One of the advantages of not speaking German is that I get to have German class with fifth graders. Yup, three times a week you can find me in room 311 with the lovely 5b. In the 10 minutes or so before Herr Öchsler arrives (er ist nie puenktlich) you can find me 1) dodging paper wads and bottles being thrown across the room, 2) translating the chaos with my not-so-trusty phone, or 3) covering my ears to avoid going deaf before I turn 17. I wouldn't be surprised if someone gets seriously injured or killed during this time. However, the moment the "spotter", I guess you could say, spots Herr Öchsler coming from the doorway, the room goes silent and suddenly the only thing you hear is feet running to get to their seats. And all of a sudden the room is no more than a few civilized conversations and folded hands on desks.
I can't say that I remember fifth grade being this way, but hey I also don't remember when anyone in my family's birthday is, so maybe fifth grade was this crazy for me. Anyhow, the moment Herr Öchsler walks in, all eyes are on him and everyone is ready to sing the little "Guten Morgen, Herr Öchsler" jingle that I have grown to absolutely despise because it requires standing all the way up and then sitting all the way down two seconds later, just to say good morning to the teacher. Despite all of the rituals that take place before class even starts, the content has actually been very beneficial to me. Like today; for example, I learned that even animals in Germany speak a different language.
Beef cattle go "Bruelen"
Cows go "Muh"
Pigs go "Grunzen" (but also oink)
Dogs go "Bellen"
Kitty cats (Katzen, not to be confused with Kater, a male cat) go "Miau"
Tomcats go "Schnurren"
Geese go "Schnattern"
and much more. In my opinion, the animals all say the same thing, it just gets interpreted differently. So really, dogs don't bellen or bark, they can make many different noises.
As you can see, I'm pretty much learning nothing in 5c anymore because I can understand most of what the teacher is saying. 5c isn't like being in Geschichte (history) or Biologie where every other word the teacher says is a word I don't know and one that I have to take the time to type out on my cracked screen and then proceed to search for a good translation because there are always at least 10 different ones. Those are the classes that I feel like I'm sprinting just to stay 10 steps behind in. But 5c German, cake.
Other Miscellaneous School Stuff
Since Joern is gone during the days this week, I am on my own to stay afloat using my Scheiss Deutsch in order to avoid using English as much as possible. It's been going pretty good so far; in fact, today I even had a conversation with someone without stuttering over my Scheiss Deutsch and without needing to whip out my Scheiss-Handy Übersetzer (translator) to help me out. That's right, I'm basically a native speaker now. Haha. Actually far from it, but I am beginning to understand more and more each day as I type away on my Scheiss-Handy Übersetzer, it's just the speaking and actually forming sentences that's the hard part.
Meat Update
Yesterday I tried Schinken-Suelze
which is basically jelly-meat, vegetables and some special seasoning. It looks really gross but once you slap it on a piece of buttered bread, you almost forget that you're eating mutilated pig parts and ground up cow hooves. Now you're probably thinking that something like this could never be healthy, but it actually is with only 20 kcal per slice and 3 whole grams of protein. That's almost the same kcal to protein ratio as greek yoghurt! Who knew road-kill-wurst would be so healthy! Gotta love this place. Next up is Blutwurst, which I'm told tastes like a pile of pennies, super pumped.
Tomorrow
It's getting late and tomorrow I have to get up early to go to Dachau with the lovely 9a/b conglomerate with whom I have spent the past two days with. I'm very excited to see what happened in WWII first hand. A lot of times things are never truly real to me until I see for myself so I'm hoping that this trip will bring forth something of the sort.
Today is 4.4.2017 (who cares which is the month or the day, it's 4.4!)
Nat
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| even a tourist at the table |
which is basically jelly-meat, vegetables and some special seasoning. It looks really gross but once you slap it on a piece of buttered bread, you almost forget that you're eating mutilated pig parts and ground up cow hooves. Now you're probably thinking that something like this could never be healthy, but it actually is with only 20 kcal per slice and 3 whole grams of protein. That's almost the same kcal to protein ratio as greek yoghurt! Who knew road-kill-wurst would be so healthy! Gotta love this place. Next up is Blutwurst, which I'm told tastes like a pile of pennies, super pumped.
Tomorrow
It's getting late and tomorrow I have to get up early to go to Dachau with the lovely 9a/b conglomerate with whom I have spent the past two days with. I'm very excited to see what happened in WWII first hand. A lot of times things are never truly real to me until I see for myself so I'm hoping that this trip will bring forth something of the sort.
Today is 4.4.2017 (who cares which is the month or the day, it's 4.4!)
Nat
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