Achtung! Deutschsprachschule

Rob got me into a one month German class here this week. It is at the Goethe Institute, the government-sanctioned place to learn German, which is also where our BYU students are taking their language classes. It's down in the Schoenenviertel (the pretty district/the Jewish quarter) which is both funky and upscale since reunification. Everyone is terribly hip, there's a great shop with 70's retro housewares next door, and a restaurant down the street called "Foodball" where everything is a spherical edible (or is everything an edible spherical?). It looks like all the patrons are gnawing on hacky sacks.
It is a fun place to be, but now that it's gotten cold and is pitch black when we leave at 6:00pm, it is sort of spooky. The television tower looms above, the trams squeal by, clouds hang low overhead and one can see how easy it would be to go E.T.A. Hoffmann on Berlin. Very Edgar Allen Poe.

We meet for four weeks from 1:15-5:45pm and that is tough on the sitzfleisch (sitting flesh)! The plus side is that I'll get a lot of German in just 18 school days and less disruption to our regularly scheduled home life. Rob is going to meet me for a Sebastian handoff and then pick up the kids and do their homework with them each afternoon for November. All of the BYU students are now ahead of me (because they attended last month) and they get a kick out of seeing me at school and knowing more than I do.


OK, not my class, but another Goethe Institute class. Probably not one that meets in November. But you get the idea. My class has 16-17 people in it and they are a fascinating bunch. I only know a few stories so far, but if they're any indication, it is a great variety.

We have Marc from France who is a professor of Physics at Leon, but has a two year appointment to teach in Hamburg. There is Vindhai from Bangalor India who runs a trucking company and seems to work (telecommuting?) from 5:00am until he runs to class. Leticia is also from France and is a travel agent for groups of children from 6-17; she specializes in the trips to Austria. Guillame is a sailboater from Brazil. Vengkapesh (all of this is phonetic -- I haven't seen any names written yet) is from India with a PhD in chemistry. Rae is from New York and just moved over to be with her Swiss-German boyfriend. Eddie just married his partner and moved to Berlin, also from New York. Maria is a ballerina from Argentina, but has lived in Berlin for four years and still doesn't speak German (just like me! except the ballerina part). Imagine! That's only half the class!

Lest you think that I'm not paying attention, we are learning the Perfekt tense this week. I also learned the difference between the three washing verbs: waschen, spulen, and putzen (of course there are three -- it's Germany). Finally, I learned what to do when one is too drunk to drive home. Very helpful. I expect you'll hear more than you want to about my class in November.

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