Today I had to get up at 6:30 in order to catch the U-Bahn, that German equivalent of the subway that also goes above ground. It’s kind of incredible how much better the public transportation is in Germany than it is in the US: in Frankfurt and surrounding areas there’s a bus/”subway” station within a walkable distance of basically everywhere. As a result, the roads are way less congested than the city roads of the US. There’s also a lot of respect on the road for pedestrians and bikers, with dedicated and independent crossing lights for both. Once we got to the school, I attended Rechnungswesen with Victor (my exchange partner), a class that’s oriented specifically towards making and keeping accurate financial records. It was very practical, looking at real-world possibilities as class material. After a warm welcome from the Feldbergschule “Kaiser,” Matthew and I gave a presentation on driving in the US; the German students were astounded that we only had to pay around $20 to get our licenses as opposed to the thousands of euros they had to. After that, the whole CA exchange group went on a tour of Oberursel, during which we looked at a lot of the (pictured) landmarks of the city. What was interesting to me was the historical significance of some of the seemingly straightforward monuments: one seemingly simple fountain that we went to was actually built in memory of a bank owner killed by the RAF (an extreme leftist terrorist group that was active in Germany in the 1970s). After the tour was done, Victor and I ventured to the Nordwestzentrum, a huge mall in Frankfurt. There we ate Döner, which is a Turkish dish popularized in Germany by Turkish immigrants. After that, Victor had to study for his end-of-year math exam, so we ended up ultimately going home pretty early – the end-of-year exams can determine whether or not German students can go to the next grade, so he has good reason to prioritize it. In any case, it was a beautiful day in Oberursel! ~Sebastian