WEEK #4 --- 21-26 AUGUST
The paper is done, but the oral presentation is not until Friday, so I spent a lot of this week working on that. It all has to be completely reworked; I can't just read the paper. It only has to be five minutes (although no one's presentation so far has been that short). In the paper I compared (very briefly; in three pages) Wagner's Nibelung operas to the show in Worms, but to keep the length down, and because I think people in the class will find it more interesting, I have decided not to discuss Wagner and talk only about the Worms play.

There was an excursion to the town of Speyer this week, a town which dates back to Roman times, 2,000 years ago, although from what I saw it doesn't look any older than Heidelberg. One highlight was the cathedral, also from the Middle Ages, but seeming to be much newer --- cleaner somehow, brighter --- than the one in Worms.

Also this week I finally had time to go to the government office that keeps track of people and register my presence here. Every new resident in any locality must register their name and address with the government, even German citizens moving from one town to another. A bit frightening, considering this country's history (and from the point of view of an American with our habitual distrust of government). But nowadays I'm sure it's just a formality. I also registered my presence here with the US State Department, but of course that was voluntary.

I also had to get a foreigner's resident permit, in lieu of a visa, which is not required for exchange students. I had all my papers in order, so it went fairly smoothly, although the lady I dealt with was the model of German efficiency. Everything had to be just so. Every i dotted and every t crossed. My favorite quote from the Worms Nibelung drama: Siegfried is trying to compose a love poem to Kriemhild, and one of the Burgundians is trying to give him advice, which Siegfried does not take. He says, "Es gibt verschiedene Moeglichkeiten. Du bist Deutscher. Die Deutschen haben keine verschiedenen Moeglichkeiten." (For the Germans, there are no alternative possibilities.)

The oral presentation on Friday went reasonably well, although I was extremely nervous, even more than I thought I'd be. It did not help that it was delayed until the very end of class. I cannot say how well my classmates appreciated it (there may not have been much interest in old myths), but the teacher seemed to enjoy it. I think everyone was surprised that my German was as good as it was, since, being an introvert, I never talked very much in class.

I never discovered what grade I got on the presentation, since I did it so close to the end of the session. But I got a good grade on the paper, a 1 for content and a 1,3 for language. (The German grading system has 6, not 5, levels, with a 1 being the best and a 6 being the worst, i.e. fail. So the lower the number the better: a 1,3 is better than a 1,7.)

(And with numbers they use commas where we use periods and vice versa. 6.789,28 means six thousand seven hundred eighty-nine and 28 one-hundredths. Wierd, huh?)

The presentation on Friday was the end of actual work for the class (there was a short exam on Wednesday). I celebrate by going shopping. Since there was no room for such a garment in my suitcase, I have been trying to find a nice, stylish sports coat to buy. But I cannot find anything that fits. As I said before, everything is smaller here, even the people. I have a chart to convert American sizes to German, and I should wear a German size 56, but I can find very few jackets that big, and even the ones I find are tight on me. I will have to wear a 58. I find one --- only one --- at a nice store downtown for 130 euros. Seven stores, one jacket, 130 euros. (I did not buy it).

But on Saturday I go to the mall --- yes, there is an American-style indoor shopping mall out in a suburb north of town, near where the American army base is. The last store I go in there has jackets that fit, size 58, for 49 euros. I buy two.

Also in the mall there is --- praise God! --- a Kentucky Fried Chicken. At last, an alternative to sausage.