240 hours later

   Classes are over.  For the last two months of my life I have spent an unimaginably large quantity of time on the second floor of the Institut für Sprachvermittlung, IFS language school in Bonn, Germany.  Today it feels like a lifetime has passed since those first days of school back in July when I could barely get through a lesson without feeling totally overwhelmed, shedding wasted tears over really important things, like using the wrong preposition or declining an adjective incorrectly (blasphemy, I know). 
     I can even be a big enough person today to admit that after the first week or so of classes I went to my teachers after class and admitted to them that I was well aware that I was the weakest student in the class, and that I understood if it was best for everyone if I joined a different class.  To this they basically told me not to worry so much, that I wasn´t the worst student in the class, that I was making good progress, and that my mistakes showed that my brain was actually getting ready to leap the next level of language ability.  Phew!

  
      Well, at least I think that is what they said.  Truth be told, I didn´t totally understand what they said.  But I went back to class the next day, and I have been going ever since. 
       As for that giant leap in my German language ability, it´s hard to say if it ever happened.  It´s hard to say how or if anyone would ever even know that her own brain had just morphed into something more capable, more Deutsch fähig (German capable!)  But, either way, here are some of my important German language moments in the last few weeks:

1. Pizza.  When one of the Americans found an add for delivery pizza "American style", of course we had to give it a try. Sure it´s weird that the "New York" pizza had tuna fish, and the "Boston" had Hollandaise sauce.  It is equally illogical that the "Texas" pizza had fried potatoes and onions and that all the pizzas were made with gouda cheese.  Regardless of these minor details, I was able to successfully order pizza, and request a substitution for corn topping...

2. Internet.  After being sold the wrong kind of internet monthly card by the very nice, but clearly incompetent sales lady in the O2 store in the small city of Andernach, I was able to explain and correct my internet woes successfully over the phone.  In fact I have gotten so good at dealing with German sales people, that sometimes I buy stuff for other people too.

3. Drunks on the U-bahn.  At 9:00 this morning, in the subway, I was involuntarily involved in a conversation with a woman who was clearly taking advantage of the lack of open bottle laws in Germany.  I successfully explained to her that I am not from Brazil, but she didn´t seem convinced.  Still, understanding the drunk rambling of Germans seems like an accomplishment of a sort.

And of course there have been successful moments in school - realizing I could understand Thomas Mann or Heinrich Heine in the original.  Watching movies in German.  Attending a Patrick Süskind play and having a clue what was going on.  Learning about the life of Martin Luther through a totally propagandist film, and being able to explain in German why I was pretty sure it was propaganda.  Having discussions about school reform.  Debating genetic engineering.  Comparing social welfare systems.  Explaining my project.  I can´t honestly do some of this stuff in English.

It´s strange to think that the first part of my German experience is over, and yet my year in Berlin and my project are still completely ahead of me.  The leaves are starting to change colors, the sky is already getting dark around 8, the kids in Rheinland Westfalen head back to school on Monday, and I head to my my orientation seminar, day 1.  What awaits me there I can only begin to imagine, but I am sure I have only scratched the surface of my German experience.

Well there you have it, I put my two cents in, my five kopecks, as the Russians would say, I gave my mustard to it, as the Germans would say.