"If only she called me...if only I was listed..." - Elise in the First Wives Club

I missed school yesterday because I had to go to the Aulander Büro to meet about my paperwork (Foreign Office).  Thats another story altogether for another time.  Lets just say that bureaucracy is a live and well wherever you go.  Thankfully I had my relocation person Yasmin with me.  Anyway, for those of you who do not know, Im taking a Deutsch Intensiv class which means instead of taking my own sweet time with learning the language, I get thrown into the deep end of the pool and you learn the language in an intense environment wherein, nothing but German is spoken and in my case, you are in school for four hours each day.  If you miss a day, you are FUCKED.  The class yesterday covered telling time.  Let me tell you, its not as easy as one might think.  The German language is highly structured and exact.  The face of a clock is broken out into zones and depending on what time it is the zone has to be mentioned when giving someone the time.  For example:  7:35 PM is actually 19:35 as they use military time in Europe.  When giving someone that time, it would be neunsehn Uhr Funfunddreizig.  Literally, 19 hour 5 and 30.  Did I forget to tell you that numbers are not read left to right but rather right to left, so the number 38 is achtunddreizig - 8 and 30...it SUCKS!  One has to listen carefully to numbers because they are not read the same way in English:

41 - einundvierzig 1 and 40

65 - funfundsechzig 5 and 60

98 - achtundneunzig 8 and 90

Years are given in the same way.  1998 would read neunzehnhundertundachtundneunzig (all one word no spaces)...19 hundred 8 and 9...2008 is zwahnzighundertundacht...20 hundred and 8.  Can you imagine my telephone number?

21-13-19-00-48 (thats not the actual telephone in case you would like to call but it is close)

einundzwanzig, dreizehn, neunzehn, doppel null, achtundfierzig

1 and 20, 13, 19,  double 00, 8 and 40

It totally sucks.  But as I mentioned with time 7:35 PM is read as neunsehn Uhr Funfunddreizig (19 and 5 and 30) OR....

Fünf nach halb acht which literally means 5 after the half before 8...as the zone the hands are in the nach region as opposed to the vor region etc...etc.etc...I have a headache as Im trying to catch up.  Its fairly easy once you get the hang of it but for now...I want to slit my wrists as it seems to be half ass backwards...sigh...back to studying...