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Sunday Evening Update

 Gruß Gott am Sonntag Abend!

I don't have any photos for this post, but I wanted to keep everyone current. Ever since I wound up walking farther than we planned--walking from the Altstadt home (which is a 10 minute bus ride), the long way, by accident, I've not been in shape to do any more park walks. I think I mentioned in a previous post that we were on the wrong island in the Danube, and a bridge we were planning to cross to get back to our bus stop in the Altstadt didn't reach there. My knee is still mad and hasn't forgiven me, yet. 

We took a bus the other day to the Danube Park entrance (rather than walking) so I could at least so some birding. That's the park with the lake called the Baggersee. I spotted 4 new birds, one of which was a European robin. I saw two species of Tits (I'm not being bawdy ;)). One was a Blue Tit, and the other a Eurasian Tit. I'm one happy birder, but I still think that those Graylag Geese sound and look like ducks! And the lake was full of them that day. 

Our biggest news is that we are going to take an intensive German language course, starting in December. My German has been fine getting me around at shops and quick everyday encounters, but still needs a lot of improvement. I can understand way more than I can express. I've been watching television in German, and can understand probably 85-90% of it, but if we want to stay and get a Residence Permit, which we think we want to do, we both have to be at what the Europeans call a "B1 level", with a certificate to prove it. I think I'm close to that, but whether I could pass an exam and get a certificate is another matter, and the same for Pat. So, starting November 27, we'll be boarding a bus every weekday with our books and notebooks and going to school for half a day. I'm really looking forward to it. We are signing up for 6 months worth of classes. By the end, I should be at C1, which is next to being a native speaker. 

I've been doing more and more reading at the reader's stand at church. I'm still learning the melodies and the wording for singing. Coffee hour is always interesting. Today we had a Romanian woman who could speak English, but not German, and a German woman who could speak German, but not English. The man who functions as our reader was interpreting back and forth. I find this kind of thing exhilarating. I'm more confident speaking German when the other party can't speak English. 

We have discovered 'Schorle', which is any kind of juice mixed with sparkling water. It's very refreshing, and since it's mostly water, low in calories. The challenge here is to limit the things that are NOT low in calories. Candy and pastries and bread are very affordable here.





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