This first week has been very busy! Lets start with last Saturday:
Saturday began early with a 6:00 WAKE-UP, in which we all woke up for our last meal in the Kloster which filled us before we grabbed our bags and headed to the Bahnhof in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. After arriving to the station early and dealing with a few incidents including a man hailing Hitler at one of our group members, and an evacuation due to a bomb threat (unaccompanied luggage) that was handled calmly and orderly considering the Bahnhof has no security other than a few patrol officers. Following the continuous delays and our free-time to explore: just as we learned we would return to the Kloster, the Bahnhof re-opened and the large Cologne/ Hannover group was rushed to their train. Just as the rest of us ( East, South and Northerners) were going to head to our train; a group arrived which lead to a mix up and checks t see if someone missed their train which led to us missing ours and because the bus pulled up we were all taken back to Hedersleben! Where we ate whatever food was leftover, talked, had a little bonfire and then slept in the now empty Kloster. However the next morning was a success and after waving good-bye one final time to the workers, Kloster and town we had grown to love for the past month we said hugged and later separated into our respective groups for travel. After about a 40 minute ride, and a game of UNO my stop approached and I wished good luck to the Berliners before departing and meeting my Host-Family and their large Welcome Sign (Thanks!) I was given a tour of the Bahnhof followed by a drive through the beautiful city before arriving to the house, receiving another tour and subsequently taking the bus to Park Sansoucci where we grabbed ice cream, a milkshake and casually talked about rules and all that.
Monday: Was the first day of school. After a nervous bus ride, my host brother helped my with my schedule in the office and after a few minutes I was walked into my first class ( Spanish !) Throughout the day I was shown to my class by students and during the breaks I hung out somewhere different from the market across the street to the school fields or Aula (hall.) After school I met up with my host sister who showed me the tram route to my language school/class and used the hour and a half of time to split a Doner and walk around the library. The first language course was o.k, we went through the basics and I got upset after learning I would have to by a book (another!! after already paying for one at language camp for those classes ugh!!)
Tuesday: I didn't have school until 10:00, so I slept in until around 7 and caught the 8:00 bus (my first solo metro ride) followed by Sport ( the most organized yet fun gym class I've ever taken. It began with a run around the gym, and arm exercises and was followed by us playing competitive Badmitton (1 v 1) and rotating playing partners every 5 minutes with a few 3 minute breaks in between when were we taught different stances and swings. We finished the class with a 2 v 2 game. Later I had history ( which I understand in English but don't know how to speak about in Deutsch, and I found out that my history teacher is also my Biology teacher. My last class was English ( all the things we don't learn in school aka grammar and tenses etc...)
Wednesday: A regular morning followed by Deutsch class, Math (where I took a test my first day. I don't know how i did considering these calculus questions were all in German but hey at least I tried! I ended my class with Spanish and to help improve my German I tried my best to explain the article about Spain's political, social, and economic status' to some of my classmates ( in German.) After school I played a little game of soccer with my host brother and his friend before heading to the bookstore (which didn't have my book, so I ad to reserve what turned out to be a 24.50 Euro book!) In language class we learned how to write and say countries, languages and occupations.
Thursday: I had my first short day (I only have 3 classes Wednesday (A week,) and every Thursday and Friday. I learned about a Chemistry class trip later in the year to Amsterdam (the dates aren't out yet.) Attended music class where we learned about film music and sang a song while our teacher played the piano and two guests played the guitar. I also met another CBYX student (he's with AFS) making the school total 3. Myself, him, and a girl with YFU. After school I picked up my book and I also got off at the wrong bus stop :( however that lead to a beautiful walk home where I saw a few hills, corn and sunflower fields and trees ( Sooo many trees in Potsdam)
Friday: Began with Math which I thoroughly understood. Physics which I've never taken before and learned about the Law of Inertia and all that followed by Deutsch class where we analyzed Baroque Art (Yes, here in Deutschland EVERY class from Deutsch and Math to Geography and Science cover the historical aspect of each unit.)
Saturday: My host-dad and I went to the store for groceries and also drove to the city to fill out the paper for my Residents Permit. Without one I can only legally stay in Deutschland for three months. The bureaucrats were swift, maybe that's because elections are coming up or because they just wanted to get home but we were only in the city hall for 20 minutes. Later we relaxed for a bit before catching our local train to the Bahnhof and connecting with another train before getting off and grabbing another train to take us to Berlin's Olympic Stadium which was BEAUTFUL. with the Olympic rings hanging on one side and sculptures on another and of course the stadium was humongous and can hold up to 70,000 at full capacity. The game was fun to watch and atmosphere was even better even a football game has less energy than this with constant chants and cheers, and a crowd that's into every move not to mention that I saw 4 goals scored, 3 yellow cards given, and a penalty kick! The only thing that went wrong is the home team loosing ( I'm starting to think I might be bad luck aha.) Afterwards we grabbed McDonalds (my first outside of the U.S and I was somewhat disappointed: the fries lacked salt and the Big Mac; Mac sauce.)
Saturday began early with a 6:00 WAKE-UP, in which we all woke up for our last meal in the Kloster which filled us before we grabbed our bags and headed to the Bahnhof in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. After arriving to the station early and dealing with a few incidents including a man hailing Hitler at one of our group members, and an evacuation due to a bomb threat (unaccompanied luggage) that was handled calmly and orderly considering the Bahnhof has no security other than a few patrol officers. Following the continuous delays and our free-time to explore: just as we learned we would return to the Kloster, the Bahnhof re-opened and the large Cologne/ Hannover group was rushed to their train. Just as the rest of us ( East, South and Northerners) were going to head to our train; a group arrived which lead to a mix up and checks t see if someone missed their train which led to us missing ours and because the bus pulled up we were all taken back to Hedersleben! Where we ate whatever food was leftover, talked, had a little bonfire and then slept in the now empty Kloster. However the next morning was a success and after waving good-bye one final time to the workers, Kloster and town we had grown to love for the past month we said hugged and later separated into our respective groups for travel. After about a 40 minute ride, and a game of UNO my stop approached and I wished good luck to the Berliners before departing and meeting my Host-Family and their large Welcome Sign (Thanks!) I was given a tour of the Bahnhof followed by a drive through the beautiful city before arriving to the house, receiving another tour and subsequently taking the bus to Park Sansoucci where we grabbed ice cream, a milkshake and casually talked about rules and all that.
Tuesday: I didn't have school until 10:00, so I slept in until around 7 and caught the 8:00 bus (my first solo metro ride) followed by Sport ( the most organized yet fun gym class I've ever taken. It began with a run around the gym, and arm exercises and was followed by us playing competitive Badmitton (1 v 1) and rotating playing partners every 5 minutes with a few 3 minute breaks in between when were we taught different stances and swings. We finished the class with a 2 v 2 game. Later I had history ( which I understand in English but don't know how to speak about in Deutsch, and I found out that my history teacher is also my Biology teacher. My last class was English ( all the things we don't learn in school aka grammar and tenses etc...)
Wednesday: A regular morning followed by Deutsch class, Math (where I took a test my first day. I don't know how i did considering these calculus questions were all in German but hey at least I tried! I ended my class with Spanish and to help improve my German I tried my best to explain the article about Spain's political, social, and economic status' to some of my classmates ( in German.) After school I played a little game of soccer with my host brother and his friend before heading to the bookstore (which didn't have my book, so I ad to reserve what turned out to be a 24.50 Euro book!) In language class we learned how to write and say countries, languages and occupations.
Thursday: I had my first short day (I only have 3 classes Wednesday (A week,) and every Thursday and Friday. I learned about a Chemistry class trip later in the year to Amsterdam (the dates aren't out yet.) Attended music class where we learned about film music and sang a song while our teacher played the piano and two guests played the guitar. I also met another CBYX student (he's with AFS) making the school total 3. Myself, him, and a girl with YFU. After school I picked up my book and I also got off at the wrong bus stop :( however that lead to a beautiful walk home where I saw a few hills, corn and sunflower fields and trees ( Sooo many trees in Potsdam)
Friday: Began with Math which I thoroughly understood. Physics which I've never taken before and learned about the Law of Inertia and all that followed by Deutsch class where we analyzed Baroque Art (Yes, here in Deutschland EVERY class from Deutsch and Math to Geography and Science cover the historical aspect of each unit.)
Saturday: My host-dad and I went to the store for groceries and also drove to the city to fill out the paper for my Residents Permit. Without one I can only legally stay in Deutschland for three months. The bureaucrats were swift, maybe that's because elections are coming up or because they just wanted to get home but we were only in the city hall for 20 minutes. Later we relaxed for a bit before catching our local train to the Bahnhof and connecting with another train before getting off and grabbing another train to take us to Berlin's Olympic Stadium which was BEAUTFUL. with the Olympic rings hanging on one side and sculptures on another and of course the stadium was humongous and can hold up to 70,000 at full capacity. The game was fun to watch and atmosphere was even better even a football game has less energy than this with constant chants and cheers, and a crowd that's into every move not to mention that I saw 4 goals scored, 3 yellow cards given, and a penalty kick! The only thing that went wrong is the home team loosing ( I'm starting to think I might be bad luck aha.) Afterwards we grabbed McDonalds (my first outside of the U.S and I was somewhat disappointed: the fries lacked salt and the Big Mac; Mac sauce.)