Understanding Is A Process, and A Funny One If You Let It

Hello Readers!

Horse overlooking our house.

If I were to say in America, ‘She doesn’t have all of her glasses in the cupboard’, I think a lot of people would look at me funny. I would ask myself, 'where are the glasses then?'But in Germany, that means something along the lines of ‘she’s not the brightest light bulb, or a screw is loose’. Only through daily conversation and situation can you find out what small linguistic differences mean. Here are a few examples (I’ll state first our ‘American’ sayings, then theirs).

This is a trash can with a sticker on it. Translated this means 'I eat Hamburgers too'. Someone who lives in Hamburg is called a Hamburger, and not the food like we would think. For example, a German (Deutsch) resident would be called a Deutscher, and a female reisdent would be called a Deutscherin. So that in conversation, if I were to say I met an Amerikanerin, you would know I met a female American. Anyways, this is funny because it is saying 'I eat hamburgers, which in German translated would mean German men'.

So here is the list of sayings:

She stood like a deer in headlights. – She stood like a cow before a mountain.

Cat got your tongue? – Do you have a frog stuck in your throat?

Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. – Don’t make an elephant out of a mouse.

No one profits from lying – A lie has little legs.

Follow your gut. – Listen to what your stomach says.

He’s as thin as a beanpole – He is a line in the horizon.

Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? – Did you stand up on the wrong foot?

You shot yourself in the foot – You scored in your own goal.

She has two left hands -- He is like an elephant in a porcelain store.

Good luck! -- I'll press my thumb for you!

You can’t imagine how weird my host sister looked at me when I asked if the cat got her tongue. She replied, ‘we don’t have a cat…and what does it have to do with my tongue?’  As you can imagine, all of these little ‘findings’ as an exchange student, has a hysterical story to go with it. There’s almost always a stomach cramp from laughter that comes with these little sayings. These types of things separate you from a tourist, to more of a native speaker. Here’s a funny story.

Missed the train to Hamburg. I felt led to take a walk up the street,
and found this beautiful little park. Praise God for the small moments.

Last week we had a family visitor stay with us, she is the sister from my host father’s mother. But in any case she is very old fashion. One afternoon I was sitting with my host parents and her at the table, enjoying our coffee and cake hour. I only drank coffee. (That morning I had to leave school early because I ate bad strawberries and thought I was going to die from stomach pain, no thanks to cake!) And whenever you refuse cake or cookies, the giver always feels impelled to persist and ask again. My host dad offered me a pig ear (Schweinohr), which is a little vanilla cookie, and I told him no thanks. Then I said, ‘I know what game you’re trying to play! The try to make your exchange student as fat as you can game, huh??’. My host parents broke into HYSTERICAL laughter, and the Aunt’s glasses practically fell off her nose. I thought to myself, ‘hmmm…that wasn’t SO funny?’.

Then my hostmom said to me, ‘you know what you just said right?’ I nodded. Keep in mind I said this to my host dad.Then she laughed and said ‘to make fat, in Germans to impregnate.’ Mid sip I choked on my coffee, and thrust my hands forward and waved ‘no no no!’. Aunty’s eyes were still in ‘deer in headlight’ big until she realized it was a misunderstanding.  I have concluded that I would be the best Taboo player in New England after spending a year in Germany. When you don’t know the exact vocabulary word you need, the only option is to explain or to act it out. I remember fake cutting a steak, to imply that I needed a knife but didn’t know how to ask for one. You have to be open to make mistakes, and willing to laugh about them. Which has taught me a lot about my walk with Christ. Though I may not think some of my mistakes are laughable, I often punish myself more than God would. I refuse to forgive myself, long after God had forgiven me.

Our bunnies and chickies growing up together!
This was actually the last day before we had to separate them,
the bunnies started to bite the birds beaks and wings. 

Psalm 103:11-12 says ‘For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.’ When I open myself to allow God to truly talk to me, I learn a lot about myself. I set very high expectations, and even if I met them I always consider where I could have improved. I have learned that you can’t have this mindset as a soldier to God. Because the Truth is, He doesn’t love us based on our ability or performance, His love is unexplainable. Just like we can’t earn our salvation based on how ‘righteous’ or ‘good’ we are, we also can’t earn His love on how many people we witness too or how many homeless people we help.

It seems as every flowers has begun to bloom, so have revelations in my life. One after the other, more of God’s still peace has come over me, so that even when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, with cloudy weather, hail, shrunken clothes, shampoo that makes my hair dry like the Sahara, bread for breakfast and lunch, only bubbly water, and no umbrella…can I sing praises of joy. That is not just a positive mindset folks.

As I logged into my blog this morning, I noticed that in my last post I had viewers from Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand too. I never imagined this blog to be viewed from anyone else but friends and family back home. Though technology often feels like a breech on one’s personal life, I choose to use it as a vice to spread the testimony of God’s Glory in my life. Everyone should know living with and for Jesus is possible.

Encountered grazing fluffy sheep on the
way to the train station!

In case you have wondered the process of my blogging, or how I choose topics, I flip through my daily log and review what I have learned in scripture. The lessons I learn about myself, the Bible, and Christ often coincide with what happens through the week. Through daily experiences I ask Jesus what He wants me to understand and learn. Last week my Bible verse was Psalm 84:11; For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Since then, the sun has begun to shine from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.. I watch every day as the spinach I planted grows. Physically, the sun has the power to grow and destroy plants. I meditated on this verse for a while and considered the physical to spiritual parallel. God has the power to grow seeds and to also burn them with His intense heat. He can nurture a plant from seed to a full grown tree, or can consume every drop of moisture from the earth. Fast forward five chapters in Psalm to verse 28 through 37, David is seeing a vision from God and receiving a promise from Him as well. This is God speaking;

The difference the sun makes to growth of trees. On a bike ride.

 ‘My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.’

Selah means in Hebrew to value, or to meditate upon. In one revelation I learned the power God has over me, and in another revelation I learned that God’s loving kindness will never fail. It is absolutely paradoxical. For example, when we are at our weakest state, we are at our strongest because God can then work through us.

Yellow flower horizon.

All the Glory to God, Genevieve