Deutsch kurs

So.... my german lessons are in full swing. I go every day, driving into the city which in itself is a challenge – I cant go on about it enough how bad the driving and the traffic is here! It takes me about 40mins to get there and its like 11kms away.
I park at ‘Happy Car Park’ which is just opposite. Parking is another nightmare in the city. What isn’t!
Happy par cark is just the funniest place. There are 5 guys in action there... and one of them takes your vehicle over as you arrive. You just get out at the entrance and pay your 150Ksh at the little shack. There are no specific parking places... just 3 rows of cars parked bumper to bumper. No space between the cars! So you leave your keys with them and they find a spot to squash your vehicle into. This invariably means all 5 guys reversing various cars, jumping in and out and shouting to each other from across the parking lot, gradually making space for the new arrival and generally co-ordinating quite a lot. Kinda like playing a computer game. So my car sometimes lands up 3 cars deep in the back row.... parked in to the nines. Only in Africa can they run parking lots like this!!
Surprisingly it works quite well and they certainly utilize the space they have to the fullest. And I usually only have to wait a few minutes to get my car back, which entails x number of guys moving x number of cars to make a path to get mine out. And I have become buddies with all the guys... so they actually let me park my car and drive my car out myself now!

So each class is 2 hours long which is just the right amount of time I reckon. Any longer and I’d fall asleep. Its a 3 month course which will teach me entry level german. I intend doing the next level in January, another 3 month course, which will get me speaking it quite well. Lets see if I do the next level after that! No need to get too good at it :-)

There are 25 students and I am the only white face in the class! There used to be 2 but Joan left. Which is a good thing. She was a REAL pain. She a LOUD and slow 60 year old amercian who thought the class was all about her. ‘I’m sorry, can you repeat that?’ Or ‘I just don’t get it. Please can we go through those last 5 chapters again’ or ‘I’m totally lost. What page are we on?’ - The teachers speak german the entire time, so you have to pick up the instruction words really quickly! Since she left the pace of our classes has certainly picked up.
I have become friends with most of my classmates – they are a cool bunch. Young and fun. Most of them are learning german because they want to go and study in germany next year. Apparently it also makes getting a german visa easier.

We wrote our first test today. It was pretty easy. Although I don’t think everyone thought so...I think a lot of my fellow students are lost! It definitely helps to have Benedikt, and a german influence via our neighbours and others too. Benedikt often helps me with my homework and then my class gets irritated the next day cos I answer all the questions no problemo! But I do seem to be catching on quicker than everybody else... knowing Afrikaans has helped a lot. And my pronunciation is ok. I am definitely very vocal in class! I used to sit in the front too like a real nerd and teachers pet. And I've been elected as the class rep :-)

Some pics of our RockMonster: