Class trip to Bochum

…was amazing.  And exhausting.  The class I went with, a group of 9^th graders, was literally the nicest group of kids I’ve ever met.  They were not only really well behaved, they were also totally welcoming of me.  I’m super excited to see them again next week!  Susanne is going to have me spend a few days next week just going to a bunch of different classes with different grade levels, so I can get a feel for the German Gymnasium system, and it sounds like Monday I’ll be following their class around. 

The class also seemed quite engaged with the various activities they encountered, more so than I remember my high-school classes being on field trips.  We had a few tours at various places, and the kids were all really excited to talk, answer questions, and even ask their own questions.  On the other side, they seemed far more chatter-y than a group of American students would have been (or, a group of US students that talkative would have been reprimanded by their teachers I think).  However, I think I’ve heard that that’s quite normal of German students, although I wonder how I’ll feel teaching with all that background noise going on. 

As for the exhausting part: one, I’m a horrible traveler, and 4 days of going non-stop in tourist-y mode really did me in.  We saw some really interesting stuff – the Bergbau (mining) Museum, Starlight-Express (a musical on rollerblades), the Duisburg harbor, the largest inland harbor in Europe, etc – and some less fascinating stuff.  Two: I think the most exhausting part was just speaking German the whole time – I forgot how much energy it takes to go through the day when you have to focus so hard on what everyone is saying, even when they’re saying simple and pretty much inconsequential stuff.  I’m very much looking forward to my German improving to the point where I can get through the day without desperately wanting a nap!

A “side-effect” of the trip was that we spent a lot of time driving around to get to these various places, and of course time on the Autobahn getting from Blomberg to the Ruhrgebiet and back again.  That, in conjunction with being driven around by some of the teachers from the schools, has led to the following series of observations about car transport in Germany:

1.     The buttons for radio and whatnot inside of cars are all in English – even in German-made cars like Porsche and VW.

2.     I’ve mentioned this before, but there is no yellow centerline on German roads.  I have NO IDEA how these people stay on the right side of things.  I find that and the signage all very confusing and not-intuitive, but they keep telling me “it’s just what you’re used to.”

3.     There lights turn from red to yellow to green like ours, but then briefly back to yellow before going green again.  Kinda cool, although the first time it happened and we started to move I thought we were about to run a red light and die in a horrible accident or something.

4.     I’ve seen three pick-up trucks here so far.  Those and the sight of cornfields on the way from Blomberg to Detmold give me the most homesickness.  Weird, no?

5.     Freeways.  Holy smokes.  Now I love freeways in the U.S. – I love how intuitive everything is, how you can just follow the signs north or west or east or south and pretty much end up where you need to be.  German freeways are NOT like that (in my opinion).  First off: while our freeway system makes lovely sense, with interstate numbers increasing as you move from west to east, and from south to north, the German system does not do anything similarly sensible.  Nor is there that distinction between 2-digit interstates and 3-digit local freeways – although this may be due to the extremely small size of Germany, I suppose??  But, most mind-boggling, is the fact that freeway signs do not tell you if you’re going N/S/E/W!!!! The exit signs will show the splits in a “go left gets you to Bochum, go right gets you to Essen” sense but not in a “this is north” and “this is south” sense.  It was driving me crazy all week! I had no idea where I was going…However, German freeways, just like those in the US, are even numbered when they run E-W and odd numbered when they run N-S.  Or so I’m told, I still have to check on that one.

Saturday I finally figured out who the other English Teaching Assistants in Detmold are – there are two girls from Great Britain and one guy from Ireland.  It’s amazing to me how many foreign language assistants Germany brings in each year!

My final note for the day is that Germans walk so damn fast, everywhere, that I genuinely get cramps when walking around with them.  Awkward, no?  The pace is so weirdly quick I think I’d prefer to jog to keep up with them.