Brussels

There was no post last week because I was on vacation with my host family, and I forgot to mention that in the previous post.

Another piece of information: about 30 seconds ago as I write this, I deleted almost all my photos from Belgium (I had almost 100). I could feel my heart sink. We're going to work with what I have; however, that is not a lot. The pictures posted here are pretty much the only ones I have.

Now that that is cleared up, let me tell you about my trip to Brussels. 

We were thirty students from the 11th and 12th grades who embarked on a 10 hour bus ride to Brussels (we stopped 4 times for about 30 min, its a law).  We did so much during the day, then during the evening we were let free to go get dinner and hang out. 

Okay, onto all the cool things I saw and did while I was there. 

I'll start with my favorite activity: going to the European Parliament. We had this hour long presentation (in German, of course) given by a Czech, and he was absolutely hilarious. He works in the Cultural Affairs department, and he educated us on the European Parliament. He explained to us the different things they do, the countries in the EU, and the different things that are currently going on in the EU. While I personally don't find this topic boring, I'm sure many people might, so he made sure to keep us engaged, make us laugh, and be light-hearted. By the way, when I say laugh, I mean a busted up, uncontrollable laughter. He even made all three of the teachers cry from laughing so hard; however, that particular joke I didn't really understand. He speaks perfect German (along with 12 other languages he knows fluently), and because German isn't his maternal language, I was able to understand him pretty well. The best part was when he was speaking German and then every few sentences he would switch accents. For example, he went from Russian to Italian to Dutch to French, and when he went to a new accent he would make a light-hearted joke about that country and its stereotype. He then took us to the big and official Parliament room where everyone meets (I don't know the official name for it).

We also went to the Grand Place, or the Central Square of Brussels. It has the town hall, a building named "The King's House," and two other buildings that are incredibly beautiful on the outside, but I'm not entirely sure what is on the inside. The Grand Place has an interesting history, but what I found the coolest is that one edifice is architecturally Gothic while the another is Baroque even though they were built at the same time and place.

Brussels Town Hall

In Grand Place

This is the example with the Gothic architecture next to Baroque

We went to Waterloo, where the famous battle was. Honestly, I didn't really know much about it, but they have this film at the visitor center to watch and I was able to learn all about it. Then there is a huge grass hill with 226 steep steps to climb with a huge lion on top. Once on top of the hill, you can see what were the battlegrounds.

We visited the Atomium, which was built in 1958 for the Brussels World Fair. There is an elevator to the top sphere where one can see a panoramic view of Brussels, then escalators through the tunnels that support the spheres take you to a series of exhibits, mostly art related.

This is taken from the internet because mine was deleted

Another of my favorite activities was visiting the NATO headquarters. We met with our guide, whose German was so slow, clear, and annunciated, I wasn't sure at first if he was actually German. We then went on a tour of the military base, which was really like a miniature city because it had everything a person could need. And here is something cool, the families that live on the base have the flag of their native country hanging outside their house so people can know where they come from. Then he gave a 1.5 hours long presentation, which similarly to the European Parliament, could be boring to some, but I enjoyed it and found it interesting to learn about. The hardest part was all the German, which I could understand when I kept my mind focused. The moment I let my mind wander, if was difficult to jump back in and pick up where he was in the presentation. 

No picture here because it's was prohibited to have cameras and cell phones at the headquarters. 

On our last day we drove to this town called Bruges about an hour away, and it was absolutely enchanting. It was the business, financial, cultural, and commercial hub of Europe during the Middle Ages. The square today has lots of shops and restaurants along with a landmark church, naturally. There is also a Historium with an audio guide tour that takes you through this fictional story but portrays life at that time through themed rooms. It was super cool. At the end, there is an exhibition with more information, and then you go out to the balcony to get a panoramic view of the city square (I had a beautiful panoramic photo but it got deleted). Afterwards, we had 3.5 hours of free time to eat lunch, go shopping, explore, and have fun because it was our last day.  

Here is a funny "lost in translation" story. The night before we left, we had a group pow wow and the teachers told us the plan for the morning because we were going to get up early, etc. I though I had understood the instructions pretty clearly but apparently not. I was curious as to why the others in my room were up so early, but I just went about my business. Then the time rolls around that we were supposed to be out of our room, and I magically make it out with all my stuff in 30 seconds. Luckily I had packed the night before, but it really was a miracle I made it out of there without looking completely like that one person who was late. When it was all said and done, I turn to my friend and tell her that I had no idea we were supposed to be ready at this time. She just kinda laughs, and it all worked out. 

I had so much fun on this trip, and the great part is that I was able to hang out with my friends for a week and get to know more people from my school!

Here are a few more photos:

This statue is super famous, although I'm not sure what is so spectacular. He is peeing into a pool of water

Here is a photo that we got together for in 1.5 seconds, but I really like how it came out.

This is funny because my friend said to get in for a photo and we other 3 immediately started doing our hair...and the photo was taken anyway :)

German Education and my Experiences

I go to a Gynmasium (pronounciation: gim-naw-zee-um and the "g" is pronounced like the "g" in "give"), and no, not the athletic kind. This is one of three secondary school options. Everyone goes to elementary school then in 7th grade students get placed in a Hauptschule, Realschule, or Gynmasium based on their academic intelligence (Gymnasium being the highest level). The thing is though, the only way to go to university is to go to Gynmasium and complete the Aribtur (the big test I have talked about previously). However, there is still a way to go to university if a student didn't go straight to Gynmasium out of primary school, but it takes longer.

I'm not sure how widespread this is, but at my school there are students who started Gymnasium in the 5th grade because they are deemed "the smartest" in elementary school. I put it in quotes because when it was explained to me, both students (one from that class and one from my class) both used air quotes and slightly rolled their eyes. I found this really interesting that this strong of a division of children was made at such a young age. 

One thing I learned at language camp about things to expect at school was that I would stay in the same classroom with the same group of kids all day while the teachers changed classroom. However, that isn't really how it is at my school, luckily. We have the 12th grade with classes A, B, and L. I am in 12A, and L indicates that the class started in 5th grade. Each class has math, German, and English together and all the other subjects have students from all three classes. The 12th grade is super small with only 50-60 students, which is half the amount the 11th grade has. There are about 600 students at my school, although walk through the halls during passing period and it feels like many more. I was so relieved when I realized that what I was told at language camp was not true in my case because it means opportunity to make friends with more people!

In terms of school behaviors, I was told teachers are super strict, students are really serious, and to not ever be late to class. My experiences are a little different, though. The teachers are really nice and friendly, although it probably isn't a good idea to get on their bad side because grading is more subjective than it is in the USA. The sense I get is that the student knows what is expected by the teacher, student fufills those expectations, and then school becomes a more enjoyable place to be. 

I have a personal goal for my time at school here and it is that people don't perceive me as incompetent simply because sometimes I can't form coherent sentences in German. It was funny because in the first two weeks, people who I hadn't spoken to but were in my class kind of just looked like me with a quizzative "is she even alive?" look because the most I could was pretty much sit there and pretend to follow what was going on even when it was obvious I wasn't following. It doesn't happen anymore, though. I'm really trying to participate in class because that will help with my aforementioned goal, and it will make class more enjoyable for me. 

My favorite classes are history, French, music, and German. 

My history teacher always tells me that if I ever want to raise my hand and say something, to be not be afraid, especially since we're learning American history. Finally, two weeks ago not only did I answer a question he asked, but I even gave an opinion about a topic. He was very happy, and I like the class because I'm learning a lot and I appreciate him including me in the class. I also took the test! Well what really happened was he handed me the test and said its not for a grade, he just wants me to try to write something. I wrote approximately half a page (most people had at least two pages), but at least it's something!

French is cool because it's laid back and I'm learning French vocabulary and even some German vocabulary. The teacher always has someone say the word in French, then someone says it in German, then she has me say it in English, which is funny because then she always mocks my accent... For some reason I can't figure out, I have a fun time in that class and I look forward to it. 

I still don't really get homework to do, so instead I have my German lessons teacher give me a ton of work to do to keep me busy. 

School has been overall a wonderful experience, and has exceeded all my expectations. Nothing has really surprised me here about the educational system, though, because most of the differences I already knew about before coming here. For example, no school spirit/sports/comraderie and no multiple choice tests. 

Here's an interesting piece of information, people here use legitimate fountain pens to write. And pencil is seldom used. I feel inadequate with my ballpoint pen. Imagine the cursive and the way to "correctly hold a pen" lessons we all learned in second grade and that is pretty much how every boy and teacher writes. I've seen a lot of girls write in print or a loopy handwriting style, though. 

There will be no blog post next week because I will be on a bus to Brussels. Fun fact, it's takes approximately the same amount of time to get from Sacramento to Los Angeles as it does Berlin to Brussels. 

Shannon