Another month of intensive Deutschkurs has come and gone with dazzling speed. My big takeaway from this round is that I need to work much harder on building vocabulary. Learning increasingly complicated grammar is one thing, learning it with an inadequate vocabulary at my command adds a whole new layer of frustration and annoyance, mostly with myself. And I didn’t do myself any favors by really not practicing too much at all since the last course, which was last December. At least I’ve made it past talking like a cavewoman most of the time; who knew that forming multiple-clause sentences could be so satisfying? There seems to be a general consensus that German grammar is notoriously challenging, driving some students to despair and heavy sighs at the prospect of learning yet another rule, but I really get a kick out of it. Not that I don’t find it challenging, but the challenge is part of the fun. It’s sort of a convoluted puzzle based partially in memorizing an extensive set of seemingly random rules, then applying that set of random rules within a structure that has yet another set of rules, these being very strict and nigh-unbreakable, the outcome of which is proverbially greater than the mere sum of the parts. For some reason, my brain enjoys this activity a lot, and tends to be good at it. At least in theory and on paper. What comes out of my mouth is a different matter entirely.

So it’s time to once again say goodbye to Vienna. I’ve been here at this point a few times now, and it always makes me a little misty. I try to avoid these feelings by just assuring myself that someday I will come back. I was talking to my teacher after the last day of class, telling her that even though I have exciting travel plans for the winter, I always miss Vienna. It’s really hard to explain why, even in English. I tripped my way through a couple of sentences, and then she summed it up with two words, ganz anders. Wien ist ganz anders. It’s just something completely different. Every time I come back, I learn a little bit more about what makes it a different and unique place.

As I was packing this morning, my flatmate asked if I was ready for my next adventure. I told her that I’m never really ready, the next adventure just happens. 

Schloss Belvedere in the evening, on the way home