German I: Week 2

So, German class is still awesome! Starting this week, part of our homework is to write a short German composition. This is, unfortunately, the extent of what I know how to say in German... but after only 2 classes... yay!

Ich heisse Mary Beth. Mein Nachname ist -----. Ich wohne in NC und ich komme aus NC. Ich arbeite für IBM. Ich bin Programmierer (?). Mine Mann heisst Jacob. Tschau!

I can also spell. I got a "Very Good" this week after spelling my very long name and my very long city. I practiced the alphabet really hard. No one is going to catch me off guard with a "Buchstabieren Sie, bitte?"

German Breakthrough and Memory work

Today I had a major breakthrough. After halfheartedly trying to expose myself to German for about a year, I saw a German sentence that didn't look completely foreign. In fact, I thought I could translate it. And with a little help from google translate, I discovered I could! This is the first time that German hasn't looked completely unapproachable to me!

I've also been reading the German Way - a website for expats in German culture. Today I read a post of tips for suriviving the metric system (with a much more thorough explanation for each) I'm trying to memorize as much as possible before I go. The more I learn now, the easier the transition should be, right?

So things I'm trying to memorize this week:

1. Celsius * 2 + 30 = Fahrenheit
2. Kilometers * .6 = Miles
3. Meters * 3 + 10% of meters = feet
4. Liters / 4 = gallons
5. Liters = 1.05 quarts (A liter bit more)
6. Kilos * 2 + 10% of kilos = pounds
7. 5 cm = 2 inches
8. Liters /100 km -> mpg? You're just out of luck.

wohnen (to live)

ich	wohne	wir	wohnen
du	wohnst	ihr	wohnt
er/sie/es	wohnt	Sie	wohnen

heissen (to be named)

ich	heisse	wir	heissen
du	heisst	ihr	heisst
er/sie/es	heisst	Sie	heissen

sein (to be)

ich	bin	wir	sind
du	bist	ihr	seid
er/sie/es	ist	Sie	sind

Drinking from the Fire Hose

I have often wondered if I should carefully keep this blog about my domestic endeavors, or if it's okay for my personal life to trickle in? Well, I have hit a brick wall in my brain, so here comes the personal stuff.

Jacob and I never do change halfheartedly. 3 years ago, it was "Graduate, start a new job, move, get married, adopt a dog." And while I think that time of life will be hard to top, we are certainly coming close right now.

In the last month Jacob and I have changed churches (which was difficult, complicated, and emotional...) and I started a new job. So by day, I'm absorbing training materials and shadowing sessions until my brain is about to explode... and then at night we're learning -either in a Membership class at church, in our new German class, in our new small group at our new church...

Forget domestic diva - I'm never home to domestic ANYTHING! Right now it's a bit more of drowning diva. And as much as I am loving my new job and my new church, it will truly be a wonder if I survive the next few weeks.

German!

Jake and I took our very first German class last night. The professor is absolutely delightful and aside from learning a smattering of German culture - I can now say all the letters in the alphabet (for spelling outloud), pronounce their sounds, and I can say: Ich heisse Mary Beth. Ich wohne in die USA.

Whee!!

Looking Forward

My very wise mother always tells me that everything in life is a tradeoff.

I chose to get married young, which means I get to "grow up" with my husband. But at the same time I miss being a young single professional woman in her 20's. I'm not saying one of these is better or worse, they're just different. And you always have to choose something.

Previously in my life, all goodbyes have been looking forward. I said goodbye to high school friends because I was looking forward to college. I graduated from college and said goodbye as I was looking forward to entering the professional world and getting married. But today, for the first time, the goodbye was bittersweet.

While I am looking forward to my new job, today I left an entire team of wonderful, smart, and fun coworkers and friends who I will deeply miss.

I will miss our silly lunch conversations. I will miss the absurdity and the geekiness. I will miss the love and the care. I will miss seeing them each day. I will miss their collaboration. I will miss their support.

And while I am looking forward to the new opportunity that life has presented me, I am also keenly aware that I am leaving behind something wonderful.

Christmas Gifts Part 2: Aprons

The other craft I attempted to do for Christmas this year was this "One Hour Apron".

One hour my foot.

I have attempted to sew in the past. My mom has taught me enough that i could sew a button back on by hand... and I made a dress in High School...

Here are the things I learned

1. Patterns written by people who know how to sew, are usually written FOR people who know how to sew. Not being one of these people proved to be a problem.

2. Pinning is your friend. Pin EVERYTHING. Thoroughly. I pulled apart these aprons dozens of times, because fabric slipped, bunched, or otherwise moved while sewing.

3. Sewing is the smallest part of sewing. Most of it is cutting, ironing, pinning, scratching your head, ironing again, re-pinning... all for a glorious 15 seconds of pushing the pedal on the sewing machine. Then you're back to the squinting, scratching, pinning and ironing again.

4. Don't be fooled by the above fact. Go slow for all that is good and right in this world and do all the ironing and pinning and squinting, and even basting before you stitch. Or else, you too can pull everything out over and over and over and over again.

In the end, I learned a lot, and I still have to finish one stinking stitch on my sister's apron. (Mom has had me pull that single stitch out at least 10 times.) But I ended up with 3 nice looking aprons and I might even attempt to sew something again in the future. Well... maybe.