Goethe course B2.3

Whew.  Yesterday I finished my second intensive 4-week German language course.  This one, although at a slightly higher lever, felt less intense than my first -- mostly I think because our teacher was a little more relaxed (and enjoyed just having the class talk together about whatever issues struck us).  He was funny and I learned a lot from him, but we didn't drill the grammar and vocabulary quite as much as we probably should have.
   Anyway, it's over, and I passed "mit gutem Erfolg"  (with good success) which somewhat surprised me since I had missed the end-of-course test on Monday due to a 24-hour stomach bug (thanks to my son, I'm sure, who had a stomach thing all last week...).  But he said the certificate was based also on our homework, previous tests, and class presentation etc.
    My vocabulary is still not where I want it to be... the (or one of the) pathetic thing about the aging brain is that it doesn't remember new words!!  I look at a new word one day, think I've understood and "learned" it, then the next day I have no idea what it is... or I have an inkling that I should know that word, which makes it all the more frustrating.  Anyway, 10 steps forward, 9 steps back still means I'm getting somewhere I guess.  It is easier for me to converse, and our class went out for a very enjoyable Weissbier together last evening -- one of the many benefits of a course like this is meeting all sorts of interesting new people from all over the world.

Seated:  Alessa from Boston, Longxi from China, Aurélie from France, José from Spain.
Standing:  Sergey from Kazakhstan, Pedro from Spain, Antuanetta from Romania, Eirik from Norway,
Aleksandra from Poland, me, our teacher Berthold Kuhne, and Abdulelah from Saudi Arabia.
Missing that day was Peeter, a professor of law from Estonia.

Now, for what feels like the first time, I have lots of free-time on my hands.  Yahoo... I think.  During our first couple months here I guess I was busy "settling in" and discovering Munich, then I took the mid-October to mid-November intensive course (and we moved apartments), then I spent all December singing, and all of January with this course.  The family (especially Benjamin) is happy now that I'll be around in the late afternoon when the kids get home from school -- they've been latch-key kids all month.  Our grocery and dinner situation should improve too, starting now.

   When I'm teaching and on my "regular" crazy schedule at home, I would kill for more free time.  But, I'm finding, I don't sit still easily.  Today I find myself spinning a little bit about what to do.  Gym, groceries, OK, a little bit of house cleaning, and now what?  Blogging.  Still, it's only 1:45pm.  Luckily today it's beautiful out, so I'll go for a walk -- aiming for the library I think, and I'll try to attack some easy German novels.  I might just get used to all this free time...

The visa quest: part 2

Thursday, January 17th was the long-awaited appointment at the Kreisverwaltungsreferat ("countryadministrativeoffice") for -- what I thought would be -- the receipt of my permanent visa.

After the craziness in September, we were kind of dreading setting foot in there again, but at least we had a pre-fixed appointment this time.  It turned out this time the experience was actually not bad at all.  The one clerk we dealt with was remarkably reasonable and helpful.  He saw that I had my letter of "successful participation" in the Goethe Institute language course (and was duly impressed that I was "already" at level B2) and then everything went smoothly.  After he checked my temporary visa and ID photos, I had to run down the hall to pay 110 Euros, then return with the receipt for the privilege of having my fingerprints taken...   It all took less than 20 minutes, and I though we were done.  

One shouldn't get one's hopes up too soon, however.  Of course I don't have the visa in hand.  It will be waiting for me, apparently, in 4 to 6 weeks -- no reminders are sent -- and we need to then come get it (and likely deal with the waiting zones and so forth again).  We don't quite understand this, since the permanent visa is supposedly in some sort of electronic form, and for 110 Euro you'd think they could mail it to me anyway.  *sigh*   So stay tuned for visa quest:  part 3.

Oh, interestingly, the clerk suggested that it should be easy enough for me to get German citizenship, if I want!  My husband and kids are German, and apparently the language test is at the A2 level, which I should (better) be easily capable of passing....  Hmmmm.  Not sure I want to deal with more bureaucracy, but having three citizenships would be quite something, eh?

Switzerland, in the clouds

We visited Thomas's sister Steffi and family near Zürich on the last few days of the kids' winter holidays.  Jan. 3rd, we rented a car, and headed south west (with Thomas driving, since even if I were allowed to, I wouldn't want to drive here on the crazy German Autobahns...)
A couple hours later, we stopped in Lindau, a quaint Bavarian town on an island at the east coast of the Bodensee (Lake Constance).

Mini-model of Lindau -- the island is attached to mainland with a bridge.

In the "streets" of Lindau

Lindau has many narrow cobblestone alleys, but is most famous for it's harbor, looking across the lake to the Swiss and Austrian alps.

Lindau is very popular is the summer, and you can imagine how stunning the view would be on a clear day!

As we drove into Switzerland (via 20 minutes in Austria) we got more and more excited about seeing the mountains.

It's really too bad the weather, for the last month in Europe, has been grey and unseasonably warm (5-10C).  I wanted the clouds out of the way so I could see the peaks!

My favorite part of this drive was the Walensee, an absolutely gorgeous lake at the base of a chain of 7 mountains called the Churfürsten.

 

We arrived at Steffi and Rolf's house in a tiny town called Wolfhausen (which isn't on the map... and we didn't have a GPS... and Thomas didn't want to call.  But he found it.)  It's near Rapperswil, on the opposite end of Lake Zürich from Zürich itself.  On our second morning there, the adults left the kids at home (playing Uno) and went for a walk around Rapperswil, which has a lovely downtown and, as is quite common around here, an old castle which overlooks the lake.

Thomas with brother-in-law Rolf and sister Steffi

View from the Rapperswil castle over the foggy lake

The night before, Rolf and the boys had gone to the Zürich pro hockey game.  Joshua is a huge fan of the ZSC Lions, and gave Benjamin one of his fan hats to wear.

LUZERN

On our first full day in Switzerland, however, the four of us, with our niece Alena, took a day trip into Luzern (Lucerne), which, by the way, is where Thomas was born.  We spent the morning in the transportation museum (lots of cool trains) and then the afternoon walking around the city.  What a gorgeous town!  It lies on the Vierwaldstättersee ("Four-forest-place" Lake, or known in English as Lake Lucerne) and its famous landmark is the Kapellbrücke, a 170 m medieval wooden bridge.

The Kapellbrücke (Chapel bridge) lies across the Reuss river, which drains Lake Lucerne

I took way too many pictures, since I loved the town so much.  Here are some.  

 Switzerland is absolutely gorgeous.  I'm really going to have to come back when it's sunny!

On the drive back home, we made a very slight detour through the tiny country of Liechtenstein, which has a grand total of 61 sq. miles, and lies on the border of Austria and Switzerland.  This way we could say that in one day we drove through all of the officially German-speaking countries!

Thomas, Julia, Benjamin, cousin Alena, on the Chapel bridge in Lucerne

Holiday travels

On Dec 24th we took the train to Göttingen, where our good friends the Salditts had invited us to share Christmas with them.  This meant, of course, packing up a few presents to bring with (and bring back) so the suitcase situation on the crowded trains was a little awkward, but we managed.  First, though, the morning of the 24th, we had a little present-opening in our apartment:

Julia with her Ikea star-shade floor lamp

We got to Salditt's mid-afternoon, in time for a quick cup of tea before heading to their church to see the pageant which Nicole was directing and all four girls were in.  Annalena, 18, (co-opted as soon as she got home from University) and Marie, 17, did a lot of singing; Clara, 10, played Mary, and Lottie, 8, was a not-at-all-shy child commentator.  It was fun to see them all up front in their packed church.
  Then when we returned to their house, the real excitement began, as Germans celebrate Christmas on the eve of the 24th, with a family dinner and opening presents all intertwined until about midnight!

Julia, Marie, Nicole's parents (the Kleins), me, Tim serving wine, the back of the younger girls heads...
[It was hard to get a picture everyone, with people jumping up and down before the meal started.]

Fondue!  Which Benjamin loved...

Presents (from the Christkind, not from Santa Claus) were opened before dinner, then before desert, but mostly after the meal.

Lottie and Benjamin looking at the Fischertechnik car that Benjamin
received and then built for most of the night.

Marie, Tim, Clara and Annalena Salditt reading a photo book from their trip to Israel, with me and Julia looking on.

Poor Nicole was understandably exhausted by 11 pm or so

After sleeping late on Christmas day, we took a walk through the town of Göttingen, which is a picturesque German town, famous for its university (and many houses there have name plaques attached saying which famous scholar lived there).  It is very old -- many houses we saw were built in the 1400's -- and fortunately the town is remarkably-well preserved since it suffered relatively little WWII damage.  Walking through the old district near the university feels almost like you could be in the middle ages.  Too bad I didn't have my camera!

                                                                                                     On the 26th, we took the train to Neuwied, Thomas's home town.  Oma/Johanna welcomed us with drinks and cookies, and by lighting the (real!) candles on the tree.

Julia entertains the two older generations with apps on her iPod...

We had a relaxing three days in Neuwied, with not much on the agenda:  Thomas and I explored the neighboring town of Koblenz, Julia had a hot chocolate and visit downtown with her great-aunt Doris, Benjamin played with Thomas's childhood toys in his old room, and we enjoyed talking to Johanna and Rolf.  Thomas also had organized a small reunion with some of his Gymnasium (high school) friends one evening, for which I tagged along.  These days I can follow the conversation and actually participate!

With more presents, more good food and drink, our holiday celebrations were extended over several days.  It was nice to spread out the festivities -- and have other people cook for you!




(Unfortunately, Benjamin had brought along a cold, which was then passed to me, luckily briefly, then to Thomas, then Julia.  The two boys got it the worst, and Benjamin ended up with an ear infection -- luckily the pediatrician in town was available.
Too bad, but somewhat typical that as soon as you relax for Christmas holidays, you get sick... )

Rolf, Johanna's partner, enjoyed the game too

Christmas in three homes meant a lot of travel, but it was certainly worthwhile to see family and friends here in Germany.

We were back in Munich for New Years, celebrated here with amazing numbers of fireworks set off all over the city.  Much of the display we saw over the skyline is launched by private individuals -- it's interesting to me that rule-strict Germans can buy and set off pretty impressively powerful fireworks where ever they want (although only on New Year's).  In fact Julia and I went to the Englischer Garten just at midnight to see what we could, and it almost felt like were were in the middle of a (loud but very colorful) battle as people were setting off fireworks all around the park.  Once we got over the slight sense of danger, it was really quite beautiful and thrilling.  A very exciting way to welcome in the New Year!