Oh No!

I was so distracted by a really awesome website about Dante's Divine Comedy (I am serious- it was like Goss's class only with no BGs) that I forgot to blog! Oopsies! Also, I got to use OK Go's latest CD as my blog title- heehee!

So, um, I went back to school yesterday, and it was nice to see everyone again! We are reading terrible Goethe poetry in German- I really don't like Goethe, and I am saying it for the whole internet to read! Ha-ha! English was a double-period, so long. . . in Reli, we are finally getting to the Bible (what?) and starting with the creation, which means my teacher said this fun thing (devil's-advocating a student, but still): "Men are boring, so that's why there's women?" And then Bio was fascinating but far too late (2-2:45. . . ugh I hate afternoon classes). . . and that was Monday! Woo!

Today I was even more tired when I woke up (as is normal on Tuesdays), even though I went to bed earlier last night (grr). I shall start with the funny moment from my two free periods (no math!), and then give you my thoughts from the three classes I had today, all of which are more serious and related to education (eep). So in third period, when, someone, both math GKs didn't happen (so only the 12 or so people with math LK actually had class), Steffi decided she wanted to go home because she was done for the day (econ didn't happen today, either, and she apparently always has 4th and 5th free). Zimmy's got a car, and Jakob was asking Zimmy if he'd drive him somewhere later, when Steffi decided to ask if Zimmy would take her home now. Zimmy, not missing a beat, declared that his fee for driving people anywhere was €3, and also that he had no time to drive Jakob. Jakob was deeply offended, but Steffi actually took Zimmy up on his silly offer, and we all giggled as Zimmy and Max and Steffi went off, Zimmy making a very easy €3. (Max in attendance because he is always with Zimmy)

So we're reading these poems in German, right? And I'm realizing it's actually kind of fun to read poems in a foreign language, because you don't always really grasp the meaning at first. Especially with Goethe, whose language is all old and weird, I just kind of pick out lines and words that make sense to me and ignore the stuff I don't know, and create a little poem in my head (one that I find pretty good). I like this method of interpreting poetry. Unfortunately, Herr Friedl continues to slowly force something like the real meaning of the poem out of my classmates (who know German), and shatters my beautiful image and makes me dislike Goethe more. For example, today we read this poem that is Goethe writing a love poem to the moon. At first, when Friedl mentioned that Goethe was like 78 when he wrote this thing, I took a few elements from the poem and turned it into a love poem to life, a bittersweet lament that he is coming to the end of his, represented by a moon being covered in clouds. I liked the idea (as much as I can like a Romantic poem), and then Friedl had to prove that the poem is actually just about how old people (unlike young people, who fall madly in love with a specific person) can find love in general experience, and thus write a poem to love in general, represented by the moon. Crazy Romantics.

So then in history (after my 2 free periods), I found myself strangely motivated, having discovered that I can take notes from the lecture (rather than just write the stuff that's on the board) if I write the notes in English. This is encouraging, because I always understand the lecture, but the process of picking the German words to write down is always so difficult, but using the English note-taking system I've developed from many American history classes (classes in America, not necessarily about American history) means that I can absorb more German history! Yay!

And we got our Sozi test/exam back, and I got a 5, which is bad. But considering that I could not answer the first question at all (20 of 52 points), the best I could do was a 3, and I calculated that I would have gotten a 3- or 4+ based on the 3 questions I could answer, which is better. I am upset that my teacher took off so many points for my issues with German, and I was very much reminded that German teachers grade WAY harsher than American teachers- if he has a list of 5 possible ideas to put in a short answer, if you are missing two of these ideas, you get 3/5 of the points at most. An American teacher tends to figure that 3 of 5 possible ideas is acceptable and gives you all the points if you got 3 and explained them well. This has a lot to do with our percent-based grading system, where 50% of the points is a failure. In Germany, 50% of the points is a 3, which is a rather acceptable grade. Also, I am noticing that my AP-style writing, where listing facts is nice (and necessary), but analysis is the point, is pretty much useless here, because my teacher just kinda blew over my little analysis of the Oxen-Tour in my essay on that and complained about my lack of alternative ideas (which I freely admit). . . I mean, the whole going-above-the-question that was in my analysis would have been rewarded in America, but here it got one tiny check, which I guess is nicer than piles of red correcting my adjective endings and grammar and complaining about leaving out some tiny detail (I am still trying to figure out the general idea of the German political system, so I feel that he should be impressed that I can come up with anything for this, but NO, he judges me just like his other students, which means I end up on the low end of the spectrum without so much as a mention of my awesome grasp of primaries). I know the grades don't count, but I feel that it is actually kind of unfair to grade my stuff so harsh, and I miss the positive reinforcement of American schools, which I guess are indeed the hand-holding, don't hurt anyone's feelings stereotype. I think Mr. Cox (oh my goodness, Kacey, that is two Manchester teachers in one post- this is your lucky day!) would have given me a much better grade, though.
I also really miss the concept of a curve. The highest grade on this test was a 13 (and there was only one of those), which is a 1. . . in an American class, that would have been curved to a 15, and I could have had a 4 instead of a 5 via the joy of curve. No, here the standard for essays is the teacher, and even if not a single person in the class can get full credit, then it just means that no one studied as well as they should, and it sucks to be them.

German school is rough, man. I didn't mean for this to end up being such a complaint (because, once again, my grades don't count), but man. Culture shock. I better study a bit harder for art tomorrow (although that teacher loves me and is far more understanding of the fact that I am from another country. . . don't get me wrong, my Sozi teacher is nice, but he doesn't quite seem to get that I have a HUGE knowledge gap, especially for this subject, nor does he get that German classes are entirely different from American classes. Oh well.)

On the train ride home, I noticed that the trees of Friedberg have ice all frozen on their branches that somehow ends up making them look an awful lot like dogwood trees in bloom (except that most of these trees are far taller than any dogwood I've ever seen). Adding that to the fact that we had blue sky and sun today for the first time in ages, my brain is ignoring the fact that it is even colder and thinks that spring is coming. My poor brain.

So instead of studying for art, I am poring over these piles of college mail that my Mom sent me (so much for giving colleges my Germany address- they will still take the cheap route and ship to my parents, where my dad opens the mail like the snooper he is and my mom collects it all and puts it in a giant envelope with Sour Patch Kids and pays $13 to ship it to me and make Piff jealous because I have a giant pile of mail) and there's the picture in the Wells viewbook (I like Wells a lot more since I have seen the fancy personalized note they sent just to say they'd gotten my application, and also the fact that they have already accepted me does not hurt) and it is of a seminar-style class with all the students sitting around the table with the prof, and I notice one of those ubiquitous yellow Langenscheidt dictionaries on the table. Now, this makes sense to me at first because I am never far from the thing here and it is Germany's #1 maker of foreign language dictionaries, but what is it doing in an American college classroom at a table where the students' notes are in English and the one textbook I see is entitled "Feminism is for Everybody," so presumably also in English? I do not know, but I am intrigued. Also, it makes me happy that it is there, because, these days, a yellow dictionary with a big blue L just seems to need to be near any sort of academic work (not that I take it to school, because there is no time to be looking up words in class).