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Last Day of German B1/2

 Servus,

Gray skies, but no rain today, with temps in the 40's for my last German B1/2 class. I woke up this morning with the voice of a sweetly singing bird of yet unascertained identity floating into my room through the partly opened window. 

Our class had a potluck-style brunch with foods from all the different nationalities represented: China, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Poland, Georgia (the country), Turkey, Algeria, Bavaria, and of course, the US. My compatriot brought more 'ants on a log', and I brought banana bread. I never knew how unusual it was considered until years ago when my sister hosted a Japanese exchange student who said her mother told her to make sure she learned how to make banana bread while in the US.

I only had one slice to bring back. The man from Georgia took a slice and announced that in his country, any time a person tries a food they've never had before, they get to make a wish. I think that's a charming custom, and my bread got to be the occasion of a wish.

We played word games, in German, of course, and laughed and joked a lot. I'm going to miss this group. Only a few are moving on to German B2/1. In one game we had to try to match Bavarian words with standard German words. Bavarian might as well be its own language, but I won't be sticking around, so I don't need to put the effort into learning it. Anyway, our instructor said even within Bavaria there are mutually-incomprehensible dialects, and in the rest of Germany, there are multitudes more. That's something we in a younger country such as the US don't understand. Alaskans can talk to Floridians with no problems, save a word or idiom here or there. 

I took our mock B1 language test to see how I would do if I were to take the real one, which they say is hard. I actually would pass, I think, but I won't be around in May to find out, and there's no reason for me to take it, anyway. This has become an enrichment activity. 

And for now...

Auf Wiedersehen!




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