I do appreciate my new class.  It is much smaller than the other class and it is an older bunch.  In the first class I had 20 classmates and they were mostly 20ish or early 30s.  There was a lot of competition in my other class.  This new class just wants to survive.  I like the ease of this new class.   In this first picture, you see Sunnette and Olga.  Sunnette is from South Africa.  She speaks multiple languages.  She is in her early thirties and is married.  Olga is from Russia, somewhere near Siberia.  She is single and is hoping for a better life here in Germany.  She is so serious about life and very opinionated.  Her sense of humor seems to always surprise me.  She is really trying to make life work for her here in Germany.  Oh, and that is Cuddles the "fahren Hund"/traveling dog on my shoulder there.  In this picture, we are supposed to be writing a 3 way dialog about where to go on vacation.  This was the assignment that was supposed to take 10 minutes to complete, but in actuality took 30 minutes to complete.  Not because it was hard, but because we were having so much fun with it. 


  




The first from the left is Ludmyla, who is from Balarus.  She is married and has grown children.  She has lived in Germany for many years.  While her vocabulary is large, she is working on improving her German grammar.  The other two are Alexandra and Alena.  They are married and have been for 33 years.  They are from Kyrgyzstan. They moved to Germany to be in a safer and better place.  With so much political unrest in their country and so many people being killed unmercifully, they thought they would be better off in Germany.   Alexander has roots in Russia, while,  Alena has roots in Germany.  Her Great grandmother moved to Kyrgyzstan many years ago to start a new life there.  Alena remembers speaking German with her as a child.  Their children have also settled here in Germany as well.  There is one other person not pictured, Mi (me).  He did not want his picture taken.  He is Vietnamese and has lived here in Germany for many years.  He has several restaurants that he owns and runs in and around Lorrach.  He is a chatty little fellow and I do try my best to follow what he is saying when he speaks with me.  But my vocab is small compared to everyone else in class.  They are good about explain big words that I do not understand.



Even the teachers are wonderful.  I have two teachers.  Frau Ludmyla, same name as my classmate, is about my age, perhaps a little younger, and Frau Weiss, she is in her early 60s.  Both know English and Russian, as well as, German.  Both came over to Germany when they were young.  Frau Ludmyla is much more structured in her lessons than Frau Weiss.  Frau Weiss likes to spend more time conversing, which has been a great big help for me.  I am becoming more confident with the language.

So, this is my new class.  Hope you enjoyed meeting my classmates.