Finally, I get to learn German!!

I finally made it to my German class today, though still not without trouble. Esther had called the school yesterday to confirm the room number, and they gave her the same number they gave me last week. So I went to room A208b again, and again the room was empty. I had to go back down to the office and talk to them again. I asked the woman who helped me last time if she was sure something hadn't changed, because there was no class taking place in that room. All records indicated that the class had not moved and that it should be there. So I went back upstairs and the room was still empty. There was a class just starting in the room next door, however, so I thought it couldn't hurt to check (by the way, this class was not in this room last Thursday). Sure enough, for whatever reason, they had decided to move this class into the room next door. I actually got to attend my language course.

There are 16 people in my language course, and although I'm the only American, there are a lot of English speakers. There's only one guy in the class, and a few older women (and by older I mean older than everyone else in the room, not necessarily old old) and the rest of us are au pairs. I am, however, the oldest au pair by at least 4 years (hooray). The other people in the class come from Australia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Poland, Portugal, Zimbabwe, France, Japan, and Senegal. There's one girl who comes from somewhere else in Africa, but I didn't catch where. Anyway, when I introduced myself to the class and told them I was from California, they were amazed that I had come from somewhere so far away. The girl from Zimbabwe, Barbra, is turning 20 this weekend and she wants to go out and do something in Cologne, so that should be fun. She's only been here as long as I have so she also doesn't really know anyone or anything to do. Catherine, the girl from Australia, has already been here 3 months and she knows alot about the city, so she can definitely help us out. Now I know people who are "my age" here in Cologne.

Whenever I start something like this language course where I have to do something in front of people I get self concious. Like when I first got here, I was scared that Esther and Olaf were going to be upset with how little German I knew, and I didn't really start to feel more comfortable about it until I learned that I was way more knowledgeable (thanks, Starbucks, for infiltrating my everyday vocabulary) than their last au pair was. That relieved a lot of pressure. Then, when I was going to be starting this course, I got worried that I was going to look like an idiot and not be able to communicate or even keep up, especially since I was starting halfway through the course. But today the other girls in the class asked me how long I had studied German, and when I told them I took German for 4 years in high school, they said "Oh, ok. So that's why you're so good." I wasn't expecting anyone to say anything like that. I think that a lot of the girls in there can speak better than I can, but that I understand it better and can read and write it better than they can. Anyway, once again I feel a little bit more confident in my ability to complete this course, and that's a good thing.

Also, today I made up my mind that I'm going to paint, even if all my pictures end up looking like crap. I bought some acrylic paint and some brushes today in Cologne and I'm going to start a couple of projects in my freetime. Hopefully they come out looking more like my advanced paint-by-numbers and less like a 5 year old's finger painting :) That remains to be seen.