I graduated from college in March of 2008. The upside has been that I’ve had plenty of time to get ready for my trip and do more research. The downside is that I’m no longer enrolled in German classes. As a result, my German’s been in a steady downward slide.
I’ll be doing a homestay once I arrive in Germany, but I’d still like to have a solid language foundation to build upon. I would rather not learn the words for “fork” and “bowl” through trial-and-error (and yes, after eight years of study, I do not know the German words for either of those things).
From here on out, I will begin a concerted effort to improve, or at least maintain, my German skills. My strategy:
- watch German films (preferably without subtitles)
- visit language building sites (such as Babbel)
- find a pen pal
- read German news sources online
- watch videos on German YouTube
- listen to German music
More details to follow. In the meantime, do my language-learning readers have any suggestions for me? Let me know through my contact form!
Going through more pictures of my previous travels, I happened upon this gem.
In June 2004, Germany was in the middle of a heated campaign season. This was a poster we saw everywhere.
It reads: You decide! Give cloning zero chance.
I think in this instance, the illustration is far more effective than the copy (shudder).
Under the section titled, “Helpful Hints for Life in the Tropics”:
Iron all clothes that have been hung outside. This kills the larvae of flies before they can burrow into your skin.
Nice. So glad I’m not going to the tropics.
(To see the removal of a similar fly, click here. Be sure to check out all the misogynistic comments left by our nation’s unemployed and unloved!)
When I look back on my first trip to Germany, and think about what I learned during this initial experience in international diversity, what sticks out to me are these two words: Stilles Wasser (shtill-es vas-ser) .
You see, Europeans generally don’t drink tap water. I suppose because, historically, their water supplies haven’t been reliably clean, so they acclimated their palates to the taste of bottled mineral water.
What does that mean for you and me? Well, after I landed, my host took me to McDonald’s (yes, as an 18-year-old visiting Europe for the first time, my first meal was McD’s). I ordered Chicken McNuggets and a water, because I was parched from the plane. We sit down, and I start digging into my nuggets. Pausing to take a sip of water, I pick up the cup, place it to my lips, tip the cup until the liquid is just touching my tongue and…WTF!?! This isn’t water! Looking down, I see bubbles in my H2O. They must have given me the carbonated water that mixes with syrup to make pop!
My host just laughed at me, explaining than, no, this was Mineralwasser (mineral water), and it’s what you get when you order a “water” in Germany. From this point on, stilles Wasser became the most useful phrase in my vocabulary.
So, you heard it from me first. As an American (or Canadian, or Brit, or Aussie, I don’t judge) traveling in Germany, the most important snippets of language to learn are not Guten Tag, or Sprechen Sie Englisch, or even Haben Sie feuer? The most important thing you should be able to say is, Haben Sie stilles Wasser?
I’ve been trying to get excited (like I’m not already) about my move to Germany by combing through photos from my previous trips.
In December of 2006, I studied abroad in London, England. The program theme was Global Public Health, so of course, we studied John Snow, the famous (and first) epidemiologist. True to our work hard, play hard college sensibilities, we stopped at the John Snow Pub for lunch.
My meal consisted of hot chocolate and the most disgusting veggie burger I’ve ever attempted to eat. The saving grace of my experience were these condiment packets:
My original plan was to steal one of each, but then I figured I didn’t want condiment packets exploding in my luggage. It was a good choice; this photograph is my favorite of the trip.
To learn more about John Snow and the pub named for him, visit this site from the UCLA Department of Epidemiology and this article by Edward Tufte.
If you’re interested in visiting the John Snow Pub in London, it’s located at 39 Broadwick St, accessible by either the Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus tube stops.
This article is a cross-post from my other blog. If you’re interested in reading it, please contact me and I’ll send you the link.
One week ago today, I booked my flight to Germany. On September 14th, at 2:20 PM, I will jet out of my home city, to a 3 hour layover in DC. I will then board an eight hour flight to Deutschland, landing at 7:10 AM at Frankfurt International Airport.
By the way, 7:10 AM in Germany equals 1:10 AM in my world. Helloooooo jet lag!
You can imagine how interested I was then, when I read last week that scientists thought they had found the “cure” for jet lag: fasting.
Unfortunately, the original article I read on Yahoo! didn’t really explain how the whole fasting/readjusting schedule worked. I did eventually find an article that explained the technique a little better (you can read it here).
Basically, you’re supposed to fast for 12-16 hours before your destination’s breakfast time, which is good for me, since I’ll be landing just before then. My last American meal on the 14th will be breakfast (I’ll probably go to IHOP to celebrate the occassion. Pancakes and hash browns and eggs, oh my!).
I have fasted before, and in my experience, it doesn’t get difficult until about hour 22. In fact, the hours before that are ideal napping hours, so hopefully, with the help of a little Xanax, I will sleep amazingly on the plane. Then, after I deboard and claim my bag, I can sit down to a good German breakfast: fresh bread with Nutella, butter, and deli slices. Yum Yum. At that point, I can board a train to my next destination, maybe get a cat nap in, and be fresh for my Fulbright orientation later that day. Brilliant!!
Great. Now I’m craving Kaiser rolls.
Only 102 days until I find out if my “brilliant” plan actually works…
photo credit: here and here
I have no idea what I want to do with my life. So, like any respectable liberal arts grad whose goals are vague at best, I applied to a couple of fellowships, looking for the opportunity to spend a year in Europe.
I was insanely fortunate (either that, or my proposal was just indescribably brilliant) that I received both of the fellowships I applied for. I chose to take the Fulbright fellowship to Germany. I’ll be leaving September 14th, 2008 from my home in the Midwest, and arriving in Frankfurt at the crack-of-German-dawn the next day.
This blog will be about my preparations for the trip, as well as my experiences with the Fulbright and living abroad. I don’t expect to post extremely regularly, because I have another blog that’s closer to my heart, but I will aim to post here 2-3 times per week. So, to keep up with my trip, I suggest you click on the “Feed on Posts” link in the upper right corner and follow me through your favorite RSS reader (I use Google Reader, if you’re looking for suggestions). I’ll try to add an e-mail updates option later.
Bis später!
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