Week 2

Hey Everyone!

Well, it's been nearly two weeks since I landed in Germany. Nothing disastrous has happened so far. Which is good. Of course.

Monday, the 11th, I started an intensive language course at the International House in Freiburg. I've got a grammar and a conversation class. Much like President Bush's stages of grief over 9/11 ( Denial - Anger- Anger - Anger - Hannukah - Denial ) I went through several stages of denial that summer is over.

First day is always exciting. Something new! Something to do other than sit in front of my laptop in the evenings! New faces, new challenges! Better German skillz!

The second day I found myself frustrated. Who the f*ck labels verbs as accusative and dative? I struggled against this socially constructed binary system. But that didn't really help me get anywhere on my homework. Not only that, but sometimes it was hard to tell what we had been instructed to do in class. These were actual Germans speaking actual German to us! I sorta wanted them to cut me a bit of slack and speak more slowly. I mean, have mercy!

The third day I came to accept it all. Hey, it actually does sorta make sense to organize verbs in this manner! Now I can actually remember what pronoun to us in certain contexts! And hey, it's cool that our instructors don't baby us with dumbed-down German. I mean, it's an intensive course that I'm paying a lot for, right? Exactly.

The fourth day was panic. So many verbs and words and only a few more weeks to remember it all and then use it in my daily life! Not to mention I had a Referat the next day that still hadn't been fleshed out ...

The fifth day was half panic, half resigning myself to fate. Referat was written, but the class didn't really know/couldn't remember how we had to present it. In pairs or split up? A bit of panic, some last minute preparation. They cut us some slack and let us choose how we wanted to present. ("Zusammen!"). Hey, it was Friday! Everything went well.

Friday night there was a party for a guy down the hall from me and the whole floor was invited. Chatted with the Amis and spent the rest of the evening telling my life story to some of my Mitbewohnerinnen ( floormates ) in German. Okay, my German still needs some work, but at least I can carry a conversation for an hour or more.

A few things about Freiburg:
Very few advertisements shouting in your face. Mostly just the S-Bahns covered in a skin of advertisements and a few posters about safe-sex and upcoming concerts or parties.

Everyone has a plant. Or more. And sometimes even more. A tons of green roofs that I can see from UZH.

It's very hard to find celery at the open market. I don't think anyone sells it. Which I find very odd. But oh well!



I know I'm home everytime I step into the elevator.



Market at the Muenster. A few entries below there's another picture of a few stalls in front of the church. That picture faces the one I've posted just above.