Muckefuck (it's not what you think)

I'm blogging outside today while a thunderstorm rages over Bovinia.  It feels like ages since I last wrote something on here.  After a bit of a break mid-week, I decided it was high time to post but then found Blogger to be out of action.  All back to normal now, though.  Let's just hope I don't get struck by lightning mid-blog.

It's been a strange week, one way or another.   I had quite a few reactions to my jaded ex-pat comments.  Perhaps I regret using the word 'jaded' - 'resigned' is probably more appropriate.  I am pointing this out now because I realised that many of the confused non-German blogs are actually quite anti-German and intolerant, which is not how I feel at all.  There are thousands of people out there who rant, on a daily basis, about how they can't get what they want for breakfast here, how the language is stupid, the landlords are mean and how it is impossible to buy a house.  True: getting used to life in another country is always going to be hard.  Fact: the shine will wear off even the most idyllic of locations, once the everyday grind sets in. Rest assured: there will be some things about Germany that you, the newcomer (and I think it is worse when you have been forced to come here, i.e. through your partner's job, or something) will never wholly accept or like.  Hence my usage of the word 'resigned'.  Some aspects of the Teutonic lifestyle will probably always drive me nuts, but I lead a charmed life and really cannot, so do not, complain, at least, not too much or often.

I still feel, after 11 years, that I am on a perpetual school exchange.  I learn new words all the time, mostly just by chance, and wonder how I managed to miss them up till now.  What did I say instead?  I don't mean  wacky words like 'Muckefuck' (my top favourite: means a watery, disgusting coffee or coffee substitute.  Picture someone sitting in a cafe, parched after a hard morning scrubbing the pavement.  The coffee arrives.  They take one sip, then splutter disgustedly, was ist DAS fuer ein Muckefuck?  The waiter shrugs and says that's all there is.  But I digress...).  No, I mean words like hikers' snack (Einkehr), the verb 'to set up' (aufbauen) and crack (Ritze).  There are loads more but somehow I can't bring them to mind, which must mean they are not yet entrenched in my active vocabulary and I'll have to hear them several times more before I remember and then use them.

I was at Hanni the hairdresser's two days ago and she was complaining that she, the arch-Bavarian, cannot understand people from a village six miles from here.  What chance on earth do I have, pray???  Recently I have been trying out a few newly-acquired Bavarian words, with limited success.  Hanni thinks it priceless that we have a Bavarian dictionary next to our toilet.  Do you actually read it, she asked incredulously.  Well, I dip in every now and again, I said.  I promised I'd bring it along next time to show her.  Maybe she'll learn a few new words too.  No doubt the compiler of the noble dictionary comes from some far-flung corner of the Free State, as they call it here, and his words are thus completely different from those used in Bovinia.  (This would also explain my limited success.)

The thunderstorm seems to be over now.  I have to admit that Max and I decamped inside during the writing of this blog. CG stayed stubbornly on the patio, reading Dan Brown and swatting flies.  We are due to go out inline-skating between showers.  Tonight we shall have a family jeering session at the Eurovision Song Contest.  My money's on Georgia.  If they win, I sincerely hope they get some fashion advice and revamp their image.   But more of all this tomorrow.