Claire: rotz rotz rotz

hello once again,

i'm still out with a cold (or maybe a sinus infection?). now that i'm at home for a while it's high time to share a little more about my experiences in deutschland!

oh nein! some blond guy just rang the doorbell and i don't have a bloody clue what he just asked me. this kind of one-sided dialogue is a daily occurance. many people here in dresden and the saxony area, like this bloke at the door, speak with a pretty heavy dialect called sächsisch. to me, it's like another foreign language in this already foreign language. 

it's mind-boggling to think that germany, this rather small country that's probably half the size of texas, has so many dialects of german. although we have dialects in the u.s. too , i don't think they deviate from standard english all that much. it's not too hard to understand someone from, say, boston or alabama. german dialects are a big jump from standard "high german", so much so that even native german speakers struggle to understand dialects! i'd say that the gap between standard german and sächsisch is as wide as the gap between standard american english and scottish.

on that note, i've been frustrated with german because i thought it'd be better at it by this point. i've been avoiding german as much as possible this week, which doesn't exactly help. learning a foreign language is like riding a roller coaster with big ups and downs. fortunately i remember feeling the same way in argentina, so i know that this will pass eventually...

i want to elaborate more on this german face thing... there's more to it. one of the most fascinating things about germans is discovering what's beyond those serious faces.  too often i have met someone and i thought to myself, "bah hambug, what a cold, uptight person!" ... only to be proven so, so utterly wrong. behind these serious expressions are warm, generous people with a great sense of humor. the thing is that germans don't think they owe anything to strangers, so that's why they seem cold in public settings. thus, you can forget about smiling at the passer-by (let alone making eye contact), small talk, customer service, or even saying "excuse me" if you get in someone's way on the street. but once you start to get to know german people (it's not too hard), you earn their trust and eventually this intense sense of loyalty. you can also look forward to lots of interesting conversations. i adore the germans for their curiousity and love of engaging conversation (no small talk please). another admirable trait of ze germans is their sincerity. they will never ask "how are you?", invite you to somewhere, or offer you something unless they positively mean it. you can always count on their word. in a nutshell: there's less fluff, you know?

welp, that's enough for today!

i miss you guys a lot.  

cross your fingers that i'll get better soon.

xoxo, claire

ps: below is a picture of dresden that i found 

pss: rotz is the beautiful german word for snot, which is the main feature of my existence right now