These are the big steps we go down and up every day. We do a lot of stair climbing. To get to the Institute (which is NOT very far) we climb 18 steps from our basement apartment, then go down 2 steps to leave the building, then we walk down our cobbled street to the big steps, where we descend 64 steps to the street, then up another 7 to go into the Institute courtyard, then 3 more up into the Institute ground floor. Then breakfast in the Mensa. Then, climb 50 steps to go to the classroom. At coffee break, back down 50 steps (then we went to the book store, so up 25 to the ordered book deliver desk, and back down 25 steps to the ground floor). End of coffee break is back up 50 steps. Then at the noon short break, back down 50 steps again, and up 50 steps back to class. Remember any trip to the restroom means going down 50 steps to the restroom, and back up 50 steps back to class. At lunch time, back to the Mensa is 50 steps down again. Going home after lunch is 3 down, 7 down, then 64 up, then 2 up, then 18 down. Seriously. That gets us to about 1:45pm. A little later back to the Institute for an option class so, up 18, down 2, down 64, up 7, up 3, up 50 to the class room. Then do it all in reverse to come home. Sometimes we walk around the long way a block or two out of the way and walk up hill rather than up the stairs (Especially when we want a Coke on the way home). If nothing else, our legs are getting a good workout daily!
These steps go from Gelbinger Gasse down to Salienstraße. The outdoor elevator can be seen here but only disabled people or folks with prams or whatever use it. The big beige building with a red roof and a green tower on the left is the Goethe Institute. A modern shopping area is on the right in the distance.
Andy's class is working on adjective endings which are quite nuts in German. First you have to know the gender of the noun the adjective is describing, then you have to know the case (roughly: nominative = subject, accusative = direct object, dative = indirect object, genitive = possessive) and then you have to notice whether the noun is preceded by a definite article (a flavor of the) or an indefinite article (a/an), or no articles. THEN, you can figure out which ending goes on the adjective. Seriously, it's nuts.
Imagine if you were going to use the adjective blue (blau) in different ways:
If that explanation makes your brain hurt, you have a tiny idea how hard this part of German is for English speakers (and possibly speakers of many other languages, for all we know).
Amelia's class spent a day learning about Weimar, since one of our classmates had his last day today and then he is off to visit and research in Weimar. It was fascinating. We learned many many new words and one new sentence structure in the process. We read, listened, discussed, and wrote many things! We also learned about Goethe, Schiller, Liszt, and other famous Germans associated with Weimar.
Imagine if you were going to use the adjective blue (blau) in different ways:
The blue sky is lovely.
The woman buys blue shoes.
The woman wears a blue hat.
The woman travels on vacation with a blue train.
The boy pets his blue cat.
The boy pulled the blue cat's tail.In German, blue (blau) gets different endings based on gender/case/preceding article. So, it could be blau, blaue, blauen, blaues, etc. depending on all those factors. And Germans can do this adjective-ending-math at speed while speaking. Nuts!
If that explanation makes your brain hurt, you have a tiny idea how hard this part of German is for English speakers (and possibly speakers of many other languages, for all we know).
Amelia's class spent a day learning about Weimar, since one of our classmates had his last day today and then he is off to visit and research in Weimar. It was fascinating. We learned many many new words and one new sentence structure in the process. We read, listened, discussed, and wrote many things! We also learned about Goethe, Schiller, Liszt, and other famous Germans associated with Weimar.
Our tests from yesterday are graded but the teacher (Karin) did not give them back because she wanted time to go over them with each of us individually, apparently. Perhaps we will get them back on Thursday. Karin is going to be out tomorrow to help her mother (who is perhaps in the hospital?) so Herr Schwarzkopf will substitute teach the class. He is an older (older than us, anyhow) man with a shaved head and he sort of makes us think of a stereotypical caricature of a scary German character from an old movie. It'll be fun, no doubt! Karin said that Herr Schwarzkopf has something special planned for us. Who knows?
During the morning coffee break we walked to the 400+ year old book store to pick up the two dictionaries we ordered. These are both German dictionaries for foreign language learners but not German-English. Just German. One is the biggest German dictionary for language learners and the other is a visual dictionary for language learners. They are supposed to be good. Of course, we are going to have too many books to carry in our backpacks, so we'll have to ship a box home, most likely. Amelia read some German novels in English in the Spring and she is contemplating buying the same novels in German to see if she can learn to read well enough to understand them. We shall see. She is slowly reading her first novel in German, a simplified version of Goethe's Werther.
After the bookstore we wasted a few minutes wandering over the Neue Straße (New Street) bridge. We saw another accordion player with a dog panhandling on the bridge (just like Heidelberg, only this guy had a tiny dog rather than a huge one).
The buildings on the west bank of the Kocher looked lovely in the late morning light.
Lunch today was white wurst (sausage) with mashed potatoes and kraut. It was yummy.
After lunch we went home to dump our books and clear our heads for a little while before going back for the extra class. We found these stumble stones on our street today. Jenny and Hanna were murdered by the Nazis in 1941 and 1943.
So, we walked back for the extra class. We went to this same extra Phonetics class last week and found it useful and informative. Last week, Frau Frey (who is 80 if she is a day) helped us practice all the vowel sounds using sentences typed out for us to read and many pairs of words contrasting the vowels.
Today, fewer students showed up, which made the class even better for the 15 who did show up. Frau Frey's focus this time was on consonants. It was good. The man we met yesterday who is in the beginner class, Julian, was there. Frau Frey is puzzled as to why more beginner students don't come to the phonetics class. Like last week, we read sentences aloud, and then words or pairs of words to practice or contrast various consonant sounds. She also talked to us about specific consonant pronunciation problems that are common with native speakers of various languages.
You can see almost everyone in this photo. Frau Frey is hidden in the distance behind the guy in the blue shirt on the near lest (who was sitting on my left - this is a panoramic photo). Just to Andy's right is Julian, a retired guy who lives in Arizona but is from Chicago. We know the names of about half of these folks and most of the faces are familiar by now even for folks who aren't in our classes because we see them in the Mensa or during the coffee break or on the stairs or wherever.
After class, we walked home and treated ourselves to Cokes on the way, and also stopped in a little store called Oma's Lädle (Granma's Ladle?) seeking lemon drops for Amelia. The lovely lady there (Oma? Frau Reutter?) gave us free samples to try, as well. She was very nice. We will stop by there again.
Have we mentioned that our street has the coolest restaurants and shops within a few steps of our apartment building (Studenten Wohnheim) door? We have restaurants (German, Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian, Indian, and who knows what else), a bakery or two, a bar or two, and a shisha bar (what ARE they smoking in there?), an Asian grocery, an ice cream and espresso shop, a sweet shop (homemade and natural), a shop with camping/hunting/outdoorsy things, several types of clothing shops, a violin maker, a ton of architects and engineers, and an art gallery. Plus others we haven't yet figured out. Of course, everything, except the restaurants, is closed by around 6pm on week days and Saturdays (some earlier on Saturdays) and all except restaurants are closed on Sundays.
Most restaurants are closed one or two days per week. Restaurants tend to serve from about 11am to about 2pm, and then from 5:30 or 6:00 pm until sometime between 9 and 11, depending on the type of restaurant. So, our advice is: Do not try to eat between 2pm and 5pm at a restaurant (except the doner kebab places, which seem to open in the morning around 10 or 11 and stay open until at least midnight).
We studied a bit in the afternoon and enjoyed the glorious 74 degree (F) perfect mostly sunny weather. This is seriously perfect weather for folks living without air conditioning, which we are.
Amelia spent some time online ordering tickets to weekend performances of plays and such and also trying to figure out the trains to get from here to Bad Rodach at the end of the month. We still have no idea how to do this with bikes (and backpacks) on the trains.
We walked just a few steps down the street to Die Sonne for supper. Die Sonne is a Gasthaus and restaurant with typical German food. It's very good. Andy has Jägerschnitzel and Späzle.
I had Wienerschnitzel and Pommes.
We both had some sort of schnitzel as you can see and vanilla ice cream for desert with fruit and sauce (chocolate or raspberry). Yum.
Then, back to the apartment for more studying. Just another day in a small history town in southern Germany.
No comments:
Post a Comment