Halloween came and went, and I was a little disappointed by the lack of celebration here in Deutschland. They don't take it quite as seriously as we do in America, so there was no pumpkin carving, almost no trick or treating, and very few costumes. I had a costume (Kaylee from Firefly) and Firefly fans picked up on it, which was cool. I had fun, but it was still a little weird not being surrounded by HalloweEditen things.
I'm starting my third week of classes and so far, it's been very good. All of my classes are in German, which is hard but nice at the same time. And despite the whole foreign language thing, this could be the easiest semester I'll have. Here's a list of the classes I'm taking.
- Sprachkurs - Intensive grammar, vocab, etc. Lots of fun actually. The teacher is 25 and really cool. We play Pictionary for our vocabulary and have a lot of fun in the class. She's strict, but nice about it.
- Literatur der Gegenwart - We read a lot. And I like reading but the books are in German, and that is really difficult. I like most of the books we have to read, however this class could be really hard and time-consuming. No doubt incredibly helpful, but a lot of work. It's the only thing I'm worried about.
- Landeskunde - This is like overall history/culture/everyday life in Germany. It's a fascinating class! Right now we're covering the German school system and the "ideal" for women and children. It's a really good idea - The Germans think that the family is key and that the family unit should stay intact, which means the mother can take three years off work and have a guarantee to get the same/very similar job back. The first year they get full monetary compensation, the next two they just don't have to work. It sounds good on paper, but in reality there's all sorts of logistical issues. It's incredibly fascinating to learn about. I really like this class. Athough last week was kind of a fail for this class and I...
- Kunstgeschichte - Art History. The coolest part about it is we get to go to museums and go see actual paintings from really famous painters like DaVinci, Michelangelo, Duerer, Raphael, Botticelli, etc. So cool. Most of the pictures are religious (surprise), the subjects are all white (surprise), and the women are all chubby and mostly naked (actually surprised at that). It was kind of comforting to know that back then being pale and chubby with round faces was attractive and a sign of wealth; however, it's depressing for us women today. Also, in the middle ages they used the snail as a sign of Mary's virginity because they didn't know how snails reproduced. They thought God formed every one of them by hand. Interesting tidbit.
- Keramik - Ceramics. My stress reliever. However, it's at 9:00 on Friday...mood killer.
Other than that, haven't been doing a whole lot. I work out, go to class, do my homework, watch my American tv shows (finally!) and hang out with friends. I've had a little more time to explore Munich and it's still amazing. Fall in der Englischer Garten is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's so relaxing to go running through there. We (Jana and I) were running in there the other and this little ratdog started to chase after us barking loudly, so I turned around and barked back. It stopped dead in it's tracks and looked so confused. It was funny. Jana is my new running/awkward german moments buddy. Good times.
So far, there have been a lot of awkward German moments. The highlights:
- Talking to German boys, I said "Als ich jung war (when I young)", but they heard "Als ich jungen war (when I was a boy)".
- Trying to figure out how to say pregame. Said "vorspielen (foreplay)". Pregame is "vortrinken". Good to know the difference.
- Jana moment #1 = genough. Mix between "genug" and "enough".
- Jana moment #2 = kirchensaft. "Church juice." She meant to say, kirschensaft. Cherry juice. It's church juice from now on.
- Crystal moment = Dienerstag. Mix between Tuesday and Thursday, Dienstag und Donnerstag.
Bis spaeter!
Emily
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