Day 1 in Leipzig - A Day in the Life of a German Teenager

Hello, I am Olivia Zeitlin and today I will be taking over the GAPP blog.
My day consisted of so many new activities and experience that I would love to share with you all! I started my morning by waking up at 7 am (getting me out of bed at this time is a rarity and hardly ever happens). Although I was slightly drowsy, I still made an effort to put on a nice outfit to impress the German students. I wanted to look like a cool/trendy European - which I think I accomplished.
Once I was ready, we went straight to school.
Normally we would take a bike but the for the first day we took the tram. Instead of having a meal at home, we had a GAPP breakfast at school to meet the principal and the other teachers. They introduced themselves well and welcomed us Americans to the school. Once everyone was done eating, our Germans took us on a tour of the school. It was very colorful and surprisingly large. Almost all of the kids knew each other. In a way, this shocked me because I could never possibly imagine knowing everyone at South. After we made our way around, we had an “American only” meeting. We didn’t do much during that time. We learned about some important Leipzig landmarks and what days we would have our presentations. It turns out I will have to talk to 9th graders about human and civil rights. Honestly, I had forgotten I had signed up for this topic so now I have to make a presentation. Thankfully I remember some information about the topic. Once the meeting ended, we used our hour lunch break to learn how to play handball. It was really neat. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the only way I can describe it is like a hybrid of water polo and basketball. We also played a strange version of dodge ball (Völkerball in German).

I wasn’t really good at either game but I still had a lot of fun. When the break was over, I went with Kim to her class. There was a girl holding a presentation about Russian geography and I could not understand her. She spoke very fast but I caught a few words here and there. Shortly after, Kim’s last class started. It was an informational technology class. They had to take a test so I thought I was just going to sit there quietly. Oddly enough, this did not happen. The teacher came over to my desk and talked in German to which I replied in German. Then he handed me a test and told me I could take it. I didn’t understand much so I ended up drawing pictures on the bottom of the page. When the teacher told the class that time was up I had drawn a butterfly, a bee, a cactus, and a flower. There was supposed to be 20 minutes left of class but he told everyone they could leave early. I wish that was allowed at South.

When Kim and I got home, we had ice cream with her parents and her brother on the porch. The weather was very nice and I personally think that all sweets are better here. After our little conversation, Kim and I left for her dance class. We decided to ride the bikes there. As many of you know, my biking skills are somewhat......... awful. I was doing pretty good on the way there until my handlebar hit a pole and I fell into a bush. That was a little nerve racking but we were almost there so it was fine. We went into the studio and she put on her high heels. I got to sit on a chair and watch her dance. She does ballroom and she is very good at it. I could not believe she danced in heels though. In a way, watching her dance in them made my feet hurt. Once the class was over, we biked back home and I didn’t hit a single thing. Later that night we had dinner and more conversations.

Fun things I learned:
● At this school they have a 30 minute breakfast break
● They also have an hour lunch break (take note South)
● Germans curse in class and in front of parents and it is completely normal. I was a little taken aback when I first learned this. P.S- sorry mom and dad, I might come back swearing like a sailor
● Danny and Kim are sibling goals and my host family is awesome
● German chocolate>American chocolate
● Leipzig is home to the world’s largest goth festival
● German rap kind of sucks- it’s scary
● German keyboards are different and typing with them is weird
● You can not use your phone in the hallway of the school ******Extra for the people who have made it this far******

I did a fun game today with Kim and Danny and their parents. The point of the game is to essentially do dares to get “brave points”. I got three points today (Saturday). For my first point I had to go up to a random Gothic person and ask for a selfie. This was very simple. My second point was very embarrassing. I had to get in the passenger seat of a taxi cab and talk to the driver but not ask for a ride. It was very strange but I could not say no to a dare. The driver didn’t really speak English and I don’t think she enjoyed it. The last date of the night was to go up to this group of teens (who were clearly tipsy) and teach them how to dap each other up. For this dare Kim came with me. It was strange at first but then it was funny. They taught me a cool handshake as well. I really enjoy this game and I think it would be fun to play back home.