Differences

I am a little behind again on keeping this blog updated, but I'll hopefully do better this week! I was thinking the other day about the fact that I have been in Germany already for a month and a half! It seems crazy when I think about it. As I realized a few years ago in college, time goes by so quickly, especially the older one gets! So I'm trying to experience what I can while I'm here. For example, I have taken up invitations to have dinner with my colleagues and visit their homes and families, and I visited my former host family in Regensburg, Germany. I think I learn the most about Germans and their lives the most in these more personal situations. I also find out how similar their lives are to my own. They often have the same values, mind sets, outlooks, etc. Even though sometimes I uncomfortably notice and feel that I am definitely a foreigner here, I try to also remember how much I have in common with Germans.

And while I'm on the subject of differences, I would like to make a short list of some of the differences I have noticed in German schools compared to American schoools. However, before I make this list, I want to point out that, of course, not all American schools are the same and not all German schools are exactly the same. Therefore, these differences come only from what I know in general about German and American schools and what I have experienced.

1. German students do not have the same classes everyday, nor do they have classes at the same time everyday. For example, they may start school at 8 am on Mondays and 8:40 am on Wednesdays. Sometimes they finish the school day at 1 pm and other days at 3 pm. But in the U.S., normally, K-12 students go to school during the same hours everyday.

2. In Germany, teachers do not have their own classrooms; they change rooms for every class they teach. They also normally do not teach just one subject, even teachers who teach at the secondary level. Also, similar to the students, they do not have the same classes to teach everyday. Some days they are finished teaching at 11:30 am, and on other days, they are finished at 4 pm. American teachers, like the students, are at school everyday during the same hours. They also normally have their own classrooms where they stay the whole school day.

3. I also see many differences in the classroom itself. For example, when students raise their hands to ask a question or answer a question, they normally only raise their pointer finger. They do not raise all of their fingers, like in the U.S., but usually only their pointer finger.

4. In the younger grades, in order to begin class, the students stand up while the teacher greets them. The students then greet the teacher and subsequently sit down or sit down after the teacher has told them they can. I had to greet the students in this manner a few times here in Germany, but it always felt a little odd to me. I felt as if I was teaching in a school from the early 1900s. I think perhaps this ritual used to be done in american schools, but perhaps a long time ago. I might have to look that up!

I think I could write much more, but this will have to do for today. I hope to write again later in the week!

Altdorf and Nuremberg

Here are the photos I promised of Altdorf. I slipped in one of Nuremberg. I took these photos over the past two days, which have been sunny and in the 60s. This is far better than the weather we had last week, which was in the 40s and 50s with rain and cloudy skies. The first photo below is of Nuremberg. It is a photo of the Pegnitz River which flows through the city.

The two photos below are of Altdorf. The photo of the church is the historical Protestant church in town. The other photo is part of what is called the "Marktplatz" (marketplace) in town. In the Marktplatz, there are restaurants, shops, bakeries, etc. It's mostly where I go to do errands or go out to eat. In the background of the photo is one of the town's historical city towers that was part of the old city wall.