Going Back To School

Do you remember that feeling, on the first day of school (or Varsity, or work) where everyone is supposed to have something, and you don't?

You have the thick koki pens instead of the thin ones. One hard-covered-feint-ruled book too few. You don't have the text book. Or, you didn't read the required pages?

I started school today.

I had to learn a bit of German in order to be eligible for my Visa, but I am doing an A2 course. We thought it would look good on my Visa application if I was signed up to continue, and I figured I had crammed so much in in such a short space of time that it would be silly not to carry on.

So off I headed, like a nervous 1st grader, not wanting to be That Late Kid. I arrived, found the classroom, and settled in amongst the few that were already there. It was then that I noticed that they all had this book, most looked as though they'd been working through this book for some time. It was quite an Important Looking Book. Slowly, as the classroom filled up, I noticed more and more people with The Book. I checked my registration certificate and saw no mention of The Book. And I was the only one who didn't have one. By the time the teacher walked in, as I am SURE you can imagine, my face was red, and I was having a mild panic. Did everyone else notice that I was Without-Book? (probably not, but it sure did feel like it).

So, very quietly, I approached the teacher and whispered "Sprechen Sie English?", To which she replied "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?". Of course. This is a German Course Robyn, I thought. So I quickly whispered "I don't have The Book, where can I get it?". "From the course"... aaah, ok.. relief.

Now, either she didn't understand me, or I don't whisper too well, because there was no Book Handing Out Ceremony. Only the brief mention that this was the book that we will be working from, and if you don't have it, you need it by tomorrow. All of this was in German, by the way. It is, as was explained a bit later, a SPEAKING course, and in order to learn German from her, and from each other, we would need to speak ONLY German. So if you are like me, and lose focus every now and then to fly off on a brief day dream, then sorry for youuuuuuuu!!!!!!

This seemed to happen frequently as I tried to figure out how I was going to get this book between the end of the course, the trains I needed to catch to get to work after, work, and then grocery shopping.

The girl next to me didn't seem to mind my peering desperately over her shoulder trying to catch a glimpse of this exclusive Book Owners Club, and not fall behind on my first day, so I think I did ok.

I should probably have paid a little more attention to what the homework assigned actually was, instead of just looking at the gloriously shiny pages.

I got the book (it was actually two that I needed). The problem now, is that I don't know what to do with it. The club ain't so great once you get in! ha ha

So I have packed my shiny books into my backpack. And there will be lunch made in the morning ( the cafeteria line was long today and I have a DOUBLE lesson day!). And off to school I will go.

At least, at the end of these 3 weeks of learning, running for trains, working and exploring, I will be able to speak German in a grammatically correct manner.

Let's just hope I have the confidence to use it!