End of Language Course

This week marked the end of my Deutsch language course at the Goethe Institute and marked the beginning of a three-week break before the actual start of my course in October and two years of practicing Deutsch. I believe that the future is much brighter now after being armed with the necessary tools to effectively acclimatize and adapt to the life ahead. It has been two months of fun not only learning a new language but also learning about the German culture and people and I must point out that without the support of DAAD it would have not been possible. Thanks to them I now have a language certificate and I hope to get one more when my course officially starts.

This past Thursday our Deutsch teacher invited us for the proverbial ‘last dinner’ to culminate our language course; it was an offer that one could not afford to miss. The event was held at Worpswede situated approximately 45 minutes from the Bremen Hauptbahnhof by bus 670. And as usual, when travelling to a new place it takes long and at one point I actually thought that we were lost until we saw the happy face of our teacher waving at us at our final destination. The mood of the dinner was jovial, who wouldn’t be? With all the delicious food and wonderful company not forgetting the beautiful arts and antiques that created a perfect ambience for the occasion. For dinner we were treated to two different samples of chicken, the first one from Ethiopia locally called ‘Doro Wat’ a spicy Ethiopian chicken dish made with a spice mixture and the second dish from Thailand not very sure of the name but sure of the taste.

The dessert was great, what I can remember is that it was Italian and it provided a perfect ending for the dinner, a lot of effort must have been put into it to have such a taste and I guess the taste must have borne witness that indeed we were a sweet class and we had a sweet teacher. One thing is certain, if a bill would be brought at the end of the occasion I would have not been able to afford this. That is the unique thing about true generosity and friendship, it cannot be purchased neither can it be valued and if it would be possible to value it in my own words we wouldn’t be able to purchase it.

With the language course completed, I am now looking forward to the new experience ahead. I am still not sure how I am going to spend the next few days before class starts so if you have some great ideas please share them with me so that I have something interesting to write about next week. One thing that I have appreciated since I came to Bremen is that I find most of the people here very friendly, could be just the people that I have interacted with but as they say ‘first impressions count’, I have come to conclude that people here are generally friendly. Not many people would open their houses for a group of 10 students and treat them to dinner and chauffer them to and from as if they were part of the family. And so if I keep repeating this same point in my subsequent articles please don’t complain, as I am just appreciating the role that each and every person has played to ensure that my stay in Germany is comfortable and pleasant. Therefore, if you are considering coming to Bremen for studies and still have problems or negative attitude towards the place or Deutschland in general, my advice is that please don’t include your attitude as part of your baggage lest you be charged for excess baggage!