My First Visitor

So it has been awhile since I have written, and I apologize. Hopefully I will keep up with this again, once I get back on the wagon. It is no excuse, but my computer is not exactly in the best of conditions and locks up A LOT, so it is a major motivation killer.

Things have been going well. A couple weekends ago, my friend, Rachel, came to Bern for a visit. I has a really great time just hanging out and talking. It was really nice to be able to show her Bern and my life here, but also just to talk to someone from home. It sounds cheesy and maybe it is(or maybe I am just a big baby), but I really enjoy the fact that she knows St. Joe and Missouri Western and just has a sort of understanding for things that someone who had never been Missouri, let alone the Midwest would never be able to have. Andri busted out the new grill, which he had been wanting to do for quite a while, so a guest was the perfect excuse. We also had boughten a new garden set, which turned out to be a fantastic edition, as the weather was beautiful that weekend. I think Rachel just plain lucked out on the weather, because right after she left it went back to being cloudy and gross. It was her birthday on Sunday and she invited me to come see her and hang out this weekend, as I have a four day weekend (!!). I am very excited to go on a little weekend trip to France and say hello to her and see her place and read some books and chill out.

Also, it was super to have her here, because she is very interested in languages, and has also studies German. She had so many questions and interesting viewpoints about Swiss German. It was nice to be able to talk about it and explain things that actually has an interest in that specific language. Because the more I think about Swiss German it isn't just some hideous dialect of German; it is a very interesting linguistical evolution. And I now have a desire to take a Swiss German (maybe Bern Deutsch) class in order to understand better. Although, the longer I am here the more I can understand. Andri has stopped translating for me (unless I look at him with a WTF look on my face), because I am able to decipher what the Bernese are saying. Andri's dialect is a little harder to understand, although I think it sounds nicer than Bernese. Things are becoming better little by little, as I learn the language little by little. I would love to be able to speak better, but at the same time writing this in English is tasking at times, so imagine me trying to write this in another language-without typos.

That is my biggest problem: being ok with making mistakes with the language. But I can't help it because when I see typos in English I know that I would not be the one making them, so getting an assignment back with corrections (not a ton, but corrections nonetheless) is disheartening. I would love to be able to write a letter or an article in German with no mistakes. But at the same time, when I look at the fact that I have only been here for three months and am already at a level where I am able to have a converation (not perfectly). In three months I have gottent to a level where I am able to read books in German for ages 8-12 or 12+, which may not sound like a lot, but believe me when I tell you that it is. It is hard for me to focus on what I have learned and not on what I have yet to learn, but sometimes I just need to take a step back and realize that I have already accomplished a lot since I have gotten here.

So in order to go to univeristy in Switzerland, one needs to have a Goethe C1 level of German. This means that A1 is the beginner's level and C2 is the highest level of the Goethe language analysis. I am at B1 and we are taking our practice tests for the B1 Goethe exam, which I will not be taking because it is very expensive, but we have to prepare for them regardless, because that is the point of the language courses at this school. We have taken two practice exams already. On one I got a 93%and the second a 95.5%, which is really nice, but I am still not able to write without making minor errors in the letter-writing section of the test.

My plans for the summer were to take a B2 class, but with the other plans Andri and I have it is looking like that won't be possible. I have now decided to do the B2 studying on my own at home. The books and activity books will cost abotu 100 CHF compared to the thousands spent on a German course. Since I won't be taking any of the Goethe exams besides C1 it won't matter if I any prepared to take a B2 exam, which is the concentration in the classes at my school. I should be able to learn the grammatical concepts on my own. Andri said that he would make a four hour block a week to answer my questions and check my work. Hopefully it will work out how I want. Hopefully, when I take the proficency exam at the the beginning of the next semester, I will test into the C1, not B2.

My mom will be here in three weeks, which makes me very excited. I can't wait to show her Bern and where we live and introduce her to everyone. She is getting excited too. We are planning on going on going to the Alps and taking the mountain train to the Jungfraujoch, one of the most famous peaks in the Alps. I have yet to go on the mountains here, so I am really excited because you can't live here (or visit) without seeing the famous Alps. That is something the Swiss love: their beloved Alps. Hence all the skiing, snowboarding, and hiking.

I will try to keep up with this better than I had been.