The students (Sommerkurs 2008) have worked through the first stages of inculturation. As usual, each student has exhibited a unique form of dealing with the pressures of sleep deprivation, jet lag, different foods, different cultural expectations and living in a different language. Some flourished, some complained, some became angry, some withdrew, some remained calm. Now that most have overcome the time difference and are sleeping more regularly, most problems are resolved.
There is the additional problem of creating a familial group among the participants. Stuck here with each other for three weeks (as one student said), they are a family, and as a family have let individual members know when they do not behave properly. For example, one student skipped the Grundkurse and was behaving as though she were superior to the others. Well...the women took care of that with a stern talk, which I'm rather glad that I missed. That said, they group dynamics are good. Most are positive (only one negative member, but I think that is based on fear due to a lower level of ability in German--curiously one of the lowest level students is doing quite well socially, which only goes to show).
I've been frustrated with trying to find the newspaper archives for Berlin. It turns out I can get most of the materials from Wien, so I may not have to go there. Instead, I'll go to Prag or possibly Berlin if it turns out I need to go there to get the materials.
