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Hello from Neuss!
Our group consists of 11 students between 14 and 16 years. We are in 9th and 10th grade. 3 teachers also take part.

Public schools in Germany
There are 4 different types of high schools in German: Gymnasium, Realschule, Hauptschule, and Gesamtschule. Our school is a Gymnasium. A Gymnasium is no hall for doing sports; it's like we have already said, a type of high school. After elementary school people who have chosen the Gymnasium have to go there for 9 more years to graduate. After this you have the opportunity to study. There are 3 special things about Marie-Curie-Gymnasium. First we have so-called bilingual branch. The subjects geography, politics and history are taught in English. Our school is known for its active work in saving the environment. And the third thing is the so called DQ (double qualification) in chemistry. This is a special training as a chemical assistant, parallel to receiving the high school diploma.

City
Neuss is located in Western Germany, near the Rhine in the federal state North Rhine- Westphalia. The Belgian and Dutch borders are not far away. The next bigger cities are Dusseldorf and Cologne. Our city is one of the oldest cities in Germany. 2000 years ago the Romans founded the so called "Castra novesia" and that's why it is called Neuss today. 140,000 inhabitants live here. We have a great harbour and our landmark sign is the "Quirinus Munster", and old church downtown.

Some Geographical Facts
Neuss is situated at the longitude of 6° 40' E and the latitude of 51° 13' N. Compared to St. Paul, Neuss lies 7° further north. The distance to St. Paul is about 7830 km or 4949 miles. Neuss has got a temperate climate influenced by the warm gulf stream. The average temperature in January is slightly above 0° C, so our winters are about 10° warmer compared to St. Paul. Time difference between St. Paul and Neuss is 7 hours.

The main waterways around here
The biggest river, flowing directly next to Neuss is the Rhine. It comes from the Swiss Alps and empties into the Dutch part of the North Sea. Typically for Neuss is the Erft, a small river originating in a local mountain range, called Eiffel, leading through Neuss into the Rhine. An artificial waterway is the so called "Nordkanal", built by Napoleon. One of the most important industrial sights of Neuss is our inland port, which is the second biggest in Germany. It consists of five big harbour basins. Next to the harbour lies a natural reservation, called "Olganginsel."

Water
Here is a short summary of the topics related to water that we have discussed so far.