I have now seen Harry Potter 7 part 2 in German and in English! I enjoyed it a lot, even though they left out a lot as usual. Seeing it in German (and going to a German movie theater) was really interesting. German movie theaters have assigned seats, you choose your seat when you buy your ticket. The theater was carpeted (no sticky linoleum floor) and full of big red plush seats. There were even two person seats for couples. I got popcorn, because it's something I miss from America, and got to choose between sweet or salty. I understood almost everything in the previews, but the movie was a bit harder. I would say overall I probably got about half of it. But I did learn a bunch of new words, some of which are below. It helped that I knew the story and one or two of the better-known lines already. It was interesting seeing it in German, though! I'm glad I did. It's weird that something that started being important to me at age eleven is now over. (Thanks Aunt Ro for buying me that first book!)
Beforehand, Thorin and I tried out a cheap Thai restaurant I found, which was delicious, so now I'm completely thrilled. Every place I live needs to have an affordable Thai restaurant nearby.
Saturday I went to Seehasenfest in the nearby town of Friedrichshafen with my friends Alessia and Tobi! Seehasenfest (literally meaning sea hare festival) began after WW2. Friedrichshafen is not on the Swiss border like KN, and was almost totally destroyed in the war, so the city council wanted to do something to get the people's spirits up, especially the kids. So they began holding the fair, and there's a guy dressed as a hare who runs around the whole time. Apparently that originates from the fact that the people who live around Lake Konstanz are referred to as sea hares? All this background info is from Thorin/German Wikipedia.
The fair itself was fun! It made it feel more like summer, although it was definitely a German fair. Everything looks the same as home until you start looking more closely at the food stands, and everyone is selling currywurst! They did have an American specialties stand with corn dogs, though. haha. Tobi drove to the fair from Konstanz because it's impossible to get home late at night in KN. So we took the car ferry to Meersburg, drove to Friedrichshafen, and parked at Tobi's friend's house. We met her and her family later, and they were all so nice! I got to practice some German with her mom while we waited for everyone to go on some of the rides. I did ride the Ferris wheel though :-) It was beautiful--Friedrichshafen is on the other side of the lake from KN, so seeing it from 50 m (about 150-200 ft) in the air was amazing. The big attraction of Saturday night at the fair was the fireworks! They were really nice, kind of made up for missing the 4th of July at home! We got home very late but it was a very fun night :-) The best part was not having to pay admission--it was free for kids under 18 and Tobi and I decided we looked young enough to pretend we didn't speak German and say we were 17, and it worked...multiple times at the various checkpoints we went through...saved 4 euros but damaged my self-esteem haha.
Something else I find funny--I often ask Alessia about Italian words or foods or other things that I know from my family and our traditions--she says it is very amusing because I pronounce everything in dialect (which is how I learned the few words I know) and sometimes she doesn't understand what I mean until I describe it. :-) I was happy to find out that mozzarella in carrozza is a real Italian recipe, as are rice balls!
muttig--brave
der Stab--wand
die schlampe--bitch
tod/tode--dead, death
wirklich--really
German band in the biergarten--loved their outfits :-)
Friedrichshafen and the Bodensee from the Ferris wheel
fireworks!
Tobi, me, and Alessia on the Ferris wheel
No comments:
Post a Comment