Much Ado About Nothing

Yesterday I was up at 6:30 to catch the bus at 7-ish. For the first time, we didn't have rolls and jam for breakfast, but cereal and milk. The kind I had was basically oats with small pellets of chocolate. Definately not American cereal. The bus was also interesting. Since the Reinhardts haven't received the bus system pass-card they ordered for me, we've been having to pay every time we ride.

A little side note about the German school system. For the most part, there are very few choices as to classes. One can choose a Religion class and also some language classes, but that's about it. Therefore, the school takes all the children with the same choices and puts them in the same class. They stay together in the same classroom most of the day while the teachers come around to them.

Right off, we had History. They talked for a bit about France's decisive vote on Sunday against a European Constitution, which I'm sure my American friends have no idea about, then I got pretty much lost. The guy was fairly old and dry, reminding me a bit of Lade... Deutsch was next. The teacher had me stand up and tell a little about myself, then one kid gave a speech about the life of the author we're preparing to read. Geli informed me that the teacher was okay, but that she could certainly be mean at times. Reminds me of Hewitt... After this we had a short break for about ten minutes, then came Spanish. The teacher seemed cool enough, but I couldn't understand him, so I'd have no idea. After this was math. It was pretty much a breeze, since they're at the level of maybe FST or even advanced algebra. The teacher was kind of weird, but in a good way. A diluted sort of Blong, if you will. Lastly was English. This lady reminded me a bit of Sharon Osbourne because she had dyed-red hair and a strong British accent. During this class we spoke English, so that was good. She was the least-easy to relate to my comparative teacher, but she and Herr P were slightly similar...

After school I took a nap and started on the book for Deutsch. I watched some tennis and played video games with Frank. Manfred had planned to bring me to the tennis courts, but the rain cancelled those plans. All in all, school was definately better than I had been dreading.

A random German fact now, which I'll try to include with every post if I can: While cigarette smoking in the states is quickly declining, it's on the rise in Germany. Three of the first four ads before Garden State were for cigarettes, the fourth for Doctors without Borders. At every bus stop there's a vending machine with just cigarettes. And also, the smoking age is 16, so more and more young people are taking up the habit.