Silence....

I'm sorry for it. There really hasn't been all that much going on lately, though.

About the only interesting thing is the beginning of our Hausarbeit and Seminarwoche. The Hausarbeit is the German term for a research project, and our Seminarwoche is supposedly to teach us about the requirements of an actual German Uni class. However, thus far it has proven to not be overly useful, and instead attempts to teach us basic writing tactics and skills that I have learned many times over beginning with high school. Hopefully this coming week will be better, and provide more constructive information about how the German Hausarbeit is different from a normal research paper - so far, all the teachers say that it is, but won't give any sort of concrete evidence or explanation to explain.

Ok. Rant over. The main thing that is different about the Hausarbeit is that its in German. Which is difficult - writing a 10 page research paper is a solid test of one's competence in a subject in English; what I'm doing here is having a lengthy examination of my proficiency in both German and History (the chosen subject of my paper is Bismarck's role in creating and winning the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71, and how that war contributed to German unification). It would be hard enough if I only had to write it in German; unfortunately, many of the sources are in German as well, so research is also in German (one of the downsides of having a German library at your disposal rather than an English). Oh well. It'll be good for me, I suppose.

I should stop procrastinating now. And get back to researching. Hooray for German Unification (the current subject of my inquiry)!

Oh, and PS - I'll bet that by the time I get back to the States, I'll be in an incredibly bad habit of run-on sentences. Those don't exist in German, and I'll probably start using that as an excuse to write run-on sentences in English.

I forgot something.

Oh, and did I mention that German nouns, as do the nouns of most other languages, have genders? That means that instead of a one-size-fits all adjective declension as we have in English (fat man, fat girl, fat woman, fat people), Germans get to throw on extra endings! This makes the following series of fat individuals: ein dicker Herr, ein dickes Mädchen, eine dicke Frau, einige dicke Leute. Of course, thats only with the indefinite article 'ein.' With a definite article "the" it becomes totally different: der dicke Herr, das dicke Mädchen, die dicke Frau, die dicken Leute.

You think: oh thats not so bad.

I think: Now I have to know the exact gender of every noun I use in every sentence and how to decline the adjectives correctly all while speaking blaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

:) I LOVE GERMAN. CAN'T YOU TELL.

(actually I do, it can just be a pain sometimes.)

Who wants to learn German grammar??!!??

I know I do! Actually, I really do, since I've got an Abschlussprüfung (final exam) tomorrow morning for the Intensive german course part of the program.

Here is a fun fact: Germans have this nifty little grammatical tense called Konjunktiv I. That translates as Subjunctive I, and we DON'T have it in English. Konjunktiv I is used to describe events; in other words, reported speech. If you are a reporter, reporting what someone said you have two options: direct quote (Hans said: "blah blah blah") or indirect reporting (Hans said that blah blah blah). Now in English, we don't differentiate grammatically between what Hans said that is now being said by you and something that you yourself said. For example, in English one might say: Hitler said that the Germans were the master race. There is no grammatical difference between "the Germans are the master race" and "Hitler said the Germans are the master race." Thus, were someone to walk in after you said the "Hitler said" portion of the sentence, he/she would hear only "the germans are the master race" and think you a Neo-nazi. Obviously nobody wants this to occur. Thus the Konjunktiv I.

In German, your options are direct quote (Hitler sagte "Die Deutschen sind das Herrenvolk") and Konjunktiv I (Hitler hat gesagt, dass die Deutschen das Herrenvolk seien). See how the verb is conjugated differently? The verb "to be" (sein, conjugated normally into third person plural as "sind") is changed to the Konjunktiv state "seien" in order to show someone who walks in after you mentioned the whole "Hitler said" portion of the sentence that you are not the one being racist.

Cool, huh. Whoopee.

Here's another interesting one. In German, there are indefinite pronouns much as there are in English: in English, these consist primarily of "one" and its various incarnations "someone," "anyone" and so on. A sentence might be "When one is invited to dinner, the host usually gives one something delicious, that is not always offered to one." Cumbersome, I know. Thats why people don't talk like that.

But did you notice how its all the same word? English has no declination of the indefinite pronoun: 'one' is at the same time the subject, indefinite object, and definite object of the sentence (even though it isn't a definite object in that example). In German, its not quite so simple. The equivalent of "one" is "man" auf deutsch.

That same sentence, translated back into German (because I stole it off of a sheet I'm studying) is: "Wenn man zum Essen eingeladen wird, setzen die Gastgeber einem meistens etwas besonders Gutes vor, Saghen die einem nicht jeden Tag geboten werden." Uh oh. Why are all my highlighted words not "man?" "Man" is the indefinite pronoun! Because Germans provide more information via grammar than we do - man = one as nominative, einen = one as accusative, and einem = one as dative.

Whew. Annoying, a little bit.

But wait: THERE'S MORE!

You don't just have indefinite pronouns for people, you also have them for things. For example, in English we have "some," "a," "something," "none," and so on. Germans have the equivalent, but slightly more confusing. "A" and "none" are simple translations: "ein" und "kein." "Some" gets a little more interesting: singular its "etwas," which is more like "something" or "one." Plural, it becomes "welch," which can also be translated as "which" when used in a question. Figuring out when and how to use these little words is far more important and far more difficult than memorizing the thousands of vocabulary words necessary for a daily language proficiency.

Enjoy the confusion! Study German, because then this post might make sense to someone other than me!

I'm terribly sorry, chaps...

....he said in a funny accent to make you all feel better. It has now been officially a month since my last post, and honestly I don't really have an excuse. I kind of dropped off the wagon mid-statement with my Berlin posts. I'm afraid I'm honestly not even going to try and recreate the tellings of what we did in Berlin a month ago. If you are interested, shoot me an email and I'll give you a personal storytelling!

Now. What has happened in the last month? A lot. Part of that is probably why I've been rather reticent with my bloggings. Those of you connected on Facebook can keep track of what's been going on through pictures, but I'll give you an overview here:

The week after Berlin was filled with misguided attempts at academic productivity; I felt as though I hadn't done any actual work what with skiing and Berlin (8 travelling days out of the 10 days prior to Monday, Feb 21), so I tried to buckle down and get work done. It didn't happen, at least not much. Its very difficult to get motivated when the classes are so easy and expectations are basically like high school. I graduated from that already, I'm ready for the Uni.

The following Wednesday (March 2), we took a guided tour of a local Brauerei (Brewery). The Kneitinger Brauerei has been operating in Regensburg for a very long time, and makes some very delicious beer. We got to sample some young, unfiltered beer (which was actually quite tasty) and after the tour some of us met in the Biergarten and our Resident Director bought those that remembered to stay two rounds of delicious liquid bread. Germany has an interesting concoction that they have created with beer: ein Radler, or a beer mixed with lemonade. You can get either a Helles Radler (with light beer) or a dunkles Radler (dark beer). The dunkles is delicious.

That weekend was occupied with the celebration of Fasching. Also known as Karnival. Also known as Mardi Gras - the biggest celebrations were Rosenmontag and Faschingsdienstag, so we got those two days off and had a four day weekend. I know what you are thinking: "Ben, partying non-stop for four days, drinking and dancing and making a fool of himself in the streets? I totally expected that because its such his nature!" Unfortunately, I was not one of those people. I and my friend Sarah went backpacking for the long weekend. Instead of drinking beer for 4 days, we trekked about 43 miles over 3 days in the Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald.

This trip was very enjoyable, though if you have looked at any of the pictures I've posted on facebook you will anticipate my advice to NOT walk in the Nationalpark until summer. Unless you have snowshoes. We encountered people with snowshoes on our journey....they looked at us strangely with a vague sense of pity as we waded through the mid-shin deep snow. We actually ended up breaking off our initial plan (walking this trail called the Goldsteig for some 50 miles over 4 days) because the snow was too deep; we turned aside and found a different path lower and through a couple of small, stereotypically adorable bayerischer Dorfs (villages). It was a good time, though cold. Here is an example of how cold: one morning, we woke up inside our rather ghetto/sketchy/held-closed-with-duct-tape tent and my water bottle was just fine. Not frozen, nice and liquidy from it being close to me all night. I go outside and start cooking oatmeal; 20 minutes later its frozen. O_o.

So. Surviving the Bayerischer Wald, we returned to Regensburg late afternoon on Rosenmontag. I enjoyed hearing stories of other peoples adventures, excursions, and even medical mishaps (one of my compatriots broke a hand in Köln, the capital of Karnival, and can't remember exactly what happened...). That Wednesday, we visited the local Schloss (palace). Schloss Thurn und Taxis is the home of the Thurn und Taxis Familie, and parts of the estate are still inhabited by them to this day. The prince Thurn und Taxis was responsible for post within the Holy Roman Empire, and that is how the family became wealthy and rose through the princely ranks extremely quickly. The entire complex is rather extensive and EXTREMELY impressive; if any of you ever visit Regensburg I'd highly recommend a tour. Pictures, unfortunately, were forbidden inside, but I suggest googling 'schloss thurn und taxis regensburg' to get an idea.

Saturday the 12th we went to Augsburg. A nice little excursion, beautiful, warm weather in a nice old city. Augsburg is about twice the size of Regensburg, and has some interesting history. One of those interesting cultural delights (I use the term loosely) is a european renowned puppet theater. Marionette puppets, and it has an entire museum dedicated to its puppets. It was really impressive, if a tad creepy. Still, Germans can get kind of crazy about their puppets and it is a big part of the folklore culture in this part of the world.

Augsburg also had delicious cafes and ice cream. Yummmm hooray for warm (ish) weather. Its now not below freezing constantly!!!

This past week has been slightly slow, and everyone is feeling the general annoyance at the need to prepare (however minimally) for our Abschlussexamen (final exams). They are this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, and I cannot WAIT to be done with this Sprachkurs. About the most interesting thing to happen this past week was my finally getting around to finishing Firefly. A wonderful show, cut tragically short.

Saturday I smoked my first cigar. Probably my last for the foreseeable future too, unless I suddenly morph into an old British man.

All of which brings me to the present: 11:23 at night, writing my blog post because I don't really want to go to bed, because I don't want to have to wake up and go to class tomorrow. Oh well.

I can ramble on some more about April plans!

As many of you know, I've got essentially the month of April off, and I plan to use a large portion of my time travelling both around Europe and exploring Bavaria in more detail. I'm visiting Frankfurt first, for 4 days, followed by Brugges, in Belgium, for 4 days, followed by Vienna for 4 days. About the only plans for each of these cities is (possibly) a winery in the area of Frankfurt, probably a chocolate museum in Brugges, and probably multiple cultural performances in Vienna (Spanish Riding school, maybe opera. Who knows?). Anyone with any suggestions, email me!

After I get back from travelling, I'm going to play host to one of my friends (studying in Mannheim) and his visiting younger brother who wants to experience 'real' Germany as opposed to touristy Germany. I'm also going to visit Dachau (outside of Munich) and Neuschwanstein (the really famous castle after which Disney modeled his Cinderella castle). Probably a trip to Passau to see a glass museum as well, and maybe Salzburg. All of these places are so easily accessible its almost sickening :)

Now, I believe I've rambled enough. Again, I'm terribly sorry about the month of silence; hopefully it merely served as an excruciating reminder of how much you all love reading my blog....

In all seriousness, I'll try and blog more regularly again. Signing off for the night now....enjoy America, folks!