School for Logan

We arrived here 2 weeks before school started that way we could settle in.  In math they are working on advanced graphing, which I have not covered yet, however they have not done almost any algebra.  In history we are covering the French and German revolutions, which I finished last year,  but the review is nice.  We also have art in which we are focusing on drawing the face and the facial muscles.  In music we are observing all the different types of music,  which is new to me.  There is also a class called current events in which we focus on past and present politics.  In the US I just read the Economist to keep up to date.  Geography is focusing on the Americas.  Last year I covered just US history so it is some of it is new.  We also have all three of the sciences twice a week and general science also twice a week since this Gymnasium (high school and middle school) focuses on the sciences.  The chemistry is more advanced than what I am used to but in the others I can keep up just fine.  I also have the go to Latin, it was that or French since in Germany you have to have 3 languages to get in to a college.  It is really hard to learn Latin in German.  English of course is fairly easy but they use British English and some of the words are different.  In German it is pretty hard.  My grammar is not perfect so it is a struggle to keep up, but it forces me to improve my German.  We also have a choice of ethics or religion.  I chose ethics for simplicities sake, it concentrates on obscure commodities like time.

One of my biggest problems is getting up so early, school starts at 7:30 and we bike to school and so have to get up at 6:40. One of the first things that I noticed was the fact that the classes move around as groups rather than just each child going to there individual class like in the US. I am also working on Algebra 2 in my spare time and am about one fourth of the way through it.  I am also watching a Great Courses video lecture series on physics entitled The Greatest Mystery in Modern Physics : Time.  Two days a year, one of which was yesterday, instead of having classes we go on a hiking day and hike around the nearby hills for a couple of hours.  The scenery is nice so even though it is a long hike it is still interesting.  That sums up my experience with school so far.

Odds and Ends in Jena

Well, both kids have taken a turn writing so it seems only fair I put in an entry.  I think I will let Reuben off the hook since part of why we are here is for him to do a large amount of writing for work, and it seems wrong to ask him to do more!  Many things here in Jena feel easy and comfortable since this is our third trip here.  My German is not easy or comfortable.  We have a different apartment this time which is kind of fun.  It is a two story apartment and the great part is not having to nag the kids to walk quietly since we've no one living below us.  We had a bbq party in the parkplatz the first weekend we were here and it was fun to rejoin the community here.  The park platz is just a parking lot that these apartment are centered on, which the children play in and we grill in!  And yes, people can park their cars there as well.  There are some new families here and some of the families here were here on our last visit.  It was fun for the all of us to socialize. 

Besides the kids attending school, we have gone on bike rides, gone to a swimming pool and taken some short hikes here.  So not very exciting.  But it is good to be in a different place  and experience a different lifestyle.  There are a few random things that I've been noticing lately.   The Germans live outside more than we do.  People are outside regardless of weather (although always dressed in appropriate clothes!) and socialize more outside, expect to walk or bike to where they are going no matter what the weather, and generally just go out.  Another thing is that people always go out dressed in real clothes.  By that I mean no sweats, sports clothes or anything like that.  And the women (and some of the men and children too!) wear scarves almost all the time!  I counted today until I forgot and got to 23 women with scarves and 3 without.  Finally, the Germans wear cool shoes and must like buying them because there are a lot of shoe stores! 

Reuben got to contribute to the shoe buying here because he had to purchase new cleats.  He and the kids have been putting their cleats outside on the back porch after wearing them.  One night something (we suspect a fox) scattered them on the lawn, chewed the back of one of Reuben's cleats and made off with the other.  Now the cleats are living on the balcony on the second floor!  

Nothing earthshaking here but we are glad to be back.

 Kegan sitting in our "computer" corner (i.e. the place with the outlets) of the living room

 Logan in the dining room

 Kegan getting her favorite "Langestangen mit Wiener und Kase" at a stand in the Goethe Gallerie

 In front of the grocery store that I go to pretty much everyday.  Every day I walk down the hill, go to the store and haul up what fits in my backpack.  Interestingly beer only fits in Reuben's backpack.

View from our apartment building looking down on the trash house of the apartments, the park platz, then downtown Jena.  A pretty view when the sun shines.  Which it does not do often enough!

 Most of the older kids playing a card game in the parkplatz.  Funnily enough there were 6 little kids sitting in a circle just out of sight of the camera!

 Former East Germany has the best "walk" and "don't walk" lights. 

 This is Kirche (Cherry) the cat who comes by to visit and checks out any and all parts of the apartment if allowed.  But then continues on her way.

Logan and Jakob playing Magic (a collector card game that can only be enjoyed by boys between the ages of 10 and 16.  Maybe I am exaggerating and 9 and 17 year olds can enjoy it too.).  They really did swim for an hour before retiring to do this. 

Munich

 On the Friday the 13th we left for Munich.  Kegan and I were happy to go because we left early enough in the morning that we got to skip school.  We went of course by train.  On the train I watched Puss in Boots and we played cards and read.  We arrived in Munich and went straight to our hotel.  The hotel was nice enough and we dropped our bags and headed to the Deutsches Museum.

While we had been to the Deutsches Museum before it was still interesting.  We started with the mining exhibit and while it was huge it was not that interesting to me.  But I just did not care that much about the subject.  Then I went to the Physics hall and found that room interesting though a little difficult to understand in German.  Next I went to the Aerodynamics room in which there were some exhibits on birds that I found mildly interesting.  Then I went into a re-creation of the Altimira Cave system which was neat.  Though we had to go, I would have liked to look at the nano technology rooms and the chemistry room.

   

The Mining Exhibit

The next day we visited the Residenz.  The Residenz was origanally a castle but was extended by the Wittelbachs, the ruling family of Bavaria. Even though I had read the guide I was still not prepared for the number of rooms in the Residenz.  There are a total of 130 rooms though only 90 of them are viewable.  The Residenz supplied an audio guide but to listen to everything would take hours so we skimmed over some areas.  The major complaint I have with the Residenz was the lack of objects.  I understand a lot of it was destroyed but to listen to audio about stuff that was destroyed 50 years ago is just not very enjoyable.  Even not listening to everything still took 2 hours.  Then we went into the Treasury.  That was fascinating and the sheer volume of crowns,  scepters, jewels and altars was impressive.  The audio was also mildly informative.  The Residenz was huge and while there were some interesting exhibits it was not the best museum that I have been to by a long shot.

While I was not that impressed with the museums the food was good.  We ate at a steak house for dinner Friday night and the hotel served a magnificent breakfast and we ate at an Italian place for lunch the next day.  We also saw the Asam church.  It was built by two architects and was designed to show off what they could build to their customers.  Consequently it was overflowing with statues, jewels, altars and paintings.  We also went to the MarienPlatz and saw the joust at the clock tower.
Munich was interesting but once you have seen it three times it can get a little repetitive.

 

Eating at Maredo
 

Some people with a wagon of beer in the middle of the street. 

 

The MarienPlatz Joust

  

The Asam Church

 

 On the train home.