I've heard from my host family - The Krämers - who live relatively close to the DIALOG institut. Google maps tells me it's a 52 minute walk from their door to the school, so the bus ride should be maybe 15 minutes. Excellent! Their email to me was quite enthusiastic, also, so I'm very content to be spending a month with them.
An excerpt that is proving VERY useful for my planning:
"Im Juni zeigt sich hoffentlich auch endlich der Sommer. Zur Zeit ist es hier herbstlich kalt, es regnet viel und die Natur und die Menschen sehnen sich nach Wärme!"
Which means:
"Hopefully summer will finally come in June. Recently it's been unusually cold - it rains often and the plants and the people are looking forward to warmth!"
Which really means that I'll be packing a few cardigans and an umbrella. I'm happy with the forecast though - I'm not a fan of hot weather, and I'll be grateful to get away from the Urban Heat Island that is New York City for a bit.
Since finals are finished, I can really begin to focus on preparing myself language wise. I bought a copy of Kafka's short stories in German, just to keep myself in practice. I don't want to be rusty when I get there. Maybe it's time for some German movie watching, sans subtitles if I can. Das Leben der Anderen, anyone?
Tschüss!
- Katharine
