Samstag, 26. September 2009

School, School, School

Hey guys,
I know, I haven't written for ages (I was shocked myself how long it was!!)- shame on me!
So know I'm going to tell you everything!
My first two and a half weeks are behind me. I was very nervous about my first day in school. We went there together and all of us wanted to go back home. But I was not the only one who was nervous and I wasn't the only new one. There were all these freshmen and all the exchange students which made me feel better. Zee Zee and I have Homeroom together, so we went together to room 405A (thats my homeroom and english class) and everyone was talking and walking around. We were sitting down on two tables next to each other and it seemed like noone really cared about us. Then the other kids went to a table and took something out of a brown bag. So I was like come on lets go there and see what there is. Locks for our lockers. We could choose a locker and then put on the lock (the combination was on a little tag on the lock). Zee Zee and I didn't really know what to do were to which locker to pick and the most difficult thing; how to open the stupid lock!!! So Ms Burns (our Homeroom and English teacher) provided us two nice boys to get the whole locker thing.
At first I had a lot of problems opening my locker or rather I couldn't open my locker on my own. zee zee by the way had even more problems, because some days later I could do it on my own and she still couldn't do it. Fortunately Diana could help me with my locker most of the time. Now aaaall of us can do it (except from my locker in the gym changing room- i forgot my combination...).
Homeroom on the first day was a whole period (usually it's just 5 minutes). However we didn't really do anything during this time.
Then I had my first class (which was then called period one, they had changed the entire schedule for the two days, the times and everything, it was completely confusing and not got for getting used to the school schedule!). My first class was Geometry. I came into the room and (like I did from then on in every new class) scanning the room, not for hot guys, no just for nice looking people especially nice looking girls. So I sat down next to a girl who looked pretty nice to me. She was a freshmen (what surprised me, but I'm always surprised when I asked somebody in which grade they are. Some people look very young and they are seniors or they look grown up and they are sophmores...You never know). She was a freshmen and s nervous as I was. And some other nice girsl were coming to the table, but not for long. Some teachers place their students in alphabetical order, so 'bye bye, new friends and hello strange looking kids'. I wasn't really happy about that (it happened in Geometry, US-History and Spanish), but this whole experience is about arranging with new situations! Now I sit together on a group table (actually it's three single tables standing together) with Brian and Anold ( I bet i wrote their names wrong...). We are doing a lot of group work. We learn 'habits of mind'. The teacher (Mrs Martin by the way) gave us an expectation sheet, like every teacher. And he has a homework blog. Isn't that cool? My US-History teacher Ms Scharf also has a blog and a wiki. I really like how committed the teachers are and they use a lot of media.
At first I wasn't sure if I wanna stay in my Geometry class, because the first homeworks were finding equations for some problems and I had my problems with that. Now it's fine and we're doing fun stuff; drawing- no, excuse me, CONSTRUCTING! (there's a big difference) triangles, circles, squares and stuff like that. We are getting used to construction tools and everytime Mrs Martin is looking at our homework she praises mine. That's nice after the last year when I was told a '4' would be standard in math. Still thanks a lot Mr Stegemann, I can still laugh about that!!!
Our first Homework was decoding a message and the message said something like 'Welcome to Geometry I hope you enjoy the class...' and we should tell her something about ourselves regarding math. I told her about my not so much fun last year..., but not in detail...
My next class was art. The teacher, Mr Moore is an artist. He said 'When you come into this room its not a classroom it's an art studio!' I think thats speaks pretty much for itself. That day we went outside, sit down in the court yard drawing some leaves (but it had to be an odd number of leaves, why? I have no idea). It was really nice and warm at that day (ok it's almost everyday very nice and warm even though it's fall). So I could really spend my whole day drawing outside!!
After Art it was time for my first spanish lesson! Hola, Mr Eladhari! ( We didn't learn that at the first day, we just got our books and he told us his expectations-wiiiith his expectations sheet).
Whe we can't say his name, we can also call him Mr E. He is really nice and the funny thing about him is when he wants to make sure that we understood him he says 'mkay' and he says that about a thousand times a day I guess :D (for people who don't start laughing now, a teacher in southpark says 'mkay' after almost every sentence).
Then PE. Everyone seems to hate PE - at least I heard that from a lot of people. Actually I think it's fun. We have a gym in our school ('ein güm, was is denn ein güm-achsooo') and we can do whatever we want bike, treadmill...I think that's cool and much better than our school sport!!
But for the first two days (even though we brought our PE clothes everyday) we were not supposed to do anything.
Luuuunch time. What made me unbelievable happy, because I was starving! And guys I have 3rd Lunch almost everyday except frm two days these days I hae 2nd lunch. The first days in school I ws really starving. I think I could really figure a way out how to be NOT hungry in school. The thing is it's not like in our school where you can drink and eat everywhere in every break. Here is no food and drink except from water allowedout o the cafeteria. That's why I have a big war breakfast everymorning (tofu sausages, pancakes, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, farmersbreakfast (Bauernfrühstück mit Kartoffeln und Zwiebeln). All these things that feed me. And I'm making these things the day before and warm it up in the microwave the next morning. In school I'm drinking a lot of water (in the first two periods I have mostly drunken 1 liter already). Thats why I'm constantly running to the bathroom. But asking to go the bathroom is very common here, in Germany most of the teachers are like 'You aren't in elemantary school you can wai until the bell rings. When the bell rings here you have just 3 or 4 minutes to the next period, sometimes it's even not enough time to go to the next classroom, because it's in the other building. Additionally I have milkshakes in school which fill me up pretty good.

Mittwoch, 9. September 2009

Last words in freedom!

I catched that my school system is a bit confusing for you and not less than for me! So I'm trying to explain "Home Room" better. You could also say it's like a "Vertretungsplan-meeting" every morning before the lessons start (from 8.00-8.05) that might explain it best. (Thanks to Alex!) And my school letter days!? Theres is "M", "T", "W", H, "F", "S" and "U". The letters do not stand as a capital letter for the days of the week! They are the capital letters for things around Arlington ("H" is for "Heights" e.g.). Every of these days has a different schedule:
1 2 3 4 5 6
M: Geometry Art Spanish PE Multicultural Literature Physics

T: US-History Geometry Spanish PE Physics Multic. Literature

W: Art US-History Spanish PE Multic. Literature Physics

H: Geometry Art US-History Physics Multic. Literature

F: Art Geometry Spanish US-History Multic. Literature Physics

S: Geometry Art Spanish STUDY US-History Literature

U: Art Geometry Spanish Physics US-History

So now you know my schedule! And the subjects are moving. Did you see that? Now we are moving an to other things! I told you about Raspberry picking, didn't I? And this is what we did with the raspberries (ok, there are still a lot in the freezer)
My delicious Raspberry Pie!!!

And I had my great grocery store experience! Not just Stop&Shop, Whole Foods! I can tell you in comparison to Whole Foods every German supermarket looks like after the II. WW!!



and of course I had to take a picture of the POPEYE Spinach! But in fact I took all of these pictures illegal...(A woman came to me and told me it's not allowed to take pictures from the supermarket...so shht!!!)
I also so a mall from inside on the last Sunday (isn't it cool, that shops aren't closed on Sundays!?)! I bought a lot...But I needed all of that stuff for PE(shorts, sneakers, t-shirts), or for winter (boots) and the second season of Gossip Girl...
Ok tomorrow is my first school day, so these were my last words in freedom ;)
Wish me luck!!



Samstag, 5. September 2009

Welcome to the IHOP!

No, it's not the famous American pancake restaurant chain.
It's the International House Of Phyllis! Now everyone arrived after some trouble, but I'll tell you about that later.
When Seung-Jung arrived we had no truoble. We picked her up at the airport. Back at home we had a distribution of presents. I gave her a "Munich" -bag and she gave me a CD from a Korean singer! I like it, though I don't understand it (but sometimes he sings English :))
First I'll tell you about my registration at school, which was last Wednesday. (I know, I was a bit lazy with blogging...) We came to school (at 11 o' clock, I guess we've been the last ones going to registration!) and had to complete some forms. After a little while we went to the principal and chose our subjects! I really like my schedule! It's so relaxed in comparison with Germany. We have 14(?!) subjects and now I have 7: US-History, Multicultural Literature (its english), Spanish, Art, PE, Physics and Geometry (I had to choose a math class...). PE(Physical Education) will be really cool, because we have a gym in our school! The principal gave us a tour through the school. And I'm telling you the school is huge!! There are 1200 pupils in the school. I hope I'll find my classrooms and go to lunch at the right time. All of that is very confusing!!! The schedule is not the same everyday, it changes. And when you have PE class then they don't want you to eat before that and do sport full. So on these day you go to lunch at a different time! Before school starts we have home room. It takes about 5 minutes and they are telling you what there will be on that day, if a teacher is ill for example.
But the most confusing thing is they have some kind of letter system. There are seven letters for seven different school days (with different schedules), but the letters do not depend on the days of the week. I hope I'll find out how that work...
Oh I almost forgot to tell I'M A SENIOR! Even so everyone told me, because of my age and class I would go in Germany I'd be in junior class, but the principal said "Oh, you are going to senior class! You will make that" Ok, I did not disagree...

So lats get back to the IHOP (it's our little joke about our multicultural house). My other exchange sister Zhijing should arrive on Thusday at 23:30, but she didn't. A man had a heart attack in the plane and they had to land in Alaska. She spend the night there and arrived the next day and came to our house at 10 am.This is me and Zhijing ("Ze" or "Zeze")!
This is me and Diana (Seung-Jung, we are calling her Diana because it's easier for us)! Diana is from Korea and Zhijing is from China.
Today we've been to a Korean supermarket and Diana was really happy about it. She felt like dancing!! ;)