This weekend I got to see Bonn. Well, I actually got to see the Bonn-Bad Godesberg train station, Amos-Comenius-Gymnasium, and the six blocks or so between the train station and school. The reason for my trip to the Federal City was for a music rehearsal with other students from Protestant Gymnasiums in Nordrhein-Westfalen. It was awesome getting to play some classical literature again, especially since I now actually understand everything Haydn scribbled next to those Tromba 1 notes.
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| Welcome to Bonn: birthplace of Beethoven! |
During the Bonn trip, two giggly girls from Viktoriaschule (in the 5th and 7th grades) decided to give me a German pronunciation course. They would ask me to spell words that included the letters ä, ö, and ü. For some reason my little brain just has incredible difficulty hearing these vowels. They found it hilarious when I tried to say Schläfchen (nap) or Möhre (carrot) or Bühne (stage). They were literally rolling around on the floor, but they were also very sweet and supportive with my linguistic struggle. Later, they questioned me as to why English has such weirdly spelled words like "chai-air" (chair) or "to peek oop" (to pick up) and "tob-blee" (table). They made me promise that I'll practice the tricky vowels and be able to say them correctly before I leave Germany.
*Challenge accepted Mädels*
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| I love to be in A-mer-i-ca! |
Switching gears back to Aachen, last night I saw West Side Story with my host family and a few family friends. It was very well done-- impressive dancing, innovative set design, and costumes that I'm pretty sure came from American Apparel's "LMFAO-meets-Zooey Deschanel Collection." Theater Aachen took a modern spin on the musical, setting it in present day New York rather than the mid-1950s one. During the dialogue they spoke in German, but the songs were still in English with German supertitles flanking the stage. Definitely a top-notch theater and I'm excited to see more productions come spring!
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| Hasta la vista liebe Agos! |
On a final, parting note, the other Viktoriaschule exchange student in my grade returned to Argentina this past weekend. All of the farewelling made me envision my own adios this summer. Thanks to snow forecasts on the news and the fact I still have to wear my big, marshmallow coat, it feels like forever before summer. I'm so happy I still have plenty of time left to experience, learn, and understand even more-- at the moment that means figuring out these crazy umlauts and the Konjunktiv!