Sunday, November 29, 2009

A good blog

I just found a funny blog, these kind people commented on Remember White Rabbit:

http://cursesandblast.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to June 30, 2009 and read "German words for English Eyes" and you wil see why I was laughing so hard. Enjoy!
God Bless America! (and my German health insurance)

I just got my new travel health insurance card in the mail the other day, and while I was just now sorting out my mail and junk on my table from the week, I read the back of the insurance card. Here's what it says:

"Please inform our emergency service bef0re any hospital visits. This way you can avoid having to pay in advance. Especially in the USA it can occur that your credit card limit is exceeded."

Ha! It's not about having your hospital visit or ambulance ride pre-approved (good luck with that after you've been in a car wreck, for example) as you do on many American health insurance plans. The insurance company is actually warning you that you might have to pay some money out of pocket in a foreign country if you don't let them know about your treatment in advance. I like that kind of insurance! They are concerned about my finances, not just their own!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

I live in a madhouse

I am becoming more and more convinced that we have completely lost our minds every day. What got me started thinking this was the birth of my son Friedrich, or more exactly, the way he views the world. He was born with wrinkles between his eyebrows, and he always looks very skeptical. I am sure he could hear through the womb that he was on his way to a darn crazy place, and once he got here, it was crazier than he had expected. Not only do I have a five week old who views the world with great skepticism, but I have a three and a half year old who sings the song "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails while sitting on the toilet. This evening while getting him ready for bed, I walked into the bathroom, and there he sat, singing "Hurt". He has very advanced musical taste. Actually, he listens to the version of "Hurt" sung by Johnny Cash, and can also sing other Johnny Cash tunes, as well as various Beatles hits, songs by Belle and Sebastian, AC/DC, Ton Loc, Coolio and Helge Schneider. This in addition to memorizing five Dr. Seuss books, just about every children's song he has ever heard and most of his picture books. So you see, he doesn't just hear grown up music all the time. I can't even imagine what kinds of fun times we are going to have with these two boys in about 10 or 12 years!

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Funny Mistakes

Being a language teacher, and someone who is interested in language anyway, you have an ear for funny language mistakes that may have double meanings. I collect these mistakes. I heard a good one a while ago, and here it is.

An acquaintance was shopping on American eBay, and found an interesting auction. The sellers had translated the sentence "We ship worldwide" into German as "Wir schiffen uns in die ganze Welt ein". My German readers are probably peeing their pants themselves right now, because what this seller actually said in German was not related to shipping, even though the individual words sound like it, but they really said "We pee our pants in the whole world". Even if they didn't get a good deal, the German-speaking shoppers looking at this auction will get a good laugh for free!
Massive lack of updates

I can't believe it, this is the first time in the life of this blog that I posted nothing for one entire month. October 2009 was a blog-free month! Yet it was a pretty good month. The first two weeks were rather taxing, as I was waiting for my baby to come, and after he didn't come for 10 days after his due date, the hospital took some measures to speed him up. My second son Friedrich was born on October 15! So I have been busy with other things, blog writing wasn't on the top of my list.