![myschool gear myschool gear](https://www.thelearninglab.com.sg/content/dam/tll/blog/2017/content-piece-05-02.jpg)
We started off early with a 9 hour bus ride, driving through Austria on our way to Italy. The next day, we traveled to Italy for a week-long ski trip. The other highlight was the town's Christmas Market, which was quite quaint. I have included a picture of (a quarter of) the big one. To store this wine, they had many casks, including the two that still survive, the SMALLEST of which can hol d over 200,000 litres (~50, 000 US gal.)! Unfortunately, we were informed that we could not sample the region's wine. As a result, the 700 people who lived and/or worked in the castle received 2 litres of wine ea ch, per day. The Prince received 10% of the wine produced in the region, as a tax. Some highlights of this trip through Heidelberg included what wa s left of the castle, especially two wine casks in the basement.
![myschool gear myschool gear](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--vHjLGmYGIM/T_uvvP4eg3I/AAAAAAAAIcY/bUDF7YY61n8/s640/PetShop3_DSC_0416.jpg)
I, however, continued on Saturday morning to meet with another district in Baden-Wüttemberg, where we started off with a tour of a town, Heidelberg, where the Prince formerly lived, before having his castle nearly levelled by the French, and relocating to nearby Mannheim. We esse ntially consumed our tim e by chatting and playing little games, since the activities were planned f or Saturday. The first evening was a Rotex meeting of all the exchange students in our district, which took place in Troisdorf, a little town south of Cologne. As a result, kids from 10 to 19 years old end up together in one school, which has advantages and in the eyes of the "Oberstufe" (Upper Classmen), only disadvantages.Ī few days after m oving in with this family, I left for a week. In Germany, the children do 4 years of Elementary School, before being split into "Gymnasium" (top lev el), "Hauptschule" (medium) and "Realschule" (essentially for kids with severe learning difficulties). The only boy, Timo, is 11, and attends my school, and the youngest, Pia, who is 9, is in her final year of Grundschule, "Ground School" or Elementary School. They have three children, the oldest, Anja, is 12, and sh e attends a Catholic girls private school. She is currently just a housewife, which seems to be very popular in Germany. The mother's name is Jelka, she is an immigrant from Bosnia, who arrived in Germany 14 years ago. The family's name is Voßenkaul, the father is Klaus, a Doctor (Ph.D.), an engineer specializing in water purification membrane technology, a field in which he founded a company and patented a product. At the start of the month, I moved into a new house, a few minutes from my first host family.