1. Neronia's newest CD, Limnotapes, is out now and available from all of the usual music stockists. Go, buy. And, just in case it helps to push you along in your purchasing, I'm featured in the dedications. Da da da boom. 2a. With regards to lesson number 12 of last month, I have since been corrected by a proper authentic German that the storage place of preference for water bottles is actually the cellar. In the unfortunate case that a cellar is not available, then the corridor features as the next location on the water-bottle-storage-hierarchy.
2b. One does not drink from the tap. This results in a prevalence of water bottles which, after their contents has been consumed, can be returned to the shop and exchanged for a percentage of their original price. Aka. ''Pfand''. Aka. I currently have 16 water bottles in my racket bag which require ''dringend'' attention/ organisation.
3a. Never underestimate the value of being able to hear. After spending the majority of this month randomly unable to hear on one side, I am now relieved to say the least at being able to enjoy the world at full volume again.
3b. While I feel as if my English is getting worse by the day, my English lip-reading skills remain far superior than my German ones.
4a. Professor McGonagall is ''per Sie'' with Harry Potter. No German lesson could have ever prepared me for that shock. HE IS AN 11 YEAR OLD SCHOOL BOY. HOW DOES THAT WORK?!4b. Much to my relief, HP is at least ''per Du'' with Hagrid.
4c. I don't feel that it is really possible to adequately overdub Alan Rickman.
5. Gordon Bennett was a racing driver and actually existed! Sorry, mate, for abusing your name in all tricky situations.
6a. It's not normally a good idea to drive too quickly near speed cameras...
6b. ...Or to park without a ''Parkscheibe''...
6c. It is, however, [THANKFULLY] possible to escape both of these situations without any points on your driving license/ without a driving ban.
7. I am not sure whether this lesson is:
a). Hair dye doesn't always dye your hair the colour it says on the packet.or
b). Don't [attempt to] dye bleached hair purple.
or maybe even
c). Just don't play with hair dye.
But, whatever it is, after winding up with super attractive pink/ grey hair, I am currently in the process of getting used to having a bob (ie. hair which saves me 10 minutes in the mornings as it is barely capable of being scraped back into a ponytail, let alone being plaited).
8. Whilst you can take the girl out of the city, but not the city out of the girl (and all that), you can still take photos of her looking concerned and holding a duck.
9. ''He, she, it, das 's' muss mit''.
10. Local businesses are appreciated more in ''Deutschland''.
11a. German radio appears to have a great love for ''Eye of the tiger'', which makes for a fairly intense driving soundtrack.
11b. Ditto for James Blunt. Which is slightly less epic.
12. There is, seemingly, a stereotype of British people not having dishwashers. As someone who comes from potentially one of many non-dishwasher-owning-households-in-Britain, I DID NOT KNOW THAT THIS WAS A THING?!
13. This hand sign is, in fact, a ''Leisezeichen'', and implies ''Mund zu, Ohren auf!''. Not the ''rock on'' sign, which left me a tad confused for many a month. 14a. The Romans settled in Frankfurt. Meaning that I live within about 10 minutes from the Saalburg, a Roman fort. Standard. Someone somewhere knew I missed living near Hadrian's Wall too much.
14b. The Romans really were all that they are made up to be. Said Roman fort is situated on a painfully steep hill, which my baby the Ford Fiesta does not like one bit (in other words, if I make it up in 2nd gear, we're having a good day). Big respect to you, people of 90AD, for making it up to the top without a Lamborghini.
15a. It rains a lot in England. Here, across the channel, summer is on its way and I am, again, faced with the minor issue of having a wardrobe which is only really appropriate for various forms of water (obviously not of the frozen kind) coming from the sky. 15b. On the plus side, I own footwear vaguely resembling ''Hausschuhe'' and my fluorescent pink trainers appear to be considered as everyday footwear here, so all is looking fine and dandy in the shoe department.
16a. There are a lot of words in the English language for rain.
16b. There are lots of bread-related words in the German language.
16c. I feel this sums up both countries rather aptly.
17a. Germany has a tendency towards naming its streets/ schools after people. These names will be separated with a hyphen. A particular highlight this month was ''William-Shakespeare-Ring'' .
17b. Although their names go against my aforementioned rule, I was greatly amused to find the neighbouring streets of ''William-Shakespeare-Ring'' to be ''Liverpoolstraße'', ''Oxforderstraße'', and ''Westminsterstraße''.
18. ''Abitur'' has introduced me to the fact that there is a debate as to whether Shakespeare existed/ wrote his works himself. I don't know how I feel about the potential of going back to England and not necessarily believing in Shakespeare...
19a. There is currently a ''Sahara-Staubwolke'' over Germany, hence the reason that the sky looks so grotty/ red. My mind is blown. 19b. There are stars in the sky at night. Manchester, you have robbed me of this for too long.
19c. There are earthquakes in Germany.
19d. It is possible to sleep through the earth shaking.
20. It was ''sehr schön'' to see my Mama.
Pfand- getting money back for old bottles
dringend- urgent
per Sie- to use the polite form of 'you'
per Du- to use the informal form of 'you'
Parkscheibe- a blue thing with a rotating clock face, which you have to set to display the time that you parked at
He, she, it, das 's' muss mit- he, she, it, the 's' has to go with (used in English lessons)
Deutschland- Germany
Leisezeichen- hand sign used when silence is required
Mund zu, Ohren auf!- mouth closed, ears open
Hausschuhe- footwear worn around the house (or slippers, with a practicality level x10)
Abi- A Levels
Straße- street
Sahara-Staubwolke- not that I'm any bit the geography expert, but basically a cloud of sand from the Sahara
sehr schön- very nice
