What a difference a day makes ...

... 24 little hours (sing with me!!!)

ah yes. March in Germany. Take nothing for granted, folks, this month will throw you for a loop.

From balmy Spring-like conditions one day, to a flurry of snow the next (wait five minutes, it'll change) it's always fun!

Here are some garden pics (for comparison) from this morning (click for larger view):

Magnolia tree in snow




Pansies in the snow

A Day in the Garten

With apologies to Miss Austin...."It is a fact universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a power saw is in want of a tree"... or in our case a shrubbery.

Paul spent Saturday morning with our neighbours auf Allemanisch, trimming our trees and shrubberies. Here are a few pics. Our garten was in need of a pruning and as we know men with chain saws love to see over grown greenery that needs a good clipping, al la Tim the Toolman Taylor ugh ugh ugh ugh.







...and one that got away. Our tulip tree in full bloom today, Sunday, March 18th

Random Pic(s)

We have been remiss ... yes, we have ... so don't try to stop us ... we're going to post some randomness in the form of pictures. It will keep the content "fresh" without us having to type too much ... and frankly, with me in language school (although almost finished?) typing anything in English is a small challenge :-)

enjoy the randomness

Language blopper...con't

Have you ever been in a situation where you KNEW what the meaning of a word was and you were so sure that you used it the way you thought...well fortunately this is a clean tale and not a biggy, but still a funny...the word is Mensa. Hey, I've been to college, I know what that word means and it does not include my brain power, but I know what it stands for, (according to Wikipedia)

Mensa International is the largest, oldest, and best-known high-IQ society in the world. The organization restricts its membership to people with high testable IQs. Specifically, potential members must score within the top 2% (98^th percentile) of any approved standardized intelligence test.

So I am at language school, trying my best to be cool and understand and I was asked something about Mensa. I'm thinking, yeah, I know that word, And reply, "Oh, no thank you, I really don't think I need to join as I'm not quite up to that at the moment ". And something else about how having children sucks all of the brain cells you used to have right out of your body and mind. So the guy looks a little funny, but than a lot of us are learning language here and he is used to not understanding what everyone says, so he does not say anything else.

Fast Forward, 4 weeks and then 6 weeks from November.... Mensa in German means a refectory! (Hey I went to Sweet Briar where we had/have a refectory) I was being asked if I wanted a student ID for the university cafeteria!! I did not realize this till I went with some of my friends about 4 weeks later to the Mensa. Which had great food, btw. Than it was reaffirmed by V's school....did she want tickets for the Mensa?

So that is your mini vocab lesson for the day....what really is MENSA?