The final day of our German course in Berlin! I feel a big sense of accomplishment that I have finished this month as it was very hard work and I feel I learned a lot.

Everyone was in a very good mood in class. There are plans to meet later for food and drinks, but unfortunately I have to pack for my trip back to the UK (I am leaving tomorrow) and wont be able to join. But I think everyone else is going and I’m sure they will have fun. I am excited about continuing my German studies – once I’ve had a break of course! I’m also very excited about seeing all my old friends again. And soon it will be December and then Christmas! Ironically, the city where I am from, Leeds, holds a German Christmas market in the city centre every year! I should go and visit it when I am there, it will make me feel at home ;)

For our final lesson it was pretty much business as usual – we still had to work hard! And there was a final test as well. But everyone seemed to be feeling very positive. I did ok on the test, not as well as I would have liked, but I have missed a few days of course due to being unwell, which means there are some gaps in my knowledge.

So this is my last entry! I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog. For my final photo I wanted to show a picture of my favourite graffiti – though unfortunately some of it has already been painted over. It shows a grandma digging up the road but she is mostly gone. There is lots of beautiful graffiti and street art in Berlin. I recommend wandering around and seeing how much you find.

The course is nearly finished! We have been taking a number of small tests, though I was absent for some of them. Tests and exams are something that I dont do so well at. I get very stressed under exam conditions and it means I forget a lot. So I dont do quite as well as I would have liked, but I think that tests and exams dont reflect everything. I think how much you have learned overall is reflected in a number of things: how much more you are able to converse and understand what other people are saying, how many new words you recognise, whether you have finally understood some of the grammar, whether it is now easier for you to read German and understand it. These are all things that I feel have improved for me, to varying degrees.

Today I went for Frustuck in my favourite cafe as a treat. The class I’m taking begins at 15.00, so I have almost the whole day before that to work on my hausaufgabe or walk Lucas. I have planned to return to the UK for a little while to see friends and relax – Berlin is a lot of things, but relaxing is not one of them!  I also begin to feel a little homesick after a while. I try to visit the UK roughly every few months, though this sometimes isnt possible if I’m too busy or cant afford it. Lucas is going to be taken care of by a very nice Australian girl that I met. I’m leaving on Friday and I will be gone for about a week. Maybe when I come home it will be snowing in Berlin?? I have been told that the snow usually comes at the end of November or early December.

Here is a picture of my fabulous frustuck! Its called ‚Bavarian Frustuck‘ and is a potato omellette with toast!

Well today was raining a lot! Rain all the time is a bummer, but I still made it into deutsch kurs as I was feeling better today. Something hard about learning in a group is feeling that everyone is learning faster than you or that you are getting left behind. Because I have ended up missing quite a lot of lessons, this has happened to me on occasion. When there are particular words or grammar rules that everyone else seems to know apart from you. But I think its also important to remember that there are some exercises that are easy for some people and hard for others, and that this tends to even out. I know that there have been some exercises that I’ve found very easy and that others have struggled with, and equally there are times when its taken me a really long time to understand and other people have understood immediately. My advice is to not worry about this too much and if there is something that you find particularly hard, don’t be afraid to ask the teacher to explain. If the teacher is good they will explain it to you until you understand. For me that sometimes means having it explained in English. What I have liked about my current teacher is that she is happy to explain things as many times as you need :)

I have been ill quite a alot this month which is annoying as it means I have missed out on some of Deutsch Kurs! this happened again today. I made a trip to my doctor and got anti-biotics. I hope I havent missed too much!

It looks like we are going to have a week of rain this week. It seems to have been non-stop today! My dog Lucas hates the rain, even though he has a special water-proof jacket to wear when its raining. But its certainly not as much fun walking a dog when its raining!

Something that has been hard about doing an intensive course is balancing it with other areas of your life. If you are coming to Berlin with the specific purpose of going to school, then you can devote the bulk of your time to that and still of course have free time to do what ever else you want. But if, like me, you live here and also have work committments and want time to see your friends, then things can get pretty busy! But, like someone told me, in Berlin everyone is busy! Its part of the city.

This is the last week of my course. So far I have taken courses 1B, 2A and now 2B with Deutsch Akademie. I plan to also take M1, but I’m going to wait until after Christmas as I want a break! I find it also helps to have a breather in between courses, especially when it is quite intensive.

Here is a picture of Lucas who certainly didnt want to get up on this cold and rainy day!

Last day of German-course week and a nice big lot of Hausaufgabe! Some days the workload can be pretty intense, especially if its something you have trouble understanding. I think the longest its taken me to do the homework was 4+ hours! But in that instance there was a lot of it and it was something I found difficult. Normally, it doesnt take more than an hour or two. So yes, if you take this course, prepare to work hard! Unless you are more gifted with languages than me, which wouldnt be difficult ;) I’m always pretty tired by the end of the week! But its worth it of course, learning a language is never going to be easy.

For day 12 Im supposed to write about my favourite places to eat and drink in Berlin! I’m actually in my favourite place right now as they also have wireless. Its a cafe just up the road from my house and they do very good fruestuck! They also do nice coffees and cakes. Its quite big, and there is a big room towards the back a lot of families come to eat. In the evening it can get pretty busy.

Here is a photo of the cake stand, if you can see it…I was trying to be discreet!