Lesson #11 Misc.
Panic not - yes it’s been another unjustifiably long gap; no that will not mean another (perhaps equally unjustifiably) long post. Rather than babble on about various holidays, I’ll just rootle through (Mum, I blame my vocabulary on you) my diary and find some more Austrian observations.
Firstly and most subjectively, I am more and more convinced that Austrian people ‘look’ Austrian. And less and less able to define exactly what it is that makes them so. But I keep seeing adverts or posters or indeed students and thinking ‘if I saw them in England, I’d know they were Austrian’. Sadly I fear this theory is invalid because not falsifiable, i.e. I am not prepared to test it when I get home by asking possible candidates (“strangers”) whether they are in fact Oesterreicher. Call it British reserve.
Secondly and most lamentably, I have recently had it revealed to me that DJ Oetzi is Austrian. This undermines my opinion of Austrian music somewhat. !
Miscellaneous…
The water here is startlingly blue.
There is a decidedly odd variety of vending machines. Recently I’ve spotted machines dispensing bread, beer and eggs.
Wandering into town the other day I couldn’t help but smile - where else would there be not a shopping trolley or a bike wheel but a ski in the river??
‘Basteln’ - seems to be a loose term for making pictures/collages/anything you fancy out of paper. Last Monday Johannes introduced me to this art, and armed with scissors, sell tape and yellow and white corrugated card we make two pictures which then form part of a whole 3D set-up, including house, office and motorcycle garage for lucky lego people. :D
And to finish, a linguistic experience. Off on another ski-week with one of the schools, I was told one lunchtime that we were sharing the hut with a group from England. I tried to tune in to the conversation - and it was almost painful. After half a week of solid Styrian dialect, it was almost a physical effort! It felt like mentally changing gear - and like changing gear, there was that horrible grating crunch in the middle, where you’re out of one gear but you can’t find the next… (n.b. no I haven’t managed to pass my driving test yet)… suddenly I was able to understand neither the Styrian nor the English and feeling very disorientated! I think part of the reason might have been that the group were from northern England, and the tone was somehow similar to the Austrian dialect…
Finally, I hereby announce the end of the snow-reports: spring is most definitely in the air. And I’m not complaining - the beautiful colours of Austria are back J
Firstly and most subjectively, I am more and more convinced that Austrian people ‘look’ Austrian. And less and less able to define exactly what it is that makes them so. But I keep seeing adverts or posters or indeed students and thinking ‘if I saw them in England, I’d know they were Austrian’. Sadly I fear this theory is invalid because not falsifiable, i.e. I am not prepared to test it when I get home by asking possible candidates (“strangers”) whether they are in fact Oesterreicher. Call it British reserve.
Secondly and most lamentably, I have recently had it revealed to me that DJ Oetzi is Austrian. This undermines my opinion of Austrian music somewhat. !
Miscellaneous…
The water here is startlingly blue.
There is a decidedly odd variety of vending machines. Recently I’ve spotted machines dispensing bread, beer and eggs.
Wandering into town the other day I couldn’t help but smile - where else would there be not a shopping trolley or a bike wheel but a ski in the river??
‘Basteln’ - seems to be a loose term for making pictures/collages/anything you fancy out of paper. Last Monday Johannes introduced me to this art, and armed with scissors, sell tape and yellow and white corrugated card we make two pictures which then form part of a whole 3D set-up, including house, office and motorcycle garage for lucky lego people. :D
And to finish, a linguistic experience. Off on another ski-week with one of the schools, I was told one lunchtime that we were sharing the hut with a group from England. I tried to tune in to the conversation - and it was almost painful. After half a week of solid Styrian dialect, it was almost a physical effort! It felt like mentally changing gear - and like changing gear, there was that horrible grating crunch in the middle, where you’re out of one gear but you can’t find the next… (n.b. no I haven’t managed to pass my driving test yet)… suddenly I was able to understand neither the Styrian nor the English and feeling very disorientated! I think part of the reason might have been that the group were from northern England, and the tone was somehow similar to the Austrian dialect…
Finally, I hereby announce the end of the snow-reports: spring is most definitely in the air. And I’m not complaining - the beautiful colours of Austria are back J
posted by Little Fi | 2:15 PM
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