Hey y’all,
My name is Manuel Rau and this is my second report from the Virginia Episcopal School. I wrote this report in English because I think that is better for both sides. Now the first trimester here at VES is over and things are going their regular way now. I think, now I got a bit of a feeling how the rest of this year is going to be. There are some very positive things to say, but also some things you should be aware of, which are maybe not expected in that way or which are a bit different from your picture that you already got from different people. For example here you have very little free time, where you can decide what you want to do, especially during the week. You have a day which is full with all kind of stuff you have to do like classes, sport or afternoon activity or study hall. On the other hand, here it’s impossible to get bored. There are so many things you can try or do. For example when you are very sporty you can always go in the weight lifting or in one of the two gyms and play basketball or soccer or whatever you want to. Or you can go in one of the launches and play pool or ping pong or just chill out with your friends and talk about the day or just nonsense. When to do such things when you have so less time per day? There is always time for such little things like talking or playing pool, for example after dinner or after school. It is not much, but it’s enough for such things. Moreover as a German student you always have certain acting space. For example during study hall you can talk to your friends in their rooms, when the other students have to study. These are special German rules.
Another difficult thing is homework. At the beginning there seems to be a huge wave of work that you have to do. Sometimes it is very exhausting and it seems to be exaggerated. But that’s only at the beginning. It’s getting better both the time that you need for your homework and the quantity of the work you have to do. But the good thing about homework is that you really learn something here. For example in AP Calculus we went through all the stuff which is covered in the 11th grade in Germany in the first trimester, and even a bit further. So the standard of education is not as low as you maybe think it is.
The only thing that I really miss here is the alternation. You can hardly do something spontaneous for example visiting a friend for a weekend or so. You always have to plan things way before doing it. But therefore you can do some things on weekends, like going out for dinner or watching a movie in the movie theater. What is also maybe a bit different from the picture that you already got from many different people, is the dimension of the school. You maybe think, that this is not very big and so not so good but therefore you have a much more familiar atmosphere here than in on of the bigger schools. Here, everybody knows everyone which is pretty helpful at the beginning when you are a new student at the school.
When you have any more questions about the school, don’t hesitate to contact me. My email address is: mrau@ves.org just write me an email and I will answer as soon as possible.