You read the title correct! We had school today because this was the day when 4th-graders, and their parents, around Hilden check out which "Gymnasium" they want to go to next year for 5th grade. School was from 8:00 AM - 12:45 PM. The nice part about this is that it adds as a part of our week off in March for "Karneval" (a very festive occasion in my state, North Rhine-Westphalia; I'll say more when the time comes).
The upcoming blog entries I make will be much more interesting (sorry for no photos). The weekend after my birthday, February 13th - 18th, I'll be in Munich with my organization's "half-way" retreat. On January 31st, I have my 1st International German Fluency Exam. Aside from school here, I attend additional courses from an international language association (in every other non-German speaking country, it's called GOETHE Institute, and in German-speaking countries, Volkshochschule). There are six levels of fluency: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. If someone passes the exam with a C2-level completion certificate, it means they can speak their second language natively. The one for me next week is A2, and at the end of June (I leave in early July) will be my B1 exam (please wish me luck!).
Something else that's new is that as of January 1st, 2011, there is no more mandatory six-month military attendance for boys following their "high school" graduation. Other than that, be sure to enjoy President Obama's State of the Union Address on January 25th, 8:00 PM (CST). (This was where we got to see him, as Pages, a whole year ago, standing on the U.S. House Floor!)
