Ich gebe zu, I've encountered many new words this year, but I seem to have a serious mental block on Abistreich. (I always write and pronounce it as Abistreik.) Personally, I think teachers would have preferred a Streik to this year's Streich.
Basically, Abistreich is a long, drawn-out senior prank that the Abiturienten put on either immediately before taking the Abitur or close to the end of the school year. At my school, the tradition is to start during the first Hofpause, but at other schools, an Abistreich starts at the very beginning of the school day.
I haven't had especially good experiences with senior pranks in the past; in high school, some of the senior pranks at my school were pretty destructive. (The worst one was when the seniors released mice, rats, and birds in the commons, which was kind of like an indoor courtyard in the middle of the school. Runner-up: the year that the seniors dumped a lot of sticky stuff and goop in the commons.) My class didn't organize a formal senior prank because the administration had cracked down hard the previous three years, but one student decided it would be a great idea to hide a rude message in his last column for the student newspaper. (He didn't get to walk at graduation.)
In other words, I was looking forward to a good Abistreich, especially after hearing that other Fulbrighters had enjoyed their students' Abistreiche.
Most of the teachers were pretty sure that today was going to be Abistreich-Day, and we figured it would start after 2nd period. Towards the end of a Leistungskurs, the Abiturienten started blowing horns. I'll be honest: I was excited to see what they had planned!
Yeah, well, I was really disappointed. They had water balloons and stink bombs, plus some overly-excited Mittelstufe students with buckets filled with water. Come on, that's, like, a Grundschulestreich. Some of the Abiturienten parked a car sideways on the street to block traffic and had a dance party while still throwing water balloons, which (obviously) is, oh, just a little bit illegal. The neighbors ended up calling the police, who gave the sideways car a ticket and kicked out the non-students who were on the school grounds.
I knew that water tends to show up a lot in Abistreiche, so I was prepared for water guns or water balloons, but stink bombs? Blech. That's not even funny.
Abistreich Note: 5- (I still think the mice and rats at my school were worse).
At lunch, the teachers were joking about Germanizing the Abistreich by requiring the students to submit multiple drafts with introductions, a timed schedule, and a firm conclusion. After the Streich, they decided that the students should write an evaluation of how the day went and how the Streich could have been better, as well as a reflection of what they had learned by planning the Abistreich. I bet that would result in higher quality Abistreiche!
Basically, Abistreich is a long, drawn-out senior prank that the Abiturienten put on either immediately before taking the Abitur or close to the end of the school year. At my school, the tradition is to start during the first Hofpause, but at other schools, an Abistreich starts at the very beginning of the school day.
I haven't had especially good experiences with senior pranks in the past; in high school, some of the senior pranks at my school were pretty destructive. (The worst one was when the seniors released mice, rats, and birds in the commons, which was kind of like an indoor courtyard in the middle of the school. Runner-up: the year that the seniors dumped a lot of sticky stuff and goop in the commons.) My class didn't organize a formal senior prank because the administration had cracked down hard the previous three years, but one student decided it would be a great idea to hide a rude message in his last column for the student newspaper. (He didn't get to walk at graduation.)
In other words, I was looking forward to a good Abistreich, especially after hearing that other Fulbrighters had enjoyed their students' Abistreiche.
Most of the teachers were pretty sure that today was going to be Abistreich-Day, and we figured it would start after 2nd period. Towards the end of a Leistungskurs, the Abiturienten started blowing horns. I'll be honest: I was excited to see what they had planned!
Yeah, well, I was really disappointed. They had water balloons and stink bombs, plus some overly-excited Mittelstufe students with buckets filled with water. Come on, that's, like, a Grundschulestreich. Some of the Abiturienten parked a car sideways on the street to block traffic and had a dance party while still throwing water balloons, which (obviously) is, oh, just a little bit illegal. The neighbors ended up calling the police, who gave the sideways car a ticket and kicked out the non-students who were on the school grounds.
I knew that water tends to show up a lot in Abistreiche, so I was prepared for water guns or water balloons, but stink bombs? Blech. That's not even funny.
Abistreich Note: 5- (I still think the mice and rats at my school were worse).
At lunch, the teachers were joking about Germanizing the Abistreich by requiring the students to submit multiple drafts with introductions, a timed schedule, and a firm conclusion. After the Streich, they decided that the students should write an evaluation of how the day went and how the Streich could have been better, as well as a reflection of what they had learned by planning the Abistreich. I bet that would result in higher quality Abistreiche!
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