Caitlin's Reise Nach Deutschland

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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You know when you climb a mountain, and they say the weather gets very bad there very fast? They’re not kidding! I learned that the hard way today. One of the things I really wanted to do at the Sommerschule was climb to Kachina Peak, so I found a friend (Demetria) to go with me, although we couldn’t find anyone else today, we thought it would be fun to go at our own pace. And it was–the hike is beautiful! We went slowly, ate wild strawberries, and sang Beatles songs. Wild strawberries, by the way, are so much better than our “normal” genetically engineered kind, but much smaller. Things were going really well; we managed to get farther than the last group did, until the trail ended. At the end of the trail, you have to climb up the rest of the way through a really steep mountainside full of rocks…just tons and tons of rocks. Not bad, just time consuming. We actually thought it was really fun not to take a trail for once.

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Then, about halfway up that particular part of the mountain, we thought we felt a little rain. No big deal, no thunder yet. Except it wasn’t rain, it was hail. What on earth do you do when you’re at the top of a mountain and it starts hailing? Hiding seemed like the best option. We found a big rock that had a few crevices near the ground, big enough to hide under. Laying under the rock, I could see that it was cracked and had several other rocks wedged together, held in one piece by pressure. There was a steep, smooth rock under me so that I had to find something to hold onto or fall out from under the rock. We didn’t know how bad the hail would get, and fortunately although there was a lot of hail, it was fairly small and stopped within 5 minutes. That was a relief! Since it was sunny, we decided to keep going. It wasn’t exactly a day full of good decisions. But we could see the top, and I’m stubborn to the point of stupidity at times. Within 10 minutes we could hear thunder, and it was really close. We looked for a good route down (good decision) and found that it’s worse leaving; very steep with lots of loose rocks. I looked over at the mountain next to us and suddenly lightning hit the top, and I realized that there’s nothing between us and those storm clouds. We were literally at the top of a mountain. It was really quite terrifying to realize that there was absolutely nothing between us and a bolt of lighting, and I just hoped it wouldn’t strike anywhere close to us. It was so slow going down the mountain too–we didn’t want to fall and break something (our necks, for example) but we didn’t really like the idea of being struck by lightning either. It hit close by twice; once, just above and to the left of us about 100 yards away. As we climbed down the thunder kept getting louder and louder, and the air felt like it was full of static. We practically ran all the way down that mountain, scared to death. Obviously you know the end of the story–I’m writing this, so I’m ok. Kathy picked us up at the Bavarian Inn. Must have been some phone call! “Hi Caitlin, where are you?” “I’m on a mountain with thunder and lighting and…I don’t know?” And they were worried about bears! I guess nature just does not want me hiking to Kachina peak.

Thought of the day: why do they put green chilies on everything in New Mexico? I’m tired.

As usual, the last few days have been fantastic, but wow, I can’t believe that Sommerschule is nearly over! While the first week was very tough and seemed to take forever, since then it’s been extremely fast-paced. Last night was “TalentAbend”, the annual Deutsche Sommerschule talent show. As talent shows normally do, this one prompted most students to declare that they are “talentless.” So our B1 teacher told us that if we made a routine for TalentAbend, we wouldn’t have to write our last essay. That’s a fantastic deal, considering essays are just about the worst part of the Sommerschule. For B1 students, it means we have to write a coherent report of a lecture that we usually understand only a little, using proper grammar and correct vocabulary. We were very motivated to do something! But what? Well, apparently the Beatles recorded two songs in German: “Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand” (Come give me your hand, or “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”) and “Sie Liebt Dich” (She Loves You). They were very popular in Hamburg before the US or England, so it was a really nice gesture  to record two of their hits in German for their German fans. And what better for TalentAbend than the Beatles auf Deutsch? There were four of us, all girls, and we thought a sing-along would be fun: we’d play a YouTube video of the song with lyrics and sing it with everyone. We cut out paper guitars; a Höfner bass for our “Paul,” paper drumsticks for “Ringo,” and an acoustic guitar for “George.” There’s only one guitar at the sommerschule that I know of, and it belongs to my roommate, Amanda. I borrowed that and played along with the recording while singing. I never sing and play at the same time, and I also learned all of it in 1 day, so I’d say that counts as talent. It was just as much fun to make the props and practice as it was to perform at TalentAbend, and it all turned out well. Everyone sang along and as far as I know, everyone liked it! Good job, B1!  I also have a new song; the Beatles are just as good in German, though admittedly a little grammatically worse (not much.) Here’s the recording; also check out “Sie Liebt Dich.” Just….don’t watch “Get Back” in German. Or do. It’s hilarious!

How could the Beatles even get more amazing?

The weather here is unbelievable! One minute it’s beautiful and the next minute it’s pouring down rain–which is also beautiful, given you won’t have to hike in it for an hour or more. Yesterday we tried to hike to Kachina Peak, which is somewhat of a tradition here and is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. I asked Jeff (the director of the Sommerschule) if we could hike to Kachina, and he scheduled it for yesterday because that would be our last opportunity to go. It’s a shorter hike if you take the ski lift halfway, but it wasn’t open on Wednesday (oops!). So, we just tried to hike the whole way. I was the slowest person in the group because I kept taking pictures of everything. It must have felt like I was crawling up the mountain to everyone else. We got caught in the rain on the way up, not too far from the top, I think (maybe another hour?). It felt like we were climbing into the thunderstorm, instead of it coming towards us. I came prepared for rain, with a jacket and a backpack so I could put my camera away and keep it dry. I think it would have been fine if we hadn’t seen lighting, so Curtis (our guide for the day) made us turn back. I was not happy at all, but it was probably safer that way. I did practically slide all the way down the mountain though, because the path is rocky and there was water flowing down it like a river in places. I also found out that nothing I own is truly water-proof–I was soaked, and so was most of the stuff in my backpack, though my camera is OK.

Today has been wonderful, and I’m very much looking forward to some of my homework. We get to read “Das Urteil” (Kafka’s “The Judgment”) for my literature class! Kafka is the reason I was interested in learning German at first, the very first thing that gave me the idea to take a German class. I wanted to read the original German text. Of course it’s evolved to more than that, but this is very exciting because this is where it all started! The very first Kafka story I ever read….and now I can read it in German! Strange how everything ends up being a circle like that. My German isn’t good enough to understand all of it, so it’s good I’m reading it for a class where it’ll be explained. And it will be easier than Schiller’s Don Carlos, which we just read a part of. Class tomorrow is going to be so much fun!

This immersion is stranger every day. By now I’m so used to speaking only German, so that when someone speaks to me in English, I’m inclined to not say anything at all. It’s forbidden here, but if someone outside the school speaks to me in English, I can respond. It just doesn’t feel right though! Half the time I say small things in German anyway. The other strange thing is, when I think about next semester and imagine someone asking me what I’ve been doing this summer, I imagine constructing an answer in German, as if this is how it’s always going to be. Then I remember that I’ll be speaking English to everyone, and that conversation will be a bit easier, but I have to remind myself of that. Everyone here, including myself, keeps forgetting little English words too–we always ask “Was ist das auf Englisch?” I think it’ll be an interesting transition coming home after this!

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Friday was opera night at die Deutsche Sommerschule! We all dressed up and climbed into two vans to drive to Santa Fe. I wore a dress (thanks Cousett!) and heels, which I never do, so that was special. It was also extremely uncomfortable and I could barely walk–I felt like Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot, except I think he could walk in heels better. We arrived early so we stood around and talked, in German of course. It was funny to watch all the people at the opera: mostly older, while we were the youngest group, and they paid very little attention to us. I think it was also because we weren’t speaking English. People mistake us for Germans all the time, because they don’t listen for fluency if they don’t speak the language. They only hear the sound of it. In any case, it made a little accident all the more interesting. I tripped while I was in line for coffee and accidentally hit my friend, who spilled white wine. Most of it landed on the ground, while a few drops landed on the jacket of the man in front of me. He was not happy! I managed to apologize in English (not my first reaction anymore) but it didn’t seem to help much. I think I’ll wear Converse from now on.

As for the opera, it was wonderful! We saw Tosca, and I hesitate to criticize the story line because it is so classic, but we all knew what would happen. Most importantly, it was beautiful. The Santa Fe opera is an open stage, with the mountains behind it and a breeze that flows all the way to the last row of the audience. The opera singers were all fantastic, as were the costumes and sets. They also had some sort of electronic screen on the back of every seat that had English captions, so I could follow what was going on pretty well. I think it was good for my first opera! On the way back, the guys in the back of the van played Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, and other classic rock, singing all the way home. One of the highlights of the Summerschule for sure!

Yesterday was the Frühschoppen, or a very fancy brunch with the school of music. They set up tables outside the sommerschule and we all dressed up again. There were so many guests, from UNM and older days of the Sommerschule. (It’s been running for 37 years now!) I got to meet some people I’d only heard about  and the food was wonderful. We should have breakfast outside every day! Also, quite a few of us wore purple so we took a picture together. Seems to be a popular color!

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I went on a small hike with my friends last night–we took the ski lift up the mountain and hiked down. I think the ski lift was fun but I spent quite a bit of time with my eyes closed. Probably not the best thing for someone with a paralyzing fear of heights to be doing. But I made it! It’s good to get some fresh air, and to go hiking with friends in what is possibly the most beautiful area I have ever been to. I am going to miss these people a lot in a few weeks.