Itty-GOETHE Love :D:D:D:D Goethe Institut's Open House

- November 20, 2009, Friday, 1pm

- I saw a memo in the Ateneo's Modern Languages bulletin board that the Goethe Institut ( the German language and culture center) would be having an open house today with lot's of freebies and such. I was also greatly attracted to the "Win a Free Trip to Germany" scavenger hunt and raffle.

- I asked my mom to come with me, since most of the people I know had classes today, or had internship shifts.

- We arrived at Goethe around 1:15pm, and went to explore the Institut.

- We first came to the Battle of the Brains. Obviously, all the questions were about Germany. Since there was an ongoing game, we were asked to sit at the back as part of the audience, and could only play (if ever) at the next batch. We didn't find the game very interesting so we left and checked out the other activities.

- We went to another room that had a sort of contest. We were supposed to search for 18 questions posted randomly inside the room, and mark our answers on the answer sheet. In fairness, I realized that I sorta knew something about Germany (although I didn't win. Haha) The pretty German lady named Ilka also gave my mom and me free Ritter Sport chocolate squares.

- We went to the fifth floor of the building to look for other activities. I played pop the "luftballon" (balloon in short). The person was supposed to ask a question, and the contestant should use a dart to pop a balloon containing the answer. Boo me, I popped the wrong balloon. Haha. (Hey, darts are difficult to handle noh.)

- With time to spare before the "epic" scavenger hunt (yes, keeping in mind that the winner will get to go to Germany for free....), we went to the second floor to make art out of "my favorite German word/s". I went inside and draw "Ich liebe Deutschland (I love Germany)." I loved this activity place because I get to have free stuff just because I drew something. Haha.

- We went upstairs to the fourth floor and waited a bit until the scavenger hunt commenced.

- A lady came after a few minutes and announced that the scavenger hunt would begin. After reading the mechanics, I immediately knew that I didn't have a butt's chance to even play the scavenger hunt. Boo epic fail. This was because:

1. The questions were in German.

2. I don't know much German.

- If ever I get to answer all the questions, assuming I knew German and my answers were correct, my entry, together with other entries (that had all correct answers), would be raffled. The runner ups would have free German lessons in the Goethe Institut Manila, and the grand prize winner would get to go to study German in the Goethe Institut Germany (all expenses paid). If ever, I wouldn't be able to go to Germany as well, even if I won....blame school. Hahahaha.

- For some reason, I didn't really feel bitter, and I can't really blame myself for not knowing German.

- My mom and I went downstairs at the ground floor to get our free merienda. To our surprise, the free merienda was a buffet. My mom and I ate a lot. (Oh wait....I eat a lot all the time anyway HAHAHAHA).

- The Institut had two buffet tables. One catered by Vanilla Bean, and the other by 121 Grill and Restaurant. We had more food at the Vanilla Bean since the food there were a bit international and fun.

- We also visited the newly inagurated library at the ground floor. I played an "info-hunt" contest, where I was supposed to get a task from a fishbowl, and find the answers to the task in the library (example: Give 3 names of German musicians. *then I just had to go around the library, look through books, and submit my answer to the person in charge*) For that contest, I got a free notebook thing. Yeyyyy.

- At around 4pm, my mom and I went to the second floor to attend our 30-minute German crash course. We were in a room with some students from Lyceum, and a few other random people. *Who can't say no to a free language course?!?! (especially for language buffs like me)*

- We learned the German alphabet, a few German sentences (my name is....blah blah), and German numbers.

- I had a fun time teaching the German pronunciation to my mom. My mom had a terrible time. HAHA. I understood her, since German pronunciations don't really go well with the Chinese tongue (or any other tongue I suppose....)

- We also had a sort of contest, where we had to match the names of the numbers to the figures of the numbers. Haha. My mom and I were the first ones who finished. Hahahaha. We finished within 10 seconds, I think. (Boo, no prize, but still, I was happy. Haha. I realized I wasn't purely German-illiterate after all. Haha.)

- After the language course, we hurried to the fifth floor to see if we could still see the cooking class. We arrived and the German people were halfway through the recipe. I think it was sort of a salad (Kartoffelsalat I think). Haha. I liked the smell.

- Sadly, my mom wasn't able to attend the Bauernmadel dancing class she wanted to go to. I wanted to attend the dancing class as well, but we weren't able to attend since it was in conflict with the language class and the cooking class.

- Since we more or less did most of the nice activities, we both decided to go home. It was around 5:15 I think.

- Well, I may not have had the chance to go to a free trip to Germany and learn German in Germany, but I had a lot of free things, and learned German things today. Yes, I'll study German on my own, like I do with all the other languages I'm learning, but I scheduled it after Italian (I'm studying Italian now. Haha).

- I guess today's experience was also different from my experience in Instituto Cervantes' Dia del Libro last May -> In the Instituto, I understood Spanish. In the Institut, I didn't understand German (except for a few words or so). Haha.

- Hopefully, I would have the chance to visit the Institut or the Instituto again soon for whatever event. Maybe next time, I could also attend a sort of open house at the Alliance Francaise. Hahahaha. :D:D:D:D





**** Ich heisse Gilbert. Ich spreche keine Deutsche. Ich liebe Deutsche und Deutscheland. HAHAHAHA.