Vorfreude

Anticipation is often more fun for me than the actual event.

I'm loving preparing for this German trip. I'm especially loving studying the German language.

This despite the fact that Glen and Betina tell me that I don't need to speak a word of German to survive there. Between the US military base in Wiesbaden and the fact that everyone learns English as a second language in school, most likely as soon as I try to speak German, someone will start speaking to me in English.

Doesn't matter. It's still kind of fun to learn.

Like many languages, German has a formal and an informal way of addressing people. So does Italian. And most language courses teach you the formal way of speaking because it's better to incorrectly address someone formally than it is to incorrectly address someone informally. Nicole, our exchange student from Italy used to make fun of me, though, when I'd address her formally. Using an expression like "Se vuole" (which means "If you want to") rather than "Se vuoi". She's scold me with "I am a child. You do not say "se vuole" to a child. I am not some old lady!" She was fun to learn Italian from.

So I'm focusing on learning the formal phrasing of sentences. Though I also wonder if any one is going to laugh at me if I call the dog with "Kommen Sie hier" rather than "Kommst du hier." I mean, if Nicole thought it was ridiculous that I spoke formally to her, how will it look if I speak formally to the dog?

Anyway, it's fun to learn and wonder.