You Think It's Hard Going to School......

Think again. Until you've gone to school that's taught in another language, you cannot complain.

I woke up at six thirty this morning so I could be at school at eight o'clock today. I freaked a little bit because my bus from Rathaus Spandau to school was running a little late, and then when it finally did arrive, it was so packed I could barely find room to stand. I managed to get to school in time, and then got to spend some good quality time in the halls, looking for my art class. After wandering in what I suspected was the right area for a few minutes, I came across a case full of....MASKS. Art-y enough? I went in, sat down and looked around confusedly for a few minutes, until a teacher came in, looked at me pointedly and I got up and told him (in German) that I'm the exchange student, and have only a little German. "There are two art classes, and I think that you are in the other one." He pointed me through a little adjoining office/supply room, to the other class. I walk in, find a seat next to a girl I recognized from the previous day. The teacher comes in and starts talking. And then a girl from the row in front of me moves back to the seat next to me. And the teacher is still talking, and I still (big surprise) have no clue what he's saying. Then he stops talking and the girl next to me says, "He wants us to..umm.....I think, analyze? the painting." It turns out that she had spent a year in Nebraska and was going to be my translator, of a sort. I've been assigned one in every class. Well, we analyzed the painting and then the teacher went back to the front of the room and started talking again. There were many times when it seemed like he was talking to me, specifically. He would say something, do some sort of...comic portrayal of what he had said, I suppose, and then everyone in the class would start laughing. Although I know and realize that it's not the case, it seemed to me like he was saying something to or about me and then everyone would laugh about it. Like I said, I realize this isn't true, but....when you don't have the slightest clue what's going on, and he's looking right at you and then everyone starts laughing.....it sure seems like it.

And then the other teacher came in and said something and everyone started leaving the room, but leaving their things there....cue confusion. Oh wait. You don't need to cue it because it never left. I get up and follow, and there's a photographer. Turns out it was picture day. The photographer says a bunch of stuff, and then everyone starts doing...what he said to do. I stand patiently in the back, trying to be invisible. And then when everyone else was done, the photographer looked at me and then said something in rapid-fire German. *looks around "Was?" The teacher: "Take a picture!!" The photographer: "You speak English?" Me: "Ich bin Austauschstudentin aus Amerika...." Photographer: "Write your name here." *writes name Photographer: "Hold that and smile." *smile "Sit there, no don't stand, sit there and smile." *smile

And then we went back to the art room, and the teacher talked for a while more. Let me tell you something about sitting in a class and not understanding a word of the lecture. It's very tiring, because you're trying to understand the lecture, but no matter how hard you try, you can't suddenly understand. So even though you know you're not going to understand it, you listen to every word, with the hope that you might understand a word. Not five words, or a sentence, not even a phrase, just one word. So you expend all of your energy listening, and getting nothing out of it, except for maybe one word every ten minutes, or maybe there's a word you keep hearing, so you look it up, but then you don't hear it anymore. Recognizing a word is, at the same time, the most wonderful and awful part of not knowing what's going on. The excitement and pride is there, but it's accompanied by the realization that you've been sitting there for an hour, and understood maybe five words.

Chem was next. This was good. When I found the room, I was very happy. The teacher seemed very nice, and as I sat there, I learned that he's very funny as well. No, I could not understand why he was funny, but I could tell that he was. I found myself laughing, even though I didn't know what I was laughing at. This was a welcome change from the art class. And I understood things, I recognized things on the board. I spent so much of my time last year thinking about chemistry, that thinking about it again was almost like I was...home, in a way. I mean, I still had no clue what they were talking about, and what the homework was, but there was a periodic table on the wall, and there were burettes and erlenmeyer flasks and we did a lab with pH. All of these things are so familiar to me, it was a very comforting thing, being there after art, which was so foreign. For all my lack of tangible, present understanding, being in that chem room provided enough understanding so that I could relax.

Choir was after chem and a fifteen or so minute break. All the students mill around in the lobby/foyer/whatever during breaks, so I went down with the girl who had been assigned as my "translator" during chem. Of course, I lost her, but some of the girls who I had spoken with yesterday found me, and it turns out they're in choir too, so I went with them, across the street and to the choir room. Choir is choir. Another relief, though not as...glaring as chem.

And then, finally, it was time to go home. As always, by the time I was at the bus stop waiting for the 135, the döner stand was calling my name, today in a most vicious manner. For those of you who don't know, döner is one of the most amazing parts of living in Berlin. No dirty-water-hot-dogs for us, we get lean beef with lettuce, onions, red cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt sauce all in a warm, crispy pita bread. Once you've had your first, you'll never go back. They're sooooooooooooooo good. And the 135 is often slow....meaning I'm sitting there, starving, being taunted by the neon lights of the Kaplan sign.....darn you döner, for being so good and tempting. Somehow, I managed to resist and finished my lunch on the bus. When I got home, my host mom had made delicious fried chicken and amazing cheesy potatoes and brocoli and I pigged out. I was soooo hungry, and it was soooooo good. I love my host mom. :)


Today was also drama club!! For those of you who really know me, you know that this is kind of....super monster huge big and important and exciting. I was a little nervous, though. It's just a little hard to act in a language you don't know...but Carlo came with me, and we got to the school, and I was nervous and a little confused (as always...) but we found the group, and it seemed to me like it was NOT going to work. There were a bunch of them who were very close, and it seemed like they weren't exactly open to new friends. But I was very wrong. When we got to the room and settled in, and started off with an icebreaker, everything flowed very well. We were messing each other up and laughing, making faces at each other...it was good. I can't really tell everything, because we were there for two hours and it was a full two hours.

All I can say is, after this morning at school, I was really worried. I'm not anymore. I'm feeling really good because I've got something to look forward to every week. I have friends, and I have my favorite thing back. I'm on exchange in Berlin, Germany, I have an amazing fantastic host family, my family in the States loves me and is thinking about me (and I'm thinking about you, too. <3), I'm learning German, and I have a drama club again. I have a stage again, I've got a family here and in the States. I've got friends. It's going to be hard, no doubt, but I've got what I need to make it through anything.