.
* Music *
Gabby and her family live in Wiesbaden.
And they often compare the German city to America.
I think Wiesbaden looks way nicer than a typical American subdivision.
In a normal neighborhood, most of the houses
will be almost exactly the same, and that is not fun for anybody.
And here, everything is different,
and it's all intricate and pretty and stuff.
And almost every single building is different like one way or another.
* Music *
So, two laps around and then the first one to touch my hand wins.
Are you sure? - Positive. Go.
Gabby and her brother Alex are very competitive.
Today it's the younger one who wins.
Yeah, he wins.
How do you feel?
Horrible. I hate running.
No, it's because she swims and I play soccer and basketball.
That's right. He has running sports.
I swim because I can't do anything else.
* Music *
Gabby is a member of an American swim team in Germany.
And she does pretty well.
She's a gold level swimmer in all disciplines.
I just swim because I need exercise.
And it's a good sport if you're clumsy.
Sorry.
You don't break many bones during swim practice.
Of course the whole training is in English.
Good job, Gabby. Please come out for a second, OK?
All right.
When you're swimming freestyle, instead of coming in like this,
you want to come in over the top and enter way out here.
Gabby's family has to move every two to three years,
because her dad works for the US military.
Gabby has to make new friends all the time.
It's a hassle, because once I make friends,
we end up having to move again.
Some of my friends, our whole families are friends.
So sometimes they try to get a house near us once we move,
but other times it's still really hard
and I have to make a whole new friends.
It's just... inconvenient.
Street names on the US military compound in Wiesbaden.
The biggest in Germany.
Many American families live here.
And there is even an American High School.
A touch of America in the heart of Germany.
Today Gabby is attending her German class.
I have chosen German class,
because I want to know more about the language.
It's a cool language.
And that way, if I go out shopping or something,
then I can tell what people are saying to me.
* Music: Xavier Naidoo "Dieser Weg" *
The teacher is a big fan of German music
and often uses songs in his classes.
Go ahead and circle or highlight, underline every verb form
that you see.
Wie wäre es schon mit Gabby?
1. Satz, welches Verb siehst du denn da?
Ging.
Ging. Wunderbar. Gut gemacht.
It's hard to actually say the words,
but I can understand more than I can say.
After German, Gabby sets off to her next class.
On the way, she picks up her books from her locker.
Gabby often has to change rooms, because it's the teachers,
not the students who have their own rooms.
Every student has their own locker, because the teachers, some of them,
don't let you use backpacks in class.
And so we keep all our stuff in the lockers.
Once a month Gabby and her dad compare their favorite music.
In public.
You're gonna be listening to the Generation Gap.
With DJ El Guapo. - And DJ Double G.
Very good. What do you have planned for us tonight there, DJ Double G?
A lot of fantastic music.
Father and daughter have been hosting a radio show
on German radio for over a year.
In English.
I really like having a radio show.
And at my school most people don't really know about it.
And so my friend she was flipping through radio stations one night
and she just stumbled upon this radio station.
She heard my voice and she was like: I know that person.
After a few seconds she was like: Oh, it's Gabby.
And then she confronted me the next day.
She walked up to me and she was like: Hey, DJ Double G.
And I just turned back to her, I was like: Wow.
That was Nirvana with "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
So back to earlier where you took all the credit
for me being awesome.
I'm OK with that. Me and your mama.
I just got a comment from an outside source.
From an independent source?
They said that I am not misguided thanks to their influence.
And that it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her.
Here we go. Here's your next one.
Gabby's family enjoys comparing things.
Music in the radio show, and at home, German and American food.
A special family event.
So I am making sandwiches so that we can test the different mustards.
We're going to test different yoghurts, soup, pretzels,
jelly, peanut butter, cookies.
And we have the American and the German equivalent
of all of these items.
We're going to put them in cups, blindfold the kids,
and they're going to tell us which one they like better.
We're going to see who wins.
* Music *
A blind test just for fun.
But which country's food does Gabby like most?
OK, Gabby, Alex, Juan.
The taste test is over.
Do you guys want to know your statistics? - Yes.
This was really fun.
And I sort of did expect it like this.
Because I like German food.
And Alex likes American food.
And my dad doesn't really have a preference. So...
I like food. - In general.
I like food in general, so I figured that it would be the same.
Gabby found a really good friend in Wiesbaden.
Chayenne, who is half American
but lives in Germany on a permanent basis.
They do all sorts of things together.
Including capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts dance.
As this is a German club, capoeira classes are taught in German.
A linguistic challenge for Gabby.
Arm bleibt vorne.
Luft raus.
Danach in die Ginga-Position, der Arm ist zum Decken da.
Du guckst zu deinem Partner.
A lot of the time I do,
because he accompanies it with actions.
Like if there's a special type of kick, called Martello or something,
he'll say Martello and then he'll do the kick that we're supposed to do.
So I'll understand it through his actions get to understand the words.
Gabby likes living in Wiesbaden.
She would like to stay here and does her best to improve
her German language skills all the time.
She even thinks the ice cream tastes better here.
I like to think that Germany is my home.
But I still speak English so it's kind of hard.
And it would be really nice if Germany was my home,
because I really like it here.
Subtitles: WDR mediagroup digital GmbH on behalf of WDR
Copyright WDR 2015