Hack & Lack

So last Saturday there was a giant graffiti festival in Minden, called Hack & Lack. No idea why, it just is. The local youth center, the Anne-Frank-Haus, (yes, that Anne Frank, no she didn't live here; I asked) builds a bunch of walls each year, including a replica Regional Bahn car, for people to spray paint and they let them spray pretty much anything on the grounds. It's the largest festival of its kind in Germany and there were spray painters, artists really, from all over Germany. I met one guy from Berlin and heard of another one from Köln. The stuff was really really good and the atmosphere was cool too. It was set up around a large field and there was a DJ in the middle and of course tons of aerosol in the air.

Not a real train car

 I went with my host sister and hung with her friends for a spell, but there were some kids from my grade there as well and I talked to them too. Got some contacts for my fancy new smartphone!(sometimes playing dumb and language skill impaired with salesmen works to your advantage) They'd found a new six year old friend named Mehmet, who was rather skilled at spray painting apparently. There was a kids section where they could have fun spraying cardboard sheets and stuff however they wanted. But Mehmet was a cool character and loved the attention, consequently he wanted to 'tag' us all.

And 'tag' he did!

This reminded me a bit of hipster Richmond a bit; the whole abnormal art. But it takes talent and I really liked most of it. There were a few that I would look at for five minutes and suddenly see the words that were there. It's crazy. Go to my Flickr and check out some more of the pictures I took!

A couple other observations from the evening. I'm spreading the word "swag" around the world and explaining hip hop lyrics more than I thought I would.

One girl from the next town over, who I was talking to, initially thought that I was from Denmark because of how I was talking. Apparently I speak German with a Danish accent? I got that a lot in Bad Laasphe too, "Which country are you from?" I think its funny.

My personal favorite

P.S. All these pictures were taken on my fancy new German cell phone!

Die Schule fängt an!

So I finally started school. Granted it was two weeks ago, but better late than never, right? In any event, the first day for me was a bit of a misfire. My host mom, my sisters and I all drove to the Gymnasium on the first day because my host mom and I needed to set up my schedule, which was great.

We set up my schedule after the 2nd period, when everyone else in Grade 12 got their schedule, and it just turned out that I didn't have class in periods 3 and 4. It also turns out that school ends after period 4 on the first day; so I didn't have school on the first day of school. Would have been great in the US, but I'd have preferred getting to know people. Despite it all, I did have the chance the next day, so it's all good.

Because I'm so "old", the school decided to put me in the 12th grade, so I'd be with people closer to my age. Thing is, that's an Abi-year. Which means that in April/May they'll take the Abitur, which (when mathematically merged with their grades) determines which universities they can go to and which jobs they'll be allowed to pursue. So it's a big deal. Naturally the work is harder and the teachers are stricter in order to best prepare them. They also don't have school after the Abitur. All this is well and good for them and they've prepared for years for it. Ich nicht.

On the one hand, I may be intelligent and my German may be good but passing the Abitur is not something I will ever have to worry about and I still need to be in school through May and June. So at the end of the second day (during which I suffered through essentially a DBQ, for those who know what that is, on Hitler's rise to power. All in German) I switched down to the 11th grade. Awesome decision.

I don't know if I was in a better mood, or if the teachers were in a better mood, or what, but things are just seemed better in the 11th grade. It was also a bit easier, to be honest.

And since I'd been there for three days by then, the teachers were finally aware that I was going to be coming and in their class.

"So you're the exchange student. They tell me you speak good German."

"Yeah, I am. And that's what I've been told."

"Good. So you'll be taking tests and everything."

"Yup!"

History was also pretty great because we are starting with the Revolutionary Period (France /America/ Glorious Revolution) about which, as an American, I've learned quite a bit. So I had an idea of what was going on. Math too, because this is my third year learning derivatives and their first, so I can focus on the German, not the math. English was just cool.

But in all honesty, I do undersand the vast majority of what's going on and can participate. I do know for a fact though, that my grammar is atrocious. But what am I going to do, not talk? Philosophie doesn't make sense to me in English and my classmates said its kind of dull to fluent German speakers too, but I still wish I knew more of what was going on. After two classes, I've figured out that we're talking about egotism and whether it's behind all of our decision or not, and if altruism is real or not.

Beyond the language and the classes, the people are really nice. I think it helps that my school has a healthy exchange culture. I am by far not the first exchange student, even for year long programs, and there are people who have spent years in America, Peru, and Italy. I've noticed they're among the first to come up and say hello. But there are so many great people, I'm going to have no trouble making friends.

Sorry for the smudges!

 So a brief translation: Fach = subject, Raum = room. Words at the top are days of the week.
For the classes:
D = Deutsch (German/Literature)
Ge = Geschichte (History)
(^Those two are my "important" classes and I have 5 hours each week of them, rather than 3)
Ch = Chemie (Chemistry)

Bi = Biologie (Biology)
Ek = Erdkunde (Geography)
Ku = Kunst (Art)
Pl = Philosophie (Philosophy)
M = Mathe (Math)
E = Englisch (English)
Sp = Sport (Gym)

When there isn't any more school, I can go home; and when there isn't any morning class, I don't have to come!

One last thing. Even though people keep telling me my German is great and it is, to an extent, true. I can hold conversations and such. But I rely heavily on context clues and intuition for it. I respond not with what I want to say, but with what I know how to say. There is a large difference. When I read things, like the back of a shampoo bottle, I find myself able to understand the French more than the German simply because there are so many more cognates (plus the minuscule amount of grammar I know). I still have much left to learn and more than enough time for it!

Unterwegs in Minden

So life is slowly starting to find a rhythm and I'm diving into German life. 

One of the streets in the Minden city center

The first or second day I was here, we had to go in to town so that I could register with the town hall as a resident and what not and then go back the next day to register with the federal government for my official visa card and the like. Fingerprinted for the first time! But while we were in the city center I went school supply shopping with my host mom and sisters.

Got a couple of notebooks and some folder type things. Odd note, the hole-punching system is completely different here. In the US we have thee more or less equidistant holes, but in Europe there are almost always 4 holes in the paper, but there only need to be two prongs to set it in. I also needed a bathing suit, because I completely forgot one. (Maybe I didn't pack so well after all!) My host sisters helped me out with that one, because I haven't the foggiest clue what is normal and what isn't here.

My shopping spree

But other than shopping, my family kept me pretty busy in the few days before school started. My sisters and I went swimming a couple of times in the Mittellandkanal, which is only, like, 3 minutes away from the house on foot. We also went to a lake in Hannover on a day that was practically ripped from Virginia. The weather was really hot, apparently it was the hottest day of the year in Germany. But for me, it felt like home during the summer. Not going to be the case in December, I don't think.

We also went water skiing, because my host sisters hadn't had a chance yet this summer and I had only ever done it once. The set up was really new to me; I'm not even sure if we have this type of water skiing in the US. So rather than being pulled around a lake by a boat or anything, there is a ski lift type structure that you can see in the picture below.

You sit at the beginning of the boat house and they hand you a handle, like in normal water skiing, and the handle gets hooked on to a pulley system that goes around the entire lake. It pulls you the entire way around (not that I ever made it that far) and was pretty fun! Every time that I went around I got a little bit farther and by my last round I almost made the entire curve. That was the hardest part, the curve. Definitely worth it and I'm glad I got the chance to do it!

About 3 seconds before I plunged into the lake and had to swim to the side