Wandertag

So far, My Gymnasium has canceled a ridiculously high number of classes. I'm told that this isn't usually the case; I just happened to show up right when everyone decided to have a field trip. :)

To summarize the classes that have been canceled:
1. On my second day at the school, a Grundkurs was canceled due to student elections. I showed up to the room and waited... and waited... and waited... before wandering down to the teacher's room. Apparently everyone else knew about the voting ahead of time.

2. Sportfest! My Gymnasium canceled the entire school day to let the kids compete in 3 events: throwing a ball, running 100 meters, and doing a shuttle run. I heard that the other kids got to do long jump, too.

3. Two Leistungskurse went to the Berlin Literature Festival. I got to go with one class. :)

4. Studientag-- where all of the teachers (well, all of them were invited; not all of them showed up) went to Gransee for a day. It wasn't for a faculty meeting, like I thought-- it was to wander around the lake and visit churches.

5. Today was Wandertag. Apparently the younger kids (10th grade and under) get one day off when the Oberstufe (11th grade and up) takes a 3-hour, subject-specific exam. I think they have quite a few of these tests, so I'm not sure how My Gymnasium picked today (it was originally supposed to be Wednesday), but... well, another day off school! I went with a 10th grade class to Olympiapark, saw a film and an exhibit about the Berlin Olympics and the relationship between sports and politics, and went to the top of the bell tower.

Anyway, enough about field trips, and on to the more interesting things.

I didn't have to go to class on Friday because of test preparation sessions, so I met up with a few ETAs, and we decided to walk around Tiergarten. I think we ended up walking through Moabit and eventually ended up at the edge of Wedding. (One of my students said that she saw me walking down her street!) On Saturday, I laid around the WG and did nothing until 8 PM, when I went to a Fulbright potluck. Sunday was Tag der deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity, 20th anniversary!), which I celebrated with a few other ETAs by going to a local sushi restaurant and walking through Mauerpark. When I got back to the WG, one of my apartment-mates had bought some dessert for us, and she amused us with her wordplay: "Heute ist Tag der deutschen Feinheit! Die Hundies koennen auch etwas Suessiges essen! Es ist Tag der deutschen Gemeinheit! Wir wollen nicht feiern!" (Today is Day of German Refinement! The dogs can eat something sweet, too! Today is Day of German Meanness. We don't want to celebrate!)

One thing to leave you with: in high school, we had songs to remember accusative and dative prepositions. For no apparent reason, I started singing the dative song (to "The Blue Danube") in my head at an U-Bahn station and then cracked up when I imagined the monotone bullfrog "GEGENUEBER" that always concluded the song. The great thing is that in big cities, most people don't judge you.