Thursday, March 27, 2008

Things I Never Knew or Didn't Remember

1. I didn't remember how much I hate jet lag, and how hard it is to shake at first. Yesterday, I was a zombie--basically I'm surprised I didn't have more spelling errors other than monster.

2. I didn't know how many words actually contain the letter y. On German keyboards y and z are flipped. Yesterday's blog took forever to type--partially b/c I was sleepy, but mainly because I didn't want our words to come out as zesterdaz, or latelz, etc.

3. I didn't know that almost all of Frankfurt was bombed by the Allies in WWII, so every building is post 1940s. They have actually nicknamed the town Mainhatten, b/c it looks so modern. Also, everything or everzthing has the word main in it--just to make it confusing to us travellers who are already confused by not speaking German.

4. My favorite word is drüken (it means push).

5. I didn't realize how silly phrase books are. We bought one at the airport b/c we forgot the one that was given to us on loan, however we realized today that it doesn't matter if we ask something in German, we still won't know the answer: where is the store? (in German)....wait wait, bitte (please), can you speak English?...besides hello, please and thank-you our German conversation efforts are futile.

6. Something for everzone to know (sorrz I can't change them all). If the man at the coffee stand asks you 3 times how many sugars you want, and you say none every time, there is a good reason he is asking. Basically multiple the number of times he asks you by one or two and you'll get how many sugars you should have asked for (even if your don't take sugar)..you do in Germany.

I asked Ben if he wanted me to add anything, so here it is, Ben's tip of the day: Stop at the outdoor market for wine...large pour. Thank you Ben.
Verabschieden!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell Ben I mailed his stupid taxes. Please bring me back a twenty pound wheel of oude yung kass (young white cheese) and some fresh baked multigrain bread. And some cool leather pants.

Herbert.

Anonymous said...

love you guys... so glad you made it and are freezing your butts off! eat shnitzel and drink some beer from das boot!

becky

Unknown said...

angela, i'm googled! Love ya, momxoxoxoxo

Unknown said...

You know what they say, "When in Germany...take the sugar" ;) I'm sure I speak for everzone when I say, I love reading your trip blog! I also enjoyed Ben's insightful tip of the day; large pour of wine sounds smart, especially when it's 33 degrees. Speaking of 33 degrees, Portland was hit with snow and hail Friday morning. It was totally "les fou"!

Laura

Anonymous said...

Hey Angela. bringing back memories. So much fun!