Deustch Klasse. Take Two.

Hallo, mein Name ist Ashley. Ich komme aus dem USA. Ich bin zwanzig Jahre alt. Mein hobbys sind malen, lesen, und fußall. Ich spreche englisch und ein bisschen deutsch. Wie heißt du? Woher kommst du? Was sind dein hobbys? Was sprichst du?

German. What a language. I speak in it, dream in it, I think in it. It's invading my brain. Sometimes I even forget English words for things because of all the new German vocab I am learning. Languages enthrall me and German is no exception. But geez, this language is kicking my butt. Most of the time I look like a tongued two year old trying to say something. But I take pride in knowing that I have learned a lot and gotten better in the three months that I have been here. Just need to take a deep breath and constantly remember that I am just learning.

When I first arrived in Germany, it became very apparent, very fast that the German I knew so far at that point just wasn't going to cut it. Well. I knew a lot thanks to the wonderful class I took over the Summer. The problem was accessing that info in real life moments. Frieda could communicate better than I could and she's two. I felt beyond dumb. I pride myself on my ability to communicate through my words. Those of you who know me, know that I never shut up. So finding myself in a totally different culture and then not being able to communicate barely at all was beyond frustrating. It was embarrassing. I was beyond relieved when Johannes and Christiane signed me up for German class (deutsch Klasse).

My class was to be from early November to late December, five days a week, four hours a day. I was slightly dreading having to sit that long, especially in the morning. I just don't have that kind of concentration. Too much of a wiggle worm. But I knew it was worth it. I absolutely needed to improve my German. It wasn't an option to back out. I needed this.

The first day of class I walked to the school. VHS Karlsruhe (an adult school) is only a ten minute walk (or a five minute bike ride) from my apartment. I walked up to the big brick building and proceeded to try and push a door that you are supposed to pull. Story of my life. I do this all the time, no matter where I am in the world. I entered the classroom with the usual first day of class jitters. I had already realized that this was a great opportunity to meet some people my age, and I was holding my breath to see who would be in my class. The classroom was small, and the desks were set into a large square in the middle of the room. I sat down near the door next to a girl with lots of curly hair. I watched as each person arrived and wondered about where they were from and why they were here. Then the teacher arrived. And she immediately started talking in German. Come to find out, she only spoke German. I just about died on the spot.

As the days and weeks went by I realized how blessed I was to being take this German class. My teacher, Irene, was super sweet, funny, understanding, and extremely patient. Her speaking only German was the kick in the ass that I needed to force me to speak in German. As for my classmates, they were a blessing too. Once we got into a comfortable groove that most classes fall into, everyone became friends. I adore each one of them. I could go into detail about each of them and how awesome they are, but I won't embarrass them like that haha. It was just so refreshing to have people near my age to relate with and hang out with. Being away from my friends and family back home has been hard. But my classmates have helped alleviate missing home. Through this class, not only did my German improve a whole bunch (along with my confidence in regards to speaking it), I made friends from around the world.

Celebrating Ioana's Birthday! (Top row: Maria and Kush Bottom row: Me, Nacha, Ioana, Gabriel, and Carmina)

Out to coffee on our last day of class. (From the left to right: Irene, Maria, Ioana, Edina, Aryenn, Gabriel, Me, Cindy, and Carmina).

If someone would have told me this time last year what my future held for me I would have laughed at how far fetched it would have sounded. Me, live in Germany, learn German, meet people from all over the world, and see places I have only seen in books? Ha. Yet here I am.

Deutsch Klasse

I started "Summer school shopping" in May. I had known since March that I would need to find a German class to show the Au Pair agency and the German government that I was interested in Germany and their language. It's one of the qualifications to be an au pair there. But I waited till May since that is typically when school start posting up their Summer school courses. Silly naive me, I thought it would be as easy as signing up at Long Beach City College and then being done with it. But of course it was about as simple as putting together furniture from Ikea.

Turns out because of budget cuts, the Summer language courses had really taken a hit and very few community colleges had any language classes at all. And what was typically offered was Spanish or French, neither being at all helpful to my search. I finally found a school that offered it, and I got so excited. Then I got really bummed. It was like three hours away. No way I was gunna make that drive.

Panic was beginning to creep up on me. All I could think was, "Crap, crap, crap, why didn't I realize this would happen?! I'm never going to find a class and then what the heck will I tell my German family? *ahhhhhhh*" After much moaning and groaning how I was doomed,  I continued my search.

One of the last schools I looked at was Cerritos. Considering how close it to Long Beach you are probably wondering why I didn't check that first. Funny thing is I have no clue. Apparently I had lost all sense of logic at that moment. But, point is I finally checked out their classes. And guess what? They had one German class! I just about died of happiness. Then I realized the class, and it's waiting list were already full. I groaned and proceeded to pout like the five year old that I am.

After pouting, I acted my age and emailed the teacher explaining to her the situation. I even told her I was fine with taking the class without it even counting for units. I was desperate. She emailed me back about a week later and told me we would work something out if I never was able to enroll in the class. She also told me to be there the first day of class. I felt much, much better after that. I just had to wait until the first week of July to find out my fate.

The first week of July rolled around much faster than I wanted. By starting this class I knew I would be giving up my social life. It was Monday through Thursday from 6 to 9:30 p.m. So six weeks of no evenings and then count all the time spent doing homework and studying. Hence, no social life. Well there was a little one, just really wimpy to what I'm used to...

I got to Cerritos College, which is actually right on the border of Norwalk and Cerritos, and immediately found myself missing LBCC. Now, I am not one for school spirit/pride and all that hoop-la (even in high school, shocking I know). But I realized then how much I adored my school, even though I rag on it all the time. There is something so nice about the way LBCC is laid out and the buildings all have this cohesive feel, and all the nice lawn and trees, and the bunnies (oh how I adore the bunnies). Cerritos has a weird layout and is a mish mash of buildings that were definitely built over a series of decades. And there are no exotic wildlife.

I got to class and was quite surprised. Ten people didn't show up so everyone on the wait list and the petitioner (me) got enrolled in the class. I was so ecstatic!

My teacher, Frau Potter, is a native German. (Don't let her last name fool you, she married a British man). She is quite the character. She has such a dry humor, a matter of fact sense about her, and deep sense of joy. You can tell she loves to teach and really has her students best interest in mind. God really blessed me with her. Frau Potter definitely is what I needed to learn German. I would most definitely recommend her if you are looking to take a German class!

My classmates. What can I say? They were quite the odd grouping. Definitely kept class interesting. I made friends with a girl named Martha. She is such a sweet girl and it was great getting to know her.

Class was so fast paced. A vocab test and a chapter test each week. Along with homework every night. I definitely was given a run for my money. But after the doom that was my last semester I knew I was going to try my absolute hardest to throw myself into this class. Also knowing that I would be needing this language come September was a really big motivator. As predicted, my social life died very quickly (Sorry to my wonderful friends and family, I was kinda up to my eyeballs in German vocab cards. I will make it up to you these next five weeks!).

As class went along I began to really enjoy myself. And I started to like certain things about Cerritos' campus (my loyalty still lies with LBCC of course). They have a wonderful library with high ceilings and really cool little areas to study. They also have multiple parking lots so your classroom in never three million miles away from where you park (which was really nice since it was dark when I walked back to my car each night). The also have parking stickers to put on your window. LBCC, you should be taking notes...

The end of class came last Thursday when I took my final. I felt so satisfied, but at the same time was left wanting more. I wanted to keep learning, and to have the motivation of knowing that I had a test every Monday and Thursday. But at the same time it felt so great to be done. I know I tried my best, and whatever grade that was to come my way was well deserved. I figured I would get a B based on my test and homework scores. Well, I have always been bad at math, and thus I was wrong about my grade. They were posted last night and guess what. I got an A!!! I am so proud of myself. If only each semester I was able devote myself to only one class and feel this great afterwards.

I always thought I would hate taking Summer school and that it would really stress me out. I still think that to be quite true, but there is wiggle room in that thought now. If I take a class that will be enjoyable and something that I will throw myself into, then I won't hate it. And though I will be stressed, it will be worth it. But I must admit, if I had taken this class in Summers past I wouldn't have been able to handle it. I guess this is just one of those moments when you realize how much you have changed without even noticing.