You know how sometimes in Canada the bank machine gives you a 50-dollar bill and you know it's going to be a nightmare to get rid of? But you try to pay with it anyway, because of how it's legal tender, and then the cashier looks at you like you've just escaped from an insane asylum? You know?
Well, today the woman in front of me at the drugstore paid for lip chap and shampoo with a 500-Euro bill. The cashier held it up to the light, shrugged, and gave her 496 Euros of change. I should mention that it's ridiculously easy to get rid of 50-Euro bills (and even 100-Euro bills) in Germany. I always cringe inwardly when I have to pay with one, but nobody's ever objected.
But 500 Euros is over 650 dollars. It's more than I earn in two weeks. I could buy my own weight in Ritter Sport with that bill.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Oh man
If you liked my last movie recommendation, you're going to love this one. Just kidding, they're totally different. But they're both great!
This one is called Max Manus: Man of War and the tagline is "They stole his country. Now he wants it back." Yes, that's a very douchey title. Yes, the tagline is even douchier. But - BUT - the movie is awesome. It's ironic, because I think the people who would enjoy this movie would be totally alienated by the way it's advertised, and the people who are drawn in by the title/tagline would hate it.
The movie is about the Norwegian resistance during the Second World War, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Norwegian resistance was one of the most bad-ass resistance movements. But it's not just about blowing stuff up and running from the Nazis (although it is definitely about those things) - it's also about the emotional impact of dedicating yourself to a cause that ends up killing most of your friends and making you question what you're even fighting for. Deep, right?
Oh, and you will have to watch it with subtitles (unless you speak Norwegian), but it's very much worth it.
This one is called Max Manus: Man of War and the tagline is "They stole his country. Now he wants it back." Yes, that's a very douchey title. Yes, the tagline is even douchier. But - BUT - the movie is awesome. It's ironic, because I think the people who would enjoy this movie would be totally alienated by the way it's advertised, and the people who are drawn in by the title/tagline would hate it.
The movie is about the Norwegian resistance during the Second World War, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Norwegian resistance was one of the most bad-ass resistance movements. But it's not just about blowing stuff up and running from the Nazis (although it is definitely about those things) - it's also about the emotional impact of dedicating yourself to a cause that ends up killing most of your friends and making you question what you're even fighting for. Deep, right?
Oh, and you will have to watch it with subtitles (unless you speak Norwegian), but it's very much worth it.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Fernsehturm
Quite a few cities in Germany, including Nuremberg, have old TV towers which haven't served much purpose since satellites came along. You have to admit that they're picturesque, though.
The Berlin TV tower is particularly iconic (you can take an elevator to the top, buy a t-shirt, elongate a penny, etc.), but I like the Nuremberg one a lot. Apparently it used to be open for tours, but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere and I expect it didn't get many visitors.
The German word is Fernsehturm (pronunciation: exactly what it looks like), which literally means "far-see-tower". This comes from the German word for TV, Fernsehen - "far-see". Duh.
This picture was taken on a beautiful March day, just a few minutes after my first ice cream of 2012. Oh, the memories...
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Long weekend to-do list
Colour (and hide and hunt for and eat) Easter eggs. Check, check, check, and check!
Reenact Titanic. Check!
Cuddle with taxidermied marmot. Check!
Run three-legged ski race. Check!
Make giant snowman. Check!
And ski a bit, of course. Check! See how my legs seem to be going in two different directions? Yeah, that happened a lot.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
And a good time was had by all
Have you ever wanted to see a video of me getting thrown down a steep slope? Well then today is your lucky day!
We spent the Easter long weekend hanging out in a hut in Austria and ski-touring on the mountains nearby. On the last (and sunniest!) day, we took a break halfway down the mountain to play in the fresh snow and I burned the underside of my nose, which I do not recommend.
If you listen closely, you can hear me say "I'm a little worried that you're going to..." right before I get pushed. Now I'm not saying that I'm always right, I'm just saying that in this case, I was totally right.
We spent the Easter long weekend hanging out in a hut in Austria and ski-touring on the mountains nearby. On the last (and sunniest!) day, we took a break halfway down the mountain to play in the fresh snow and I burned the underside of my nose, which I do not recommend.
If you listen closely, you can hear me say "I'm a little worried that you're going to..." right before I get pushed. Now I'm not saying that I'm always right, I'm just saying that in this case, I was totally right.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Listen up
What do you call a movie that combines HISTORY and SATIRE and NAZIS and SPACE? You call it Iron Sky and you should go see it.
Also, I'd like to draw your attention to "The battle for Earth is gonna get Nazi." Great tagline or greatest tagline?
Also, I'd like to draw your attention to "The battle for Earth is gonna get Nazi." Great tagline or greatest tagline?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Apartment tour, part 2
The kitchen! The heart of the home and all that! I happen to really like the kitchen in my WG. We have an old but mostly reliable gas stove and a tea collection worth about 60 Euros. Impressed?
Our kitchen also has an astonishingly large fridge for a German kitchen... many WGs have what I would consider bar fridges whose freezers aren't even big enough for an ice cream carton. It's a travesty, I tell you. But most Germans go grocery shopping a few times a week, so there's less of a tendency to stockpile. And most grocery stores only sell 1L milk cartons and 1kg bags of flour/sugar, so everything's scaled down a bit. The only exception is potatoes, which are sold in "Thanksgiving for the entire neighbourhood"-sized bags. Germans eat a lot of potatoes and that is not a stereotype.
What I said last time about WGs being an accumulation of everyone's junk is especially true in the kitchen, so when my roommates sublet their rooms a few months back, I decided to throw out everything in the fridge that didn't belong to me. Of particular concern were some eggs which I was pretty sure had been there since the day I had moved in, over a year before.
Fact: you can check if your eggs are rotten by putting them in a glass of water. If they sink, they're fine. Make yourself an omelette! If they float, throw them out.
Back to the story: when I tried this with the aforementioned suspicious eggs, not only did they float very high in the water (only about a cm of egg submerged), but when I pushed them down, they rocketed back out like ICBMs launching from a submarine base.
On the plus side, I found and inherited a whole bottle of beer! I also poured out so many half-empty bottles of wine that I felt like I was staging an intervention.
Our kitchen also has an astonishingly large fridge for a German kitchen... many WGs have what I would consider bar fridges whose freezers aren't even big enough for an ice cream carton. It's a travesty, I tell you. But most Germans go grocery shopping a few times a week, so there's less of a tendency to stockpile. And most grocery stores only sell 1L milk cartons and 1kg bags of flour/sugar, so everything's scaled down a bit. The only exception is potatoes, which are sold in "Thanksgiving for the entire neighbourhood"-sized bags. Germans eat a lot of potatoes and that is not a stereotype.
What I said last time about WGs being an accumulation of everyone's junk is especially true in the kitchen, so when my roommates sublet their rooms a few months back, I decided to throw out everything in the fridge that didn't belong to me. Of particular concern were some eggs which I was pretty sure had been there since the day I had moved in, over a year before.
Fact: you can check if your eggs are rotten by putting them in a glass of water. If they sink, they're fine. Make yourself an omelette! If they float, throw them out.
Back to the story: when I tried this with the aforementioned suspicious eggs, not only did they float very high in the water (only about a cm of egg submerged), but when I pushed them down, they rocketed back out like ICBMs launching from a submarine base.
On the plus side, I found and inherited a whole bottle of beer! I also poured out so many half-empty bottles of wine that I felt like I was staging an intervention.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Pedo-cannibalism
A lot of my students come from different (sometimes very different) cultures, so I try to answer their questions pretty neutrally, even when they're weird or not super appropriate. But today a student asked me, "What do you call it when you eat your child? You know, when you eat him." Uhhhh...
Me: "We don't eat 'him' and 'her', we eat 'it'. He eats food. She eats food."
Student: "No, I mean when I eat him. My child."
Me: "Food is an 'it'. You don't eat a 'him'."
Student: "But it's a child."
Me: "Uhhhh..."
Student: "Or an old person."
Anywho, turns out she wanted to talk about feeding her children. Yikes.
Me: "We don't eat 'him' and 'her', we eat 'it'. He eats food. She eats food."
Student: "No, I mean when I eat him. My child."
Me: "Food is an 'it'. You don't eat a 'him'."
Student: "But it's a child."
Me: "Uhhhh..."
Student: "Or an old person."
Anywho, turns out she wanted to talk about feeding her children. Yikes.
Monday, April 2, 2012
I only know one German band
You know how sometimes you like a song and then, weeks or months or years later, you listen a little more carefully and go, "Waaaaaait a second..."?
This song is called "Alles aus Liebe" - "Everything for Love" - and it sounds pretty happy and peppy and it's about killing yourself to prove your love. You know, normal song stuff.
This song is called "Alles aus Liebe" - "Everything for Love" - and it sounds pretty happy and peppy and it's about killing yourself to prove your love. You know, normal song stuff.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Sunday night German lesson
My new skis and I just got back from a weekend of ski-touring in Austria, which means it's time for a topical German word.
It's genießen (geh-knee-sen)! It means "enjoy" and just saying it is enjoyable. Try it! Let me show you.
Say, "I enjoyed that ice cream."
Now say, "I totally genießed that ice cream."
Which better captures the feeling of enjoying an ice cream? There's only one right answer.
P.S. Those are not my skis. Blatant misrepresentation, I know.
P.P.S. That's not how you conjugate genießen, but this is a Sunday night vocabulary lesson, not a Sunday night grammar lesson.
It's genießen (geh-knee-sen)! It means "enjoy" and just saying it is enjoyable. Try it! Let me show you.
Say, "I enjoyed that ice cream."
Now say, "I totally genießed that ice cream."
Which better captures the feeling of enjoying an ice cream? There's only one right answer.
P.S. Those are not my skis. Blatant misrepresentation, I know.
P.P.S. That's not how you conjugate genießen, but this is a Sunday night vocabulary lesson, not a Sunday night grammar lesson.
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