2003-05-20 - 10:24 a.m.

Uber Alles

Unfortunately I've forgotten most of my German, but now I'm glad that I took two years of the language while in high school. I'm looking at traveling to the country for the second time in my life (it could have been my third trip if I didn't go to Norway back in 1997).

But one of the things that drives me crazy is when Americans who are spinning obviously German industrial or EBM music don't even try to pronounce German titles (i.e. proper nouns) correctly. Of course, the amount of German I bastardized in high school and continue to screw up today is astounding. Perhaps that is why I could care less if somebody screws up a Japanese, Polish, Spanish, French, or Dutch word. Since I never took any of those languages I have nothing at stake.

They say that most of us hold ourselves to higher standards. And naturally when we feel guilty about something we do ourselves, we get really picky when other people make the same mistake.

Though I'm excited about my trip to Europe, I feel bad that I didn't get a chance to practice my German. If I at least spoke better German, then I wouldn't feel bad about also not speaking a word of Spanish, Dutch, or French.

Airlines

So while buying our Eurorail passes yesterday I found out that Northwest Airlines has canceled my return flight. Instead of just stranding me in the Netherlands, the airlines extended my vacation by a day by booking me on the next direct flight to San Francisco. You know, I'm actually happy about this, because I was really scheduling that date to accommodate: (1) Cricket and her boi (they didn't want us around too long), and (2) Redwood (he only has so many days of vacation).

But of course I'm secretly thrilled to be getting an extra day in Europe and being able to spend it with Redwood. He is one of the few people that actually finds many of the odd things I do actually funny. Many people get scared when I run off in a department store, only to come back wearing Hulk gloves and screaming "[Contour] SMASH!" It is like most people have forgotten how to have fun. He hasn't, which makes him the ideal travel companion. We are gonna cause an international incident. The question really is how many of you living outside of Europe are going to regret World War III when I start it?

-=-

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