Another Sunday, Another Update

Yep, that is me standing in front of a mountain in the Alps. Yesterday IES took us to Switzerland for a day trip -- I thought maybe if I wrote that sentence down it would sound less ridiculous, but nope, it is crazy how close everything is here! We drove for 3 hours and ended up here! Then we took a gondola up the mountain a bit (see below) and took a trail through the snow and mountains!

Gondola rides are, in fact, somewhat terrifying.

I was dumb enough to wear shoes that were water-proof but had no traction on the souls. Naomi and Kevin had to hold onto my as we climbed some of the hills because it was so slippery I never would have made it up alone. Mistake? Maybe, but on the other side of this mishap is the fact that whenever we went downhill I was practically skiing -- awesome!

If you remember I am currently in a Language Intensive Course because my actual classes haven't started. It sounds a bit dreary right? Sitting in a classroom from 9 - 1:15 just focusing on German Grammar? I thought so too. In actuality, though, we get to do some really sweet stuff. Sure, we do have some days that are entirely in the classroom, but someone brilliant figured out that it actually makes sense for us to A. learn about the city and B. talk to actual Germans to practice our language skills. So, last week we did random scavenger hunts in the city -- find this place and ask people on the street these 5 questions, etc. This week we went to the City History Museum and went to the top of Schlossberg (an hill that had fortresses built on it throughout history). Next week we get to go to a movie in German, visit the Muenster, etc.

This is a model of the original city layout (at least what it looked like in the 1500s)

Some statues from the city history museum that represent seasons. Here we have Spring and Fall (you can't see the armful of grains in Fall's arms)

Things that I didn't realize would be rare in Germany: maple syrup (they use honey or this weird Canadian stuff..) and turkey (800 kinds of salami and wurst but one single package of turkey in the grocery store).

German words that English should adopt:
vorgestern -- the day before yesterday (It is so much easier!)
doch -- It is something you say to contradict whatever the person before you said. Example:
English " I do not look attractive today" "No" (But does that mean that you think that she is right, no you don't look attractive, or no, you do look attractive? so confusing)
German (in English) "I don't look attractive today" "Doch" (meaning that's not true, you do look nice).

Work on incorporating those into the English language for me, please. I'll keep looking for improvements here!