WTF Indian Consulate!!

It will June next week and am still waiting for the Indian consulate to approve my work visa. :( The longer it takes them the less time I have to work over there and that means less $$ for my trip to Germany in November.

Am pissed that they have had my US Passport for 26 days and I am essentially trapped in the US until I get it back OR I go waste a day at the Passport office in LA to apply for a second passport. No one overseas is allowed to die until I get my passport back!!!

India!!

Look out Mumbai....here I come!

Off to India for work.  Will be there for at least 6 weeks.  I wont have much time to play tourist since I will be working but it will be nice to get away from home for a few weeks.  I am in desperate need of some me time and I really some alone time to figure out what is going on in my head.

Slacker!

*hangs head in shame* I keep telling myself that I will make an effort to actually write more but I never do.  I think the whole "I hate to write thing" keeps getting in the way.

I've got a 20 hour flight coming up in the next week so maybe I will actually use my time trapped on an airplane to actually write some stuff that I can post.

Es ist vorbei

I think I have finally reached my breaking point.  Now I just have to figure out what the next step will be.  *sighs* Being married really sucks; things were so much easier when it was just me.

Phrase A Day

So if you haven't figured it out yet, I am a horrible writer when it comes to actually sitting down to update stuff.  In an effort to force me to actually update my blog and keep track of all my German phrases from my calendar I gave in and created a tumblr account.  It will force me to update something on a regular basis and it will keep me from clogging this blog up with more crap.

Alleinesein<----my tumblr page :)

Alleinesein

This is one of my favorite German songs.  I am still working on a proper English translation that actually makes sense :)

And I...

Been listening to the Wolfsheim 'Casting Shadows' cd all night.  And I has been floating around my head all night; this song just speaks to me for some reason.  Well to be honest most Wolfsheim and Peter Heppner songs speak to me; they seem to take the stuff that goes on in my head (all my internal conversations, thoughts, etc) and make them into beautiful music. 

Down Time! (and other thoughts)

We are currently in a bit of a slump at work so I actually have some free time during the day.  I've been attempting to read some of my German books but it is driving me insane.  Who comes up with the '"lesson plans" in these books???  I can understand having basic travel/food/health information but some of the stuff is completely useless.  When am I ever going to need to ask someone if "that is a desk?" or if "that is a pen?" WTF!!! 

Why cant they make things simple and easy to understand.  *bangs head on desk*  I need to learn my basic phrases and sentence structures.  I need know everyday words: always, sometimes, never, on occasion, when, where, what, was, although, who, how, why...etc. 

I need to just say screw it and move to Germany if I ever expect to be somewhat fluent in this language.  *sighs* Need to find myself a decent looking, single, middle aged, German man who makes a decent amount of money so that I can concentrate on learning German instead of worrying about making money!  Am totally serious about this...if I can find the right guy I will move in a heartbeat!

Wide Awake in America!

Am dying over here tonight.  The stupid time change has me all messed up.  Its almost 1am and I am still wide awake and not even remotely tired.  The problem is that I have to be up for work in a few hours.  I want my missing hour back!!

Another Year Older (but not much wiser)

Survived my birthday.  Nothing too exciting this year.  Slept in, had a cupcake for breakfast, went to the mall (and didn't find a gift), dinner with the family and then dessert with my DM birthday "twin".

The hubby was an ass all day and I have been actively avoiding him because of his behaviour.  Thank god I got to have a vent session regarding his behaviour last night!!  I wont go into detail about everything now; that's another post for another day!

Still stuffed from dinner and dessert!!  I think that I gained back all the weight that I lost....ate sooo much food!

Dinner-- We went out for German food.  Would have loved a proper Midwest/German meal but that is almost impossible to find in SoCal.  Had to settle for regular German food!! 

Wurst Sampler- appetizer

German Wedding Soup

Sauerbraten!!! My FAV!

Kasseler Rippchen (this is also an Iowa thing!)

Schnitzel Holstein- Dad's Favorite

Wurst Platter

Kase Schnitzel

Spatzel

Dessert with my DM Birthday Buddy at Extraordinary Desserts! 

Raspberry Smash

Prosecco

Lemon Praline Cake

Lemon Praline Cake

Chocolate Lava Bundt Cake

Chocolate Lava Bundt Cake

Guava Creamsicle Ice Cream

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

The things I do when I'm bored!

Playing around on the comptuer tonight.  Trying my hand at creating some desktop backgrounds. Enjoy!

Happy burfday to me!!

Well its not quite my official bday yet (that happens at 5:31pm CST) but its close enough :)  It is already my birthday in most of the world!!

The Idiot's Guide to Understanding German (aka..OUCH my brain hurts!!)

So we are in a bit of a slump at work and there are times when we sit around doing nothing.  Since we do not have Internet access on our computers we have to entertain ourselves.  I spent a good 90 minutes today reading my "Idiot's Guide" and now my brain hurts!!  I did manage to create 2 whole sentences without having to use a translator or a dictionary so I guess something is starting to click in my brain.

I think I might have to break down and do the flash card thing.  I hate flash cards but I need to build up my basic vocabulary; its pretty limited right now.  I know my days of the week, my numbers, some random words (dance, devil, day, dream, pain, etc) and a few verbs.  I also know that saying "I am hot" in both German and Spanish does NOT mean that you are hot temperature wise :)

Lustschmerz

For my Peter Heppner Fanclub girls. Hopefully you can view this video from here :) If not I will email you the file so you can watch it at home.

Learning German via Songs

Also known as why the hell am I always walking around singing to myself a strange language!!

Since my brain seems to be programmed to memorize/remember song lyrics and music this is one of the tools that I am using to get my German skills back.  My desk looks like a German dictionary and grammar lesson got into a fight and both came out as losers!  There are random bits of paper with German words and phrases written all over them.  (And I should note that its sometimes very badly misspelled German)

I've been pretty much just listening to Woflsheim and Peter Heppner non-stop for the past 2 months.  While the majority of the music is in English there are some beautiful German songs and Peter has done quite a few side projects with other artists that are in German.  I have learned some very "colorful" phrases that I can  now say in German!!

So far one hurdle that I have encountered with the spoken language is that the German 'R' is very different from the Spanish 'R'.  As someone who can actually sound out and hear the difference between the Spanish 'R' and 'RR' I have to fight my natural propensity to roll my R's! 

Meine Welt

The one high point of this week has been hearing the upcoming single 'Meine Welt' by Peter Heppner.  I've been listening to it non-stop for the past 2 days and I absolutey LOVE the song.  I've been working on translating it into english and its not the most "english friendly" song; it definitely sounds much better in german than it would in english.  I do love the verse
Meine Welt... Meine Welt...
Und die Liebe die wird rot
Und der Hass schwarz wie der Tod
Ich mach' das so wie's mir gefällt
Denn ich mal ja Meine Welt

It translate a bit rough- My world, my world...and the love is red and the hate is black as death....I'll do it just as I please because its my world.

Effin Grammar!

I hate German contractions!! *beats head against wall* Stupid things are way to freakin hard to translate :(

Life and other stuff

Have not had a chance to actually do anything normal this week.  My mom had emergency surgery last night and I managed to pull one of my hip flexor muscles at the gym.  Half the house is in pain and doped up on pain meds; all the men are hiding and staying out of the way!!

Hopefully I will get back on track tomorrow or this weekend.  Starting to recognize more words in German but I still cannot get my brain to think in German. 

Super Bowl Sunday

Not much to report for today.  Hit up Target and Barnes and Noble for some supplies; I found one of the books I was looking for and grabbed a grammar book.

Spent the majority of the day watching the game and listening to Wolfsheim.  So even though I didn't dive into my German books I at least got in some listening practice...accompanied by some very bad singing.  Apparently I sing in German with a Spanish accent.  :)

My study aides- 5 books, 1 desk calendar, new pens, new pencils and 3 notebooks.  The grammar book scares me!! 

My brain hurts!

Started my online German course today.  There is quite a bit that I do remember but there is still a ton of stuff that I have forgotten.  I HATE grammar in English and its even more confusing in German.  Why do some foreign languages insist on assigning gender to words?!??!!  I'm loving the fact that English is gender neutral; I don't have to worry if an object is "male" or "female'.  Its just "the"

Oops!

Well so much for my attempt to write more! :) The husband absconded with the laptop over the weekend and I was too damn tired to actually write anything. 

Starting to slowly understand a few more words in German; I've been trying to listen to just songs in German while at work and when I hear something that I know I've been making a habit of writing it down.  Right now I have little scraps of paper with random phrases all over my desk.  Either my coworkers think I've finally gone totally bat shit crazy or that I lost the ability to spell. 

Going to start my online German course this week.  Hopefully once I brush up on grammar things will start to click into place.  And hopefully my brain will stop defaulting to Spanish whenever I want to say something in another language!

Dienstag 24. Januar

Nothing too exciting to write about today.  Got to drive my beautiful blue BMW to work; there is something just "right" about blasting some Wolfsheim while speeding down the freeway. 

Todays "major" accomplishments

1. While listening to a Wolfsheim song I heard the word schnell and I actually remembered what it meant!
2. Stumbled across the word Tagtraum while reading a web page and I figured out what it meant!

Maybe things are slowly starting to come back to me.  I really hope so :)

Off to go play with my new stereo and listen to some Peter Heppner...and yes there will be very bad singing along in German going on!

Heute ist erst der Anfang ...

Montag 23. Januar

Mein Name ist Terra und mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut.

Todays German phrase from my page a day calendar
"Hol mich hier raus!" Get me out of here!

There is no going back now...

New year, new blog. 

I have decided that this is the year that I will figure out who the hell I am and what I want to do with my life.  On the list of things to accomplish:

1. Relearn German
2. Save Money for trip to Germany
3. Lose Weight
4. Find Myself!

I am not a writer so please don't expect a ton of fluff on here; I like to be short, sweet and to the point!