Experience Budget

Rostock Markt by F. Geyer

If you want to get technical, the open-air market two blocks away from our apartment is more expensive than the grocery store.

So is the old butcher shop down the street.

And the 19th century bakery near the harbor.

Sometimes the prices are closer--especially when a certain vegetable is in season--but usually there's a 20 or 50 cent difference.  Or even more.

But, you know what?  I shop at the markets, and the old butcher shop, and the tiny bakery anyway.  It's part of spending my "Experiences Budget."

I get to walk in under a swinging sign of a carved bull's head and see a very friendly butcher who knows who I am ("Ah!  Die Americanerin!").

And I get to say things like, "Could I have 100 grams of mittwurst for dinner tonight?"  And I say it in German.

And she says, "Only 100 grams?!  You are not German yet!" And she says it in German.

Or, I get to walk around the Neumarkt in the shadow of that historic, brick Marienkirche, and look at those rows on rows of smoked fish and eels, or see the new kinds of flowers they sell in buckets (not the usual roses, carnations, gerbera daisies...).   Some I've seen in designer bouquets in American magazines, some I've never seen anywhere else.

I get to go up to the man with the deli truck, framed by rows on rows of tiny chickens spinning on rotisseries, and watch him cut me a "halb hänchen" (half-chicken).  I wish him a nice continuation of his day--because that's how you say it.  You have to be explicit about how you hope it continues to be good.  I think it's a nice detail.

And you get to walk home past the bakery, which is always just a little bit more stressful.  The storefront is a tiny walkway in between the wall and the display cases and you're confronted with four rows of different varieties of bread loaves.  Round, rectangular, diamond, square, seed encrusted, cracked, smooth--as a not-as-friendly-as-the-butcher-but-still-nice baker mentally taps her fingers on the counter waiting for you to choose and formulate a sentence in your head.

"My streusel is burning," she thinks.  "How do I say 'dinner roll'?!" I think.

The bread here is heavy, by the way.  They don't mess around.

In Honor of My German Class

I already told you one of the reasons why my German class was (it ended on Thursday) so rad.  But, there are other reasons too.  Like, how awesome our instructor was or how these people are totally on "homie" status with me now.  They are seriously, for really, some amazing people.  I totally cried at the end.  I did.  Could have been partly relief that I finished that gol darned qualifying test, but I know most of the reason was because I'm going to miss these folks!

I Will Never Be Able To Spell Again

Yesterday, as I was walking through one of the city malls, I came across a gigantic poster-presentation about the planet.  One had an English caption that said:

"Earth at Neight"

And I thought, "Well, duh!  That totally makes sense!"

Just like it makes way more sense to write "fein" instead of "fine."  Or HEIDI instead of HIEDIE.

Or, how I never want c's to make k-sounds now.  It's so much more logikal, for example, to write "aktually."  And while we're at it, let's just do away with the whole double-l thing because that's just over-the-top.  Aktualy.  Maybe even: Aktualie.  Yeah, I like that second one better.

Zoo should be "Suu" or something like it--it is in my head now anyway.   And now, instead of "So" I want to write "Zo" for reasons that are actually too complicated to go into at the moment.

I bring this up for two reasons.  1) This FRIEK OUT poster is beautiful unto my soul  and 2) when we made our grocery list this week, I found myself writing, "Zucker" instead of "Sugar" and "Apfel" instead of "Apple" and "Milch" instead of "Milk"...

The language assimilation...It has begun...

Turns out I did that whole "spelling bee" thing back in the day fur no gut riesun.

Can't Judge a Book...

No Two Things In This Picture Are Not Orange

And the color of the day is.......

Guess.  Guess!  Can you guess?! (This is what happens when you take a picture next to Engaro the Orange Ceramic Wall.)

Aaaanyway, I have a story about this book.

But before that, I have a story about victory.

First, today I finished my first semester teaching English at the university here--students gave me chocolate in thanks--victory! (But, I will miss my students.)

Second, I went to go get a haircut by myself (?!).  (This was huge. HUGE.)

I said (in German), "Hi. I'm very bad at German because I'm from the USA, but I really need a 'Pony-trim.'"  And they said, "Okaaaay. Sit down?  It's 2 euro."  And they trimmed my pony and I felt so brave!  I also learned the words for "straight," "layered," and "to your eyebrow level."  All very useful, everyday words, you know.

P.S. Bangs = "Pony" here.  There are so many jokes I could make about this I can't even think of where to start.  Also, I've discovered that Ponies require a lot of upkeep, much like ponies require in the US.

Third, I was feeling so good about the whole Pony-trim success that I marched right into the city library and picked out a book from the kindergarten shelves.  Yes, reading books for 4-year-olds is my highest linguistic aspiration at the moment.  It had this little girl and her mom on the cover, and it was called Raspberry Jam.  I mean, doesn't that look like a nice, friendly, happy book to read for your Day of Victory German practice?

Yeah, it was.  Then halfway through the book, the girl's uncle DIES from DEPRESSION and the rest of the book is all crying, funerals, and mournfully shoveling dirt into graves.

Thanks for the downer Raspberry Jam!

And that's your update for today.

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.

Tandem

Uni-Rostock Mensa

I have a friend named Elizabeth.  She's from Medellin, Colombia, and we have lunch together twice a week because that's part of our Tandem agreement.

In Germany, there's an idea that everyone understands called "Tandem."  Think of it like two-way bartering.  One person has something the other one wants, and so does the other person.  So, you trade.  In our case, I know how to speak English and Elizabeth knows Spanish.  She needs to practice English and I need to practice Spanish.  And so a Tandem was born.

We went to the Mensa today, which is a university cafeteria.  We had mashed potatoes (pude de papas/Kartoffelpüree), pork (carne de cerdo, Schweinefleisch), and vegetables (verduras/Gemüse).  We talked about food and vacations and weather, todo auf Spanisch.

Tandem is totally messing up my head.  I can't help but throw in German words between Spanish words.   Ich habe una problema.  The most repeated offenses today went something like, "Ja! Yes! Sí!"  or "aberrrrr...I mean pero!"

Elizabeth gets it though.  And we can generally understand each other no matter what.  Understanding is always way easier than speaking. So we get weird looks when we walk down the street, her speaking Spanish and me answering in English. And then we laugh and say, "Alles gut!"

And did you know that Elizabeth's boyfriend is on a championship Water Rugby team?!  Did you even know that was a thing?!

It is!!!

You can break your leg and drown at the same time!  Fun!  I'll have to ask her at our next Tandem about how you can spectate that sort of thing.  And how do the refs ref?  Are there underwater sonar whistles (Unterwasser-Pfeifen/silbatos bajo de agua)?!  Do you know?!  I need to know.

Also, this is the biggest cookie sheet I can find here!  Das ist a problema también!

  

Why my German class is Awesome

Yohannes: Ethiopia

Yusaku and Nana: Japan

Michail: Russia

Shamim: Bangladesh

Elizabeth: Colombia

Geraldine: France

Isaac: Ghana

Nitin: India

Farabi: Pakistan

Me: USA

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...

Ich kann Englisch, Spanisch, und ein bisschen Deutsch verstehen

This is what I think I wrote below:

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.