Tag Neunundzwanzig (Day Twenty-Nine)

During our language class today we made a trip to the St. Elisabeth Church in Marburg. This eight hundred year old church has been the site for many pilgrimages from all over Europe in the years it has been standing. Our tour guide was an older gentleman not affiliated with the church, who gave us a tour in both English and German, inter-mixing them. It was a fun experience. 

This evening, while sitting outside drinking tea, I saw my first wild hedgehog. I was smitten. It was incredibly cute, beyond even what words can describe. It was, for lack of a better term, waddling around the grass and bushes directly off of my porch. That short encounter, which sadly did not provide photo opportunities, solidified my desire to keep a hedgehog as a pet following my moving out of California, if at all possible.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Weimar with my group, so this blog will not be updated for a few days. After we arrive there tomorrow afternoon, following our three hour drive, we have a walking tour of the city. Then on Sunday, we have a visit to the concentration camp that was formerly operated there (Buchenwald). Having visited a concentration camp before (Mauthausen in Austria), I think I will be going into this visit with a different outlook or perspective. I am not honestly sure what that will entail, but I have a feeling it will be different than it would be for someone who has never visited one before.

We return on Monday, and I do not believe that I will have internet access while in Weimar, so this blog will not be updated for a few days. However, pictures will be forthcoming along with stories from this weekend.

Tag Achtundzwanzig – Abend (Day Twenty-Eight – Evening)

A key part to learning German, or any foreign language, is the transition from thinking of the language in terms of a set of rules to it coming to mind as second nature. (I am not quite there yet.)

On a happy note, as I was talking with a friend last night, we determined that our German has indeed improved in the mere four weeks that we have been in Germany. Rewe, one of the local grocery stores, has a slogan, "Jeden Tag ein bisschen besser!" This applies well to our learning, as it means, “Every day a little better!”

There will be lots of studying on top of homework tonight. Tomorrow there is a large quiz/test, possibly on account of us being gone to Weimar on Monday.

Tag Achtundzwanzig – Morgen (Day Twenty-Eight – Morning)

Listening to a little electronica, drinking two cups of tea, and eating some bread with Nutella and peanut butter got my morning off to a great start.

A somewhat confusing quirk in German. Paprika  is the German word for “paprika,” but it can also mean “green pepper.” Paprikaschote is German for “bell pepper,” and Peperoni means “red peppers” in German. Buying peppers in Germany can be confusing!

Tag Siebenundzwanzig (Day Twenty-Seven)

Today, in our language class, we got to go to a farmer’s market and practise our vocabulary and grammar whilst ordering fruit. Then we went back to our classroom and got to have snack time with the fruits we bought. Good practise, for certain. 

During History & Culture class, we were each assigned a country that was affected by Germany in World War II, and then we were assigned to roleplay a council of governmental leaders who were discussing NATO and negotiating German reunification.

After class, while walking through Oberstadt, I happened across a teapot at last! (One that would not break my budget.) Quite happy to no longer have to use a travel mug for making large quantities of tea, I am currently working on German homework while utilising the teapot for the first time. The best part: it is glass! (Makes for very pretty tea-leaf watching as it brews.)

Tag Sechsundzwanzig – Abend (Day Twenty-Six – Evening)

Well, this evening did not entirely work out as I had thought it would. Turns out that soccer was moved to earlier in the afternoon, and I did not check my messages in time to find that out. So I ended up going trail-running instead, then came home and took a look at this massive list of verbs that our class has to memorise!

Tag Sechsundzwanzig (Day Twenty-Six)

Today’s culture class got cancelled because our lecturer was not feeling well. During our language class we had our oral tests, which were comprised of the teacher talking to each of us individually. These individual conversations could be centred on describing a picture, if we, the student, had brought one with us, or answering questions posed by our teacher. My own quiz went pretty well, and I ended up talking with my teacher about learning and teaching foreign language (in German, of course).

This afternoon, in addition to homework, a few of us in the program are putting together a pickup Fußball (soccer) game with the hope that we might be able to make a regular event of getting together to play for an hour or so each week, at least until it starts raining daily or snowing.