An Elephant Never Forgets

Another sign of my more left-leaning tendencies resulting from this trip:

I completely forgot about our expedition Tuesday night. Many of the class took a trip into Stuttgart to see Mamma Mia, the musical based on ABBA songs. It was quite interesting, in that both the words and the music were translated into German. However, since most Germans know English, and since the language is largely affected by technology or new words in English, as well as pop culture, some of the words stayed the same. The most notable of these was "Dancing Queen," which is ironic because it most likely became pop culture because of that very song. Other than that, it's not too notable, but it did deserve some recognition of existence on this blog.

Thursday: Pretty slow goings on. Math was cancelled today, so instead I got to sit in on Geli's English class, in which she gave a presentation on weapons in America. She did a very good job, better than many American students would do, and showed a clip from "Bowling For Columbine." The teacher had tears in her eyes, then proceeded to grill me about weapons in America. Maybe "grill" is a little too harsh, but she seemed to be on the offensive. Luckily, I was able to speak in English. The viewpoints on this issue certainly differ, such as every German's incredulity at the thought of purchasing guns through a catalogue. I skipped out of 6th hour to catch a train to Stuttgart, where I met Jenna. She's heading back to the states early Saturday morning, which is kind of hard to believe, but when I think about it, she was already over here before Prom, so I guess it has been quite a while for her. I also forgot a camera, so I didn't get any more pics of Stuttgart, as I'm sure I'd promised I would at some point...
This evening, Manfred and I went to watch the choir perform at a large church with a larger than life sized golden Jesus. The choir is not part of the school curriculum and is therefore done voluntarily on free time. They performed songs from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "Jesus Christ: Superstar," doing quite well considering that they were singing in English the enitre time.

That's about all I've got...

Flour Power

It's good to see everyone's confused.

On Montag, we played a little bit of Team Handball in gym class. I'd have to say, of all class matter that I've never covered in the States, Team Handball is probably that at which I perform best. I finished loading all the pictures I'd stocked up beforehand, so now all the pictures will be much more recent. Hopefully I'll be able to post about them on the blog when I post them to the Photoblog.

Dienstag: Hitzefrei. Unfortunately, I was in 12th grade Chemie, which doesn't receive that benefit. The worst part of it was that the whole two hours they just went over a test they had taken before I came. I sat and did nothing but sweat. At this point, I'm relatively certain that German teachers become such through their inability to write legibly. Only Herr Bürkle, Math and Physics teacher, and Herr Kunde, Math 12 teacher, can write so that one can read it if they haven't heard what it says, and I'm normally confused, so I don't get a whole ton of notes.

Mittwoch: Probably the most interesting school day yet. After second hour, a bunch of 13th graders started coming to the classrooms and letting everyone free, taking the teachers at gunpoint (not real guns, obviously, but they looked real, which is something that would never pass in America. I guess they just don't have the fear of that sort of thing) and locking them up in a cage outside. There was also a large smoking pile of ash and garbage, as well as many beer bottles. It was for an event called the Abi Schatz, which is basically a party lead by 13th graders before taking their final tests. A few younger students left to go home, but most stayed to watch the festivities. They set up a stage outside, and all of us gathered around to watch as they plucked teachers out of the cage by popular request to do things like dig through a large pile of flour for gummy bears using only their faces. The second time they did this, however, most of the teachers flat out refused, and only one, the bio teacher, came forward resignedly, so one of the 13th graders decided to compete against him. The teacher set straight to his duty, but the student decided to have fun with it. He grabbed a bag of flour and dumped it over his head, so that he was totally white. It was all fun and games until one of the 13th graders decided to do the same to the teacher. He stood up right away and left quite sourly. He wasn't miked, but that was probably for the better, since the visual of him chewing the student out was enough. I guess this was the last straw, because as they were about to move on to the next activity, the principal stepped up and announced, "These students are all intoxicated," (yeah, it was about 10 in the morning), "the Abi Schatz is cancelled, go back to class." This was followed by a mad dash for the gates as the student body made a mass exodus from the schoolyard where it had been held. Interestingly enough, afternoon classes are still on, and in fact I have biology, so it will be interesting to see the aftermath. Oh well, at the very worst, we got out of school at like 10:30.

Updates:
Residenzschloss gallery is up. These were from my tour with the Amis a while back.
Straßburg gallery is up. Also shots from the Black Forest.
7 new pics have been added to Home Away From Home. These were taken at the Marktplatzfest on Saturday.
4 new pics have been added to People I Know. These were taken either at the Marktplatzfest or in Straßburg.
4 new pics have been added to Lost In Translation. This gallery showcases all the weird little quirks about German life that I feel like sharing. Be patient; it's running quite slowly, at least over here, so it takes a bit of time to load.

Let's Go To The Map:
I was actually planning on wearing that outfit to the first day of school... No, I don't care about wood or carpet really. Also, I had dibs on a second waterbed way before Matt could even understand the concept of a bed filled with water.
Yeah, those kegs were at Heidelberg. There's also another large one in the Residenzschloss, and they all hold wine. In fact, the tour guide in Tübingen told us that the worst punishment for the boys attending the university there was to be cut off from their wine ration, even worse than being imprisoned, since the water was contaminated and they had nothing else to drink. And I'll use whichever adjectives I like, thank you.
Anonymous: I know it shouldn't be that hard. But it is. I'm really hung up on your comment of that shooting game in my basement. Wow. I don't even have a guess this time...
Don't worry about Mom trying to coach at your sporting events, Zoe. I understand, and no, there's nothing you can do about it. Yes, you did get Clijsters' name right.

I can start another site, if you'd all like, called "Rate My German Girlfriends."

Weekend Update

I know I've been updating a lot lately, so be sure to scroll down and pick up where you left off (rather than just reading the first post) if you don't want to miss anything!

Saturday: Geli was out most of the day, playing tennis, dancing, getting sunburned, etc. I stayed in and posted a bunch of pictures. Actually, today was the Marktplatzfest, a right old German celebration. I went with the rest of her family at noonish to watch about 2,000 people start off on a 10k run. The winner did it in like 30 minutes, so I was impressed. After Geli came home, we went to Valerie's at about 8:30. I watched the German National Soccer Team lose to Brazil 3-2 in the semifinal of the Confederations Cup, then her sister drove us out to Hemmingen, though we did get lost fairly often on the way. The reason we were in Hemmingen was Nico's birthday (he's in the photo gallery wearing a giant afro wig). He had a few benches out and his friends were all there, so we had some beer and brats and a good time altogether. I had an interesting conversation with one German, in that both of us spoke in the other's language, he trying to improve his English and I my Deutsch. Going back around 11:00, the Marktplatzfest was in full swing, despite the rain, so we stayed there for a bit.

Sunday: Church as normal. Immediately thereafter we took off for Straßburg, a French town southwest of us about 3 hours by car, seat of the European Parliament, and directly across the Rhein from Kehl, where Carmen Cummings stayed last summer. Geli had to study, so our group consisted of myself, Manfred, Marina, Frank, and his grandma. The drive was really nice, taking us through the Black Forest, mountainous region covered with dark evergreen trees. I got some pictures of both the forest and Straßburg, so I hope to get those up sometime in the near future.

Monday: So far, had to drag myself out of bed for school. Had my first class of 11th grade Chemie, which went fine. There was no Hitzefrei, so I'll soon head off to sweat in the Sporthalle, but Englisch was cancelled, and we have no 6th hour, so we got to go home at 11:15.

Constructive Criticisms:
Oy, anonymous. I'm so confused...
Josh Holbrook?
John Valesano?
I really don't think it's one of those, either. I believe this game may indeed take 3 months...
Unless...
Josiah Collins?
My shoes get a bunch of sand/clay all over them, so they're slowly turning orange. We only play usually one hour a week, since there are often club practices, tournaments, and other activitites going on at the courts, so I'm definately not playing as much as I thought I would. However, Manfred is quite helpful with trying to improve my game. Nonetheless, I think Ronning will be safe...
I'm not sure what picture you're talking about with the beer/wine, but I'm going to guess that it's beer, just based on the proportion of the two over here. I haven't noticed too mamny tourists, although Heidelberg is supposed to be swarming with them. I'm not exactly looking for them, either.
Matt Anderson... too bad you're way way up north. We're visitng Christoff (sp?) Beyer soon, if you care... but keep in touch.

By the way, mother, you never e-mailed me about which class I got a B in. You can post it here if you'd like, I just want to know.

Probably going back to Stuttgart Thursday to meet Jenna before she heads home.

Busy As A Biene

That's bee in German.

I'll save an actual update for a few days; I'm just checking in to inform everyone that I've added two new photo galleries, "Lost In Translation" and "Stuttgart & Heidelberg." Same rules go as for all the others. I only have the Residenzschloss gallery to post, and then I'm done, or at least until I take some more pics!

Enjoy!

Friday / Fry Day

It was 80F by 8:30 this morning. I know it's hot in Brainerd, but it's even hotter here because my mind can't make anything of Celsius, and therefore tends to wander to three digits.

Had a late start today due to the fact that there was no school. Instead, as I noted earlier, the 10th graders went to help out with track and field day for the 5-7th graders. Geli was calculating scores and awards, so she didn't have to be in until 9, although the games began at 7:45ish, and most other helpers had to be there then. Luckily, I got to go with Geli. What did I do? I raked at the Weitsprung for an hour in the hot hot heat. I won't translate Weitsprung, because I've given you enough clues to figure it out, and once you do, you'll feel that much smarter/German-literate. We were totally done by noon, so we went home for a short while, before going into town, meeting Valerie, Chrissy, and Tina, then going back to Valerie's house to make a gift for Nico, as it is his birthday tomorrow. They made a shirt that said "Can't Touch This," and was draped with candies. I didn't really understand, but that's nothing new. We didn't go out tonight, as Geli has both a tennis match and dance practice tomorrow, with Nico's party to boot. Tomorrow night is also the Marktplatzfest, which is held in the city and should be fun.

In other news:
3 new pics added to "Home Away From Home."
Working on a Tübingen Photoblog, should be up fairly soon. In fact, I won't even remark when I do open it, so if it's over on the right, you must have missed the gap between this post and its opening.

The Sight Impaired Leading The Visually Defunct

I now see I was quite vague regarding my instructions on the photos. There is now a section on the right side of this page called "Photo Links." I'll be adding more photos and galleries as well, but for now I have only "People I Know" and "Home Away From Home;" these are two galleries of photos I've taken. The other, "Ludwigsburg Official," remains the link I'd placed before to the pictures of the palaces; it used to be called "Picture of Residential Palace," or something like that, but it leads to the same place. Clicking on any photo gallery link will bring you to that gallery. There's some advertising and whatnot on top, then direction buttons, the picture, a rating area, my personal comment on the image, and finally, guest comments. The direction buttons will help you navigate through the gallery. Also, when new pictures are posted, I believe they go to the front of the gallery, so that one doesn't have to search through all the old stuff. If one does want to search, find the "More Pictures" link in the bottom left for a thumbnail gallery. Directly below each pic is an area for rating the picture, feel free to do so if you feel so inclined. You can then read my comment and others' comments, and add your own if you'd like. As a reminder, I won't be scouring these galleries to check for comments, so if you have something you'd like to bring to my direct attention, please comment here, or e-mail me at houleyhoop@hotmail.com. When you're done with one picture, go to the top of the pic and click on "Next Image."

Please comment if you're still confused; I want everyone to be able to check these photos out!

These Pictures Are Worth At Least 1,287 Words Apiece

Internet has been installed in my room, which means *hopefully* more frequent updates, as well as photos. The latter is taking a bit of work, so I'll be keeping this short.

Wednesday evening we biked over to Schloss Monrepos, going down a path called the Planetweg, which included placards and scale models at scale distances of all the planets in the solar system, as well as the sun. The first four are fairly close, but Jupiter is quite a way out, and we didn't even get to Saturn and the rest before turning to go back home. I think I heard that the entire thing is around two kilometers long, and the first four planets are within 60 meters or so.

Thursday: ho dee hum. In 12th grade Mathe we had a test today, which I didn't know about beforehand. However, I feel quite good about it, barring any translation problems. I did look up one word this time, though. This was followed by doing nothing of importance in Deutsch and then a Hitzefrei, the third in as many days, since there was one on Tuesday as well, but it didn't affect us, as Geli's class was already cancelled, and mine was 12th grade and therefore not let out. To call a Hitzefrei, the temp must be 86 F at 10:00, and that will usually remain until around 4 if not later. So, if you're wondering about the weather over here, it's quite hot. I have a number of long pants and a shirt that I never wear, and I go through my shorts and Tshirts about 3 times before washing them out of necessity. In other news, internet was hooked up, and Geli, I, Tina, Nico, and Chrissy went to hang out at the Bärenwiese. The pic of the Residenzschloss at the Ludwigsburg homepage shows a little of the vast gardens out in front of it. They are quite beautiful, but require a membership to enter. There's a gate out front, and then proceeding further (behind from where the picture was taken) there is a public park called the Bärenwiese, literally "bear meadow," although its really not a meadow, and I don't know what it has to do with bears. It's a great place to hang out on a hot day, though.

Mail Bag:
The truth on taxes:
In addition to the various forms of income tax there is also a series of sales taxes that significantly impact both individuals and businesses. The major tax is the Mehrwertsteuer (value added tax), which accounts for a quarter of the government's revenue and is second only to the Lohnsteuer (wage/income tax)in this regard. The Mehrwertsteuer assesses a levy on each step in the production and delivery of most items available for purchase. It applies to services as well as goods and the standard rate is 16%. A reduced rate of 7% applies to certain products, including food and printed material. Medical and insurance services are generally exempt, as are exports of goods abroad and services rendered abroad.
Lohnsteuer
The maximum rate for individuals has been decreased. It was 53% in 1998 and is 42% in 2005, while the minimum rate has been reduced from 25.9% to 15%. The "solidarity surcharge" of 5.5% of the tax, to cover the costs of integrating the states of the former East Germany, is still in effect. The corporate tax rate, which was thought to discourage investment in Germany, will decrease from 30%-40% to only 25%.

That's the price of the Abitur, that test granting free secondary ed. ;)
Kid C = Erik Hukriede
El Jefe = Jeff Smith

Classes aren't cancelled too often, but it tends to happen more and more now that we reach the end. It's basically due to a combination of teacher and student lethargy; there are only a few finals left, everything else is just procedure. There's also the Hitzefrei now that its hot enough, and there are various other reasons to cancel class, such as the 5-7th grade track and field day tomorrow, which the 10th graders help with (judging, measuring, whatnot) and therefore get out of school for.

A word on the photos.
These are basically the barest scraps of the photos I have taken, and are sized down to hopefully be reasonably manageable on dial-up. I'm not sure about everything, but I'll try to comment on all or most to clarify. You may comment at the photo itself, but please ask questions or speak concerns here on the blog if you want a reply, because I won't often check for comments on each and every pic itself.
Thanks and have fun!

Lost and Found in Translation

Saturday evening was Waldhaus again, the standard fare. Unfortunately, the only time they play good music there is Wednesday, oldies night; otherwise, it's loud hip-hop and rap and such that the Amis like.

Sunday I went to Mass alone, since Geli was really tired. I'm not even sure it was technically a Mass, because there was no priest and no consecration, but Communion was issued from the Tabernacle. Everything's really weird over here. Later on we went out to a lake. A real lake, nice and refreshing in the app. 85 degree (F) weather. Needless to say, there were a ton of Germans there, maybe 1000 cars for a lake the size of, say... Whipple.

Monday: back to school, but first hour was cancelled, so we were able to sleep in. We played Team Handball (I guess it's called Team Handball in Englsish, as officially Handball is a game similar to squash...) in Sport. Not much else to comment on.

Tuesday: No first or second hour, my third and fourth were cancelled, so I went to History and Biologie with Geli, then Geli's fifth and sixth hours were cancelled, though I still had 12th grade Chemie. We covered Amine, not sure how that translates into English, and got into a little biochem looking at structures of adrenalin, cocain, and amphetamin. I was quite content in that I wasn't utterly and totally lost. It would be difficult for me to completely replicate what the teacher did, but while he was teaching it I could definately follow, even in German. That afternoon Lala and her Amis came over, and we cooled off in Geli's small backyard area, as the temp was in the 90s F. That night we went to the park with all the other exchange partners and hosts and other friends since it was the Amis' last night here. One of the Germans had a football, so we decided to play. Americans vs. Germans. American football... Yes, we won quite easily, though there were a few mix-ups, like their forward passes on kickoff returns, and the fact that the grass was extremely slippery though it wasn't wet. I probably fell over at least 5 times. I finished with two interceptions and a long touchdown catch, quite pleased with my performance. Later that night there were many tearful goodbyes as each Ami left for the night.

Wednesday: Classes as normal. :( The exchange hosts didn't come in until 4th hour as they'd been accompanying their partners to the Stuttgart Flugzeug (airport). They came back quiet and somber. On the plus side, we had a Hitzefrei today, literally "heat free," excusing classes due to temperatures upwards of 30C, which meant that all classes for 5-10th grade were cancelled after 12:15. Luckily, we got to skip out of Chemie 6th hour and Biologie in the afternoon.

Questions, Comments & Concerns:
Anonymous:
Taylor, Katie, or Brady Streiff
???????
Also, I do have a dictionary, but I just didn't feel like whipping it out in the middle of the test, although I'm sure it wouldn't've been too big a deal if I had.

Please comment!

Besides their 16% sales tax, Germans also pay a small additional deposit for plastic goods in contrast to glass. This extra is given back when one returns the plastic good to a recycling facility, but just the same, there are more glass goods than plastic over here, and certainly more glass than one would find in America. I've only seen two beer cans in my whole trip; everything else has been bottles.

Quick Pic Update

Check it out, I put a link in to Ludwigsburg's homepage, starting at a pic of the Residential Palace, the largest one, and which I can see a part of out of my window right now... If you know Deutsch, feel free to browse the page at your leisure, otherwise the pics of the two other palaces can be found on the left under Geschichte-Schlösser-Schloss (Monrepos or Favorite).

Don't have much time, but I will note that I'm getting a bit of time off of school. A lot of classes are cancelled because the teachers need to administer Abitur, a total final which one needs to pass to have access to the free secondary education in Germany. I'll probably post a full update later.

A Minnesota Yankee in Duke Ludwig's Court

The internet sitch is getting better, and photos may be available sometime this week.

First off, I'd definately like to thank everyone involved in this effort with Ms. Uppgaard. She was a very special person, and as a teacher she inspired creativity and achievement in everyone. It would be impossible for me to think of anyone that didn't like her, and even moreso to find any child whom she did not nourish and educate at a level far beyond the standard for teachers today.

Tuesday: School as not so usual. Today was the first day I was supposed to switch to my new schedule, but two of the three classes were cancelled, so I only went to Mathe 12 and stayed with Geli's class the rest of the time. Coming back, some of them wondered where I'd been.
"Mathe 12."
"Und?"
Shrug. "Kein Problem."
Their eyes sort of bulged. Truthfully, though, it really was no problem. They're doing Calc, and as we are now six weeks out from the end of school, they're covering the stuff we were doing six weeks before the AP tests. It's good review for me, if nothing else. When I told the family that I'd already covered the material, Manfred proposed to send me off to college.
After school Geli, Manfred and I went to the courts, and us latter two played a set. Manfred won 6-2. I dropped my standard sit-back-and-wait-for-opponent's-mistakes strategy because I figured it wouldn't work on Manfred, as he's not the average 110% power slugger teenage player. Rather, he was stable and consistent in the corners, whereas my serve was off and I couldn't stop him once he got me running. On a better day, I might've made it close.

Mittwoch: Manfred gave me a 5th grade level writing workbook to help me out. Unfortunately, its focused more on handwriting and less on knowing what the words mean, so it doesn't help me much. Also, we had a dreaded two-hour block of German this morning. We got our tests on Jugend Ohne Gott back, and I got an equivalent B-, which wasn't bad compared to many other students. About half my wrong answers came from translation problems, and the other half because the test was tricky. One question asked if a character was a Waisenkind. I didn't know what that was, and it was never explicitly in the book. Waisenkind means, as I later found out, orphan, and I had indeed known the girl was an orphan, just not Waisenkind. A lot of other students were quite angry about the trickier questions, as the teacher had said the test would just be one to make sure one had read the book. That afternoon we had two hours of Biologie. Before meeting the teacher, Geli had told me he looked like Jesus, and it's quite true. Also, he's a new father, and was therefore quite tired. Furthermore, he was trying to teach us meiosis. The first twenty minutes of class, we basically got nothing done. However, he was able to explain it well enough. I really like him as a teacher; he's pretty laid back and good at what he does. Also, he gave us ice cream. After class we went shopping. I bought Manfred a copy of Apollo 13 since it's his birthday tomorrow.

Donnerstag: I propose an American adaptation of a German birthday tradition: breakfast this morning was raspberry cheesecake and strawberry angel food cake. Also good was the day. Congregating with the Amis at the train station, we headed out for Tübingen, a smaller college town, also on the Neckar (the river running through Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart), but at a point where it's shallow enough for transportation via gondolas with punts, as in Venice. We toured the city, ate at the University Mensa (cafeteria) and took a ride on one of the boats. I got a lot of pictures and had a bunch of fun. While at the Mensa, I noticed a large display of books selling for a Euro apiece, so I bought two; one is a collection of Goethe's poems, the other a Marxistic introduction to German history. Quite interesting and quite difficult. Earlier that day, I had chatted with the German teacher from St. Charles, mostly about our German curriculum and school and whatnot. Later on, some of the Amis told me that she had been telling their group that they were much better at German than I because they read literature in their classes, and about how much better a teacher she was than whomever I had. They also consistently tagged on the fact that none of them were nearly as good at German as I was, as they could hardly say anything after 3 years, much less understand and converse like I could. The moral of this story is that somebody should tell Mr. Pritschett about this next time they see him. That evening, we went out to a chinese buffet restaurant. The buffet was sort of small but fairly elegant, and there was also a section of raw meats, seafood, and vegetables that one could select from and have a chef prepare.

Freitag: We recieved our standardized math tests back, and I scored a 1,5. That translates roughly to an A- B+, which was fine by me since it was basically an FST final (minus Trig) auf Deutsch and without a calculator. I mean that I didn't have a calculator, whereas most others did. That's one device I wish I had brought with me. In Physik, I found that the 11th graders were a bit ahead of us in Mechanics and whatnot, but that it shouldn't take me too long to catch up. Geschichte was cancelled, and instead we went to Musik, where the teacher split us up into groups to choreograph different parts for the Sharks and the Jets from West Side Story. It was... interesting. I've not much more to say about it. Finally, Englisch, an ideal class to end out the week with.
Coming home, I started on "German History From The Beginning To The Present, A Marxistic Introduction." When it says "the beginning," it really means it; the first thirty pages or so are about neanderthals. I soon fell asleep and napped for maybe two hours. Soon after waking, Geli, her friend Larissa (called Lala), Lala's two Amis, and I went down to the field area I went to on my first Saturday here. It across the river from a bunch of vineyards and is set up for camping and recreation, and its quite beautiful. It was Lala's 16th birthday, so we were throwing a party. We set up there, Lala's mom brought some pretzels and beer, and around 8ish people started showing up. By 10:00, there were maybe 100 if not more. I hooked up with a bunch of the exchange students from St. Charles, although I did chat with others as well. Wherever I went (not just that night but my whole stay), I was complemented on my German. One last night even went so far as to tell me that his picture of Americans had bettered just by talking with me and hearing my German. In another case, the Amis got bored, and started offering free hugs to anyone who walked by. The very first guy they got became extremely interested in our group and practiced his English on varied subjects from basketball to the party we were at. He was quite funny to talk with, but he definately knew his NBA. I'm sure there are a lot of other small tales that will pop into my mind from time to time, but they're really too numerous to recount here. We left the party around 12:30, seeing as Geli had to play tennis at 9:00 the next morning.

Samstag: Slept in. Called my family. And now, checked and updated the blog, also checking other blogs and emails. Its a process that takes quite awhile when one only does it once a week...

Comments from the peanut gallery:
In fact, the girl I quizzed is one of Larissa's Amis. Also, while sitting next to her, a German came by and asked about her. I told him, in German, that she was drunk, and she retorted, "No I'm not, I can understand you." So... if she was coherent enough to understand German at that point, she must not have been totally intoxicated.
Anonymous: wow... I might be the only one who doesn't know who you are.
Noah Wheeler?
I'm truly stumped...
As far as iRiver vs iPod goes, Josh is probably right that I'm not an expert in this field, and indeed I got my recommendation from Sean Switajewski. From what I know, the iPod runs a bit smoother and is more streamlined with its music-playing capabilites, but the iRiver also has a microphone, radio, and pic and text abilites that the iPod doesn't, as well as more mem for a lower price.

Side Note: Germans essentially eat 5 meals a day, once one breaks it down. Theres breakfast, usually slightly smaller than American breakfast. During the large break at school, I eat a sandwich. Around 1:30, earlier if one is home earlier, is lunch, the biggest meal of the day. Oftentimes, this comes with a dessert, usually ice cream, which is much better here than in the USA. I'm counting it as the fourth meal because it can sometimes come a couple hours after lunch. Lastly comes supper, usually late and small, often just a couple open end sandwiches of rolls and meat and cheese.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We're Experiencing Technical Difficulties

The Reinhardts are switching internet companies and something's gone awry, resulting in a lack of internet usage on my part in recent times. I'll try and bring everyone up to speed.

Wednesday: went out to Waldhaus again, this time some of the Amis came. A couple, being 18, put down a few shots of absynth. Not sure on the English spelling, so forgive me.

Thursday: Today I went with the Amis to the Residenzschloss. We got a tour (in English, the Amis don't speak German well at all. Their German teacher with them sure liked to, though, and I marked a number of grammatical mistakes she made) from an English-speaking, charming guide named Wolfram. "Ehh... no, you're not allowed to use the flash, but ifa you take... uh, flash photography, I turn my head, no?" He even brought us down into the wine cellar, which isn't part of the standard tour. One of the girls from the night before got a picture with her mouth open under the spout of one of the barrels, prompting the German teacher to comment:
"Isn't that funny... but you're not 21, so there'll be none of that, sadly." Turning to me, "What are your rules on that? Are you allowed to drink?"
"Yeah."
"Ah. Well, that's Minnesota. No drinking for us. We're from the Bible-belt."
I tried to keep a straight face as I pictured the Amis downing their absynth. Bible-belt. Right.
After school I went and played tennis with Geli. I was able to do some serving but I didn't put on the heat considering she was returning.

Friday: Religion was even better today. We had a free-write time in which groups of 4 or 5 sit around a big piece of paper and write without conversing orally. Quite interesting. Went shopping for the '60s theme party on Saturday... got an outfit for about €25... you'll all have to wait for the pictures, they're pretty good. These pics, by the way, should make their way onto the internet relatively quickly, along with many other shots I've taken. I shrink the shots 5x both horizontally and vertically to make them manageable on a monitor, and also on a dial-up connection, but I keep the photos full size on the computer for when I put them on CDs to bring home. I'm also not going to post every single photo I take, just the real goodies for now. Friday night we didn't go out but rather stayed and watched Rain Man, auf Deutsch, of course. One doesn't realize how excellent a job Dustin Hoffman does until one sees the film without his voice in it.

Saturday: Geli had a tennis tournament. Manfred and I went to watch her, but she got beat 2-6, 2-6. Her team was also beaten. German Vereins field teams of 4 or 6 players, each playing individually a singles match and a doubles match for 6 or 9 points. 4-player teams' tiebreaks are determined by the doubles matches... and I'm not sure how so thereafter. Saturday night we went to Valerie's party. I knew that most of her and Geli's friends would be there, so I brought my camera. Therefore, most of the pics of people that I know are from this party, where most people are dressed in their 60s clothing. Wow. My English is really suffering, I feel. Anyways... the party was fun. They had some 60s music at first, but then went to the conventional stuff that one would hear at prom or Christmas Ball. The party went as follows: from 8 to 10:30ish, the group split into two halves. The first half drank and danced and drank some more, the second half wandered off into the woods across the street from the house. By 10:30, most of the first half were drunk, or at least wiped out, and most of the second half had returned to dance and drink. There were also a few who didn't stop at 10:30 but went on partying with the second shift, and these were the ones that had headaches, or, in a few extreme cases, found themselves throwing up in the gutter around 12:30. Luckily, everyone's quite friendly, and those people were well cared-for. I belonged to a small minority that didn't drink heavily and was able to party/dance until around 11:30, when we found couches and chilled. The absynth-drinking Bible-belters were quite enthralled by all of the alcohol, and one drank quite a bit and hit on me on the dance floor. She felt quite dejected when she was turned down, and we had quite a chat sitting on the couch later. She insisted she wasn't drunk, so I asked her what the capital of Pennsylvania was. She contended that that wasn't standard sobriety testing procedure, and I conceded. She then walked a four-inch wide floorboard fairly well, only stepping off once. She even got the alphabet on the third try. Later, we went back to the state captials, and she did fairly well, getting around 40 right on the first guess, although I penalized her for her insisting that Denver was a state. I don't know whether to count that one under alcohol or sheer stupidity. A select few guests stayed that night, and since I was with Geli, I was one of them. Don't worry, anyone, I was in the livingroom and the girls were in the bedroom. That's my detailed social account, or at least the first.

Sunday: Got up quite early to go to church. To my great surprise, there was a group that played what could be called contemporary music, but by any means it was better than that awful organ. The homily was a presentation done by little children about the Apostles, so I was luckily able to understand much of it. My favorite part was near the end, when the church-school teacher was wrapping the presentation up in telling that the Apostles could all do something.
"Matthew was a tax-collector, so he could read and write. That wasn't common back then. So what are some of the things you all can do well?" She brings the microphone to some child whom I couldn't see.
"I can, for example, play sports very well."
Okay, maybe its not as funny here, but in context, and auf originalem Deutsch, it was quite funny.
We then went over to the Residenzschloss where there was a large exhibition of old-timer autos, ranging from the 1930s to 1970s, most from the 50s and 60s. One car was owned by John Lennon and later by George Harrison. There were also six-door cars, the like of which I'd never seen before. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera along. Later on, Geli's grandma came over, and Manfred, Marina, Frank, his grandma and I went out to a smaller palace built for the duke's mistress, with a nice lake that we walked around. That evening we played cards. Their grandma is quite rascally; I was trying to learn how to play Canasta in German, and I could've sworn she kept trying to cheat. It was probably even funner that way, though.

Finally. Monday, today: The first day that I was supposed to go to a different class. 3rd hour physics, however, was cancelled, so I got to sit through another fun day of Spanisch. In Deutsch we took a test on the book we'd read, Jugend Ohne Gott, which was fairly short but tough, I didn't do well since I didn't understand a couple of the words, but, oh well. In Math, the class began Trigonometry. Unfortunately, this means a lot of drawing triangles and measuring things when I know all the mathematical basics down pat. Mr. Blong (BHS mathematics teacher/ fishing guide extraordinaire) has compared math to reading: at first, you have a lot of pictures. Then, you start to tie these pictures in with sentences. Eventually, you don't even need pictures because you understand the words (equations) so well. To put it in this context, I've read Shakespeare and am now reverting to See Spot Run. Again, oh well. Englisch was another test, which she gave to the Amis (including me - most of the time when I say 'Amis' I'm referring to the St. Charles group). I just hope I did well... I might've slipped up with some grammatical things, but I don't know. There was also a short story and analysis which was quite easy for me. I went back in for Sport, in which we began to play handball. A handball is basically a soccer ball with a 6-inch diameter and more elasticity. The game is played by moving with basketball rules (dribbling, etc.) up and down a court a bit bigger than a basketball court goals at either end about 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide. There's a semi-circle about equal to basketball's three point line into which no one may go other than the goalie. I'm sure there are a ton of other rules, but I don't know them. Because of the size of the gym, American football abilites can be handy, and we practiced throwing long forward passes before playing the game. It was quite fun overall.

Kommentaren:
Parker. I was actually talking about another game, but I do remember that. It was at Bane Park, no? I didn't know you were pitching though. I think I still have that game ball ;P
Anonymous, a little yellow friend who lives in the same area and has been to my house. Likes pudding and has brownish hair. Wow. You could be any of about 50 people.
Jarid Johnson?
Ugh. What grade are you in/ have you graduated?
Stick in there Zoe.
Note to whom it may concern: it would be wonderful if you could do something to help out in the situation with Ms. Uppgaard. There's sadly little I can do from this side of the ocean, so you'll have to pitch in my share for this project.
Dad, don't worry, you can keep posting. I was invited to Boys' State, I think I told you... I probably would've gone, too... School's great, I don't need money for tennis or anything right now, but if you feel compelled to give me money at any time for whatever reason, don't let me stop you.

Thinking about it, some folks might not know those people behind their sign-in names. Here they be.
p "n" k: Parker Kienholz
Broken English: John Valesano
josh: Josh Mattson
emm... i dunno if there are any others or if these even mean anything to too many people. Ah well.
And now a morsel. I'm not entirely sure of international shipping procedures and what's required, but here's what I know:
Jason Houle
Gregor-Mendel-Straße 12
71642 Ludwigsburg

The Bundesland (state) is Baden-Württemburg, country Germany, etc. I don't know how much you need, but there it is.

Fan Mail

Thank you everyone for filling up the comments! Please continue! It's good to know exactly what everyone wants to hear. Firstly:

Monday: After posting, Manfred - that is, (I guess I never clarified) my exchange father, Geli's dad - took me to the Tennisverein. He had a little chat with the club leader of sorts, but it didn't go over so hotly. Turns out I won't be in the club, and that, like other guests, I'll have to pay for use of the sand courts, although Manfred was able to get a well-discounted rate from him. We played for a bit, then went home.

Tuesday: The Amis came. "Ami" is German slang for American; Ludwigsburg has a "sister-city" in Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis called St. Charles. A group of kids in 11th and 12th grade came over, though we didn't see them at the school. A number of kids in Geli's class are hosting partners for their two-week stay. Math and Physics were cancelled today, leaving us open for 1st and 6th hour. Coming home, I read a little bit. Geli invited me to her tennis practice, but it was quite chilly, so I stayed home.

Wednesday, June 8th: I saw my breath walking out to the bus this morning. Reminds me of home, lol. So yes, it has cooled down quite a bit. I'm wearing my long pants and a sweatshirt everyday... We met some of the American students. Turns out they know little to no German whatsoever. I sat next to one during Religion today and he basically just sat and stared the whole hour. Speaking of which, Religion went much better today. There was actually some participation as the teacher asked the class to list (on the board) various purposes and requirements of belief in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. With the Amis also in Chemistry, the teacher felt quite inclined to translate everything again into English, which was fine by me because I can rarely read his handwriting, and when speaking, he uses Chemistry vocabularies that I haven't yet learned.

Manfred talked with some folks and has worked to move me out of French and Spanish. So, I now post the hourly schedule, then my entire schedule as it stands beginning next week:

1st hr - 7:45-8:30
2nd - 8:35-9:20
3 - 9:40 - 10:25
4 - 10:30 - 11:15
5 - 11:25 - 12:10
6 - 12:15 - 13:00
7 - 13:05 - 13:50
8 - 13:55 - 14:40
9 - 14:45 - 15:30
10 - 15:40 - 16:25
11 - 16:30 - 17:15

I'm functioning on military time over here, so you'll have to, too, I guess. On the schedule, the ones with numbers behind them are changes, the numbers signifying the grade of the students in the class; otherwise everything is with Geli's tenth-grade class.

MONTAG
1- Gemeinschaftskunde
2- Deutsch
3- Physik(11) oder Chemie(11) *I switch every week, between11th grade physics and 11th grade chemistry
4- Mathematik
5- Englisch

10-Sport
11-Sport

DIENSTAG
1- Physik
2- Chemie(11)
3- Mathematik(12)
4- Mathematik(12)
5- Chemie(12)
6- Chemie(12)

MITTWOCH
1- Kunst(Art) oder Deutsch
2- Kunst oder Deutsch
3- Mathematik
4- Eigenstudium *This study hall was French, and there were no other classes available.
5- Religion
6- Chemie

11- Biologie

DONNERSTAG
1- Musik
2- Gemeinschaftskunde
3- Mathematik(12)
4- Mathematik(12)
5- Deutsch
6- Geschichte(History)

FREITAG
2- Mathematik
3- Physik(11)
4- Physik(11)
5- Geschichte
6- Englisch

Most of the German here is common sense, but if you're still really lost, don't be afraid to ask.
I had a chat today with Herr Bürkle, the Math and Physics teacher. He said that 12th grade Physics was working on electricity and inductivity, while 11th was working on mechanics. I'd probably fall somewhere close in between, but the schedule works best with 11th grade. The thing that really worries me is Tuesday; I'm hoping I don't get wiped out by all the solid subject class, esp. two two-hour blocks in a row. I'm not sure I'll make the cut for 12th grade Chem either...

On to the comments:
Hmm converting my shot put to American. I'd estimate 23-24 feet on my very second throw ever. I'm not ashamed at all. And, I certainly can throw a baseball. And hit a baseball. During one legit game a few summers back, I went 5 for 5 with a home run and a double.
I haven't gotten to know too many others besides Geli and her friends... I'm fairly limited in the number of Germans I contact every day. I also see her other classmates as well, and I'm sure I'll get to see the Americans plenty. Also, gym classes are divided by sex, and since Geli's class only had three boys before I came (Geli's class opted for a third foreign language over a focus on Math and hard sciences, so it's easy to see why there's such an overwheming female majority) the three and I are grouped with another class. So I've met a few boys there as well. Frank's only 11 and likes to play Yu-Gi-Oh cards and video games with his friends, and Jörg is often away or busy with something, so I'm not around them a lot.
Mass isn't a high point of my week. It's (naturally) all in German, but such that I can hardly understand if at all. The music is also really bad... it's not written for singing, per se, and the organ that accompanies is usually half a measure ahead of the congregation. It's like pulling teeth.
Manfred and Geli are both in the same Tennisverein, which has about eight sand courts, I believe I posted about them earlier. That's the only place in the area to go for tennis, and one has to pay or have a membership to use them. There's no free place to play like in Brainerd. Who knows, maybe Germany isn't really more socialized than America; they just focus on things like health care and secondary education while we socialize tennis courts.
They have a lot of the same TV shows as America, i.e. Desperate Housewives, Spongebob Squarepants, just dubbed. The programming runs the gammot, and I've seen reruns of Full House and other shows like it. Mostly I've been watching the French Open recently. I noticed that the commentator isn't some John McEnroe yammering away a mile-a-minute. I'll attribute that to the difficulty of German grammar.
Anonymous. Lives nearby. Has been to my house. Wow.
Solstad.
Tay.
Josh Woodard?
I dunno, define nearby.
I chose the title because of the obvious similarites between Germany and Wisconsin, namely beer, cheese, and liberals.
Maybe my heart is growing fonder for home, or your hearts are growing fonder for me? I don't know. Really, I'd have to say the only two things I hate about Germany are the cigarettes and the milk. The cigarettes, I'm sure I've elaborated upon, are everywhere, and smoking is legal at 16. The milk... well, it's not what I'm used to. It's not really refrigerated either, so it's not exactly cold, per se. Ah well.
I'll try to pop in more details as I go, especially at the social events rather than necessarily school. Also, we're pending some internet adjustments, which could drastically change the photo situation for the better.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I'll keep that as my claim to not posting in three or so days. Seriously, though, I'm fairly busy doing stuff. So that's cool.

Saturday night we decided to head back to Waldhaus, the club I'd gone to on my first night here. I believe I called it Waldclub earlier, just to clarify. Unfortunately, it was really slow and boring, and Geli was tired so we left early.

Sunday we got up and Geli and I went to church. It's a fairly old structure and kind of reminds me of St. Francis. They have a big banner hung up advertising World Youth Day - Weltjugendtag. After church we walked over to the Residenzschloss, the largest of the three palaces in Ludwigsburg, with extensive gardens. We met Geli's mother, brother, and grandmother there, and went walking and had a small brunch. After this we picked up Jörg and went to Burger King. It's definately different from BKs in America. They offer not only french fries but "country potatoes" as well, and it's really only "fast food" by comparison to a sit down restaurant. Following this, we went to watch Manfred play in a tennis tournament. We arrived just as he was coming back in his thrid set from a 5-2, 15-40 deficit to win in a tiebreak. It was quite exciting. We went home and I set back to reading Jugend Ohne Gott, which I had stopped reading for a period because I was lazy.

Monday (today): back to school, and though I didn't have to go in until 9:30ish I went at 7:45 start time in order to write the final big standardized test with the rest of the class, this one in my best subject: Math. It was fairly easy, which is good since I didn't have a calculator. I hope they'll accept 3.14 for pi... actually, that's a lie. I really don't care much about the results of that test... there was one question which I guessed at a word, and guessed wrongly, thinking it was giving the height of a cone when really it gave the length along the diagonal edge. Furthermore, I was pretty stumped on one exponential growth question. But it's no big deal. The math test took up the first to hours of the school day. We then had GK, in which the teacher went over a big test the class had taken. Geli and Valerie told me how anal this guy was, pointing out the markings he made when he awarded or subtracted quarter points.
I case I haven't mentioned this, Valerie is Geli's best friend, and they do almost everything together, so I'm getting to know her pretty well. On Friday we're celebrating her 16th birthday, quite a big thing with girls over here, with a '60s themed party. It should be fun, but I'll need somethingt to wear...
Back to Monday. After GK we had Spanisch, i.e. reading time for me. Following this was Englisch, in which the teacher presented me that e-mail, you know, that one, in which there are a bunch of sentences using homonyms in English (we polish the Polish furniture). She had me read it. Fairly difficult. We all had a good laugh. I think I need to write an essay though. Darn. 150 words on some Isaac Asimov story.
That's one very impressive thing about the kids here. English is their third language and they're reading some Isaac Asimov stuff. Granted, its not his best stuff. It was a short story about robotic teachers. But I'd have to say that they are still a bit beyond the level that Deutsch 4 is operating at. It was only fifth hour, but it was the last; Geli has no sixth hour on Monday.
Coming home, we had Maultaschen, literally "mouth pockets," very delicious Swabian pasta filled with delicious stuff. Manfred also informed me that he'd arranged to move me out of Spanish and French and into 12th grade math, 11th grade physics, and 11th grade chemistry. Unlike us, their Naturwissenschaften (hard sciences) are spread out over years. However, they also have less of them. Geli's had one hour of physics a week since 8th grade. I had five hours of physics a week for only one year. It was still interesting to note that Manfred bumped me up into 11th grade physics when I haven't yet had a look at what they're doing in 10th. Ah well... worse comes to worse, I'll grin and bear it and (hopefully) learn something for my AP Physics class next year. At least it'll beat Französich und Spanisch.
Here's something: For those of you envying the schoolday ending at 12:15, I was back in at 2:00 for two hours of gym class. As I've mentioned before, the gym classes here are much broader in scope than those back in America. Another intersting note is that grading is not based on participation as it is back in the States. One must do more than show up dressed for class to receive an A. A lot more. And if you don't get an A in gym because, I don't know, you're out of shape, c'est la vie. That's not German, so I won't translate it. We began with a short run, then split into groups. My group got to run some more, for twelve minutes actually, around the gym. While running, I heard the gym teacher say "Drei Minuten" (three minutes), so I decided to load on a little extra fuel that I had. About four minutes later, I was beginning to doubt that that was exactly what he'd said. I started to exhaust, then heard him say, clearly, "Vier Minuten noch" (four minutes left). All in all, he marked me at 2700 m in 12 minutes, not bad for being a big fat American hamburger. After we got drinks, my group played baskteball. I was glad to be one of the few more-experienced ones in the group. And also being tall helped. We then switched with the other group and did what they had been doing: Kügelstoßen: shot put. Basically, here's how it goes: I've never put before in my life. I was lucky enough, though, to put my second shot about 7 meters or so, not bad. I did notice on his sheet, though, that with the smaller shot (4kg), a put of over 11m was required for an A. Significantly more than putting on shorts and a T-shirt... Luckily, I wasn't graded, specifically since the others have been doing this about a month.

Comments and Concerns:
Yes, I've plenty of deoderant. Usually apply it twice a day. No, I don't really ask them to talk German, largely since the few that speak English are quite bull-headed anyways. I do help, sure. I'm not really doing much besides tennis and gym class. I'm not even really sure that I'll do tennis, since Manfred told me that it could be somewhat difficult to integrate me with so little Verein experience, and for so short a time. I'm going there briefly, so we'll see about that.
Anonymous nerd-caller:
Mother.
Father.
Zoe.
Matt.
If not one of those, give me more clues, and I'll keep guessing.

Something German for y'all then... Although it's called Mineralwasser, the only "mineral" in it is CO2. Often also more aptly called Sprüdeln, "bubbles," Germans love to add carbonation to their water. It took me a bit to get used to it, and a strong downside is that it can't be well-refrigerated, so it's not really cold, but it's fine by me now.

Would a Houle by any other name still smell as... well...

Safe to say, I'm only showering every other day (at best) over here. And thats the norm. This European trip has given me a welcome opportunity to relax my strict American hygenic habits. :P

Friday was the primary foreign language test. I didn't show up at school until 9:30. We then had Religion, my first day thereof. It was really poor and dry and sadly reminded me of our Wednesday night church class. We just watched a video, naturally in German, about "belief." It was interesting because at every pause they would insert a clip of instrumental from the song "What If God Was One Of Us." Oh man. I was able to understand it, but it won't be something I'll look forward to. After this was Chemistry, also new. Basically, the teacher taught the children stuff I already knew, felt compelled to translate most of it for me, and then whipped up some horribly stinking concoctions like Ammoniak (I think that one's fairly common sense) and sulfur dihydrogen. Or something like that. That night Geli's friend Lala came over to watch some movies. It was storming out. We watched, dubbed in German, "Life As A House," which is interesting and also stars Hayden Christensen of Star Wars fame. Afterwards, we watched "Secret Window," Stephen King thriller turned movie starring Johnny Depp. I fell asleep halfway through.

Saturday. Not much, really. I called meine Familie and Manfred took me up to the only mountain in the area. Not even really a "mountain" per se, but it was a good vantage for the crowded German countryside.

Jeff - already tried the beer, thanks. Not bad.
Whoever called whomever a nerd, I'll just say that I don't know who you are, nor even if you're talking to me.
I really don't know if I want to give you guys my address. Even if I did, shipping costs to Europe are crazy high, and that's the only thing I could think you'd want it for.

Wow. Theres this sign really close to the house. I've walked by it a few times in German-mode and just read 'loading zone,' never realizing until now the serious implications at BHS of a sign that says, literally, "LADE-ZONE."

There and Back Again: A Houle's Tale

In response, first, to your comments:
SAT changed, I believe they made it more like the ACT with more grammar and sentence structure and whatnot and no analogies. I'm not sure exactly what else.
The classes are going fine, actually. At least the ones I can understand are. In German, we're reading a book, Jugend Ohne Gott (Youth without God), also by Ödön von Horváth, the one who wrote the play, and I'm understanding it quite well. It's fairly interesting and its cool to be able to read real German literature and not some synapsis or watered-down summary that Herr P gives us.
Math is going really easy, the only trick is the vocabulary. The notation is also a bit screwy, since they flip their commas and decimal points from how we would use them. 4,527.893 would be 4.527,893. Therefore, their coordinates are also odd, and each point always has a name, such as P(8/-3) for what we'd just call (8, -3).
English is pretty fun and really easy. There's also a class called Geschichts Kunde which is a social science, sort of a conglomerate sociology/civics course of some sort. That's probably the hardest. Also, we've missed a lot of classes this week because of various reasons, so I haven't hit any of the hard sciences, religion, or gym class. There's still a bit for me to experience, so I'll try and keep everyone updated.
Speaking of which, tying into Chris's post and my update, I had, for the first time today, Geschichte, History class. I'd said I'd had it on Monday, but that was actually GK. The History teacher is really weird and felt like talking to me in English the whole time. I mostly didn't feel like telling him not to, but I tried to answer in German.

"How do you like Germany?"
"Gut."
"What do you hate the most?"
"Emm... Hate the most?" He'd phrased that one weirdly, but nodded at my question. "Zigarretten."
"Ah. Hate the cigarettes, smoke cigars then. Have you tried the beer?"
"Ja."
"Gotten drunk?"
"Uh, no."
"You should try more beer then."
Laughter from the class.
"Do you like these pretty German girls then?"
"Uh. Yeah."
"Fancy one yet?"
"Uhhhhh..."
"Not yet, I'm sure Angelika can help you with that."

He's really a weird guy.
That's pretty much all that was eventful today.

Housekeeping

I see now that I really didn't clarify much about the school system from what I explained in the last post. There are a few classes, but their occurences are scattered over the week haphazardly. Each day is different. Each class is about 45 minutes, and there are usually six classes, although some days also include afternoon classes. School is usually let out before 1:00, lunch is not provided, then with afternoon classes, students return for two hours at about 4:30, twice a week in Geli's case. All sports and activites are done not through the school but through specialized Vereins, clubs such as the Tennisverein which organizes tournaments not only for students but for adults as well. There are sports classes in school, though, and they are much more broad than American sports classes and tend to focus actually on (gasp!) education rather than just throwing balls at people, i.e. the boys in Geli's class are currently learning shot put, while the girls are working on gymnastics.

Also about this blog. I see that I've just totally screwed up and deleted the post with all the comments on it rather than the copy without. Sorry, everyone. I did read all of them beforehand, though.
There have also been some questions about how to comment. At the bottom of the post are a couple things. On the left is 'posted by Houley @ etc...' Over on the right is an underlined portion that tells the number of comments. Clicking on this will bring you to the comments section where you can post a comment directly to the blog. To the right of that is a small envelope symbol, which will allow you to send a comment to my hotmail account. I would strongly prefer comments posted to the blog since that's much easier for me. Remember to sign your name, please and thanks.

One more thing- not really Germany BUT it is important to me and I know people will want to know, SO
SAT results:
Critical Reading - 800
Math - 780
Writing - 740
Multiple Choice - 70
Essay - 12
(Each section is out of 800. Writing is derived from the two scores below it: MC is from 80, and the Essay is from 12. Total points possible on the new SAT:2400)
My total: 2320

It's not a "36" but I'm pleased with the results.

Now on to what you really came here for: The German Adventure.
Tuesday morning Geli had a big standardized test of German skills. The test took 2 1/2 hours in the morning so i didn't have to be in until 10:30. They had 150 minutes to write on one of their choice of 4 topics. Definately no AP Lit test (3 essays, 2hrs vs. 1 essay, 2.5hrs) but they're tenth graders, and besides, German grammar is way tougher than English grammar. We only had two hours of Math and one of French, so it was a really easy day for me. There are two more standardized tests they need to take, one in their main foreign language (English or French - surprisingly Geli's is French!) on Friday and one in Math on Monday, I believe. Or Tuesday. Who knows.
That evening we went into Stuttgart with the German class to watch a play by Ödön von Horváth called Glaube Liebe Hoffnung (can't exactly translate it, but something about belief, love, and hope). Naturally, it was all in German, and, being the fine theater it was, I was pretty much lost. I could only watch what happened on stage. Probably the most confusing thing I've ever experienced. There were these planks in water, half the time this guy wasn't wearing pants, there were doors and ladders all over... To compliment this, someone in the row behind me nearly died. At least, there was a small commotion, I heard someone swear, and someone ask if there was a doctor around. I guess one of a group of little old ladies had her head lolled back and her girlfriends couldn't feel her pulse. I think she eventually just woke up, but all I know for certain is that she didn't die - at least not in the theater.

Today - Wednesday, that is - we were excused from the first two hours (German) because of the play the night before. We went for Math and French again, then were excused from Religion and Chemistry to watch a presentation on water. Using an elaborate set-up of slide projectors, the group that put it on nearly succeeded in putting me to sleep. They also followed the presentation with a discussion leading to the fact that an American uses, on average, twice as much water as a European. For some reason, we were also excused from our afternoon classes of Spanish and Biology, so Geli and I went back into Ludwigsburg, met up with her friend Valerie, and wandered through shops, an ice cream parlor, and the 'Beach Bar' (outdoors, complete with sand volleyball) before finding our way to a park. Ludwigsburg is really a cool place.

Parker Kienholz, if you knew this, I certainly tip my hat to you. Making German headlines recently is the story of a group of Germans that had taken an Urlaub (vacation) to Turkey. Whilst they were there, their airline (Interflug, I believe) went bankrupt, stranding them there far from home. I'm not entirely sure how they're getting back or who's paying for what, but I found it to be quite an interesting story.