Oh hey, es ist Frühling!

I’m done with my Deutsch Kompakt course! (well, technically) We had our Abschlusstest on Wednesday and the classes are over. However, they are taking us on one last excursion today. We are going to Stuttgart to see the Mercedes Benz museum and a ballet. I’m looking forward to it because the weather has been beautiful lately! It’s exciting that everything is finally starting to turn green and flowers are popping up all over! Yesterday the weather was so nice that I had to go out and walk around town a bit. I bought Eis (ice cream), took a few more pictures, and discovered places in Tübingen that I hadn’t seen before! Wunderschön!

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Also this week, I met up with several Germans that want to practice their English and help me with German. All of them are incredibly nice and very interesting. One of the girls, Monica, lives across the hall from me and invited me to watch German television in her Zimmer last night! So cool! That’s not all; Monica and I are going skating in Stuttgart TOMORROW!!! Skating has been on my mind quite a bit lately and I was getting a little homesick because of it. Speaking of skating, it’s ice show weekend back home! I won’t get to see the show until I get home in August, but you can bet I’m looking forward to watching the tape! This is the first ice show that I have not been in or watched in 12 years!!! For any skaters reading this: Have a FANTASTISCH show, SK8 GR8, und VIEL GLÜCK!!!

Take A Second, Take A Second To Make This Last

Wow, apparently I am the worst of all of my friends at updating regularly. But, to be fair, I take far more pictures than anyone (with the exception of The Little One of course). There is a link to my new flickr page on the right side of the screen. I load all of my pictures on there, so they aren’t really edited. Also, it’s impossible to do everything. You have to decide if it is more important to do your homework and study (supposedly this is expected when you study abroad???), do laundry, go grocery shopping (takes an hour +), fixing meals, cleaning so my new roommate doesn’t freak out, or update my blog. Sorry to say that smelling good and not starving to death takes precedence over updating… Haha. However, if you don’t have your fill of “what’s going on in Courtney’s life” you can always read the blogs of other people in Deutsch Kompakt. They do a very nice job. :)

Ages ago (a week… wait, that’s it??), Deutsch Kompakt took us to Blaubeuren for a week. We were provided with 3 fabulous meals a day and spoiled with having class in the same building that we lived in. In other words, you didn’t need to bundle up or leave really early for class! Also, there were TVs in all of the rooms! YES!!! While other people went out drinking, I would spend the evenings watching German television. I was really excited to find my favorite shows like Monk, House, and Private practice auf Deutsch! Even more exciting, I could actually follow what was going on! Success!
All in all, Blaubeuren was great, but it’s nice to be back in Tuebingen!

This week we had a couple days of regular class and exams; then we had a day long excursion to Ludwigsburg and Esslingen. The bus left at 8:30am and we didn’t get back until 10:30pm. The bus ride was nice. I wish all of my travel in Europe could be by tour busses. They are nice. Also, the tutors came around offering everyone drinks and Bretzeln (soft pretzels). It was a nice surprise. I find that Deutsch Kompakt does that fairly often. We get a LOT for money. I would say the course, although initially pretty expensive, is more than worth it. In fact, now I’m surprised that it didn’t cost a lot more!

We saw the Ludwigsburg Schloss, went on a tour of the Ludwigsburg Film Academy, and then went to Esslingen for the rest of the afternoon and had dinner with wine tasting. My favorite part of the day was definitely the castle tour. Basically, I love castles and it appears that I may have an obsession with chandeliers. Perhaps these obsessions arise from the child that is still in me? Playing princesses was pretty much a daily thing for my friends and me when we were kids. We had some good times, but nobody ever wanted to be the evil witch. I mean, there HAD to be an evil witch! All princesses that rode flying unicorns had an evil witch that lived nearby, right? lol.

Yesterday my class went to the computer lab to look up classes that we want to take this semester. The computers were amusing to some of us. They looked like they were computers from the 80s. Forgive me; I’m used to Mizzou’s state of the art technology in every building. So finding classes at a German university is no easy task. Most of the classes had no credits listed and no way to sign up for them. You just show up on the first day for most lectures. I have no idea if I’m planning to take enough courses this semester. MU says I need 30 ECTS credits… but what happens if I end up with only 28 or something? The classes I’m planning to take are as follows: Intensive Deutsch, 60 Jahre Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Junge Literatur (kiddy lit.), Middle English (the only English class I will be taking) and Aussprachetraning fur International Studierende (a class to help foreigners with German pronunciation).

Finally, after class, I met up with my tandem partner (conversation partner), Markus. Luckily, he recognized me from my Studi picture, because I didn’t recognize him. I think he may have had an older picture up and he was much taller than I had expected. (We’re talking somewhere over 6 feet tall). Markus requested to be my tandem partner because he wanted to improve/practice his English and help me with German. Well, his English is really good. No surprise there! After talking with him for an hour and a half or so, I only used one word that he didn’t know: obesity. Of course Germans wouldn’t need that word. lol. It was entertaining, and we plan to meet again next week. Hopefully I will be able to speak a little more German next time. My brain was kaputt yesterday!

Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann

It may be impossible to update more than once a week or so... There is more homework and such required of me in my emersion course than I had expected. It seems odd that I am almost halfway through Deutsch Kompakt already! I still don’t know enough German to feel totally comfortable. I wouldn’t object to Deutsch Kompakt being twice as long, even if it is completely exhausting.

I’ve gotten to the point where my brain doesn’t seem to function fully in either German OR English. There is this bizarre mixture of the languages that I think in and probably dream in as well. It’s pretty cool… but a little disconcerting when I can’t think of English words! The other day in class, we were learning vocabulary to discuss our living arrangements. Since there is absolutely no English allowed in class, they describe all vocabulary auf deutsch. Well, I about went crazy trying to come up with the English word for “Hausmeister.” I knew exactly what a Hausmeister was, but I couldn’t for the life of me think what I call them back home! Landlord! Thank you for reminding me, Dad!

Another interesting portion of Deutsch Kompakt was the day we spent on pronunciation. The instructor would have us take turns trying to make individual phonemes correctly. She would largely exaggerate the sounds that we had trouble with. It was funny for me. Here I am making random isolated sounds in classroom and noticing that everyone around me seems to feel a little awkward about the whole thing. We even received handouts showing the positions our tongues should be in to make each sound! Hmm… when have experienced something similar to this? Oh right, last year in American Phonetics! lol. I am mostly likely the only one that gets such a thrill out of the “German speech therapy sessions.”

I am posting more photo links for your viewing pleasure. The albums are of my first week in Tübingen and of a hike we went on to a restaurant/ brewery 30-45 minutes outside of Tübingen. The hike was absolutely beautiful. I’ve never considered myself to be very outdoorsy, but I really loved that little outing! It also gave me the chance to get to know some of my fellow exchange students a little better.

Tomorrow, Deutsch Kompakt leaves for Blaubeuren. We will be in this tiny German town for 5 days. From what I have heard, there will be no internet access in Blaubeuren. We will stay in a giant house owned by the Uni. Also, we supposedly are provided with real German meals! Yay! I was asked why we are going to Blaubeuren, specifically, as opposed to a bigger German city. I decided that they choose this remote little German town to force us into speaking more German. Because Tübingen is a university town, most people can speak English really well. That may not be the case in Blaubeuren. Also, I’m thinking there is a good possibility that they will bug our rooms and make sure we are speaking German at all times. lol. Just kidding… but, well… it’s possible? Haha. Anyhow, I better go pack for Blaubeuren!

Tschüss!