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.
