As always, the day began with the normal preparations for the day and breakfast. Then, we made our way by bus, car, or foot to the gymnasium. The day began with English class. We were split into three groups. One group went to an 11th grade class, one went to another 11th grade class, and one went to an 8th grade class. We were there to help the German students since we are, of course, native speakers. In my class, the German students interviewed the Americans and then reported their findings to the class in English. We also had to unscramble a series of American history events into chronological order. The last task was to assist the students with their homework. They were learning about adjectives and adverbs and also American culture and patriotism.
After English, special classes just for the American´s began. The first lesson was chemistry. We made our own butter and then spread it on some freshly baked German bread. It wasn´t always easy to follow a recipe in German, but somehow we made it through. Although, some made it through faster than others. My butter seemed to take a lot more churning than anyone else´s to finally solidify. Regardless, it was a delicious snack.
Next, we had Russian. For most of us, it was our first experience with the language. The teacher began by showing us how our names are written in Russian. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, so it looked more like gibberish than actual writing. The teacher also taught us how to tell our age and what our name is. It took a while for us to grasp the rather strange pronunciation, but by the end we were reasonably well trained. The rest of the lesson was spent showing us all the characters of the Cyrillic alphabet, the pronunciations of numbers one through seventeen, and singing Frere Jacques in four different languages: English, French, German, and Russian.
After Russian, we had astronomy. This lesson was just about entirely in German. It was a little hard to get all the details, but it was still very interesting. He began by giving us an envelope containing slips of paper with the constellations´ names in both English and German. We had to try to match them up. Some were simple cognates, but others were trickier. Next, the teacher talked about the horribly unfortunate loss of Pluto´s planetary status. He said he felt sorry that a planet discovered by an American had to be demoted. We concluded the lesson by labeling a German star chart.
The final class was German. We began with a fun German song that is actually more like a game. As you sing each verse you have to remove the last letter from a frequently sung word. So Wanze becomes Wanz and then Wan and then Wa and then W and then _. If you ever pronounce more of the word then you are supposed to you are out. It was a lot of fun. The next part of the lesson was spent interpreting the poem Erlkönig by Goethe. She began by setting us up with the setting and characters. Then we read and translated. As w read, she had removed words from the ends of lines and we had to fill them in (harder than it sounds). It was a very fun class.
After school, I went with my family to Kaufland: the German equivalent of Walmart. It is very similar to Walmart except it only sells groceries and other basic goods. That means no clothes, tools, electronics, or home furnishings. To use a cart, you had to make a deposit. If you returned the cart, you got the money back. That was very different. Another huge difference was the recycling room. Just beyond the entrance, there was a large room full of plastic and glass bottles. If you bring your bottles back to Kaufland you can get money off of your next purchase. It´s a cool way to encourage recycling. Beyond that Kaufland was similar to an American grocery store.
For dinner, we went to a beach themed restaurant called Tolle Knolle. I must admit it was a little strange seeing a beach themed restaurant in Germany, but they went all out. The ground was sand covered and they had palm trees, surf boards, and a little cabana bar. It was pretty cool and a fun restaurant. Despite the theme, though, I ordered a Thuringen (the German state in which Pößneck is located) specialty. It was beef rolled around a vegetable filling, red cabbage, and a sort of baked potato. The potatoes were cooked and then shredded and then put back together in a sphere. It seemed like a lot of work just to make something very similar to a baked potato, but I´m just an American. It was all delicious.
After dinner, I finished the night at a little get together at one of the German´s gardens. It was a lot of fun. We played some ping pong, talked, laughed, sang some songs with a guitar, and instead of roasting marshmallows we roasted bread over a fire. They had this sweet dough that you wrapped around a stick and then you can bake it over the fire. It was pretty cool. It was a gret way to finish a great day.
Zachary Grewe
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