Finally, the semester is over. Sprachkurs A did not improve in the last few months; in fact, I'm pretty sure I got dumber this semester, as far as grammar and vocabulary go. On the plus-side, this means that I have all the more reason to drop into Sprachkurs B....oh man.
Otherwise, my classes were alright - my "group project" for Landeskunde ended up as my individual project, as my two other group members dropped the course. So, our project on the German jail system turned into my project on Turkish students in the German school system. Obtaining and carrying out the interviews necessary for this project was a terrifying process as I (1) hate talking on the phone and (2) am positively terrified of using German over the phone or in person with anyone who can actually speak the language. So yeah, that was fun. But I finished the project and actually ended up being pretty satisfied with the work, research, and results.... and if I never have to try to request anything via the telephone in German, it will be too soon.
My Lyrik class was amazing. A lot of the students in the class didn't like the professor (and I'll admit, the style in which she ran the class is one that you either love or hate), but I loved the course. The class consisted of memorizing, translating, and analyzing poetry, as well as a midterm paper (topic: The archetype of the poet and of utopia). Over the course of the semester, we studied poems from Schiller, Goethe, Hölderlin, Rilke, Celan, and Schüller. Rilke was probably my favorite, as we read "Die Erste Elegie", but I liked Celan and Schiller a lot as well. I will have to add the comment that "Die Erste Elegie" is not really a poem in the most typical sense of the word. It is enjambed prose, lacking both rhyme and meter, with very long lines (of varying length), and a total of 95 lines in the work. In other words, it was basically a creative essay, and absolutely ridiculous to memorize. But then, if not for the endless amounts of poetry to memorize, how else would I use my time on the U-Bahn?
I dropped my Argentinian film class early on - the professor was flaky and always late to class (if he showed up at all). It became obvious in the first few weeks that (a) we would not cover anywhere near the amount of material suggested, given that we did not have much class time with a professor present, and (b) that I would not be able to keep motivation for a class with such a disorganized professor, regardless of the fact that it was taught in my preferred language.
My linguistics class was therefore my only LMU (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) course in the semester, and it was a hard one (by LMU standards). I have to rant slightly about the German system for classes... The entire grade for the course is based upon one test or referat (paper/presentation). So, if you do poorly on the final, you do poorly in the class. Also, as there is no intermediate work or quiz, it is quite difficult to tell how well you grasp the material until the last day of the course - after 3 months of studying and attendance and notes and work. I did well enough in this course that I don't have to drop it, but had I done poorly, I would have been very annoyed to have spent so much time just to have the class credit (and effort) essentially nullified by the one graded item of the semester. Gah. Never again to Germanistic Linguistics courses. Morphology and syntax are wonderful, but semantics and pragmatic (added in the last week of classes, by the way) depend greatly on a more subtle (dare I say native speaker's) understanding of the language. An understanding I neither have nor expect to possess in the next semester.
Anyway, the semester's done. I now have time to relax (i.e. sleep, knit, read) and travel. I was in London last weekend and will depart for the rest of Europe in the beginning of March/end of February. The approximate itinerary for the 5 weeks of travel can be found here.
And then when I come back in early April, I'll start selecting classes for the summer semester. So far I know I'll be taking the Theater (Literature) course from LC, as well as Sprachkurs (oh please, let it be Sprachkurs B). Other than that, I'm looking for classes at LMU, most likely a history/art history course, a Spanish-speaking course (if I can find a competent professor), and maybe another literature course - possibly one in German lit. and one in English/American lit.. Oh, I'm excited already! ^_^
Travel Schedule:
(With Jay):
01.03: Budapest, Hungary
2.03: Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
03.03: Plovdiv, Bulgaria
04.03: Istanbul, Turkey
05.03: Sofia, Bulgaria
06.03-07.03: Athens, Greece
07.03: Patras, Greece
08.03-09.03: Rome, Italy
10.03: Pompeii, Italy and Naples, Italy
11.03: Venice, Italy
12.03: Ljubljana, Slovenia
13.03: Florence, Italy
14.03: Geneva, Switzerland
14.03-16.03: Paris, France
(With Grandma):
16.03-17.03: Paris, France
18.03-19.03: Strasbourg, France
20.03-21.03: Bayeux, France
22.03-23.03: La Rochelle, France
24.03-26.03: Segovia, Spain
27.03-28.03: Merida, Spain
(With Jay):
29.03: Barcelona, Spain
30.03: Toledo, Spain
31.03: Córdoba, Spain
01.04: Valencia, Spain
02.04: Sevilla, Spain
03.04: Tangier, Morocco
04.04: Asilah, Morocco
05.04: Fes, Morocco
06.04: Marrakesh, Morocco
07.04: Agadir, Morocco; Return to Munich
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