Where I Am

I’ve been running around like a chicken-with-my-head-cut-off trying to get ready for this trip. I’ve bought luggage because what I had wasn’t large enough. I bought a new digital camera. (I would have done that anyway since I sold the house.) I’ve bought gifts, returned them and bought other gifts. I bought travelers checks, both in Euro and Pound Sterling. I’ve bought toiletries. I bought genealogy software, among other things, for my Handspring Visor so that I could have that info handy on my visit. I bought a contemporary German phrasebook for travelers – I call it contemporary because it included swear words. And because it made me laugh until I cried while sitting on the floor at Barnes & Noble, I also bought Wicked German for the Traveler. It’s a hilarious little book that includes German phrases for most of your travel activities including (some samples):

*beer hall small talk/beer connoisseurship/states of inebriation
– Now you’ve crossed the line, you bag of Schnitzel.
– You can taste the eggs beneath the vigorous schnauzer.
– Touching the barmaid without permission.
– Would you help me carry my friend?

*food and drink
– You have an unconscious wish that I eat your sauerkraut.
– Naturally, I would enjoy a piece of your strudel.
– The bill seems remarkably high for noodles/potatoes/cabbage/organ meats.

*a trip to the butcher
– Which animal was this?
– Which part?
– Please just point to the place on your own body.
– Hmmm… that doesn’t look very tasty/heathful.
– Did I mention that I’ve decided to become a vegetarian?

More later, shopping is exhausting.

Hey, wait a minute… Hat jemand gefurzt? Chari, was that you?