Following on from my post last week about my obsession with music, I undertook an experiment. I attached my iPod Classic (with its 4584 songs) to a speaker (using an actual cord because it was invented before Bluetooth), and I wrote down the first ten songs on shuffle… just to see how eclectic the mix would be. I must admit I was nervous… there’s a lot of crap on there… but I think it went pretty well. And here’s the big reveal, from 1 to 10.
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We’re pretty settled here in Austria – we own a house, I have a passable grasp on the language, and I don’t have much to complain about. But never say never. Because moving back to Oz is always a possibility. So here’s my top ten things I will miss about my life here if or when I move back to Australia.
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Even though my German is always improving, I still find myself getting tangled up and mashing random things together. Then there are some things that I just keep saying wrong. No matter how many times I’m told, or how often I tell myself, they are practically ingrained. Here’s my top ten.
It’s finally coming to the end of winter. Thank goodness, since it has been an exceptionally cold and snowy one. Yet as much as I prefer the warmer months, I still managed to rack my brain and come up with 10 reasons why winter is not all bad.
There’s so much to love about my town! On my frequent runs/walks, I have gathered a collection of some of my favourite sights. Enjoy!
The ducks
Somehow the ducks here seem to be cuter than in other places. Now, I know that’s not true, because ducks fly and are therefore found everywhere, but our ducks always seem to be happy, playing about in the river, regardless of the weather, and just bringing a smile to people’s lips.
When you take a holiday, things are pretty simple – you pack what you need for the time you’re going, ask someone to check your mail, try to stuff your pillow in at the end, and head off. I never really appreciated how easy a weekend, or even few weeks away were, until I went travelling for multiple months.
So here’s 10 things you don’t think of that might pop up at some point during a long travel trip, that you don’t have to worry about for a quick getaway.
Group tours – love em or hate em – they definitely have their positive and negative attributes. I personally love group tours for exploring countries less travelled or conquering a lot of distance in a short time period. But I understand they’re not for everyone. Still, regardless of what side of the fence you sit on, some surprising things can happen when you’re actually in the moment – so if you’re thinking about embarking on group travel, take care to beware the following things: Continue reading
The German language is known for its long words. Without even going into the ridiculously long words (which to be honest nobody uses anymore anyway) try Entschuldigung instead of simply saying ‘sorry’ or Kniebeuge for ‘squat’. Though in all honesty, part of the problem is that the German words just don’t fit well in our English-speaking mouths – they come out all clumsy and end up sounding a lot longer than they do when spoken by a native speaker.
But there are exceptions. So I’ve made a list of 10 words that are actually shorter in German:
Living in a climate with far more distinct seasons means that when one ends, there’s a definite shift in the air, a sudden change that is almost immediately noticeable. So here are the sure signs that winter is over for another year!
They say that after a certain age, a person loses the ability to pronounce certain parts of a foreign language. That means, unless you start learning a second language from when you’re a kid, you’re always going to sound like a foreigner and there will always be some words you just can’t get right. Here are ten of mine:
The German word for ‘squirrel’ is basically impossible to pronounce. I could repeat it all day and it still wouldn’t come out right. However, it makes me feel a bit better that Austrians can’t pronounce the English ‘squirrel’ either.
