Days of School and Geburt

I never planned to turn eighteen in Germany. It just kind of happened.
And I wouldn't trade that day for the world:)

Throne for a day.

 My lovely family had a few surprises in store, which completely caught me off-guard. It was ridiculously sweet, and let's just say I'm super stoked to be seeing a german musical sometime in the near future.

And then, after school, a trip to pretty much my dream playground.
A tree garden.
 ...
Tree garden, à la Tarzan.










And as if it couldn't get better, a perfect end to the day with a night out. More cake, more laughs, and more of the sweetest friends I could have hoped to find here:)
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So now that I'm an adult and responsible and all [ha], let's turn to more serious matters and take a moment to talk about school.
High school.
German high school.

A component of the CBYX scholarship is attending one, and these past two weeks have actually found me as an 11th grader yet again.
Oh boy.

The School

The school is a middle sized-to big high school by American standards, minus the parking lot, big cafeteria, soccer fields, tennis courts, baseball field, etc.. There's also quite a bit less technology used; chalkboards and projectors [remember? With the transparencies and expo markers back in elementary school? :) :) :)] as opposed to active boards and laptop carts and those absolutely useless microphones for teachers. It's not bad, just - keyword of the year- different.

The System

In Germany, elementary school is only 4 years: Grundschule. From there, students go to a Hauptschule [secondary general school] or a Realschule [intermediate school], both of which lead to vocational tracks and go through10th grade, or a Gymnasium [Grammar School], which is a university track and goes through 12th-13th grade.
At my school, 11th and 12th grade are pretty much a joint curriculum that leads up to the Abitur, a series of tests needed to qualify for University. Therefore, I was placed in eleventh grade so that I didn't jump in halfway through the curriculum, and so that I could actually have friends who weren't completely overwhelmed with testing.
Go figure.

The Students

One of the biggest differences between German and American high schools; there are students from fifth through 12th grade running around.
In other words, there are kids who barely come up to my hip that I'm running over in the halls.
Oops.
In addition, people in my grade are just a bit younger than I'm used to, but are all sweethearts. What's interesting is that a good portion- I'd put it at at least half- of the students know what the exchange students here are going through. While an exchange is something definitely out of the ordinary in an American high school, every other kid has done one here. Whether a couple weeks in Italy, a summer in Cali, or a year in Canada-- students know what we're going through, and there's somewhat of a level of understanding that American kids don't have when exchange students show up at our schools.

The Classes

The classes offered here differ quite a bit. There's not the same variety; for example, instead of offering ceramics, drawing and design, stained glass and more, there's one art class. There's the standard run of math and science classes, but no astronomy, zoology, marine biology, anatomy, or the chunk of business and marketing classes, or others. There is more flexibility with one's classes and schedule, but it's not necessarily as customizable.
Classes here mean business. People come to school to learn, and they do. There's no dawdling; pretty much every class is a two-hour block with a 5 minute break in the middle, and then 20-minute breaks between blocks. Classes are lecture-style with some discussion, and people get down to business here. When there's class work, people shut up, do the work, and get it done.
...
All of which are basic basic principles of school, so this efficiency shouldn't be as surprising as it is.

The Schedule/ Transportation

My schedule!

Class schedules here are more like college schedules than anything else. I'm taking 7 classes [German, French, English, Math, Biology, History, and Art], which is a bit less than the standard load, seeing as I'm not required to take other classes. The way it's set up in the last two years of high school is, in prepping for college and your job down the line, you have two Leistungskurse [main courses] for which you log in the most hours in the week. Your other classes are Grundkurse [base courses], which you have less often.
Wie logisch.

As for school transportation, there is none. No big yellow buses happily carting everyone to school at the same time every morning, and back at the same time in the afternoon. People take public buses to get places, which ties in with the schedule; everybody has such different schedules, with some days ending at 11:00 and others at past 4:00, and other with blocks in the middle, that public transportation is really the only logical option.

The Sports

There isn't the same emphasis on school sports here. In fact, when you want to play one, you join a Ferein outside of school. School here is for learning, that's the long and short of it.

The Fashion

 Oh boy. Here, you're either with it, or you're not. There's no middle-of-the-spectrum. Accessories, skinny jeans, scarves, peacoats, and the shoes to complete the outfit, dressed to kill e'errrry day.
Did I mention skinny jeans?
The second you step out of your door in flare jeans, your American shows.
In addition, although I never bought into this trend back in the U.S., it's worth mentioning that wearing sweats and/or pajama pants to school is just.... no.
 Nope.
Nuh-uh.
Better to stay at home in that case.
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For the biggest and most obvious differences, that's all that comes to mind for the moment. There are so many little things that are different though, like how people 'raise their hands' with only one finger, or how all the girls hug one another by way of greeting. If you have any questions, feel free to ask or send me a message, and I'll address them in my next post!

Gotta love high school:)