I May Have Forgotten How To Study, But I Still Remember How to Procrastinate

Tomorrow I face one of the biggest challenges in my 24 year old life.
And it is not changing the diarrhea diaper of a screaming toddler.
Or figuring out how to get rid of flies in a house that has no screens on its doors or windows, or AC.

Tomorrow, I wake up at 4:30am (the earliest wake up time for me that doesn't involve catching a plane), and take one bus and two trains, then walk fifteen minutes to a high school in the city of Hamm, where I will take a German Language Proficiency Exam.

If I pass this test (Level B2, lowest is A1 and highest is C2), I can apply for a work visa, and possibly get hired. I would also be considered by the German government as being an "intermediate" in the language.

Why take a language proficiency test in a language that has about 70% of its native speakers also speak English?
Why study German, no longer a leading language in the international business world, anyway?

Well, the answer is simple. I like art.

I first started studying German as my foreign language in high school. As I went to an incredibly tiny high school, we didn't have a language teacher. So, in order to take Spanish, you had to give up your Fine Art credit and get bussed to a near by school to take it there. Or you could take another language online (they wouldn't let me take Spanish online as it was already "offered".) A friend was taking German. So, wanting to keep my art class, I signed up for German at the age of 16.

I met my good German friend at the age of 17.
I met the now current Boyfriend at the age of 18.

Christmas of 2008, I was turning 19 and headed to Germany for the first time (I actually flew out on Christmas day, a birthday present to myself. However there was a huge snow storm and the family and I stayed in Amanda's itty bitty Cheney apartment for Christmas Eve so I could get to the airport on time. In true Mills fashion, we packed the car full of everything we needed for a holiday, including a half cooked turkey, presents, my suitcase, and the year old Harley. After I flew out, the family was snowed out of the house for a few days). I had taken a semester in college, figuring it would cover my language requirement.

In spring of 2009, I was told I should apply for a German Language and Culture January trip through Whitworth. I applied and got in. One of the requirements was to take a second year of the language.

Fall of 2009, I changed my major to International Studies-History and needed a minor in a language, well, German then.

January of 2010, I was 20, and headed to Germany for the second time, this time for 3 weeks.

Spring of 2010, I changed my major to Psychology, and realizing I only had a year left of German to get the minor, decided to sign up for one more year.

Spring of 2011, I finished the German minor, and believed I was done forever with "der, die, das."

Fall of 2012, after graduating the spring before, and already holding two jobs after graduation, I was bored and really bored and decided to go on an adventure.

Spring of 2013, I signed a contract for a live in au-pair job in northern Germany. Cause I "know the language".

October 30th, 2013, I arrive in Germany. And realize I don't "know the language".

Spring of 2014, I realize my German has improved to the point of me able to do the following all in German:

• figure out how to turn a printer into a scanner 
• extend my visa 
• talk to children
• talk to everyone else
• order food
• online shop
• cook
• listen to the radio
• eavesdrop
• travel
• recognize accents and languages from other countries
• buy shampoo/makeup/contact solution
• read fashion magazines
• read the newspaper

And so, when it came time for me to take this test (which I signed up for in April, but as I haven't taken a test in about 3 years, I wasn't really thinking about it. Or studying), I was extremely worried. 

Really. My German is casual and day to day. They want me to conduct a presentation then answer questions about it (on a topic I will get fifteen minutes before)? They want me to listen to audio tapes and answer in writing? They want me to wake up before dawn and travel to take the equivalent of the  PSAT (preparatory SAT) verbal and written test in German, in Germany, with all the instructions done in German?

So what did I do in the weeks left to prepare?

I started watching the Office from episode one. I may have forgot how to study, but I will never forget how to procrastinate.  

And realized three things. 

1. I am basically female version of Michael Scott with less sexual jokes in Germany. 
2. Now I can teach a German Shepard commands in German. And really the only other person you know who can do that is Dwight. 
3. If I fail this test, then it means........I can't get a Visa that I wouldn't be allowed to get as I have stayed on another Visa to the expiration date anyway. I can retake the test in Seattle. Or in Germany next year. Or never ever again. 

Because really, like my dear mother, and perfect boyfriend, and insightful foreign friends have stated, taking a German Language Proficiency exam in Germany is an accomplishment unto it self. 

I mean, how many people can speak/write/read a language (other than English) that is one of the official languages of the European Union, the 10th most spoken languages in the world (English is number 3, so all I need to learn is Chinese or Hindu and I can travel just about anywhere), the second most spoken language in North Dakota (???), and the fifth most spoken language in the US (however, this does include Pennsylvania Dutch, which is similar too, but not the same as High German).

Who cares that all the menus in Germany are also written in English? That all the important official people also speak English? That most people who hear my English accent think I am British?

I know German. And I first decided to study it, the language of a country that revels in logic and socialism, because I wanted to study art. I continued German because I had fallen in love, with the back and forth history, the incredibly strange sentence structure, and the Boyfriend. 

And I will continue it now. The water is up to my chest, might as well get my hair wet. 

But honestly, after this, I am picking a language less difficult than the hardest latin based language to learn. Español?

Note: All the facts/data in this post was pulled from wikipedia. So I didn't site it. Really, who cares. But the North  Dakota thing is true.