Celebrating St. Martin/German Class

As my fellow Americans were celebrating Veterans’ Day on Nov. 11, in Germany the feast of St. Martin is celebrated. St. Martin is a real life Robin Hood who once, while he was riding his horse, found a man in the snow who had nothing. He took the cape off of his own back and gave it to him to save him from freezing to death. For that he is looked upon as a hero. At the Stuttgart street fair there was someone who was dressed as St. Martin (picture above). Lights in paper lanterns are also lit in his honor as a reminder to let your light shine through. At school the children celebrate St. Martin by singing songs, coloring pictures and learning about his story. I celebrated St. Martin by eating duck- a dish that is served during this month because of him.

This week I started my German class. It’s an intensive course that goes for 3 hours in the morning for a few weeks. I have learned so much that my head is still spinning from trying to retain all the information that has been given to me. In the mornings I walk Leila to school and then catch the train into the city. It’s really fun to be studying a language that is spoken in the country I am in. I love getting to go to school again and being a student.

Although, there is no rhyme or reason behind the way things are done in the German language, you just have to know it. For example, the article for ‘the’ can be der, die, or das depending on if the subject is feminine, masculine or natural. If you don’t know the article of the word then you are at a complete loss because then you won’t know how to refer to it when using the word ‘A” (ein/eine) or making it plural. But here’s the kicker, with Spanish where all words that end in O are masculine and are used with El and all words that end in A are feminine and used with La. With German there is kind of a pattern that some words follow but not all do and again like one of my instructor says, “It’s just the way it is.” Are you as confused as I am yet :P.I am having a difficult time with the pronunciation but when I do read correctly I get compliments on how I speak the language and that it sounds really nice.

I have two instructors. My first instructor teaches Mon-Wed. She is a very good teacher and moves at a pace that works for me and my fellow classmates. My other teacher that comes in the rest of the week hardly knows any English which makes things a little more complicated. Good thing 80 percent of what is being said doesn’t actually come out of your mouth or I would be at a total loss. She does however do a good job using the board to show conjugations of the verbs but German script is a little difficult to read. She is a really cool person though. I tried talking to her after class and found out that she knows 5 other language and Latin was the most difficult to learn and she says she’s just not very good in English.

My class is made up of 4 people- Cathy, Devin, Rasha and me. Cathy and her son, Devin are from NY. Cathy’s fiancé is in the military and is out here for two years. Devin is my age and is taking a break from school and visiting his mom as well as learning the language with her. Rasha is from India. Her husband also has a job out here so she wants to learn the language. She is pretty good and when she grew up, she had to learn 3 different languages which I think is neat. It is fun being in a small class because I always get to participate!

I love the fact that the class is located in the city’s town center and that I get to go there every day. I think I like this fact more than the actual class itself. The city has a long main line of stores, shops, cafés, malls as well as a pretty fountain/park area with lots of benches and much entertainment. When I arrive in the morning the place is so quiet with hardly a soul in sight but by the time I get out of class, it is pretty hoppin’. Tons of people quickly fill in this once desolate area and all the sudden it’s alive. The people constantly amuse me and I enjoy the live music because there is always a band playing or some musician on the street. It’s lovely! Since winter is quickly approaching, there is now a Winter Wonderland set up in the town center as well. It’s like a little Christmas snow globe town that has come to life! Today as I walked in to explore the area, Micheal Bubbles Christmas album was coming out of the speakers while people where prancing around the ice skating rink and munching on German food, sweets, as well as sipping on beer and wine . It was super fun. There is also a beautiful Catholic Church downtown located in the center that I like to go and visit and pray in. It is so warm and much more inviting then the church that I live by.

Because I know you’re curious what I learned this week, I wrote a riddle. Try to read it and guess what it says!

Wer bin ich?

Ich komme aus den USA.

Ich wohne in Stuttgart.

Ich bin grundschullehrerin.

Ich liebe Tanzen, Musik und Fotografie

Ich bin dreiundzwanzig Jahre alt.

Wer bin ich?

Mein name ist Lauren.

More Random observations:

*A “fun size” bag (which is the kind one would receive when Trick or Treating) of M&M’s cost about .65 euro cents (90 cents). In those there are about 8 M&M’s. Talk about a rip off!

*Clerks at the grocery store get to sit in a swivel chair all day while checking out items. Kind of makes that job seem a little more enticing..lol

*The host at communion tastes like a dark English tea.

* Pommes (French fries) are served with mayo! YUM!!!

*Kids are given big soft Bretzels (pretzels) to be quiet instead of suckers. lol I always see kids walking one hand with a Bretzel and the other holding the hand of the parent. ha!

*People at Starbucks drink out of the mugs not the disposable coffee cups. Germans are so eco-friendly!

*Germans REALLY like to drive backwards.

*Glass bottles come out of vending machines.

Thanks again for reading about my current life adventures! You are so kind! I am having fun hearing where life has been taking you all as well.

All my love.

-L