slump

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Well, the excitement of being in a new and unfamiliar place has started to wear off a little, and I think I'm in a bit of a slump. Learning German is really hard. And I'm sort of homesick, which I realize is totally ridiculous seeing as I've only been here less than 2 weeks, but so it is. I also hurt my back sitting on a very hard cobblestone street to watch the world cup game at this public viewing, so I've been in pain, which doesn't help.

I did go on an interesting cultural program the other day, and learned a funny story about Bertolt Brecht that I'll pass on here. So, for those unfamiliar with him, Brecht was a socialist playwright from Germany, author of The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage, etc. Wrote between the 1910s and the early 1950s. So, the story is that, even though he was against capitalism, materialism, etc., he really wanted his own car. But apparently he didn't have enough money to buy one, so he went to a car company and offered to pose in an advertisment in exchange for a car. They thought that was a good idea, and he posed in the ad, and got a car. Then he got in a crash and wrecked the car. How did he get another one? He went back to the auto company and offered to pose in another advertisement, this one of him standing next to his wrecked car. The advertisement would show that the cars were safe--in a wreck, the car itself might be totalled, but the driver would be fine. The company apparently agreed, Brecht posed in another ad, and they gave him another car.

I might go to an outdoor theater later and see 'V wie Vendetta.'

Also, did I report that I have a new German teacher and got moved up to a slightly higher level? The class is way better, and I am actually learning a lot now. It's just that there is so much more to learn--so much more vocabulary, so much grammar I need to review, so many sentences in which my word order is thoroughly fucked up. Sigh.

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