High school (musical?)

Hello there!

I have been in High school for 12 weeks now, so I thought I would talk a little bit about the big mystery of 'high school'. All the teenage- and chickflick movies set up expectations, and I am so sorry to tell you, that most of it is not true :)

So just to be clear: high school is not quite like this : 

Unfortunately there is no singing and dancing in the hallways or Sharpay rolling into the parking lot in a pink Capriolet. 

It's also not like this, but actually, we're getting nearer to reality: 

And High school might look like this for a few people, but I can tell you that  it is not that bad:

To be fair, this movie is hilarious, but it also doesn't come close to how it really is.

Ok, but enough joking around. So High school.... It is actually not a lot different than school in Germany. I was expecting more groups, or cliques. And I mean there are some groups, but it is not super obvious. 

The school system is quite different than in Germany. The students have to earn a certain amount of credit during the four years of school, Some classes will bring you more credit, some less. They have a lot more different classes, and they can decide which they want to take. Some classes, like English, science and math are required but other than that, they have a lot of freedom  to take what they want to take. The school year has two semesters. Some classes are all-year classes, some aren´t, so the sudents have a slightly different schedule in the second semster. We have odd and even days here, that means that we have all our odd classes Monday and Wednesday and all the even classes are on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday is an all-day, that means we have all our classes, but they´re just 45 minutes long. 

The teachers have their own classrooms, which means, that the students have to change the room,  not the teacher. That makes it easier to find a teacher, because they're always in the same classroom, but it is harder to find the classroom for your next class... 

The relationship between teachers and students is a lot more personal than in Germany. In Germany we don't ask how their weekend was, or how they spent yesterday. It is all about learning. Here it is different. Here you can chit-chat a little bit and they don't mind at all. 

It feels like the students don't mind to go to school much. I mean there are so many things which make school more attractive, like all the after- school- activities, like the sports, or clubs. And then there are school dances and sport games, and so many people show up! It's amazing how much the students support their teams. And when we have school dances, a lot of people come and they really like it. It's great. In Germany, we don't have school dances or extracuricular activities. We don't have this school- spirit, which connects all the students. I am so happy to have the oppotunity to experience all that! 

Our cafeteria

My psych teacher´s classroom

 So, and now enough about school... It's December, so everyone is thinking about Christmas! In our neighborhood there are so many house which are decorated with so many lights, that they light up the whole street. As soon as Halloween was over, people unpacked their Christmas stuff. But what is a little disappointing is, that they don't have Christmas markets here. Christmas in America is intense, but Christmas in Germany is just beautiful. It is so great, walking around a christmas market, and the air smells like cookies, sweet treats, glühwein and punsch. I miss that. But I´m doing my best to bring it to America, by baking cookies. Thanks to my parents, I have an adventcalendar with little recipes for everyday during December. Unfortunately, they don't have punsch here, but tea does the job too. We already bought our Christmas tree and I have my own stocking! I was so excited! Today is Santa- Claus- day and we had some presents in our wooden shoes. I am so thankful for that! 

Our HUGE Christmas tree

some Christmas cookies and tea next to the tree = well spent time

Santa is coming to town

I hope you all enjoying the Christmas season and that you had a lovely weekend! I also hope you guys liked this post and it was at least a little entertaining and you learned something you didn't know before. 

I hope you're all doing good!! 

love, Malin