Well. Sorry. But it seems I forgot to write a blog after our women's team lost the world cup championship game. I don't know what happened, but I realize that I managed to write something on my school's blog, so I will copy and paste it here. Seriously, seriously, don't know what happened. Weird. Anyways! Here is the missing post!
Posted on 6/19 (I know, right?!):
Well, as it turns out, there was construction on the road to the Women’s World Cup. (corney, but my post previous to this was "Road to the Women's World Cup, so it makes sense! Quit laughing!!!) We played Japan at 8:45 PM local time Sunday night. It was a good game! Really, it was! Though, the japanese team was so very polished with all their passes, and it seemed that if a pass of ours got intercepted (which happened a lot), all the progress we’d just made would be erased in a heartbeat. They are very excellent ball handlers, (Should that be ball footlers?) so they would play keep-away with our ladies all the way down the field, until one of ours hulked up and went into a berserker rage and took away possession on grounds of pure adrenaline. That’s how the game went the entire time, back and forth, back and forth. We had some very close shots on goal, and should’ve scored three goals in regulation instead of just one. As fate, fortune, and luck (the dumb kind) would have it, the game went to PKs, whereupon we just simply fell apart, and Japan won. Which they earned, and even needed, but I still would have liked for us to win. Oh well.
On to more boring topics!
Morning light is a glorious thing. Soft and gentle. And refreshing. I’ve always marveled at the huge difference there is between dawn and dusk. At first, you’d think the two would be the same, no? Same angle to the earth and all… But you can tell that, as the sun is falling, the sunshine is clearly exhausted. Mornings are fresh and lovely. I like to enjoy them. If I can ever wake up early enough.
Garbage trucks are an alarm clock’s best friend.
I was walking to work, and I had a revelation. I was waiting for the “okay to walk” signal, when I looked around and asked myself how life would be here if I were 100% fluent in German (as opposed to 0.5%)? Or in other words, how would you like it here if it were an English-speaking city/country? Conclusion: I could love it here! I like this new perspective, it makes things so much more pleasant!
I wonder if people at work are starting to not believe me when I ask them to slow down when they talk. When the thing that I want to say is simple enough, I blaze through the sentences. And I’m starting to pick up on the little speech abbreviations and word mash-ups that these frankisch folk seem to do so often! So at one point, it’s clear as mud, and in the next second, I might find that I have a squeegee to combat said mud. With such a sporadic pattern of clarity, in which I understand completely, I really do wonder if people think I’m jerking their leg. Because I’m really not. Maybe I should fake it, and dumb down my German when I talk. Here’s a common occurance.
Them: lightning fast German Frankisch gibberish
Me: blank stare. Shift weight, shift eyes, and then mumble “…könnten Sie wiederholen, bitte“ (could you please repeat yourself)
Them: blähblähblähblähbläh
Me: Blank stare. Blink. Sigh inwardly. Sputter, “tut mir leid, aber Sie sprechen sehr schnell. Noch mal bitte, langam?“ (I’m sorry, but you talk very fast. Once more please, slowly?)
Them: Könnten… Sie… mir… die… Nummern… geben? (Could you give me the numbers?)
Me: (said somewhat quickly) „Ja klar! Ich habe die Nummern gerade gerechnet. Whelche Nummern wollen Sie genau haben?“ (Yes, of course! I have just calculated the numbers. Exactly which numbers would you like?)
Them: caeoicnaöoweimfwaeofiaewoiaöefiancaweu
[Me: NOoooo! That’s not what I meant! I take it back! I take it baaaaack!!!]
No comments:
Post a Comment