It´s been a week since I left Graz and since then many things have happened. Last Saturday, I ended up going to Vienna on my own because the girls who I was going with gave up at the last moment. So I sold what was left of my weekly pass in Graz (that´s a good tip for those who have valid passes when leaving a place) and headed to the capital where I met the Brazilian Bia and her cousin. We walked around the ring, saw the new-year screen concert in front of the Rathaus and I had my daily dose of ice-cream. The staff of their hotel let me sleep in their room without extra payment, but the only available bed was for babies and from knees to feet I had no mattress so the night was miserable.
The next day I flew to Berlin and was too sleepy to complain about my distorted suitcase when I got to the airport. I took a tram to my host-family´s place and carried the heavy bags up an endless staircase (in fact just 4 floors, but it required a huge effort). The family is really nice and multicultural! The father is a tennis teacher and comes from Gana, a black man with white hair and a sincere smile. The children are 2 beautiful mulattoes, a girl older than me and a boy in his teens. The mother came from holidays yesterday and I just met her for some minutes, seemed a somewhat eccentric blondine. The first day was spent with them in a lake near the city, where we swam and were surprised by a wild boar and its offspring who crossed our way. Luckily they were in a peaceful mood...
The German classes began on Tuesday, after the placement test on Monday and they have been ok, nothing particularly exciting about them, just the usual reading, grammatic and speaking exercises. Most of the people come from France and Spain, but I´ve also met other people from all over, specially during the day trips and guided tours. After lunch (classes are in the morning), the institute arranged an excellent cultural program which encompasses walking tours, museums and nearby attraction sights, always with fantastic guides! I´ve learnt more German there than during the classes themselves. Communication is hard and takes ages. To convey a simple message I spend a long time finding words and putting a sentence together. Most of the others aren´t much better either, so a dialog is tiring and, I would say, hilarious for a native speaker. No one wants to give up and fall back on English. Yesterday a Professor from the USA and German beginner took about 10 min to tell me he´s doing a thesis on the political indifference present in some children´s book I´d never heard about.
The weather was hot and sunny until yesterday (well, a bit too much on an oven, maybe...), but it all changed exactly in the middle of the film I was watching on open-air-cinema last night. Thunderbolts lighted the sky and a heavy rain started pouring and drenched me. The worst thing was that I payed for the film and was actually enjoying and understanding the story (in German, of course!). Well, I still managed to see the rest under a small drink´s hut, looking like a drown rat... After all it was a funny episode and carried some reminiscences of Graz! Today I´ve bought tickets to a play: Sommernachtstraum, also open air...and afterwards we´ll explore Berlin´s so renowned nightlife!
Well, gotta go now! I have a guided tour starting soon!
The next day I flew to Berlin and was too sleepy to complain about my distorted suitcase when I got to the airport. I took a tram to my host-family´s place and carried the heavy bags up an endless staircase (in fact just 4 floors, but it required a huge effort). The family is really nice and multicultural! The father is a tennis teacher and comes from Gana, a black man with white hair and a sincere smile. The children are 2 beautiful mulattoes, a girl older than me and a boy in his teens. The mother came from holidays yesterday and I just met her for some minutes, seemed a somewhat eccentric blondine. The first day was spent with them in a lake near the city, where we swam and were surprised by a wild boar and its offspring who crossed our way. Luckily they were in a peaceful mood...
The German classes began on Tuesday, after the placement test on Monday and they have been ok, nothing particularly exciting about them, just the usual reading, grammatic and speaking exercises. Most of the people come from France and Spain, but I´ve also met other people from all over, specially during the day trips and guided tours. After lunch (classes are in the morning), the institute arranged an excellent cultural program which encompasses walking tours, museums and nearby attraction sights, always with fantastic guides! I´ve learnt more German there than during the classes themselves. Communication is hard and takes ages. To convey a simple message I spend a long time finding words and putting a sentence together. Most of the others aren´t much better either, so a dialog is tiring and, I would say, hilarious for a native speaker. No one wants to give up and fall back on English. Yesterday a Professor from the USA and German beginner took about 10 min to tell me he´s doing a thesis on the political indifference present in some children´s book I´d never heard about.
The weather was hot and sunny until yesterday (well, a bit too much on an oven, maybe...), but it all changed exactly in the middle of the film I was watching on open-air-cinema last night. Thunderbolts lighted the sky and a heavy rain started pouring and drenched me. The worst thing was that I payed for the film and was actually enjoying and understanding the story (in German, of course!). Well, I still managed to see the rest under a small drink´s hut, looking like a drown rat... After all it was a funny episode and carried some reminiscences of Graz! Today I´ve bought tickets to a play: Sommernachtstraum, also open air...and afterwards we´ll explore Berlin´s so renowned nightlife!
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