scattering more thoughts

[beige_alert]

• Who came up with Düsseldorf International Airport’s logo? It’s “Düsseldorf International” with the bottom part of Düsseldof cut off, as if printed by a partly-clogged ink-jet. Bet they paid a lot of money to some design expert for that!



• With all the effort to translate things and search for the proper English terms for things, it was always a source of amusement when something really was simple. “Do you have a term for these kind of candles in English?” “Tea lights.” “Ha! The German is Teelicht.” Or: “I’m going to go to the...um...er... [in hopeful voice] Bäckerei?” “The bakery! It is that easy to remember....” Or in the mining museum: "Nickel, that one is easy." "What is it in English?" "Nickel."
  



• I am allergic to cats, but for some reason I wasn’t bothered by any of the cats I lived with in Germany. No idea why. Maybe even the cats are better in Germany.



• lisande and her husband are just the cutest couple imaginable. It was pretty much worth going to Germany just to see the two of them together.



• lisande got the most of my “is this common over here?” questions, since she was the first to see me. Those roll-up shutters over the windows? “Are those common here?” “Yes... Um, the way you ask, it sounds like maybe they are not common in the US?” “Never seen them before.” Not to mention the ubiquitous tilt-in or swing-wide-open windows. Not only have I not seen such cleaver windows before, it was a surprise to me to see them essentially everywhere, all of them the same. There are many varieties of operable windows in the US.
  
  Some things we know are different, yet still somehow seem surprising to actually see. Of course the electrical power plugs are different, but one gets so very used to the local variety, and ceases to even notice them, that a foreign variety jumps out visually. See this photo for a very foreign-looking (to an American) power strip.
  

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Recently I came upon the word "Rolladen" in a German novel. My dictionary said it means "roller shutter," as if that were self-explanatory.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

We looked up the English word for them and came up with just "shutters" which seemed to me sort-of inadequate, since that word makes me think of just the usually-decorative wooden (or plastic) louvered things. So roller shutter is better, but it's still not self-explanatory to the average American.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

lisande and her husband are just the cutest couple imaginable. It was pretty much worth going to Germany just to see the two of them together.

I have no idea what you're talking about... *halo*

And yes - those shutters. At the first moment I thought you were pulling my leg, but then I remembered that you're only a poor American... and that I had never seen this kind of shutters in movies, so there might be a reason for the question... ;)

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Rolladen are rare, but do exist in the States- in hurricane areas.

Personally, I do believe that there's a good market for European style windows and rolladen in the States, if there's sufficient startup capital.

Oh, and the power strip? you didn't see the English ones at the con, did you? Even differenter still...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

That's what I'd said at the time, that I'd heard of something like them in hurricane-prone regions, but I'd never seen them.

And those windows. At first I just thought them unusually cleaver (nifty Euro design an all) and only later did I realized that everyone has them, which was the bigger surprise. If I went someplace where absolutely every window everywhere (very nearly) was exactly the same kind I have in my flat here that would be a surprise, too.

I did see the English power strips, too. To me they look less-odd, since they follow the US pattern of flat surface, holes in it, just different size and shape. The German big-recessed-socket is more eye-catching to me.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting question - you actually live here for a year now. Do you still notice differences? Or have you encounter other things that are completely different in daily live?