Mein lange Ausbleiben ist fertig

The title (which has mistakes, I'm sure) of this blog should give a hint to my ridiculously long absence from my blog. In translation, it means "my long absence is over". As you may recall (probably not - I didn't and had to go back and read my own blogs!!), I wrote back in October that life was getting hectic. The kids had started school in mid September, and I started back to teaching and added in a German immersion class. And whew! That class has been hard work. No - I am not fluent. Yes, I still struggle dramatically with this difficult language that my children just rattle off like their A B Cs. BUT, I am better than I was by a long shot. Locals have even said so. I CAN have conversations, be they limited, with our neighbors who don't speak a lick of English AND can understand some of what they say. And, last but definitely not least, I have met some very interesting and wonderful people - some, like me, who really struggle with it, and some who help the rest of us along.

The class ends next Thursday with the last but easiest of the tests; however, we have already finished all the material we will learn for this round. If I can pass the three tests that I have had to take in the course, I will have a Deutsch Certifikat (an internationally recognized certificate of basic German language skills) as well as letters of completion for the required citizenship tests. No worries, though - I am coming back to the US, although it really does break my heart to come back. I have really fallen in love with this place, the people and many friends I have made here, the wonderful winters, the hiking, my job and students that I teach, und und und ...

Starting on my off days next week, I plan to write some catch-up blogs with pictures of all the things we have done since the last October blog. We've had visits from my aunt and uncle, my cousin and my husband's parents, a fall festival in Ludwigsburg, Thanksgiving with our British and German friends, a trip to the neighboring Black Forest, Christmas (in that oddly quiet way it is celebrated here as well as a little Charlie Brown tree), Andrew's birthday, and my favorite: snow.

But to wrap up this posting, I want to share more with you about my German class. There are people literally from all over the world taking the class with many countries represented: Australia, Peru, Thailand, Korea, France, Algeria, China, Philippines, Canada, Kenya, Russia, Turkey, and Sri Lanka - oh, and of course the USA. Most of the people taking this course need it to immigrate to Germany. Many have married Germans, but others are seeking a better life, have family history with Germany, or simply prefer to be here. Since there are so many other languages represented, German is the ONLY language spoken in the class. We are charged 1 euro for using our native language. We have taken two field trips over the course of the class, one to Salzburg and one to the city of Ulm, of which you will get to see more in the pictures with my cousin. We have also had two festivals in our class where everyone brought some food representative of their country. It was very interesting, but I am still, unfortunately, a picky eater (and YES - I do desperately miss American food/grocery stores/restaurants!!) Below are some pictures from some of these events. I will miss these folks, since as of Thursday we will go our separate ways. Bis Mittwoch ... (until Wednesday...)