"It"

Please excuse me while I rant a bit…

The English language has lost its gender-specific pronouns when dealing with inanimate objects (ok, besides ships which are still kind of “shes”). Well, even “animate” animals are often referred to as “it” instead of “he” or “she.” Not so in other languages…at least in German. This is *major fun* for all of us who attempt to learn said language, as all English training in this area proves worthless. No longer are cards “its,” they are “shes.” My pen is referred to as “he” and little girls are “its.” Nice huh.

Well besides the joy of learning to think like this and apply it correctly in everyday conversations I am now dealing with a sort of opposite situation. “Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” (major points to anyone who knows where that quote comes from!)

Ok so. Babies and children in Germany *affectionately* fall into this “it” category and one can go on all day discussing about one of them without the other person knowing if it is a boy or girl. Weird, considering the often needed genderization of other English-neutral nouns, such as friend and well, basically any profession or relationship (ie. teacher, cousin, coworker). One can’t just say “friend” here, it is either a Freund (male) or Freundin (female). So here’s the opposite scenario—now I know if your friend is a boy or girl even though I might not have cared one bit!

But let me get to my real point: I have a baby of unknown gender in my belly. When someone asks about the baby in German, it is wonderfully easy and convenient to discuss many things, as I can go on and on technically calling my baby “it” and noone bats an eye. But whoa whoa, switch the conversation into English and suddenly I feel like a horrible pregnant lady, referring to my baby as “it.” And why? Simply because we don’t use “it” in English for anything typically inanimate, as mentioned above. But how annoying is it to say “he or she” all the time?! I’d rather that it just be ok to talk about the baby as “it” and everyone know that it’s not because I’m in some weird state of denial that I have something living growing inside of me, but simply because I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl (and because it’s totally fine to do in the German language). So there you go. Please don’t be offended next time I talk about the baby a-genderally, it’s purely for practicaly purposes. (Plus it gets repetative to always be saying “the baby” [see previous posts “Yeah, Baby!” and “Medical Marvels” for examples].)

Ok great! Now I’m done. Thanks for listening.

Polish Picks

It has been awhile since I wrote a top ten list so I'd like to recap the highlights of this past weekend in Poland with our relatives with such a list.

The Top Ten Things that Made our Weekend in Poland so Memorable:

10. When we crossed the border into Poland, Grady was eating a sandwich. The Polish border guard's first words were, "Enjoy your meal!" (in Polish) and then he went on to look at our passports, etc. What a welcoming culture!

9. Driving on the brand spankin' new Polish autobahn with cool reflectors to outline the lanes.

8. Eating PEROGIES, my absolute favorite Polish food!!! (see picture)
7. Visiting the "Panorama," a round building featuring a 360-degree panoramic painting of one of the major wars in Polish history.

6. Attending our first ever pantomime performance. A very interesting type of artistic expression!

5. Seeing Jola, a cousin of my dad's and gourmet cook, try to figure out what was in her Vietnamese mixed vegetable-rice dish and make great faces in the process.

4. Witnessing as John, Jola's husband, ate his Vietnamese soup that was a little spicier than he expected--he ordered two bottles of water afterwards!

3. Hearing Jola, who I had never heard speak more than a couple English words, say to Grady, "Don't eat too much because lunch will be at 12." A perfectly constructed complete English sentence! Amazing!

2. Leisurely walking around Wroclaw with everybody, enjoying the unusually beautiful November day and each others' company. We even heard some way cool live music as we walked through the town marketplace.

And the number one highlight of our trip to Poland:
1. Spending time with such wonderfully hospitable and generous family! We cherish the time with them so much and hope to visit them again in the summer.

some of the family as we stroll around the city of Wroclaw

A Memorial Weekend

This past weekend we traveled hundreds of kilometers to spend some time with our friends on the other side of Germany, Eric and Jen. On Saturday we toured the ancient city of Trier, and the first picture is us standing in front of the Porta Nigra, one of the original Roman gates to the city from the second century. We then drove into the neighboring country of Luxembourg to visit a American military cemetary and see where General Patton is laid to rest. Afterwards we stopped briefly at the nearby German military cemetary to see the different ways each country honored those who fought to defend them. That evening we took in the movie, Flags of our Fathers, an interesting look at part of WWII on the Japanese front and three men who became overly idolized as heroes because of a single photograph. At the end of the day I had to admit it had been a particularily productive 11th of November, or Remeberance Day in Canada (yay, I didn't forget the holiday!) due to the fact that we spent many hours thinking and witnessing the cost of our freedom. May we never forget.

Medical Marvels

Well it was back to the doctor for Allison and baby (and this time daddy came too) this past Wednesday and to appease our far away families I just had to post the latest pictures. The baby is now 14 cm long and the ultra sound was so clear that the doctor even counted the fingers and toes with us! Everything looked normal and healthy, including a full stomach of amniotic fluid and thumb sucking motions (see the first picture for a close up of the baby's profile with the hand up near the mouth). I am just amazed at the medical technology that allows us to view our tiny child from all angles and watch it move around in real time! We left the doctor's elated and so encouraged by the exquisite design God has put into this whole process. The other realization that continues to strike us is that we are going to be parents! (Aahh!)

Oahhhhhmmmmmm....

Two months ago I bravely signed up with one of my German friends for a beginner yoga course. Just a few blocks away, we figured it would be a great opportunity to get a bit more fit (bit more fit, haha) and to learn something new. An added benefit was the accountability factor, since we were both doing it together. None of the "not feeling like going" when someone's counting on you to be there!

So everything was off to a great start. Well except that I was a bit nervous on the first day mainly because I wasn't sure how my level of German comprehension would hold up in this new situation. Needless to say, my first two classes of "relaxation techniques" weren't very relaxing considering that I was constantly peeking through my "closed" eyelids to make sure I was doing the exercize correctly. An example of my inner monologue: "Did the teacher just say to continue taking deep breaths while focusing on total body relaxation? Oh no, what if he didn't say that? Aah I don't know what's going on! I'm so stressed! Wait, Allison, stop worrying, you need to be relaxing!...at least I think that's what he said..."

But now that we're nearing the end of the course, I'm feeling pretty confident about my level of understanding and am generally able to catch enough to relax when I'm supposed to. Although now that I've told the teacher that I'm pregnant, he's kindly giving me some tips and help with how to modify some of the positions as to not strain the "child within", so it never fails to catch me a bit off guard when his voice suddenly whispers something in German right next to me (remember my eyes are closed because I'm relaxing...well I WAS until the all-wise instructor quadrupled my heart rate by causing me to go into my fight-or-flight German language mode).

And speaking of being caught off-guard by someone speaking German (please note that this is no longer a common occurance [just for the record], considering that I think my brain's finally grasped the concept that I live in Germany), today at the grocery store the cashier was VERY unusually friendly and it totally threw me off-! She was really nice, just chatting away and commenting on some of the things we were buying, suggesting hamburger sauce and reminding us not to forget to cash in our refund receipts (for bringing bottles back). It was just weird to me to encounter such an outgoing and friendly stranger here-! And then the more I thought about it the weirdest part was how weird I found the whole situation, when back in Canada or the US it is a regular occurance. I'm just used to people being very private here and "down to business" and it was somehow uncomfortable to be put on the spot at the grocery checkout by a chatty cashier. But then again she was speaking super fast and considering that most of what she was saying was pretty random, I don't feel THAT bad for not being able to follow her. Although sheesh, who would have thought a bit of small talk would throw me through such a loop-!

Anyway, taking this yoga class has been great, especially in regards to learning how to focus on each part of the body as its own unit, tensing and relaxing it apart from the rest, and being able to identify the difference afterwards. I've heard that comes in handy during labor-! And for the record, twice each week we sit in the "classic" yoga position, legs crossed and hands out resting on the knees, while we breathe in together and then release the air while saying the word "oahhhhhhmmmmmmmmm..." I forget why it's so important, but it sure makes me feel like I'm getting my money's worth-!

Trick or Treat

Halloween is always a fun time of year, and this year was no exception. After rounding up some (hard to find and ridiculously expensive) pumpkins, we had some friends over Saturday night to demonstrate their carving skills. Can you imagine that some people, adult people, have never carved a pumpkin before? It was fun to teach them and watch what resulted. Check out the first picture to see how well they all did!


And it turned out that October 31st was a German holiday (Reformationstag--in honor of Martin Luther and the Protestant reformation) so we used the free day to prepare for another party at the Carroll's. There were soccer players, a pirate, cats, and a few Disney characters there too, and Grady and I showed up as "compliments of each other" (which we promptly followed with, "My, how nice you look tonight dear," "Yes, your shirt is particularily lovely..."). I haven't worn that much face paint since I don't know when-! After scaring the kids upon arriving (I think two-year old Chris said something like, "I don't like it" as he was cowering behind his mom) we joined in with the Halloween goodie-eating and I carved yet another pumpkin. It took about an hour but it looked really cool sitting outside! (mine's on the left in the picture.)

Here's to next year when we'll have to coordinate costumes for not just two, but three!

My Belly :)