Passing the German Gauntlet

In more recent news, the latest Swiftian acrobatics to secure a spot as a full-time university student have been fulfilled: Last night I really tried to go to sleep by midnight, but ended up tossing and turning past 1:30 a.m. Waking up later than intended, after 7:30 a.m., was a less painful process than feared. But because of the prescribed 1 hour fast after taking my iron supplement, I went to the spoken German exam unfed.

Stirrings in the U-Bahn of teenage and twenty-something passengers proved that a few students have already begun the university semester one way or the other. But the vast halls of the Rost-/Silber-/Holzlaube building were largely empty.

Much more easily than when I was a fledgling student in 2011, I found the correct rooms (for the exam).

Half an hour early, it took a while for signs and chairs appear at the rooms. But the examiners were as friendly as I remembered them being during the written exam; the applicant who was taking the exam in the time slot after me was outright charming.

After being given a topic and 20 minutes to prepare, I was ushered into a second room, clutching my sheet of notes. Then I gave a presentation to two ladies from the German language centre – a presentation that I vaguely suspect extended beyond the 5 requested minutes.

Their eyes glazed over now and then, because really how many new and striking things could one say about the topic? But they perked up other times, and even laughed once or twice. I didn't stumble over my words as I do at other times where accurate German is asked for. The sense that the examiners wanted us to feel at ease and show our skills, rather than feel terrified and hide our knowledge, was reassuring.

And at the end the examiners both looked highly relieved at being able to pass an applicant with flying colours. They told me that I have a DSH level 3: the highest one.

(My journalistic experiments of the past year admittedly have made me feel like I've been cheating when I write exams. Formulating clearly formatted texts or speeches about random topics, after a brief period of preparation, is basically all I've been trying to do since early 2023. Even if it has rarely if ever been a success.)

Let's see if the registration works and I can really, genuinely study in 1 week!

*

After that excellent news, the question was whether to eat lunch on campus, or to go straight home; I went straight home.

Around 5 p.m., the sleep deprivation sank in and I felt my eyes begin to hollow out. But I'd promised to appear at choir practice at 7:15 p.m.

The air felt warm and muggy. But of course rain was falling by the time I walked home from practice!

That said, I have been relieved when returning from the travels in Canada to find that the tree leaves haven't all withered away in our absence. Last time I think there was a nihilistic before and after, which appeared to justify my previous Fear of Missing Out on interesting occurrences in Berlin. It also just felt morbid.