Die Schule / School

Today was a bit of an unusual class session. Instead of our normal lesson, we took a field trip to a nearby Gesamtschule (a combined high school - Germany normally has 3 types of high schools, depending on what you want to do post-graduation). We had a chance to sit in on an English class and help out with their classwork, followed by a Spanish class (THAT was interesting). I still haven't quite figured out what these students are studying exactly - for example, there were plenty of 19-year-olds, and even one 21-year-old. Students seemed to have fewer qualms making fun of their classmates, and the school day ends at different times for different days of the week. Other than that, I didn't notice much else different about German schools vs. American high schools (granted I was there for only a day). There were quite a few friendly students who came up to us to talk after class, but they mostly stayed to themselves. There was an exchange of email addresses, and hopefully we will set up "tandem" language sessions at some point.