Thursday, May 8, 2008

Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles...


It's official: come June the husband and are Germany-bound, specifically Munich. My family lived in Germany when I was very young, but I have very little memory of it, mostly playing and waiting for my Dad to come home from work.

Germany wasn't on the top of my list of places to live in Europe. It lacks the reputation of Spain, France, or Italy. Jokes here often revolve around Germans' complete lack of humor and dedication to efficiency above all else. Videos and pictures seem to paint it a land of sausages and cuckoo clocks, not like stylish Paris, romantic Italy, or exotic Spain. Edelweiss and beer are all very nice, but in a way they seem too ordinary.

But I am ready for a change. England just isn't a challenge anymore. Even the more difficult Geordie expressions are like 2nd nature and the English quirkyness seems boring now.*

So I've been reading up on Bavaria and what I'm finding is surprising. Munich has endless arts festivals and various strange traditions that started off trying to convince God not to visit various plagues upon them. There are also loads of outdoorsy things going on, not just hiking in lederhosen. Munich is supposedly a great bike city and has weekly rollerblading nights in the summer. (not that I can rollerblade, but maybe someday) So we'll see. I'm going into Germany as a blank slate, ready to be surprised by what we find.

*I should mention that I have recently found a surprising quirk: glamour models. In the US pictures of naked ladies are restricted to Playboy and the like, but here they infamously coat the inside page of newspapers (page 3). There is a new BBC show called "Glamour Girls" that follows the bizarre logic of these women who get their boobs out for cash. Episode 2 featured an hilarious argument between two models about the merits of going topless in lad's mag "Nuts".
-"I'm not gettin my boobs out in the likes of Nuts."
-"em, you did get your boobs out for ____, ______, and _____!"
-"I'm not slagging off Nuts...."
Ryan and I couldn't stop laughing. Unfortunately our Liverpool accents suck.

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