Just very qick...

Gee...everything seems to be so busy right now...visitors, school, exams,... We do not have much time to write here right now. Another point is that the computers here are not the best, we tried to put new pictures online but it did not work... Sorry!
We'll try to write soon!
Hold everything crossed...Thursday is our final exam of the language class...

Auf zu neuen Ufern

Tach. Gerade kurze Pause vom Sprachkurs, da dachte ich mir, schreib ich noch was in den Blog bevor wir wieder mal auf Reisen sind. Diesmal nicht so lange, nur übers Wochenende und auch nur eine Stadt. Kristina ist seit gestern da und wird einfach mitgeschleift (mitgeschleift oder mitgeschliffen? ich glaube, diese Frage kam Susan und mir schon einmal, als wir am Ufer des Ria de Bilbao nach Hause gegangen sind...). Wir werden heut noch die Bustickets kaufen, nachher ist der Bus morgen schon voll und das wollen wir ja nicht riskieren. Uns erwarten 8 Stunden oder so Busfahrt und eine kostenlose Unterkunft. Wäre ja fast ins Wasser gefallen mit unserem Barcelonatrip, da die Jugendherberge, bei der wir angefragt hatten (die einzige übrigens die für die 2 Nächte noch frei war und die wir uns hätten leisten können), dann plötzlich doch schon voll war, als ich nochmal nachgefragt hatte. Was tun, was machen? Sich beim Hospitalityclub anmelden. Von jemandem darüber gehört, im Netz gesucht und gefunden, angemeldet, abgewartet, dass man angenommen wird und schon Leute aus eben Barcelona angemailt ob sie Platz für einen haben. Man bezahlt nichts, nur sein Essen und vielleicht die Dusche, und hat auch noch nen Stadtführer. Erst nur Absagen bekommen, dann hat's geklappt. 5 vor 12 sozusagen. Aber hat noch geklappt, puuuhhh.
Das nenne ich doch mal eine echte Alternative!

That's the kind of text we have to read in Germany!

English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every 7 humans can speak it. More than half of the world's books and 3 quarters of international mail is in English. Of all the languages,it has the largest vocabulary - perhaps as many as 2 MILLION words. Nonetheless, let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb thru annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

English in Spain

This was one of our exams. We are taking a class, which is the highest English class here and the students will graduate this year, becoming teachers and translators!

They had that list since four years, to practise the pronunciation!

We had to read the words!

That was the whole oral exam!

They should have a look at our Vor-Diplom!

Word lists.
Vowel

1. peak beat feel thief...
2. pick bit fill thick
3. food fool wood
4. book foot full would
5. law caught all fall (Am…)
6. lot cot pot lock (Am. = 10)
7. let pet bed fell
8. diagraph cat pat bad rang
9. caret pub mug love cut
10. father palm spa balm (Am…)
11. again famous circus combine
12. bird learn turn word

Consonants

1. Aspiration: pitch retain top came cover tip tongue

2. Devoicing: pray train cry claim cute twice apply

3. Unreleased stops: pig bed Bob bobtail at Bob at me

4. No fricative: again digging rebind leader reading ogre

5. [v]: vest serves vowel living vice voiced prove

6. [d]: udder/other breed/breathe dare/there

7. [z]: lose it raising result lazy busy resign proposal exam

8. [Z]: confusion casual visual measure occasion decision

9. [N]: singer ringing sung king hangs thing singer/finger

10. Velarized: l call fall elk silk line

11. Syllabic [n]: cotton maiden kitten bitten prison doesn’t Britain

12. Syllabic [l]: needle panel medal saddle candle

13. [j] vs. [dZ]: Yale/jail yoke/joke yety/jetty yam/jam use/juice

14. [w]: would wool Woody woozy

Happy Birthday To You...HÄÄÄBBIIE BÖHÖRSDÄJ

Weil die Elvira heut Geburtstag hat, da habe ich gedacht, ich schreibe ihr einen ganz eigenen Post, weil ihr das Freude macht.
Ein schöner selbstgeklauter Blumenstrauss steht heut auf deinem Tisch, und wenn du ihm immer schön Wasser gibst, dann bleibt er länger frisch!

Wie schön, dass die Elvira geboren ist, sonst hätten sie einige sehr vermisst!

Wie schön, dass wir heute an deinem Butzeltag beisammen sind, ich gratuliere dir, Geburtstagskind!!!

Lass dir das Essen heut fein schmecken ... wir können dich auch wieder füttern, wenn du möchtest ... und auf das es eine tolle Feier wird ...

LASS DICH VERWÖHNEN!!! (aber nicht von mir)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIRA!!!

P.S.: Der Susan ihre guten Wünsche haben ihren Grund ... Bitte bleib noch lange glücklich und gesund! Dich so froh zu sehen ist was mir gefällt. Tränen gibt es schon genug auf dieser Welt!!!

P.P.S.: Das ist alles nur geklaut. Das ist alles garnicht meine. Das ist alles nur geklaut. Doch das weiss ich nur ganz alleine! Das ist alles nur geklaut und gestohlen und entzogen und geraubt ... Entschuldigung, das hab ich mir erlaubt! O:-)

How to become a pensioner in 30 seconds

Yesterday. Visiting Burgos with visitors. My parents and my sister, so to say. Since it was cooooold there - we had sunshine in Bilbao and therefore left our thick coats at home - we decided to take a more intensive look at the worldwide known cathedral to warm up. At the ticket counter we saw a sign informing us about the entrance fees depending on the age. I just wanted to ask how many people form a group (for group discount). I think she didn't quite get what I was asking in the first place cause she told me that the age for a pensioner is 65. So because we were missing 10 people to form a group, I smiled at her broadly and said we would take 3 tickets for students and 2 for pensioners - and got it.
Result: 2 Euros saved, 1 Euro found in the locker, and my parents turned into my grandparents.

Now we know what Sanne is up to!

"Six elephants escaped from an amusement park Wednesday and injured a woman as they rampaged through the South Korean capital, according to a news report. All were recaptured and returned to the park, police said. An elephant charged into an alley near an elementary school and hit a 52-year-old woman, Roh In-sun, with its trunk, Yonhap news agency said. She was being treated at a hospital. “She fell, and I ran away because I was scared,” said Roh’s landlord, Lee Hye-ja, who was standing with her when the elephant charged toward them. The animal remained trapped in a garden.Three of the pachyderms had barged into a nearby restaurant.The elephants escaped due to the fact that someone, who indeed seemed really zany, opened the gates of the circus compound at the Children’s Grand Park, police said."