Sun, Apr 13th 2008, 06:07
TV Show
This weekend we went to Markersdorf to celebrate Mike's Oma's birthday. His grandparents live in Mückenhain, which is even smaller than Markersdorf. Their house is very old and was once a prison. We went to the restaurant in their village and I ordered grilled pork with scrambled eggs on the top and fried potatoes on the side. Mike's grandmother and mother ate tongue, which I find really disgusting. I tried a bite once, and it felt just like you would expect it to, like chewing on a tongue. Very icky.
For dessert I ordered ice cream, and Mike's grandparents had a shot of alcohol. I tried to imagine my grandparents having a shot after meals, but couldn't. Later I felt bad, because I had forgotten about the tradition in Germany where the person who is having the birthday treats everyone else. I wouldn't have ordered dessert had I remembered that.
When we got back from the restaurant everyone else went inside to rest before the next meal, so I suggested to Mike that we should take a bike ride to burn off the huge meal we had just eaten. Whenever we visit Mike's family, it is like an eating marathon. You are barely done digesting one meal before the next begins.
We took a nice bike ride around the village and to a lake that used to be a coal mine. It was a little too windy and cold, but the weather here is finally starting to warm up. I am really looking forward to the summer! I was a little upset with myself for forgetting to bring my camera on the trip, because I know pictures of the little village, the houses, and the flowers would have been nice to share.
After the bike ride we had "Kaffee trinken" (coffee drinking) which is a tradition for the Germans to do on weekend afternoons. I don't drink coffee, so I usually have water or juice. This shocks Mike's grandmother because in Europe people drink a lot of hot drinks like tea and coffee. And they rarely drink plain water, only sparkling mineral water. She asked how I could drink so many cold drinks, don't I have a cold stomach? But I guess in Arizona we don't really need warm drinks, even the coffees are iced!
Along with the coffee and tea, we eat cakes or cookies. We had streusel cake and also two store-bought cakes that were kind of creamy and had fruit in them. I like these best because they are sweeter. The sweets in Germany are not very sweet. They are quite plain and usually have fruit in them which tends to be more sour than sweet. This explains why his parents weren't crazy about my chocolate chip cookies which were incredibly sweet and buttery.
After Kaffee trinken, we talked a while and rested. Mike's grandfather showed me the photos on the wall, and pointed out who everyone was. He likes to impress me with his English by saying "thank you" atleast once every visit.
We left after that and went back to Mike's parents' house. Usually on Saturday night there is some big German television show to watch. I find these shows curious because they are live and often three to four hours long. I usually can't stay up until the end.
The most popular show is Wetten dass...? (roughly translated to Wanna bet?) Ordinary people offer to perform strange or difficult tasks. They also have celebrities and musical performances. I find it amusing to watch stars like Nicholas Cage, Celine Dion, Renee Zellweger, and Jerry Seinfeld sitting on the show looking very confused. My favorite bet was when a man claimed he could identify all of his cows by name, based on the way they sounded when eating apples. He was blindfolded, and the cows all had cute women's names. He was able to identify them all correctly!
Another show is called Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel, which is primarily a music show. When we watched, they had Hans Klok, a magician, on the show who performed along with Pamela Anderson. Hans Klok was really entertaining and I would like to see him perform live.
The show we watched last night was called Verstehen Sie Spass? (Do you understand fun?). It is kind of like a candid camera show where they play pranks on people. They told one family they were going to redecorate their home, then they made it really ugly looking and exactly the colors the family said they hated. They also had comedians on the show (which I found boring because it is very hard to understand comedy in a foreign language), and a joke-telling contest.
We are back at our apartment now. I just checked the mail and had a bunch of postcards waiting for me:
Taiwan, Montana, Portugal
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Fri, Apr 11th 2008, 05:12
My favorite web sites
The following are some fun/useful/amusing websites that I have discovered, and I thought I would share them with the two people who read my blog (Hi Mike!).
Pandora Radio (unfortunately I can't use this anymore since it is only available to listeners in the U.S.) At this website you can submit songs or artists that you like, and then according to those, the website will play you songs that it thinks you will like. You then continue to tell them which you like and which you don't, and I suppose that eventually it will only play things you like. Very cool.
AllRecipes.com This website allows you to make a profile where you accumulate favorite recipes. You can also submit your own, and rate others' recipes. I have used it many times to figure out how to make things from home. (The site also converts the measurements!)
Trip Advisor I have found this site to be very useful when planning a vacation. It shows hotel reviews and ratings.
PostCrossing This is the postcard exchange that I joined. You can send up to 5 postcards at a time, and once they are received, your address is randomly given to another user. I have received postcards from all over the world! You can see some of the postcards I have received here.
The Advertising Slogan Generator I blogged about this one earlier. It's not really useful, but it's definitely amusing.
YouTube you probably all know about this one, the site allows people to share videos and you can spend a lot of time looking through them
IMDB this is an internet movie database. You can find information on every film and filmstar. Also gives you ratings, so you know which ones to skip, and message boards, for when you don't understand the movie (Cache, anyone?)
Top 10 Incredible Sound Illusions I just found this the other day, it's best experienced with headphones, and some of them are really cool!
One final favorite is someone I have discovered since I moved to Germany, where the only English speaking television channel I receive is CNN International: this is Richard Quest!. He is a news anchor who also has two shows on the channel: Business Traveler and Quest. I have only seen Business Traveler, but the main thing I like about Richard is his accent and his enthusiasm. He is a real hoot. I recommend you check out the shows if you get the channel.
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Thu, Apr 10th 2008, 02:41
Dubai
Dubai can either refer to one of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), or that emirate's main city, sometimes called "Dubai city" to distinguish it from the emirate. Dubai has attracted world-wide attention through innovative real estate projects, sports events, and has become a world business hub. This is probably one of my favorite postcards so far.
The tall building that looks like a ship's sail is called Burj Al Arab, which means Tower of the Arabs. It is a luxury hotel, and is the world's tallest hotel. However, this month a new hotel built in Dubai will steal this title. The Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge.
Nothing new to report. My wisdom tooth surgery is looming in the near future, and so is my trip to Arizona. I will be so relieved when the surgery is over, and I am also looking forward to my three weeks in the U.S.
Last weekend the weather looked half-way decent, so Mike and I decided to go to the center and try to take some nice pictures of the Elbe Panorama and Dresden in general. But as soon as we got there, the sun disappeared and it started to rain, so I did not get many pictures. I took this one of the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).
I knew that Dresden was bombed during WWII and that many buildings had been rebuilt, but I never realized how great the destruction had been.
I did some research and found these old pictures of Dresden from the Saxon State Library. This one is a picture of the Frauenkirche before the attack. It has been basically rebuilt from rubble.
The bombing of Dresden by the Allies occured between February 13th and 15th of 1945, only twelve weeks before Germany surrendered. The bombing is very controversial, as many question whether it was a justified or necessary action from the Allies. Also, some Right Extremists (or Nazis) have called the attack of Dresden a Holocaust and claim it was a terrorist attack. Some view the attack as a war crime.
The Allies dropped over 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs on the city of Dresden causing a firestorm. Estimates of civilian casualties vary greatly because there were many refugees in the city at the time, and because some people have over- or under-exaggerated the numbers, but recent publications place the number between 24,000 and 40,000. The Allies say that it was a justified military action because Dresden was a major hub of transportation, and there may have been military factories there. Others claim that there were no military factories in Dresden, only refugees and wounded soldiers, and that the attack was aimed at destroying the last standing city in Germany and to crush Germany's spirit.
War is a terrible thing, and many horrible things happen that we later regret. But hopefully we learn from them. I know that when I walk through the center of Dresden it will be hard for me to forget the history of suffering and violence that occured there.
German Word of the Day
die Wohngemeinschaft- people sharing a flat/apartment/house, WG for short, I do not recommend it!
wohnen- to live
gemein- to have something in common with somebody
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Tue, Apr 8th 2008, 10:29
Wehrdienst military service
wehren to defend oneself
dienen to serve
Germany has conscription for male citizens of 18 years (mandatory military service for 9 months), which they can conscientiously object to (for religious, moral or ethical reasons) and instead do alternative civilian service. Apparently, only about half end up serving, while the rest object or are excused for medical reasons.
Holland
Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. This postcard is covered with stereotypes of Holland. Other regions and cultures in the Netherlands have a negative view of Holland because its culture dwarfs the others' as the view of the Netherlands in general.
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Fri, Apr 4th 2008, 10:51
das Überraschung surprise
Today I was very pleasantly surprised because I received an envelope in the mail. Inside, were three (!) postcards from a very generousPostcrosser in Norway.
The first postcard was a picture of two children fishing.
The second postcard is of the North Cape, Europe's northernmost point. The caption on the front is in Norwegian, English, and German. It says: The eye-catching headland that is the North Cape (Nordkapp) has served as a navigation mark for seafarers since time immemorial, and millions of sightseers have flocked here since the first known tourist arrived in 1664. To stand here 307 metres above the sea on a clear summer's day and watch the sun rolling along the horizon is an unforgettable experience - and Nordkapp can be equally fascinating on a winter's day, weather permitting.
The third postcard is of the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway.
It was really nice to receive three postcards from one person, I wonder how she can afford it! Maybe because she comes from Norway, one of the wealthiest countries in the world with a fully developed welfare system. This economic progress is caused in part by the development of oil and gas reserves off its coast. Norway was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2006 and also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index.
According to my family, I am part Norwegian (also part Irish and English). I am no genealogy expert, but I think it is probably very hard to conclude what the majority of me is, since there are probably lots of different nationalities mixed in there. I think this may be the case with many Americans. It does not seem to be the case in other countries, such as Germany, where people can say almost conclusively that they are 100% German.
Anyways, these 3 lovely postcards almost make up for the advertisement card I received recently from China. I was quite disappointed to receive it, because it was not pretty and I feel that it is unfair that I pay for postcards and this person did not. My postcard hobby is becoming a bit expensive. I think I was mailing too many, too frequently. I will have to slow it down to one a week, which also means I will have less to blog about :) I know you're all disappointed.
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The most popular show is Wetten dass...? (roughly translated to Wanna bet?) Ordinary people offer to perform strange or difficult tasks. They also have celebrities and musical performances. I find it amusing to watch stars like Nicholas Cage, Celine Dion, Renee Zellweger, and Jerry Seinfeld sitting on the show looking very confused. My favorite bet was when a man claimed he could identify all of his cows by name, based on the way they sounded when eating apples. He was blindfolded, and the cows all had cute women's names. He was able to identify them all correctly!
Another show is called Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel, which is primarily a music show. When we watched, they had Hans Klok, a magician, on the show who performed along with Pamela Anderson. Hans Klok was really entertaining and I would like to see him perform live. 
The show we watched last night was called Verstehen Sie Spass? (Do you understand fun?). It is kind of like a candid camera show where they play pranks on people. They told one family they were going to redecorate their home, then they made it really ugly looking and exactly the colors the family said they hated. They also had comedians on the show (which I found boring because it is very hard to understand comedy in a foreign language), and a joke-telling contest.
