Happy St. Martin's Day
So as I'm sitting here, drinking my "coughing/bronchial" tea, and waiting for my shirt for the party to dry on the balcony, I am watching "Center Stage" on tv. The cold I thought I was coming down with last weekend seems to have come back. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to be lingering in my throat so far. I even felt a little sick to my stomach earlier on the train, but the bronchial tea should help. I will have to take it easy tonight and not stay out too late and I hope there isn't smoking in the apartment.
But luckily I don't have to go in for the text recording tomorrow. The boss called me and said their recording studio isn't working right and they'll have to wait for it to get fixed. I also told him about the terrible translations and how it's going to take me at least 5 more hours to get the rest corrected. He was surprised because he thought it had been good.
Unfortunately, his English skills were probably such that he thought it was right to put a verb at the end of a sentence or say "When you have now reached Markgrafenstraße 35...," "Just to your left, for example, are to be found the Greek Embassy and the Belgian Embassy...," and "That's hard to imagine today, or?" I mean, talk about directly translating the German words into English and not even considering how we'd say it!
So now that the recordings are postponed I actually have a little time tomorrow to recover from the busy week and lack of sleep. Today I drove the hour it takes to pick up the little 3 1/2 German girl I babysit from the daycare. Her parents, who are building a house in that area, have been out there painting and laying flooring. So I walked the little one over from the daycare to the new house and we all had a cup of coffee in their little make-shift kitchen, consisting of a coffee-maker on the floor, some Christmas fruitcake on a tray, and a few camping stools.
After we had the little "tea-time" we walked around the new house and I felt bad for all the work they have ahead of them. It just takes forever to build a house in Germany. They started planning their house months before my parents did and my parents have been living in their finished house for a couple months. This family's house doesn't even have toilets, kitchen, doors, or much of anything. But it's all out of concrete which takes a lot longer to prepare and pour. But still...
Then we made our way over to the daycare for their fall "St. Martin's Lantern festival." All the kids and their parents gathered together in the dark with little self-made lanterns. There was a man playing a crank-handle organ. Then we all set out on a "parade" of lanterns. It was pretty cute to see all the 2-3 yr. olds holding their lantens and here and there singing a lantern song.
Well I need to slowly make my way to the party. I think with the 2 bronchial teas have helped..for the time being, anyway.
But luckily I don't have to go in for the text recording tomorrow. The boss called me and said their recording studio isn't working right and they'll have to wait for it to get fixed. I also told him about the terrible translations and how it's going to take me at least 5 more hours to get the rest corrected. He was surprised because he thought it had been good.
Unfortunately, his English skills were probably such that he thought it was right to put a verb at the end of a sentence or say "When you have now reached Markgrafenstraße 35...," "Just to your left, for example, are to be found the Greek Embassy and the Belgian Embassy...," and "That's hard to imagine today, or?" I mean, talk about directly translating the German words into English and not even considering how we'd say it!
So now that the recordings are postponed I actually have a little time tomorrow to recover from the busy week and lack of sleep. Today I drove the hour it takes to pick up the little 3 1/2 German girl I babysit from the daycare. Her parents, who are building a house in that area, have been out there painting and laying flooring. So I walked the little one over from the daycare to the new house and we all had a cup of coffee in their little make-shift kitchen, consisting of a coffee-maker on the floor, some Christmas fruitcake on a tray, and a few camping stools.
After we had the little "tea-time" we walked around the new house and I felt bad for all the work they have ahead of them. It just takes forever to build a house in Germany. They started planning their house months before my parents did and my parents have been living in their finished house for a couple months. This family's house doesn't even have toilets, kitchen, doors, or much of anything. But it's all out of concrete which takes a lot longer to prepare and pour. But still...
Then we made our way over to the daycare for their fall "St. Martin's Lantern festival." All the kids and their parents gathered together in the dark with little self-made lanterns. There was a man playing a crank-handle organ. Then we all set out on a "parade" of lanterns. It was pretty cute to see all the 2-3 yr. olds holding their lantens and here and there singing a lantern song.
Well I need to slowly make my way to the party. I think with the 2 bronchial teas have helped..for the time being, anyway.
posted by Heidi at 1:55 PM
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