Cultural connections...gone awry

One of my colleagues speaks German, but is pretty darn fluent in English too.

My colleague, a mid-50's mom and grandmother, who reminds me of my own grandmother a lot-- she volunteers at the Science and Nature museum, she goes on educational trips out of state to learn about science and national parks. She's very well-rounded and the kids adore her. As I mentioned, she speaks German. It should go without saying then that she's from Germany, and has lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.

I wish I could capture her accent here. It's just precious. 

She and I were speaking and she got very excited. She said, "Oh! Oh! I remember, I was talking to my daughter about a documentary about your state! You are from Georgia, this I know!"

I replied, "Oh really? Which documentary?"

She answered, "It was a documentary, to learn about your state Georgia! They are very rich and have lots of money to spend that actually belongs to their husbands. But it is set in Georgia!"

I thought about it and asked, "Is the show about mainly women? And they drink a lot of alcohol?"

"Yah, Yah, this is the show."

"Were the women wearing short dresses and had lots of plastic surgery?"

"Yah, yah."

I hung my head a little. Ach, mein, Gott.  She thinks I lived a life back in Georgia like the Real Housewives. 

Eloquent adventures for my week-ends

Let's see, the last time I checked in here, I was moving to Denver in a few days. Well, I made it!

There's obviously been a thing or two going on with getting situated, renting an apartment, starting a job, purchasing all the furniture to go in that apartment...so writing and blogging have kind of been on the very, very bottom of my stacked-to-the-ceiling to-do list. 

I've been getting back into some writing this week-- my dear friend Al (her page is here) sent a very lovely care package that included some perfect small-enough-to-slip-into-my-backpacking pack journals. So there's really no excuse. I attempt (and have largely succeeded) to hike somewhere every weekend. It gives me some time to think and reflect over this slightly surreal life I'm living. 

Everything had little notes of explanation!

I do hope to get more into a habit of writing and blogging about the day trips I've been taking. I'm working at an Independent school (read: private) that is an "American International" school (read: like American schools that exist in a strange vacuum in foreign countries) and therefore I have access to charming, new, and lovely colleagues who are from a myriad of other countries. In the teaching staff, we have at least 7 languages represented...and more dialects too. Every day is a Communication major's dream-- we have so many ways of tackling any issues!

I only mention this because one of my colleagues is from Senegal and he and I were discussing what we'd done over the weekend. I've noticed that with both teachers and people whose first language is not English, those groups of people like to summarize at the end of a conversation, to have reasonable assurance that they understood everything. This man is no exception. So, after describing the hike I'd taken that weekend, he said, with his lilting accent and activist's eloquence, "I think I understand. You are using your weekends to go and adventure in all the beautiful places that Colorado offers?" 

Yes. Yes sir. I'm adventuring in Colorado. That's for sure. 

Traveling on this overpass-- noticed snow on the peaks for the first time. Oh Colorado. So gorgeous.