Looking Back at My First Week

School took up the majority of my time this week, but it was interesting none the less. Unlike school in the US, we have a mixture of different classes every day here. Also, we get out of school at different times depending on what day it is. Right now, my schedule every day looks like this –

Montag (Monday):

8:00-9:00 Französisch (French)

9:10-10:10 Französisch

10:35-11:35 AV*

11:45-12:45 Mathe (Math)

12:45-1:45 Mittagspause/Mittagessen (Afternoon Break/Lunch)

1:45-2:45 Sport (P.E.)

2:55-3:55 Englisch (English)

 

Dienstag (Tuesday):

8:00-9:00 Kunst (Art)

9:10-10:10 Sport (P.E.)

10:35-11:35 Mathe (Math)

11:45-12:45 Geschichte (History)

12:45-1:45 Physik (Physics)

 

Mittwoch (Wednesday):

8:00-9:00 AH/AT (Cooking/Mechanics) *We switch between these classes every week

9:10-10:10 AH/AT

10:35-11:35 AV*

11:45-12:45 Deutsch (German)

12:45-1:45 Mittagspause/Mittagessen (Afternoon Break/Lunch)

1:45-2:45 Englisch (English)

2:55-3:55 UK (Theatre) *There are a lot of different options for this class, but I chose theatre

4:00-5:00 UK

 

Donnerstag (Thursday):

8:00-9:00 AV*

9:10-10:10 Politik (Politics)

10:35-11:35 AS (Study Hall)

11:45-12:45 Physik (Physics)

12:45-1:45 Mittagspause/Mittagessen (Afternoon Break/Lunch)

1:45-2:45 Musik (Music)

2:55-3:55 Englisch (English)

 

Freitag (Friday):

9:10-10:10 AV*

10:35-11:35 Mathe (Math)

11:45-12:45 AS (Study Hall)

 

*AV is a class meant for immigrants who are learning German as their second or third language. I take this class in place of some regular classes so that I can work more on things like learning German grammar. There are usually only about 3 people in each of these classes, which is really nice because I’m able to get a lot of help from the teacher.

I also found out that there’s extra tutoring for English after school for an hour on Fridays, so I’m going to start helping out with that every week.

One of the biggest differences between school in Germany and school in the US is how your “class” works. Here, you stay with the same group of about 25 people (this is your class) for every lesson. I have to say, I don’t really like this as much as the way school is set up in America. Because you’re always with the same people, it can sometimes be difficult to make friends outside of your class. On the other hand, you become really close to the people in your class because you’re always with them.

Another thing that’s different here are the lengths of the breaks we have. After every single lesson, we have a 10-minute break, except for after our second lesson when we get a 25-minute break. Also, our lunch period is an hour long, so during that time, you can go outside, eat, or talk with different teachers. Obviously, the biggest difference here is that every lesson (except for English and French) is in German. Because I don’t speak or understand that much German yet, the lessons can be a bit boring for me sometimes. For example, I have no idea what happened in my politics lesson this week, I just know that every single time our teacher mentioned “America” or “Donald Trump”, everyone would automatically turn to look at me, which was kind of funny.

Overall though, school is going pretty well. Taking the train every day is starting to feel normal and I can tell that I’m learning a little more German every day.