Day Six

I told F this morning that at the end of the day this course is half over. And here I am. It's so hot and airless in those rooms. Yesterday was a bitch when it came to studying. I was hot and sticky the whole time. And then I realized after trudging through a text for an hour or more that I was reading the wrong text. Fortunately not damage was done and I didn't have to race and do another, but it was discouraging. It angered me a bit. I was already hot and tired of studying. It took the wind out of my sails. Good to sleep.

Today was Sally at the front of the class talking about Australia. Sally is somewhere in her mid-20's. She's origianally from New Zealand. Her father is English and her mother is Dutch. She explained where everything is in Australia. I had tons of questions. What's with people who don't ask questions? That's most of the class. She talks really softly, which always bothers me.

In the language lab, I shushed a woman who I thought was talking on her cell phone only to find out that she was doing a speaking exercise with the computer. I was embarrassed, but then I said, "Oh well, I'm a New Yorker." I thought it was sort of flattering. She sounded like she was just talking, not doing an exercise.

Strange that sometimes I am writing along and the word my mind picks up is...like in that last exercise, my brain wanted to write "oefening" because that is how you say exercise in...see, I wanted to write "Nederlands" instead of Dutch. I hope I don't become one of "those" that say, "Is this the que?" I know I won't say that because I've hated that word - and "loo" for so long, but I know there are other things. It feels pretentious, but I know it's not.

I am going to a free tour of the Anne Frank House this evening at 6:00.