Lost in Translation

In the past six months I've made many, many language blunders as I'm getting my German up to speed. Most of the time my mispronunciations or word mix ups still get my point across, but they often also result in a few chuckles. A few recent laughs:

Baeren v. Beeren: I was working at Das Kleine Cafe describing a cake with baiser (meringue) and beeren (berries), except I pronounced beeren like baeren, telling the customer that the delicious dessert had bears in it. You know, like the kind you run away from in the woods. Careful now, this cake may bite. Grrr.

drucken vs. druecken: I'm at school in the computer lab and want to print something on special paper, so I kindly yell out to the other students something to the effect of: "excuse me, I'd like to drueck something on special paper using the color druecker. Is anyone druecking anything or can I go ahead and drueck? Except drueck (unlike druck) doesn't mean "to print" or "printer," but "to push, to crush, to squeeze." Um, yeah. People, I'd like to crush my paper now, got a problem with that?

punzen vs. brunzen: Typography has its own terminology and naturally I'm learning it all in German (thank goodness Johanna gave me a book about typography in English so I can cross-reference!). The empty shape/space a letter contains -- like the circle in an p, g, or o -- is called a punzen. While studying with my friend Jessie I called it a brunzen. This word means "to urinate." I was close. Quite close.

wiegen, wagen, wage, wiege: I had a doctor's appointment and the doctor asked me how much I weighed. Tangent: Going to the doctor here is great -- it's like meeting a medical expert in his living room, sitting down on the couch/chair, talking about your physical ailment, and then maybe he/she checks something with his stethoscope. No undressing. No gown. It's very comfortable. Anyway, so I was telling him that I had actually just stepped on the wiege that morning so could give him an accurate number. But, while the verb wiegen means "to weigh", the noun wiege means cradle. Wage is the noun for scale, and wagen the verb means "to risk." Apparently I'm not the first to make this mistake as there is a German joke about this mix up: An American goes into a pharmacy and tells the pharmacist: I'm looking for a wiege, I would like to wage something. Get it? :)

Finals

So, things have been pretty busy here. As you know, Nins was visiting for two weeks. On Friday, Katja joined us and it's been a full house. I'm also in the midst of "finals" at school and have a lot of work to do. Finals consist of creating two books that feature projects done during the semester, taking a written test for Typography, illustrating a story, and completing a computer project to show proficiency in Adobe Illustrator. Very different from my finals at UVA. Anyway, I'll try to squeeze in a few posts before August 3, and otherwise write more after that.

Mamma Mia! Dios Mio!

Wednesday night Nina, Ursula, and I went to see Mamma Mia! at Hamburg's Operettenhaus and it was quite the spectacle: colorful costumes, a hand-clapping crowd, a generally fun and upbeat storyline, and of course the music -- ABBA songs....in German. Maybe it's just me, but Dancing Queen in German doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Nonetheless, it was an evening of singing, dancing, and high drama. About three minutes into the second act, the theater lost power and we were treated to free drinks at the bar...except they ran out before we got there. After 45 minutes, the show started again, only to have the stage set jam 30 minutes later. Mamma Mia! Here we go again! Another 20-minute delay and we were back into the swing of things, but by then the momentum was lost and the kids sitting behind us were just about delirious. Still, I'd say: thank you for the music. Thank you for the music, ABBA.

Things I Learn in School

How to pose as a "W" for a typography project:

Go Cougars

For all you OHS Cougars, you probably remember Sachin (you know, the cool guy who was voted "most likely to succeed"). Well, his older (and, yes, successful) brother and Nina's good friend, Savitra, was here for a quick visit. Nina and Savitra relived their Oakton thespian days (think Oklahoma and My Fair Lady) and laughs ensued. We also shared quotes, business ideas, a walk to the Elbe, and an outdoor farwell dinner:

Visitors are always welcome, no thespian training required. ;)

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Hope everyone had a good weekend and is off to a good start to the week. We had a solidly sunny weekend for the first time in over a month, and it finally felt like summer. With a hurt toe (long story), I worked at the cafe, finished some projects for school, and spent time with the family.

Sunday we went to our Tante Reni's place in Hoisdorf (a small town about an hour outside of the city and where my grandparents used to live) for spargel (asparagus) soup. Here's us:

My love for Nutella surpasses any and all food rules, so a natural companion to the spargel soup was:I was also introduced to these "chocolate sandwich slices" which is basically like putting a chocolate candy bar on a piece of bread. And I'm not saying that in a bad way.

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It's been a rough week, but thankfully Sonita arrived on Saturday and has been great company. Aside from spending some time at the cafe where I work and generally just talking and catching up, our big Sunday activity was a boat tour of the harbor.

On Tuesday we welcomed Nina, who arrived complete with a Ghanaian hat and maraca.


We toasted our first evening together at a wine festival at Hamburg's Rathaus.


Cheers to friends and family.