Today was my first day at Gymnasium. I was a bit nervous, but more so when I actually saw the school with so many kids. Most students here ride their bikes to school because it is simpler than driving. The parking lot outside of the school is about the size of the the old Richmond School parking lot where my teachers park, and even at that there were plenty of spaces left on the cobble-stone spaces.
School starts at 7:50, then runs through 7 periods. At school, we were given our own ‘American’ room, where we meet every morning during ‘Homeroom’ to catch up with one another. We are partnered with a friend, then we follow a students schedule for the week. The layout of the school was very simple, and we did not get lost. It was embarrassing at times to be sitting in classes because teachers would point out that there were ‘visitors’ from America, then they would ask us if we knew any German. “Ein Bisschen” (a little) is what we all said. We were too embarrassed to say much else, but occasionally we would and it felt very awkward.
My math class (Mathematik) was a Geometry course. Unfortunately for us, math is universal, and so we found that we could follow it very well with the students. After math, we had English (minor), then a pause (break), then 2 consecutive periods of Biology. In this class, we listened to lectures about AIDS and the brain and how it works in German. Some of it I could translate, but a lot of it I found was very fast. My last class for the day was English (major), where we were asked to help translate the meanings of the songs “Because I Got High” from Afro-Man, and another classic rock ballad back from the sixties. It was odd to be listening to the first song in school, but especially because many of the students were also serious and were not laughing at the song itself. Some of them happened to enjoy the song very much. So, in summary, I listended to “Because I Got High” in a German Gymnasium (known for it’s strictness), and learned about the brain all over again, except for in German this time. ‘
After arriving home from school, I ate a nice lunch of salad, pasta and leftover meat from Sunday’s dinner with Christiana’s mother, and her brother Martin. Christiana’s mother decided that I should see one of the castles in Nuestadt, so after lunch Martin and I set out on a steep uphill climb to see the castle, heißt “Burg Spangenberg”. My camera has not been working ever since I arrived here in Germany, so I was not able to take any pictures. But I can find postcards. Neustadt sits in a valley. The red shingled roofs are scattered about in clusters, and the hillsides are lined with vineyards, dark trees (they call the wood/trees in this area haardt) and the castle was magnificent. Although we could not walk inside of it since it was closed today, it was well worth the uphill bike rider there. The castle was built from large rocks and concrete, nothing ‘beautiful like in France,’ Martin confessed, but I told him that it was my first time seeing a castle, so I was pleased.
Tonight I went to a concert at a retirement home where Christiana’s father plays in the Neustadt Orchestra. He plays the cello, and although I was tired at this point in the day, the music was absolutely beautiful. I know that my mom would have loved it; it is comparable to the songs that I hear on NPR sometimes at home, only this time it was live. The orchestra played songs by W.A. Mozart, J. Brahms, and H. Wieniawski. There was a violinist from the Gymnasim where I am going to school who is only 13. She had a lot of talent even though she was a young violinist, and it was very impressive. I wish you could have been there mom, because you would have really enjoyed it. Hearing this type of music live and in Germany really has made me appreciate it much more.
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