Pre-Berlin

Tomorrow morning Kathleen and I are going to Berlin.  We finished plans on a whirlwind, three-day tour of Berlin during our extended weekend.  We have many things planned and we have it so precise that I'm sure we'll get it all in.  Of course there is more I would like to see, but we might have to cut it.  I'm hoping that if something doesn't take as long as I predicted it to we can sneak in one or two extra things.

We booked a Youth Hostel called "Ostel" which is a clever play on words for the Germans. "Ost" meaning "east," so of course it is in what was East Germany and is appropriately themed with what would have been normal for the time period.

Other than that, we're hitting the big spots that you could pretty much expect us to be hitting when seeing Berlin.  We'll be seeing lots of museums as well.

In regards to all of that, expect a synopsis of my trip posted in about three days when I get back (4 if I'm still recovering).

The weekend after I'm going to Munich with my roommate.  We're going to see the concentration camp at Dachau for sure, and possibly a palace and some museums if we have time.  It'll be my first time spending significant time with her outside of our room alone so it'll be nice to do that together and have some fun.  I'm really impressed at her German, for practically picking it up at the time we all started, she is able to converse with me completely in German and is attempting, and succeeding to read a German version of one of the Harry Potter books (dictionary in hand).  I'm jealous a little bit. There's a lot of fun looking books at the bookstores here and it's so hard to come by German books at home, I might have to break down and get a couple.  I already bought a German classic, "Der Sandman," when I was in Frankfurt. Christian suggested it as a piece of well-known German literature.  It was the first I heard of it, so far it's pretty creepy.

I'm making significant progress lately on my paper for German back at WLC.  I have a 30 page thesis paper I'm trying to do when I'm not out and about on weekends or in class.  The research has been the biggest brunt of the work.  I found once I got going it's not so bad. Maybe able to turn in first draft by next Friday. *hopefully!* My goal is the first 10 pages. I really have to keep moving because I need the sources that I can only find in Germany, if I leave too much of it for when I get back, I'm out of luck. I'm saving all online articles for last since I can access that at home, so just working out of books right now. 

Learning lots! Hoping I'm improving. The biggest improvements I've gotten through the class are some verbs that I mess up often because of English tendencies. For instance: instead of "take a picture" the German would be literally "make a picture." I always use the German verb "to take."  I've also gotten better at the prepositions that are inseparable from certain verbs (and nouns really), these are called "Feste Verbindungen."  "Fest" means "strong" or "secure" and "Verbindungen" mean "ties" or "relations" - much like in a family sort of sense, so very close. :)

We're working Konjunktiv I and II right now... which are probably my least favorite aspects of German. I don't know why I dislike them so much, for some reason I just never get it.  KII is a subjunctive used for describing hypothetical sentences such as, "If I were you, I wouldn't do that."  Well, if you were me, you'd probably be frustrated too.  Luckily the teachers are great and we're only one day into the KII so I should get it over time... hypothetically. :)

Missing everyone at home.  I can't wait to tell you all about everything in person. 

Btw, I just checked my blog info... many more page views than I expected so far! Thanks for following once again!