fun information...

I thought I'd share a few more tasty morsels with you that I've jotted down while being here.

1.  there's not really a school lunch - most kids go home for about an hour or so to eat lunch.  those who don't hang out at school with a lunch that they've brought from home, but they're usually pretty good about maintaining a sense of order while they're not in class.
2.  there's no census in Germany - ever since the whole WWII/Holocaust thing, I think they're afraid of "counting" people and ethnic groups.
3.  speaking of ethnic groups - there's a lot of diversity in Germany (you probably wouldn't think that'd be the case.)  the major minority ethnic group is the Turks - in Stuttgart about 40% of the population is Turkish.  chew on that one for a minute....
4.  "Das ist verboten!" - everything is "forbidden" in Germany.  there are TONS of rules - how to cross the street, where to put your trash, what not to do while crossing a bridge - its very interesting.  we see the word "verboten" EVERYWHERE.
5.  pencil boxes - all the students have them...girls AND boys.  i think its interesting that while MY students rarely have ANYTHING to write with...German students always have multiple things to write with.