Electrobikes, School and Capital Punishment

School

     Into my second week of school already and I can say that it's pretty awesome to be the only one allowed to have my phone out, but of course to use it as a "translator". However it's not too much of an advantage because Schelztor doesn't even have it's own wifi network, so I'm not quite sure even how to use my phone for anything else. Also, I'm taking a Spanish course with eighth graders. I was told that this is their first year of ever taking Spanish and if this is true, the US education system has quite a bit of catching up to do. Besides not understanding most of what is said, I've been able to observe that homework amounts are pretty much the same and that nothing else is too drastically different between school in the US besides the way the system works.

The School System

     The way school is organized for the Germans is very different than in the US. Students attend the same school up until the fourth grade when the take a test that will either place them in the Hauptschule, Realschule or Gymnasium. The first two levels (Hauptschule and Realschule) are slower paced and are geared to prepare students to work in a trade or profession without a degree. The highest level or, Gymnasium (gihm-nah-zi-uhm) is geared to prepare students to attend a university (which is "tuition-less"). In the Gymnasium (the type of school that Joern attends), the same group of about 20-30 people will remain roughly together in the same class until about the tenth grade which is very different than a public school in the US. Another difference is that the school day is not made up of the same eight classes everyday. For example, I have 2 classes of Spanish on both Thursday and Friday and then not at all during the rest of the week. It is very similar to the flex-mod system used at some schools in the US (for example, SSHS), but in my opinion runs much more smoothly and makes tons more sense; however, I also noticed that this system also does not leave much room for choice. Let me clarify. German students are very surprised to find themselves presented with so many options of classes to take when they come to the US. This is because they don't have many choices in course besides, religion (yes, in a public school BUT there is an atheist religion option) and language. 

Baking Update

     Yesterday I tried to make chocolate croissants and I used Streichfein which is 68% butter, instead of real butter. Big mistake. Let's just say, puff pastry needs real butter and there is no adequate substitute.

TIP: use real butter and real butter only when making puff pastry!

Weekend Trip to Blaubeuren

     This Saturday we went to Blaubeuren which is a little village about an hour down the A8. We went to go to a fancy bike shop where Joern could get his bike fixed at the place where he bought it form. Besides the cool bike shop, Blaubeuren had a really cool spring that apparently you can go scuba diving in when there isn't too much water. 

They said that it was really blue because there is a lot of chalk in the water from the limestone in the mountains or something like that. After walking around the village (don't worry it wasn't much), I got to try curry wurst again (the other time being in Berlin 2 years ago) and it was much better this time. 

But who cares about the cool spring or the curry wurst, I got to try an Electrobike!

Electrobike ride

     Since Joern's dad didn't want to waste the trip only to get Joern's bike fixed, he wanted to take a look at purchasing an electrobike. Just to clarify, an electrobike is a bicycle with an electric motor, not an electric motorcycle. The bike that I rode was on the cheaper end only costing about $3000

and I can definitely say that before actually riding one, I would have never even considered wanting an electrobike when I could buy a used car for the price instead, but now I can say that I want one. After a week slaving away pumping up the hill home from school, the electrobike rode like a dream. It was like being gently pushed forward by an angel and only having to peddle with minimal effort. Magical. So mom and dad, remember that my birthday isn't too long after I get home. 

Capital Punishment

     Yesterday the topic of capital punishment came up at the dinner table. I am pretty certain that I have a good understanding now of why it's done, how it's done, what you have to do to receive it, and how extensive the repeal processes are and so forth to prevent any mishaps, but I didn't know any of this going in. It was very interesting to see how passionately against capital punishment Joern's mom and he was against something that I never even gave a second thought about besides, 'yeah, it happens, they probably deserved it'. But their concern prompted me to do some research on the facts of the matter and the ethics of the matter. After discovering the interesting difference between human killing human vs. society killing human because human gave up it's right to live when it put society in danger and so on, I decided to try explain to Joern what I found out. It took some work, but eventually Joern listened and "understood but disagreed" about why some states choose to keep capital punishment as a form of criminal justice.
     I would encourage everyone to research this topic as it is not only very interesting, but very important to be informed about because not everyone understands why these laws are in place.

     Spring is in full swing here in Esslingen with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature clocking in at 18C (64F) today

be jealous Wisconsin

All next week, Joern has an internship at Mercedes-Benz and I wasn't invited, so I'm going to be stuck in classes with ninth graders the whole week while his class attends it's various internships and so forth. The week after next we leave for our Germany trip and then shortly after that I leave for the PTP trip to Berlin, whew. Oh, and when Lent's over I can finally drink tee agian, that'll be a relief. 

Today is 28.3.2017

Nat