What do you today night?

Musique: Philip Glass, The Hours Soundtrack. Fantastic soundtrack for an unbelievable movie. Phil's usually kinda weird, but this one's pretty mainstream-sounding. He's written some unusual stuff, most notably 1998's Koyaanisqatsi, which is the homo word for vagina.

So, I'm a little worried that mayhaps my limited German experience will not prepare me for my trip to Austria in the Fall. I can't imagine trying to impress a random Helmut or Kurt at the local Disko. Stefan won't be amazed by my being able to explain that my jeans are blue, and Hansel won't melt when I tell him that Frau Schulz has two dogs.

"I don't like to hike in the mountains," I'll say. "But I want the Bratwurst and, granted, my arm is long."

Plurals make it fun too. In german, you don't just add an s. Nein Herr. A plural requires some umlauts and random letters that ancient saxons thought were kühl. Or sometimes it's the same. Or sometimes it's just an umlaut, no random letters. Or sometimes I chew the spine of my book in a bitter rage. Watch and be puzzled.
die Mutter=the mother. fine. gotcha.
die Mütter=the mothers. Was der fuck?
das Buch=the book.
die Bücher= the books.
der Arm=the arm
die Arme=the arms.

German efficiency my ass.

So I'm more than merely worried about a first date in Vienna. I'm frightened.
"This foods is deliciouses. Whence come the chef assembling my stomach-fillers?"

or later that evening: "Good night, Michael. Yours eye are like bog of lit. Please, me kiss with your tongues."


Intriguing too are the compound words. Some of the gems are:
der Tageslichtprojektor=the projector (lit. day's light projector)
die Fahrkartenschalter = the ticket window
die Erziehungswissenschafte = education (as an academic subject)

German also puts words together that in English don't seem to jive. Translations end up being, well, loose.
Kindertotenlieder, or, Songs on the Death of Children. Not a Bradybunchy language, German.
das Seeleleben, or, soul-life. Poetic, yes. Difficult to ease that one in though.

"You're a great dancer. Soul-life!"

Could be fun to play with, I guess. die Erziehungswissenschaftetotenlieder, or, Songs on the Death of Education (as an academic subject).

Lastly, the seperable prefix verbs. These are quite like reflexive verbs in the romance languages. But not. A simple example:
stehen = to stand
aufstehen= to stand up, to wake up
Straightforward enough, I think. Until you try to make a sentence.
"Ich stehe am 8 Uhr auf." "I wake at 8 o'clock up."

That could pose problems when I try to get sassy with my new Mann, Jens. It might ruin the moment if I say:

"You make stand my penis up."
"Let's go homes and sex in every room have. We can clean later the mess up."

In reality, I do love German. It's a very direct and yet surprisingly poetic language. I'm just a little afraid that if I don't learn more, I'll have to rely on a kommst du hier stare. And I look like I'm getting a colonic when I make that face.

Ich höre Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave. I felt rully smart today when I mentioned I thought it was such a moving piece, and it certainly evokes the hardships of a slave. It's about Slavs, Carl. Not slaves. Ich bin ein Stupidevalleygirlin.