my happy place.

Most days I have German class, I am there for a minimum of three hours. Usually around four, but sometimes I'm sitting there for almost five. Right around the fourth hour, I go to my happy place. For whatever reason, I'm just not able to deal with such an intense overload of German, and the fourth hour seems to be right about the time I start thinking about what I'm going to cook for dinner or what movie I'm going to watch or what is going to happen on "Hand Auf Herz" at 6:00. Will Bea continue to sleep with her underage student? Will the girls get into another fist fight? Who the hell was the chick who overdosed on (cheap) vodka and had to be taken to the hospital? So many questions that are still unanswered and thus must be pondered while I'm sitting in Frau Grigorieva's Grammatik class. Unfortunately, Frau Grigorieva's class is not one I should doze in and out of, as she could be quite possibly the scariest teacher I've ever had. Now don't get me wrong: I've had teachers that are just mean, and I don't learn anything because of their abrasive and downright shitty attitudes. Frau Grigorieva is scary in a way that I find appealing--dare I say she scares me into doing better. I don't want to get anything wrong in her class because she might beat the shit out of me. I kid you not.

Anyway, this is all nice background to what happened yesterday in Grammatik class. I dozed out. I didn't mean to, but I didn't get to eat lunch, all I had were raisins, which I devoured in the first hour, and I was getting a little antsy. I guess at some point, Frau Grigorieva had said we wouldn't be having class on Friday. Either I didn't understand her, or I was daydreaming about Guidos pizza. I don't know. It was probably a combination of both. Anyway, I wasn't going to be in class anyway on Friday since I have my appt. with the city to become an official "German" citizen, so I went up to her after class to inform her of this. Since I still don't know future tense, I showed her the letter I received and explained to her that I wouldn't be there, in English.

As a side-note, I'm not sure which of my teachers actually speak English. Fluently. I mean, I think all of them have at least basic knowledge of English, but I'm not sure if any of them could hold a conversation with me in English (except for Frau Schmitt, who helped me to translate that stupid letter I received from the Munich police dept. Thank you, Frau Schmitt).

Anyway, she read the letter and asked me, in German, if I had been paying attention. She got that look in her eyes--you know, the one a lion gets right before it jumps on the back of a zebra and disembowels it with its razor-sharp back claws? The only thing going through my mind was "shit, shit, shit." And what is the first thing I say? "Oh, wait, that's what you were saying"? She looked at me like "oh my God, are you effing serious" and I just started laughing. I couldn't help it. I think she then asked me, in German, how much of the class I actually understood. I told her I was in my happy place. I don't think that translated well, especially because I could not stop laughing. She handed me back the letter shaking her head. But I saw her smile. I SAW IT. So at the very least, I may be an idiot, but at least she thinks I'm a funny idiot, yeah?

So now I feel it necessary to actually study some German tonight. I mean, I'm not going to see her again until next week, but I feel her leering gaze over my shoulder when I sit and peruse youtube videos. Dare I say I even feel her flick my ear repeatedly. So now I'm sitting here writing this blog and going over modal verbs. Which is NOT what I want to be doing with my Wednesday evening, ha ha.

Oh yes, and in other news, Sick of Sarah released their new cd yesterday. It is called 2205 and you MUST buy it. It is fantastic. I heart it.

And I bought Wir sind Helden's cd (kind of new--it came out in August), and we got our tickets to their show in Saarbruecken. I'm pretty damn excited about this. The one concert I wanted to go to (other than Die Happy) whilst living in Germany was Wir sind Helden. Their songs are introducing me to all sorts of new verbs and adjectives. I love it.