Das Ausrufen für Emmy

I haven’t written in six days, so here’s a shout out to Em, Lindz, Derek, and Bay.  Continents apart, but we still have to keep our promises.  There’s a lesson for everyone.

I can barely remember what I did all week because I was too busy thinking about Kevin finally getting here.  I also don’t think I ever mentioned that we went to Frankfurt together as a group last week.  It was really cold and snowy and we took a tour through Goethe’s house, although the tour guide made sure to tell us a hundred times that none of the rooms look like they used to when he lived there, it was just a guess, really.  Table there, chair there, hang a painting, collect a toll, boom.  And the floor was really, really creaky, so even if I could pay attention on a tour, I couldn’t hear what the woman was saying half of the time anyway.  I’m sorry everyone who will think I am annoying for saying this, but tours and museums are the worst!  What a terrible way to try to learn things. 

Anyway, our excursion this week was also a tour, but a bit more interesting.  We got to go into a local TV studio and see how they produced everything and all of their equipment.  Then we got to sit in on a live news show and as a special treat, I have included a link to our episode (http://www.rnf.de/video-portal/sendung/videos/show/rnf-life-die-sendung-vom-19032013.html?no_cache=1&cHash=6eaca99db377af26b7fc659ad629ba64).  First of all, I didn’t know we’d be the only ones in the studio, along with the reporter and two camera guys and one guy whose only job was to make sure the cable connected to the camera did not get damaged in any way. Second of all, I didn’t know we’d actually be on TV, but then they told us to clap in the beginning and all of a sudden the camera was on us.  And then after the first news story they panned back over to us for a while and introduced us as visiting American students.  You can tell by the looks on our faces that we didn’t know it was coming, nor did any of us know what to do.  So it’s a fun watch.

They also have an in-studio kitchen that they use when they film cooking shows, and because of the way the air is filtered out of the studio and throughout the rest of the building to keep it cool, all of the surrounding offices can smell whatever is being cooked that day and apparently everyone comes trickling in one by one to see if they can get a taste.  Someone should make a reality TV show about a TV studio.

We finally got our student ID’s, so now we are official Universität Heidelberg students and can check out books from the library and everything.  Real classes start halfway through April and right now we’re still in the planning phase of it all.  It think I am going to take a German writing course with Herr Dörr, a class about migration into Germany taught by Adam and another visiting American professor, a class about German pronunciation, and also a class about teaching a foreign language.  Plus the internship.  I’m excited for it, but now I’m okay with one more week of German class and then our big test and then spring break. We are learning more German grammar than I ever even knew was possible to learn.  It is exhausting every single day, but it is so, so cool to be able to listen to and read German and finally understand why they say things a certain way, or what exactly it means—I love it. 

Sam and I went to a P.E. class with our 7^th grade boys from English class and we played soccer with them all period and it was so fun.  Sam’s team definitely won, but I blame it on my tiny, wimpy goalie.  He was so precious.  And of course in P.E. class we speak German, so it was a good way for us to incorporate more German into a technically English speaking internship.  Hopefully we can continue doing that.

So finally Friday came around and I got to get on a train to Frankfurt and meet Kevin there.  And just so everyone officially knows, he grew a beard.  Yes, it’s true.  We spent a few hours in Frankfurt with one of Kevin’s friends from Salzburg and then headed back down to Heidelberg.  Then we only had Saturday together before he had to head on to Salzburg and do some business-like stuff.  Sam and I showed him around a little bit of the city and then took him up Philosophenweg and then we all headed right, toward Klosterhof.  We sat down in the restaurant when we finally got there and all enjoyed the best beer in the world (not true, according to Kevin, but we just have different taste buds! he says).  And fear not German professors of Redlands, we spoke in German the entire day.  Which was actually strange, because of course, Kevin and I speak English to each other normally.  It’s a little like trying to get to know someone all over again when you speak in a different language with them.  But it was fun, and it’s nice to be able to finally do that.  Then Kevin and I went and saw Die Croods.  Kids movies are my favorite in English, and naturally, auf Deutsch, they are even better, because I get so excited when I can understand most of what they are saying.  It was definitely a good movie, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as funny without the grown man sitting a few rows behind us and dying of laughter after every joke.  Welcome to Germany, where you can get a bag of popcorn and a beer from the refreshment counter.  And what the heck is it actually called, because I know it’s not the refreshment counter. 

Anyway, the next morning, as in this morning, Kevin took off to Salzburg.  We had taken all of his luggage with us to the train station of course and we said goodbye and he got on the train and I stood there and could kind of see him through the window as he put all of his bags away and then all of a sudden I hear “Schatz!” from the open train door and look up and he’s standing there with his head poked out, and goes, “Rucksack!”—whoops! I still had his backpack on; the train almost pulled away without it!  Good call, Kev, nicely done.  Also I should say, in addition to Sofie spelling my name like this “Heli” she also spelled Kevin’s like this “Kefin”.  So I shall refer to him as Kef, from now on. 

This week is our last week of grammar class.  On Thursday I get to go join Kefin in Salzburg for Easter weekend, which I think will be the closest thing I’ve had to spending Easter with family in four years.  I’m excited about it.  Then we both come back to Heidelberg that Monday and he gets ready to begin a month long intensive German course in Mannheim, and I spring break for a week or so.  I’ll have to find something to pass my time.  Maybe I’ll write a novel.  My dad sent me a note that said a novel takes 475 hours to write.  I think I’ll have time for that.