Hallo! Ich heiße Hilary...

For once, the Pennsylvania State obsession with standardized-test-taking may have come in handy. During all my years of filling in bubbles and finishing sentences, I was always taught: leave no question unanswered. And so, while I sat in a German seminar hall and realized that I had no idea what the proctor just read to us, I decided I should do exactly as I was told in high school: leave no question unanswered.

I had gotten the basics of the Hörverstehen portion. The man was reading a piece about gold; what it meant in the past and its uses today. However, past the general context, I had no idea what he read. After two years of studying German, I can safely say I can structure a grammatically perfect sentence with baby vocabulary. When I don't understand someone, it is normally because my vocabulary isn't strong enough. So as this man read his article about gold, I imagined the Charlie Brown teacher standing in front of me. Where I fail with my vocabulary, I excel in creativity apparently. Question number one: How is gold extracted from the ground? My answer: With sulfur, chlorine, and big, strong men. Question number four: Why was gold important to the Incas? My response: Because they were killed for it by Cortez. Much of the test went on this way. During the writing portion, because I didn't know what one of the words in the directions meant, I wrote 600 words instead of "200 at most." Whoops.

Needless to say, I thought that I had miserably failed the DSH (the entrance exam to take classes at the University and test one's knowledge of German). And yet, two days later, I found myself in another testing center. Apparently big, strong men are required to remove gold from the ground. I had scraped by on the writing portion of the DSH and now had to take the speaking portion. My name was called with one of the other AJY students, we went into a room, and had 15 minutes to read an article. Afterwards, we traipsed upstairs and into a room with two proctors. My hands were shaking, my heart pounding. I can write you a novel with my baby German; however, I can't speak it, especially when I nervous. The lady proctor looked at me and asked me a question. Once again, all I heard was the Charlie Brown teacher, and in my defense, I have problems understanding English when my nerves are as hyped up as they were that day. I didn't understand the question, but I knew I had to answer with something. Remember: leave no question unanswered. So I said: Hello, my name is Hilary. I am a philosophy major from America. I am really excited to take a literature course here at Heidelberg University. She looked at me, paused, shook her head, and tried the question again: why did you decide to come to Germany?

However, apparently I came to Germany because my name is Hilary, and I am a philosophy major (sad thing is this may not be so far from the truth). I passed this portion of the DSH as well, which means I ended up with the DSH 2. I am allowed to take pretty much any class at the university but I can't start my masters. I am okay with that.

Otherwise, I've realized that I haven't yet posted any photos of my time in Heidelberg. For your viewing pleasure: a view of the city castle and me with some friends.