UMLAUTS!!!

Ive been spending the past two days with Simone in Hochneukirch. Its a small town between Dusseldorf and Cologne. I like it here, what I like most is that Im finally typing on a real German keyboard!!! Which has some minor differences that actually make a big deal. That is why Im not putting any apostrophies in my words, because it would probably take me twice as long to write this post in attmepts to re-teach myself how to type. But it has all the characters with umlauts!! So, in order to fully utilize this equipment, Im going to have to tell you some useless info.

My train arrived in Jüchen on Thursday.
We went to a Agrentinian restaraunt that night for Simones birthday. I had some of the best salmon ever. Our waiter was not very hübsch or schön.
...ÄÜÖß!!!

Anyway, yesterday was my first day of German high school (aka- Gymnasium, which gets very confusing). The German school system overall puzzles me, and almost makes me thankful for No Child Left Behind and SOLs. By the 5th grade or something your performance is already the determining factor of where youll go. Gymnasium (good) or Realschule (not as good). Dont ask me what happens from there, because my head might explode. All I know is that its hard. And the teachers are not as readily available for help as they are back home. Therefore, its all on the parents. Which is why its so common to have stay at home moms here, moreso than the US. Its good to get the parents active in their childs schoolwork, but I dont know if I could work as hard as Caroline does for Nicolina and Oscar.

I actually went to English twice, once with Simone and a second time with her friends. Simone had Math next and I was not about to torture myself. I already dont understand math when spoken in English. German Math?? No thank you.

The most exciting (and humiliating) part of the day was when I went to play Prellball with Simone. Prellball is this neat sport in Germany, which reminded me very much of Volleyball. The basic rules are similar, but that by no means gave me a leg up. Two teams of three or four hit the ball with the bottom soft part of their fist. It must hit your side of the court before it goes over (maximum of three times) and you can only hit it once. Its difficult to explain or even fathom such a sport, thats why video proof is needed.

Me playing Prellball.

Sorry I didnt actually have a real video of me playing Prellball, that would be extremely boring. This is the best video I could find, there arent many on YouTube. But I think you get the idea.

Thankfully when I played it was when Simone helps coach the 8-11 year old team. Yes, I played with small children and still did horribly. That is why we dont have any real documentation.