random musings 2

as a couple of people have said that my last post was a little negative, or that i simply had a bad day, i'm going to take this opportunity to say some of the things i like about germany just so you know that i like it here. (i've also included the pronunciation of numbers so that i can help remember how to say them and to show people back home the difference between the numbers and how to say them)

number eins (i-nz) - the beer is fantastic and cheap. i picked up a six-pack of half litre beers for 1.99euro. that's right, 3 litres of beer for something like $3.50! and even the crap beer tastes good. it's nothing like at home where you pay way too much for beer that tastes like crap. unless of course you're willing to pay for something that's either imported or classed as a luxury fancy beer. and of course you can't go wrong with 3 litres of beer. 3 LITRES!?!

number swei (zvy) - the architecture is amazing. it's like walking around fairy tale village. (see my previous posts for examples of this)

number drei (dry) - the baked goods and fruit are something to really get excited over. i haven't had fruit this good since i lived in queensland. the bakery food is exquisite. they have these things called berliners which are basically a jam donut, but instead of having sugar or cinnamon over them they have this really fine version of icing sugar, that coupled with the great fruit, which lends itself to delicious jam, cannot be beat. unless of course you go to france and eat a proper eclair. i had a chocolate one in strasbourg and it was unbelievably tasty. i went halves with alexis, but i really didn't want to give him any, i just wanted to inhale the damn thing! (all this being said is wonderful, but as an australian, some of the food does scare me slightly - be wary of the dark wursts. i nearly ate something that was made of pig's blood. ech!?!)

number fur (fear) - the staring thing. even though i mention this in my last post, i think it's funny therefore good. i've learnt to stare back and it makes for great amusement on public transport. the only problem is i start smiling and laughing, which means i have to look away first and makes me lose the staring contest half the time.

number funf - the shopping. as most of you who know me in real life know, i love shopping when it's good shopping. i'm talking about clothes here, not grocery shopping (which i'll get to next). some of the clothes here are fantastic, some not so much, but most of it is wonderful. cecilia (one of my dearest friends) would die to buy some of these fashions. unfortunately mannheim has better shops than heidelberg, but there are still some shops here that are fantastic. as you can guess, strasbourg france has better clothes, but they are slightly more expensive, so i put forward that the shopping is better in germany. by the way, who knew that espirit had a fully-stocked male's section? at home it's all girly clothes, here they have wonderful guy's clothes. i even bought the jacket i love so dearly there. and it's fairly inexpensive. espirit also just clothed the european MTV awards, so you know they have cool funky stuff. i'll fully go into clothes shopping in another post. i have some pet peeves and some wonderful things to say about it. but again, anyone who knows me, knows that i have opinions about everything so this wont come as a shock.

number sechts (zex) - grocery shopping. i love grocery shopping here for the pure fact that i have no idea what i'm buying half the time. the other half, i've either taken my dictionary with me, or i've guessed by the picture on the box. the main reason i love it, is because it always feels like an adventure and things are very cheap to buy here, which means i can get a giggle and some food at a very low cost to my wallet and my self-esteem.

number sieben (zee-bin) - i know i've mentioned architecture, but this is different. THE CASTLE!!! i freakin' love the castle. i could look at it all day long and never tire of it. i know i still haven't posted about it, or strasbourg for that matter, but i have the weekend to myself (alexis went to nice to visit a friend) and i plan on blogging up a storm, so be patient damn you!

number acht (oct) - the language and language education. as far as i can remember i have liked three languages more than the others, russian, japanese and german. granted german isn't a hot language, but the sounds made while talking it intrigue me. you should hear little kids speak, they sound so cute. here people know several languages, as is the case throughout western europe i assume, it makes you think that we should be taught more in school in australia. i know of some little kids about 5-6 who can speak german, a little french, a little spanish and a little english, which is way more than i can. so pull your finger out australia and don't follow the path of america and england, where you think that english is the only thing worth learning because you're too bloody arrogant to look outside your own country and it's immediate neighbours.

that's all for now, there's heaps more, but i'll leave that for another post.
tschuss

learning can be fun

i'm about a week and a half into learning german now and i have to say, coming from an english speaking background german is about 50/50 on the easy/hard front. i find that sentence structure is pretty well straight forward and very similar to english. this makes stringing words together into something that resembles communication quite simple, my only problem is remembering the damn words. the words themselves are what makes this learning experience so 50/50. there are some words that are very close to their english equivalents and i am finding myself making things harder for, well, myself. i keep thinking it can't be that easy, surely. and then i go and say something and find out that i'm wrong and it really was that easy. for the words that aren't anything close to english i have been getting most of them right, but unfortunately for me the germans are not afraid of big words. most of you that know me in real life and not from this crazy nerd-fueled computer world will find this most ironic and funny. for years now i have loved big words and now that i am faced with big german words i am at a loss. for instance let's take the word for economics - die Wirtschaftswissenschaften. it's such a simple small word in english and they've got some crazy-arsed dodecahedron of a word.

now don't get me wrong, i can't wait for the day that i can speak fluent german, cause it is coming. you can't spend a whole year somewhere and not learn the language. that's just a waste of a trip. for something comparative, my housemate pete is from ireland (german version = irland. see what i mean about some words and their english equivalents) and he has made an irish friend over here. now pete keeps getting asked out to the pub with this guy, but not just any pub, a goddamned irish pub! what's the point of coming over to australia and going to a pub that you could visit at home? what makes it worse is that this friend of pete's has made friends with a stack of irish guys while being here and that's all they do, go to an irish pub and listen to music from the UK while drinking pints surrounded by the irish. you may as well save your money, stay home and just have a bender. this is not what i'll be doing on my trip. i intend on pretty much becoming a german citizen while i'm there. that includes learning the language and culture, seeing the sights and running the other way every time i hear the words, 'g'day' or 'bloody hell, mate.' no offence australia, but if i wanted to hang with aussies i'd stay home.

the tape and book that i'm learning my german from is very good though. it's a 3 month course which i am trying to cram into 2 months. i have so far completed section 1 and almost all of section 2 and started on section 3. how is this possible you ask, because i have been listening to this on the way to and from work everyday. the plan is, first week i listen to section 1 and occasionally hear section 2. then during the second week i listen to section 2 and, because i've already got a start on it, i start listening to section 3. it's working well so far. i can remember nearly all of section 1 and section 2 is holding. i've only just started section 3, but it seems to be sticking as well. i think it helps that i've started saying hello to people at work in german (customers, not other staff members - i work in retail and it's pretty common for german tourists to walk in) and i have some friends that work in a cafe in the city who are french, but speak some german so they're helping too by speaking it to me. although i will say, being yelled at in german for not speaking it first thing in the morning while you're waiting for your first coffee of the day is very startling. it's not a very pleasant language to be chastised in when you don't know what's being said.



*by the way, my sleeping pattern is fine. i think my brain and psyche have gotten over the shock of me doing this and given up trying to freak me out. either that or they're just as lazy as the rest of me. hehehe... or alternatively, me going into work early everyday trying to get more commission has started to wear them down. i think it might be the latter, but only time will tell. once i finish work and don't do so much we'll see if my sleep starts going to the dogs again.*