Today was my REAL first day of school. Thats is, I actually needed to do work. In the Morning I took he bus, subway, then another bus to get to school. On the 2nd bus I saw this girl who is in my class and we tried talked a little bit (She doesn't speak English). At School I had German, then two hours of English Profilkurse (Main study). I was really suprised at how difficult the course was. We read a British prose piece that was even confusing for me! We went over terms like Point of View, Narrator, and Perspective. It was so nice to be able to speak in English and understand everything the teacher was saying. Many students in the class were very good at English... nearly fluent! I was very impressed.
After English I went to 2 hours of religion! I was expecting it to be super boring... and really bible-y and just not fun! But yet again I was wrong. The students in my class were split up into 2 groups, one Catholic and the other Protestant or Evangelical. I went with the Protestants and we went into this little tiny room (there were 8 of us), and we sat in this circle and talked not about religion, but philosophy. It was questions about life and really interesting stuff! I couldn't understand very much, but I raised my hand for the first time and managed to answer a question in German! WO! It was a very cool class! It didn't seem like school at all! It seemed like a conversation! I liked it alot.
After Religion I went to the office and waited in line to recieve a new schedule. I managed to get everything worked out and now I have all of the classes I need. On my new schedule I found out that I had 2 more hours of normal English (not profilkurse)... So I went to the classroom and sat through a much easier English course. DOn't get me wrong, the people in the basic course were really good at English... much better then we are with our languages in American high school. Basically we had to hold up picture out of a magazine and explain what is there and why we picked it. That is all! Yup... so thats it for today. After school I went with my host mom to the bank and we opened up a German bank account for my Rotary allowance. It was very difficult for my host parents to find a bank that was willing to open one for me so I am very grateful to them.
Now I'm just sitting here in my room. A little tired from the day. This exchange is very exciting for me at the moment. I feel as if I'm actually learning life lessons... I'm learning so much about myself, German culture, and human interaction.... It's SO exciting.
Most exciting of all I think is learning the German language. Today when I was sitting through religion class my brain had a little meltdown. It was so confused... but in a good way. It was hearing the foreign words come out of the teachers mouth and it was trying to make sense of it... I felt little axles in my head spinning and slowly I felt my brain start to transfer over to German. It was unreal! The little step is merely the beginning for grasping the German language, but I am determined to learn this language!
New Schedule
Monday: sports, free, free, history, german, basic french.
Tuesday: german, advanced english, advanced english, religion, religion, basic english, basic english.
Wednesday: math, advanced french, advanced french, phisics, german, sports, free.
Thursday: history, art, art, chemistry, chemistry, basic french, basic french.
Friday: basic english, biology, biology, math, math, physics, free.
There's a rumor going around that my advanced English teacher will be gone for 3 months... there's no such thing as substitutes here. haha! I love Germany.
After English I went to 2 hours of religion! I was expecting it to be super boring... and really bible-y and just not fun! But yet again I was wrong. The students in my class were split up into 2 groups, one Catholic and the other Protestant or Evangelical. I went with the Protestants and we went into this little tiny room (there were 8 of us), and we sat in this circle and talked not about religion, but philosophy. It was questions about life and really interesting stuff! I couldn't understand very much, but I raised my hand for the first time and managed to answer a question in German! WO! It was a very cool class! It didn't seem like school at all! It seemed like a conversation! I liked it alot.
After Religion I went to the office and waited in line to recieve a new schedule. I managed to get everything worked out and now I have all of the classes I need. On my new schedule I found out that I had 2 more hours of normal English (not profilkurse)... So I went to the classroom and sat through a much easier English course. DOn't get me wrong, the people in the basic course were really good at English... much better then we are with our languages in American high school. Basically we had to hold up picture out of a magazine and explain what is there and why we picked it. That is all! Yup... so thats it for today. After school I went with my host mom to the bank and we opened up a German bank account for my Rotary allowance. It was very difficult for my host parents to find a bank that was willing to open one for me so I am very grateful to them.
Now I'm just sitting here in my room. A little tired from the day. This exchange is very exciting for me at the moment. I feel as if I'm actually learning life lessons... I'm learning so much about myself, German culture, and human interaction.... It's SO exciting.
Most exciting of all I think is learning the German language. Today when I was sitting through religion class my brain had a little meltdown. It was so confused... but in a good way. It was hearing the foreign words come out of the teachers mouth and it was trying to make sense of it... I felt little axles in my head spinning and slowly I felt my brain start to transfer over to German. It was unreal! The little step is merely the beginning for grasping the German language, but I am determined to learn this language!
New Schedule
Monday: sports, free, free, history, german, basic french.
Tuesday: german, advanced english, advanced english, religion, religion, basic english, basic english.
Wednesday: math, advanced french, advanced french, phisics, german, sports, free.
Thursday: history, art, art, chemistry, chemistry, basic french, basic french.
Friday: basic english, biology, biology, math, math, physics, free.
There's a rumor going around that my advanced English teacher will be gone for 3 months... there's no such thing as substitutes here. haha! I love Germany.
Wow Ben, that's so cool!
Hope you're liking Germany so far
Lydia