Day 19: Another School Day!

Today was another normal school day, except it wasn't so normal. We started, of course, with breakfast in the Mensa.

And, we learned quickly that the new wifi system at the Institut is not working. It was a bit disconcerting.

Andy's class has a new teacher beginning today so they had to sort of start over with introductions and such. Now, they have to adjust to a different teaching style and what not.

Amelia's class spent time talking about Fans, like sports fans or fans of movies or whatever. It was interesting. In German, being a fan is good, being a fanatic is bad.

Amelia's class also had their first test. It didn't seem too had, but she will find out her performance tomorrow.

After classes, we had lunch in the Mensa and wandered home to start some laundry and do a few things before wandering back to the Institut for the optional weekly conversation class. This time only 12 or 15 people showed up. This was good because this week it wasn't so noisy and confusing as last week.

The teacher (Lili, on the right, who is one of the persons in charge of the cultural program rather than a regular teacher) divided us into two groups by language ability and we sat around a table and drew cards with questions. Each of us drew a question and then asked it of everyone at the table. It was interesting. We had folks at our table from Germany, Italy, Iran, Ukraine, USA, Zambia, and Croatia.

After that we, went home to put the laundry in the dryer and to study for a couple of hours. On the way home we happened to be walking near a man and his small child on a bike and we struck up a conversation. He's lived in Germany many years but he immigrated from Benin, Africa. His child was such a good smiler!

We had an early dinner at a new (to us) restaurant by the river. The weather was just right at about 73 degrees and sunny.  Amelia had a traditional pork schnitzel and Andy had a chicken breast in curry sauce with fruit and rice.

During dinner we saw two hot air balloons float over the town. It was cool We still want to do that but it's expensive so we haven't quite got the nerve up to make a reservation.

The food was very good but we stayed extra long because a man we met at the conversation class came up to eat alone and we kept him company. Julian's a retired man from Chicago (now living in Arizona) who is in the beginner class and his brain is a bit tired today. We had a long chat about learning German and travel and Chicago and so forth.

Afterward, we walked home via a grocery store because Andy had an assignment to get an advertising flyer from a grocery store. We also bought a bit of chocolate.  It was a lovely evening and now more studying must be done.