First Days of School

Yesterday was my first day of german high school! Apparently I'm attending the biggest Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia. It has about 1,600 people, and I come from a school with 128. Wow. It was pretty overwhelming,  but good. There's another girl from American (Pennsylvania), a girl from Brazil, a boy from Thailand, one from China, and one from Azerbaijan. They all seem nice, and I'm glad to have them around, since we're all in similar situations. The first day, wednesday, I had a meeting with a school counselor who helped me pick out my classes. Germans take a lot of classes, just sayin', but they don't have them as often. Also, instead of having, say, a study hall instead of a class, you can just leave school for a while. A lot of kids go to the nearby bakery, or just hang out, as long as you're back in time for class. The school seemed very chill about everything. The counselor basically said that I was here to learn German, so the completely understood that my grades would be lower than usual. Especially since I don't actually speak German yet. I'm picking up a ton already though! I'm pretty sure I seem socially awkward right now, since the language barrier is pretty brutal, but I've already made friends. Also, apparently I don't have to take the exams because I'm an exchange student. I'll have to talk to my school in the U.S. about it, but that would really make life easier. I'm in the tenth grade, by the way, like I would be in the U.S. I was going to be with my host sister in 9th, but I think it's good that I'm not. I'll get to meet more people this way. The way that German schools work is that up until 10th grade, at least in my region, everyone stays in the same classroom and teachers come to the class. In 10th and up, though, you move around like in the U.S. Anyways, after the meeting I went to English class, and that was good. I helped other people out some, and I think we'll be doing some pretty interesting stuff. After that I had a break (I tried to make fiends, which kind of failed) I had music. It was all pretty average until the teacher threw music books at us and told us to open to page 7, aka Country Roads by John Denver. Let's just say off-key is a GREAT word to describe how that went. It was hilarious. I also noticed that "here" had been changed to "there" in the lyrics. Then, school was over, because the teacher for my last class was sick. Yeah, that's how German schools work :) After school, which ended at about 12:30ish. I think, my host mom picked my host sister and me up, and we went to look for a bike but with no success. I'll need to keep looking for one that fits and isn't too expensive. Then we went home for a while, and then I went to Fußball (soccer) club. I met more people, which was great. We all laughed at how terrible I was at soccer. In Germany, sports aren't a part of school. You go to sports clubs instead. I'm really glad I signed for that.

Today, I woke up at 5:45, as I did yesterday. I have to be on the bus (a public bus, there are no school buses in Germany. I have friends who take the train to school) at 6:45. that's when I wake up at home, but I'm adjusting to the earlier schedule well. Tomorrow my first class is at 9:30, so I get to sleep in! This is new. Anyways, I took the bus to school, like yesterday. Then I had geography, followed by chemistry. Both were equally traumatic as I had no idea what was going on. I've learned to take out pencils when everyone else does, and listen for the world "pause" (pronounces p-ow-suh: It means break). I know that it will get easier, so I'm just going to keep trying! Oh, and I get to go to London on a school trip this fall, so I'm really looking forward to that. Anyways, after chemistry, all the other exchange students and I met with the counselor, and that went well. Then we had spanish. I liked it but man, that was tough. I was thinking in English, listening to German, and speaking Spanish. There was a lot of awkward GerSpanGlish going on in my head. I'm glad I'm taking this class, though. I've forgotten SO much. I had to introduce myself in Spanish and even that was hard, but like anything else, it'll get better. After class, The exchange students from Thailand, Brazil, and the other from America went to the bakery with me. I had my first Berliner, which is a jelly donut. It's famous because JFK accidentally called himself one. At least, that's what I've heard. After that, I took the bus back to Groß Reken, and then to soccer again. It was a different group of people, and I'll play in games with this group. I liked both a lot. A girl asked me if I had played soccer before and I tried to say "last spring" but accidentally said "last breakfast". Mistakes happen, and I'm glad I can laugh that kind of thing off easily. :) Then, I played wii with some neighbors, adorable ten-year old girls. They didn't speak any English, and we communicated successfully! I'm proud of myself. I also found an animal park about 5 minutes from my house by car. I wanted to go in but I didn't have any money with me. They have buffalo, moose, wolves, etc. It looks cool. There's also a golf course! I'm already to planning to go out with more friends, and monday I take the train to Essen to meet my Betreuer, or local coordinator. Alles ist gut! Keep in touch everyone, and I'll write agin soon.
Tschüss!