Berlin: Mittwoch 09/03

Today was basically school and more school. The day started early. We had to meet in Alex at 0815. Herr Elimer told us that the M6 runs every six minutes, so when it was fifteen minutes late, I turned to Westie and said, "We're taking the U-Bahn." Two transferrals later and we were at Alex, five minutes late. We then saw the tram we were going to catch pass through Alex. I laughed at its foolishness.

So the point of today was to visit Janina's old school. Ich muss sagen; it's pretty massive. It's apparently the largest in Deutschland and teaches to 6000 students. In comparison with BW, that's a lot. However, they only have 600 computers, which is half of what we have at Brooke. 10 to 1 pc. That's different. It's actually a converted WWII barracks, which is auch cool.

While in the Oberstufen Zentrum, I learned that most of them were Turkish. Josh being Josh, he got our guide (called Umah) to add him on Facebook. Also, all of them have to learn English there... because they have to. It was really interesting to see how a Deutsche Schule works.

While there, we all got to sit in a lesson. Harpreet, Joe, Josh and I got to learn about yr11 Bio, so it was einfach. It started with photosynthesis and the transferral of energy across the food chain and then we moved onto Suechtigkeit... I mean addictions. This consisted of these stupid students failing to define it. In the end they managed it, but it took longer than it should have. Following this were illegal drugs, which the students knew a lot about. The teacher asked about the kind of high you get from crystal meth and, sure as sure can be, a student answered in worrying amounts of detail. We then learned about the difference between Haschisch und Marihuana. I didn't think there was a difference, but one comes from one part of the plant and the other the other. I began to get worried about the detail in which were were going into over cannabis. I can grow to 6m. So basically, we learned how to become drug abusers today.

After that we went to the east side gallery. Picture opportunity of the day.

Josh, Caitlin and I graffitied our names into the wall and Josh added something extra a little later on.

Damn good. 

After that we went to school. Ich... folge nicht diese Stunde. Josh, Caitlin and I essentially doodled in the corner so we didn't fall asleep, but we were just all Germanned out.

So moving on, after dinner and Herr Elimer rant (he does that... he likes the Queen and constantly turns to me so I can decipher Westie) we went to the Kino. We watched a film called Kokowaeaeh. It's basically this dude (who I eventually worked out was a film writer) whose maybe-Tochter comes to stay with him. It's the Pursuit of Happiness with less black and more German.

Westie and I then had a pleasant trip with the Nicholls's on the Strassenbahn back to Orienburger Tor.

Bis Donnerstag.