Just When I Think I Get German High School...

So I'm walking into school this Wednesday, just a normal day, and I'll admit that generally speaking WEDNESDAYS ARE RELATIVELY AWFUL!!

I say that for a couple reasons:
1. I have to wake up at 5 so I can make my train and be there for the first hour of class
2. I have a year 9 class (Imagine yourself in 9th grade...now stop please, you're annoying those around you already)
3. I am there until the 8th hour (that's like 3:30)
4. I have a H U G E stretch of nothing at all in the middle, but it's not huge enough for me to go home and nap.

Now, I'll stop there and say I love my students; they're all smart as a whip and charming, and the year 12s that I have right after the year 9s TOTALLY make the first 2 hours of the day worth it, but still...it's a trying day, not one to easily open you up for moments of whIMsY, that's for sure.

But this week has been a little different. If you're American, you'll remember Spirit Days from high school, where the student body gears up for a big game with themes like "Dress Like a Twin Day" or something:


Thank you, picture from junior year of high school

Turns out that the year 13s, the big dogs on campus here, have something similar called "MOTTO WEEK," but it's a bit less coordinated. The first day was some theme so small that I didn't even notice it happening (since this whole "80s clothes" thing took off I am so lost), but Tuesday was "Backwards Day," which I learned after quietly telling a few of the more clumsily dressed that "Honey, your shirt is on inside out...did you dress in a hurry this morning?" Cute.

Then came Wednesday (see? All tangents lead back to SOMETHING), and everyone has dressed like they've lost their g-d foresaken minds! Observe, my debate class:

I only asked for permission from 2 of them to show their faces,
so I've edited out the others just to be safe

One very sedate girl came in with a fake flower in her hair (this was like ME taking part in spirit days in high school), one girl came in 80s-to-the-MAX (the tights), and then were my two favorites:


Yes, y'all, that's a real Stetson, bought in Austin.

There's an explanation for the boy, he did an exchange year in the US playing football near the Texas-Arkansas border, where he apparently picked up southern style, football playing ability and an accent that is a continuing source of confusion and frustration amongst his Anglophone teachers ("I simply don't understand why he cannot pronounce his words!"). He showed up wearing boots, a hat, and, well, you see. Then there's this girl. She's pulling off a Grandma Clampet kind of look for the German set, complete with a wig. I was very proud of her.

She did NOT, rest assured, dress the same way for the "CEOs and Secretarial Hoes" day.

Nope...just...nope

The word used for the girls was "Tussies," and, while it was shocking to see some of the girls with makeup troweled on (the students who are most like me, and therefore who I most like, considered eye liner, mascara, and a knee-length skirt Tussie-like), some of the girls wore the VERY high heels a little too well. One of the teachers in training, a great dude from France origionally, put it PERFECTLY when he said

Zhees girls weel keep zhees day forevehr. For zhem, zhey come to school Monday, zhey are steel Tussies.