The Final Countdown

The extremely small amount of time I have left seems surreal to me. Before I go, however, I have to figure out how I will get credit for the courses I have been taking. I am not sure if I will need to take a test for the literature course I am in, or do some kind of playing exam for the lessons I am taking. It is kind of strange, because I am leaving a one or two weeks before the semester ends for real here. I hope I can get everything figured out. I don't really understand what's up with my German literature course. It is a part of the department that does the German language courses, so it is meant for people who are learning German or at least are not German native speakers. We started out with 2 or 3 people in the course. Then a few weeks later a couple more showed up. We had 5 in December. The last couple of sessions before Christmas break it ended up being me and one other person. One time I was the only one there. The professor doesn't like to have class with so few people, so we either, cancel the class, or wait to see who else might show up and then cancel. The two people who showed up later on in the course haven't been there for over a month now.

This last week the professor didn't unlock the door to the room where we have class. We now have 3 semi-regular attendees and we were all there. It had been 10 or so minutes since class was supposed to start. One of the students went to knock on his office door. He told her that nobody else had showed up for class, which was strange because I got there before the scheduled time and he had never come out of his office. She pointed out that there were three of us waiting on him there. So we ended up having class that day. I can hardly imagine what a final exam would look like in that course. I have barely learned anything. I hoped that we would maybe read a novel, or maybe some short stories. You know, maybe discuss the author and the themes in the work. In a normal class period we usually read a couple of poems and kind of talk about them. We get just a little bit of information about the authors. Nothing is cohesive; the next week=repeat with new poems and authors.

Who would have ever thought that syllabi would be one of the things I miss about home.

Other than that the highlights of my week were:

Sunday I went to the Kölner Philharmonie and heard Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium. The winds were playing what looked to me like period instruments. Natural trumpets, wooden flutes. That is a little too much lip slurring if you ask me. (My brass friends will be the only ones that appreciate that comment.)

Wednesday I went to a jazz club in Dortmund. It was about an hour train ride away. The club was a cute little place. You enter in through a cafe, and the upstairs there is a little stage in a room all painted black with a bar and a few tables and chairs. The group that was playing consisted of a sax, guitar, and drums. The music was okay at times, but it was maybe a little too out there for me. Not a lot of soul. The alto sax player knocked his reed out of place several times throughout the night. This wasn't a big surprise; it seemed like half his goal was to make strange noises with his instrument, forcing it to the extremes of its register and wildly wiggling his fingers over the keys.

And last night, I went to a surprise going-away party for Melanie, one of my German friends. She is flying to Australia on the same day I am flying back home. She will be an exchange student there in Canberra. It was a good time. Her mother made some tasty food, something similar to my aunt Nancy's cheeseburger soup. Very delicious. It was one of probably less than 5 home cooked meals (I won't count the "cooking" I do for myself) I have eaten here. It was a little strange to be going to someone's going away party when I myself will be going away in less than two weeks. Nonetheless it was a good night.

Only one more Sunday in Germany. I will see you all soon back in the US.

--Austin