June 29 2012

Today was our last full day in Wittenberg and in Germany. We started the day with the rest of the presentations. Jennifer and I went last. I was so nervous, I know I read too much from my sheet, I really hate doing that but it would be better than running out of the room or standing there during a pause that lasts forever.

After those were finished we had a 30 minute break and Jennifer, Simonne, and I walked down Collegianstraβe and did some window shopping in preparation for the needed shopping we must do before we leave tomorrow. We all put off some of our souvenir for family member shopping. I also got one last kugel, it was cherry, and as always, incredibly delicious.

When we got back to the Seminar Room we did evaluations for the Leucorea. I was honest in my comments, I really liked the program but I think we should have worked more on vocabulary and grammar -- on speaking, reading, and writing, German, rather than using up so much time to  play games. Other than that I really did like the program and enjoyed this time.

After we got our certificates and we could be assured of having passed, Jennifer and I went shopping and we both agreed that Herr Weigel should have stayed one more day. It was weird, his not being open for us to sit and get some cola, coffee, and conversation.

Everyone then met up at the Independent until Sweet Apple opened. At Sweet Apple we all agreed to meet at the Kartoffel House for one last meal together in Wittenberg. It was really great being able to hang out with our group so much and have so much free time to say goodbye to Wittenberg. I do plan on coming back.

Today's Words

Bedeuten = to mean, to signify

Etwas = something

Schienen = to put in a splint, to splint something

Geraten = to get into trouble

Sich Verlieben = to fall in love / helplessly in love /head over heels

Host Family Interview Assignment

:: MY HOST FAMILY INTERVIEW ::

1. Wie lange lebt ihr im Wittenberg?

Frau Richter: Immer im Wittenberg. Er lebt hier für 73 Jahre. Ich lebt heir für 56 Jahre. (Since they were married – but she never did explain if she had actually always lived in Wittenberg or if she had only moved there since they were married).

2. Wie lange lebt ihr im Ost?

                Frau Richter: Immer im Ost. Immer in Wittenberg, so immer im Ost.

3. Was ist anders in Deutschland seitdem der Berlin Mauer gefallen?

                Herr Richter: Alles anders. Ganz anders. Capitolismus, wirtschaft, ordnung.

4. Was hättet ihr arbeitet?

                Frau Richter: No response

                Herr Richter: Vorschung uber America. Wegen spien. Da war ein Brief am mich.

5.Ist da alles besser seitdem der Berlin Mauer war gefallen?

Frau Richter: Super! Super! Wir war unglucklich. Wenn der Mauerfall, konnen wir zu Urlaub gehen.

                Herr Richter: Der Mauer war schlimm.

6. Ist da alles schlechter seitdem der Berlin Mauer war gefallen?

Herr Richter: Für alles besser, für wenig schlechter. Im DDR alles gleich. Social helfe für alles. Kleine hunger.

7. Warum lebt ihr in Wittenberg?

                Frau Richter: Er war heir geboren. 

8. Warum seid ihr ein Ghastfmailie?

                Frau Richter: Spas macht. (Is interrupted by Herr Richter)

Herr Richter: Wir konnen kultur lernen. Japanisch, Americanisch, (gets a little louder and points his finger up in the air like he does when he is amking a very important point in English) International!.  

9. Was Culturelle unterschiede hat ihr mit Studenten/Studentin gesehen?

                Herr Richter: Wir sprechen Deutsche und Sie sprechen nicht Deutsch.

(This caused them both to fall into peals of laughter. I think there may have been tears. They can really crack themselves up.)

10. Wie lange seid ihr ein Ghastfamilie?

                Herr Richter: 1992?

                Frau Richter: Nie, Nie, 1994.

June 28 2012

Today was incredibly nerve wrecking. We began the day with some games in the hof, then we discussed in class cultural differences, stereotypes, and prejudices. Then we watched “Türkisch für Anfänger” which is a Gemran television show about a German mom and her two children, and she moves I with a Turkish German who has two children. There are a lot of cultural issues and differences that happen and the show seems to be about how they try to deal with these and assimilate together in Germany.

For our first break Jennifer and I went to Herr Weigel and I got free cake. I like free cake…

After break we each had to get up and do some practice for our presentations. This is what made me nervous; I was feeling rather good about it until we practiced. Simonne got up to do hers and Frau Shimmelpfennig corrected everything she did. She kept telling her that she wasn’t doing it the German way. Problem is until today we had never discussed how to do a presentation the German way.

For lunch Jennifer and I went to Herr Weigel’s again and again there was free cake, but even better I got a picture with him and that made me very happy. He has been so nice to me.

After Lunch we all gathered in our room and we got through a lot of the presentations. In the end Jennifer and I didn’t do ours. So I was terribly nervous all day for nothing… Oddly, now that today is over and tomorrow is inevitable I feel better about our presentation being tomorrow.

Tonight we also had the Abschiedabend. I think it was a nice way to wrap up the program, everyone together, food, music... :

                                                               Everyone Singing...

Peitschen = to whip

Beschämend = to be ashamed

Das Sieg = victory

Tagesschau = today show/daily show/news show

Bedeutend (adj) = important

June 27 2012

Today went by pretty fast. To be honest. I think the last three days have gone by fast. I don’t know if it is just because it is the last week and now we have a lot due and so are being kept much busier or if there are actually less hours in the day, I’m thinking the latter.

We began the day with a game, but I didn’t mind this one. Both the upper and lower groups played a sort of tag that actually took some thought, especially when the instructions are all in German. I’m not sure I can even explain it.

There is a chaser and the chased. If the Chaser tags the Chased before the Chased can reach one of the randomly placed groups of people (groups are made up of only two people each) then the Chased becomes the Chaser. When the Chased is able to reach one of the randomly placed groups of people then the person in the group farthest from the Chased becomes the Chaser and the previous chaser is the Chased.  

After we had about 40 minutes of this, we went back to class and worked on some verb/preposition combos. I feel like it is a little late for this sort of work now though. We should have been doing this in the first week. And then doing it over and over again rather than wasting so much time on games and some of the random stuff we did in class.

We then had a break. I went to Herr Weigel’s with Jennifer and got coffee. He gave me free cake. It had pudding in the middle with streusel on top. I am really going to miss that when I leave… When we came back from break we had a discussion about national symbols. I’m not sure why. We were comparing German and American ones. It ended up in an argument between most of the guys as to which is the most American symbol… I think I’m not the only one starting to get tired, cranky, and in need of a long nap.

After lunch we spent the remaining hour and a half working on our projects. I feel like mine and Jennifer’s is finally pulled together. We need to finish up the interview section but other than that… I am most worried about having to get up and talk. I have a hard enough time doing class presentations in English, having to think in another language and have stage fright are probably not going to end up well.

New Words

Weggehen = to move away

Konkurrenz (no plural) = Competition

Peinlich (adj) = embarrassing

Stolz (m, kein pl)= pride

Vorstellen = to imagine

June 26 2012

Today we went back to Leipzig. I almost thought I should pretend to be sick, not go to Leipzig,  and get some of my project done but I thought that might not be the best idea so close to the end. Besides, at this point I have perfect attendance, and why ruin that to get homework done?

This time we went to Leipzig with everyone: both Frau Becker and Frau Shimmelpfennig and all of us students and Henrieke and Claudia. Simonne and I left the house at 8:10am and made it to the Bahnhof by 8:30am. An hour later in Leipzig we separated into our class groups and went on a mini tour of the city center with us students talking about the main points of attraction. It wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. If it wasn’t for the fact that yesterday my only pair of jeans got soaked and is still not dry and today was freezing and windy I would have had a really good time. So far the weather and my poor packing choices (thinking since it is summer that it would be warm) have done the most damage to me. 

At the lunch break I went back to the Madler Passage and had some coffee at the Mephisto café next to the Faustian Restaurant: Auerbachs Keller. Simonne and Jennifer and I split a cheesecake too, and Simonne said it was more American like. I will have to ask Simonne what that means…

After that we rejoined the group for a tour through the Zeitgeschichte museum that was next door. It was about Eastern Germany, pretty much from the end of WWII to the fall of the Wall. It was really interesting; I think the museum is really well put together. I think it is more difficult to do museums well when they cover such a short specific period of time but this one was really good.

After we were done there, Henrieke, Claudia, Gordon (from SC), Tim, and I returned on the 3:11pm train to Wittenberg. I then was able to  use the extra time I  got from coming back early to work on my project, read some newspaper articles from just after the fall of the wall, and a children’s book my hostfamily let me borrow about the fall of the wall.

Words:

Reise = Trip, Journey

Echt = Genuine, real, true

Die Hummel = Bumble Bee

Die Biene = Bee

Lehrer = Teacher, instructor

June 25 2012

We got up really early today to go geocaching. We had to be there at 8am. We ate breakfast, finished getting ready and left at 7:30am, because, on the map it didn’t look that far. We would have done fine too if it hadn’t been for the fact that there was a roundabout that was not marked on the map.

 So we ended up going 15 minutes down a road that wasn’t the right one (the street sign was also wrong) and then having to go 15 minutes back when we realized that couldn’t be the road.

It was really interesting, it was in a beautiful little wilderness area “ the Stadtwald,” and we grouped together with smaller groups of children and ran around the forest with a GPS finding points where there were the answers to questions we had on a sheet of paper. 

 All of the groups seemed to use different strategies but ours, Jennifer, Simonne, and I, pretty much loet the kids do what they wanted. We guided a little when they seemed unsure of the next step (for some reason they didn’t know how to follow the number order of the stations) but we left the GPS up to them, which is probably why we were the last group back, but I think the kids’ favorite part was using the GPS so it didn’t matter.

We rode back in the rain; by the time we got the 20 minutes back to the house (it took us an hour to get to the Stadtwald because of the different street we turned on) we were soaked. Of course 5 minutes after we are in the house the sun comes out, Germany is definitely testing me when it comes to the weather.

Today we also said goodbye to our Phonetiks teachers, who, even though they tortured us, we really grew to appreciate I think.

Words:

Bart = Mustache

Flanell = Flannel

Wasserpfeife = Hookah

Pfeife = Pipe

Rezept = prescription, recipe

June 24 2012

Today was our free weekend’s Sunday. On Sundays in Wittenberg there aren’t many places open, but I am out of money anyway so that isn’t really an issue. I needed this day to work on homework, I feel like we have a lot to do in this last week and not a lot of free time to do it in. We have a long class day tomorrow, from 8am (730 really since the school to go geocaching at is so far away) until 430. On Tuesday we go to Leipzig which will be an all day thing I think, I’m not really sure since they haven’t given us a schedule which is a little disconcerting. We don’t even know yet when we will need to be at the Train station. So we really only have Monday and Wednesday evening t work on our projects. And Wednesday they might make us give up that time to help get ready for the farewell evening on Thursday.

Today was really nice though. I got up at 630 to bike into the Leucorea and skype some people back home, and then I came back for breakfast at 9. Breakfast was nice, Simonne was tired from her day in Leipzig so when she went downstairs my hostparents had me come join them on the patio where they were eating (we usually all eat together but we didn’t want to make them move all of our plates outside once they had set them up inside) and we talked about various things, like, some of their old house guests, the state of marriage in Germany, how nice the bells sound on Sunday morning ringing across  Wittenberg, and how for Germans, Beer is God : ) 

Then I worked on homework for about 2 hours, took a nap, and then went on a bike ride by myself. It started to rain around 4 which is when I woke up and of course went on the bike ride. It wasn’t a downpour so it was still enjoyable. I rode to the Elbe path entrance that my hostmother showed me last Sunday and was on it for about 2 hours before I came back to the house. 

It was really fun, it is so beautiful and the way that it goes not only along the Elbe but cuts through residential makes for a very interesting view of Germany.

Words:

Lebensart (m) = manners

Spiesser = traditional, conservative

Schublade (f) = drawer

Wasserspeier (f) (-s) = gargoyle

Anmaβend = pretentious

June 23 2012

Today was really fun. It was nice being able to do whatever we wanted at the pace we wanted without having to be somewhere because it is on a schedule. We woke up at a reasonable hour, checked out of our hostel and went to explore Leipzig, by way of finding breakfast. We went back to the city center and found a mall which had a food court like thing in the basement level. There was a giant fountain and a ton of escalators. We got some coffee and pastries at the bakery and then split up for a half hour to explore. Jennifer and I rode the escalators up to the top of the building and then went down each one and walked around the level.

Checking prices o things was really interesting, for instance, there was a stuffed Deer in the toy section that was 69 euro. I don’t know why, maybe it was a special deer, or a special brand, but whatever it is, it must be special to cost 69 euro.

After we met up again David and I got some Eis because it is good, especially before lunch. We then walked around the shopping area a little more.

 We ended up in a square were there was a bookstore so we went int here for about a half hour and I got some books. The Nibelungsage, The Taming of the Shrew, and Oedipus Rex. All In German, but at least with the two plays I found I could read a lot of it since for plays the sentence structure tends to be simpler. 

We then decided to go see something Jennifer said she had been to when she was here for highschool: a panoramic museum. So we walked about 2 miles… maybe longer, it seemed like forever. But we got to see parts of Leipzig I’m sure many tourists don’t get to see.

The Panorama museum’s theme right now is the Amazon, it was really interesting. What was nice was a lot of it was in German and English so I was able to read more of the German since I could use the English as a guide when I didn’t know a word.

After that we took a Strassebahn back to the Hauptbahnhof and returned to Wittenberg.  This trip to Leipzig is probably my favorite part of this experience… no, but definitely one of my favorite parts. Being able to really walk around and go where we wanted and not feel any pressure was nice.

Words:

Gegen = contrary,  opposite

Meinung (f) (-en) = Opinion

Spinne (f) = Spider

Zeigen = to show, indicate

Auffalen = conspicuous, surprising, something you weren’t expect (this apparently is a hard word to translate, there isn’t a good direct translation)

June 22 2012

Today was probably the most enjoyable day here in class. Granted, we played some games in the beginning but at least when we went inside we were able to use all our time before lunch to focus on our projects, which are coming up rather quickly now that we are at the end of our fourth week.

After lunch we had phonetics which for some reason wasn’t so terrible today. Two possibilities: one, we are getting better at these sounds or, two, I cant think of another reason why/how phonetics would be more enjoyable; it seems impossible.

After Phonetics Jennifer and I and two of the South Carolina students volunteered to help the Halle students with their project. They had us read a section of text and they asked us a few questions which we had to answer in both English and German. Questions like, where are you from, how long have you studied German, etc… It lasted about 10 minutes and then Jennifer and I returned to our houses to get ready to go to Leipzig. Thomas, David, Jennifer, and I met at the Wittenberg Bahnhof at 4:30pm to get on the 4:45pm train to Leipzig. What we had forgotten was to get the tickets beforehand, so of course we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out the ticket machine before we actually went to the ticket person in the building and had them help us. By then we were late and had to take the 5:11 train. We got to Leipzig and walked to our Hostel, we got lost first but that is a good way to get to know a city,  think. We just made it in time to check in at 8pm, which was the hostel’s cut off time for checking in.

After we settled in we went out to a public viewing of the Soccer match between Greece and Germany. It was incredible. Leipzig is a student town it seems, especially when you are publicly watching a soccer game right next to the University. We were invited by some of the students to go to a student end of the semester party in the University which was really interesting since we got to see inside the university then and talk to some of the students. They wanted to know about guns and alcohol rules in America, one of them said he dreams of one day visiting America and he wants to go to the south for the country music. We didn’t stay too late, we listened to the German Rock Band that played, said goodbye to the students who invited us, and went back to the hostel.

Words:

Flüstern = to whisper

Hintergrund = background

Wartliste = watch list (this is what they called the list that they put their names on when they wanted a car, the Trabi, at least, this is what the Halle student, Linda, told us when we asked its name)

Ganz (adj) = whole, all, total

Standesperson (f) = dignitary