Hamburg, "Studying", and 80 Posts!!

Since I last wrote, I've been to Hamburg twice. The first time was to visit a fellow exchanger and the last was a school trip.

My fist visit was a couple of weekends ago. We did a ton of walking, a bit of shopping and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hamburg. We got ourselves a bit turned around that night while looking for an ice cream shop because of the fog (it turned out to be already closed), but it was a ton of fun and it was great to hang out with one of my friends from the language camp again.

Yesterday, my entire grade went to Hamburg to go to this Dialog im Dunkeln (Dialogue in the Dark) place. It was a really cool experience! There, you can either dine in the dark, or go on these guided tours through different settings in complete darkness. I went with a group of some of my better friends here. We laughed and joked around a lot, which added to the fun. Definitely something I would recommend if you're ever visiting Hamburg!

After that, I walked through Hamburg with my friends. We shopped a bit, took a look at one of the several, what I call "Christmas Market Zones". There didn't seem to be one set area for the market, but it was instead little groupings of the booths and stands. Still pretty cool. I love the way Germans light up the streets for Christmas in the cities. So beautiful!

Also, I have to make a comment on the German word for "to study (for a test)" which is "lernen". This is also can be translated as "to learn", and I feel that translation fits better. I've survived a number of German tests, and have come to the conclusion that German students really do have to "learn" for them, and not "study". It feels like they have to teach themselves a lot of the material. I mean, sure, the teacher does their job and presents the material, demonstrates how to do the problems and gives a bit of homework now and then, but the homework is almost never checked, and the students are otherwise on their own to really learn and become familiar with the material. They're a lot less spoon-fed than my classmates in America. I'm still getting used to that!

This is my 80th post!! Wow, not too long and I'll hit the 100 mark! I don't know, I guess I'm kind of impressed with myself. It's the small things, right?

Bis später!