Yesterday I took the S-Bahn out of the city to Wannsee with my host lady, Lydia. According to Lydia walking with her would do me more good, than sitting in my room with the grammar book I checked out from the Mediothek. I was very happy and in the end I believe it is much better practice to speak with a real live German! I brought along my little dictionary, but in the end I am very proud that we didn't end up needing it! On our walk by the lake we talked about many subjects, animals, birds, Lydia's previous house guests, the funny characters in my class, and many other topics...
We passed a really lovely day. The weather was beautiful. We stopped around the Glienicke Palace to eat pretzels that Lydia bought at a little shop just outside of the S Bahn station. Later we found an outdoor restaurant where we sat outside and ate a bowl of creme of asparagus soup which Lydia declared was too thick, although it tasted very good to me. The asparagus is called Beelitzer spargel and the entire city has been abuzz with most menus at cafes and restaurants around town boasting signs proudly offering the white asparagus in soups as well as more exotic creations. We also drank large glasses of Berliner Weisse. Lydia asked me if I wanted red or green...never having had a Berliner Weisse I chose the red, thinking it sounded more natural. Lydia had hers without color. We sat under a large tree with a view of the water. The tree was dropping those green helicopter seeds we used to put on our noses as kids. It made no exceptions for glasses or bowls and dropped, or rather whipped its green children into any and all targets below without making use of their helicoptering capabilities. To Lydia's amusement I took one of the seeds and split it in two sticking it to my nose. I found that she was familiar with the practice.
On our walk we heard a wide variety of bird sounds. We heard a real Cuckoo! I couldn't believe it. It sounded exactly like a clock! Lydia described to both our horror the habit of the Cuckoo to leave its eggs in another birds nest, where the baby proceeds to knock the natural born children from the nest to their deaths...meanwhile the parents are duped into raising the ridiculously large Cuckoo offspring. We also heard the Peacocks across the way from the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) "AAAAAAAAAgGHGHHHGH!" they cried mournfully. I saw a boy at one of the restaurant tables with a great prize, a long glossy peacock's feather. He stroked the velvety plum from end to end.
