Random Babbling Post #101

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Chev,
good luck with the job.

Except for that, I had a day long date in Frankfurt which was pretty great, but Frankfurt sucks as a place.

Eventually we ate at one restaurant near the 'Römer' because we didn't really find any other place to go to - Frankfurt is more or less dead in that respect - and it was filled with a bus load of confused Japanese (just like the average Europe-in-24-hours bus tourists they appear to be chronically disoriented). We decided on something basic and simple - potato salad and sausages, Frankfurter sausages. Being in Frankfurt we thought that trying the local speciality is a nice idea. Well, we got was boring Wieners instead.

Reason? I learned that English speakers falsely call Wieners Frankfurters. This shop-o-crap not only was steeply overpriced, it also made their menu list for tourists exclusively and adjusted the names in the menu to avoid confusing their main customers The potato salad sucked too, it was premade crap right from the bucket And I didn't like their cider as well Meh

 

Why is the weekend always over so fast.. sigh, it's Monday again, back to the grind..

 

Meeeh, so many people misunderstand me. My brother asked me something, then I proceeded to provide my opinion (which might have been confronting, that's true) and then he took it as a personal attack and started calling me snobbish and said that I thought that whenever people didn't like me it was because they are afraid of me or jealous of me.

I really meant well and didn't say what I said to make him look bad or make me look good. I guess that it is hard to understand that most of the time it's really what-you-see-is-what-you-get with me. The funny thing is that we were talking about the intention behind some of his actions, so perhaps I misunderstood that in the same way that he misunderstood the intention behind my words, that's possible, that's why I told him, this is what it seems like to me and you can take it for what it's worth.

I had a more intense form of this thing happen to me last year. A housemate asks me some advice about a guy that's obviosuly not into her and after telling her quite subtly that maybe she shouldn't get too enthusiastic about it a couple of times, I flat out tell her that she should get over it since all the clues (and yes, I did enumerate them) point towards the fact that he is not interested in her. She then proceeded to exclude me from all the dinners and parties with the housemates, and that while at the same time remaining polite to me when she met me in the hallway. That's just friggin' ab-surd to me. She wasn't a friend or anything, so I didn't really care that much, but I really watched the scenario develop in complete and utter wonderment.

 

@ Revmaf - You know, your churches method of brushing elbows in place of the virus passing shaking hands sounds quite charming. I think it is kind of sweet and it probably saves a lot of people from unwanted colds and whatnots.

 

I did skip out of church today, but I may not be able to avoid a funeral. My Grandmother is not well, and at one point was not expected to live to suppertime. Even though that time has passed, she likely doesn't have much time left...

 

BTA,
Frankfurt's city center is basically dead and uninhabitated out of business hours and days because it mainly consists of for museums, businesses and banks - and a smallish core around the Römer (the old town hall) with old houses. Nobody lives there. That's why there are no restaurants that are of the typical German local kind. If there are any they're in the outskirts where Germans live.

You do have restaurants like that shop-o-crap everywhere where the bus tourists go. The mentality: If they think camels are typically German, we give them camels - whatever sells. That's why the average bus tourist probably has the impression that Bavaria is Germany. Trust me, it is not. The alternative to the potato salad was sauerkraut with the sausages - which should have been a warning sign - sauerkraut is a side, and is usually served with mashed potatoes and something meaty, usually Nuremberg sausages or Kasseler. It certainly does not go as a 'standalone' with two sausages. That's not even a real meal, much less a typically German one. It's more like a bad joke. Well, I was distracted

Tip: Go where the menu is in German only.

 

I'm considering getting back into the education system...

 

But then I won't be able to read, nor pronounce anything on the menu!

Actually, I'm working on that. I've got a handy German alphabet printed up on clean room paper that I keep next to my work computer. I've decided that since neither of us can commit to a solid language course, I will find how to say a simple phrase in German, and for a full work week, the wife and I shall use that phrase whenever the English version of it would come up. Every week a new phrase while continuing to use the previously learned ones.

I expect to be fluent in German within 10 years....

Oh, and Rags...if you're still living in Cologne in 3 years, will you be our tour guide of the city?
We'll pay you!

 

Oh, those are the regulars. The drills are like bonus ones whenever we start looking too well rested.

 

@ Gnarf - I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. Are you close with her?

 

I feel the urge to clarify that there is no implied causality in these sentences, that it was just a leap from an analogy to the true meaning, and especially that outside zoos there are no camels in Bavaria. And I want to stress while it might be possible that tourists think that Germany is Bavaria because of Camels I deem that quite implausible.

Kitrax, we can talk about that. And keep up learning propper tscherman. Foreign languages are never a bad idea.

 

Sorry to hear that, Gnarf. But you're right - that's not a funeral you can skip, I think.

Dfly, thanks, we think it's a cute idea. If only we could restrain the middleschoolers from turning it into a kind of martial arts thing with each other

Possible snow later this week, and once again the weatherfolk were overly optimistic about the high temperature today, though it did finally clear up and turn sunny.

I would SOOO like to take a week off - out of the question for at least a month or two, though, too much going on that I can't leave undone. I like winter but toward the end of it - I want some time off.

So instead I'm babbling.

 

Another fire alarm. This time half-way through my pizza. I'm sure there'll be one tonight just after I go to sleep in order to complete the day properly.

 

Arg. My schoolwork is killing my babbling time. Depressing

 

I hate narrow-minded people! And it seems my college is filled with them. I can't wait to get out of this dreadful place and start university... or maybe the problem lies with me. Hmmm?

 

Ha! Honestly, I think you will find narrow-minded people just about everywhere you go. But if you look hard you might be able to spot a few open minded people mixed in. Just take the good with the bad and live with it. As long as you are yourself, that is all that matters.

 

My parents moved about an hour away from where both sets of my Grandparents lived when I was a baby, so it was always a big deal when we saw them. I guess we're as close as we can be (I was actually named after her, but that's a long story). This doesn't come as a surprise however. I've noticed her health declinind for a couple years now. I think my cold will be almost gone by the time the funeral however.

 

Training for four hours tonight. I think that I'll have to wake up at some point. Possibly.