Tongue tied

If I had to actually smack myself every time I got something wrong in German, I’d be rather bruised by now. I used “schliesen” when I wanted to say close, but couldn’t for the life of me remember what the word was or how to conjugate it in the future tense. Now perhaps I was [...]

Read Full Post »

Wies not Weis

I’ve been in Germany for almost a week now. It was for training, for what will take up at least 3 weeks of my life, if not more, over the next 6 weeks. My stay has been extended by lack of flights and by lack of planning on the arrivals side. I want to get [...]

Read Full Post »

Qa: I bet the locals say “No one ever pronounces it right…”

I think I ought to explain myself a little, to explain this excursion on my part, especially as most people have many of the same questions and I tend to get bitchy when repeating the same answer, or prone to making up stories. Topic: 4-6 months in the Middle East (or in non-Eurocentric/UN & US [...]

Read Full Post »

Blood debt

Footnotes are fleshed out after the “continue reading” link. “You break it, you buy it.” – crude maxim explaining responsibility in simple terms. It also explains my sentiments towards the war in Iraq. It was a war prosecuted for the wrong reasons and it can’t be said that the dead would speak well of the [...]

Read Full Post »

The Economist’s view of Sweden’s EU presidency – Opinion

I originally was going to write a post about this article, which I generally find myself in agreement with, but ended up leaving a rather lengthy comment in reply to other comments. As comments go it meets my own criteria for quality, and I think it is well reasoned enough and thoughtful enough, to serve [...]

Read Full Post »

A call to reason, through a different prism

One of my greatest frustrations with supposedly intelligent/educated/thoughtful people in America is that they usually lack the knowledge beyond their own subjective experience or desire to understand. History is a lost concept to so many, which gives rise to impatience and a failure to appreciate that time is a variable they actually do need to [...]

Read Full Post »

“What are you reading?”

…there is a fear on my part that translations miss some aspect, that I am missing out on something which I can only approximate an understanding of, but as in a commercial roll versus my aunt’s sweet rolls, you can only know it’s missing if you’ve had one before. It is a pain I cannot quite describe, almost heart-breaking to know that there is something which I am denied knowing because I do not have the means to get at it.

Read Full Post »

Télé

I’ve never really enjoyed Verbotene Liebe, but Marienhof comes on right after it and I don’t think there’s anything else to watch¹. I caught the last part of Des lettres et des chiffres, which I like because it helps me learn vocabulary and occasionally I get close to the count on the numbers; when they [...]

Read Full Post »

Tents are not in this spring line – 2APR2009

I have been keeping the purse strings tight for a while, even before my trip, though I am a little proud that I could make the commitment and pay for it upfront with one paycheck’s overtime. I know I will likely will go over whatever mythic budget I set for myself, in part because I [...]

Read Full Post »

Confidence 2APR2009

It’s hard to explain my comfort with France and French. It’s not “home” like Sweden or DC, and I’m always a foreigner, but it is a warm feeling, like curling up in front of the fire with an expensive dark chocolate that tastes indulgent and rich. It’s being a foreigner that I find so comforting [...]

Read Full Post »