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Sonntag, 12. März 2006
Ausflug nach Deutschland ! (written by Marie-Soleil, Quebec)
daito, 15:01h
I lost a bet, so I won the chance to write the blog entry about Germany…
Let’s see if you can guess which cities we have been to by the description made by a Canadian.
First city. ThursDay and opening of the Carnival. First immersion into the German partying culture, which is, basically, most of what I have seen from Germany dUring this first trip! It was also my first contact with traditional German music, which, if I understood correctly, most German don’t like this music but, obviously, the Carnival is a special occasion, and, all of a sudden, it becomeS the only music that you hear in pubs and partys. An intensive immersion back into your tradition for a couple of days, enough to last until the next year and the next Carnival. So, we’ve spent this first day hanging out with Sylvia and having a very plesant dinner, with obviously, a couple a good German beers. By the way, it was very welcome to taSte proper beer because the beEr we get in Sweden is not so good, to say the least. Sylvia also became my first German teacher: “Weichei” and “SchLleimer” are now part of my every Day vocabulary.
Cultural difference: We also have a Carnival in Quebec city (French part of Canada) in February, but the ambiance is very different to what I have seen in Germany. Maybe because laws in Canada do not allow peOple to drink alcohol in public areas (parks, stReets, etc.) and, secondly, and probably, most importantly, the weather is -20C, without windchill (-30 if you’re unlucky). So, who, in their right state of mind, would want to party outside in this temperature, when it’s Freaking cold?
Second city. Second party! This is also where I learned more of the German words that I now know. Of course, Stefan had thaught me, Beforehand, the so useful sentence “Ich möchte diesen teppich nicht kaufen”. Which, unfortunately and surprisingly, I did not have a chance to use. Ubi, on the other hand, intrOduced me to the german concept of “Etepetete”. Sorry for the spelling, even Stefan wasn’t sure of it ! So, as much as Stefan was happy to see all of his friends baCk, I was pretty interested in getting to meet German students. Some people tHink that travelling is about sightseeing in cities and in turistic attractions, but my definition of travelling has a lot to do with knowing one’s cultUre and society and, to do that, you actually have to meet people from the place. This 5 days in Germany gave Me the opportunity to get of taste of the German culture which would not have been possible without the many people I met.
Third city. We were there, very exactly, 103 days, 18 hours, 43 mins and 32 secs before the kickoff of the World Cup, according to some panels seen in a pub. Probably not a place that I would have gone by myself as a turist, so it makes it even more interesting for me. In this city, Stefan introduced me to GerMan beer tradition: don’t order a kölsh in Dusseldorf or a pils in Köln (or is it the other way around, I’m not too sure anymore!). So wE had kölsh, pils, alt and another type of beer that starts with a V (I can’t remember the Name, but I can give you a clue: you drink it with banana juice!?!). Oupps, I was going to forget about my favorite part of Germany: its cuisine ! I expecteD some of it and I wasn’t disappointed: currywurst, bratwurst and of course, sauerkraut (home made!) and gulasch (home made also!). Very fatt..oupss...I meant, very tasty!!! But, the biggEst culture schock that I got in Germany was about something totally unexpected: ice cream. Canadians have some lessons to take from German about ice cream gastronomy! I had never seen such a big restauraNt devoted only to ice cream and such big ice cream devoted only for me !!!
Fourth and last city. Last immersion into Karnival culture. A long parade. Many candies. Just like Halloween, but instead of going to get the candies, the candies come to you.
More kÖlsh. More fun. More tired. More night train back to Kopenhamn. And, finally, Lund. It’s weird to go back to a city where I have onLy been for 6 weeks and still feel that I am returNing home. Probably different for Stefan, he was leaving home !
That’s for Germany! I liked the discovery of it, but haven’t finished yet. Definitively plan to go back there, probably for the World Cup! I hope I did not torture you too much with English. Sorry I couldn’t write German. I leave you with Stefan and the rest of his Swedish adventures. By the way, has he paid his 400Kronor fine yet?
Let’s see if you can guess which cities we have been to by the description made by a Canadian.
First city. ThursDay and opening of the Carnival. First immersion into the German partying culture, which is, basically, most of what I have seen from Germany dUring this first trip! It was also my first contact with traditional German music, which, if I understood correctly, most German don’t like this music but, obviously, the Carnival is a special occasion, and, all of a sudden, it becomeS the only music that you hear in pubs and partys. An intensive immersion back into your tradition for a couple of days, enough to last until the next year and the next Carnival. So, we’ve spent this first day hanging out with Sylvia and having a very plesant dinner, with obviously, a couple a good German beers. By the way, it was very welcome to taSte proper beer because the beEr we get in Sweden is not so good, to say the least. Sylvia also became my first German teacher: “Weichei” and “SchLleimer” are now part of my every Day vocabulary.
Cultural difference: We also have a Carnival in Quebec city (French part of Canada) in February, but the ambiance is very different to what I have seen in Germany. Maybe because laws in Canada do not allow peOple to drink alcohol in public areas (parks, stReets, etc.) and, secondly, and probably, most importantly, the weather is -20C, without windchill (-30 if you’re unlucky). So, who, in their right state of mind, would want to party outside in this temperature, when it’s Freaking cold?
Second city. Second party! This is also where I learned more of the German words that I now know. Of course, Stefan had thaught me, Beforehand, the so useful sentence “Ich möchte diesen teppich nicht kaufen”. Which, unfortunately and surprisingly, I did not have a chance to use. Ubi, on the other hand, intrOduced me to the german concept of “Etepetete”. Sorry for the spelling, even Stefan wasn’t sure of it ! So, as much as Stefan was happy to see all of his friends baCk, I was pretty interested in getting to meet German students. Some people tHink that travelling is about sightseeing in cities and in turistic attractions, but my definition of travelling has a lot to do with knowing one’s cultUre and society and, to do that, you actually have to meet people from the place. This 5 days in Germany gave Me the opportunity to get of taste of the German culture which would not have been possible without the many people I met.
Third city. We were there, very exactly, 103 days, 18 hours, 43 mins and 32 secs before the kickoff of the World Cup, according to some panels seen in a pub. Probably not a place that I would have gone by myself as a turist, so it makes it even more interesting for me. In this city, Stefan introduced me to GerMan beer tradition: don’t order a kölsh in Dusseldorf or a pils in Köln (or is it the other way around, I’m not too sure anymore!). So wE had kölsh, pils, alt and another type of beer that starts with a V (I can’t remember the Name, but I can give you a clue: you drink it with banana juice!?!). Oupps, I was going to forget about my favorite part of Germany: its cuisine ! I expecteD some of it and I wasn’t disappointed: currywurst, bratwurst and of course, sauerkraut (home made!) and gulasch (home made also!). Very fatt..oupss...I meant, very tasty!!! But, the biggEst culture schock that I got in Germany was about something totally unexpected: ice cream. Canadians have some lessons to take from German about ice cream gastronomy! I had never seen such a big restauraNt devoted only to ice cream and such big ice cream devoted only for me !!!
Fourth and last city. Last immersion into Karnival culture. A long parade. Many candies. Just like Halloween, but instead of going to get the candies, the candies come to you.
More kÖlsh. More fun. More tired. More night train back to Kopenhamn. And, finally, Lund. It’s weird to go back to a city where I have onLy been for 6 weeks and still feel that I am returNing home. Probably different for Stefan, he was leaving home !
That’s for Germany! I liked the discovery of it, but haven’t finished yet. Definitively plan to go back there, probably for the World Cup! I hope I did not torture you too much with English. Sorry I couldn’t write German. I leave you with Stefan and the rest of his Swedish adventures. By the way, has he paid his 400Kronor fine yet?
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