Sunday, July 13, 2003

One month left. Thought I would write some things about the language barrier that never occurred to me. First, names of people are all the same, but names of towns change. Why? Wouldn't it be easier if Prague were Prague everywhere. Or have it be Praha everywhere. What is the difficulty there. Wein or Vienna, Rome or Roma. What is the point. Just something I never thought would be an issue. I thought a city name would be like a person's name.

Another thing that you just do not think about until you stop and think about it. All these people talking about, sounds like gibberish to me, but a cough sounds the same. I don't think I really thought a cough would sound different in German, but I never had to think about it before. Same with a sneeze, throat clean, and all those other quirks humans have. I guess I thought about it because when you are on a train with like 20 conversations going on in another language, the only thing that sounds familiar is those quirky noises that are universal.

The view out my window reminds me of home. No more mountains. Just fields and it looks like wheat. They bail there wheat in round bails. How lazy. Reminds me that Dad must have bailed at least twice since I have left and at least once bucked bails. Looks just like home minus the visible roads. They are there, they have to be but just not as visible as the highways that cover the states. I guess there are more trees than home, but this is the closest thing I have seen for a while. Seen a few fields of sunflowers. Cannot say I could say that before.