School, Thermes, Sommer Camps, Eis, etc

Okay! So on Monday I started school! In the morning Herr Hörnow picked me up- he is part of the Rotary Club in Fürstenwalde, and he is my counselor at school. I left early so that I could see the school before all of the students got there. Europaschule Palmnicken is on a hill just outside of Fürstenwalde. It has about six or seven different large buildings. The 11th year is the youngest grade there, and there are people who are 22 or 23 going there as well. If I understood it right, its also like a trade school I think. Rebekah, an exchange student from New Zealand, and I both didn't have our schedules so we spent the first part of the day working them out. For me they printed out all of the possible class choices for both the 11th and 12th grade years, and circled a bunch. Over the span of the week I have English, German, Biologie, Law(?), Math, Art, and Sport. Oh yeah, there are 13 high school type grades at this school, and I still cant figure out if my US eleventh grade would be in the 11th grade or the 12th grade here.

Instead of going to school the next day, Rebekah and I had a chance to go to Bad Saarow to spend the day with a 15 kids from 14 countries that were doing a three week long rotary summer camp around Germany. We had a really fun day together, we took a tour of the Scharmützelsee lake, and then had a barbeque at on of the docks. After that was done I went and got introduced to my host club, the Bad Saarow-Scharmützelsee Club. They are a pretty small club I think, there were about 15 people besides Rebekah and I at at the dinner. They were all very nice and welcoming, and I think I did pretty okay introducing and talking about myself in German :)

 

The rest of the week was fine, the next day was my first official day of classes. On Wednesday I have two hours of German (the equivelant of the American english class), two hours of math, and two hours of art. I understood maybe 5% of what was happening. German class went completely over my head. From what I could tell, we started off talking by about homosexuals in Berlin, then the Chinese in Berlin, then hot springs, and then we started reading something about Ophelia. In math class I was hopeful that it would make more sense, because you know how numbers and stuff are universal, but I realized that I actually cant solve a problem if I dont know what its asking me to do. Art was fun, even though I didnt really grasp what we were supposed to be drawing, but I think I am going to like that class.

German school here is definitely different than what I'm used to. For instance we don't have bells here, and there is no "tardy" or "unexcused absence" that you have to watch out for. I was really surprised, because all of the kids seem focused and appear to be model students from what I can tell. I think that they take school much more seriously. We have a 25 minute break and a 35 minute break during the day,  and as for the scheduling, each period is 45 minutes long but most classes go for two periods with a five minute break in between.

On Thursday I went to Berlin to meet up with Stephen Margarit, who came to Southern Germany on exchange a few years ago. We walked around and went in some museums, went to Checkpoint Charlie, walked past part of the Berlin wall, got some Eis and pommes. It was very hot but it was still fun (:

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial

Today René and Solveig and I drove three hours to Bad Wilsnack to go to a Therme. The water had good salts in it that Solveig told me were very good for people's skin and lungs. We went in one pool that you could only be in for 10-15 minutes, that had 24% salt! I was so surprised, because the water was very dense (if that's the right word) and you could lay back in the water and it would support your weight! Plus you had to wear a thing around your head because it couldnt go underwater.

On the way to the hot springs when Solveig was descirbing it to me she said that there were many saunas and I could go in them if I wanted to, so I'm like alright time to get my sauna on! So after a while of being at the Therme I wanted to sauna a bit, and Rene points out where the doors that lead to where all the saunas are. So I go in there, and its like this dark room with a restaurant(cool), and oh yeah, everyone is naked! Somehow it just didn't register, or I just totally forgot that people sauna naked here.. haha! And when Rene saw me come back out again he just laughed. Wow haha culture shock!

On our drive back to Fürstenwalde we stopped in Rheinsberg for Eis, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera, because somehow we ordered this giant assortment of ice cream and fruits and whipped cream and it was delicious! René says that we will have to go back and get it again so I can get my picture! haha