Day 3: July 14 (English)

This is the English version of the report of the Day 3 by Takahiro, Natsuyo and Anna.


After the breakfast, we had our presentation checked, ready to show it to the students in Grafing on Thursday. Before lunch, Anna, Akiho, Shia, Arisa went to buy some Japanese food by going on train all by ourselves. We bought some ingredients for Yakisoba, Miso soup and some snacks to eat after dinner with the Grafing students.
Before going on the train, we had a toilet break at the Hauptbanhof, the central station, and we had a very weird experience. There are no toilets unless there is a restaurant or a café on the floor. We walked for about ten minutes just to find the toilet, and finally found one. However, it wasn’t free. A guy who worked for the toilet actually led us into the girl’s bathroom and explained that we had to pay 50 cent. He opened the door for us, and when we had difficulties to flush the toilet, he did it for us. It was actually very shocking. Maybe it is for us to refrain from using common resources like a tap water.
Finally, we went on the train, ready to head off to Grafing. First we had a school tour, and we were amazed: Grafing consists of 1400 students in total and 100 teachers. They have three big gyms, a theatre, and a piece of Berlin wall from World War II.
We were surprised at the system there: in Germany, they cancel the afternoon classes when the temperature goes over 30 degrees, because they do not have any air conditioner.
At around five O’ clock, we started to cook our dinner. It took us about an hour to 20 servings, worried if everyone will like it. At seven O’ clock, we headed to the theatre to watch a play called Nackte Tatsachen. Though we did not understand the script at all, since we knew the basic summary of the story, we were able to have fun by watching their acts. However, the play was structured in to three parts, and each Act was an hour long, and since we were very tired and some students were living far away, we had to leave Grafing before Act 2.
Overall comments regarding Germany:
In Germany, Mineral Water means carbonate water: when we want to drink normal water, we have to order it specially, by calling it Stilleswassar (Still Water). And since Germany is concerned about environments, we get some money paid back when we return pet bottles after we finish drinking. It’s for them to recycle.