Almost 2 months here

Time is going by insanely fast.  I have been here for 51 days or so and it seems like a few hours ago when I was boarding my flight for Germany.  I know it is commonly said that time flies and wow I can’t believe how fast it’s gone, but I really mean this.  I know I still have 8 months left here, but the way the last two months have gone I will be leaving in an hour or two.  I never thought getting to the age of 70 was possible, but I believe I’m completely wrong.  Not only that, but I feel like time is starting to speed up.  Days are shorter and months are days and years are mere months.  It is becoming quite a nuisance.

Not TOO much has happened since my last post.  Another week of school and a Saturday spent helping my host father and brother trim the hedges for winter.  Sunday was a boring day because everything shuts down on Sunday in Germany and you aren’t supposed to go anywhere except for maybe a walk or a restaurant.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that has happened the last week is my language course that I started Monday.  Of course, the only German in the class is the teacher and all of the students are from various countries.  I am the only American and I believe I am one of only two English speakers in the class.  One girl is from India and I haven’t heard her speak English, but I assume she does.  In our class we have people from France, Russia, Bosnia, India, Latvia, Italy, Romania, and me from America.  There are about twenty of us so I am sure I am forgetting some country.  I am also by far the youngest.  We played a game where we had to say how old we were and how long we had been in Germany.  I think the next youngest person in my class is 23 or something like that.  The age goes all the way up to 65 or so.  The German class I’m in is level 4 and so it is for people who have a decent exposure to the language.  When we were telling everyone how long we had been in Germany everyone was saying various numbers like ‘1 year’ ‘6 years’ ‘6 months’  ‘4 months’

There was someone who had even been in Germany for ten years! My class is not that easy, but it’s not that hard either and I think if I were here for ten years I wouldn’t need level 4 course.  I do know that a lot of the people don’t speak German on a regular basis because they have families, but it seems like you might pick up quite a bit of German in 10 years.  Maybe I am just completely stupid though ^^

But anyway, So everyone was saying how long they had been here and the lowest it got was me.  The next lowest was about 4 months or so.  When I said that I had been here for 50 days a bunch of people gasped.  I think they were impressed that after 50 days of learning German I was in the level 4 class.  The only thing is, is that I was supposed to be in the level 3 class, but there wasn’t one in my city so they just put me a level above.  There is that and also, the younger you are the quicker you pick up a language.  I am by far the youngest so I think I learn faster then them all. Plus I live in a German home, go to a German school and am completely immersed in the language all day so that adds to the speed of my learning.  That is my theory anyway.

So not a whole lot has happened. School is about the same.  I am going mountain biking this weekend next to the lake of Konstanz which is a bit south of here.  I think a good part of it is in Switzerland so it will be nice to visit that country again.

Greets, Spencer