"Damn, these Germans are big."

So, since last post I have started school here. The first day was on Thursday and, of course, was very nerve racking.  My host brother and I biked to the school at 8:30 for a meeting with Herr Fischer.  Herr Fischer told me that I would be put into the 10th grade because 11th and 12th grade are for their Abitur.  The Abitur is what they have to pass to graduate the Gymnasium (High School).  After our meeting he walked me to my new classroom.  When we got there I had to introduce myself so I proceeded to in German.  You could tell the students thought my German was laughable because they all had funny smirks on their faces.  After that I sat in my desk and was engulfed in gibberish.  I couldn't understand a word my teacher said and he didn't speak hardly any English.  My day ended early at 11:15 because my next class was sport and I had no sport clothes.  The next day started with German which I couldn't follow then political science.  My politics teacher turned out to have gone to college at the University of Minnesota and had actually been to River Falls.  She spoke fluent English and had the Minnesotan accent which was comforting.  My final class for the day was Religion which, again, I couldn't follow.  Friday ended promptly at 13:00 or 1:00. After school I played soccer with Fritz and Hans then we had to go to dinner with the Fritz and Hans' great grandparents.  We went to a Greek restaurant called Athos.  The food was good and we got peppermint Schnapps which was better than the other Schnapps I had. The car ride home was spent clowning around and singing along to the radio.

Saturday I went to the Centrum (mall) and walked around.  It's pretty small but had a lot of different things.  After I bought some items I bought a German Coke called Sinalco.  Both my host dad and host brother like it better than Coke and when I tasted it I though it tasted like Pepsi but that was quickly denounced by them. When we got home Hans' grandmother was there and dropped off some new speakers. They are both 200 watts and very very very loud.  We played with them for a couple hours making all of Wiesmoor angry.  After we had to drop Hans off at the Orchestra because he was playing and then we went to my host mom's parents.  We had some Apfel Kuchen and coffee and just sat and talked.  Once the kuchen was all gone the grandmother went in and said in German "Does Tony drink wine" and I blurted out "Ja!" just because I could understand.  The wine was very good but I drank it slow because I'd never had a whole glass of wine before.  After I finally finished the glass it was immediately refilled with "You'll sleep good tonight."  We stopped on the way home and got a pizza for dinner. It turned out that part of it had tuna on it which I tried of course and it wasn't for me.  Sunday was a slow day and we just hung out.  For dinner we had another Barbecue.  One of the sauces they had said 'Extra Hot' so of course I tried it.  It turned out to be mild at best.  Germans don't have much heat in their food.  Another thing they think is spicy is Dijon Mustard.

On Monday I had school and first hour we got our books for all of our classes.  As we all checked them out from the school book shop I found out I needed 11 very heavy books.  Now I had to carry all of the very heavy books around all day.  Second hour I had Spanish which was really easy and I actually understood everything.  After that I had History which was spent day dreaming.  I got done at 1:00 again and as I was riding home I took a sharp turn and the weight of the books flung me off my bike to everyone's amusement. When I got home there was a lunch of potatoes, carrots and SCHNITZEL! It was one of the best things I have ever tasted.  Later that day me and Hans went into town because he needed new shorts and I was looking for a new T-shirt.  He found his shorts but in all of Wiesmoor I didn't find a single good shirt, but there were plenty of business suits.  So we stopped at Ali Baba and had döner which is Turkish and very good. After we went home and watched TV until we went to bed. Tuesday I had a period of Deutsch and then English.  English was really good because I could understand but the teacher was German so she had an accent and she didn't have super great English.  Next hour I had chemie which was spent doodling.  The next hour I had math which was hard to understand.  Many of the classes I have now I already took last year so when I do understand I already knew it.  But on a positive note my doodling skills have greatly improved.

One of the good things about having other exchange students is they are going through the same thing you are.  I have spent all of my breaks with them because I wouldn't know where else to go if I didn't.  They are all very nice and very funny.  On Saturday they all went to Aurich for a festival which they said was amazing but I didn't go because I thought I was going to Heide Park an amusement park near Bremen but my host brother was doing poorly with his Latin so we didn't go. However, next weekend I believe more is happening so there's more to come.  Now, back to the title of the post.  I saw a comedian whose joke ended with "Damn, these Germans are big" and he was absolutely correct.  I'm the shortest guy in my class and you're hard pressed to find anyone shorter.  So, damn these Germans are big.