Dampfschifffahrt and Halloween!

Sorry for the pause between postings, but I've actually started to become busy with school.  DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache) started this week, and of course a lot of homework comes with any language class.  It's a mix of students from all over the world, although mostly European.  I'm the only American, but there's a girl from England and a girl from Australia too.  I also met a girl from Korea, and we talked in Korean a little bit (although I kept mixing it up with German.)  There are quite a few students from Mexico and South America too, so I hear a lot of Spanish being whispered.  My teacher is from Spain so she has a Spanish accent when she speaks German.  She's only 23 too, so I think this is probably her first year teaching.  We have a lot of Italians in class too, and I love hearing them speak German because they make it so melodic.  If you're familiar with the intonation patterns of Italian (or even the stereotyped patterns that we make fun of), then you'll know what I mean.

Poem from Middle English
www.archive.org

I've been working on my Referat (report/presentation) for my Middle English class all week.  My entire grade is based off of it, so I've been really stressed.  I just have to present for 20 minutes on Language Contact between Middle English, French, and Latin, but I'm still not sure what's "normal" for a presentation here in Germany.  In America we always make powerpoints, but here students seem to prefer the overhead projector.  I don't think I've used one of those since grade school.  Plus in the presentations there appears to be a strong lack of citations, so I'm not sure how strict they are about proper MLA citation format here.  Maybe my high school Conserve just drilled it into me too deeply.  There if we screwed up even one citation we'd lose an entire letter grade on the project.  In any case, I found some good sources and I think my powerpoint turned out pretty snazzy looking, so wish me luck on Tuesday!

Yesterday we had a BU all expenses paid Dampfschifffahrt down the Elbe River.  Yes, that is one word,  and it basically means we took a ride on a steam-powered cruise boat.  For all of you Linguistics people, that is a part of the famous German word: Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftsraddampferkapitänskajütentürsicherheitsschlüssel that we've looked at in Morphology classes.  Broken down: The Donau Steamboat Ride Corporation Paddle Steamer Captain's Cabin Door Security Keys.  I looked around the boat, but unfortunately this word was nowhere to be found. :-(

Christine and I in front of the Dampfschiff

The ride went really slowly, and although it was sunny out it was still pretty cold so we sat inside for most of it.  I ordered some Glühwein, warm wine, which is starting to become one of my favorite drinks here.  I'll have to figure out how to make it back in the States.  I was having a fun time on the cruise until a dog bit my leg when I accidentally stepped on its paw (in my defense its owners let it sit on the walkway.)  It didn't break the skin luckily, but now I have a huge bruised bite mark on my leg.  On the bright side, at least it happened on Halloween and now I can say it's a zombie bite!

Justin (one of the Bio Students)
looking very American in front of
the German flag!

After the cruise I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Altstadt with Lin and some of the Bio Students.  I've been making an effort to get to know them better, and they're a lot of fun to hang out with.  Plus I do kind of miss being able to goof around in English.  Anyways, the food there was good, but I got a spicy salad and apparently my body needs to adjust back to eating spicy foods again because I had a tummyache all night.

View from the bow of the Dampfschiff

I went out with Lin, Alex, Christine, and our friend Markus (who lives here in Dresden but speaks good English).  We got all dressed up (I wore my dirndel of course!) but when we got to the club hardly anyone else was dressed up.  The few that were didn't get too creative about it either.  I mostly saw lederhosen and silly hats or masks.  The music was just classic club hits too.  Not bad for dancing, but I really need to find a House music club here before I leave!