So I go over to the Volkshochsshule this afternoon for my Integrations class, all set to learn something new. We had all just got seated when one of the instructors came in and said that the tests from yesterday had been graded and that the following people on her list needed to gather up their stuff  (including their  little name plaques) and gather outside the classroom in the hall if she called out their name.  I am thinking that we will be divided into groups according to the level of German each person knows and that I either did pretty good or I bombed miserably. She calls out a couple of names then mine, and I am thinking to myself “ what group am I going to be in now?” I noticed that the people that hardly spoke any German were not in the dozen or so people she called out so that was a good sign. At the very least I would not be stuck in the beginning German class; that would have sucked.

I watch the woman come out and pull 3 people to the side to talk to them. I could hear her say that they had very bad test scores and they needed to do a lot of extra work outside of the class to keep up. Then she sent them back in to the classroom and called me and two other guys over to talk to us. My jaw nearly hit the floor when she said that we had the highest test scores in the class! WHAT?!?!? Here I am thinking that I did okay, not great and here I got better scores that some of the people that had been in Germany over 10 years (they are doing the course as a requirement for their permanent visas)! So the three of us are going to go into the 2^nd level course, I am not sure where that starts off, probably at the B level of the language ladder. A is the basic level and if I am understanding this correctly, I only have to do 100 hours instead of 600 which translates into a 500 euro savings (100 euros per 100 hours). Wow, I can’t say much more than that now. I am by no means fluent, my speaking isn’t very great, but I understand a lot and I do good tests apparently.  The course starts in April so I have to wait (again) for another month. She also said to me that I need to work on my accent, I have an American accent and I will get points off on the exam if I am pronouncing words like a American. So I have to work on that and she mentioned that Susanne had a bit of an American accent too, which I guess was bad for me to learn from. I don’t know all that she said, I didn’t understand a bunch of it, which was really funny since I am there in the hall with one of the best test scores in the class. LOL!

After she sent us on our way, I walked back towards home with Joel, one of the other high scores. He is from Portugal and we talked about how we both were ready to be in class learning and not waiting around for April. But on the other hand, it is great to not have to do the whole 600 hours. We exchanged numbers and I think we will get together and work on our German from time to time until the class starts. Very cool, looks like I made a  newfriend and I find out that I am better at learning this language than I give myself credit for.

The first class of my Integrations Course started today. It was pretty cool sitting in the classroom at the Volkshochschule with 29 people from various counties. We had to introduce ourselves (of course in German), and there are people from Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Kenya, Turkey, Iran, Morroco and another from the USA. We didn’t do too much, they collected money, 100 euro for the first 100 hours, and then everyone took a test to see what section they will be in for language. I have been watching/ listening to tv constantly for the last 2 weeks to get really used to hearing German and it has paid off, I could understand the instructor for the entire time  I was there. It is becoming easier to understand people when they are talking fast. I may not understand every word, but I hear every word now instead of a bunch of sounds. Finally something to write about again, it has been pretty quiet here, I have just been working at home on websites and my ecards and not doing anything new except teaching myself CSS.  Every day from 1:30 – 5pm I get to go learn more German and for 45 minutes out of that time I am learning about the German culture.

We got a new lamp ( actually just a lamp) from Susanne’s parents for the kitchen. Since we moved in, the kitchen has had nothing but a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, I actually forgot about it, I don’t look up much when I go in there, I just cook or wash dishes.  The 70″s lamp ( it looks like it was made then, really), made the room a tad bit darker but it does look better now. The weather has turned around, I never thought I would be happy to see a gray rainy day, but I am now! It is not snowing and the temp’s are up in the 40’s and lower 50’s at the moment, I feel a bit closer to getting the shorts out!

Susanne has been adjusting to the German office life. In her last post , Susanne’s page, she wrote about her co-workers being really sensitive to food smells. It turns out that it may not be a German thing, perhaps something more local to the  Krefeld area and more specifically to the guy that doesn’t like her that she has to work across from. She was talking to another woman who works in the building and this woman said she considers it rude when someone eats something with garlic in it the night before and comes to work the next day. Like she can really detect that someone has eaten a minute amount of garlic the night before! Give me a break!  No wonder the food here is so bland ( my opinion only).  Even the cayenne pepper doesn’t seem hot, I have to pour a lot on something to actually make it hotter. Oh well, I keep a bottle of hot sauce in the fridge, maybe one day I’ll have my brother send me some Dave’s Insanity Sauce. You only need a couple of drops of that at any given time, so it should last a while.  While I am on the subject of food, what is with the Gerber Greens? We were given something that tasted like greens spiced up with bacon recently. I couldn’t tell it was greens though, they had been put through a blender and looked like baby food. Food weirdness. I tasted it, it was okay, a bit on the greasy side with the bacon taste but if I had to eat it again, I probably could. Susanne didn’t like it at all.

Well that is it for now, there is something wrong with the T-Mobile internet connection, since the weekend everything is taking forever to load. I have a hard time looking at my ecard site because it takes minutes to load and I am having a hard time saving this post,  what should take a second or two to save is taking a few minutes, so I’ll wrap it up for now, I’ll be writing more about my new class and (hopefully) the progress I am making in it.

Susanne has finally taken a little time out of her busy schedule to post about a few things that have been on her mind since moving here to Germany. Below are the snippets of her posts. Either click on the links below or you can view them through; Pages (on the side bar) – Susannes Page.

Are Germans allergic to food smells? Posted February 5th, 2010

The longer I stay in Germany, the more I appreciate the almost 30 years I spent in America.  It took me 30 years  to relax from the uptight German that I was to the passionate person I am now.  I left Germany in ´77, came back in ´78, stayed for a month and couldn´t stand how I felt so boxed in here.  Then, for years in America I wondered, if I was missing something in Germany. Somehow I thought things might be better in Germany than in America. Now I keep being reminded of why I left.

Coming back home as an immigrant/foreigner Posted February 6th, 2010 – scroll down on the Susanne’s Posts page to see this post.

Coming back home to Germany as a naturalized American, I had to go to immigration and only got a 1-year permit to stay in my home country, where all my family still lives and has always lived. It can be extended after that year, if I make enough money. That did not make me feel welcome, though it´s better than what the situation is for a non-former German foreigner.

It is snowing again, it started about a half an hour ago. I was just thinking yesterday how lucky we live where we do, it seems like we miss the worst of the snow, which seems to be to the north, east and south of us. But if  the big flakes of snow keep falling this morning, I may have to take that back. From what I am hearing, this is the coldest winter in about 30 years here in German. Lovley, we moved to Florida  in 2005 and 3 months later and Wilma hit, the worst hurricane to directly hit Broward county (our county), in over 30 years. I can’t wait to see what happens when we move again in a few years. I found my snow pics. These were taken from the apartment and an the way across the bridge to the park.