Prelude to Vienna

Staying with relatives in Germany for a week before my program in Vienna turned out to be a very rewarding experience in more than one way.

Me in front of the palace in Stuttgart

My week spent in Germany was definitely a gratifying and indispensable experience. I stayed with a cousin of my grandmother, Reiner, and his wife, Edith. They are around my grandmother’s age, so by the end of week I was antsy for some contact with 20 year olds. But their hospitality was unequaled and surprising to me even though I expected it. Just the invitation for me to spend a week at their house speaking German was a great privilege, yet they did so much more than that. Edith cooked delicious meals, and she was always trying (and usually succeeding against my better judgment) to fill up my plate a second and third time. Reiner and Edith even picked me up and dropped me off at the airport in Frankfurt, which is three hours away! And with the expensive price of gas in Europe, that was really a gracious gesture.

Additionally, Reiner and Edith took me somewhere different every day. There was never any sleeping in or early nights, because we were always embarking on a new adventure. We explored the town of Ebersbach and the surrounding countryside, spent a day in Stuttgart, another day in Esslingen; a medieval town with a Rathaus (City Hall) dating back to before Columbus discovered America, spent time with their cousins, daughter and grandchildren and went skiing in the Alps. Obviously I have much to be thankful for as their guest.

But another and most important aspect of my stay there was my exposure to nothing but German. Reiner can speak very basic English; Edith can not speak any, and besides the English CNN channel, I was only hearing and speaking German, exactly what I wanted. Most of the time, I listened to what they were saying and replied with a very simple sentence. I definitely have little confidence in my speaking ability. But by the end of the week I could tell that my comprehension ability had improved.

On Sunday Reiner and Edith’s daughter, Gudrun and her two little children went to Esslingen with us. Then her five year old daughter Rebeka spent the night with us. During that day and night I had a very difficult time understanding Rebeka because she spoke with some baby talk. I’m not the greatest with children, but I was even worse when I had no idea if she was speaking German or jibberish, which she often did. But the next morning I played every children’s game that Reiner and Edith had in the house with Rebeka. And I could definitely understand her better. I know this for sure because she had to explain all of the games to me.

But just when I think my German is improving significantly I’ll have a negative experience that will make me remember just how far I still have to go. For example, Reiner, Edith and I went to a modern art museum when we were in Stuttgart. The museum was four stories and each story had its guards standing by the entranceway. No guard had asked me to see my ticket, but on the third floor the museum security person asked me to show him my entrance pass. I wasn’t really listening because I didn’t expect him to say anything to me. And after he did say something I didn’t understand so I smiled like an idiot and kept walking. You would think that “Eintrittskarte” wouldn’t be such a hard thing to understand, though I do like to console myself by saying that he was speaking softly because we were in a museum. But still I was embarrassed for awhile after that and had a negative attitude about my German ability for the next few hours.

In the end, my time spent with Reiner and Edith was perfect as a type of introduction to German customs and the type of language I would be experiencing while in Austria. In the very least, my stay certainly dusted off some German language cobwebs.