Thank Goodness It's Over

My incredibly insane Tuesday is over. Almost. But here's a recap: 9am to 6pm with continuous classes, except for a 1 hour break. Shoot me now. My morning lecture on medieval lit was canceled (okay so it wasn't REALLY 9am today, but in the future it will be, and it still counts because I had to get up) and so my first class of the day was my Political System of the EU lecture.

The prof is good, he's very knowledgeable. But the class itself was a stress. You cannot know what I mean unless you have ever sat in on an actual college-level class in a foreign language -- and not just that, but COLLEGE-level foreign language. Uni-speak. I could understand most of what the prof said, but the problem comes in when you're trying to listen AND take notes. At this point it is extremely difficult for me, in fact near impossible, to write and listen to the prof at the same time. Then comes the question of whether I should write in English or German. My notes from today are jumble of both, because I wrote down whatever words came fastest. I've discovered that, unlike having lectures in my mother language, I cannot hold what the professor says in my head for more than 10 seconds, even if the words are familiar to me. It's the must frustrating feeling of helplessness I've ever felt. With it being so difficult to keep all that material in your brain, it's extremely difficult at the end of the lecture to have a sense of exactly what you just heard. Summarizing is difficult.

My other classes went well because I didn't have to take as many notes. In fact my Theological Readings for Non-Native Speakers class was actually quite easy as the prof speaks slowly and frankly has a very strong American accent.

During my break I was sitting by the fountain in front of the library trying to gather my thoughts and this girl selling newspapers comes up to me. The following conversation ensued (in German of course):

Girl: Do you perhaps have interest in signing up for a subscription to The Times? (Newspaper)
Me: No, thanks.
Girl: Why not?
Me: I can't read. I'm an exchange student.
Girl [confused]: But you're speaking German.
Me: I know. I can speak German, but I can't read it.
Girl: Don't you want to practice your reading skills with a newspaper?
Me: No.

I was that tired and that stressed. It was easier to just tell her I was illiterate than to actually argue with her. I HATE being sold things.

Now it's off to get my Schein from my language course and then we have a floor meeting later tonight. After that I am collapsing into bed. Uuuuuuuuuugh......