All right.
I'm leaving for Germany in just under 2 weeks. This will be my 4th trip to Europe and my 2nd time to Germany. I will be taking a 4-week language course at the Goethe Institut in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. I am really excited for this program because the Goethe Institut is known for their German courses all over the world and I'm looking forward to every minute of it. I will be living in a student apartment, in a single room. Every day I will be taking approx. 4 1/2 hours of class........! It seems like a lot just for one subject, and I guess it is, but I'm so excited to learn. Technically I'm cramming 2 terms worth of German into one month...crazy :) I should have a good amount of free time though, after classes and on the weekends. I'm hoping to explore the city quite a bit on my own or with friends? and I'd like to visit Jagsthausen on a weekend too. I'm still considering going to Berlin for a weekend, just because i've never been! At the end of my language course I'm hoping to leave with my Zertifikat Deutsch (B1) which is a certificate showing my proficiency in the German language. The B1 certificate is what is required when applying for German citizenship. So that would be super cool! (not saying i'm going to become a German citizen, but you never know...).
To begin my trip I will be flying into Stuttgart, which is about an hour southeast of Schwäbisch Hall. Since I will be arriving 4 days early for my program, a relative from the town of Jagsthausen will be picking me up from the train station in Möckmühl, which is a small town in between Stuttgart and Jagsthausen. I'm a little nervous, just because I have only met Marianne (the relative) once five years ago, and we hardly spoke. She speaks very little English so it will be the first time I will really put my German to the test! I will be staying with her for 4 nights, and will be helping her out with things around the house and in the garden. You have no idea how excited I am for this! The town of Jagsthausen is where the Schifferer family originated from, and the original house from the 1600s is still standing (survived the Thirty Years War when most of the town was burned.) Of course there have been some renovations, but there are areas in the house when you can still see the mud and straw that make up the walls of the house. I will touch on that later though...
While i'm staying with Marianne, i'm hoping to get to know her pretty well and talk with her about growing up in Jagst. (i'm gonna shorten it because I'm getting tired of typing it out lol) and I would also like to ask her about some family history. There are old record books in the town that I would love to take a look at. My grandmother Gerda, who lived in Jagst. for quite some time growing up, has record books of her own that she put together. Everything from birthdates to baptisms to weddings was recorded. They even wrote the occupation of the person, and for most of my ancestors it was "Bauer" or farmer. It would be so cool to look at the originals. The first record of our family being in Jagst. was in 1664, and his name was Andreas Schifferer. I was recently at my grandmother's house and we were looking at old records, and trying to make out the old scribbled German on pieces of paper. Oh goodness it looks like I rambled on here... For those of you who don't already know, I'm a history nerd and I love learning about my family's heritage. So far I know the lineage about 7 generations back, just on my dad's side, but that's still a lot! It's crazy but so interesting all at the same time. I'm going to use my stay in Jagst. as a time to learn even more about my family history, use my German, and get to know Marianne. If you got bored from this post, I do apologize. The first few posts from my trip will probably touch on this kind of stuff, since i'll be in Jagst., but I promise i'll talk about more interesting things as my trip goes forward! and pictures :)
Here is a view of Jagsthausen: ( the castle is in the top right corner)
If you really want to, you can click on this link to see a map of the towns I mentioned, to get an idea of the distance between :
http://www.zeemaps.com/243327
ciao.
yay family history!
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