Day 5: July 16 (#2)

今日は、バディの学校へ行きました。最初は、バディと一緒に授業を受けず、五年生の女の子たちとパソコンを使ってロボットを操作しました。このようなことをするのは初めてだったので私にはとても難しかったです。でも、周りを見渡したら五年生の子たちは簡単にロボットを操作していて驚きました。日本の小学校ではこのようなことをしないので、国によって教育の違いがあるとあらためて感じました。そのあとはバディの授業を一緒に受け、みんなそれぞれの意見を自由に発言していてとても良い環境だと思いました。
学校が終わり、友達と集まって大勢で湖に泳ぎに行きました。その湖は人工でできていてとてもきれいな水でした。そこで初めてドイツの湖などでは女の人は日焼けをするために上半身裸で過ごしても良いとバディから聞いて私はカルチャーショックを受けました。日本では考えられないことだったので文化の違いに大変驚きました。
この後はバディの友達の家でバーベキューをしました。そこで、肉を焼く前に生野菜が出てきて、みんなクリームをつけて食べていました。日本ではそのように食べないので最初は戸惑いがありましたが、食べてみたらとても美味しかったです。さまざまな食事に挑戦することは大切だと思いました。
ありさ

Today I went to my home stay buddy’s school. In the first few hours at school, I didn’t take class with my buddy and instead I took a computer class with fifth grade girls. We worked on a robot with a computer and it was my first time, so it was very hard for me.
However, as I looked around the classroom the fifth grade girls were working on their robot smoothly so it surprised me very much. In Primary schools in Japan, students don’t get a chance to do such things so I really felt the difference in the education between countries. After this, I went to my buddy’s class and there everyone was able to speak freely and I thought it was a very good environment to be in.
After school, I met with friends and went to the lake. The lake was a manmade lake so it was very clean. There were many women who were not wearing bikini tops and I wondered why they weren’t and asked my buddy and she told me that in Germany it is legal for women to not wear bikini tops at any lake. I was so surprised of the difference of culture because in Japan you would be arrested for taking of bikini tops.
After that, I went to a barbecue with my buddy. There, before we started eating the meat, raw vegetables were served and everyone was eating it with cream. In Japan, we don’t have food like that so I hesitated to eat it at first, but when I tried it, it tasted delicious. I thought that it is important to try many kinds of food.

Alisa