Monday
Let me tell you one thing. The bus in the morning is full to the brim. My school is like in the middle of the freakin' woods. The city is here then you make some turns drive straight and then BAM! Woods....turn a little....school. Yeah it's takes like an hour to get there.
The teachers are really cool. The first day I had no schedule so I had to follow my liaison or betreuerin around to her classes. Monday she goes in at 9:40 so I got to sleep a little more. First class was chemistry and the teacher is like major clueless. She's teaching and everyone else behind her is talking away about their two week vacation and whatnot. It was quite obnoxious of them and several times I asked myself, "Is this a joke? Why am I here?"
But later she actually got the chance to teach and then whatever it was that I heard I have no idea what it meant because it was chemistry... in German. Then she handed out papers and she made us fill them out, my betreuerin explained to her that my German is limited and she gave me a, "Oh...?" kind of face. Kinda like "Oh, that's a shame."/"Why should I care?"/"What do I do?" face. It was really weird, but anyway I'm definitely in her class because I need chemistry. She will also be my bio teacher.
The only thing that made me feel like crud was the fact that I only knew one person in this whole entire school (liaison/betreuerin) and she sat next to me and during most of the class she was talking to her friends next to her, across he room, behind her, but not me. And it's a worse feeling than feeling like a loner, because you have someone but they won't pay attention to you.
Then next class was really interesting. It's called Ethik but it's like philosophy. It's really cool because you read a paper and then you just start talking about it. Basically it's you opinion and everyone else's except in a classroom environment where you don't start beating each other up if you disagree. It's was actually really cool except I didn't understand so much.
As for the students they were all pretty cool. I won't say they're super friendly kids, but they're not anti-social either. I walked in the classroom got a few curious glances but from then on I was pretty much absorbed into the class. It was actually a kind of relief, I honestly thought either they'd be an overwhelming crowd or a cold one but they seem to be the right kind of people for me.
Tuesday
I had more classes and let me tell you that today when I looked at the grass I was very surprised. It was covered in icy frost. It looked like snow but it hadn't precipitated overnight, it was frost covered grass. It looked white or whitish green. It was really creepy. And this morning when I left my house at 6:55 it looked like night. The moon wasn't even out and sunrise wasn't until a while after seven, almost eight.
Anyway, today I left my house only to realized the bus didn't come to that station today. It only came on Fridays. So I had to take the train. So I took the train and missed my other bus so I had to take another one. My betreuerin called me to ask where I was and when I told her I was on the bus she said to call her when I got to school because she was already going into class.
There were a bunch of students on the bus and I remember my host dad telling me "Follow the students." So I got off when they did and followed them. After a while when I realized I had no idea where I was I remembered what my host dad said after that, "Just make sure they're going to the right school."
That's when I started to get a little nervous so I asked this "student" where she was going and literally she said, "I don't know." So then I asked her where Ost Schule was and she said again, "I don't know." Then she saw my face and nervously suggested that I asked someone else. So along I went ditching the clueless one and asked another young lady when I noticed everyone of the students going into this building that I did not recognize as my school and she told me that I was at the University.
So I quickly asked for directions to my school and luckily I was not far. But even getting to my school I ended up taking a wrong turn and took a nice long walk down an empty street. It was quite creepy but the sun had finally risen nice and high so it wasn't dark and I was able to go back. I finally made it to my school 45 minutes late.
My German teacher didn't mind at all and continued on with what he was saying. Later I realized he spoke English and he even told me that if I ever got bored in his class I could take out a book and read. Next I had math and the teacher came in also speaking English because he heard I would be in his class. He shook my hand and asked, "Sprichts du Deutsch?" (Do you speak German?) I answered with a "Nicht wirklicht" (not really) and everyone started laughing. I'm not sure why that was funny but apparently one would normally answer with "Ein bisschen." (A little bit). Anyway they got their tests back and they started to go over it and I was sitting in my seat having a mental war. I knew all the things they were doing except in an odd way I didn't remember. And it certainly did not help that the test he gave them was all word problems so I didn't understand it. Also I haven't been in school for nearly four months. Talk about a rusty brain!
Anyway after that we had economy and politics and I have no clue what went on in that class I just took the paper she gave us and began translating it, sorta. It was more like looking up every other word. But whatever she was alright with that. Then it was the end of school for me!!
Also I got my schedule and here it is:
Moday
- Biology
- Religion (WHAAAAT??!!)
- German
- Math
- Economy and Politics
- English
- German
- Chemistry
- Math
- Spanish
- Music (YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!)
- History
- Chemistry
- English
- Some sort of long break
- Spanish
- Methods (??)
- Physics
- Math
Wednesday
We started off with English and it was pretty interesting since there was very little German being spoken. Anyway it's slightly boring. Then the rest of the classes went by. I midly understood something in Chemistry and we didn't have math. Then we had Spanish and the teacher made everyone in my class ask me something in Spanish and I answered in Spanish. Every time I said something they would look at me like I had eight ears. They just started Spanish this year so the amount of Spanish I speak was a bit scary for them.
Thursday
First I want to start off by saying that the only reason I was excited about going to school was because of music class and it turned out to be shit. Honestly, I walked out of that class feeling like a tractor ran over me and my expectations. The entire hour and a half we watched a movie about the Renaissance, with men in tights wearing pink and purple robes on top. It was horrible. The screen was behind me so a part of the movie was projected onto the back of my head as I sat in a highly uncomfortable position. I know I should have moved but it's extremely hard to get the nerve to stand in front of a bunch of people you don't know while they're looking in your direction, block the movie, and then pick up your chair and walk through the maze of people still looking at you to an empty spot.
I was also excited about History because I actually like it. But unfortunately for me I didn't understand, the only word I kept hearing was Romans, so I figure we're somewhere more than just a few centuries ago. Then extended boredom in the next two classes.
Finally I had this long break and I can leave school and come back so I planned to meet my friend, Ana, who goes to another school not too far from mine. So I asked my betreuerin when the next bus was coming. She told me in a half an hour, that if I was planning to go somewhere I wouldn't have time. So I called Ana and told her I wouldn't be able to go. About two minutes later I found out that my betreuerin also had the really long break and she's telling me to hurry up that we were going to miss the bus. So called Ana to tell her I was going but she was already gone. So basically I followed my betreuerin around town making errands and shit after she lied about the bus and all. I was pretty angry. I was supposed to have lunch.
I'm still angry about that and the way she pretty much ignores me in class whenever I ask her a question. Or even when we have the pauses, which are very often she just leaves me and I'm like "Now what?" She's only there and talks to me when there are no friends of her around to talk to or be with. It's really makes me feel like shit and so Friday I decided to change that.
Friday
I understand that sometimes you need to ask for help but if it's not given to you from the person you ask then you have have to find someone else. And so when my betreuerin just left with her other friend during the pause I stayed behind and talked to a group of girls that I talked before like two or three times and they seemed like really nice girls. Not to soon after she came back and said, "Are you going to stay here?" when I told her yes she left but back in class when I needed help I was not given it. She gave me the pathetic excuse that she didn't know and barely talked to me for the rest of the day.
After school I packed my bags and went to Grünberg. I had an AFS camp! And believe me after what I would have considered a first unsuccessful week at school, getting out of town was the best thing to do. Not only was I getting out of town, but I would get to see my friends again and I was itching to see them again. It had been three weeks since I'd seen most of them and the feeling of having friends was one I really needed.
As it usually happens I missed my train and arrived an hour later. It didn't seem like that was a problem though. At the train station I met a couple of new friends. From Equador, Honduras, Italy, Bosnia, and Thailand. So now I have two friends from Thailand. :)
Anyway, we went to a youth hostel and ate and then had a small session with the AFS councilors and then we were supposed to go to sleep so that we could wake up a seven the next day. But some people stayed in the main area for a while and then a time later we split up some stayed even longer and others left to their bunk-room things. There we talked and shared our experiences so far and what we thought about things.
Saturday
Early in the morning in the girls' bunk several alarm clocks rang but were immediately turned off. Several minutes later there was a highly annoying knocking on the door. Then again, then again until someone told them they were awake... which wasn't necessarily true. Anyhow, in the next hour more these girls quickly took turns taking showers and got ready and headed off to breakfast.
After breakfast the entire AFS group met up and was spilt up into groups of three and each group was given an apple. They told us to go to the city and to find someone who would trade our apple for something else and to continue trading. We had two hours.
The part of Grünberg we were in was like a ginormous lawn. There was like nothing there and it always smelled like horse poop. So we had to walk a bit until we got to the city. Then afterwards when we got there I thought, "People are going to look at us as if we are crazy." But as it turns out people are really okey with trading their things for something else.
This was the sequence of trading. Apple- yellow pepper- würst (sausage)-2 duplos and 2 tangerines- badminton set with two birdies. Somewhere in there an old man didn't want our pepper but he gave us a pocket knife. And another man didn't want our würst so he gave a newspaper, and later we traded the newspaper for two magazines. So total we had 2 magazines, the badminton thingy, and a pocket knife. All for an apple. The only bad thing was that on our way back to the hostel we got lost.
We had a few more sessions and then we had like an hour and a half break. During that hour and a half I picked up a badminton racket and started practicing fencing moves. My friend Javier was interested and wanted to fence too. Of course we had badminton rackets, no equipment, and no space. So we went outside and I taught him most of the basics as best as possible and we fenced. Some people walked by and watched but I thought it was pretty cool because I haven't fenced in the longest time and it was really fun.
Later that night we went for a walk in the forest while it was really dark. We walked not to much but there were several uphills that were killer but we when we made it to our destination we were quite surprised. It was a small meadow and we sat on haystacks and read a story in German. It was really beautiful. There were stars everywhere in the sky. We ate some chocolate and then we went back.
Sunday
We left this day and honestly I was quite sad. The camp was really short but it was a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be. I also very much enjoyed the company of my friends which I had missed so much! And also I just really don't want to go back to school. Honestly, school seems impossible to me. I don't have friends, I don't understand and I don't even know if I can turn to my betreuerin for help anymore. I really, really wished I could have stayed maybe a day longer just to be truly enjoying myself. But apparently I'm not the only one with school troubles. I just hope that soon I can get through this rough spot.
And now for something completely different...
My cyclops- pumpkin, Erik.Happy Halloween!!!
"So don't give up, stand 'till the end," -Joe Jonas
Sorry it's so long! And yes... Jonas Brothers. Here is the link.
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