Flights and First day

After a short but difficult goodbye with my family, I boarded the plane to Chicago, my first destination after Pittsburgh. I know it makes absolutely no sense to fly an hour in the opposite direction and then fly back that way, but it was simply cheaper.

Some interesting things happened on my flights. The first one to Chicago, I sat next to John, a very good looking 21 year old from California, who just joined the army in September as a paratrooper. We spent the beginning of the flight talking about this and he showed me a video he took while skydiving. It looked amazing. Maybe some day I will have the guts to do that. Yeah right. Then I found out he was going to Germany too because he is being deployed in Mannheim for 2 years. He asked me twenty questions because he has never traveled abroad, so I did my best to help him out and calm him down.

After arriving in Chicago we went to the food court to grab some lunch. Then we headed back to our departure gate for the flight to Frankfurt. We didn’t have seats too close to each other so we planned to meet again outside the plane to exchange contact info. Meanwhile I was sitting beside two Germans, who I didn’t speak to right away. The conversation between us didn’t start until the end of the flight and when it finally did, I found out that the couple was from Loerrach, where I had done my three week internship in Germany 2 years ago. Yes there’s more. They know the woman I stayed with while I was there! The woman on the plane…strangely enough we never exchanged names…said that she was going to call Birgit and let her know she met me on a plane coming from the U.S. So it’s definitely a small world when randomly you are sitting in an airplane next to someone who happens to have connections to you even though they are from another country. It turns out this woman is a teacher also, so we spent the rest of the flight talking about what I am doing here in Germany.

After getting off the plane, I met back up with John and helped him get to passport control and find his luggage. From there one of the German military men took him under his wing and helped him figure out how to get to Mannheim. We exchanged emails and I went on my merry way to check in for my transfer flight to Hamburg, which I would have to wait approximately 7 hours for. You can only imagine how hard it was to keep myself awake after hours of no sleep on the uncomfortable plane ride prior, but it all worked out and after paying 50 Euro for my extra luggage, which I hadn’t planned on having to do, I made it to Hamburg airport, where my host family was waiting right outside the baggage claim with German and American flags in hand. I couldn’t have missed them. I also couldn’t have predicted what they would look like they do. They are both very young. The wife more so than the husband. I would guess early 40’s but they haven’t told me how old they are. Anyway, we drove the hour back to Kiel and stopped in the actual city on the way to where they live in a suburb called Altenholz. The buildings are all fairly new that I could see- keep in mind I haven’t been to the old part of the city-but they informed me that most of Kiel had been destroyed in WWII. Even if the architecture is somewhat lacking, the view of the coast is beautiful and there are tons of bike trails, which make me excited.

We came back to the house where everything was already in place for me. I have my own room, wireless internet, a separate phone line, and a TV and the best thing is, is that they don’t want me to pay them a dime! Crazy, I know. I can already tell that I am going to enjoy myself here and that my family treats me like a queen. I really couldn’t ask for a better situation right now. It is amazing…these people didn’t even know me. They just found out about me through the school and decided they would let me live in their Apartment since their daughter is in Australia. Hospitality is one thing I can say that every German I have ever stayed with has never failed to give me. Dinner was cold cuts, cheeses, and breads. The typical “Abendbrot” in the North, but was of course good. My host grandma came over for dinner with us and was very excited to meet me. We might head into town together tomorrow afternoon, but first things first I have to get some sleep.

A side note on the weather. It is only like 60 degrees here and I showed up in capris and a t-shirt! Yeah, it’s cool already, but my family says that it only snowed one day last year so hopefully I won’t have to worry about that!

Address and phone #

My address:
Regenbrook 1
24161 AltenholzGermany

My telephone number:
011-494315926183

August 24, 2007

Hello everyone! I leave on Tuesday the 28th, so I just wanted to provide you all with some beginners information! Enjoy!


Many of you may not know that I have been placed in Northern Germany. Kiel to be exact. It is located in the much historically disputed and trouble-causing Schleswig Holstein that was formerly part of Denmark. This means that I am of course very close to Denmark and for you beach lovers, it has many beaches since it is on the Baltic coast. In addition, it is a large harbor city and the capital of the state.

Here is the website for my school if anyone would like to check it out. Of course it is in German, but if you click on "Neu am EBG" on the left side (it is under Start) then you can see pictures of the school at which I will be working. Because of the research I proposed to do on Turkish Immigrant Youth, I was placed at a school with a fairly high immigrant population. This is perfect for me as I will get to observe first-hand how well the students are integrated and hopefully be able to interview them.

www.ebg-kiel.de/


My school is a Gymnasium, which means that it is the highest level of high school you can attend in Germany. For those of you who don't know much about the German system, it is broken down into four different types of high schools. There is the Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium, and the Gesamtschule which is a combination of the three previously mentioned. Most of the time, only the students who attend the Gymnasium can proceed on to college, but there are exceptions if you meet certain standards and can prove yourself. Which school you will attend is decided around the age of ten. Yes, I said ten. And the person who usually decides this is a teacher of the student. So basically they determine whether your kid is smart or not at a very young age, nevermind the fact that they still have plenty of time to grow and learn. The Germans love structure, so I doubt this will ever change. I myself as you can already tell am skeptical that this hasty decision is a good thing. I believe it does not allow enough room for children to reach their potential or motivate them in any way. If they are told that they will be attending the Hauptschule then they will mostly assume that this is their destiny and will live with whatever jobs are thrown their way, not caring to advance because they have been labeled 'stupid.' When you are told something long enough, you are likely to believe it. I feel that the students who are placed into the lower level high schools do exactly this.


Anyway to continue, the Hauptschule is like a vocational school training its students in a technical skill so that they can enter the work force after grade 9 (most students enter technical training following this under apprenticeships. The Realschule goes until grade 10 and therefore lies somewhere in between and the Gymnasium usually goes up to grade 13. At the end of the 13th year the students at the Gymnasium will take a very important test which will determine what subjects they will be allowed to pursue at the college level. Preparation is long and arduous and the outcomes can be disastrous if a student fails to achieve a certain percentage in a field they are interested in.


So the system is flawed just like anywhere else, but perhaps in different ways. One thing's for sure the German education system knows what they are doing in terms of World Language studies. Most students will learn