AFS Germany Student Exchange 2016-2017: Weeks #5-9

General:

At the moment, I'm feeling really good. One of the main tenets that AFS wanted us to be aware of before we left the states was that-
wait for it-

It's not always great, being on exchange. You'll have ups, and you'll have downs.

I was so excited when I got here, I didn't see how I couldn't love it. There are ups and downs, and I don't think that I was really prepared for it, even though I had heard it so often. I think once you're told something so much, it stops really meaning anything. Really though, they were right. Some days I'll feel like I've made so much progress, and I'll think of how great I'm doing. Other days, I'll feel like I haven't made any progress, and that it's hopeless. It's really not, though. For only being here for two months, I really do feel like I've made a great deal of progress. I've made some great friends while I've been here for the past 2 months (I can't believe it's been that long already), and I'm sure I'll continue to going forwards.

Travelling and More:

The Church, Maulbronn.

Well, I've gone to a few interesting places around here in the past few weeks. Firstly, I'd like to talk about the Maulbronn Monastery. Located surprisingly close to me, it's a Protestant (originally Catholic) monastery founded in the 12th century. It's pretty incredible looking, having a huge wall around both the (monastery's houses and the church itself. What's cool is that the buildings on the wall's interior are actually used as housing by residents of the city. There are also a few buildings that were turned into gift shops and the like, and it's overall a really cool place to visit. I'm told that sometimes, tourists don't realize that people actually live in the houses and that they're not just part of the attraction, so people sometimes walk into them not realizing that somebody lives there. The church and quarters themselves have placards which talk about how everything was used by the monks while the monastery was still in operation. Like I said, it was really interesting especially from a historical standpoint. I'd definitely like to go to other historical places like this in the future.

Courtyard fountain, Maulbronn.

AFS had a mandatory "late orientation camp" at the end of October, where most of the students here in Germany from the local area came together and stayed in a youth hostel for a weekend. At first, I was opposed to the idea (mainly because of the fact that there was also a mandatory talent show, and I had no clue what to do). However, it was honestly really great. Everybody was really cool, and we all bonded a lot in the time we had. There were five other Americans, too, and it was cool to see them all again. The camp was held in Bad Urach, which is located in a valley and has a really beautiful church steeple at its center. From the hostel, we could see down the valley and up the mountains. Basically, it was super pretty and really great to meet all the other students. My host mom really saved us all though. So, I was mildly worried about getting there- I had to take the train and make multiple transfers by myself, and I wasn't confident that I could. So, my host mom gave my number to some of the other exchange students. I was aware of two of them and thought it would just be the three of us taking the train, but it turned out to be closer to 10 of us. It was great. I also saw Nick again! The thing is- my host mom also

Us, the exchange students, outside of the hostel in Bad Urach.

printed out a very detailed packet of information on how to get to the location in Bad Urach. This packet included a 3d map of the Stuttgart train station, as well as Google Maps screenshots with highlighted paths we would have to walk. Everyone thought it was great, and there were multiple instances in which we would have gone the wrong way had we not followed the maps. Thank you again, Sabine, for helping us all not get completely lost.

I'd also like to talk about what I did on election night. Lars and I went to, what I was told by the President of the German American Center in Stuttgart, would be a 'party on election night.' She said there would be 800 people, so I had really no idea what to expect. We had to sign up online prior to the party itself, and once we got there, it was more like a convention. There were people from all over, with a huge [;)] amount of things to do and people to talk to. First, there were debates between students from local debate teams about the candidates and the possible effects of the outcome of the election. Directly after this, officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties came and answered questions on their opinions concerning the election. They tried doing it in German, but eventually gave up and just used English. After that, a stream of the CNN Live Coverage played. Sadly, we went home because frankly I was too tired to stay up, but watching it was really quite interesting, and the result was surprising. Not only for me was this true, but almost everyone I've talked to here was shocked. Overall, the event was really quite wonderful, especially insofar as the sheer amount of support there was.

School:

I've got to say, school here is quite different from what I'm used to. Having gone to Sage Creek, I haven't had a "block" schedule before. Here, it's quite a drastic change, (even from the scheduling used at Carlsbad High). For example, I only have Chemistry on Thursdays, and for two hours. That's it. A lot of the studying and learning has to be done independently (ergo, at home) by the students. Rather than having the teacher stand at the board (they have real blackboards here!), key topics are discussed in class and students are just expected to learn the rest of the material on their own. Most of my teachers don't actually check the homework, and because of the huge gaps between classes, you'll sometimes have 5 days or more to actually do the homework that is assigned.

Furthermore, when teachers are absent, it's not uncommon for the class just to be dropped. They'll try to get substitute teachers if they can, but there has apparently been quite a large deficit of them in recent years (Source: my host mom). As stated, there are blackboards rather than whiteboards or SmartBoards. These are used in conjunction with overhead projectors- but still, not the ones we use in the United States in every case. Some are actually back-lit light projectors, so the teachers use clear plastic sheets with the work printed on them to project a silhouette onto the wall. As many of you may be aware, this is a huge contrast to the abundance of technology I've had at Sage Creek. We have two rooms with computers running Windows XP here, and the general consensus seems to be that it's a sort-of luxury.

The size of the school is also different here. At Sage, we've got well over 1000 students, which pales in comparison to the over 3000 of Carlsbad High. Here, my school has around 650 students; the thing is, the students are all from grades 5-12. It's a Gymnasium- the highest level of pre-University schooling in Germany- and has a really interesting atmosphere. Even the layout of the building is quite interesting in both an architectural and a functional aspect.

Personally, I'm doing alright with school. At times, it's difficult to understand what the teacher is saying, specifically in the more technical classes like Chemistry and Math. However, I can understand the actual work that we have to do. This leads to problems, especially with test-taking. I can understand how I have to do something, but sometimes not what I'm supposed to do, in that I can't understand what the questions are asking of me. Still, it's going along pretty smoothly.

Bonus Material:

German is really quite hard. People always said things like, "Oh yeah, German? That's some difficult stuff". However, it never really clicked for me until I had to speak it. It makes English look like a cakewalk. But still, it's the most satisfying thing when you actually say something and its grammar is correct. Below, as usual, are some pictures for you guys. Thanks for reading, and have a good one!