Saturday, November 13, 2004

New Entry

so, now that I am staying in the same city for a while, how should I title my entries? Will have to think about it. Any suggestions? I really like Chris' ones - he comes up with all sorts of smart comments. Wenn du willst.

Today is the second day of the german course. Four hours of German a day. I don't think my head is designed for more than one language at a time. I think in German on the way from the course and have difficulty saying anything in English for about an hour afterwards. Last night I fell asleep waiting for Chris, and when he got home and woke me up I couldn't understand what he was saying. He got annoyed because he thought I was being moody. Oops.

The pronounciation of Turkish girls in the class is quite undecipherable, and the asian girls have trouble with sch sounds, but the one from Bosnia is really good, also the girls from Iran, Poland, and Russia.

Every class begins with a new topic which I really like. Yesterday we did everything to do with cars and driving licenses, today everything to do with planes and trains. Learned about Orient Express, I didn't even realise there is one in Australia.

A lot of English leaks through when talking about travel and transport which I find quite amusing.

Other language speaking is not allowed in the class. Verboten!
So even in the breaks I speak german with the russian girl. It's quite strange, but I think my german is a bit better than my russian at the moment. In fact, when one learns the language, it's quite hard to think in another language at the same time. I don't know how interpreters do it.

While buying the internet credit just then, I had yet another encounter with my arabic "friend". He speaks English as badly as he does German.

"Hello, you forget me?"
"Nope"
"where is your girlfriend?"
"pardon?"
"oh you speak french?!"
"no, that is english. I mean what did you say?"
"where is your girlfriend?"
"I don't have a girlfriend here"
"You are here alone?!"
"Nope, my friend is here"
"Where is your friend? Is he your boyfriend?"
"He's at work"
"Ah but I am here, I can help you out"
"No thanks"
"ciao"
"ciao"
"bye bye"
"bye"

Chris finds it all amusing.. Ah well, I haven't come to any harm yet, so all is well that ends well.

Today we have secured an apartment. Chris texted me that he's got it sorted and DSL connected. Can't wait to have my own internet in a non-smoking room. All the smoking is really getting to me. Smoking is allowed absolutely anywhere. I am not sure how their smoke detectors work, they must only detect when something is completely burning down.

I think today we're getting the keys and tomorrow can move in. The apartment is in the most desirable part of Frankfurt - Bornheim. All the maps are quite misleading, especially the subway stations map. One would think it's miles away, but yesterday we walked from Bornheim to Hauptbahnhof in just under half an hour. Yet there are like 2 trains and 7 stations between these two parts. Bornheim is also close to the Zoo, so looking forward to that.

The tour I was planning to go on yesterday was cancelled due to lack of interest. I'll try again today.

I really like the way bikes work here... I New Zealand a bike is a method of fitness and whatnot. Here it's just a simple means of transportation. People in Cashmere coats ride bikes to work. No helmets, no spandex, no fancy mountainbikes. Just simple bikes and simple people. Bikes can go on the footpath, which is also good as I was normally scared to ride on the roads.

Not much else to say today, simple day. Chris and I had a bit of a fight last night, I guess it's a bit hard getting used to each other after a couple of months apart. Hopefully, we understand each other better soon.

Might go see if this tour is still on. Bis später.

1 comment:

travel_gypsy said...

hallo!

ich bin andrea auf den philippinen. ich denke, dass dein blog interessant ist. ich habe deutsch in meiner universitaet und im geothe institut studiert. und jetzt studiere ich allein. aber ich weiss, dass mein deutsch noch schlecht ist. hehehe! :)

wie lange bleiben sie in deutschland? ich hoffe, du hast viel spass!

gruesse,
andrea