German kids have more fun than American kids.

Another week of school went by, fairly fast I should add. I went to a trial tennis training session on Monday, which was a blast. I was sick for the entire week, but I think I am pretty much over it now. After missing a day of school on Tuesday, I didn't know what to do as far as excusing my absence, and I'm not quite sure if it is completely settled or not. On Thursday I went to a barbecue party that the class threw for a student because she is leaving to New Zealand for a year. On Saturday, I stayed up until 2 with my Heiko (host brother) watching Dawn of the Dead (the original version is called "Zombies in Kaufhaus" in German, which means zombies in shopping mall). I gave him a bag of honest to god American cheetos, they were smuggled in by one of my connections in America (her name is "wow" upside-down). Cheetos are one of the few American things that haven't found there way into the German market.

Enough about me, this week's topic is "German kids have more fun than American kids."

This doesn't have anything to do with the lower drinking age, or the abundance of dance clubs, or the easy to use public transit systems, this point is purely based on the cool playstructures in German playgrounds. If you are reading this from a country other than USA, you might want to know that most playgrounds in America lack any really fun things because of liability issues.

To start, German playgrounds all contain the basics: swings, slides, castles, etc. The first time I went to a German playground was a few weeks ago with some other people from the language camp. The playground had this one thing that three people could stand on top of, it was balanced on a couple of strings, AND it spun around really fast if somebody pushed it. Once it was spinning, there was no chance of getting off safely, and the only thing you could do was to hold on to the metal pole in the middle for your dear life.

Another example of German playground fun-ness is the monster of a play spider-web that belongs to the school next to mine. I can see it out of the window I sit next to, it's huge! I have seen a few spider web playstructures here and there, but this one was a 3-D tower of ropes and knots, with little platforms placed randomly to sit on. For some reason, almost every time we have class in the classroom that has a view of the spider web, there are kids playing on it, and it always looks like alot of fun. I was reminded of why American playgrounds are so bland when I kid slipped and fell pretty far down, prompting a crowd of other kids and a teacher to come swarming in. In America, the spider web would have been gone the next day, but alas, it still stands!

Yesterday, I went with Heiko (host brother) and his friend Dennis to a park in a forest. Scattered around in the woods were little obstacle courses and forts, all built completely out of logs, planks, and nails, only the seats on the sings were made of plastic. One of the structures there was a simple log fort with a little staircase on one side, but the other three sides had an assortment of logs and fallen trees that led to the top that you could climb, if you had good enough balance, to the top of the fort.

After that we went to a playground that had a big, double-cone shaped rope thing that you could crawl inside of, and then it could spin, making for a pretty frightening experience.

Another German playground staple, at least in school playgrounds, is the ping pong table. The tables lack any moving parts like a removeable net, or foldability, and they are made solid with cement and metal, so they last through whatever school kids want to do with them. All you need is your own ping pong paddle and ball, and you can play pretty much anywhere.

Hopefully I will encounter some more crazy playgrounds with some new structures, I will keep you updated!

Tell me what you want! What should I write about? Post a comment and let me know! (I know, I know, MORE PICTURES)