Addicted.

Since I've missed four or five days of posting I'll write two today, does that make up for it? I hope so.

Just a few things I've noticed and done.

It seems to me that all German radio stations have a great love for Robbie Williams (and Take That), Bon Jovi and for whatever reason-Shakira. I find Shakira to be just the female version of Nickleback, all her songs are the same just with the words put in a different order and maybe if we're lucky a slightly different beat.

Today I had a snowball fight with Rene and Ralf. I asked quite a few people to come but they all said "Hmmm....No." this should have been a warning to me and yet.....Hmmmmm No. So I walked gravely to the battle ground, armed with a lot of layers of clothing that should have kept me warm and preparing to prove my mad snowball fighting skillz.....and was promptly tackled by Rene. So all my practice at making the perfect snowball and aiming was pointless. I then attempted to tackle him back. He is (very) roughly 7"3 so I epic failed and instead scored a handfull of snow to the face. Snow hurts. It looks all innocent and pretty, but the ice is hiding underneath and when I could no longer feel my face and my fingers were red, that's when I noticed Ralf hadn't joined, so he got tackled too and when everyone was freezing and yelling "PEACE!!!!" That was when we quit.

Tomorrow is Silvester (New Years) and Laura has got herself some flavoured beer. I haven't actually tried German Beer. I can't really get past the smell but flavoured beer....now that's just taking it too far. It sounds like passion pop gone...wronger. (Germans google passion pop) Anyway she has orange and lemon flavour. I have no intentions of going anywhere near the stuff....but Laura has chocolate fondue, that I will definitely go near....mmmm delicious.

Anyway wishing everyone a happy new year (or a nice slide into the new year as the Germans say....some joke about it being icy so you can slide, I didn't laugh...)

Hope all is well.

A funny thing happened at the snow.

So the whole family went skiing for three days. Annika didn't come and Sonja didn't really ski so I guess that first sentence is false but none the less! Here are my theories on skiing and I've cross-referenced them with Hans' thoughts (what I think he'd say) and reality...enjoy!

Skiing

In theory: Ski slowly so you can maintain control and don't injure yourself or anyone around you, and don't look down because the fear of heights will cause a panic attack.

Hans' Thoughts: Teach Giorgia how to ski safely without hurting herself or anyone, making sure to stop constantly mid-slope so Giorgia gets a good look down the side of the cliff she's about to ski down.

Reality: Was too proud to listen and instead skiied too fast to see the oncoming jump...not that I realised it was a jump until I was in mid-air! Also had a panic attack everytime I looked down and at one point a tantrum ON THE SLOPE because I couldn't bring myself to ski down.

Stopping

In theory: Snow plow or parallel ski to a stop, a safe distance from other people.

Hans' Thoughts: Just don't hit me.

Reality: Only stop if you've hit something....or someone. Might as well take a few people down with you, they make a comfortable landing!

Catching lifts

In theory: Watch you feet at all times when on T-bar lifts (schlepplifts for Germans) and make a quick and safe exit before you hit the wall at the end of the lift.

Hans' Thoughts: I should go with Giorgia to make sure she makes it out ok.

Reality: "I can do it!" Gets distracted and forgets to exit the lift and instead gets the t-bar caught on her leg and dragged up with it...finally becomes unhooked and slides backwards before falling over. The lift operator looked disgusted....he stopped the lift and watched for a few minutes whilst I tried in vain to get up until Laura with her mighty German strength yanked me up.

Hope all is well!

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

So today it's Christmas. German Christmas, not the real Christmas....hehe.

Anyway so after I stared blankly at the roof for two hours during the Church service after realising that I was never going to understand, we went home. We ate melted cheese with potatoes and salami and other stuff in it and then listened to a Christmas Concert by Laura played on the flute.

At some point Laura started handing out presents. I'm not sure how she became the designated Christmas Elf, but none the less... Anyway I got lots of German novelties like flags and keyrings, money, a digital photo keyring that'll be great for forcing people to look atz my pictures of Germany and lots of other things. I'll soon be wearing my Ohm Gymnasium t-shirt daily, and one of my two new scarves and whilst I'm at it....the ring Andrew sent me.

It was pretty funny actually. It was on the arm of the teddy that he also sent me, and I almost missed it! Then just went bright red when the family started making engagement comments and when I found out it was too big to fit even on my thumb...going to have to fix that!

Anyway thought I'd mention just three others epic fails of mine:

1. When I couldn't remember the word for tears (trennen) and couldn't get my message accross to Laura and Annika....The best I could do was "Augensaft" (Eye Juice) they laughed so hard there was eye juice everywhere!

2. Today when translating Pick-up lines into German such as "Sooooo do you come here often?" (Kommst du oft hierher?) and "I've lost my virginity, can I have yours?" I epic failed. I forgot that JUNGFRAULICHKEIT is virginity, jungfrau is virgin. So I translated it as "I've lost my virgin, can I have yours?" to which Annika promptly replied....what does yours look like?

3. Today I also learnt the difference between "In dir" and "In dich" with reference to being in love. Whilst asking what "I'm in love with you" is in German. Annika stressed the difference between the two....Both translate as "In you" in english, but in German it seems that one sounds more like "I'm in love with being in you" than "I'm in love with you." Good thing she explained that one early!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Hope all is well.

That was an Epic Fail if I do say so Myself....

After Sonja's suggestion I figured I'd explain who Ralf is so peeps back home don't get the wrong idea. He is my BFFG...Best friend for Germany. So are many others because I am Lovable G, but he lives in Großgündlach and so between he and Eric they can just waddle their little german butts to our house whenever it suits.

Anyway I thought I'd mention some Epic Fails of mine during my time here in Germany:

1. Getting "Abtasten" and "Anfassen" confused. Both mean to touch...but in different ways. Considering I was saying "You just want to touch me" and used "Abtasten" which is the way a Gynocologist touches you....it made the conversation somewhat more awkward between Annika and I...My bad.

2. When Laura was making her nasty dumpling/noodle things she did it in boiling water...makes sense. I thought the container had a lid on it so I went to touch the lid....that wasn't there. Spent the next few minutes yelling random German words as if they were profanities....the Germans laughed.....bad Germans.

3. When I spoke to a girl in my class for ten minutes in English before realising they said "She went on an exchange TO New Zealand" not FROM New Zealand....she hadn't understood a word I said.

4. My first meeting with Laura's Grandmother: "Wie geh.... (realises she can't say "du" because she hasn't met her before) ...gehen es Sie...... (Ooops supposed to use Ihnen) .....Sienen" Fail.

5. Getting really upset when a girl I met couldn't understand me and instead said "Sorry I can't understand you" ... All I said was "Do you still have family in Dubai" auf Deutsch (she came from there), I was so embarrassed, until hours later Laura told me she doesn't speak German.....That makes sense!

That's just a few of the Fails I haven't mentioned. Obviously there's the tissue episode and I can never remember which word is cake and which is kitchen...

Hope all is well.

Small Steps.

So today I achieved as follows:

1. Found out my year seven German teacher doesn't speak English so I couldn't Ginglish my way through a conversation. He and I struggled to work out what the other one was saying (Coz of my rockin' Deutsch and his....English, we gave up and used Sign Language....kidding.)

2. I gave a speech about Australia to the year eights, making an effort to avoid using slang and to speak slowly whilst watching the confused faces of the kids turn into REALLY confused faces. I also spent the lesson staring at a kid who looks exactly like Ralf and trying to work out his name so I could tell Ralf to look out for his twin...I failed.

3. Nothing from 10am-6pm.

4. Decided to make muffins for my class to eat tomorrow but I couldn't translate the recipe to english so forced Laura to cook for me....then we found out we didn't have the ingredients to make Muffins so made cup cakes instead.....I didn't know what "Cream the butter" meant, so I made Ralf come over and help.

5. Watched Laura play the piano, then the flute and then eat some gross boiled dumpling thing she made whilst attempting (and failing) to make fresh pasta. Ralf and I watched in horror as the slippery, brine and pesto covered dough was eaten...Still surprised she kept it down!

6. That's it. It seems a little sad that I achieved five things today. I did do my first German dictation, which I failed so badly that the German teacher tried to console me (whilst laughing) by saying "Ok, next....mal?" (Good thing I learn German.)

Hope all is well.

Sumo Giorgia.

It's taken four weeks and a lot of trials but I have finally found the foods that will make me fat. Apple Strudel and Ofen Käse. Magical, delicious, high in fat....who cares (I do) but I am on holidays and it will ll look pretty bad for Andrew if he only loves me when I'm skinnny!

Anyway so ofen käse is literally translated as oven cheese. So it's melted Camembert and it's great, you basically use it as a dip. Apple Strudel....well I'm sure you guys can work that out. However because I don't entirely trust your brain power apple strudel is diced apple with sultanas and spices in puff pastry. That was a pretty good description if I do say so myself.

We went and saw Cirque De Soleil and it was amazing as it always is. My family bought me the book and I've spent the last two days with Annika staring at the pretty pictures..We're easily amused! It was Solembanco and I hadn't seen that before. I stared at the costumes, they were so bright and they were definitely going for the Tranny look this season....A LOT of makeup!

I found out my extended German family reads my blog as well. Aunties, Uncles, grandparents....those cousins you didn't even know you had. None of them have been able to comment and I'm not entirely certain why that is, but the settings don't let people....it's probably a good thing, they can't protest my gross generalisations! Also some of my classmates. Mostly Ralf because I told him I'd mention him and he wants to be famous, I'm sure the others will want a mention now too.

Nothing much else is happening, I'm going shopping with a few people tomorrow, and by a few I mean lots and lots. It was Ralf, Laura and I, but I figured that'd be weird so I invited our entire class along...Made my own little excursion.

Hope all is well.

How do you Zoo?

So today I went to the zoo. I saw lots of snow animals. Snow ducks, snow turtles, snow cheetahs. All specifically bred to live in the snow....or not. Most were indoors, and Laura and I were forced to endure the stench of the ugly Tapirs (some weird pig/elephant like animal), big cats and all the other indoor animals. It was a pretty great day though. No one in their right mind goes to the zoo in winter. All the animals are hibernating and the ones that aren't sleeping are playing dead so we had the entire zoo to ourselves, my only real problem with the day was that my legs hurt now. Considering I've done next to no exercise in a month and the zoo was MASSIVE I guess it makes sense...Maybe I should start snow jogging?!? Anyway I took lots of photos, I really loved the snow camels. They made my day!

Later I sat down to my favourite TV shows. Familie in Brennpunkt (Roughly- Family in strife), Verdachts Fälle (Betrayals...again...rough tranlation) and random MTV shows that I are in English so I can just zone out. Particularly entertaining was the family where the father not only kept an eye on his daughter, but set up strict curfews, put a video camera in her room so when boys were there he could watch and put a tracking device in her handbag....wrong on so many levels. Annika and I laughed the entire show. Then she went to go babysit and I went and...stared into space for a few hours. Not entirely certain what I have achieved since 3pm..not a lot!

So I baked my (now famous) cookies. Annika did most of the work but I told her what to do, and took the credit. We put way too much sugar in it, Germans don't have chocolate chips so we smashed a couple of chocolate bars and put that in instead and then for good measure, more sugar and chocolate. I think the people Laura and I had over for a few movies last night nearly choked on sugar. I forced at least three down each of their throats....now to bake another batch....

Hope all is well.