Pfingsten

Monday was the Pfingsten holiday in Germany. Whitsun in the UK. It meant another day off in May which is something I'm all for. It happened also to coincide with Tina's dad's birthday and we got ourselves on a bus from Berlin to Hamburg on Friday morning to join in the celebrations. My German is seemingly flawless after five bottles of Pils: must bring some with me to class tomorrow ;-) We also managed to get to meet up with Tina's newest niece, Enid. All of six weeks old so still incredibly new to the world and looking incredibly delicate and pickled the way that new babies tend to do. I can't deny feeling broody over the little thing and I get the feeling that Tina was clucking away too. I must be getting old.

Back to school again yesterday then - I really can't believe that I've only been there a week so far. I've been thrown in so deep that every day really has been stretched out so much, and whilst I find myself struggling to keep up with what is seemingly fundamental information (vocabulary, verb prepositions etc.) I don't feel so crippled that I hyperventilate. I've basically got my sights set high and just need to spend another two or three hours on top of the class every day trying to assimilate new information. Incredibly tiring.

Luckily enough though, Tina has a niece and nephew living nearby so it's hard to get too serious with all of my language worries - a couple of hours with them and everything finds a nice level. My only problem is taking their language with me to class the next day: I swear I'm going to ask the teacher if I can "go pee pee" some time soon.