Day 1 at FPGZ (our German school)

Viele Grüße aus Deutschland!

Yesterday evening, after a two hour train ride from snowy, cloudy Munich, we arrived in Stuttgart (where it was at least sunny, and maybe even warmer?). All the host families were waiting for us, and as soon as we had loaded all of our stuff out of the train, each family whisked us off and took us home (in itsy-bitsy German cars through itsy-bitsy German streets).

Today was our first day of school. After our first period (I had English, where they were learning about slavery and music), the principal introduced all of us American students to the teachers. We spent the rest of the morning in class with our partners (this meant I spent some time in a Latin class for the first time in my life. wow. What an impossible language. crazy. Germans know every language.)

We got out of class earlier than our partners, though, so we could eat lunch (Bratwurst and potatos) and debrief together. After our partners had also shown up and eaten, we took the bus to the Porsche museum. First, there was this guy from Porsche who welcomed us, and showed us around the Museum workshop--which apparently isn't open to the public. I have to admit that it was really hard for me not to crack up everytime he pronounced the word 'visitor' like 'wisitor'. In the museum itself, there were a lot of cars (go figure), and everyone got an audiotour (auf Englisch), so that we could learn details about each model (or at least, you had the option to...).

After one and a half car-filled hours, everyone split up again. I don't know about everyone else, but Carly, Grace, Hayley, and I went into the city with our partners. We actually met up in a train! (The partners had arranged in advance which train, and everyone just got in as it passed the station closest to their house. It was so cool!) We went shopping , (although I don't think anyone bought anything), and then we went to this really modern, delicious Italian restaurant . I don't know how to describe it, except that it was sort of cafeteria style, except cool and chic.

Anyway, everyone is tired now, and we're all really excited, because tomorrow we are taking a field trip to Strasbourg, France! Attention, les francais--les americains arrivent!

Tschüß! Sophia