Happy International Women's Day!

(And our 4th Engageversary)

Because this video is so amazing I can hardly stand it, I'm sharing it here.  Let's take five minutes to be grateful for the Women's Suffrage Movement, Alice Paul, Henry Burn, the creative workings of Lady Gaga, and the folks who made this awesome parody of the "Bad Romance" music video.

I can't stop watching this!  I just can't!  It gets better and better each time!

Because PBS Media is Cheap Media

In the past six months, Paul and I have become media bargain-hunters.

This is because hulu doesn't like me anymore.  Also because netflix hates Europe.  So, we've come to discover that entertainment is now something that must be purchased via itunes.  Brave new world...yadda yadda.

So, we're really, incredibly good at finding itunes movie rentals for $2 or entire seasons of older but relatively awesome television (Amazing Race!  Anyone?  Anyone? Yeah?) for the price of a matinee movie ticket.  

Also, PBS.  They sell relatively good stuff for cheap.  Might I direct your attention to the fact that a season of The Office costs $45, but a season of, ohhhh, saaaaaaay, Downton Abbey?  A mere $10.

So, suffice it to say, we've been getting our partially-poorly-acted, period-drama, soap-opera on for the past few weeks.

I'm really trying to get to a point here, trust me.  The point I'm trying to make is that we've kind of got Abbey on our minds--because it's the only thing we can afford.

And so this happened:

Early morning.  The phone rings with a text message by our bed.  Paul turns to look at the phone, waits for a long while, is very quiet.

Me:  "What is it?  Is something wrong?"

Paul turns slowly, dramatically towards me...and very, very seriously says...with MUCH gravitas...

Paul:  "We are ... at war with England."

HAH!

Ridin' on a Buffalooooo

I've already mentioned the fact that we had trouble getting songs stuck in our heads when we were in London.

Tell you what, this particular statue in Kensington Gardens did not make that any easier...

The second we saw it, both of us immediately started singing renditions of this:

'Cuz she's ridin' a buffalooooooooooo.

(Watch out, she's got a metal stick)

A lady on a buffalooooooooooo.

(And she's got some friends to back her up)

Ridin' a buffalooooooooooooooooo.

(And one of them is gonna throw a wreath at you)

Gotta get these birds off its head, need some help from the

GAL on a BUFFaLO!

Das ist hell

Lemme tell you a story...

Once upon a time, I was in German class (here, in this building right here).

As class started I realized I hadn't finished one section of our homework.  So, I'm sitting there scribbling like mad: "Ich bin....Du...bist..."  when I glance up and see this written across the board in huge letters:

"DAS IST HELL"

Whoa, what?  Whoaa....  Because, to me, that pretty much translated to exactly what you think it translates to.

And I thought, "Hey now, that seems a little harsh.  It's not that bad here."

My teacher kept pointing upwards and saying, "Das ist hell.  Das ist hell." And I was like, "Liebe Teacher, you're confused.  That place isn't up.  It's down.  Way down."

Everything was backwards.  Everything was confused.  "Das ist hell!  Das ist hell!"  Bwaahahaha.  Twilight zone. It was getting scary.  She really was trying to get me to understand that up in the sky was hell.

Then she turned off the light and said, "Das ist dunkel."  Turned on the light and said, "Das ist hell."  Off: "Dunkel"  On: "Hell"

That was the day I understood that I could use mild English curse words to say common things like, "light."

You can bet your bottom dollar that I walk around every day thinking of sentences with "hell" in them all the time.  I am a rebel.  I have gone rogue.

A disturbing discovery

I just learned that the German word for "chicken" is "Huhn."

It's pronounced exactly like "Hunn."  So this blog is now:

THE CHICKEN(s) INVADE EUROPE!

(It can't even be plural chickens.  That would be "huhner".)

...Makes this whole blog idea even better than I thought it ever could be...

German: Beginning and Pronounciation

German used to be sexy. 

I mean that literally.  If you had a fiance that would whisper sweet German nothings into your ear while you sat on a blanket underneath the stars...you'd think it was sexy, too.

But, I'm here to tell you that German is sexy no more.

Chocolate: A Cautionary Tale

When we were in Berlin last month, Paul and I discovered a magical place called Fassbender and Rausch.  Well, I say "discovered" but it was actually more of a "sought desperately to find" since we had read in a travel guide that good old F&R had an exploding chocolate volcano and a "truffle bar with the largest selection in Europe."**

Preparations: Don't Die Before You Get There

Although I realize that this blog is supposed to represent the lives of both myself and Paul, I have to confess to you right now that Paul will probably go MIA until....oh....until September.

Poor guy.

He's practically living in his dissertation-writing office.  No, seriously, he's living there.  He has an air mattress and clothes and toothbrush and a mini-fridge.  A mini fridge!  He takes showers over there.  And does laundry.  Cooks his oatmeal with an electric kettle...  I mean, he's bacheloring it up over there.