Difference between German schooling and American Schooling

In Germany, everyone here seems a bit more relaxed and free.  In our schools, everyone always seems uptight or stressed about something, but it isn't that way in Germany.  Everyone always seems like they have a handle on things.  The school systems, and culture around schooling and children is completely different between our two nations.  In Germany, everyone seems very relaxed and friendly.  Everyone is not scared of something horrible happening at the schools, or someone coming and kidnapping their child while he/she is walking to school that day.  Everyone seems to have their own set of things that they need done that day and they get it done.  It is entirely different in America.  In our schools, most people take naps during classes, or talk during classes.  They don't do this in Germany.  If someone were to be caught sleeping in class, they get punished much more harshly than they do in America.  In America, parents could never trust a little kid around age 7 to be able to take multiple buses and get to school safely, but everyday I see it happening.  The entire atmosphere of the school is different in Germany.  Before this year, our school had a very open campus feeling, and I personally loved it.  It is the same way in Germany.  Here, people are able to leave the school and do whatever they want in between classes.  As long as they show up to the next class at the scheduled time, the teachers don't care what they do.  It is not like that at all in our schools.  Everyday,  I have 4 free periods (including lunch), and I always find myself wanting to leave school and go to Burger King or a pizza place, but if I were to do that, I could get detentions or maybe even a suspension.  In Germany, they don't care what you do, as long as you show up to class on time, and I love that!  The schooling here seems much more relaxed, and sometimes that is a bad thing, but at the same time, they get things done, and they are learning things that are on the same level as what I was learning in that grade level.  I understand that the whole culture of our countries is far different; we live in a much more dangerous place than they, but why can't some schools try adapting this way of life? It seems to work very well for them (the school that I am staying at has some of the highest testing scores in all of Germany).  It may not work for a school like ours, being so close to Wilmington or Newark, but I think that this view on schooling may not be too bad.

Jack and the Giants

Today, before our next class started in Germany, some friends and I decided that we would go to the movie theater and watch a movie to pass the time.  The only movie available at the time was "Jack and the Giants". I had heard of the movie from previews, and I figured: "Why not, this movie couldn't be that bad". I don't think I have ever been more wrong in my life.  For the next hour and a half, I sat there watching a poor rendition of Jack and the beanstalks.  The movie was made for a much younger audience, and that was apparent.  During the movie, I found myself wondering how much time was left, and I found myself more willing to ride down a slide that the movie theater had installed.  The plot of the story was quite similar to the tale of Jack and the beanstalks, but they took a much different approach to it than I would have expected.  The movie tried focusing a great deal on the giants, but it never went to deep with explaining anything about the giants.  It was just obvious that there was a leader and some minions.  The entire movie seemed rather drawn out, and it was apparent that the director tried taking a movie that should have only been 45 minutes, and making it into an hour and a half movie.  This movie was a complete waste of my time in my mind, and I most certainly do not recommend it to anyone in the future.  However, German movie theaters do have very good slushy machines.

Mixtapes that artists make

Many artists start off their career making mixtapes and posting them online.  These mixtapes are almost always free to the general public, and they are generally very well done.  These artists almost never start off with a record deal, so they start with mixtapes to hope and get their names out there.  Recently, I have been downloading a lot of mixtapes of my favorite artists, and I must say, some of their work on their mixtapes is far better than their work on cd's.  For example, I enjoy listening to a rapper by the name of Wale.  He is relatively new, and raps about almost everything in life.  I think a lot of his songs are okay, but recently I started listening to his last mixtape that he made: "More About Nothing".  The mixtape has 20 songs on there, and I find myself listening to about 18 of them on repeat throughout the day.   Many of the songs on this mixtape include clips from the very popular television show Seinfeld, and the clips that he adds to the songs make the songs so much better.  These songs are far greater than any songs he has made while he has been signed onto a record deal and released to be sold.  One song on the mixtape, "The War", speaks to me on a level that not many songs do.  I am not sure what it is about this song, but literally every time I listen to it, I get shivers up and down my spine.  During my plane flight to Germany, I only listened to these songs.  When I landed, I also listened to the music that I purchased through iTunes, and I can hardly listen to those songs anymore.  Now, I find myself wondering, why would an artist who claims to love music and rapping so much, stop trying as hard as he once did when he didn't have a record label backing him up.  Does money really affect the way people try that much?  If money really affects people that much, then I feel like we should almost consider not buying some of their music any more, because from what I have seen, mixtapes tend to be better, and they are free!

For this blog post I am going to talk about the movie Django Unchained.  I recently saw this movie in Germany.  The movie was shown in English with German subtitles for my German friends.  I think the movie was supposed to be a retelling of a dramatic time in our history, but the director took more of a comedic take on the way things should be handled.  At one point in the movie, they were walking through the desert, and calm classical music was playing, then out of nowhere, Rick Ross started playing.  It was completely unseen by everyone in the movie theater.  The Germans did not laugh too much at the music being played, because I don't think they understood what was happening too well.  But, the Americans that I was with were laughing hysterically.  In my mind, this movie was very good.  The director was able to take a very serious topic and make it quit comedic, and tasteful.  However, At points in the movie, I found myself wondering what was happening or why certain things were happening.  The director seemed to go a little too far in some cases.  For instance, in one of the final fighting scenes, one man was repeatedly shot in multiple parts of his body, mainly by his own allied forces.  There was no reason for him to be shot so many times, he did not play a very important role in the movie, he was just there.  I suppose the director just wanted everyone to get a good laugh out of a very serious part in the film, and I would say that it worked out quite well.  In total, I thought that Django Unchained was a very funny film, that was rather tastefully done in all.  The director was able to take multiple big name actors and use them wonderfully to make the best out of the movie.  I would most definitely recommend seeing the film.