More Steppenwolf, Intensive German

I translated this a few weeks ago. I was pretty bored before my German intensive class started.

Each led the other to suffering, and when two in one blood and one soul are deadly enemies, life is a constant struggle. However, each has his fate, and none are easy.

For our wolf of the steppes, though he sometimes lived as a wolf and sometimes as a man, it was the case (as it is for all such mixed creatures) that whenever he was a wolf, the human in him looked on in judgement and derision-and in times, when he was a human, the wolf did the same. For example, when Harry was a person and had beautiful thoughts, felt a fine, noble sympathy or undertook a good deed, the wolf bared its teeth to laugh and showed him with bloody scorn how laughable the entire show was to an animal of the steppes, a wolf, that in his heart knew exactly what he should do: bound through the steppes, taste blood or chase a wolf in heat. For a wolf, human behavior looked comical, foolish, idle. And yet whenever Harry felt and acted as a wolf, when he bared his teeth, when he felt felt hate and deadly antipathy against all humanity, the human part of him rebelled, observed the wolf, called him beast and denied him all joy in the simple, healthy, and wild behavior of the wolf.

So, speaking of the German class, it went really well, and involved several surprises. I was originally placed in B2. The classes were divided into A1, A2, B1, B2, and C1, with C1 being the highest. This is the European system for foreign language competence, where C2 is near native fluency. So I was happy with being in B2-that's the highest anyone who hasn't lived in the country would expect. As it turned out, that was a major reason I was placed in B2-I haven't lived in the country before. Once I was in the class, it became obvious it was the wrong level for me. We were just doing things I had learned before, we were doing things I had done three or four times before. I was divided though, because I thought C1 might be too difficult for me, and I didn't want to leave the friends I'd met in B2. Finally, I asked my professor what he would recommend, and he told me to go to C1. So, a week into a three week class, I did.

I joined the class on a Monday, and the next Wednesday was our midterm. I really stressed out over it (let's just say Geoff mayhave gotten a semi-hysterical phone call over it) but I also studied my ass off. When the test came, it wasn't as hard as I feared, and when we got the results back, I got the second highest score in the class! I couldn't believe it. So C1 went really well for me, I learned a lot, and the people were just as nice as in B2.

I also bought these dictionaries:

The little one is Collins, because he is small and sometimes irritating, and also because he's a Collins dictionary. The big one is Darcy, because he's hard to handle but gives good results (he's entirely in German, and fairly comprehensive), and also of course to go with Collins.

Internet!!!!!!!

So, I'm sure everyone reading this blog has already heard that I haven't had internet in my dorm...until today! I really can't overstress how hard this has been but:

*I haven't talked with my family for almost a month

*To check email, I had to go into/stand outside of cafes that had it...kind of a sketchy thing to do at night

*Like at most colleges, registration and communication here is through Internet and email

*Graz closes down in the evening and on Sundays, so whenever I didn't have plans with friends here or work to do, I was really bored.

But anyway, now I have it! I have a lot to talk about, and I prewrote some posts, so there'll be a lot in the next few days.

First days in Graz

September 1st, my new apartment

The last day has been really difficult for me. In part it’s that I haven’t been eating properly-a combination of not wanting to impose on people who were doing me a favor, not feeling sure of my choices, and not really wanting to eat. But today, as I felt really low emotionally and weak physically, I realized that on top of not sleeping much for a couple of days, I hadn’t eaten anything more than a coffee and a juice in 24 hours and not much in the 24 hours before that. So I found food, took it home, and ate it. This is much more complicated in a city you don’t know, relying on your second language. I blend in well though: people have already asked me for directions twice, and everyone who doesn’t already know I’m an exchange student has used German with me. (Many if not most people here speak English better than I do German.)

I went to a Spar first and bough Zweibelbrotchen and Bergkaese. (Little onion breads and mountain cheese.) I tried to walk to the historic part of town to enjoy scenery with my meal, but my recouses were too low to manage it properly and I ended up walking in circles. I finally sat down on a bench and tried to eat, but even small bites made me feel nauseous. So I walked on and found a farmer’s market. I had wanted some fruit or vegetables to go with my meal, and here I saw beautiful tomatoes. I picked out a few and handed them to the owner of the stall, but when she saw how few there were she just gave them to me. I felt very taken care of, particularly since I had been feeling very alone.

I went home to eat so that I could have washed tomatoes and also something to drink. I had to eat kind of slowly to avoid feeling sick again, but I definitely feel better now. If I can find the energy in time, I’ll go out again-I could use tape for decorating, but more importantly I didn’t see any toilet paper in the bathroom. I still need to unpack, too.

Later

I just went out again, and along with toilet paper, I got cereal and milk for tomorrow, plus almonds for emergency protein. This time I didn’t get lost at all, and I remembered where the Spar from before was. Pretty impressive for a trip done while I needed to pee!

The wind has really come up in the last hour. I think a storm might be blowing in.

September 2, 2010, 19/2/2 Ghegagasse (my apartment)

My intuition has been through the roof lately. I navigated the...interesting...layout of the Frankfurt airport on a lucky guess, and if I had chosen the other option, I would have missed my flight to Graz. (As it was, I was in the last ten people through the gate-everyone else had already boarded.) Then today at Ikea, I bought batteries mostly on a whim...a few hours later, my camera batteries died.