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.