This strip was a conversation between me and WrongMark before one of our ninjutsu gradings.

Our sensei had a habit of occasionally conducting the gradings in Japanese.  Mark & me seemed to manage consistently to learn the Japanese phrases before gradings when he spoke in English, and not to do the Japanese before gradings when that was the language chosen, with the result that we failed more gradings than we probably should have.

Here is one of the few times where we learned the Japanese before the grading:

I was looking through some old stuff the other day when I found a list of conversations that I’d meant to turn in Monkeys Like Us cartoons, but never gotten around to.

Here’s one of them, dealing with Claires supernatural understanding of how clocks work, and just what mysterious forces cause the hands to move:

We made this video when we were in Vegas last December.  Keep watching after the credits for my favourite bit!

We were talking to WorkLad about a poster we saw on Ashes to Ashes last week.

He muttered that it must have been just a poster, not a canvas, as they didn’t have canvas prints back in the 80’s, then he looked confused and asked “How come they didn’t have canvas prints in the 80’s, when they already had them back when Jesus was alive?”

We wondered which part of the bible he’d read which mentioned Jesus having a canvas print. He replied that the bible is always talking about tapestries.

I pushed him on the point and said I don’t remember Jesus being famous for his particular love of tapestries, to which he pointed out that Jesus used to make them for a living.

I further queried the point.

He said, Jesus used to make them for a living, he was a carpenter.

I asked what he understood a carpenter to be

“somebody who fits carpets”..

He also stated that Mary was a florist.  No explanation for that, it’s just something he knows.

He later informed us that he failed RE at school

I’ve been learning German for a few months, so thought it was about time I visited the place, to see what it’s all about.

So I went to Frankfurt.

I arrived late on friday night, and got the train to my hotel.  I couldn’t see where my hotel was tho, so had my first real chance to try out my German..

“entschuldigen Sie, vissen Sie wo ist das Hotel Savoy bitte?”

Not great German gramatically.. but the man understood what I was asking, and explained to me where to find the hotel.

Which is where I realised what my big problem would be.. I could make myself understood.. but I had no idea what he just said to me!  Luckily he pointed, so I nodded like I knew what he was saying, followed his finger, and found my hotel!

The ‘not understanding when people speak back to me’ became a frequent problem.  Later in the weekend I went to KFC with nina & ricarda, tried to order a chicken salad in German.. the girl on the till asked me a question about my order, i panicked, and ended up with a tub of coleslaw for my meal.  By the Sunday, I’d given up trying to understand, if someone answered me back I’d just look blankly at them, then turn to nina or ricarda to answer for me.. or just let them do the talking in the first place..

I’d read bad things about my hotel in internet reviews, like people finding blood in their bed, and staff refusing to sort out problems.  But I also saw that the hotel gives away free cakes between 2 and 5pm every day, so I booked.  The hotel was great.  They listened sympathetically to my bad German, answered me in German, and even though I pretended to understand, they repeated it in English for me.

I had a great weekend.  I went to an art gallery (to find out if art in any way interests me.. it doesn’t), went to a flea market (where a scary looking guy was selling Russian military stuff), then met up with twins nina & ricarda who live nearby.

The twins showed me some of Frankfurts landmarks, a church where their parents got married, a bridge that James Marsters stood on once, a club that James Marsters played in once.  Then they took me shopping, and introduced me to some German music and films worth trying.  We met The Simpsons,

then visited the twins favourite pub, then on the train back to their hometown of Jugesheim to watch Buffy in German, go to a street party, wander out drunkenly into the pitchblack countryside, brave the dangers of diseased foxes and wild boars, a German cornfield, back to the street party, and then an early morning train back to Frankfurt.

A cool day!

On Sunday I slept most of the day, then got the train again to Jugesheim to meet nina & ricarda, went to a funfair, met a Gage lookalike (for anyone who knows Gage), went to an Ice Cream cafe, then to the cinema to watch Rush Hour 3 in German.  I barely understood a word, but Rush Hour films are never about the complex plot, so it was still cool.  Then back home again.

On Monday I wandered round the shops, bought one of the German dvd’s the twins had recommended, went to a museum and met some dinosaurs, then flew home.

I had such a great weekend!

Photo’s of the weekend can be found here