One major difference between American and German schools is that here there are three different types of public schools. In America, students typically go to whichever public school is closest to their house. In Germany, after elementary school, students are recommended for a Gymnasium (an intense academic school that qualifies you for university), a Realschule (a slow paced / regular educational school) or a Hauptschule (like vocational school).
Even though I should be in the eleventh grade, it made more sense for me to join the tenth grade at the Gymnasium I’m attending here. In Gymnasiums the eleventh and twelfth grade students take very difficult classes to prepare for their final Arbitur exam, and since I will not be taking this exam, I’m better off just repeating tenth grade and crossing my fingers that when I return I will get credit for a few of the classes I’m taking.
Something I really love is that there is a “homeroom” class system… which means I stay with the exact same group of students for nearly all of my classes. So far this has made the friend-making process WAY easier :) In my homeroom class, 10E, we have twenty-two students. On the first day our teacher commented that our class has quite an “international flare”… Including myself there are four exchange students, two from Brazil and one from Wales. Having so many exchange students, especially all in the same class, is very unusual, but I love knowing I’m not the only one confused most of the time!
Pictured below is my schedule. I had to type it up myself, because here at my new school, printed copies of the schedule are not simply handed out. Rather, the teacher reads it aloud on the first day, and it is the job of the students to copy it down. Of course, I was very overwhelmed as the teacher was reading it aloud, so I made a lot of mistakes on mine and had no idea when and where to be the whole first week. But I think that now I sort of maybe know what I'm doing...?
Overall I like my schedule, aside from the fact I am taking Latin in addition to English, Spanish, and German (Deutsch). Learning so many languages at once makes my head feel ready to explode on a daily basis...