h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Party was partly nice. The problem is, they sold beer at (for me)normal prices, result: slightly to much alkohol in the blood and therefor in the head. Sometimes this creates this certain mood, when you start talking. It's a dirty feeling when you wake up and recognize, what you said and to whom... I was not so far away from it - I gave my adress to some austrian and/or bavarian girls because we wanted to cross Lichtenstein one day...

Then they started drilling holes in the wall at 8.00 pm. Very noisy!

I'm afraid of getting a haircut here, what if they don't understand or care what I would like to have it like? I can hardly expredd in german.

About the latitude I have to check. Say LIS, where you come from, do they pronounce 20 like chugo eller shugo?

looking not busy at all
longhairy jj

I know about the anguish of remembering all the stupid things from the night before, said in a state of less-than-sober. Hardly ever a good thing to go through. And even worse if you actually have to ask other people what you might have said to someone to make them shun you like a leper.

Anyways, I'm situated on the 56th latitude north of the equator and you're currently closer to the 60th. If you check a map, I'm just west of Glasgow at the moment.

Hmm.. Interesting question about 20 there.. I suppose I pronounce it shugo, not chugo. Same as I pronounce 7 as chu (as with the ch-sound in Bach) instead of shu...

I don't know, but Bach is pronounced differently in different places, so that's not really clear... well, maybe it is to JJ

And another thing, you said JJ is further north and then you said that he's about 5 hours south of you?
Or is it just international confuse Miriam day?

I learned another German phrase Ich liebe dich.... I'm so proud of myself (Yes, I've been sitting in Physics class too long... I should go take a nap )

Greets,
Miriam

Oh, bugger!
Thank you for pointing out my mistake, Miriam. I meant to say north, not south. I must have gone into some state of temporary mental meltdown or something. My home village in Sweden is pretty much on the same latitude (56th) as Glasgow, maybe about 45 kms north of that, but that is 5 hours by car south of Stockholm (60th latitude).

Damn, am I far north! Me,I was too muchcinfused about what friend LIS wrote. But now I'm also confused about the 20. Shugo (like shalom) or chugo (like in allachem).

Ich liebe dich - in Berlin you might hear "Ick liebe dir", which is incorrect grammar. But it's a really nice sentence to be said anyway. On monday a really drunk hollandse jong told me a few words, but i forgot it all (kan nit verstan! vi is dat gevest?). Perhaps we kan dricker en kopje koffee? Sorry for the incorrect spelling...

Yeah, but the next language I will have to learn is probably English, not Dutch. I think, Ihave to stay in an englishspeaing region for some time. Or perhaps Italien, or better french...

yippy yeaha hoo jj

Sorry about the mistyping in my previous message, telling you that I was further north.. I must've been temporarily distracted by work or something. I would say 20 as in shalom.

Ich möchte bitte mein Eis bezahlen, Herr Ober! Das hat mir sehr geschmeckt! (or something) I really should get back to speaking more German...

Goede morgen, Miriam. Hoe gaat het ermee? <----- My entire Dutch vocabulary..

I am very disappointed!

Not of you, but this Windows 2000 installed on my computer here is really producing mistakes again and again. And that with office-software: Word and Excel aren't running propper. And when I use msn hotmail, it crashes with explorer - but not with Netscape... weird!

That has to be all for now,

hälsingar jj

Hmmm.. The basic problem, Jonas, is that you're using M$ products.. You said it yourself. If you use Netscape (not a M$ product) it works, but when you use Internet Exploder, it crashes.. That's the whole problem..

I'm going home now.. I'm bored at working today.

Auf wiedersehen.

How can you be bored at working?! Impossible!!
I'm suffering from stress, it makes me act weird... (well, I already did that.. ), other than that I'm very well...
I've just taken up speaking Swedish again with one of my Swedish friends... och hon förståde mig! (?)
See... I *am* going looney

Greets,
Miriam

Well, we've had a few days of total and uter boredom at work. Friday was really boring since there was no calls. Today was boring since the customers pissed me off, asking stupid questions.. Correction, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people..
And also that my colleagues seem to think that as soon as our team leader is not there, I'm supposed to keep track on where she is...

Good to hear that you're back on track with your Swedish.. We'll have to start practicing, then..

Det är en jättebra idé! Vi har ju en svensk kille bland oss, så varför inte skriva brev på svenska?

Jag har mycket training i lyssna och prata, ochså med läsa ska det blir nästan bra, men jag har bara lite provat skriva svensk text. Daför kan det aldrig vara fel, eller vad tycker ni?

Listen, I am a little bit proud of my accumulated abilities in Swedish now, I think I made quite a Progress in the last weeks... You should listen to the other German teknologer here, and then try to speak Swedish with a french guy (or girl).

Well my english is still NOT sufficient, I feel it quite strong, OK - my Swedish ain't too...

sniff

hejdå jj

Crikey, Jonas..
Det verkar som om du skulle kunna vara svensk om folk läste vad du skrev på svenska där.
Jag har inget speciellt emot att skriva på svenska, men det kan ju vara bra att skriva på engelska om inte alla kan svenska så bra.

I can't say that I have heard the French people try to speak Swedish very often, but I do know that most of the French over here can't speak English worth a damn. There are times when everyone, including their own french mates ask them to repeat themselves, cause they can't speak English very clearly. It's almost always a pain in the neck to try ot understand them....

Tack för blommorna, hur man säger (översättat) i Tyskland! Sure the people would think I am swedish, I used many å:s, ä:s and ö:s...

But you are right! English should do it well. I just said, that I need a little training. We all know, what the companies want from their emploies: a good command of english, both spoken and written. And all what we want, is to be a productive member of society, so we shut up and do what ever to succeed in the competition of life.

So, it stopped raining and I can see the blue sky again.

See you: jj

Can you guys do me a little favour please?
Go to [Broken link removed by Moderator]click on Ranglijst in the top frame, then Mr. Internet 2000 in the center and then vote for Pierre...
SIlly contest, I know That's my boyfriend btw

Greets, Miriam

True, JJ. Most of the time, we just bite down and go on with it, even if we don't really feel like it.
*deep work depression* I'M OLD!!!!!! Well, not really, but still... I just realized yesterday, that I am the most senior call agent on the Swedish desk here at work. Well, the most senior call agent that doesn't work Out Of Hours or at other desks, that is.
Not that it should matter that much really, but still. I don't like it. That means that people will think that since I've been here the longest, I know everything (or thereabouts), which mens they'll come and ask me, which will take up prescious time I could have used surfing the web instead... And that sucks! *End of deep work depression*

Oh well.. I haven't found anything that's any more appealing anyways, so I'll just bide my time and see what happens...

It's not raining here today.. Weird..

Tyvärr, jag har ingen läkmedel mot djup arbetsdepression, but you seem to walk still upright with your eyes gazing bold at the horizon - the way is the aim (old Zen-Master word).

A thought: Perhaps the luckiest men in the world are those "weirdoz", who think they are Napoleon (Jesus, Eisenhower, Allice Cooper...). They just stoped caring about "minor" things (cooking, cleaning, working) and live in a world, where they have absolut power and they set the rules. It must be like the feeling when you dream, you can fly...

Anyway, the point is not, that we should become all crazy, but perhaps a little bit?

Just a thought

Oh, of course I walk up straight, head held high (most of the times) but still, I do feel a bit worn about it all.
It's as if I've been our Team Leader's side-kick here, and whenever there's something she thinks is really important and needs to be done, and she can't do it herselt, she asks me to do it. So in that way, the work is good, cause I get some different responsibilities, but I still feel worn out. It's not as fun to go up and go to work in the mornings any more, it takes more effort to psyche myself up to get up and get ready.

The Zen saying is good, that says: The final goal is not what is important, but the path you travel to obtain that goal is.
I do feel as if I am at a cross roads in my path and I need to decide which way to go. I could use a couple of days off right about now, just to myself, to gather some thoughts and stuff.

A certain feeling of lostness has yet again sneaked upon me...

Hi guys, can I ask some help and advice? I am a Brit, about to go to Stockholm to work for 8 months. (I spent the summer of 99 in Glasgow, and I'd love to be Lost in Scotland, but as a Brit, I guess I wasn't that lost).

I spent 4 months in Hamburg this year, and given enough time and a good teacher I could have tackled German happily enough. I made a start, but went to a really bad language school, which loused it up for me. It is still on my list of things to do.

But yesterday I heard some people speaking Swedish. It could as well have been martian. Now I know that it isn't really "necessary" to speak Swedish in Sweden if you can speak English, but it seems pretty damn rude not to. Also I really really want to learn a language.

So - any suggestions, any good language schools, any good language teachers?

A girl called Ben - soon to be found in Stockholm.

The best language teachers are right in this forum, unfortunately none of us will be able to teach you one language properly, we prefer mixing things up...

But if you follow this link http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1290/ you will be able to learn how to ask for food in Swedish...
Always start with the basics!!

1. LIS, you know the old Zen stuff quite good, don´t you? OK, then here is one new peace of advice: don't wait with decisions untill all possibillities, instead of one are gone, because then you do not have the choice anymore.

2. Miriam, I did vote fore some Pierre like you told me, I just hope it was the right one (tall, glasses, red Blazer?). But I didn't get the meaning of the contest...

3. AGCB, Speaking Swedish in Stockholm is quite usefull. All Signs are written in Swedish, swedish newspapers are in Swedish, Swedish dishes have swedish names... If you are going to work in Sweden, it is sure nice to understand what youre mates are talking about, while having fika (coffee break), and it makes it easier to get contact to some people. Making friends is probably more difficult than in south european countries.
First steps in Swedish: For you as an english native Speaker, with some knowledge of German, you probably will make fast progress in Swedish. It has many parallels to both languages, but the grammar is sonsidered to be much more easy than the german grammar.
(e.g.: I am sick = Jag är sjuck)
Try to find a basic course in your hometown, if there is none, try to get a swedish book for autodidacts. Unfortunatly I only know that there exist a "Langenscheidt" book (with CDs) and that's in German.
In Stockholm sure there must be some language schools. I attend classes here at the Technical University Stockholm, and they are quite good (but it also depends on the teacher), sure there is a way to get in the language programme from the university, if there are places left.

hejdå jj

so long