The Thing About German...

German is a funny language.  It's very precise (how German of them), but also really bizarre in a lot of ways.  For instance, the verb always goes in the second position ("I go to school."), but if you have more than one verb, Germans kind of just pile them at the end of the sentence, like so much garbage.  So, "I want to the school today with my friend go and run."  There's a bunch of other rules about the order of the rest of the sentence, but I don't really remember them.  Just know that they're there, and that a run-on sentence can equal like 7 verbs you have to remember and dump on the end.  It's confusing and a little bit like Ad Libs-- I need a verb to insert in the sentence, which of these FIVE properly go here?

Frida is finally starting to realize that I don't really understand a lot of what she's saying.  The last few days have been great for my German skills, but I'm still only getting about 40% of what's going on.  I'm remembering some vocabulary and picking up some distinctly kid-related words (like "princesses").  I've noticed she speaks slower and clearer to me than to her parents; her lisp gets thicker with them.  She has also picked up the habit of saying "weisst du?" ("you know?") to me after a lot of her sentences.  I originally thought it was a quirky thing she just said, but she never uses it with her parents.  She's really catering to me, and I think it's cute.  

I'm in love with this family unit.  Christian is so adorably attentive to Frida, and manages to expect and manage time with her to really help her learn and become an independent individual (as much as a 4-year-old can be).  Kerstin is the type of woman who will lay in the grass or run through the sprinklers because it feels good.  Frida is happy and talkative and curious (and sometimes demanding).  Frida may be an emerging genius of a photographer.  She loves my camera and rolls around taking fairly interesting pictures.

Both taken by Frida.  Not bad, eh?

Middle Europeans are also distinctly not-American (duh).  The last couple of days have sweltering; miserably, horribly hot.  So we've been going to the local swimming area in the afternoon.  They are extraordinarily nonchalant about child nudity, and I'm not sure at what age that stops.  They have a sign that specifically mandates wearing a swimsuit in the pool, but that seems to stop literally at poolside.  Most adults and pubescent children seem to keep themselves more or less covered, but they'll totally change out in the open with the aid of a towel.  I watched in surprise as a woman in her mid-20's changed with a towel slung around her hips, swinging her mammary glands around, and not a single male stopped to oogle her in any sort of manner. 

Tonight I had dinner with the only other native-English speaker in our tiny town.  He's an au pair named James, who stays with Frida's friend's family.  We went to a place in town that was a brewery (made me think of you, Nathan!) and had some great "typische" Austrian food.  I had schnitzel and James got the largest plate of ribs I've ever seen in my life.  For less than 15 euros.  It was nothing less than a Meat Miracle.  Then we missed the last bus back to our respective houses (he lives only a couple blocks away) and had to wake up Kerstin to pick us up.  I felt like an irresponsible teenager and kept expecting to be chided and grounded or something.  Of course, she was very graceful and accommodating. 

The Meat Miracle.

Totes delish.  Don't hate me for that last sentence.

 

Today my tentative plans fell through, and so did James', so he's taking me to a cafe where they have cats you can pet.  Um, yes please.  Oh, yeah, around Vienna, too, blah blah blah.  But, CATS!!