I am jealous of German schoolchildren

My elder daughter is 14, and most of her friends are about the same age. They do normal Australian sports lessons at school: netball, basketball, AFL, cross-country running, field hockey, and that sort of thing. It is a bit more pleasant that the sport I had to do at school in England: rugby in the sleet, cross-country running in the sleet, and field hockey in the sleet. Sport at my school sucked.

But one of my daughter's friends moved to Düsseldorf a few years ago. Her mum's German, and she goes to a normal German government-run school. When my friends from school moved away, we lost touch, but with the wonders of modern technology, my daughter and her friend are still in regular touch through video calls and text chatting.

So they were talking about school sports this week. You get a choice of things to do at schools in Germany. Many of Lena's friends are doing horseback archery, because of course that's a thing.

But not Lena. She is doing motor racing. As her school sport. They do both rally and circuit racing.

In a couple of weeks, Lena has to do her big semester assignment. She and her classmates will get a bus for two hours. And then they'll each do a series of timed laps of the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

For their school assignment.

I reiterate: I had to play rugby in the sleet. Lena does timed laps of the Nordschleife.

 

I'm guessing if it's "little Canada", when you say "hockey" you mean "ice hockey".

For us, it was field hockey. Although it was often on a frozen pitch. Still a rough sport, though: I slipped a disc playing it.

Either way, not as much fun as car racing, I think.

We're only a day's flight away. You should come. It's lovely.