September 17, 2012
Today was my fist day in the kanton schule (high school), and let me tell you it was not so easy. So my schedule is completely different then in the states. In my school i have anywhere from 4-5 lessons a day and anywhere from 2 hours for lunch to 1h30m. So this means sometimes I can come home for lunch which is so cool for me because in the states we only have a half an hour for lunch. Also, I only have math, german, english, physics twice a week. While in the states I have the same classes every day. So maybe this will be better or worse for me, well see. But hey today I had english class and understood everything lol. Only because in my first two classes I had no idea what the teacher was saying. The only class I somewhat understood was math and that is beacuse I already knew what they were learning.
I hope in about a month I can actually understand the lessons so then I know that I am learning more than just german.
So I dont have any funny stories or embarassing moments, which is good. Most people have a funny story to tell about how they tripped or fell out of their chair. Luckily none of this happened to me. Im sure it will at some point but glad it wasnt on my first day.
So im sure you are wondering how the kids in my class are and if I could actually have a conversation with them. Well the kids in my class are awesome, they are so nice and they all are so funny. And most of the kids can speak english because they have had two years, so their english is better than my german. But most of the time they explain alot in german and if I dont understand then they will try to tell me in english. I love when people ask me questions about America because most of the time they say oh do you live in New York or California and do you drink beacuse in the US the drinking age is 21 and many other funny questions. I think so far the best question I got asked was on the train going home from school, a couple of boys started talking to me and after about 2 minutes I finally said I dont understand I speak english and then they said oh you live in america and all the steriotypes after that of course. But they ask me "are you in love" and i replied "huh? why do you ask that" they said "oh beacuse you have a ring on your finger". I was so confused and then they tried to explain that in Switzerland when someone is engaged the ring goes on their right hand instead of their left. So after that day I dont wear my ring at all. I think this might explain why a boy sat next to me everyday waiting for the train and never said a word to me. Or he just knew I was american, gosh I have no idea.
But hey on the bright side I have 2 more weeks of school and then 3 weeks of vacation for the holiday. The only problem is my host family is going on vacation to Turkey so I will have to stay with another host family. But I know I will still have fun. Since I have arrived here I have become so open to talking to new people and I am alwways excited to meet someone new. Well I mean I kind of have to be open to talking to new people lol.
Now, other than having to learn german super quick so I understand the lessons in school is to learn swiss german. It amaing how I can understand conversations in german and then when it comes to swiss german, I have absolutely no idea what they are saying. Even the numbers are differnt in swiss german. I need to learn quickly so then I know what people are saying in the trains and busses also their jokes.
Well now I have a ton of homework that I do not understand at all. Lucky me (: