School: Day Two

Today was...  Well, it really wasn't that bad, but it's raining and I'm in a bad mood, so I'm probably going to make it seem bad.


My first class was German.  The teacher seemed nice, but it was hard to tell because all we did was watch a movie.  Apparently the class had recently read a book by the German equivalent of Shakespeare, and this was the movie of it.  I didn't understand all of it, but it wasn't just me.  According to Lisa, the movie was pretty different from the book.  For all of first period, I was so bored.  When you're watching a weird movie that you only partially understand, you tend to zone out.  Or, in my case, stare at everyone else because you've only seen them once before in your life.

I am pleased to announce that I am free of the Smurf Finger syndrome today.  I guess I didn't really write as much, or maybe my fountain-pen-writing-skills have just improved.  Yeah, I think that's it. :)

Next was chemistry class.  We had to go to a special chemistry room, which I'm pretty sure was in another building, but I'm not sure.  I just blindly follow Lisa around and hope she's never absent because I am going to get lost by myself.

Anyway, chemistry.  I was put into an empty seat next to a girl named Lara.  She was really nice, so I guess that's another friend on the list.  Basically, anyone I talk to for about five minutes is considered a friend at this point. :) After the test, we started a lesson.  OVER-MY-HEAD ALERT!  I didn't understand a single concept.  It was something about protons, shells, periodic tables and calculations....  For some inexplicable reason, 'sauer' in German means sour and 'stoff' means material or fabric, but put together, 'Sauerstoff' means oxygen.  WHAT THE HECK.


Since we have next Monday and Tuesday and the Monday and Tuesday after that off from school, we won't have chemistry (or history) for three weeks.  We were given a ton of work to do during that time, and I will understand about... let's see... none of it.  Luckily, I have the option not to do it, but I still want to try.

Randomly inserted picture because I thought you might ahve forgotten what I looked like. :) Just kidding, I just thought blog posts are boring without pictures, and I didn't have anything else to take a picture of.

In chemistry, I sat behind a kid named Timon.  He always enthusiastically anwers the teacher's questions, even if he's totally wrong.  The kid's hilarious.  He also actually talked to me, making him the first guy to do so. :)

After chemistry was our longest, 20-minute long break that is the closest thing to lunch period there is.  I followed Lisa to a little place behind the soccer fields where she usually eats.  A few other girls where there too: Sophie, Mona, Sara, and Nadine.  Nadine totally reminds me of one of my friends, and she and Sara invited me to sit by them in class.

History came next.  The history teacher, like many other teachers, spoke to me in English after hearing I'm from America, until I told him I can speak German.  I wonder how many other teachers are still going to do that. :)

Apparently history is extremely boring for the kids, because everyone talked over the teacher for a while.  The teacher wasn't too happy about this.  Also, there's this kid named Carl who always brings a soccer ball and plays with it under the desk.  Apparently it drives everybody nuts, and today the history teacher threw it out the window.  (By the way, the classroom is on the third and highest story.)  Everyone cheered. :)

In history, I sat next to Sara and Nadine, which was fun.  Timon was in front of me again, and he talked to me again.  I was on a roll.  Also, Luisa and another boy (I don't know his name; I should probably learn it) were playing hand soccer with a ball as big as my fingernail.  Then they lost the ball, and I found it a few feet behind my chair and gave it back to him.  I know, it's terribly exciting, but I feel my human interaction is so limited that any, no matter how small, should be noted. :)

We then had to read a few pages of a textbook.  Understandably, I am a slow reader and do also not have great reading comprehension, especially in an 8th grade history textbook.  Then we got into groups to work on a small project about what we had read.  I was with Lisa and Celina.  Our task was to write a few paragraphs from the point of view of an undercover police officer walking through a festival.  This festival is what the textbook reading had been about.  Lisa took bullet point notes and Celina wrote the final thing, and I helped the best I could.  I was pretty much still reading while they were workig.  It was pitiful.  However, I did contribute about half a bullet point...  I know, impressive.

I noticed some kids were just scribbling on the desks.  In pen.  At first I was thinking, "Gasp!  What are you doing?  That's pen!"  And then, someone wiped this thing that looked kind of like an eraser over it, and it disappeared.  Yes, folks, there is a pen eraser!  I think it's called tintenkiller or something.  I'm going to bring one back and I'll be, like, the queen of the nerds!  When I saw it, I had to try it out for myself, and I kept drawing on the table and erasing it again.  Lisa and Celina kept laughing at the creeper smile that grew on my face every time I used the tintenkiller.  You're probably thinking, "Wow, Julia.  That's pretty pathetic," but I couldn't help it.  Wait until you try it out! It's like magic!  Yes, I'm a nerd.

Learning is so different here.  Back home, we go on our computers a lot.  Teachers usually show a powerpoint of criteria or main points, and they try to get us to learn in interesting ways.  Here, it's blackboard, textbook, and a teacher talking and asking questions.  It's a lot less interesting.

So, overall progress:
Total friends (kind of): 6ish
Total girls I've talked to: 9ish
Total boys I've talked to: 2

Really, today wasn't that bad, but I'm still unhappy.  I miss home.  I miss being one of the smartest in class.  I miss my friends.  I miss laughing.  Enough said.

The Sunflower Project: Nuthin'

German word of the day: Traurig.  Pronounced TROW-rich (the 'ow' in 'trow' is pronounced just like the 'ow' you say when you hurt yourself, and the ch in 'rich' is a weird, throaty sound.)  Meaning: sad.