Berlin with Baby: Olympia 2012

Note: This series, Berlin with Baby, is being written in real time to be published upon our return to the United States.

August 16 -- We're not watching too much TV while we here, mostly because we wouldn't understand any of it (although I'm fairly certain if I watched a dubbed version of The Closer I could probably figure it out ... wonder how they convey her Southern accent since it's a running theme ... I digress).

But one thing I did watch after Jane went to sleep every night last week was the Olympics (or as its known here Olympia). With the TV (which is much bigger than our TV at home) muted I could watch the diving and track & field in real time. I got to see more of the German athletes than I normally would have and got to see the American women win their 4x100 in record time plus most of the Usain Bolt wins. I tried to stream the USA-Spain gold medal basketball game but my computer doesn't have the power in it anymore, plus we have limited daily internet so it was a no go.

Another plus: no commercials. It was aired on their government station, I guess. Presumably the PBS of Germany? In any case it was GREAT not to be bombarded with ads for McDonald's (although you see plenty of those around here) and other Olympic sponsors. I did miss the athletes' stories, which is something I think NBC did OK with.

I watched about half of the closing ceremonies, missing the Spice Girls because it got too late. I didn't have the mute on for that because other than the commentators everything about the show was in English.

I actually hear quite a bit of English in the streets here. At first I wanted to be all "EFF YEAH, ENGLISH!" But now it's a little less exciting, and I'm a LOT more tired. So I just plod on. 

I'm still not comfortable conversing in German, and I'm not sure which is more offensive to Germans: speaking terrible German or assuming that everyone speaks English. Also, German is a little scary when it's being spoken at a rapid fire pace. I wonder if I'll miss it once we're back in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Jane doesn't mind what language you speak! (Shoes on the wrong feet again -- d'oh!)

2 comments:

Sydney said...

Wonderful picture, learning to be a good co-pilot. And how can you tell the shoes are on the wrong feet? They look like Jane's feet to me.

Mari said...

Ha, ha. The tag is supposed to go on the outside of the foot. They're soft soled so it doesn't really matter, especially as Jane's feet aren't filling them completely.

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