Almost done

Almost done here in Bad Godesberg. The last day of the language course
is tomorrow (Friday) and on Saturday I'll be taking a train to
Bielefeld.
We took a written exam today (final exam) - nothing serious. It only
means that if I want to take another course I don't have to take the
entrance test. Tomorrow we'll have a speaking test (5-10 minutes)
individualy with our teacher.
The Goethe house is going to get a bit empty for a few days before the
rush of new students (now on summer vacation) floods it in a week's
time. Some of the students here take much more than an one month
course (like me). They stay for 4... 5... 8 months, sometimes changing
the location of the course.
I think I saw all there is to see in Bonn & Koeln in these last 3
weeks. My new location is a bit north - 2 hours & 47 euros by train.
Instead of the dorm-like atmosphere of the Goethe residence it's going
to be just me in an apartment, practically by myself (the other person
spends his weekends in France with his family). I hope I get to meet
as many people as I have here in Goethe... although I doubt it. :)

The People

Some pictures of the lovely people from Goethe Institue (I got 400 more pictures... but this computer is very slow so these will have to do for now):

(Kanako)

(Left to Right: Pablo, Henrique, Bernard, Omar)

Anna (Banana), Anna (Annushka)

(Dionicious)

(Yashimi, Hiro, Hayaka)

( Left to right: Francheska, Deise, Nam-hee, Pyoter, Andrew)

(Pyotr, Assaf, Paulena)

( Natasha, Millos, Mike, Anna, Pyotr, Anna, Dan, Weily, Assaf)

The Food

Beer is cheaper than water in Germany. If you go to pub, you canexpect to pay 2-3e for a beer - maybe 4e for Guiness. But in the supermarket Beer costs like 50c (0.5l). You can buy a case of 20 beers for 10-11e. They're also really into recycling here, so you get a few euros back when you bring back the empty bottles. The area around Koeln is Koelsch, so the beers they make here are "Koelsch" beers, and the spoken dialect is Koelsch.The water that comes out of the faucet, however, has weird particles inside it... They tell me the water is perfectly good but I don't know...
So drinking beer seems like the reasonable thing to do. I'm on a beer-sausage diet here. I can't really cook for myself here anything except pasta or maybe curry chicken, for several reasons: The kitchen is far... Many people use it... it's empty of basic ingerdients like salt, pepper, oil, and my fridge is too small to contain meats or eggs, etc. So I eat mostly pasta, or sometimes a sausage. Two things are really great here: the sausages and the bread. For some reason there are a lot more bakaries here than one would expect. These people really like bread. The sausage choice is also very impressive (naknikim & naknikiot), mostly pork. So for lunch I make lots of tasty sausage sandwiches with weird cheeses and great tomatoes. I always eata big breakfast, so lunch is small. At dinner I sometimes eat out. They call Shuarma here "Doener kebab", and instead of a pita they put it in a bread triangle. There so many kebab places here... (many turks).Ok, all this talk about food mad me hungry. I think it's time for another Koelsch and sausage meal.

The Language

The language courses in the Goethe institute have 12 levels. A11, A12, A21, A22, then B, then C.
I took the A21 course in Israel before I came here, but before that I studied at the university for a year, where I learned much more grammar than they teach here in equivalent courses. So I was expecting to start my course in a A22 level, but after the first day, in which we had a written and oral exam, they put me in B11, which is intermediate.
After the first day in B11 the teacher suggested that I advance to B12.
However, the B12 course (and upwards) is in the afternoon, which I realy don’t like. When I signed up to this course I specifically asked which level I could expect to advance to, and whether that was in the afternoon or in the morning... Oh well.
So now I'm still in B11. I decided to stay because morning classes are much much better, and the difference between the levels is not so big anyway.
You really learn to open your mouth quickly here and speak the language. Some of the students don't know English at all and so you have to communicate in German. It's also more comfortable to speak the language when you know that the other person also makes mistakes, like you, and that it really doesn't matter.
Now, in order to not get bored too much with my class, I’m doing some extra-curricular homework: I'm translating texts from English to German, from Douglas Adams' "The restaurant at the end of the universe". It's a very good exercise for me, very challanging. British humor is not easily translatable to German.. Sometimes the German grammar just kills the joke alltogether. It takes me like two hours to translate one paragraph (yes...), but it's fun.

Attached are two pictures: one, of the Koeln Dom (The Dome in Cologne, for you English speakers), and the other of a few of the students together in Kennenlernen Abend ('Get to know' evening).

The House

Goethe House

The Yard

My Room

My room is in the Goethe institute buliding on the second floor (see picture). I'm pleased with it, even though it's a bit small. It has a sink, a mini fridge, a nice big closet and a window overlooking the yard (see picture). 6 rooms share the showers, but everything is very clean (the clean it every day) so I can't complain. I can, however, complain about the kitchen. There's basically only one significant problem with the kitchen - it's empty. Aside from some dishes and appliances, there's no food, spices, coffee or even milk (although I can understand why there isn't any milk, seeing as there is no fridge in the kitchen...). That means that if I want to make coffee I have to take a cup from my room with coffee and sugar in it, go down 2 floors, cross the building, go up 3 floors, boil some water, then go back to my room to add milk.
Some of the students, on the other hand, don't even live in the building, but in a place 10 minutes away. They do have wifi though, which we don't.
So that's the story about the Goethe house (See picture, though it doesn't really capture the entire building).

The Trip

The Trip

The funny thing about flying Lufthansa out of israel is that half the passangers are DOSim that can't eat the food and therefore don't eat the food. Which means more delicious schinken breakfast for the rest of us.
The flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfuhrt is the first time I got to test out my German. "Kaffee bitte.." I was so pleased with my performance that I decided there and then to speak nothing but German for the rest of the trip, seening as i'm so fluent...
Exactly 12 minutes later I quickly reverted to English, not knowing how to ask the gay german flight attendent to take away my food tray.
I landed on some great weather here (see picture). It's sunny and warm, the birds are singing and the turks are shopping. I felt so good about myself for getting around and getting on the right trains, that I accidently stepped off at the wrong subway station. It was the penultimate one, meaning there was just one more stop before the line ended. So there I was, waiting for the next train to take me and my bags just one more stop - where I should have stepped off. Across the tracks there sat 100 germans looking at me sitting alone across from them wondering what this idiot is doing there.
I would have written sooner but the computers here suck.
Thanks, Noa, for the letter.

Bag's almost packed

Bag's almost packed
Originally uploaded by Assaf Lavie.

Welcome to my blog.
Tomorrow I'll be flying to Germany for 3 months. If you want to know where I am and what I'm up to you're in the right place.
I'll do my best to keep this blog updated and post photos whenever I can.
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Wish me eine gute Reise.