SportSpaß

I had a new German adventure today. I went to my first exercise class. They have a program called SportSpaß. There are 4 facilities with a workout rooms, fitness rooms and 100's of classes each week. All of this for a <> 8 euro a month which equates to $10.56 a month after a 10 euro ($13.20) registration. How can anyone turn down that kind of deal? Even if you

My friend Brianna has been taking Salsa classes there and took me and Estella (girl in my German class from France) to Back, Arms, Legs, and Abs class. You don't have to speak the language for those instructors to beat you up! It was a flashback to the days that Choves and I would do exercise tapes (yes, we were in the dark ages!) in the living room and put Denise Austin on mute. The class was packed. There were probably 50 or 60 ladies (and 1 man) there.

After that, I decided to go to the US consulate to register. It turns out, you can do that on the web. I also left a note for their political director offering to volunteer. Indiana's Governor Mitch Daniels is coming to Germany in May. We don't know if he is coming to Hamburg, but I'd love to help out if he is. My former boss in Indianapolis e-mailed the Governor's office with my contact information should he be in the area. Hopefully, I'll be posting news of his trip soon!

Lastly, some of you were wondering how my German classes are going. Unfortunately, I still can't read any signs or understand a word on TV, but I am learning a word here and there. Last lesson was food, so my grocery shopping has been much easier. I've decided to start watching cartoons. I was able to understand that Mickey Mouse was going into outer space to rescue Goofy from Mars. I figure if I can master cartoons, then I'll move on to grown-up talk. I jog with a German radio station on and have realized that I recognize more words this week than last- still not enough to have a clue what they are saying, but more than before. There is hope.

Yesterday we learned the word "bügeln" which is "to iron" in English. I was typing my notes into the computer (my learning style) last night and Ken was channel surfing. He stopped on some comical exercise show. All of the sudden, as I was typing that word, they said it on the show. I looked up and they were using irons as weights to do arm lifts. I can't understand much of anything on German TV, but I can understand iron!!

We're moving through the book rapidly and should be on to the second book by the end of the month. My immediate goal is to take this intensive class until May and then cut back to part time when family is here in June and July. We learned this week that we can stay with the same group of students and instructors as long as we have 5 enrolled in the intensive. We have been losing students each week. The group was down to 8 today from our high of 14 in week 1.