As promised, here is the zombie film that Sophia made! Quite a good number of people from the Sommerschule are in it; I’d say most of them, but some scenes are cut so you won’t see them all. In any case, it’s hilarious and Sophia did a fantastic job! Keep an eye out for zombie Jeff! Seeing professors dressed as zombies is priceless.
In other news, I think my computer is going to be the next zombie victim. Please live 2 more weeks!
Today was the first day of the second half of the Sommerschule. It’s so strange to think that we’re halfway done, but I’m also amazed at the progress I’ve made since I came here. The first day I could barely introduce myself–I could say who I was and where I came from and that was about it. I struggled to say much of anything for a while, so that at my first complete, coherent sentence Jeff gave me a high five. Now, I can follow conversations and participate, and although much of my German is still rather simple, I know I’ve gotten much better and my vocabulary is much improved. Last week, I managed to tell the entire story of the Green Day concert I went to last year in German. That required past tense, too, which I’m not very good at, mostly because I only learned it a little in April or May! The improvement is now not as rapid as it was at first, but I’m picking up important words and phrases here and there. I’m certainly talking much faster than before, which means I know how to say what I want to and can learn other things to add to that.
Today in Sprachkurs we learned our prepositions, which is what I’ve been struggling with the most. We never made it to the Dativ forms in German II so I’d been using them a little since I got here, without knowing why I was saying things the way I was. That’s just the way immersion works. I’m not sure why things are, it’s just how they’re said. I’ve picked up some adjective endings that way. Anyway, it’s really nice to officially know why the prepositions work like that. My Sprachkurs teacher is a TA, Randall, and he’s really good! I know I’m learning a lot in his class and in the everyday conversations.
Sorry to not have any updates on activities outside school; haven’t been doing much, really. Tomorrow is the opera, though! Oh, and my roommate, Sophia, made a zombie film for her class that stars pretty much the entire school so I’m trying to figure out how to post that. Unfortunately I seem to have used all my storage space and the YouTube upload is threatening to take hours. I’ll get that up as soon as possible, though.
Midterms are probably every students’ second least favorite time of year, right behind finals. Just the word “midterm” brings back memories of a week without sleep followed by mornings wandering around campus with coffee and energy drink like some sort of university zombie. Sommerschule midterms are what happens when you take all that and compact it over one day. Today I had a midterm, a creative project, a quiz, and an essay. I think everything is going to be ok–I’ve been getting A’s on my essays–but I’ll be lucky to get a B on that test. It was like a literature midterm for an entire semester, with text identification (name the author and the title from the excerpt), short answer fact and vocab questions, and two essays. Now that that’s over I have to read some of Faust. Seems like a lot to expect from B1 level students (we just finished a piece by Kant), but it is interesting.
The Sommerschule is now half over, which means I have one less class (which I was auditing, so it won’t make much difference) and some of the professors and students will be leaving. My literature professor for the first half, Nele Hempel-Lamer, will leave soon, along with the film maker/film teacher Harald Friedl and Professor Peters. I’m sad to see them all leave, and I was enjoying Professor Peters’ “Berlin Heute” class so much! However, there are a few things to look forward to about the second half, specifically the opera on Friday. I’ve never been to an opera before!
We’ve been having these crazy power outages lately that last several hours during the rain in the evening. It’s really very annoying because that’s just when you need the light for studying. You know, midterms and all. It would be fun if we had candles. But the good news is, my computer magically came back to life and I have tickets for a flight back home! Not much to worry about here.
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.
Happy Fourth of July everyone! Today was fantastic, one of the best Independence Days I’ve had in years. The Taos Ski Valley put on quite the parade, and I’m proud to say that die Deutsche Sommerschule got best in show! We spent the better part of last night and all morning decorating two pickup trucks (our “floats”), hats, flags, and then of course face painting. It was wonderful, and very German-American. Nearly everyone wore an American and a German flag, and the hats often had many different colors. Both trucks had signs that said “Freiheit!” (Freedom!) on the front and stars all along the side–very patriotic. [singlepic id=85 w=320 h=240 float=] We even printed out pictures of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, etc. and put them on the cars. All of our universities were also represented; I made a very nice sign for St. Edward’s and despite being the only student from St. Ed’s there, it was featured prominently on the driver’s side door. For the parade, we were arranged by the color of our T-shirts (red, blue, green, or black) and got to wave at the crowd all the way. It was quite the crowd, and I guess they must be used to the German summerschule by now because instead of acting very confused at all the German flags, they waved and said things like “Sehr Gut!” and “Ja! Die Deutsche Sommerschule!” Little things, you know, but just enough to show support. Of course the rule still applied all day that we could only speak German, but it wasn’t nearly as strange as I thought it would be. A lot of people during the Revolution were German-American anyway (or from German-speaking nations) so if anything it felt like we were honoring one of the many cultures that helped found America. The parade was fun, but I think the best part was decorating everything with my new friends and finding creative solutions for patriotic clothing. My roommates and I used Amanda’s eye shadow to paint German flags on our faces, even though we found out that someone else had face paint. Also, Texan friends will be glad to know that I made a very creative state of Texas for my hat, along with the American and German flags and St. Edward’s logo.
Many photos from this wonderful day have been added to the gallery under “Fourth of July Parade,” although I have no idea how good they are because I can’t see them at all. They look rather green and pixeled to me. One final note: Independence Day should be watched in English, and when one is not trying to draw or cut out American flags.
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Graphics cards are apparently pretty important things for computers to have. I know, because mine died yesterday and now all I’m seeing as I write this is a bunch of moving green and pink pixels all over the screen. The computer still works, and I can use the internet and Word. Everything just looks really, really strange. Apparently this happened because the computer got too hot, which makes sense because we have no air conditioning in these rooms. Still, if I upload pictures and they don’t actually look very good, I have no way of knowing. It’s also a good excuse for bad pictures, if I take any! And now the text is green…
My German is getting better every day. I can now understand about 80% of a lecture, which is enough to understand the main idea even if I don’t catch every word. I can also understand certain jokes that certain German professors tell at the dinner table. I wonder if that’s a good thing? And was I just not catching that the first few days? In any case, it seems everyone else is getting better too, judging by the fact that the dining hall is really loud at lunch and dinner time–everyone is speaking in German to one another!
Tonight we’re going to watch Independence Day in German. This could be very interesting, hopefully in a good way, but very strange I think.
Yesterday, we had the first tanzparty of the summerschule! Our “tanzparty” (dance party) happens before our free days, lasts until 1 in the morning, and the students play DJ and dance. It was really fun, but I think everyone was a bit shy the first time. Things started out on a good note with Fleetwood Mac, which is really fun to dance to. Then there was some K-pop (Korean pop) and German rap, which I’m not sure how anyone is supposed to dance to. I was really surprised to find that I could hold a conversation in German the entire time (as I wasn’t dancing for most of it.) I even learned some new words—quite impressive for midnight! My favorite part was at the very end, when we played jazz and I helped teach some of my friends how to swing dance. We have plans to take over the next tanzparty with good music we can swing dance to. If anybody has good ideas for this, they’re very welcome!
After dancing until 1 in the morning, I woke up and went hiking in the mountains by our resort with some other sommerschule students. I was tired to begin with, but the real trouble was breathing up there—no matter what, I just couldn’t get enough air. After I got used to it, though, it wasn’t so bad. And the mountains are unbelievably beautiful! We hiked to Williams Lake and stopped halfway for lunch. It was wonderful—sack lunches, no cell phone reception, speaking German and listening to all the birds and the water in the little river nearby. Williams Lake is at about 11,000 feet and several miles from the Snakedance, so quite the hike! We were all so tired afterwards, but fortunately only a little sunburned.
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As for the German, it’s getting better still. Other people have started arriving in the area, and one stopped me today and asked, “Do you work here?” and I replied, “Nein.” It was really weird; small words like that just become habit. I laughed and told her I didn’t speak English…in English. That was a little awkward. She understood in the end, but it was very funny. We also met someone while hiking today who minored in German and thought we were all native Germans when she talked to us—admittedly I didn’t say much, but it was hilarious to see how nervous she was to speak to us in German!
Also: new pictures of the hike are posted in “Die Deutsche Sommerschule.”
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!
Today has been a good day in Taos! It was our first day of classes, and so far I like mine. The first (at 8:15 in the morning!) is a German language class, and it travels at just the right speed for me to understand everything. I feel like this one is badly needed, because I need to start communicating better with my fellow German students. The second is a German literature class, and I was more worried about this than the language class. It is also fine, and somewhat easy to understand; of course we have not read anything too serious yet. The classroom, though, has a beautiful view of the mountains that I like very much.
Our lecture class, the Grundkurs, was canceled today for the Germany/Italy game. They take that very seriously here! When it came time to watch the game, though, we found that the TV wasn’t working in the dining room–no cable! We had a room full of very worried Germans. Fortunately one of the professors got the game in her room and we all watched it there. There were flags, funny German hats, German sunglasses, etc. I don’t know if any of you have seen soccer fans wear umbrella hats? It’s just what it sounds like, and this one was in gold, red, and black! Unfortunately, Germany lost, and then we had a room full of very sad Germans.
The language barrier is getting easier to deal with. At times it still feels overwhelming–I’m far too happy when someone gives the English equivalent for a German word, which happens rarely and only when absolutely necessary. However, I find that when I have to talk to someone in English (or even type this) it feels very, very strange. It’s already natural for me to say “danke” when someone holds the door open, not “thank you.” So far, so good!
Also, the pictures from the hike yesterday are up. The internet here is bad and they took forever to upload.
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Is it really only 3:00? This first full day has been an exhausting one. I had no idea just how tiring it is to constantly try to understand others speaking a foreign language all day, and then to formulate answers that are somewhat coherent. During the first part of the day I was energetic and trying to learn new ways to speak. I took a written and a spoken placement test too. Now, I can barely understand anything that is being said and have reduced my questions to “gut oder schlecht?” (basically, asking whether something is good or bad.) That’s hardly a way to get through advising! There was a session which lasted over an hour, during which the professors explained what the courses are like and what the material is. I think there must be some limit to what someone can absorb from a foreign language before they stop understanding anything at all, because about halfway through I wasn’t following anything anymore. When it came time for registration, I actually left the building after asking if I’d picked a good course because I had absolutely no idea what was going on–I nearly missed the official registration! Even then, I couldn’t figure out whether I should register for 6 or 7 hours because I couldn’t formulate the question in my mind, or explain how the St. Edward’s transfer system works. In any case, if St. Edward’s will accept my 6 hours it will probably be better, since I cannot understand the language well enough for registration! I only hope I get used to this and gain some energy because this is “sehr schwierig.” A little silver lining: I have new respect for people who move to countries where they don’t speak the language, and learn it by immersion. It’s more difficult than I could have ever imagined–lack of conversation isn’t so bad, but it is very strange to not be able to ask sufficient questions.
Also: I went hiking today with some friends, and when I have more free time, I will post the pictures!
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