Lost in Translation Pt 1
The lead up to Christmas was quite hectic with a number of Christmas parties and other events. My own lead up was shortened as I would be leaving on Dec 14th for two weeks holidays so things were busy.
We had the Marketing group Christmas party at the Bedouin Bar, the CRM team Christmas party lunch at swanky Abbaye and another Christmas lunch at the internal PwC restaurant, Indigo. Spent a lot of money during this time but it was all great food and fun. I also had my birthday dinner with my friends in London. It wasn't a very big one as it was hard to get people together at that time of year and some people fell sick as well, which tends to happen around that time. I, sadly, was still sick with my cough. We went to the New Mayflower in Chinatown. Very good food and reasonably priced but we went another time and the guy kept telling us that a table would be ready soon and we waited around for over 20mins before being fed up and leaving! I hate restaurant people who lie!!
I also went to see Jon Stewart (not Patrick Stewart, although he was in town as well doing 'A Christmas Carol') from the Daily Show. The Daily Show is an American parody of a news show and it's very funny. Jon Stewart was in London with his two producers promoting his book (America, the Book). Geoff was a big fan so he had organised tickets and he and Claire came down from Manchester to see it. It was funny but what they were basically doing was reading from the book that he'd written. I'd flicked through and read some of it beforehand so I knew some of the punchlines which made it less funny. After the show I heard people complaining as they had read the whole book and so the whole thing was quite a bit less funny. I mean, they had the book, they'd read it and now they'd paid £27 to hear someone else reading it! It wasn't billed as a book reading either so I could understand their annoyance. Their improvisation bit where they took questions from the audience was witty and clever. Oh, and Woody Harrelson was in the crowd and went up to do some impromptu script reading with them.
I caught up with Simone in London and managed to get her lost ;) We did get to see Harrod's at it's busiest in the process.
As I left work on Thursday to go directly to Stansted airport and catch my flight to Germany I was quite excited! Get away from work and experience a cold Christmas for a change! It was pretty easy to get to Stansted airport. I just caught the Stansted Express (£13.50) from Liverpool St which took about 45mins, got there in plenty of time. Continued reading Pride and Prejudice which I must say is a very engrossing book, captured me into the early 19th century from the first page! I think I will go see the movie now that I've finished the book. They're always making a new version of the movie (even Bollywood with Bride and Prejudice) but because I considered it girly fare I never bothered to see any movie version before. The book confirmed my love of the classics and motivated me to read more of them.
I've titled this blog, Lost in Translation because during my two weeks holidays I had to contend with 4 different languages: German, English, Khmer and French. You're asking, 'Why did you put down English, you speak that everyday?' True indeed but I found that I had to simplify my English and say things simply to be understood (maybe those people who said I was too wordy had a point. Naah! :)). I was also speaking at a slower pace and trying to be clear on words.
Lost in Translation is also a great movie, very deftly done, great cinematography. Go see it if you haven't.
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In Germany I was met by Andy at the airport (praise God!). Not that I doubted him, as I was on MSN Messenger with him just the day before but there's always a paranoia that that one critical link in the travel plans, for which no contingency was planned, will go awry.
For those who don't know, Andy is from Germany but had been in Melb for study and work and we'd done a lot of work with the Church youth group together in Melb. I better keep the bad things about Andy out of this as he'll probably read it! Just kidding Andy, nothing negative to say...hehe. Andy had returned back home to Germany for about 2 weeks and since it fell in the time that I was planning my Christmas holidays I decided to visit him in Germany. Fortunately he was OK with this idea so I stayed with his family in Essen (near Dusseldorf).
Besides the language, it felt like slipping back into a life of friends, engagements and discovery. Although the only person I knew was Andy, his friends were great and really made me feel welcomed and involved. On the Friday night we went to play volleyball where there were about 12 people. We did warm up drills and quite a few games and it showed me how unfit I was by the sore legs and back the following days. We even went out again that night for drinks and partying but I had to pull the pin and go home early (before the partying). Oh, it's not quite true that Andy was the only person I knew. Enid (apologies for spelling) who was Andy's housemate in Melb was also there and I knew her a bit. Great to see her again and get to know her better.
The next night we had dinner with the volleyball gang at a Greek place where they have old German style bowling with 9 pins and much smaller balls. Quite an interesting concept to have a private dinner room with the bowling at one end. On Sunday morning went to Andy's German Baptist church where I didn't understand much but they sang the songs in English which helped, otherwise I would have really been lost in translation the whole time. Most Germans understand, if not speak, English so it wasn't too bad and I had a few conversations with people there. Even found out Andy's old girlfriend hahaha! Yes, Andy, you didn't say anything but your friends were eager to point her out hehehe. That night we had a Christmas party with the 'youth' (20-somethings) of the church at Drago's steak restaurant. Wasn't sure about it as I had a lot of meat the night before at the Greek place but the steak was spot on! Delicious! By this time I was managing to read the main words on menus and figuring out what I wanted though I couldn't speak more than about 5 words in German. It's amazing what you can guess about what people are saying though by the context, the few words that you understand, tone and body language!
Went out again to an Italian restaurant and a Mexican restaurant in the days left. We didn't eat at home very much because we were going out and seeing people all the time but Andy's mum did cook traditional German food for Sunday lunch: Bratwurst, mashed potatoe and sauerkraut.
Andy's Mum, Dad and brother Christian were great and very accommodating. We drove out to the Deitchman family camp site even though there was fog and snow. Andy also drove me to Cologne for a bit of sightseeing. It snowed for two days while I was there and as I'm a fan of the snow I thought it was great to see!
A short explanation on Deichman which I knew nothing about before. Deichman Shoes are the largest shoe retailer in Europe. Andy's Dad works for them and the elder Mr Deichman is a Christian who does a lot of missions and charity work, particularly in India. Mrs Deichman is from near Essen and has a property that is now used for youth camps.
Before I knew it it was Wednesday and time to leave Essen for France. I had a torturous 6:30am flight and had to get up at 4:15am!! :( Thanks Andy for getting up and driving me, see you back in Oz.
Interesting observations:
We had the Marketing group Christmas party at the Bedouin Bar, the CRM team Christmas party lunch at swanky Abbaye and another Christmas lunch at the internal PwC restaurant, Indigo. Spent a lot of money during this time but it was all great food and fun. I also had my birthday dinner with my friends in London. It wasn't a very big one as it was hard to get people together at that time of year and some people fell sick as well, which tends to happen around that time. I, sadly, was still sick with my cough. We went to the New Mayflower in Chinatown. Very good food and reasonably priced but we went another time and the guy kept telling us that a table would be ready soon and we waited around for over 20mins before being fed up and leaving! I hate restaurant people who lie!!
I also went to see Jon Stewart (not Patrick Stewart, although he was in town as well doing 'A Christmas Carol') from the Daily Show. The Daily Show is an American parody of a news show and it's very funny. Jon Stewart was in London with his two producers promoting his book (America, the Book). Geoff was a big fan so he had organised tickets and he and Claire came down from Manchester to see it. It was funny but what they were basically doing was reading from the book that he'd written. I'd flicked through and read some of it beforehand so I knew some of the punchlines which made it less funny. After the show I heard people complaining as they had read the whole book and so the whole thing was quite a bit less funny. I mean, they had the book, they'd read it and now they'd paid £27 to hear someone else reading it! It wasn't billed as a book reading either so I could understand their annoyance. Their improvisation bit where they took questions from the audience was witty and clever. Oh, and Woody Harrelson was in the crowd and went up to do some impromptu script reading with them.
I caught up with Simone in London and managed to get her lost ;) We did get to see Harrod's at it's busiest in the process.
As I left work on Thursday to go directly to Stansted airport and catch my flight to Germany I was quite excited! Get away from work and experience a cold Christmas for a change! It was pretty easy to get to Stansted airport. I just caught the Stansted Express (£13.50) from Liverpool St which took about 45mins, got there in plenty of time. Continued reading Pride and Prejudice which I must say is a very engrossing book, captured me into the early 19th century from the first page! I think I will go see the movie now that I've finished the book. They're always making a new version of the movie (even Bollywood with Bride and Prejudice) but because I considered it girly fare I never bothered to see any movie version before. The book confirmed my love of the classics and motivated me to read more of them.
I've titled this blog, Lost in Translation because during my two weeks holidays I had to contend with 4 different languages: German, English, Khmer and French. You're asking, 'Why did you put down English, you speak that everyday?' True indeed but I found that I had to simplify my English and say things simply to be understood (maybe those people who said I was too wordy had a point. Naah! :)). I was also speaking at a slower pace and trying to be clear on words.
Lost in Translation is also a great movie, very deftly done, great cinematography. Go see it if you haven't.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=za0rna8.878mxfk&x=0&y=2gh68m
(Click on 'View Photos without signing in')
In Germany I was met by Andy at the airport (praise God!). Not that I doubted him, as I was on MSN Messenger with him just the day before but there's always a paranoia that that one critical link in the travel plans, for which no contingency was planned, will go awry.
For those who don't know, Andy is from Germany but had been in Melb for study and work and we'd done a lot of work with the Church youth group together in Melb. I better keep the bad things about Andy out of this as he'll probably read it! Just kidding Andy, nothing negative to say...hehe. Andy had returned back home to Germany for about 2 weeks and since it fell in the time that I was planning my Christmas holidays I decided to visit him in Germany. Fortunately he was OK with this idea so I stayed with his family in Essen (near Dusseldorf).
Besides the language, it felt like slipping back into a life of friends, engagements and discovery. Although the only person I knew was Andy, his friends were great and really made me feel welcomed and involved. On the Friday night we went to play volleyball where there were about 12 people. We did warm up drills and quite a few games and it showed me how unfit I was by the sore legs and back the following days. We even went out again that night for drinks and partying but I had to pull the pin and go home early (before the partying). Oh, it's not quite true that Andy was the only person I knew. Enid (apologies for spelling) who was Andy's housemate in Melb was also there and I knew her a bit. Great to see her again and get to know her better.
The next night we had dinner with the volleyball gang at a Greek place where they have old German style bowling with 9 pins and much smaller balls. Quite an interesting concept to have a private dinner room with the bowling at one end. On Sunday morning went to Andy's German Baptist church where I didn't understand much but they sang the songs in English which helped, otherwise I would have really been lost in translation the whole time. Most Germans understand, if not speak, English so it wasn't too bad and I had a few conversations with people there. Even found out Andy's old girlfriend hahaha! Yes, Andy, you didn't say anything but your friends were eager to point her out hehehe. That night we had a Christmas party with the 'youth' (20-somethings) of the church at Drago's steak restaurant. Wasn't sure about it as I had a lot of meat the night before at the Greek place but the steak was spot on! Delicious! By this time I was managing to read the main words on menus and figuring out what I wanted though I couldn't speak more than about 5 words in German. It's amazing what you can guess about what people are saying though by the context, the few words that you understand, tone and body language!
Went out again to an Italian restaurant and a Mexican restaurant in the days left. We didn't eat at home very much because we were going out and seeing people all the time but Andy's mum did cook traditional German food for Sunday lunch: Bratwurst, mashed potatoe and sauerkraut.
Andy's Mum, Dad and brother Christian were great and very accommodating. We drove out to the Deitchman family camp site even though there was fog and snow. Andy also drove me to Cologne for a bit of sightseeing. It snowed for two days while I was there and as I'm a fan of the snow I thought it was great to see!
A short explanation on Deichman which I knew nothing about before. Deichman Shoes are the largest shoe retailer in Europe. Andy's Dad works for them and the elder Mr Deichman is a Christian who does a lot of missions and charity work, particularly in India. Mrs Deichman is from near Essen and has a property that is now used for youth camps.
Before I knew it it was Wednesday and time to leave Essen for France. I had a torturous 6:30am flight and had to get up at 4:15am!! :( Thanks Andy for getting up and driving me, see you back in Oz.
Interesting observations:
- Lack of street lights. A lot of the streets were surprisingly dark because they didn't have street lights. I know Germany is a much bigger place than Australia and has many more roads but even the main roads from the aiport didn't have lights which struck me as odd.
- Two 'Don't Walk' lights. At traffic intersections your typical red man and green man for walk and don't walk but add another red man for don't walk. ie. In the set of vertical lights you have red man 1, red man 2 and green man 1. Please explain. :)
- George Michael. His 'Last Christmas' song was playing on the radio all the time. It was like, because it was Christmas they had to play songs that mention Christmas (without playing carols). Andy says every year around Christmas it gets up on the charts. Thank goodness David Hasselhoff doesn't have any German hits at the moment!
God bless.
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9:37 AM
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