Semesteranfang

Well, classes started last week- pretty anticlimactic, actually, but in a good way. My class schedule is pretty awesome- I don't have class Monday, Wednesday or Friday, so the Semesteranfang (beginning of semester) celebration last Monday was something I was able to go to. I was sick and not feeling well, but I figured I should, in order to get the low down on what life's like at the Universität Heidelberg. There were a million and one people there by the time we got there (we got a little lost. Neuenheimer Feld is bigger than I realized. Not the only time last week I got lost there!) but we (well, Haleigh and Anne and I were able to, but we couldn't find Brian and Annika) were able to make it into the Hörsaal (lecture hall) and find some standing room in the back.

For some reason, when we decided to go, we didn't think about how boring these things are in English, much less in another language. After we heard the speeches and presentations, we walked around gathering as much information as we could about the different clubs and options for becoming involved in the community (apparently choirs and orchestras are the go-to social interactions, I got asked like 10 times to join a choir or orchestra. It was kind of cool to be able to say "nein, danke, schon bin ich in ein Chor"- no, thank you, I'm already in a choir).

Tuesday was my first class- Wortschatz B (Vocabulary B) which is a pretty full class of international students, including a lot of AJY kids: Mark, Kaia, Dan, Aaron, Abby, Andrew, Jon and I, making a total of about 30. We'll see if there are that many who show up tomorrow, since the first two weeks of classes are really flexible and fluid. In another week I'll have Deutsche Geschichte (German history) on Tuesdays as well, but it doesn't start for another week. Thursday I went to my Phonetik (Phonetics) class, and by accident ended up in a different, but better phonetik class. I was so excited as we started taking notes and talking- it's really interesting. In that class, the first half is with all the students, then we break into two groups based on Muttersprache (mother language). I'm in a smaller group of people whose Muttersprache is English, Japanese, Turkish, and Korean.

Thursday was also the day I started my Praktikum (internship) at the dai Bibliothek (the Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Library) which was great. I'll have the opportunity to do a lot of really neat things through this Praktikum, like join a book club, be on a panel for German students to ask questions about life in the US, do story time for little kids, and just help in general around the library. Thursday night I have a class through AJY called "Übung zum Lesen, Verstehen und Schreiben"- "practice of reading, understanding and writing" with Herr Dörr, who is such a great teacher. The nice thing about this course is that it's really small- just 7 of us are in it, making it easy for us all to interact and have the opportunity to talk.

Looking at my class list, you are probably thinking I have so much free time, which is sort of true, but I've filled it up pretty well: Bible study, choir, Wednesday church and DAI events round out my week, as well as hanging out with friends and exploring.

It's nice to have a schedule again, and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the semester brings!