Flashback Friday: Germany
Once a week or so, I'll be regaling you with stories taken directly from some of my past journals. Here's this week's, from my first week of school as a high school exchange student in Germany:
The photo is dark, but this was my room in Germany.
September 6, 2001
Today in school was very interesting. First, I had English for two hours. We read two texts aloud. (We took turns reading.) At one point in the first text, the teacher asked me to read. He said, "Do us a favor" after he called my name. So, I read a few paragraphs. When I was done, there was a little bit of quiet laughter, and several kids let out their breath - I had read pretty quickly. :)
After English, I had two hours of Gemeinschaftskunde - something a little like social studies. During the first hour I could understand what the teacher was saying pretty well. During the second hour I was pretty much completely lost. It started with a girl reading aloud a page of text. She went WAY too fast for me. I knew then how the kids in my English class felt when I read.
Next I had "Musik" (music). Basically it seems to be music theory/appreciation or something. Today we wrote what instruments we play, what kind of music we listen to, what composers & pieces of classical music we've heard, and what we hope the course will deal with.
Then, we were handed a piece of music (one page). The song was called "A Groovy Kind of Love."* We listened to it, then we figured out (as a class) what the different chords were. It was interesting. I was wondering the whole time if the other kids have had that kind of work before, because they seemed to know half-way what they were doing.
Music was my last class of the day - the chemistry/biology teacher is still out - and apparently the theater class met yesterday somehow, so there is none today. So, all I have left is choir in a few hours.
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Well, I had choir. How I got there is quite interesting. I left at about seven o'clock, and the bus beat me to the bus stop by about ten seconds, and left without me. I sat down to wait for the next bus, but then I looked on the information board and saw that the next bus didn't come for another twenty minutes. In addition, if I took it I would in all probability be late. So, I literally ran back home and got my bike. Then I rode like the wind, not wishing to be late.
I arrived breathless and hot and sweaty, but a few minutes early. A girl named Stephie, who is also in my English and philosophy class, put me next to her. So, I sit at the edge of the alto section; Stephie is a 2nd soprano, and the girl to my left is an alto. I am singing alto.
We got music (each of us have our own copy, and we get to keep it, both of which are nice little facts); we're singing "Greensleeves." We worked through the lyrics (in English). When the teacher was done saying the words, Stephie's mom (sitting two seats to my left) asked me if he had said it all right. I told her, all except one word; discourteously. A minute later, she announced to him that she had asked the American, and that one word was wrong. So then I had to correct the teacher. :|
Other than that, it was great. I love choir! :)
It was dark riding my bike back, but light enough to see okay.
*Note: this is a song by Phil Collins. Most of the music we studied in Musik class and most of what we sang in choir was American and British popular music from the 1950s-1980s.