"Bitte in Fahrtrichtung 'lernen' aussteigen."

I have two final exams this coming week. Both on Wednesday. Procrastination seems to be unaffected by cultural and geographic boundaries. 

My first exam is for Deutsch-English translation, for which my outlook is one seriously lacking in optimism. Not optimism so much, only optimism in a passing result. It will be a fun exam, really the whole of the course has been a blast, and extremely enlightening! The only problem (for me) is that it is a course for native German speakers who are near fluent in English. That being said, the texts/exercises are those German phrases/words which are seen as especially difficult to translate into English. I'm sure you can see the problem this will pose for someone who is in the course and arrived in Germany 4 months ago, not speaking any German. The professor has had a little mercy on me and will be allowing me to use a dictionary. That being said I need a lot of prayers and a bigger dictionary.  

However, I have learned a ton about the German language throughout the course, quite intriguing. Basically, to sum it up, the German language is much more impersonal and noun oriented. I actually have fallen slightly in love with the German nouns, as it turns out. Where we would have to use many more words, or a phrase, the Germany simply use a noun. For instance, on the train a man on the loudspeaker announces, "Bitte in Fahrtrichtung links aussteigen." The word "Fahrtrichtung" is a compound word made of "trip/ride" + "direction". So, if we were to translate it literally, it would be "Please get off in travel-direction left." However, since we have no noun constructions like that we would have to say something like "Please get off the train on the left side, with regards to direction of travel." Another example. German sentence: "Wir steuern in eine eklatante Ingenieurmangelsituation." It's really only the last couple words that will pose more of a problem to translate, as you might have already guessed. The first four words are comparatively no problem, "We are heading for a...". Then you would simply translate "eklatante Ingenieurmangelsituation" as "...situation in which there will be a stark shortage of engineers." That last phrase was a sentence that we used in class to practice translations. Basically, English prefers verbs and verb phrases, whereas German loves nouns. But as you can see, the final doesn't look to promising. 

I also learned a lot about English. The professor is British, which means that he doesn't speak English very well...or I suppose the better way to put it is that he fails to speak American with fluency. Many times he will translate something into English and I will be thinking to myself that I would never say that, it is truly interesting how different British and American English are. 

The second final that I have on Wednesday is my B1 Sprachkurs final. This is the standard German course, which includes speaking, listening, and writing, as well as vocabulary, grammar and the like. This will also be a challenging final, but I am confident that I will be able to come away with an A or B in  it. You may think it interesting that I described this course as being a standard German course that included all the above mentioned elements. The reason for this is that I also have a German course that focuses exclusively on listening and speaking, and another that focuses only on reading comprehension. 

Well, all this talk of courses and German is shooing away my desire to procrastinate and I can feel a little, baby Studyseed being planted. I suppose I should heed the sign and doing a little revision (British English for "studying"). Hope that the weekend is treating you all so well so far and enjoy the rest of it!

Red or Green?

"Red or green?" Wow. Sometimes when confronted with these three words it becomes a little hard to focus and find an answer because your mind is being assaulted by all its implications. What a beautiful question, though. Especially when it signals that a Frontier fiesta burger will soon be entering your mouth. Green is the obvious answer to the question is this situation, red chile just doesn't quite have the same effect as green chile when it comes to the fiesta burger (the red still does provide a gastronomic experience from Heaven, only a little less intensive one than that of the green). I guess what I'm trying to say is that it was absolutely great to be able to spend a little over a week in New Mexico during the Christmas break! And for those of you that don't know, "Red or green?" is the state question of New Mexico.

I landed in Albuquerque on the 29th around 21:00, and had the pleasure of being able to stay until the 6th of January. The time was spent as a family enjoying each other's company, and doing all possible to avoid any type of athletic activity (on my part). You can't really appreciate how remarkably in shape the Pavlik family is until you spend 4 months eating Bratwursts and drinking beer in Germany and then visit them. 

New Year's Eve was a blast: a few friends, a lot of games, and even more finger food to keep us occupied while waiting for 0:00 to roll around. We did all make it, although only barely! I'm getting old. 21 New Year's Eves behind me and I just don't know how many more I am going to be able to stay up to welcome. Other highlights included: 

• a meal at Redbrick Pizza
• multiple delicious family breakfasts and dinners
• dominating Nathaniel in 3 strait games of bowling
• a nice soup and bread outing with Nathaniel at Great Harvest Bread Co. 
• countless games of Bananagrams 
• a couple games of 7s
• reading, card playing, and talking in front of the wood stove
• a family outing to see the new Les Misérables movie
• a family walk down by the river at Berg Park
• a breakfast with Fr. Tim Farrell 
• some ping-pong at the San Juan College fitness center
• a couple hangout/study sessions with the family at Durango Joe's and Starbucks
• watching Joyeaux Noël with the family and the dogs
• many, many hottub sessions
• a few kisses from Scampi and Nacho

Needless to say, I didn't do a single bit of studying during the Christmas holiday, and so I am now having to play a little catch up before the final exams, the first of which is the 30th of January. On that note, I'm off to hit the books for a tad before bed. 

Istanbul Not Constantinople

Believe it or not, I am writing this post curled up in my bed in Farmington, New Mexico! If any of you are surprised to hear that, I wouldn't of believed it a week and a half ago either. Originally, my plan was to go down and spend Christmas in Stuttgart with Robert, a friend of the family from my parents' days as teachers in Germany, before heading back to Karlstadt for Silvester (New Years). However, those plans were shattered when Robert revealed that he had used his frequent flyer miles to gift my family with a round-trip ticket to Albuquerque for the post New Years period. So, here I've been since the 30th and will remain until this coming Saturday (the 6th). I have had an absolute blast while being here! It has been great to spend some quality time with the family, not to mention get a little dose of the green chile that has been so sorely missing from my diet. But that is another story for another time. Before boarding the plane headed towards America, on Christmas day Robert, David (his son), and I all boarded a plane with a destination of Istanbul, where we would remain until the 28th. 

DAY 1

We arrived in Istanbul around 19:30, and went strait to our motel to check in and unpack. After unpacking we decided to go on a little walk to scout the area out and see what was close to the hotel. It was then that we discovered what may have been the most enjoyable and important part of out stay in Istanbul: an amazingly delicious food source which we would end up finding ourselves at every night there. Once 19:00 or so hit, all along the streets little stands and converted motor homes would pop up with signs saying "Uykuluk". As it turns out, this is a local specialty of Istanbul (in particular the area we were in) and is quite delicious. We weren't positive what kind of meat it was, our best guess was goat, but it was meat that was fried on a griddle, then tomatoes, onions, peppers, and any other desired ingredients were added while the bread warmed up on the griddle, and finally everything would be put into the bread and the last spices were added. It was heavenly. We decided that the spices made it, as the first night we only had meat without any of those extra ingredients (but with spices) and it was fantastically flavorful. 

Robert and David with the man who made the Uykuluks.

This is not any of our Uykuluks (it was taken from Google images), but it gives you the idea

DAY 2

The view from the hotel room. 

The Blue Mosque, a still working mosque of Istanbul.

Entryway

The interior, an absolutely gigantic structure. All of the cords that can be seen hanging down are to support the huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

BOOM! There they are. No candles now, just lights though. The large area you see was not open to tourists, as it is still a working mosque. There was a railing behind which tourists could look around and take pictures. However, even women are not allowed into this area that you see, when services are going on women must be in the upper areas by the railings that you can see in the upper part of the picture

The size of the pillars that keep the Blue Mosque up.

Next on the agenda: Hagia Sophia

This mosque was originally a great cathedral of Emperor Justinian's reign, later to be converted to a mosque as the Turks conquered Constantinople, before finally being converted into the museum that it still is today

All over the city you could find these stands with oranges and pomegranates, where you could also but fresh squeezed juice

Topkapi Palace, the home of the emperors and sultans of Constantinople.

Galata Bridge, famous for the stores that reside under it.

The bridge from the top...I was amazed to see people fishing over the edge along the entire bridge

Good old Istanbul traffic. It took us (on our tour bus) about an hour to make it up this 3 mile hill

An interesting pool in front of a hotel. I had plenty of time to admire it, as it was on the hill of death

Part of the old ruins of the walls of Constantinople

DAY 3

The day began with a visit to the Basilica Cistern. This huge room underneath what used to be a basilica is special in the way that it is constructed. While most cistern were simply huge rooms/chambers to hold water, this one has hundreds of pillars in it, allowing for a very gorgeous atmosphere which my little camera had no chance of capturing. 

One of the famous attractions of the cisterns is the two Medusa heads on two of the pillars used. One is turned upside down, and the other on its side. It is suspected this was a display of Catholic disgust/dominance of the old pagan gods.

Finally! The first Starbucks I've had since being in Europe! So missed...delicious coffee and, above all, IN AMERICAN SIZES!!! 

Just a classy looking Burger King

The entrance to the Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar used to be open an open air market only covered by tents and such, then was later converted into what it is now...it is basically a gigantic mall, but with much less classy stores and goods. Also, be ready to have to barter.

It is amazingly easy to get lost in its kilometers of passageways and twists and turns

If that doesn't isn't the most attractive way to display a thong, I don't know what is.

We bought some fresh squeezed pomegranate juice

The largest pomegranates I have ever seen

Robert got a half pomegranate and half orange juice mix, which I must say was a little better.

For this cup it costed about 2 U.S. dollars...and it used like 4 pomegranates

At the spice bazaar

Jasmine tea bulbs

DAY 4

The last day was very laid back. We had to check out at around 12:00, which was also when we needed to leave to get to the airport in time for our flight, so we decided to just lounge around the hotel for the morning and collect ourselves before departure. It was an amazing trip and was great to be able to spend some time with a couple fellow Americans! I have been SO remarkably blessed in all that I have been able to do and see while over here so far and owe a huge thank you to Robert for making this trip possible! I hope that everyone has had a very merry Christmas and a superb start to the New Year! Best wishes to everyone, until next week!