TWO WEEKS, TWO WEEKENDS
First, the weeks: September 11 - 24

So classes started this week. It was understandably the most difficult week so far. This week I had to face my fears and admit my limitations. I attended a lecture of a real German course for real German students, immediately followed by the accompanying tutorium (a smaller class led by a graduate student, or whatever the equivalent of that is here), and I quickly realized I would not be able to take this kind of course. I read pretty well, but my understanding of spoken German is just not good enough.

Fortunately, at German universities --- this one, anyway --- you don't have to nail your schedule down in advance, so I was able to make a change. I was able to sign up at the last minute for an alternate course, a course designed to prepare foreign students for the study of German literature. The lecture course was an introduction to the study of German literature, so the content of the courses is very similar, only the one I'm ending up taking is just for foreign students. Like me.

Instead of "the study of German literature" I should perhaps say "the German study of literature", because the Germans have their own way of doing things, including studying literature. Their approach is very precise, very analytical, very scientific. In fact, the subject of study is called "Literaturwissenschaft", literally "literary science". Leave it to the Germans to take a scientific approach to something that is fundamentally not scientific.

Two of my other courses are also designed for exchange students; one is a language course in spoken German, which I really need, the other an overview of German culture. The fourth course is the translation course, which (because it is German to English translation) is taught, mercifully, in English. For that reason it will probably be the easiest course I take, but that after all is why I'm here.

This may all sound too easy to some, but everyone has different reasons for wanting to do something like this. Sorry, professors, but frankly academics are not my top priority here. If I wanted to spend all my time reading books, I could have stayed home. You don't get to really know a country by reading books.

And that brings me to:

The Weekends: September 16 and 23

It was a rough week. Not taking the German lit course was a blow to the ego. Time to relax and refresh.

The VISUM group planned an excursion to the Wine Festival in Bad-Duerkheim for this Saturday. But they were not planning to leave until 6:00 in the evening. What about the rest of the day. I realized that Neidenfels is out past Bad-Duerkheim. Why not check it out?

(Review of last post: Neidenfels is the little town where one finds the hiking trail that goes to Drachenfels...)(My ankle may not have been ready for the hike, but I thought I'd just see how long it takes to get there.)

It was easier than I thought. The train to Kaiserslautern goes right through Neidenfels. I was there in an hour from the house.

This is the real German country, up in the little mountains to the west. These mountains are smaller than the ones in North Carolina, but quite rugged. A hiking club called the Pfaelzerwald Verein runs a small establishment for hikers --- food and lodging --- right by the trailhead. Besides my ankle, it was too late in the day for the trail, but there are the ruins of a small castle, 700 years old, on a hill above the town. I made the climb. The view was worth it.

The air here was better, too, fresher, lighter, cooler. The sky was overcast with thick clouds, but that only added to the mystique. (And it never rained a drop.)

I went back through Bad-Duerkheim for the Wine Festival. It is said to be the biggest wine festival in the world, and big it was. And there was wine, and beer, of course, and food, but mostly it was booths selling stuff and rides, including a giant ferris wheel and even --- my old favorite --- bumper cars. I.e. it was just like the county or state fairs we have back home. With sausage instead of cotton candy.

And amid the sharp-shooter booths and the booths selling jewelry and crafts there were booths, at least two of them selling --- of all things --- socks. Can you imagine someone in America saying, "Hey, let's go to the fair and ride the roller coaster and eat hot dogs and cotton candy, and while we're there we can buy some socks!" (I swear I am not making this up.)

And the wine came in half-liter glasses (about a pint), and the beer in liters. So, although I am too old to get turned upside down on a carnival ride, I enjoyed.

Skipping ahead to the next Saturday, the 23rd:

After several cloudy days, the weather on Thursday turned spectacular, cooler, especially at night, but not a cloud in the sky. Fall weather on the eve of Fall. And I swore if the weather held till Saturday I would go back to the country and do my hike, sore ankle or not.

The weather held.

This time I knew exactly where to go --- at least to start with --- but even allowing for a few wrong turns it was farther than I thought. I still haven't got my mind wrapped around kilometers. It was a long day.

But two hours after I left the house I was in the woods. Not deep, not dark --- they are actually quite similar to what you find in the east in America. The forests in America have been logged extensively, and so have these, and for centuries longer. And they still are. Much of the trail was logging roads and here and there were piles of newly cut logs stacked by the road ready to be trucked away. Lots of evergreens, but no really big ones. This is not old-growth forest. Are there any old-growth forests left in Europe?

But on a sunny day in September --- it happened to be the actual first day of autumn --- who cares? I walked with Wagner playing in my head and saw not a soul on the trail --- until I got to a big intersection of trails near the Drachenfels, where there were picnickers and bicyclers, and the population continued to grow as I approached the great rock. It turns out there is a public road and parking area nearby, so it is easily accessible to those with cars, who don't have to take the train and then walk 3 hours like I did. But, y'know, in America there would be no train, and those without cars would never be able to get there at all. So for me it is a good thing this is not America. But next time I will come on a weekday, because it was really quite crowded. Of course, for me in a place like this, out in the woods, 10 people is crowded, so... But it makes it harder to commune with nature.

Drachenfels is a huge dramatic rock formation sitting atop a large hill --- a mountain perhaps, by our standards. There are two small caves beneath it, one of which goes all the way through to the other side, and the other someone once imagined a dragon might live in. Personally, I thought it was way too small for that. And I found no trace of the Nibelung treasure...

But it was a beautiful day. My ankle survived; both of my feet hurt by the time I got back to town, but now 2 days later I am back to normal. I will stick to cities in my travels the next few weeks. I am glad I got this done before the weather turns.

Business will keep me in Mannheim some of this Fall. I finally heard from the TIG7 theater group, and the poetry reading is on. There is also an English-speaking theater group here at the university that has started meeting: more of that as things pan out.

And so the semester has begun. Hard to believe in three months it will be over. Then I go home for Christmas. Will I be ready for that? We'll see.