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Published: June 15th 2007
When I first came to Europe... I took a shower. I felt gross, leave me alone! But anyway, the point of declaring that was that the bathroom I was in was a little weird. The tub was raised up and right in front of the door and very clear. So, it was a little weird taking a shower looking straight at the door, haha. And, instead of the knobs I'm used to, there was this box...thing. With smaller knobs for the temperature and force of the water. I didn't think much of it because it was an old building and I figured that they probably just added it after the building had been built...or whatever. No biggie. Bathrooms in Wales were normalish...In London, that was the first time I stayed at a hostel and that was kinda weird. The water only stays on for something like 30 seconds, if that. There is also no temp gauge. And as I have discovered, the Europeans take -very- hot showers. But, this shower was freezing cold at first and I was confused, upset...and now cold. but then it became hot and every 30 seconds I'd have to push the button to keep the water from stopping. I figure it was for conserving water, so it was worth it. The sinks do that as well which is almost always a good idea except when I just want to get my toothbrush wet when I brush my teeth and then it is on for too long. Whatever. In Ireland I experienced the same... In Paris, at that crappy hostel place, the shower was so tiny and smelly I wasn't in there for long. Maybe that's the point? Who am I to judge. But...today... was the weirdest shower I have taken to date. In Tobias's apartment in Copenhagen, it has one of those shower heads you can take down and move to get your back and stuff... buuuuuut this one isn't attached to anything. you have to hold it up to your head! I don't know if its because these are lower rent places, but, it was really silly, haha. I felt ridiculous.
Ooh, let's talk about driving! In most of the countries I have been paying attention to, the light goes from green to yellow to red like normal. But right before the red light changes to green, the yellow light comes on WHILE the red light is still on. So instead of yellow just being "Hey, red light is coming!" It also means "Hey, green light is coming!" I thought that was a really great idea and I have an example as to why! but some background info first. In Denmark, when you buy a car, you have to pay 180% tax... I dunno if I already said that earlier, but I'll tell ya again! So that's obviously crazy expensive, so Tobias keeps his nice car he loves to drive in Lux and that crappy car that recently broke down here. So when we drove it up here, he can't risk be found out driving it otherwise they wll make him pay the tax so I have to drive it. I'm not experienced in driving manuals. In fact, I don't think I've ever driven on the road. Correction: Once I drove home from the church parking lot I was practicing in the whole mile or two to my house on a small, not often traveled road. SO! Needledss to say I was a little bit worried driving his baby. the whole time he was anxious and it was sending off vibes which made me anxious. I was doing fine on the highway, no stalls, no mistakes and only sometimes a rough shift...until we got to Copenhagen. This is apparently where bicycles come to die. There were so many! Everywhere! And no one was signaling where they were going and the roads weren't straight but shifting all around and people were going fast, adn I didn't know the way, and teh GPS lady was talking to me, it was SCARY!! I'm petrified at stopping, because that means I'll have to start again, so Tobias was teaching me how to "float" to the car in front of me so I was still technically "going" and it was infinitely easier to start again. Well, these super helpful lights turning yellow before green made it a lot easier to know if I should float or go ahead and stop. my vote goes for instituting it in the states!
On to Languages!! Since English is a Germanic language as is Danish (and German too, duh) I have been a pretty fair hand at reading stuff. Tobias took German forever ago so he knows some so anything he taught me in Germany, I would remember and apply to any Danish words I could! Example! In Germany an Ausfarht (hahaha, ass fart) means exit! and later there was something else fahrt which means entrance. I was confused and he explained it was more like....car place to go. Or something like that. So while in Denmark I saw an ad for ipod with a pic of an ipod in an armband and next to it it said På Fahrt. From paying attention to commericals and reading newspapers and looking at captions I had discovered that på meant on, so I asked Tobias if that meant "On the go" and I was right! When people talk I can pick out some words, but Danish is the second hardest language in the world to speak because of crazy pronunciations....second to Chinese!I can say maybe....10 words but can read maybe 30. I bought a children's book in Danish and I promised Tobias I would be able to read Danish reasonably well next time we met 😊 Maybe pronounce it if I actually tried though. I think he's pretty impressed by how I am picking it up though 😊
I've been giving serious thought to moving out to Europe... I don't know when...or for how long, but I think a year would be nice. Six months living in Edinburgh would be amazing because it is my fave city still...and whilel there I can take language lessons and spend another 6 months in a country. I really want to be Bilingual...yea I know some French, Spanish and ASl... .but I want to be able to really talk. I've met so many people from other countries that can speak my language decently well, and I can only ask silly questions and orrder food. This trip has really made me realize how important languages and culture are. I think when I have kids, I think it would be amazing to have them grow up in another culture so they can learn to respect other cultures, learn another language, and really appreciate being American.
Well, that's enough for now... I'm going to look into putting some pictures on here. I know how ot do it with my camera, but not with my video camera, so this shoul dbe interesting.
CIAO CIAO!
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Em
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languages over there are crazy!
Isn't amazing how many different languages everyone else in the world seems to speak. Kinda like the joke...What do you call somebody who speaks 3 languages (trilingual) What do you call someone who speak 2? (bilingual) What do you call someone who speaks one language? An American....a canadian told me that and I laughed...but it's almost sad how true it is! Enjoy your last few weeks over there!!!