When coming to Germany I had a lot of expectations. I expected to see Berlin more as a city but I never thouhght  Berlin would be so green. They really care about the environment, they have containers where you can pretty much recycle anything. I knew they go crazy when watching a soccer match but when I saw the game on Monday I was very surprise because they go over board. (they celebrate more than Mexicans). I expected them to drink a lot but most of them know their limit but others drink to the point where they can't walk any more. When I went to their school for the first time I expected to see really strict teachers. But most of them are laid back I thinks it's because they only have a few weeks left of school. For example we were just watching The Hangover 3 for 2 class periods. Also the teachers dress really casual and they even show their tattoos but there's other that are strict no matter what. I thought their school only had 3 grades but they their school has 5th grade to 13th grade. I expected them to eat a lot of bread I was right about that but I didn't know they took breakfast seriously. They also like sit down and eat with the family back home we don't really do this because everyone is doing their own thing and we don't have the time to eat as a family. I really thought that they were going to have more technology in their school. When I walked in for the first time to Marie's classroom the only things I saw were a chalkboar, a map of Germany, and tables with chairs. They don't have a computer in each classroom for the teachers or smartboards. It think it's very odd to see just a plain room. One thing that surprised the more was to find out that they do their grades by paper it's kinda difficult to explain but I'll try. Each teacher has to put the grades into their students report card and they do this by hand so if they have 7 classes, 7 different teachers have to mark the grades. After this is done with every single student I think they record it in a computer. They also cancel school when it gets too hot which I found it to be pretty cool. Why can't we do this in Arkansas!! I knew they didnt have Wal-Marts but I expected to see markets as big as Wal-Mart but they are really small. One thing that caught my attention was that the cashiers get to sit down and you also have to pay for the plastic bags or you can bring your own and you are in charge of packing your groceries. The past 2 weeks have been the best weeks of my life. We did so many things we also visited a lot of awesome places. I also got to meet new people and I feel that our friendship is going to last. I might get to see Marie and her father during the fall since they are going to the states. This is the main reason why I don't really feel sad because I know I'm going to see them in a few months.