Anyways, I had my first day of school on Wednesday.......... I think the best way to describe it was overwhelming. And for the first 4 hours? Horrible. When I first got there, I was whisked away by one of the English teachers at the school (who is also the exchange student counselor), and she introduced me to 5 or 6 people that were supposed to help me through my first day. Within 5 minutes, all but two of them left me. So they took me to the room where we all had to listen to a presentation, and when we walked in literally every single person stared at me and whispered to each other. That's not even an exaggeration. So we sat down, and the two girls talked amongst themselves in German and I was left by myself. I looked around the room and noticed pretty quickly that I didn't know anyone. I have spent the last few days with Jule and her friends, and I've met quite a few people that go to the Gymnasium, but I didn't see any of them there. Then it dawned on me that the kids around me looked pretty young -- they had put me in classes with tenth graders. So I suffered through the rest of the presentation, and then afterwards I went straight to the counselor to see if I could be moved to classes with the older kids. I tried to explain to them that they could put me in the 5th grade or the 12th grade and either way I would have no idea what was going on, so it didn't matter if they put me in a class that's more complicated. Long story short, I got moved to the 11th grade (which is at least better than 10th), and most of the kids are 17 instead of 14 and 15. I've had three days of school so far, and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty agonizing. I never have the slightest idea what's going on. Like sometimes when my host family is talking in German at the dinner table I can follow some of the conversation, but when I'm in a class like math or Biology and they're using terms I might not even know in English, things get very difficult, very fast. I'm really lucky to have met some of the people in my classes through Jule before school started. They have been taking me to classes, explaining how things work, answering all my questions, and telling all the teachers that I'm the exchange student that can't speak any German. But at this point they feel more like babysitters than friends. It's going to be realllllyyy hard to make friends here. I'm hoping it becomes easier when I can speak a little German. On the bright side, I'm pretty happy with my school schedule!! On Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have a full day of school, so I go from 8-3:15, but on Mondays and Thursdays I don't have classes the first 2 periods of the day so I don't go into school until about 10. And on Fridays, I only go until 1:15, which is great. Every day I have a different set of classes that might consist of Music Theory, Politics, English (my fav), Spanish, Art, Math, History, Gym, Geography, or Biology. It's not like in the U.S. where you have every class, every day, all in the same order, and I think that it will keep things from becoming boring. However, they don't really have any electives (I'm not technically supposed to have Art in the 11th grade, but my Exchange Counselor pulled some strings), so you pretty much have core classes all day. I think that the only classes that I have any hope of doing well in are English and Spanish. The Spanish class I'm taking is a Level 2 Spanish class, and I would be taking Level 4 if I was taking it back home. But if you think Spanish is hard, try taking a Spanish class taught in German. And on top of that, the teacher found out I took 3 years of Spanish, so she thinks that it's a good idea to speak to me completely in Spanish instead of completely in German. I just nod and pretend like I know what she's saying, which is a technique that has worked for me so far! I'm also working on a list of differences I notice in the school, so I'll post that when I understand the school system here better. For example, today I filled up my water bottle from the water machine in the school, took a sip, and what do you know? Bubbly water. Seems like I can't escape it.
So I feel like this post has been pretty negative. But school aside, I can honestly say that have really enjoyed my first week here. In the past couple days I went to see the movie Paper Towns in German, ate my first bowl of "spaghetti ice cream", met my next host brothers, and visited a nearby town named Hoxter. And I really like my host family. Jule left this morning for Colombia, and I'm really going to miss her. I can only hope that she has a host sister or someone in Colombia that is as great to her as she was to me. She answered my never-ending cultural and language questions, gladly included me in any activity she planned with her friends, and showed me how to navigate the town I live in. Now I have to figure out the rest on my own, but she sure helped me get a good start.
Elias and food
Spaghetti Salad?
Spaghetti ice cream... Gotta love spaghetti-like foods
A building in Beverungen
An advertisement in German for The Maze Runner
A German tradition. These cones are filled with candy and school supplies and given to children before school starts, "because this is sweet, and school is not".
Tea and cakes, ft. the Bean Boozled game I brought as a gift for Elias (my mom gave me this idea, I can't take credit). He is obsessed with it. Every time someone new comes in the house, he gives them a jelly bean to eat and laughs hysterically at their reaction.
Tea time.
Jule and I :)
Biking to a good picnic spot that Jule showed me.
A visit to Hoxter.
My host family in Hoxter!
Eating ice cream on Jule's last night.
The view from my history class window. I swear this picture doesn't do it justice. I had to sneak it because phones aren't allowed in school, so I'm going to try to take a better picture another day.
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