It’s so strange to be home! I’m very confused–what’s the word for “Wäsche” in English? Why does no one understand me when I speak German? Why is my verb order messed up when I talk? Yesterday I kept switching from German to English and back, and at one point declared “I can fresh tomatoes cut!” I don’t even want to speak English all the time–I’m going into German withdrawal! Oh yes, it’s certainly quite difficult to adjust to being back home, both in terms on language and environment. Where did all the mountains go?!?
The last few days of the Sommerschule were so much fun! We played Monopoly (auf Deutsch, of course!) in my B1 course and actually managed to understand the game rules, which I think would not have been possible the first week. Our teacher always ended up in jail for some reason. I found out in Grundkurs that apparently our little adventure to Kachina is really funny to some teachers, and Jeff referred to us as the “Lewis and Clark Expedition.” If we are remembered for nothing else, we will be remembered for getting caught on Kachina peak in a hailstorm/thunderstorm. And I have to admit, it was pretty fun.
On the last night we had another Tanzparty, which was by far the best we’ve had so far. Everyone danced, including a few professors. My favorite was “Shout!” because even though I don’t dance much, I really love dancing to that song. We must have had 20 people out there at once dancing to that. There were some Irish jigs (I guess we’re all Irish-German?) and the usual dance music. Apparently this year we were one of the best groups with, unfortunately, the worst dance parties–but this one was very good.
The next morning people started leaving around 7:00 AM, and a lot of us cried. These people were family for 4 1/2 weeks: we ate together, took classes together, hiked together, played games together, lived together. I hope in the end, though, we have friends for life. At least some of them go to the same universities. Seems I’ll have to take a roadtrip sometime!
In addition to the friends I made, I am also amazed at how far along my German language skills have come. I’m far from fluent but i can understand almost anything that was said the last 2 weeks, and I can communicate simply but clearly. The last week of B1 I knew just enough to be dangerous, figuring out how to make little jokes here and there. On the plane back I picked up a book that my friend, Patton, bought for me last year: Hermann Hesse’s “Märchen” in German. Before the sommerschule I’d been able to understand half of the opening sentence, and after that I was lost. After the first week, I could understand the entire sentence but not much else. Yesterday, I read 10 pages and understood about 90% of it, more or less depending on the paragraph, but enough to know what I was reading about. It was wonderful! My biggest fear now is losing the progress I made, so I plan to continue reading that and, if I must, speaking German to myself. My family’s going to have fun with that!
I don’t know if anyone from the sommerschule reads this, but I’d like to thank everyone for making Die Deutsche Sommerschule such a wonderful experience, for all the hard work they put into it, and for always being so patient with me. I can’t imagine doing anything better with my summer!
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