Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Hello all! I hope you are having a delightful Monday. I just realized that today is October 12th which we all know is Luciano Pavarotti's birthday. Ok, maybe you didn't know that but I, for whatever reason, have that bit of trivia committed to memory. In honor of the occasion if you want to take three minutes out of your day and listen to some beautiful music you can do so here.

Now that I've gotten you in the mood for some opera, I can tell you about the outstanding success that was Brenda's performance in Saturday's La Clemenza di Tito. The show was really well sung by everyone involved and Brenda did more than her fare share of beautiful singing. I always enjoy hearing people scream "Bravo!" when she takes her bows. If you'd like to see a few pictures from the production then click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

I'll try to keep the hyperlinks to a minimum from here on out. You may recall me talking about German language classes a few blog posts ago. Well, today I met with a gentlemen at a nearby language school and I learned more about what is involved in this subsidized German language program. Apparently there are six levels of language proficiency that the German government is willing to pay for. In order to determine which level you are at you have to take a written exam. That is why shortly after I arrived at the school I found myself alone in a room taking the first German test I've taken in 9 years. I had 30 minutes to answer 65 questions or so. I finished just under the wire and then got to enjoy my test being graded in front of me. It ended up that I tested into level 5 which came as a bit of a shock to me. It made me wonder how much language proficiency I would actually have after language level 6. If I'm at level 5 now, and I feel like I'm a long way from fluent, then the teachers will have to work miracles in level 6 to get me to total fluency.

It turns out that the German government is willing to subsidize language classes to a certain point and beyond that you're on your own. Something is definitely better than nothing so it looks like I'll be spending the next 16 weeks in language classes. I'm really excited about it actually. I've always liked learning languages and I've been in dire need of something to occupy my time.

I'm afraid I don't have too much else to report. Brenda is at a concert this evening that a few of her colleagues are performing in. We've been talking more seriously about carving our pumpkin so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks. Until then, have a great week!