Emily and Carbon

Emily_Babbelhund

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Location
Regensburg, Germany
We survived! I say 'we' because I think it was as much an ordeal for Carbon as for me. Poor boy had to spend six hours in his crate yesterday and another four today. He was good as gold both days. I do think he missed me, though, as he's back to being cuddly yesterday evening and this afternoon where he'd been a bit teenager-y lately (i.e. "Ew, girl cooties, I'm going to go sleep in the other room!!"). I made sure he got a very good swim in yesterday before the crate stint and again today after, so hopefully that helped. And for dinner tonight he got a celebratory turkey neck, which he thought was THE BOMB. :D I must say that the crunching kind of squicked me out though. The sound coming out of his crate was what you'd imagine from a bridge troll munching on children. o_O

I'm SO glad the test is over and I actually think I probably passed. The verbal exam yesterday went better than I expected. Because I signed up at the last minute, I was the very last pair to be tested. It was me and a guy from Bulgaria who'd been in Germany since 1999. He was hilarious and we were both - along with the examiners - all a little punch drunk. "Punch drunk" because everyone shows up at 1:30, but then you have to wait your turn to be tested. A FOUR HOUR wait in 35 degree heat with only one 'bio break' allowed.

Considering those factors, both examiners and the two of us 'testees' couldn't be blamed for being in 'just get us out of here' mode. In fact my exam parter was so charming and funny (he owns a pizza restaurant and was full of stories) and I was in my usual lack of verbal filter mode (Kate @Beanwood knows what I mean :p) that it seemed more like a chat than a test. At the end, the one examiner said to me, "I'm not supposed to say this, but you should really try for C1". Given that the test I just took was A2/B1 and C1 is two levels above, this was his way of saying I passed the verbal section. Yippee!

Today was listening and reading comprehension and writing. I did 'meh' to 'ick' on the writing, but the other two bits were easy peasy - I knew I'd do fine on them from taking the practice exams like mad for two days prior. So considering that you can fail one section but still pass the test as a whole if you pass the other three sections, I should be OK.

Next up in my quest to get my residency permit is my "Living in Germany" exam in two weeks. It's 310 questions (in German of course) on German law and government. I'm not too worried about it as it's basically rote memorisation but will have to spend a lot of time studying.

And then 1 September another language exam. I signed up for it on Tuesday just in case I crashed and burned on this week's test. Since I've already paid for it, I might as well go for it as double insurance on the residency language requirement. Because I'm masochistic, I'm thinking of taking it at a higher difficulty level than the one I did today. Well, maybe... that just may be false confidence from the Irish cider/heat stroke high I'm currently on. :ROFLMAO:

Looking forward to catching up on what I missed on the rest of the forum over the last couple days!
 
Xena Dog Princess

Xena Dog Princess

Location
Wellington, NZ
Woo hoo, go Emily! I was thinking about you yesterday (ooooh final day) so I'm glad that you're feeling positive about the whole shebang.

So all of this is about getting a permanent residency visa, not citizenship? These hoops seem crazy to me, are they new? As long as you can speak the language fairly well, can read and write well enough to fill out forms, and have basic knowledge of German society and culture, you should be granted residency imo.
 
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