It's a good thing that my German is bad.

I really do like living in Germany a lot. I love my job, and I really like Dresden. One thing that I do not like is the tendency for some Germans to scold complete strangers. This has happened to me twice in the past few days.

Two nights ago, I was taking Zoe for her last walk of the night. She only ever does #1 then, so I didn't have a bag to pick up after her. As we were walking back, a man from a nearby building came home. Even though I have never talked to him before, he proceeded to say in a very ugly way that I should pick up after my dog. Today, my next door neighbor yelled at me about Lord knows what. She's about 70 and a little crazy. One teacher at school said that a complete stranger tried to put socks on her baby because the stranger thought he was cold.

Sometimes it is just so frustrating to not speak German!! I did ask another teacher how to reply to the guy who yelled at me about Zoe. So I now know how to say, "Kiss my a**." in German. I really hope that I will not have to use that phrase.

School's barely started,

and I'm already thinking about my first vacation. I just booked a flight to Paris during my fall break for 100 Euros.

Should I mention?

That tomorrow's high is supposed to be 62 here?

That's like 40 degrees cooler than back home. Sorry to rub it in. You can return the favor when it is 60 there and -25 here.

I went to my last German class today. I do understand more, but it is still a challenge to speak. School starts for the teachers Monday. I'm so glad to NOT be the new teacher.

Feed the birds... or else

I just got these pictures from my friend who met me in Venice. In San Marcos Square, tourists can feed the birds. You can buy birdseed from vendors for a euro. The birds are used to this and are very bold. You can see from these pics that it started out well, but then the pigeons attacked.

Eagle's Nest

I forgot to post pics of my tour of the Eagle's Nest. It was cool to be in a place where so much history had taken place.

So not really fluent yet...

One week of German class is done. It's tiring, but I enjoy it. My teacher is good. Being a language teacher too, it's funny to be the student. She only speaks German to us in class. Of course, she speaks slowly and clearly and uses a lot of hand gestures. It's similar to how one would speak to a person who is mentally incapacitated. She speaks English very well so it is tempting to speak English to her during the breaks, but I try to only speak German. I really do sound mentally incapacitated though because "Mein name ist Holly" and "Ich komme aus den USA" will only take me so far when I want to say something about a movie I saw last night. Although in a pinch I can count to 100 or recite the alphabet. Obviously, fluency is only a few classes away. Really though, I do feel a little more confident about speaking and understanding.

Another funny thing is the other students. There are five other students from Russia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Bulgaria, and Brazil. Naturally we all have accents from our mother tongues. Sometimes, I can't tell if a couple of them are even speaking German. I'm sure they think the same thing about me. Also, we have learned a lot of questions this week and the ways to answer those questions. One student keeps on just repeating the question back to the teacher instead of answering. I would have lost patience a long time ago. It also makes me empathize with my students when I make them work in pairs because I only want to be paired with the better students.

Ich spreche Deutsch...

Well, not so much yet, but I start a German course on Monday that is four weeks long. I will go to class four days a week from 9:00-1:00. I am going to what is the equivalent of community college although they offer really cool stuff. I could take Japanese or even belly-dancing classes if I wanted. Friends from school and church have taken courses like these and say that they are really good. I don't want much. I just want to be able to say hello and carry on simple conversations with my neighbors. Now, if I see one approaching, I practically run inside my apartment to avoid having to talk. It's just so frustrating!!

Now for the Sound of Music Answers:

#1: obviously, the gazebo for the songs "I am 16" with Rolf and Liesel and "Something Good" with the Captain and Maria

#2: The back of the house where the kids fell in the lake after going around in their "play clothes."

#3: From the end of "Do Re Mi." The kids hop up the stairs and Maria walks up and hits the high note at the very end of the song.

#4: Fountain in "I Have Confidence" when Maria leaves the abbey. Unfortunately, I think I took this from the wrong angle.

#5 and #6: These are probably the hardest. They are from "Do Re Mi." The kids walk around the fountain (but that is shot from above the fountain) and then have a pretend race while singing down the walkway.