It’s been a fantastic first few weeks at the sommerschule! I apologize for not keeping this more updated; during the week, there’s a pretty set routine of food, class, homework, sleep, repeat. All the classes and homework a very interesting to me but I doubt anyone else wants to hear about my homework! It’s very easy to do homework here, though, because unless something else is schedule there isn’t much else to do–and since my computer’s graphics card died, I can’t watch Netflix. I think that was a secret plan on my computer’s part to keep me from hearing English TV shows. Well played, computer.
Yesterday, as with every day here, was gorgeous. We got locked out of our classroom for our first class and I convinced our teacher to let us have class outside. I tried that all last semester at St. Ed’s and no one would do it, so I think this is an accomplishment! It was freezing but we had our language class by the beautiful Taos mountains under a very blue sky, where there are no road noises and you can actually hear the birds. They should schedule all the classes outside!
The strange thing about Taos is that it’s sunny in the morning and rains in the afternoon, practically every day. This is especially important to remember when playing volleyball in the afternoon. I somehow got peer pressured into playing, even though I’m really not very good. (I’ve played too much football and my instinct is to catch the ball or tip it to someone else, which usually results in it flying straight up into the air.) Fortunately everyone here is very non-judgmental. If your German isn’t that good but they can understand you, nobody gives you a hard time. Everything’s about learning, and that includes volleyball. It was really fun, and even more fun once it started raining. It was just wonderful not to care about the weather.
Last night was our second tanzparty, which in this case was a costume party. Of course no one brought costumes, so a lot of us used the leftover 4th of July paper to make costumes. I was a TARDIS (from Doctor Who), and my roommate Sophia helped me make it. At the party, we had a Freddie Mercury, a couple people in traditional German dress, several cross-dressers, a professor who strung Christmas lights all over herself, etc. It was so much fun! We danced past 1:00AM and stopped to sing Bohemian Rhapsody with our Freddie Mercury. The people here are so amazing; the teachers say we’ve got a good group this year, and they’re right.