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You know what we don't have enough of in the States? People en masse. I mean, sure, we have people, but everyone goes around hermeutically sealed in their private cars--a whole minivan for 2-3 people--and so you only ever see the small group of people you deign to associate with.
Sure, the er, higher-class folks than us (because we're Foreigners and Unpermanents) drive cars here--but they also ride buses sometimes. And everyone definitely rides bikes, walks the streets downtown, and all show up to city festivals, which are frequent. It makes me want to take a video camera and just walk down the sidewalk to get a cross sampling. Or on the bus. Friday night at 7:30 means teen guys ready to go party, quieter college students who may also be going off to party, but without making a spectacle of themselves, scads of Muslim woman fresh from mosque? with multicolored scarves flowing in the crossbreeze of the windows, square-faced, very earnest-looking middle-aged men who look like they wouldn't know a sense of humor if it bit them, a few families going home with strollers and tired children, couples with shopping bags from the mall... Languages mixing, with most of the German in dialect, even that spoken by the teens (jo instead of ja, etc.) Some of the people look like they are seriously not healthy in the head, whereas others, even if their personal style is far removed from your own, you suspect you might have some sparks of interest in common with them (and it could be the scarved Turkish woman ahead of you as well as the dyed and tattooed 20-somethings behind you, neither one on the surface similar to the American mom with all the kids). So my happy thought for Friday in general is, isn't it cool that we live on a planet with so many interesting people?
As to the proud mama bit, today was the day the fourth graders got their official transfer report cards (Uebertrittszeugnis). 1 is the best grade, 6 is the worst. You need a 2.66 to get into the middle track, called Realschule, and a 2.33 to get into the top (university) track, Gymnasium. Well, my kid who has been here just shy of two years, who never went to a German school before and who had to learn an entirely new language and still do his homework, and battle bullies at the same time, has a GPA of TWO. (Remember, the numbers are reversed here, so that's better than a 2.33.) That means that he has a free pass to ANY school in this country he wants to go to, without even counting any extra points he might be awarded for starting late in a German school, and without sitting on the line and having to take a test to see if he can squeeze his way in.
Okay. So now we're leaving this country. But as far as I can tell, life in our family means more moves to Germany are in our future, so we're hanging on to that paper! And if we end up in any school in the States that is funny about having kids "tested" to see if they're "gifted" (sorry--Gift = poison in German, so that term always sounds funny to me now), we can show them this. You can't get any better recommendation here than this. So yay for my kid!
Sure, the er, higher-class folks than us (because we're Foreigners and Unpermanents) drive cars here--but they also ride buses sometimes. And everyone definitely rides bikes, walks the streets downtown, and all show up to city festivals, which are frequent. It makes me want to take a video camera and just walk down the sidewalk to get a cross sampling. Or on the bus. Friday night at 7:30 means teen guys ready to go party, quieter college students who may also be going off to party, but without making a spectacle of themselves, scads of Muslim woman fresh from mosque? with multicolored scarves flowing in the crossbreeze of the windows, square-faced, very earnest-looking middle-aged men who look like they wouldn't know a sense of humor if it bit them, a few families going home with strollers and tired children, couples with shopping bags from the mall... Languages mixing, with most of the German in dialect, even that spoken by the teens (jo instead of ja, etc.) Some of the people look like they are seriously not healthy in the head, whereas others, even if their personal style is far removed from your own, you suspect you might have some sparks of interest in common with them (and it could be the scarved Turkish woman ahead of you as well as the dyed and tattooed 20-somethings behind you, neither one on the surface similar to the American mom with all the kids). So my happy thought for Friday in general is, isn't it cool that we live on a planet with so many interesting people?
As to the proud mama bit, today was the day the fourth graders got their official transfer report cards (Uebertrittszeugnis). 1 is the best grade, 6 is the worst. You need a 2.66 to get into the middle track, called Realschule, and a 2.33 to get into the top (university) track, Gymnasium. Well, my kid who has been here just shy of two years, who never went to a German school before and who had to learn an entirely new language and still do his homework, and battle bullies at the same time, has a GPA of TWO. (Remember, the numbers are reversed here, so that's better than a 2.33.) That means that he has a free pass to ANY school in this country he wants to go to, without even counting any extra points he might be awarded for starting late in a German school, and without sitting on the line and having to take a test to see if he can squeeze his way in.
Okay. So now we're leaving this country. But as far as I can tell, life in our family means more moves to Germany are in our future, so we're hanging on to that paper! And if we end up in any school in the States that is funny about having kids "tested" to see if they're "gifted" (sorry--Gift = poison in German, so that term always sounds funny to me now), we can show them this. You can't get any better recommendation here than this. So yay for my kid!
