Well, I made it through another week. Running around has made me pretty exhausted, so much so, that I actually fell asleep in the train. It didn't last for long though, because I was suddenly awoken by a blast of air in my face and some guy saying something that must of been, do you mind if I open the window. I just nodded, although I do somewhat mind. Yesterday we had something of a heat wave with the temperature hitting 70 for the first time in a few weeks. When I go home in the midafternoon, I travel on trains that must have been made in the 60s complete with lime green interiors, windows that can be pushed down, and do it yourself, frightening doors. The trains also always have that certain stale odor, something like salami. Pretty gross. Of course, if I were to take the ICE and pay the extra 100 Euros, I would be buying into a perfectly temperature regulated, cleaned regularly, very comfortable seats and plenty of leg room commodity. As a coworker put it - 100 euros really isn't so much. I still haven't caved and will continue taking the cheap - o, endless train, but I am getting more and more tempted!
When I got home from work, I quickly passed out on the couch. It didn't last for long because after an hour I was off to German class where it took a while to shake off the last of my exhaustion and actually think. I also have to go through I language transition time to get my head around German again after interacting in German all day.
An interesting surprise is that my German class will change times due to Ramadan. Instead of running from 5:30 to 8:30, it will last from 5:15 to 7:30. This potentially could cause some problems with getting there on time because a train I often take back from Basel arrives at 5:20ish. The funny thing is there are only 3 Muslim students in my class of 13 so Berlitz is being very accommodating. I can't say the shorter time bothers me too much, but on the other hand I really do want to learn German and I haven't exactly been studying outside of class time.
My German is now conversational...I can carry on a very basic conversation full of mistakes. I had a friend from German class over for tea for a while last night and we managed, with a lot of help from young, to talk for several hours. I also managed to explain a problem to a work colleague auf deutsch.
Jan left for a weekend volleyball tournament this morning, so I am alone. Although it's pretty quiet around here, it's not too bad because I can catch up on sleep and cleaning our apartment.
No comments:
Post a Comment