I've been getting requests for an update so here it is! :)
In this second month:
Biggest Challenge: Vocabulary. There is no such thing as "fast enough" when learning vocabulary.
Biggest Surprise: Well I surprise everyone when I start speaking Spanish to them. I am surprised that I've caught on to German so fast even though I was expecting it.
Language: I think I'm doing really well in the language, and many people say to me, "Du sprichst schon gut Deutsch!" ("You speak German well!"). Still, I'm glad to be around people who will correct me because I know how important it is for me to get things right in the beginning with the way I learn.
School: Sure, I've taken Physics, Math, Biology, Chemistry, History, Government/Economy, and plenty of Spanish in school in America. But that gives me a starting point of something that I understand.
With Chemistry and Geography (I never had Geography in school), we learn about the environment and what affects it and how it is naturally, and I think that's important for where we are industrially as a world.
Ranting Time! (Math Talk)
The Math teaching system is better here! It's not organized by "Geometry," "Algebra," "Calculus," "Assorted Levels of a Single Category," "Pre-This-or-That." That's like teaching Spanish as "Past Tense" (learn that for a year), "Present Tense" (another year of that), and so on; or perhaps more like a year of vocabulary subjects: "Around Town," "Around the House," "At Work," etc, which is what Amy and I were doing but those were individual lessons, not a whole year. Here, we learn Math as a whole. We did polynomial division, which is maybe algebra level. Then the next lesson we started working with differentials, which is Calculus I level. And in Physics, where we have the same teacher, we're working with quadratic functions and acceleration which is the differential of velocity which is the differential of distance. We still use algebraic functions to solve for our variables but our teacher expects us to have a fundamental understanding of where they come from and how everything relates. The part that some people last year described as "Trying to ride a square-wheeled bicycle" as far as Physics is that we were taught the functions without background and we were expected to not fully understand what we were learning, at least as I saw it. I understood it, but it didn't fully relate to Math even though the two subjects are practically married.
*End Rant*
Ok, moving on. In Biology, we studied cells like we did in 10th grade, but now we're learning to recognize the leaves of plants and from a slice of leaf determine what kind of environment it lives in how cool is that?? And Herr Freyer (our Biology teacher), is basically my school counselor and tries to make sure I under stand everything, which is really nice.
Spanish. My Spanish teacher did an exchange to Morro Bay, how cool is that! She is also good about making sure I understand things, and asks how I'm doing and is interested in my success, which is always a good feeling.
Philosophy, we have Philosophy as well.
Music. We have a real Music class. We write little compositions and work on analyzing the emotional effect of a piece on the listener. Also music-wise I'm in Cantorei, the church choir working on a Requiem right now, and the Gospelchor (gospel choir) and between the two I always have something to look forward to.
Class Trip: We took a class trip, just a day, to a Kletterpark (Climbing Park, parkour in the trees basically). It really didn't matter where we went though, the purpose is to bond as a class and it really helps to humanize everyone and recognize that we all exist outside of school, even the teachers. I remember when I was a kid, I thought nobody was allowed to know where the teachers lived (I didn't think about the fact that they lived somewhere) and it was all just taboo, like it didn't exist outside of school hours. I wish class trips were still a thing in America, I used to bond a lot with my sport teams when we had away games or even as an extra guarding the food (in tennis). This exchange is the biggest field trip I've ever been on and it is indescribably awesome, and this is just the beginning!
Friends: I have become closer with my classmates but we had our first orientation so I also made a bunch of friends there. My roommates in Heide were Monica (from New Hampshire) and Georgia (from Australia). Georgia has been here for 8 months because the southern hemisphere has summer in our winter, but Monica has been here about as long as I have. There were about 7 of us from America and we had a group with us and "Canada" (he does have a real name) and Georgia. There were about 30 Brazilians so we got to hear all the announcements in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, and the music was mostly Latino (live with a guitar or at our dance party each night). (I'm learning to enjoy late night gatherings.) There was a boy from Ecuador who had only been there for 3 days before orientation. I have so many pins on my blazer, I'll post a picture soon so you can see it. (Those of you with pin-filled blazers will laugh that I'm already calling it a lot but it is for me).
And that is this month in a nutshell :)
