I watched television for the first time in a while the other day and noticed that, with a hiss and a roar and a dash of David Beckham, the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games had finished, just as quickly as they had begun.  This always seems to happen with the Olympics, don’t you think?  Four years of construction of Bird’s Nests, selection of mascots, international political controversy, promotion, preparation and excitement and then - in the blink of an eye - it’s over.

Perhaps it felt that way for the poor old German athletes who aimed for 50 gold medals and came away with 16  - although I think saying “Crisis is putting it mildly” (as the Süddeutsche Zeitung did) is a bit harsh.   If they want to feel good about themselves, they can always compare themselves to Neuseeland, with our 3  (count them, three) glorious golds.

At least some of the downtrodden Sportlers could enrich themselves linguistically in the ‘Chinese Learning Area’ of the Athlete’s Village, or culinarily with traditional Chinese street food.  How do you say ’seahorse-on-stick’?

… not Auf Wiedersehen! Yes my friends, the Kiwi is on the road (hence the photo.) The time has come, as it does for most New Zealanders, for me to put on my backpack (slash pack all my clothes into two rather heavy suitcases) and see the world - or at least Europe. So just a forewarning, my posts may become a little more infrequent and the videos harder to come by, but I’ll still be here! I’ll be updating the blog with a more international flavour, about my travels and intercultural encounters along the way - plus, of course, commentary on anything I find strange or comical.

So I hope you’ll join me in Miss V: First Germany, then the WORLD! (I’ll have to come up with something more catchy.) Then I’ll add adios, arrivederci, au revoir, adeus and maybe even hoşça kalın to my repetoire.

You all might remember me being a Schwarzfahrer (fare-dodger) earlier this year. Well, for true proof that crime doesn’t pay, look at the story of one 24-year old German man who played Schwarzfahrer for a five months, during which he was caught 102 times! You have to pretty much be wearing a sign that says “I don’t have a ticket” for that to happen. The oddest part is that he could afford the tickets, but was just using his naughty ways to fight boredom.

I wonder if he will be more inclined to buy a ticket when he gets out of jail - after 22 months.

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But no country will ever really be able to top the US in terms of fireworks extravaganzas. On July 4 this year, in New York, Macy’s (a department store) let off fireworks at three (yes, 3) different locations in the city. Reportedly this used 36,000 shells (what most of us call fireworks) , exploding 1000 fireworks per minute, at a total cost of (wait for it!) over $7 million! Now that has to be the biggest birthday of a Nation celebration I’ve ever heard of.

But then again, there’s an up side to everything. I’m glad I’m not an unmarried German man turning 30, because then I’d be forced to sweep the stairs of the town hall. Although I’m told this is for the purposes of showing off his house-cleaning skills to potential brides who happen to be walking past, and not to humiliate. Yeah right!

While I prepare the red, yellow and black face paints for Sunday, check out hamburg.de’s coverage of the 2008 Fanfest in Hamburg’s very own Heiligengeistfeld. There was dancing, there was laughter, there were (almost) tears… check out the tense moment at 1:10.

Go Deutschland!

Would any of you enter a Polyglot Scrabble competition? Do you consider yourself a Polyglot?

All of Europe is abuzz with Euro 2008 fever. Being a novice when it comes to most things football (or soccer, as we Kiwis say), I wasn’t surprised to get a measly 64% on this soccer quiz. Whether it’s because of my extreme lack of football knowledge or sucky German, I can’t say.

Can you beat me?

P.S. To check your answers (and your German!) click on ‘Solution’ on the left below your result!