Wie geht's, geht's

I should be studying for my exam tomorrow, but I'm tired of studying. I was talking about it with a Swiss friend of mine over lunch and he told me that there is an Italian phrase for that. I forget the Itallian, but roughly translated, it meant: How it goes, it goes. Whatever happens, happens. I have a feeling most cultures have such a phrase. I think that's been my strategy for standardized tests, and most other tests, for a long time; why change now?

I am always faced with a dilemma here: there seem to be an almost infinite number of things to write about from the last few weeks. It is also ever more and more difficult to write a post. It is not for lack of time. My English feels forced. I am beginning to feel unable to fully and precisely express myself in English (in fact I just realized that I forgot to type a few words there and had to fix it), and certainly am nowhere near that point in German.

Clear expression is something of great import to me. That is perhaps the most frustrating part, for me, of learning a new language. A friend here says, "Du denkst zu viel." Perhaps it is true, I may think too much. I always seek a certain shade of meaning which leads me attempt the creation of sentences which go beyond the current scope of my German abilities (case in point, although that wasn't even necessary). For example, in one situation (the details of which I can't recollect) I attempted to say something along the lines of "I hope that my words did not cause you to be insulted/unhappy." Someone said that I could have just said "I hope you are happy" but to me, that has a totally different meaning. It doesn't reflect the fact that I didn't want to be the the one who caused any unhappiness.

I am growing frustrated that the nonsentient relative article in English ("which") doesn't have cases like the sentient relative article ("who, whose, whom"). It seems really awkward to me. I'm sure there are also better words than "sentient" and "nonsentient" which can be used to describe them.

Last Tuesday, my class went to Goslar, about an hour train ride away from Göttingen. It was pretty awesome. I was practically drooling over the historical significance of the place, especially the Kaiserpfalz. You see, this was one of the places that the German Holy Roman Emperors, or Kaisers lived. When I say "one", you must understand, the Kaisers had no permanent residence. Instead, they had many palaces through which they rotated. They needed to be all over their realm in order to keep their power.

It was in Goslar that Henry IV received a letter from Gregory VII saying that he had been excommunicated, eventually bringing the Investiture controversy between the Emperor and the Pope to a head at Canossa. I was pretty excited when I found that out.

(Instead of finishing this, I had an enjoyable dinner with a few friends, and it is now time for bed. I will continue this post after my exam tomorrow.)