On August 31st, at 7:25 am, my host sister and I left home by bike to head to school. The rest of the students had already been in school for 3 weeks, but due to ASSE's language camp in Düsseldorf, my first day at Gymnasium (the most advanced of the several types of high schools in Germany) didn't come until this last day of August. So, we biked down the street, and around a few corners, and eventually we got to the bike path that would take us to school. Upon arriving, we parked and locked our bikes in a sea of other similar two-wheeled transportation mechanisms, and headed into the school. My host sister lead me to the main office, where I got to meet the principal and secretary. The principal even took me to my first class and introduced me to the other students! In that first class, which happened to be Informatik (computer science), I understood just about nothing. It sort of felt like being immersed in two foreign languages at the same time (computer code language, as well as German).
For the first 3 and a half days, I went to all of my host sister's classes with her. This was really nice for an initial transition into school, despite the fact that some of the classes (think latin) were way over my head. So, on Thursday, I met with one of the English teachers to create my own time table. I have 9 classes. Most days I'm at school from the first lesson until the 7th lesson, which is from about 7:55 to 2:15. Monday is a bit different because I have classes from the second lesson (yay for getting to sleep an extra 45 min!) to the 8th lesson. I also have the 3rd and 4th lessons free that day. I don't have a lunch break (those don't exist here), but I can eat snacks during the 15 and 5 minute breaks that occur several times per day.
As of now, I have 10 classes. I am in Q1 (grade 11), so I have 2 LK courses that are more intensive (and more hours per week) than the others. My LKs are Art and English. I really enjoy both of those courses! For art, I need to come up with an idea for a big project that I'll complete by the end of the first semester, in January. My 8 other courses include Biology, German, Geography, Philosophy, Sport, Musik, History, and SoWi (politics/government). I can't say that I understand a whole lot of what is said in most of those classes, but I'm working hard on my German skills and I can't wait until I can! I do feel like I'm understanding more and more normal conversational speaking every day.
I've met so many people during the last couple of weeks, and I have really felt very welcomed into my new environment. I've talked to so many nice students in my classes, and there's lots more that I haven't met yet. Thanks to everyone being so helpful, I haven't even gotten lost yet! It nearly happened a couple of times, but people showed me to my classes when I didn't know where they were, and I was never even late to class!
The building itself is an older building, but it's pretty nice and some of it seems to have been remodeled. The science rooms are all currently being redone, so the science classes are sort of being held in all other parts of the school. There is a cafeteria-like place, which is home to the highly sought after käse brötchen! They are so popular that they all sell out during the first break, and people seem to make a beeline for the food counter just so that they can get one. There are two vending machines at school, but not your typical snacks and soda machines that are found in America. Instead they have one vending machine for milk, and another for hot chocolate!
Well I'm sure there's more to say about school, but now I need to go work on my presentation about Oregon for my English class. :)
Happy Saturday everyone!
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