Der Feuervogel aufersteht.

I don't want to go home :P My flatmates are nice, and I feel comfortable here. But I need to go home and see Ben and the cats. Also all 11 kg of my course materials are at home.

I've been poking around the GI website, because I'd like to take the C2 exam (the Grosse Deutsche Sprachdiplom) eventually, and I was looking for some self-study materials, etc. They have some free online, or I could buy this book. They recommend a distance learning course in grammar, which I may opt to do even if I don't take the exam. (After I finish the current study thing. Two at once is absurd.)

I don't know that getting that qualification will do anything special, other than show that, hey, I can speak German really well, so I'm not going to teach people terrible German.

Of course, afaict there are no sites in the US where it's given. Oh, no, they'll give it at the GI in DC and Boston. Getting to DC would be easier & cheaper for me, though since my sister moved back out to Maryland, I don't have a convenient downtown location to sleep for free. The one in Boston looks like it's on the red line between Arlington and Copley.

Either way, this won't be happening this year, and next year looks less unlikely, but they only offer it once or twice a year. So.

La. I think I'm going to go take off my makeup and wash my face.

Still liking this practicum thing. All the teachers (and also my WG people) say I have clear pronunciation and have only a slight accent, so I just need more self-confidence. -_- They mostly think I could teach within Germany, at VHS oder so. The teacher from Monday meinte, that some Goethe Institutes allow non-native speakers if they have 100% perfect German. It's a level I aspire to, but yeah. Gar keine Fehlerchen.

I feel like I'm learning a good bit about methods and how to teach at different levels, though I'm not sure how best to integrate two different levels within the same class. But then, neither have been any of the teachers I've worked with thus far. It's a difficult question.

I went shopping at Thalia again. The train stop is right outside it, and I am weak against bookshops. I was looking for a Schreibwarenladen, and I know I saw one while I was out flanieren the other day, but damned if I remember where. I'm also looking for books to use to teach Ben German, and I'm also looking for some C1-level review/etc books for me, because I'd like to take the GDS at some point. (Though I suppose I should actually take the C1 exam first...I don't think they require it, though.) I'd want to be living in Germany for at least a few months first, though.

I picked up 2 kids' books, one Pixi Wissen about football, and one story about a hedgehog that was cute. There's this series that looks popular now about a dragon that goes on adventures, but those were more expensive. I picked up a pocket reference for verbs and a vocab trainer, both for Ben. For me, I got a German dictionary (monolingual, finally, the pocket Duden) and a 5€ book on whisky. Klar. It was €5.

I'd like to pick up the Dreyer-Schmitt grammar book, of which I have a very old edition already (from before the spelling reform; I think it's about 1990 at the latest). They have the newest edition at the Institut, and I really like the new layout. Also it has the new spellings, which I still haven't quite worked out.

I'm going to reheat dinner (I had some spinach and cheese ravioli and vegetarian bolognese from rewe last night, and I couldn't finish it) then take a look at the books that the teacher I'm shadowing tomorrow uses. Then probably hit the hay. I have been SO tired.

This weekend I might make a day trip to Speyer, visit the cathedral, that sort of thing. Dunno yet. If the local Ingressers go out, I may join them.