a long way from home

Good morning! Huh, it's strange to write "good morning" in a blog entry because I normally don't work on the blog until after dark. Lucky for me it's been so cloudy these past couple of weeks that it feels like evening almost all the time. But I'm not complaining! I wouldn't dare, considering the fall that some of you in the U.S. are having. There's a time and place for freezing cold weather and snow, and the middle of November isn't it. I hope you're all keeping warm.

My German class started yesterday and I really enjoyed it. There were around twelve of us from countries all over the world (e.g. Morocco, Columbia, Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Spain, Iran), but I'm the only one from the U.S. I also seem to be the only one older than 26 (the average age appears to be 20), but I'm used to that from law school. What really amazed me was that most of my fellow students moved to Frankfurt within the past few weeks. The guy sitting next to me arrived on Sunday! Many of them studied German in their home countries so they could enroll at a German university. 

I'm really impressed by my classmates' courage in moving to a foreign country, especially one that is so far away from most of their home countries. We did an exercise in class that really illustrated how isolated many of my classmates are. One of the main topics yesterday was learning how to discuss relationships in German. The teacher had us do an activity where we walked around to other students and asked them a few questions including "How many friends do you meet up with regularly?" Most of the students I talked to said "none" because they don't have any friends in Germany yet. I'm sure that will change quickly, but until it does I can only imagine how lonely they must feel. 

My German class is held in this rather stately looking building.

I have class everyday in the mid-to-late afternoon, which means that I'm busy when Brenda is usually on break from rehearsal. Fortunately, we won't have to keep up this schedule for long. After Brenda's show opens in a little less than two weeks she'll have a lot more free time, although she'll be busy learning her next role. By the way, her rehearsals seem to be going well. I'm very excited for the first performance.

So that's what we've been up to. I hope you're all having a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!