First Day of School

So yeah, its summer but today I got to go to school. whoohooo...just kidding. I'm actully glad i'm able to see what the school system is like in comparison with my school. It seems like the Gymnasium (High School auf English) is very similar to colleges in America. The students have more free will with scheduling, no dress code, and I think they can pick and choose with their schedules. I dont fully understand the scheduling, though. While all that seems better, I also noticed that the older students can not pick and choose their classes. In America we have some pick and choose with what courses you want to take, especially when we are older, but Franzie is a year away from graduating and she is taking what seems like only core classes. I also can't figure out what the incentive is for making good grades. I figure its for your job or something, but in America we work hard in high school so we can go to college and it is cheaper. In Germany, however, der Universität is free. So that is a new concept. ha. Because Franzie's school is in Marbug and her village is somewhat far when driving, the bus ride to her school was the longest thing i've ever experienced. I think the ride overall is 1 and 1/2 hours long. yeah. But I guess it is cheaper than driving... This week in school is apparently a short week, while next week is a long week, so we only had two classes today instead of the normal 4. So that was great. We went to Deutsch (which is english in America, ha) and then to Math. In Deutsch I could understand most of what was going on, but my understanding in the Math class is parallel to my retardation in Math in English. Of course. The way the classes are taught are very lecture based and the students usually always get involved which is also similar to a college course. While we were in Math, Franzie was across the room, talking to another student and three girls (super outgoing) all came up to me and starting talking auf Deutsch. I could understand most of what they were saying and had an almost full on conversation with them. Most German students think that Americans are "cool" so I think thats why most people were very nice! I also got to meet Hanna and her American exchange student either named Marie or Madeline (Franzie called her Marie, but she said her real name is Madeline and Franzie couldn't say that so she wasn't sure, ha). It was weird talking fully in English, and I found that it was difficult to think of what to say because I was half thinking in German and in retrospect of the day its almost as if I have to translate my memories and what I saw because I thought about it in German. It is the same way when I'm writing this now. It seems almost awkward to figure out what to say when normally I wouldn't even be thinking about it. Hopefully that will be easier later on. After school Franzie and I went to exchange my American dollars to Euros. The man was very unfriendly and made me nervous. So, when he gave me my money ($100 became 73 euros) I politely said "bitte" which means your welcome. haha. oops. He said "Danke?" in his most unfriendly voice and then I cried. ha. no. but it was embarrassing. After this Franzie gave me a tour of the city and we saw the Oberstadt which is higher than the rest of the city and has the scenic cobble stone streets and iconic, old German architecture. I bought a present for Katherine's (my sister) birthday (yeah, i'm not telling you) and then we went to the Elisabethkirche (in the picture). In direct translation it is Elisabeth church, but she "became holy after helping many people", whatever that means. Many of the buildings in Marbug are named after her, like Franzie's school: Elisabethschule. We also went to the Alter Botanischer Garten (the old botanical garden. ha) which is not at all what I was expecting. It has a lot of meadows and big overflowing trees, but when I picture a botanical garden, I see the touristic scene with flowers everywhere, a pond perfectly placed, and benches under neatly trimmed trees. We also went to the river Lahn which runs right by their main University building and rode on a paddle boat. I was surprised to find out that they dont have snakes or alligators (this one I remember, but it was strange nonetheless). After this we went home on the hottest bus alive (yes, it was super warm today) and I fell asleep. Franzie came to wake me up because dinner was ready in the garden out back. We had what they called BBQ, but it was actually just grilled chicken and bratwurst (which is pretty good...). After dinner we played a lot of card games and talked for a long time. The cards they use only go from seven to an Ace, which I had no idea even existed, so all of the games were very new to me. We also played a game that was exactly like Sorry. When we were all talking together I could actually understand most of what was going on and was able to speak (awful) German and talk with them. I also found out that Herr Dieter is very interested in the Civil War and was able to talk to him about that and Charleston's involvement with that. It was very interesting! He also said he has a confederate flag which I was very surprised about and tried to describe the "southern pride" that still exists (especially in Mississippi) but couldn't exactly put it into words which I found frustrating. Tomorrow, however, we have plans to sleep in and then to to a lake with Miriam in her car because they don't have school. She said that the students take the day off because the younger kids play games with the teachers and parents which sounded a lot like Field Day in America. But whatever, kein Schule!!