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July 04, 2007
Ich bin kein Deutscher...
When I first set foot in Heidelberg, over a month ago now, everything around me was in German - the sounds, signs, directions - and I was a bit intimidated. I spent the first two days wandering around and ended the second day frustrated to no end because I had no clue what was going on around me. When I landed back in Edinburgh on Saturday and saw and heard only English, my first feeling was disappointment. I missed German, already! I suppose that meant it was a good month.
Heidelberg itself is quite a pretty city, entirely untouched by WWII. It's a touristy place, which was somewhat disappointing; but I suppose most pretty places in most countries now are touristy. I loved being there for the month, in spite of the world's most poorly organized library.... What library organizes their books by the order they buy their books? So I'm picking up a book on Jeremiah sitting in between "Migration Laws for Canadian Geese" and "Molecular Biology and the Neurological You". Needless to say, browsing the shelves was a pointless activity.
But in the end I was there to bump up my German, and on that note the trip was an unqualified success. There is a point in learning a language where it no longer feels really foreign: you're still not fluent by any means, and still have to look up lots of things, but you feel comfortable hearing and reading it. That's about where I am now, which is perfect. Just a one-year post-doc and I'll be set... (don't tell Bryonie I said that).
| By j and b | 08:01 PM