Tag German

Snail mail is still the BEST!

brilliantviewpoint 22 Comments

My Year MugToday started out as an average snowy day. I got up, had my coffee and headed out. I went to the Post Office expecting bills and junk mail, but a surprise package awaited me.

Wow-wee, I even double checked to make sure it was my name on the package. Yep, it was me. I haven’t received a surprise package in years and I do mean YEARS! Clarification on “surprise” package. This is a package that comes unannounced. The sender does not tell you ahead of time to “expect” something.

I’m terrible! I get so excited if I send something to someone that it is hard for me to NOT give it away. I always want to be a secret sender, but it’s just not possible.

My ex/husband is German versus my Italian background. I was always amused by his restraint. When he received a package or letter, he would look at it and put it on the counter in a very precise type of manner and walk off. I would yell out, “Aren’t you going to open it??” No, it can wait until later. INCREDIBLE! When I received something I was ripping open the letter or package as I was reading WHO it was from!

I can say that is exactly what I did today! I was like a little kid, I was so excited about my surprise package. I started to rip it open until I read “FRAGILE” on the top, then I slowed down for fear of “breaking” the surprise!

The photo shows you my surprise gift! How special is that! The mug’s message with the card looking out onto the Lake, well, it was PERFECT! I really feel like a Princess today!

2018 –>  THIS WILL BE MY YEAR! 

(SMILING – The Universe has spoken!)

German Christmas Ornaments

brilliantviewpoint 15 Comments

1F9F01D6-5279-4FA9-9462-F1CDADE719EFThis past weekend was the start of Christmas shopping. I say, “Christmas,” because for many of us it’s when we start putting up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, hanging the lights inside and outside and finding those special ornaments to put on the tree.

Every year I look for new ornaments. I like to send them as gifts. I had a lucky find this weekend. I came across a German Christmas Market. I was in America, but I felt like I was in Munich, Germany. Wonderful!

E8312F75-51E9-450C-9E9A-4F8E64EA53A5

They had similar ornaments that I would find in Germany, hand made, so a bit expensive, but as you can see from the photos, really darling. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

One special item that Germans put up is the Christmas Pyramid. I learned this from my mother/n/law, because Italians do not have this. Every year, out came the Christmas Pyramid and we would scramble to find candles to light, so that the propellor would fly around in a circle. Here you see a larger pyramid that they put up in a town in Europe. Ours was much smaller.

692CA427-6377-4458-9512-61D0E4F17FD3

When I was young, we had a German neighbor and they put small candles on the tree and lit them. Can you imagine what a possible fire hazard that was?  BUT they never burned their house down. While we enjoyed the lit candles on the tree, we would play a game of Canasta!

Memories… it’s nice if we still have them!

Learning Italian, German, Spanish & French through Fairy Tales

brilliantviewpoint 16 Comments

50A7B344-C434-4DD4-AC4F-B27EB30FDACEDon’t you love it, when you find a great website by accident! That happened to me the other day. I was searching for an Italian recipe, but I wasn’t finding what I wanted. So, I kept clicking “here” and “there” and suddenly I came to a website for “learning Italian.”

The site is called, “The Italian Experiment.” I noticed that they also have the “same” site in German, Spanish and French. In ALL of these languages they take three fairy tales and translate them into the foreign language you choose, and even better, they have audio where someone reads the story to you!

98A2742D-110E-4D00-9807-805E5E33734EAs you listen to the story, you can hear how they pronounce the words. Excellent! If you have “no idea” what the reader is saying, there is a button that says, “translate,” if you click that the English translation appears.

I chose the Italian version and listened to “The Three Little Pigs.” You can listen to them tell the story here. While I can speak Italian fairly well, I’ve got to say the words in this story had me lost and this is a short book. Yikes, I need to practice.

In part of the story they say in English, “the first little pig,” which translated in Italian is, “il primo porcellino.” You have to hear the translator read these words, it is very cute sounding. Suddenly the little porcellino seems like your best friend.

This site has a review for an online language course called, “Rocket Italian.” They give it 4.5 Stars. I went to the Rocket Italian website, it seems good. I’ve been wanting to practice Italian and build up my vocabulary. Maybe I will rock my Italian by taking the Rocket Italian course! I like the name “rocket,” makes me think if I pass the course, I will be ejected to Florence and find myself in a beautiful cafe!

Gotta hope!