Ok, I thought, I'll chalk that up to the fact that I haven't slept for 20 hours and am feeling the first stirrings of a horrific cold. But even after sleeping for ten hours, my attempt to introduce myself to my roommate auf Deutsch did not go as well as planned. Shit, I thought, have I forgotten how to speak this language? That could make things interesting.
But in the past few days, things have definitely been looking up. Finally able to get out of bed after a week-long Erkältung (cold), I've begun interacting with people, and I've found that my Deutsch skills are not as degraded as I had feared. In fact, I think I'm getting my Vienna swagger back:
- I got an extra set of sheets from the Putzfrau in my Heim on Tuesday (people here for only one month are only supposed to get one set), because I spoke German with her and she liked that. Actually, quite a few of my Deutsch conversations have been with the Putzfrauen (there are like 5 of them). Most of them don't speak much English, and I think they get lonely being in what's for all intents and purposes an English-speaking dorm.
- Walking near the Universitätshauptgebäude on the way back from paying my rent, I got stopped and asked for directions -- to the very street on which I had worked last summer! I still stumbled a bit on the delivery, but I was able to point the woman where she needed to go.
- I'm meeting one of my friends from last summer tonight for Sturm and catching-up. I'm really excited -- this will be my first extended conversation auf Deutsch since my arrival one week ago. I'm trying to manage my expectations -- I'm not going to be fluent now as I remember being one year ago -- but I can't wait to take this first step into once again having a German-speaking life.
Because even though I'm in Vienna now, I don't really feel like I've fully arrived. None of my activities have started, I haven't yet met any of the people I expect to be my friends here (either Fulbrighters or people in my new Heim), and most importantly, I'm not speaking German yet. (I tried to have a Deutsch-Mittwoch with my roommate yesterday, but I quickly realized her language skills are not quite up to the task of a full conversation yet.)
Sure, I'm reading German (I found this awesome website with full-blown coverage of the US presidential election auf Deutsch); I'm listening to German, both on the street and in the DVDs of my favorite TV show I brought with me; and I'm writing SMSes and emails in German. And I can do all of that without issue. But I'm not speaking German. And that, I realize, was the reason why my speaking skills degraded so much in the past year. I translated things for people, watched German movies, wrote emails and Facebook messages to my friends, and listened to the German exchange students. But I never talked to anybody.
That's why, now that I'm finally feeling like myself again, I'm taking every opportunity to speak to people--even chances I wouldn't normally take. It was raining today, and so instead of walking to my dorm from U-Bahn-Station, I asked a lady at the bus stop whether that bus would take me where I needed to go. When a woman at the Magistratisches Bezirksamt asked if I was there to apply for a parking permit, I didn't just say "No, Meldezettel" and move on. I asked her about the policy change where our Bezirk now requires parking permits, and commiserated with her on how annoying it is.*
I even ate my first Schokocroissant of the year today. Of course, I forgot that I don't like the Schokocroissants at Ströck -- I like the Schokohörnchen at Ströck and the Schokocroissants at Anker. Ok, getting my full swagger back might take a little longer than a week. But here's to progress!
* Actually, I am fully in favor of making it more annoying for people to use cars in the city. I hate driving and wish it didn't exist.
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