Week 6! - First Week at My New School!

Hello! This week was tiring, full of firsts, and a big step for me in my journey in Germany! It was overall an amazing week! On Monday I had my first day at my new school! Rahel’s school! The way the schedule works at this school is that every day of the week is a different schedule, so I’ll go through the week by each day. 

Before I go into the classes, I’ll start with what Rahel and I did on my first day. After taking the tram to school, we went to the secretary just to let her know that officially today was my first day. She was very nice and checked out all my text books to me and wished me luck on my first day! My first class on Monday was Art. Art class was very different than in America. The walls of the classroom were very blank, but it allowed the room to feel extra bright. In art we made cakes out of paper. We geometrically calculated the circumferences of each tier so everything would match up perfectly. It was a little weird in my opinion for an art class but I’m very excited to see what else we do and observe overall differences between American art and German art. I don’t want to judge the whole class based on one period of art. After Art was English! As I predicted I really like English because it allows my brain to get a break from hearing everything in German. Although it’s not as easy as I’d predicted. It’s British English not American English so there are some differences in some words and other things. But overall the hardest part of that class is looking at English from that angle. When I speak English I’m not thinking about conjugating words or specific grammar things. This class still does make me think about English from a new perspective which may be helpful with my upcoming SATs and ACTs. After English is German. I would say German is my hardest class. We have to write, read, and understand complex things while i’m just beginning to get at a place where I can comprehend simple texts. In this class we had to look at a picture and describe what was going on and write a story about it. My story was significantly smaller than everyone else’s but I’m just happy I had a story haha! After that class we had lunch! I decided to try the cafeteria food and I got “Pasta with Cheese Sauce”. It was okay but not great. However, compared to American school lunches, it was incredible. After lunch we had one more class, Math. Right now we are doing Trigonometry. Thankfully I already took this class so it helps me to follow along a lot easier. I also have a sheet with all the most common vocabulary translated for me which makes things easier as well. I do find it funny though, that a month ago I couldn’t even count to ten in German, and now i’m taking Trigonometry in German…

When I got home from school I did my homework and relaxed for about an hour an then I was off to my second school of the day. Language school! Language school goes from 6:40 to 8:10 in the evening so I have to have everything done before I get home because at that point it’s already like 8:30 and i’m the type of person that really needs their sleep so I’m sleeping by 9. Overall I really like this new language school! It’s a small class but it means we’re more productive! I’m very very tired at the end of the day, but I also see a lot of growth at the end of the day. 

On Tuesday I start the day off with Biology. This class is sometimes confusing for me because of the vocabulary, but sometimes I get lucky and there are a lot of cognates so i’m able to follow quite well. Other times it’s quite confusing. I’m ver thankful though that i’m in such a wide range of classes. It really allows me to obtain such a wide range of words. Even if I move to another place in the future to learn other languages, it’ll never be like this where I can learn so much about so many different topics so fast! After Biology I have Latin. Except I don’t actually learn Latin. I just use that time to practice my German by reviewing vocabulary and grammar and practicing in workbooks. The next class is Government. From what I can tell from that one class though, it’s more about talking about what’s ethical and less about the actual German government. But as I said with Art, I don’t want to judge the class based on one class. Then we had lunch! Tuesday's lunch was slightly better. It was pasta with spinach sauce. The way the lunch system works is that there are 5 menus. A menu with some sort of meat, a vegetarian menu, a pasta menu, a salad menu, and more of a snack menu. I either get the vegetarian menu or pasta. Just depends how i’m feeling. But I don’t get the meat option ever. I’ve decided to be vegetarian while I’m here since Renate’s family is vegetarian, I’ve never liked meat anyway, and I don’t crave it. Anyways, after lunch was Gym class. Gym class was also not my favorite class, but it wasn’t terrible. We played handball! I’ve never played it before, but it was fun! 

On Wednesday I start the day with Math. Then I have an innovation science class. I could pick between Spanish and this science class and since the science class was fun, and I think taking another language might confuse me, I decided to go with the science class. Right now we are doing a project where we make model solar cars and it’s a competition between the class. Rahel is in my group and we have a very solid car! I’ll be excited to see how the competition goes. Then after that is the Religion class. Because it is a catholic school we have to take a religion class. Catholic, Non-Catholic, or Ethics. I’m taking the Catholic one and so far it’s been very interesting. It’s very difficult though because we read long passages that are very difficult, even for someone who knows German. They’re very deep and have many meanings, so it’s quite difficult for me to keep up. But the teacher is very nice and young and peppy, so that helps. On Wednesdays there is no class after lunch so we go home for lunch and the day ends early. This is good because Wednesday is another day I have Language school in the evenings. 

On Thursdays I start the day off with English! Next is History. Not much to say about History, it seems like a pretty normal history class. After this is French (so I practice German) and then lunch. Rahel stays for lunch because she takes an optional computer class, but I decided not to take this class so I go home for lunch on Thursdays too. 

Last but not least, on Fridays I start the day off with German class. Then Chemistry. So far Chemistry is not my cup of tea but once again I’m trying really hard not to judge the classes too harshly based on one class. But for me it was very difficult to follow because I know no vocab in German related to chemistry and the teacher’s handwriting is very hard to read. So I can’t even translate things later because what I copy in my notes is wrong. Chemistry isn’t really a subject I really like anyways so we’ll see how this class goes. But I’m not giving up yet. Then after chemistry we have the innovation science class again. A fun way to end the week. On Friday the day also ends at lunch so we can go home and eat! 

So yeah! That’s what my school week looks like! So far I really really like this new school! Everyone is very nice and welcoming to me! One thing that Renate told me is that this school has no air conditioning! That kind of freaks me out because I really hate feeling sweaty but maybe this will help me overcome my fears! She said sometimes it gets too hot to concentrate so the teachers just takes everyone to go get ice cream! That will be fun! But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there! 

This weekend was also a lot of fun! On Saturday Renate, Timo, and I went into town and did some shopping! I got some school supplies that I needed. For example I didn’t know that papers were different sized here. They are slightly more skinny, but taller. Anyways they don’t fit in my normal folders so I got some new folders, and also some paper. I also got some yarn so I can knit some more yay! While we were downtown we saw a lot of super cool street performers! Here is one example!

On Sunday we got to take care of the goats and sheep at Timo’s preschool again! It was very nice to be able hang out with them again! Since last going there, they got two more sheep so it was nice to meet them too! Here are some photos that I took of some of the animals there. They’re so nice and friendly! 

One of the new sheep! 

Renate petting the one of the goats

Another picture of the goat because she's so cute!

I hope this blog helped you understand a little better what my week looks like now that i’m at this new school! If I’m leaving anything out please don’t hesitate to email me or comment below! Have a great week and I hoped you enjoyed!