skorcht-blog

[skorcht-blog]

My first week in Germany has been so fantastic. Its truly amazing to see a different way of living. i’m not just being a tourist but i am actually living here and going to school for 10 weeks. When i first arrived in Germany I saw police at the airport carrying sub-machine guns and i thought that was pretty wild because you don’t normally see that in Canada. To get to Haßloch( the village i’m staying in) we had to drive through 2 states from Frankfurt. It took us about a hour, that was really funny to me because in Canada when you drive a province over its like 8 hours and you're in a different timezone. The village i’m staying in is pretty small. It is located within a lot of ares where they grow crops. When i arrived in the village i couldn't stop smiling because i was experiencing something completely different and i just couldn't help not to smile. The houses are very old style and i thought they looked really cool, also the streets are very narrow because back then when they had no cars there was no need for big roads. When my German student came to live with me in Canada he was surprised at how many trucks there were, in Germany most people have very small cars because they don’t need anything bigger. Aaron(my exchange partner) and I went to get some ice cream on the first day to help me stay awake and adjust to the timezone. my flight left at 1 pm Vancouver time and arrived in Germany at 8:30 am their time, so i was having the longest day ever. When he was showing me around i was so fascinated by everything, just seeing the cobblestone roads that are narrow and the art style of everything. All the shops in the village are really close too, we took 5 min walking to get to the ice-cream shop. When i was walking i noticed that there were cigarette vending machines and that blew my mind because they are so unhealthy. I didn't go to school the next day because i was adjusting to the time and was still very jet-lagged. But on Tuesday that was my first day of school. School in Germany starts at 8 in the morning and goes till 1 in the afternoon, the classes are also just 40 min and after each class you have a 40 min break in between. The teachers are also pretty relaxed, i honestly thought it would be the opposite. Literally my first class one of the teachers just middle fingered someone. And the kids just run around the class and its funny because some of the teachers just gave up on the kids and just let them do whatever, the first class i was in people were having rubber band fights. One time I was in class and we started hearing trumpet noises and it was the students that were graduating making a lot of noise because they just didn't care because they finished school. There is no electives and everyone takes the same courses, i even went to a Latin class. They also put me in a German support class full for refugees because i’m a foreign student. The school is also grade 5-13 and it has 4 floors, the school i’m at is a Gymnasium which means its a school for people that are going to post secondary, its the highest school you could be at the schools below it are the Realschule and then the Hauptschule. In Germany you're with the same people in every class from grade 5-13 so i was really nervous about fitting in because they all know each other well. To my surprise they were really welcoming and very nice and its so cool getting to know and making new friends in a different country. I’m so short compared to everyone though most of the girls are taller then me and same with the guys, Aarons friends are all like almost 2 meters and i come up to their chest. The school doesn't feel like a school, everything feels so gehto and they still use chalkboards. The school gives me gloomy vibes for some reason because its old and it isn't very bright on the inside of the school and they don’t even have WiFi. All the teachers seem really relaxed and everything except if you use your phone, they will take in for the day if you have it out, even if your walking in the hallways with it out. Everyone says the Canadians are the nicest people but honestly so far I've been treated nicer in Germany, most people don’t think Germans are nice because of there past but it shows in fact that Germany has some of the nicest people in the world. Everyone has been so kind to me and accepting. Another thing about Germans and i think a lot of Europe in general is the way they dress. The school has zero dress code, but if i were to wear sweatpants at school id be the only one, everyone is nicely dressed and looks nice, and honestly all the people in Germany are beautiful lol everyone is at LEAST a 7/10. My daily routine for school days have been, wake up at 6:30 eat breakfast, then bike to the train-station , the take the bus to school and we get there around 8. When we get home we have lunch. Lunch is the big meal in Germany, for us its usually dinner time but the Germans for dinner they just have some toast or bread and stuff like that. For after school i plan to either go to the gym, or go for a run or mountain biking. I plan to join a track and field club while i am here. I went to Aarons volleyball practice this week and practiced with him, once again the people were very kind to me. i went to the gym one day this week too and i didn't know they units because when i go to the gym in maple ridge everything is in pounds and here it was in kg. so i went to do my squats and i started my set with 260 pounds and i didn't warm up and i ended up pulling both of my hamstrings ): Oh and the food I've been eating as been so great and i love it so much. everyday so far I've had some kind of food i haven't had before and its so good. My favorite meals so far is the styles of potatoes we have been having. In Germany you can drink beer legally when you are 16 so my host family gave me some drinks, the day before i left for Germany was my birthday, how lucky is that! by the third day in Germany i was lying in my bed at night and my mind was just thinking in German. i was actually scared because I've never felt something like that before. I literally couldn't think in English because I've been so immersed in the German. words flew in my mind that I've heard before and i didn't even know what they meant. this has been every night since then. On Saturday i went to a ball, like the one in Cinderella. it was so weird because i thought those didn't exist anymore but apparently they are very common in Germany. I've dressed nicer then i have ever in my life and it felt so weird considering all i wear is sweatpants. the ball was so cool to see because I've never witnessed anything like it before. Everyone was so nicely dressed and it was weird and awkward because everyone was dancing and i didn’t know any of the moves. The next day i went to a hockey game. The players weren't as good as the Canadians but it was still fun to watch. but i have to say the crowd was just as crazier then any of the hockey game I've watched, they are so supportive of their team and they constantly clapped and stood up whenever there team would get the puck. That has been my first week in Germany so far. Its been such a blast.