Each day in Die Deutsche Sommerschule is a new adventure and a new challenge. My German gets a little better every day, and I can understand significantly more in every lecture. My literature class has presented a challenge today, though! We’ve been going through some of the history of German literature–where it originated, what old German looked like, what the culture was like, etc. Today, we read some Mittelhochdeutsch and we have a little more to read for homework. Mittelhochdeutsch is “Middle-high-German”–Medieval German. It’s very interesting but very strange that I can barely get through a day of speaking everyday German, and I’m reading medieval German for homework. Fortunately I have a few days to read and understand it. We also talked about the holy grail in class. When the professor started talking about the “Gral” I was really happy, because I’d learned about that a little in Literature and Philosophy. She asked us if any of us knew about the grail, and I kept trying to say something but I couldn’t explain it in German at all. That was disappointing, but I’ll try again when we talk about Parzival a little on Monday.
Saturday we have our first Tanzparty (dance party), and I’m kind of curious about that. I usually end up watching. We’ll see if they let me do that here. Sunday we’re going hiking in the mountains here and I can’t wait! I’ve heard so many stories (very interesting stories), and it sounds like fun!
Now, I have to try to write a paper about the Grundkurs today. I’ve never written a paper in German before!