First (Real) Day of Class

For the past several semesters, the first day of class has had three or four classes. Today, I had two. But wait, it gets better... My first class was at 12:45. Which, to a student, means I could have slept in until noon. Don't worry, I didn't. But I totally could have. I got up and was actually productive. Before class I went to the ATM to try to get money for the cello I'm renting, but it was an utter fail. I walked up and put my card in and... nothing. The machine acted like I hadn't just put my card in it's cardslot. So I took it out and tried again. Three more time. It didn't work. So I gave up and went back to the Pension and ate lunch, and then went to class at 12:35 (Germans are punctual, so we made sure we would be early). But that wasn't the end of my ATM adventure. After Music History class (several hours later) I decided to try again. So I walked up to the ATM and put in my card, the correct way. Still nothing. Then I proceeded to put in my card all the other possible ways to put my card in the slot. If someone had been standing there watching me, they would have thought me an idiot. At this point I decided I had better go inside and ask for help, which I didn't want to do because I didn't feel like thinking in German, but I did anyway. I was quite surprised when I walked in because it wasn't a bank branch like I thought, but instead there were three more ATMs inside. So I tried the first one, and it worked just fine. I don't know why the one outside didn't work. I guess it didn't like me. Oh well, I finally figured it out, and now I know for next time.

Class was pretty good. Like I said, I only had two classes, German first and then Music History. My German teacher Andrea (the wife of the director of the program, Tim) told me that I don't have to do the homework for class, but instead of homework, she and I will meet once a week for coffee. Yay. I'm in a combined class of German 2 and 3 (there are three of us in the class, the other two are in German 2), so the homework is for the German 2 students, since right now everything we are doing is review for me. Instead I will meet with Andrea once a week, and we will probably speak in German the whole time. I'm a bit nervous, because I'm starting to be a bit overwhelmed by how much German I don't know. I know the most in the group, and several of the other students often ask me what something means when we are out and about, which is totally fine. But I feel bad when I don't know the answer, and I get frustrated when I try to communicate with someone in German when I don't know the words I want to say. I don't want to give up and try English because I want to learn, and I so desire to be fluent in German, but I am starting to get weary.

Speaking of learning German, I mentioned the other day that Nattie and I put up signs for tandem partners for practicing our German. Well she met someone the following night at the Schwarz's house who is the daughter of one of the instructors for the program who wants to practice her German, so they are going to work together. Then the following night we were at La Boheme, which I think is going to be our regular restaurant, and we told Nikolas that we had followed his advice and put up signs, and Nattie told him that she thought she had found a partner. As we were leaving he told me to let him know if I don't find a tandem partner by next week, and if I don't he would be willing to help me out (and Andrew if he is interested). So that's great. Either way, I will have a tandem partner and a chance to practice conversational German! Yay!

Final note for the night. We went to Penny Markt tonight for groceries, which is much closer than Aldi and we (or at least I) didn't feel like walking all the way to Aldi, and by that point it was probably closed. So anyways, we walked about 10 minutes to Penny Markt in the lovely night-time weather. By this time the wind had died down and the temperature was actually pretty bearable. When we got to Penny Markt it was very much open, and quite busy, It was a but overwhelming for me, because I knew what I needed and some of it was easy to find, but some of it I wasn't sure how to say, and I wasn't sure if I would find it. I ended up having to ask about something that I didn't know how to say, so I was standing there with the lady looking up the word on my phone (which, thank goodness, has a translation app that doesn't need network service). She was very patient, and when I found the word she said, "Ja, wir haben das," which was so comforting. She took me to it and was very gracious. I still didn't find everything, but I did find most of what I needed. The last part of the trip was probably the most overwhelming. I was checking out, and the clerk told me how much the cost was, and I had hoped to use up some of my change. The change part of the bill was 71 cents, and I was so certain that I had a 1 cent coin and enough to make up the 70 cents, but all I could find were 2 cent coins. So I'm standing there with a handful of change and a line of fifteen people waiting on me. I finally gave up, pretty exasperated and frustrated. Plus, the clerk seemed to be getting pretty impatient, so I just gave her a 10 Euro bill and took even more change, since the 1 and 2 Euro pieces are coins too. So that was frustrating. I'm mentally exhausted. And I have German tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. But tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully I will have a better outlook. I will have a better outlook tomorrow.

Grace and Peace,
Suz