Abschluss Ball

I was lucky enough to experience my first 'real', well - more modern day, Ball just before Christmas. My first host sister, Theresa, is a fairly avid dancer and I ended up taking a dance course at the same school she does this past fall. I wouldn't say the majority, but many young people in Germany learn standard forms of dancing. Everyone can at least the basic step of Walz. This probably stems from the fact that the majority of the parents can still dance, and that I'm currently from Bavaria. Bavaria, or Bayern always has to have their very specifics traditions, holidays, food, accent . . . and they're very proud of it. I do feel lucky to be able to still experience some of the old Germany traditions, that aren't often practiced in the northern parts of the Country. In any case, we learned a few basic steps to begin us in the dancing world - Walz, Rumba, Tango, ChaChaCha, Jive, Disco, Samba . . . and I believe that's it. We also learned the MüchnerFranzaise, which is one of those really old dances where you greet your partner and dance in groups of fours, swinging around together in a circle. It was very cool. I decided not to take part further though, given that I have a lot of traveling ahead of me (!), and won't often be there on Friday evenings when the course takes place. Here are a few pictures of the ball, which both my second and first host family came to, and for which I wore a dress I had on at homecoming a few years ago that Mom sent to me. They don't normally have anything remotely similar to Homecoming, Winter Formal (or Sno Frolic in Silver Bay lingo), or Prom. Children, and teens and adults as well, do most things in a very private - pure interest sort of way. If you want to play Volleyball, it is always organized by a club of some sort in your town, and if you want to participate in orchester (or, learn an instrument), it must be privately funded and organized. In some ways I believe it forces kids to really do things they are interested in and be ambitious about it, but in other ways the school spirit present in growing up in the States, is a completely unfathonable thing here, which is quite sad. Plus, if the opportunities aren't there (which they normally are here), you just don't get the chance to do something. Students here, or at least in the Gymnasium (highest version of highschool) are very disciplined, and I often feel a very competivive feeling between the students. Plus, every student spends time studying and worrying about their grades. I find it actually quite funny, because back home every final grade we recieve goes onto our transcript, but here they don't start counting until the 12th grade (except for the fact that if you had better grades earlier, you probably also understood more). I find the difference in competitiveness between students much stronger here, and back home students are often very differing in their approach to school. Some really care and work really hard, some practically never do homework. It's just a very different approach in education, or at least the perspective of education.

My first host family Büchters (right), me in the middle, and current (2nd) host parents Manfred and Barbara on the left.

A friend of mine who also did the dance course, and who ironically also is named Sonja.

Some friends and I from my class in school who were helping with the course.

I even got to dance with our slightly hilarious dance teacher :) This is afterward, we were 'Salsa-ing' in a circle around the room.

Theresa and I dancing together.

Münchner Franzaise (? spelling)