Trip to Münster!

Authored By:

River H.

Hallo zusammen!

This past weekend marked the end of what would typically be the first semester of the school year in the American school system. In Germany, however, the first semester of the school year doesn't end until February, which is definitely something that I'll have to get used to! School so far has definitely been challenging, but I also have made some encouraging improvements. Right now, I usually average a grade of 3 on the Klausuren, which is decent, even compared to the other German students. My favorite class is definitely my Leistungskurs Deutsch class, just because of how challenging it is. Right now, we're reading a play called Nathan der Weise (Nathan the Wise), a tale stressing religious tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, especially among Christianity and Judaism. Since the work is hundreds of years old, it's not written in modern German, so it's very hard to understand, even for my German classmates! But even if I can't understand some of the words, my classmates are always willing to help, which has definitely been one of the many pleasant surprises about the year!

Over the weekend, I had a chance to discover another new city with some of my amazing CBYXer friends, Münster! Our group got to see many of the city's amazing attractions, my favorite of which were definitely the many churches spread out in the city. Going inside one of them reveals a huge ceiling, with beautiful architecture and attention to detail, and a strange sense of calm, immediately as you enter. Another really cool part of Münster, and Germany as a whole, are the Christmas markets in every city. There is so much good food to eat there, and sitting around a table with all of my friends drinking a hot chocolate is one of the coolest experiences of the year for sure! The river that runs through Münster also allows for some cool pictures, so enjoy!

Pretty soon, I will be going on a skiing trip with my host family to the Alps in Italy! I've never been to Italy before, so it will be a very memorable experience for me for sure, and I'm really appreciative of my awesome host family to be able to go. More about my trip coming soon! Bis bald!