The One Mit Einem Fahrrad

If I had a Euro for every time I've gotten rained on while riding my bike here, I could probably purchase a month's supply of Haribo gummy treats. Now this is not only due to the fact that Haribo is way cheaper here (both wonderful and awful), but also because it rains in the mornings and afternoons a lot. And by a lot I mean every day. Like I might look out the window in the morning thinking,"Wow, today it looks pretty nice out, I won't have to worry about getting rained on!" Then I step outside and it immediately starts drizzling, so I sullenly bike to school, cursing the weather and banishing any hope of my hair looking semi-decent. Halfway through the day I might be on my way to the pool for sport class and the sky is bright blue and the sun is out; an hour later, it begins to rain once again the minute PE ends. This is just how it is. So in this post, I'd like to share the joys and downfalls of having a bike and using it to go everywhere. 

Reasons why a "Fahrrad" is super:

1. In a medium sized town like Westerstede, I can zip around to pretty much any place within 10 minutes and feel like a real European doing so.

2. When we have free time in the school day, it takes about 2 seconds to get to a bakery to get some bread or a drink. Case in point, some people in my math class were talking about how they could really go for a coffee and how we should have a coffee machine in the room. Not only did my teacher say that we should definitely invest in a coffee machine, he was like "Yeah okay you have ten minutes to hit up the bakery for a drink." I love this. 

3. Being able to go places with my host brother and hanging out in town, even though neither of us can drive. It's so sweet to grab an ice cream with him or pick up some bread on a Sunday morning from a shop together. So many stories of mine include some form of bread, I'm slowly realizing...

4. Complete independence in general. It's going to be rough giving some of that up next year. 

5. Tricked out German bikes. They've got cool baskets, bike bells, bike racks, and a lock on the back wheel that you put a key in to release. 

Reasons why having a "Fahrrad" is also a struggle:

1. Showing up at home completely soaked to the bone. Pretty self-explanatory, but unlike in the US, no one is coming to pick you up from school when it rains. You had better ride quickly. 

2. The fact that children are either overly cautious or not cautious at all whilst riding their bikes or walking around. I've already run into one kid and nearly missed many others. 

3. Bike traffic. Highly unusual for me to experience in the US but here you have to really watch out for not only cars but pedestrians and other bikers. Bike bells are a complete must.

4. A lot of hopping around to get on and off my bike and looking like a loon. Short people problems for sure... 

5. Adding skinny jeans to the hopping around problem. Classic.

6. The perpetual decision of whether to wipe off your bike seat and have a partially wet coat or sit on it and have a wet butt. Both are not extremely appealing. 

I think that's about it for my bike riding observations thus far, but there will no doubt be more to come. I'm hoping my next biking adventure will be learning how to ride with an umbrella but I'm not sure my skills are that advanced quite yet... 

Bis zum nächsten Mal, 

Hannah 

The One Im Gymnasium

Before you get the idea from this post's title that I've been spending large quantities of time here in the gym, let me clarify that the German word for the type of high school I'm attending is "Gymnasium." I probably should hit the gym because of all the leckeres Brot (delicious bread) I've been consuming, but as we would say in German "es ist egal," which means it doesn't really matter. Anyway, on to the point of this post, which is my experience with school so far.

I started school here 2 weeks ago and received a traditional Schultüte from my host mum filled with yummy German candy.

I biked to school like I do every day now, and it takes me exactly 5 minutes when I go through the town center. I find the city Zentrum so cool because of all the little shops, red cobble stone streets and sidewalks, and the vast quantities of other students also biking to school. The bike stands at the Gymnasium are comepletely packed with bikes because we have about 1,200 students from 5th grade through 12th grade. This is also super crazy because walking through the halls is like a strange mix of being in a middle school and a high school at the same time. The school itself is in the middle of the city, which means that when you look out the windows in any given classroom, you can see lots of red-roofed houses and typical German scenery. Each classroom has a wall of windows, which filters in natural light and air; I find this to be super calming. 

I can't really go through a "normal" school day because of the fact that the Oberstufe (11th and 12th grades) are set up much like college in the U.S. This means that I have 3 to 4 one and a half hour long courses every day, but usually with gaps in my schedule. For instance, Fridays I have badminton beginning at 11:45 and nothing else before or after that. Here is a picture of what the basic time table looks like: 

My Prufungskurse or P. Fächer are English, German, geography, history, and math, which means I have them 2 times a week. Then I have Werte and Normen (like philosophy), music, water aerobics and badminton as courses that I have once a week. I think this type of schedule leads to a lot of independence, as I can bike home or leave school whenever I don't have class. As you can see on the schedule, our "lunch" break is 55 minutes long and there is no cafeteria that all the students sit in to eat. Students will instead head to local bakeries or go home if they don't have 7/8 hour Unterricht. 

The fact that I'm in the 11th grade here is a bit unusual for an exchange student, as most are put in the 10th grade regardless of how old they are. This is due to the fact that up until 11th grade, students are in a single class of 15 or so classmates who they have most classes with. In 11th grade you have new people in every class and lessons are taken a lot more seriously. In many ways, I'm very happy with fact that I'm in the 11th grade, as I really enjoy the college style lessons and subject material thus far. I'm surprised by how much I can understand from the things we discuss in class but I definitely can't add to the conversation in German yet. Reading text and anaylzing it is pretty much impossible at this point still. Super glad I took History of Imperial Europe because in German class our topic is the French Revolution (not confusing at all lol) and in history we will cover the late Middle Ages and Reformation this semester. 

The one thing about being in the 11th grade that is a bit stressful is that all of the students are beginning their preparation for the Abitur, meaning they are all very attentive and dedicated in class. At first no one really spoke to me during class, which I found very different to when we have an exchange student at my high school.  It has taken these two weeks to really get people to open up, but everyone is very friendly and will invite me places. I've joined an English club which will travel to Edinburgh, Scotland the weekend before Christmas and a choir group that is much smaller than I'm used to but is still very nice. Next week I start a Spanish night course because it seems like a grand idea to torture myself with yet another language;) I figured it would be cool to learn a bit for spring break in Spain and because I would really like to master it after German. 

I will be posting much more interesting and hopefully funny things in the future, but thought it would be good to clarify some basics about school here after not posting for three weeks. It's absolutely crazy trying to compile all of my impressions into words but will definitely be easier once I get into a routine of writing. For the two and a half of you reading this, let me know if there are any specific things you would like to hear about and ich werde das schaffen:) 

Schönen Tag und liebe Grüße,

Hannah