6 Minutes and 32 Seconds ago the folder where you upload your German Literature Tysk 1300 exam was closed. Just 5 minutes before deadline I managed to slip mine in there as well. Phew!
I didn’t plan on it becoming such a hectic experience, I was in fact finished at around half past eleven. But then I started thinking about der deutsche Zustandspassiv in a sentence that stood out, and in a flood of panic I used Google Translate to give me some clues. I’m not 100% satisfied, but it was better than the sentence I had originally planned to submit. Put it bluntly, Google Translate isn’t better than a five year old. It has no context. Anyway! That’s only 1 sentence in 10 pages..
For those of you who just came along; I have handed in my exams in German Literature today (Tristan by Thomas Mann and In der Strafkolonie by Franz Kafka), last week it was German post-WWII history (The Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th 1989) and some time in May I submitted the mandatory German meta-grammar course.
So, now what? What now? What do I do, where do I go? Where’s the bathroom? People bother me with these questions even more often than I do. The answer is simple; I don’t know what’s next. I doubt German has anything to do with it, which annoys me a little, given that I just started getting the hang of it. I will read Andorra by Max Frisch before the summer holiday just for the heck of it.
During the weekend I had the great opportunity to take in some communal wisdom from the Nordic Society of Phenomenology who had their annual conference on campus. Actually, I only got to see the last lecture, but it provided food for thought, not to mention a reminder about why I’m doing this.. The last couple of years have been so distant from what I actually study, viz. Existentialism, that I’m sort of floating around in academia while other people have lives. So meeting some serious scientists who are bright minds in their respective fields was a great eye re-opener. You could even say it was phenomenal!
…. alright, alright, I just murdered humor.
In my immediate day-to-day I must get back to work. There’s a training course going this week that I’m required to do, even though I’m mostly overqualified on the subject matter (tech support). What I really need to know is What my tools are and How they work. I will also be troubleshooting systems I have no previous experience with, such as Xboxes and proprietary cable television setups. Always something you can learn.
Right this minute I must go read my e-mail and try to come down from the coffee high. It’s time to let that big, scary emptiness fill the void left by MONTHS of German reading. And go to the gym.