Going in Circles

The weeks have been flying by here. Part of it has to do with my incessant need to always be doing new things and learning new things. And since I have no patience, I want to learn them now, not later, not in a few days. Nope, now. I don't have ADD, but I feel like I have some form of something like ADD, where I'm always searching for new things to discover, even while I'm working on one thing. Or maybe it's just an obsession, an unclenching thirst, for knowledge. I want to know everything.


Example 1:
I started my German course on the 10th. We have had two weeks of classes so far, and it is four days a week from 8:30 - 12:30. This week and next week we are on holiday, and then we start up again for 3 more weeks. I love going to class. It has already helped me a lot with my german and I just have missed school. I'm one of those people that likes being a student. If I could make a salary from being a student, that would be my profession. So I've been enjoying class. There's about 15 people in my class and they are from all over: Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Greece, Cameroon, Nigeria. It's fun meeting this people from different places and knowing that although we are from such different cultures, we have this in common: we all know how to be students and we all need to learn German. It is kind of unifying, the fact that we are all outsiders here in Germany, being unable to fluently speak the native language. And now, when I look at Facebook, there are so many different languages filling up my news feed. I love it. The problem is, while I'm sitting here learning German (which I really need to learn), I keep thinking about how much I now want to learn Spanish and Greek... and I start trying to learn these languages on the internet before stopping myself, and realizing, HELLO, you are living in Germany. You must learn German first. I try to tell myself that I can learn these other languages later, after I get back to the States. But it's still there in the back of my mind, while I'm learning new words in German, I'm thinking, I wonder how I say that in Spanish? Greek? Or when we are in class, and the native spanish speakers are talking to each other, I just want to ask them what they are saying and how can I say it?, while the teacher is standing there trying to teach us German. Don't get me wrong. I do want to learn German the most.  It just goes back to my desire to know everything and my limited supply of patience. When I want to know something, I want to know it now. It all goes back to that list I made when I was 16... my list of things to do before I'm 30. I don't remember all of it, but I remember that one of the things was to be fluent in at least 3 languages. I've always wanted to learn many languages.


Example 2:
I'm trying to read books in German so that I can learn it better. I've tried watching TV shows and movies in German, but it doesn't work for me. I learn by seeing and doing. I can't learn by hearing. So I've been slowly reading a german book, along with some magazines in German. It does help a lot. The problem is that when I can't read a book quickly and have to keep stopping to look up words, I get distracted. I start thinking of other things I've wanted to read, like I've wanted to read more poetry. So then I google Dylan Thomas and start reading poems. Poems not in German. Or I remember, oh I wanted to look up when the next book in so-and-so a series is coming out, so I look that up. Then I start reading about books. And then I think, oh, speaking of writing, I need to write a new blog. Which brings me here.


Some more quick examples: I just bought a keyboard so I could learn. I've been wanting to learn and now I can. I'm teaching myself with Youtube... there's this guy who put together some really good lessons. I'll be a pro soon. I've started watching ER from Season 1. There are 15 seasons. That's a lot of hours. But it was such a big show on TV and I want to watch it so that I know what went on and how good it was. I'm on season 4 now, and it's really good. I love history, so I'm always interested in learning more about it. The problem is that I can never decide what I want to learn more. So I just end up googling a bunch of different things and never learn the whole story. Ancient Egyptians or Peter the Great? Scotland Highlanders or the myths of the Ancient Greeks?


Summary: I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. And not enough time in the day to find out all the answers. Which brings us back to the first paragraph, stating that the weeks have been flying by, and that is some of how I have been filling my time the past few weeks.


Now... on to read some more german again. Before being distracted by all this talk of languages and history and ER.

What a funny cat. I mean, why would a cat want to learn guitar? They seem much more like a flute animal. Or maybe a harp. You gotta click on him, he does neat tricks.