New Moon On Monday!

Final score = 84!

It's a good score, I know, but I ain't happy. XD

Talking to some classmates and the teacher that prepared us, I realized there was a general feeling of discontent - many of us did well in the exam, but we really felt underprepared before taking it. And the exam was very very different - and more difficult - from what we had been practicing in class.

I KNOW I could have done better!

Anyways, it's done now - and I get to rest! Heeee!

<3 @ all of you!

-V

I'm on my way to take the first part of my first international German test ever.

UWEKJFWNDANKFJSNDFKLW.

I'M SCARED!

I know I've been TOTALLY away, but it's all for the right reasons... And hopefully soon I'll tell you what I've been up to. :D

So, HOW IS EVERYBODY?? :D

I'm back in class already, starting this week... I'm actually excited about it, even though my classes aren't really that exciting! XD Hopefully I'll get rid of them and move on to greener pastures next year. Good things are I'm finally starting with a whole new repertoire in my piano class, and I'm also back to my German lessons. This year I switched to a different institution for my German classes - now I'm at the local Goethe Institute, which offers me a whole 6-year course and the opportunity to take as many international exams as I want. :P Looks like this course goes at a faster pace than the one I took before, because in the first class we were already bombarded with LOTS of stuff. XD But, hey, I couldn't be happier! I'm really enjoying it. :D

But perhaps the best part is going back to school is actually buying stationary and other supplies! I even bought myself a new bag... Because I actually need a rather big bag to carry my folder, my books and all that jazz.

I'm in love with my new bag, which is proving to be VERY useful and looks like this:

( Photo cut! )

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and let you all know that I'm still alive and slowly reading and commenting on your journals. :P

Cheerios, people, I'm off to do some reading on the properties of musical modes. XD

Love and cookies!

-V

1. I hate MySpace, because it's way to ADHD for me. But, well, since all bands seem to be getting MySpaces, I just got an account of my own. I probably won't update much, but if you have a MySpace of your own and wanna add me, you can find me here. :D

2. Does anybody know what language this is and what it means?

Lufkümen-Lawfen

Thanks in advance!

Love and cookies,

-V

I was in German class today, and somebody complained about the conjugation of the verb mögen.

In Argentina, when something seems very difficult, we say:

¡Eso es chino básico!

And that's when my teacher said:

"Go with the German version! Das kommt mir Spanisch vor!"

I immediately thought of you, Bill.

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

For all you German speaking people out there:

I've learned that you use the word Steak. How do you pronounce it - just like it is in English, or do you pronounce the S as it should be in German?

Thank you for you help in advance. :D

For sweetestremedy:

( Present for you! )

Just as I promised, in this post you'll find the pictures I took on my last excursion to the shopping mall, including all the international, completely irresistible and absolutely unnecesary stuff I bought! :D

But first, let me tell you that we had our weekly German Stammtisch yesterday, and we basically mobbed our teacher and asked him as many questions as possible about this idea of going to Germany next year. The basic idea is to spend three weeks there, and visit around 4 or 5 cities. We'll definitely be in Munich and Berlin, and now we're discussing which other cities to visit - Leipzig, Stuttgart (or somewhere closer to the Schwarzwald), Dresden, and some other destinations I don't quite remember right now. (I'm hearing suggestions, if you have any! XD)
We need to gather a group of ten people if we want to make this trip happen. The idea is to go around May or June, when it's already warmer but airline tickets are not as expensive as they are during the summer.
These are all the details I have for now, but I'll keep you posted as we start defining more things. :D What scares me the most is actually getting a group together. I mean, people always get excited about these projects, but when it comes to actually making it real and, above all, paying for it, things can get complicated. So I'm really hoping we'll be able to find people who are able to commit to this project so we can all have a great trip. :D

Our Stammtisch is getting more international! :D A girl from Germany (she's from Fulda, to be exact) joined us yesterday. She's a 16-year-old exchange student who's a friend of one of my classmates. She was lots of fun to be with, and I was really surprised to hear her speak Spanish. She had never studied the language before (although she did study English, French and Latin), but after a month and a half in Argentina, she speaks it wonderfully. She's got an accent, of course, but it was amazing just how easily she picked up conversations. I mean, we were in the middle of a completely informal gathering, where you don't really watch your language, but this girl joined in conversations with almost no effort. O____o Truly amazing. (We ended up speaking English too, which felt very international! XD) I guess immersion is a great way to learn a language. I'm hoping three weeks in Germany will help me open up my ears to the German language! XD I was surprised today by a letter from a penpal in Belgium who also writes amazing Spanish after only three months of learning it. WHAT IS IT ABOUT PEOPLE LEARNING SPANISH SO QUICKLY WHILE I'M STILL STRUGGLING WITH GERMAN? O___o I feel diminished now. XD

Anyway

ENOUGH

and let's move on to what really brings us here:

FOOD!

( PICSPAM AHEAD! :D )

OK, there's nothing definite about this, but

there is a chance

I MIGHT BE GOING TO GERMANY

NEXT MAY

with my German class!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O______________________________o

So far it's just an idea, but just IMAGINE our excitement anyway. XD There's still lots to be planned and, well, of course, money to be saved, XD, but we definitely want to do this. :D

SO I'LL KEEP YOU POSTED. :D KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! :D

*bounces around*

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

1. Name:
2. Birthday:
3. Place of residence:
4. What makes you happy:
5. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. Do you read my lj:
7. If you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. Favourite place to be:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. Best time of the year:
13. Weirdest food you like:
14. What makes you laugh?

Recommend
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A band, a song and an album:

Me
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you

---

I'm a happy, happy camper. :D

Work is going great. I'm totally clicking with my coworkers and I've really adapted to the job.

German is going great too. We're having lots of fun, and my teacher had this idea for a Stammtisch, where we basically get together in a bar every Thursday evening, not just my class, but also people from more advanced courses as well. It's really awesome, we're really getting to know each other and, even if there isn't much German involved, we always have a blast. XD (We've learned how to say ein Bierchen, and that seems quite enough. XDDD)

School is going slow but well. I'm getting ready for a Piano final, so I'm studying quite a bit.

So, yeah. I'm alright. :D

Hope you are too. :D

Cheerios,

-V

How do you say "You talk too much" in German?

XD

Thank you in advance!

-V

MY GERMAN TEACHER IS BACK

and he brought LOTS of little Swiss chocolates for all his students. XD

( Like this little fellow over here: )

I ♥ my German teacher. XD

We spent half the class watching photos. XD And we even got to see his Freundin on the piccies. Guess what? He's 44 and she's 31. XD

HERE IT GOES AGAIN:

I ♥ MY GERMAN TEACHER. XD

---

Proper update on more important matters (like food) coming soon. :D

I hope you're all doing awesome!

Cheers,

-V

1. I MISS MY GERMAN TEACHER. :(((
He's in Germany right now (reason why I should envy him rather than miss him! XD), and he'll be there for three weeks, so we have a substitute teacher. She's great, the substitute, very nice, BUT I MISS MY TEACHER. :( Beyond any biased comment I could make, my teacher is the kind of guy that was born to teach - you know when somebody oozes a certain authority, something that makes people respect him right from the start? That's what my teacher has. He's got a personality that allows him to run a class almost with no effort. The substitute teacher certainly doesn't have that - she tries to impose herself, and that created a bit of a horrid environment in class today. You know when you can perceive nobody's really relaxed? That kind of thing. That never happened with my German teacher. So, I MISS HIM AND I WANT HIM BACK. :(

2. 6.54 AM today, on our way to work, my brother and I were talking. I don't know how we started talking about what to wear for his wedding (I still have a major conflict with that whole thing, by the way). And that's when I started ranting:

Me: WOMEN ARE SO STUPID. THERE ARE NO FORMAL WINTER CLOTHES FOR WOMEN. WOMEN WEAR STRAPLESS DRESSES IN WINTER JUST TO SHOW OFF, AND I'M SUPPOSED TO FREEZE MY ASS OFF TOO JUST BECAUSE EVERYBODY DOES? EVEN I WANTED TO GET DECENT CLOTHES, THERE AREN'T ANY!

And this is where the best part came:

Me: BEING A WOMAN SUCKS. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN A MAN. A GAY MAN. I HATE WOMEN.

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

And this is where my brother shows he's a troglodyte:

Him: But if you had been born a man, you'd like women.

Me: NO, BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE BEEN BORN GAY!

Him: But you can't be born gay.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TROGLODYTE, I TOLD YA!)

This is where we finally got to work, and we found ourselves in the middle of the whole vortex of people arriving as well, so we couldn't really keep talking. BUT HE PROVED HE LIVES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. And I still believe I should have been born a gay male. XD

*sigh*

I hope you're all doing fine. :D Take care! *glomps f-list*

CHEERIOS!

-V
(761 unanswered emails)

YOU GERMAN SPEAKING PEOPLE HAVE A

WEIRD

WAY OF COUNTING.

XDDDDDDDDDDDD

(No offense, it's just that it's so different from the two languages I already speak, and it's giving me quite some work, so I'm lashing out, but I'm sure I'll love it once I get how it works! XD)

Still, one of the things I love about being able to count from 0 to 100 in German is the fact that I can FINALLY understand Nena when she sings

NEUNUNDNEUNZIG LUFTBALLONS!

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

That stupid song has been playing in my mind all day, ever since I realized I could sing along to it. XDDDDDDDDDD

STILL

I need to practice die Zahlen. I'm trying to catch the Lotto numbers on the German channel on TV to see if I can actually understand them. XD If any of you would be willing (and has the time, of course :P) to record a few numbers in German for me to guess, I'd owe you and love you FOREVER. It'd be a great help, and it'd make a great anecdote for my German class too. :P

By the way, now that we can count, MY TEACHER HAS FINALLY CONFESSED HE'S 44 YEARS OLD! :-o Twice as old as I am, but still...

I dig him.

*hides*

ANYWAY

Nothing else is new with me.

I missed a test today at my uni because I forgot to take my bus card and any money with me. Which means I basically had no way of getting to college, except for walking. *facepalm* I have this class at uni right after my German class (which I take at an institute downtown), and I basically have to FLY LIKE THE WIND to catch a bus and get to uni ASAP. I had no way to take the bus today, so... This test didn't really matter anyway, because it doesn't influence my grade (it was just a diagnostic test), but still, GRRRRRRRRRRR. It makes me angry. IF I GOT PAID TO BE A DORK, I'D BE A BILLIONAIRE. XD

And just in case that wasn't enough of a *facepalm*, now I have another reason to claim I LOSE AT LIFE: I get depressed on Sundays. XD To drown my depression, I went to the supermarket with my family last Sunday. Lots of people shop when they're sad - they buy clothes, books, anything. I shop too. But, what do I buy? FOOD. XD Danish cheese, to be exact:

( Photos courtesy of my brother )

OH, AND, BY THE WAY, nadiamdq, LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON THE SUPERMARKET!

( XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD )

ENOUGH FOR NOW!

NEUNUNDNEUNZIG LUFTBALLONS!

Cheers!

-V
(361 unanswered emails!)

German related comments

1. I aced my Diktat today! :P Looks like all the obsessive-compulsive studying has actually paid off! XD Well, it wasn't really obsessive-compulsive studying... I just happen to enjoy studying German, so I can spend time writing a word 72347829472398 times without really suffering it. And, well, it pays off. :)

2. Another reason to travel to Germany: Klöße. XD

3. In Spanish, we write the words "Europa" and "Euro" just like you do in German. We just pronounce them differently. But, well, after learning the German way, I WILL NEVER SAY "EUROPA" IN SPANISH AGAIN. XD "EUROPA" ROCKS. XD

4. Does anybody know where I can but one of those "Danke Deutschland" shirts? I could settle for a Teamgeist Tour shirt too, but I'd prefer the one that says "Danke Deutschland". Can these shirts still be bought somewhere? And, above all things, is there a shop that sells these shirts and would be actually willing to send me one to Argentina?

Non German related comments

1. I'M GONNA GET PAID MY FIRST SALARY TOMORROW. :D I had to go to the bank today for a few last account details, but, yeah, MY JOB FINALLY SEEMS WORTH IT. XD

2. I was walking to the bank, and who did I see walking along the hallways? Federico. *sigh* :) I noticed him when he was 2 meters away from me, and he ended up walking right by my side... I can't explain the silly grin I had in my face for the rest of the morning. XD

3. I actually found someone who works in the same office as Federico does, and would be willing to pass on some important information. XD She's the daughter of a woman who works with me, and she's coming to my office tomorrow to see what she knows about Federico. XD I LIKE HAVING CONTACTS. XD

4. I'm trying to catch up on my LJ comments, which means that, if you happen to see I'm answering a comment you wrote a month ago, don't laugh too hard. XD I will eventually get to read all your posts and comments, bear with me. :)

German related comment but not really

1. My German teacher is a nearly 40-year-old unmarried man. Why do I find mature unmarried men so fascinating? XD

Hope you're all doing OK. :P

Cheers!

-V

On my next German class on Tuesday, I have a dictation with all the words we've learned so far, which means...

( Someone has to get busy! )

On the other hand, I'm making a progress... I can finally say "Mein Name ist Verónica"! XD (Years of learning English have spoiled me and now I can't bring myself to write "Name" with a capital N! XD)

As you may already, one of my big dreams is to learn several languages... And the idea is, once I finish a course for a language, travel to a country where it's spoken to practice it and to bring the whole learning process to some sort of a closure.
So, I was thinking last night (while writing "leben" for the 14th time), how about traveling to Germany for the 2010 World Cup? I'll be almost over with my German course by then, I have tnough time to save up enough money, and, well, even if the World Cup is in South Africa, watching Germany's games in a German bar/fanzone/whatever surrounded by Germans can be quite an experience! I know, we still have like 3 years ahead, but... Who knows? Sounds like a good idea. :)

Cheers!

-V

I promised...

...and now I'm delivering.

All thanks go to glasklar, nadiamdq, fawsley, miman, annebloom188, catunia and drbillbongo for making this post possible! :D

( My German notebook! A nervebreaking story including a catfight between two divas! Read on... )

And just in case you're interested... (And also because I'm a book nerd...)

( Other German acquisitions! )

Enough of my excitement with German for now...

Carry on!

AND THANKS ALL OF YOU AGAIN! :D

Cheers,

-V

PS: ESPN's not airing Germany's match today... Which means I'm stuck on an online LiveTicker. *sigh*

( My job sucks, but you already knew that )

( On to something brigther... New study plans )

( PS: )

Alright... As I already said once, I HAVE NO SENSE OF BALANCE - I disappear for ages and then, when I show up, I make a marathonic post! *tsk tsk* Anyway, to sum it all up, I'm doing good now and I hope you are too. :D

Cheers

(AND THANKS FOR THE GOOD VIBES, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU),

-V