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