1979 School Magazine

mended by weightwatchers. On a revolving turn{able were set out tea, butter, home-made jam, dark and white breads and sometimes a semi-sweet cake. Lunch was usually a pork, fish or poultry dish followed by a dessert and sometimes accompanied by soup. Dinner is a small one of usually bread, sausage and mineral wale]. I went to school at the Herzog-Wolfgang Gymnasium (the equivalent of a grammar school but no fees are paid) with Ursula. Virtually all schools in Germany are public and only a very few select private schools exist. Unlike in Australia, school is usually attended for i3 years and therefore the students are about 1g when they leave school. However, the biggest difference is the fact that school is attended from Monday to Saturday only in the morning. Ursula may have as many as 6lessons in one morning with 5 minute breaks between them, or as few as two. A German secondary school seems to be run a little like a University, there being a more one to one rela- tionship between student and teacher, and a fairly relax- ed atmosphere. Of all my travels in Germany I found Munich especially interesting and have happy memories of outings to the "Hofbrauhaus" (beer house), "Die Alte Residenz" (the old residence of Ludwig l) and the Deutsches Museum. At the beginning of our last week in Germany, the group remet in Bonn, where we each spoke a few words to the "Bundespresident" Mr. Walter Scheel, at a reception, specially held for the Austr:alians and New Zealanders. lncidentally, he appeared to be one of the few Germans who had actually heard of Brisbane, most others having heard of Sydney and Melbourne only. When I said "Auf Wiedersehen" to Germany I meant it because unlike the Australian goodbye, the German "goodbye" has the implication that one day I will be able to visit Germany again. Sophia Lahz, 12E.

MY TRIP TO GERMANY I f lew out of Brisbane on December 9th 1978, as one of two Queensland students destined to spend eleven weeks living in West Germany on a G.A.S.S. (German- Australian Student Exchange Society) scholarship. There were approximately thirtyJive of us from all over Australia, about to brave the f reezing cold in an attempt to learn German, a language which we all soon discovered is not spoken at the rate.of one word per hour. We were all going to stay with a variety of German Jamilies in different parts of Germany. I went to stay with the family of Dr. Christoph Legner, a urologist of Zweibrucken, a small town of about 36,000 inhabitants, 80 miles from Frankfurt. There were four children - Markus 22, Susanne 19, Ursula 17, and Dominic 14. They lived in a large brick two-storey house built at the turn of the century. Many German cities have what is known as a "Fubgangerzone" where people can shop without the worry of cars and Zweibrucken is no exception. Their "Fubgangerzone" is lined on both sides by shops and people can walk leisurely up and down on cobbled pavements. ln Germany the shops are open in the morn- ing and then closed for two hours from noon until 2 o'clock for lunch, before re-opening for business until 6 o'clock. Whenever I walked down the "Fubgangerzone" delicious smells were constantly wafting out of the 3 "Bakerei" as I passed them and I found the cold weather a good excuse to eat "Berliners" (doughnuts) and Ger- man biscuits. When I first arrived I was very surprised to hear that 3 degrees is considered rather warm and although I was practically being ref rigerated, everyone else was prepar- ing for the colder weather yet to come, and believe me it came - f rom a warm 3 degrees on the 31st December to a cool -15 on New Year's Day. At this temperature nothing seems to function properly and it is virtually im- possible to open a car door unless you possess Her- culean strength. The roads become very slippery and the car develops the unnerving habit of slipping from one sidg to the other. We had the hair-raising experience of the Volvo going for a spin into a big snow bank and then we all had to push it out. I was lucky to be in Germany over Christmas and the New Year because this is certainly a time when the dif- terence in culture between an old country such as Ger- many and a comparatively new country such as Australia, is highlighted. At any time, the Germans are very fond of candles but at Christmas there are candles for all occasions - candlq,s for the Advenl wreath, for the'meal table and most importantly for the tree. Christmas seems to have a deeper significance in Ger- many than it does for most Australians, and everything seems very festive. Around this season, there is a never ending stream of cakes, biscuits and large meals. On Christmas Eve, together with presents, we each receiv- ed a platter of German biscuits, and on New Year's Eve, everyone waits up drinking "Feuerzungenwein" (fire tongue wine) and eating biscuits, until midnight when out come the champagne and fireworks. lt's a spectacular sight to see the results of 36,000 people simultaneously setting off fireworks. They believe that at breakfast one should eat like a Kaiser, at lunch like a King, and at dinner like a beggar. A breakfast in Dr. Leugner's home would not be recom-

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