of snow, which added up to about 1 meter of pure white goodness. I did learn though that here in Germany, where there are no yellow school busses responsible for getting the kiddies to school, that even when there are blizzard conditions outside, you are expected to be at school on time. No snow days, no exceptions.  This made for some memorable, icy, and chilly hour long walks to school, all to be awarded with dripping wet coats and scarves to lug around all day. On the plus side I got to rent a snowboard for a long weekend, and successfully make a fool of myself on the T-bar lifts at the local ski slopes. Embarrassing, but I’m not complaining.

On the first I went for a day trip to Strasbourg, France with the school. Strasbourg has one of the biggest Christmas markets, and is nick-named the ‘Capitale de Nöel.’ It was freezing but wonderful, and I ate a heavenly warm Nutella crêpe. Strasbourg, in the Alsace, was once Germany, as one could note from the architecture and name, but it still holds a very french flair, and as the capital of the European Parliament, I also got the feel that it is a cultured town.  It happens to have a little bit of money too, which is evident when  you look at the shopping district.

On the sixth of December we had a friendly visitor from lil’ St. Nick, or better known to the German Kinder as Saint Nikolaus. We all cleaned our rooms and laid out pretty plates for St. Nickolaus to stop by with sweets and small presents. I would say it was about equal to getting our stocking stuffers a little early. Another big event at Christmastime is the Advent calendar, and not just the chocolate-a-day cardboard box bought from the drugstore, but one with little gifts every day, rotating between my host sisters and me.

I also went with a friend to an ‘Abschlussball’ one night, which is a graduation from the dance school in partnership with the secondary schools in our area. It was quite interesting, in all honesty. Much cleaner than any prom or ball in America, everyone was incredibly formal and jived or tangoed or waltzed around. Everyone asked me how long and where I had my ballroom dancing lessons; I had to respond with not even knowing that such dance schools even existed, which was then proven when I tried to dance.

An interesting week this month was when the exchange students from Nîmes in the South of France were in town. Since I will be going to Nîmes for a week in June, I was invited to go with the group on a few day trips, including the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Christmas markets, and a few other local destinations. I am, after all, an exchange student too. This week taught me two things: I am happy to be in Germany, because maybe it was just this group of kids, but I don’t think I’m really compatible with the French. Nothing against them, I just don’t understand them. The other thing is that I’m feeling really confident with my German, and my French is unfortunately awful. But considering I took German lessons as long as these students have, and I live much farther away from Germany than they do, I was kicking some butt. The most I heard them say was ‘Guten Tag’, with a timid little accent. My German classmates also have amazing French, so that helped a lot with translation.

We spent the rest of our time baking Plätzchen, Gebrannte Mandeln, and other German Christmas delicacies, swimming, and cramming in studying for tests before the holiday break.

And finally, Christmas. Posting the christmabirthdaynewyear festivities after it’s all over and done with, it’s the first thing on my list!

Happy Holidays!

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!