Tuesday, November 6

A Few Things I have Learned

After spending three days in Berlin and talking with a Brit the whole time, I thought I would share a few things I have learned. It is a bit unfair, but the rest of the world knows American slang much better than America knows the slang of the world. This is not because we just refuse to learn about other cultures, it is because American culture has become part of other cultures, maybe that is a problem, but I didn't start it, and I can't really fix it. Here is what would happen, we would be having a perfectly normal conversation, Russ would throw in some term I had never heard, generally out of context I would figure it out, but sometimes I had no idea.

  • To lampoon someone is to make fun of them
  • if you were to go into a supermarket in London and ask for a zucchini and an egg plant, they would have no idea what you were talking about. Instead you should ask for a courgette and an aubergine (which is more common, apparently)
  • this one made me laugh for approximately two minutes: carriageway=highway, I think, but I was imagining a horse drawn buggy in the Lake district
  • and the funniest one, I said that short hair suits me, because I am a spunky girl. Russ started giggling like a 12 year old boy. The word spunk refers to semen, oh dear.
There are more, but I can't remember them all, those were just the notable ones. I also turned into something of a wine-o, sharing in the drinking of three bottles and also going to a Weinerei. This place was great, you pay 1euro to use the glass, then you drink which ever kind of wine you would like to try, and then pay however much you thought the wine was worth. I had three glasses, and somehow we stayed at the place for about three hours. Then, after leaving that place around 2.30am, we walked by another bar, and Russ says they serve the best Mojitos there, so we walk in, and after coercing the bartender to serve us (because they were closing down), we go to a kebab house. We say good night, and the guy at the place says good morning. Berlin is so much fun. Sunday morning was me getting up for church (woo, three in a half hours of sleep), and then doing the Berlin thing and going to brunch. Berlin brunch= eating and talking, and then eating and talking some more. Then you have to talk a bit before you can eat more. We outlasted two groups of people at the table next to us.

4 comments:

kyrie said...

you didn´t mention the almost perfect german you were still ableto speak at the weinerei after a few glasses of wine...
;)
and of course the tiramisu at the brunch place...hmmmm!

so much fun hanging out with you! hope you got to your train on time...

Matt said...

HAHAH oh man lori that last one almost made me shoot cranberry juice out my nose.

B said...

Do you do anything but drink, eat, and travel in Germany? Miss ya!

Anonymous said...

funny, I just caught up on the blog of a Brit who moved to Charleston 18 months ago. One of his main themes is the difference in languages and idioms, and he wrote this http://www.geofftech.co.uk/iblog/2007/10/30/five-conversations-that-are-longer-than-they-should-be the other day. I'm sure you'd recognise similar things from the opposite angle, natch.