Field Trip

Class 10e got to go on a field trip to Bonn today, to visit the museum of German history post WWII. There were about 17 of us students (there should have been 20, but the cold has been going around) and the head teacher. We took the Rhine-Express to Bonn, about a 2 hour train ride, then took the subway to the museum.

The visit to the museum was entirely in German, so I didn't learn much. Herr Schoch gave me a pamphlet describing exhibits in the museum depicting American-German relations. The most interesting exhibit was the model of the international space station. I wanted to take a picture, but found out (the hard way) that we are not supposed to take pictures in the museum. One would think that is obvious, since the majority of all museums don't permit pictures, not only those in Europe. Yet here I even the things I know seem unfamiliar and awkward.

We had the option of two trains back, one at 3 or 4. The class opted for the later one, so after the tour through the museum we had an hour and a half of free time in Bonn. I went with Kira, Melanie, and Karla, even when they decided to go to McDonalds for lunch. Jutta had packed me lunch: salami on wheat bread, joghurt, an apple. My three companions found the irony of an American eating healthy food and Germans eating fast food quite amusing.

The bad side of waiting for the later train is that it was during rush, so there were no seats. I spent a portion of the train ride calculating by hand how many days we'd lose a year because of the inaccuracy of the clock in the train station in Bonn. When the second hand reached 12, the clock would take three seconds to move the minute hand once, then the second hand would resume its journey around the face until it reached 12 again. The final figure, for one year, was 18 days, 4 hours, and 48 minutes.

Hannah came over with an English-German book later: Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." She made me read the German side out loud, and then she would read the German, then attempt the English. It was fun, creepy as "The Raven" is.