So I was eating peanuts with Tanja, this lady I work with, in the break room when she decided to tell me about this idea she had.
Tanja (paraphrased and translated into English): I try this sometimes, watch. After you get the peanuts out of the shell, you add a little salt while they're in your hand, and then the peanuts taste salty.
I proceeded to tell her all about how, in America, you can buy peanuts with salted shells.
She was amazed.
America once again, has trimuphed.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Things that I don't like about biking in Berlin*
*some of these probably apply to more places other than Berlin
1) Googlemaps gives directions as if you are walking. Therefore you would be on the other side of the street. Normally, this doesn't matter until you get to complicated intersections which are complicated by themsleves. The fact that the 'links bei Kaiser-Wilhelm Platz' for only 23 m isn't acutually neccessary just adds to the confusion.
2) The streets are not well marked. There's one tiny street sign that is really hard to read. And sometimes, they're not marked at all.
3) What I would consider the same streets, have different names depending on what direction you're traveling.
4) Cobblestones. I hate the colbblestones.
5) It always starts raining after I start biking and then stops right when I get to where I'm going. Even if it's just misting, it's frustrating since I need windsheild whipers for my glasses.
6) The 'hill' on Hermannstraße.
7) I get really angry when I get lost.
8) Alexanderplatz (this is usually the cause of number 7)
My life right now basically consists of biking to different places. That's where all the excitement happens. I've gotten lost more times then I care to admit. I guess it's not surprising see as it happens a lot no matter what mode of transportation I'm using, although I still consider myself to be good with directions. I think I should reevalute that claim. Instead of good with directions, I think I'm good at remembering things. So if you tell me how to get somewhere, or if I copy it off of Googlemaps or something, I won't have to refer to the directions very often, if at all. But this is assuming all the turns are well marked and straight forward. When this is not the case, I suppose those people with a good sense of direction would be able to sense the general direction of their destination and would make enough turns to get back on track. Whereas someone like me, who relies entirely on the names of streets, is at this point lost. I think this is because I'm not good at visualizing things. For example, even though I lived in my parents' house for 13 or so years, I still have a hard time believing the bathrooms are build on top of each other. It just doesn't match the picture in my head.
Don't get the wrong idea though, I do enjoy having a bike in the city.
1) Googlemaps gives directions as if you are walking. Therefore you would be on the other side of the street. Normally, this doesn't matter until you get to complicated intersections which are complicated by themsleves. The fact that the 'links bei Kaiser-Wilhelm Platz' for only 23 m isn't acutually neccessary just adds to the confusion.
2) The streets are not well marked. There's one tiny street sign that is really hard to read. And sometimes, they're not marked at all.
3) What I would consider the same streets, have different names depending on what direction you're traveling.
4) Cobblestones. I hate the colbblestones.
5) It always starts raining after I start biking and then stops right when I get to where I'm going. Even if it's just misting, it's frustrating since I need windsheild whipers for my glasses.
6) The 'hill' on Hermannstraße.
7) I get really angry when I get lost.
8) Alexanderplatz (this is usually the cause of number 7)
My life right now basically consists of biking to different places. That's where all the excitement happens. I've gotten lost more times then I care to admit. I guess it's not surprising see as it happens a lot no matter what mode of transportation I'm using, although I still consider myself to be good with directions. I think I should reevalute that claim. Instead of good with directions, I think I'm good at remembering things. So if you tell me how to get somewhere, or if I copy it off of Googlemaps or something, I won't have to refer to the directions very often, if at all. But this is assuming all the turns are well marked and straight forward. When this is not the case, I suppose those people with a good sense of direction would be able to sense the general direction of their destination and would make enough turns to get back on track. Whereas someone like me, who relies entirely on the names of streets, is at this point lost. I think this is because I'm not good at visualizing things. For example, even though I lived in my parents' house for 13 or so years, I still have a hard time believing the bathrooms are build on top of each other. It just doesn't match the picture in my head.
Don't get the wrong idea though, I do enjoy having a bike in the city.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Ich fahre mit dem Rad zur Arbeit.
I biked to work today for the first time since the purchase of my old lady bike. I bought it last week from someone on craigslist. It's a one speed with only the right handlebar brake which is to be used in conjuction with back pedaling. I bought it because it was cheap and it already has a light on it. The problem with Paul's extra bike was 1) it's technically his ex-girlfriend's so I can't really take it with me when I move. 2) it doesn't have a working light and die Polizei are very strict when it comes to biking at night. A fine for not having lights is more than 2 months rent. No thanks. So I bought myself this beauty. It has a really wide seat and a basket on the back. It also has a bell on the left handlebar. So I pretty much look like an old lady casually pedaling to the grocery store all the time. It's not really a magnet for fine young gentlemen, but since when have I needed a ruse? I rode it home from my shady back alley purchase of it (just kidding, we were in a courtyard). It was dark, cold, and rainy on the ride home, but it was only 2 km away and I knew the way, so it was kein Problem (no problem). However, the next morning my calves were sore. That is apparently how long it had been since I rode a bike. I swear the fact that it was cold contributed greatly to the aching muscles, or I'm just that pathetic that I can't bike 2 km (which is 1.2 miles for all of you English system users) without being sore the next day.
I had the rest of the week left on my Monatskarte (month pass for the U-bahn) so I continued to ride it to work instead of biking (out of laziness and the fact that it wouldn't stop raining). I decided to give it a try today though. I had no idea how long it would take. According to google maps, it was 10.something km that would take 2 hours and 15 min to walk. I was going to leave early to give myself plenty of time for getting lost (the probability of which I thought was relatively high) but ended up leaving 45 mins after I wanted to. I was probably somewhere between 1 and 2 km away when I got stuck behind an actual old lady casually pedaling somewhere (probably from somewhere since her basket was already full). Not wanting to bike that slowly, I made my move to pass her.
Some things about Berlin you should know:
It is very bike friendly. On almost every street there is either a bike lane on the road, or on the sidewalk.
German roads and sidewalks are very often cobblestone.
The bike lanes are indicated by a different pattern in the cobblestone (normally small, close together stones to allow for a smoothe ride).
On this particular road, the bike lane was on the sidewalk. Separating the bike lane from the pedestrian lane, was a small line of bricks. Ontop of the bricks were lots of colorful autumn leaves. So in order to pass this lady, I would have to simply ride over the slightly raised bricks and go around her. Most people with basic bicycle maneuvering skills would be able to accomplish this feat without much of a problem. But for some reason, I forgot to take Physics into consideration. There are a series of laws pertaining to motion, that most people naturally execute. I failed to do so at this moment. I pretty much hit the bricks with my wheel directly parallel to it, which changed the direction of the movement of the wheels to directly perpendicular (sideways) to the one in which they were moving (forward). In laymen's terms, my bike stopped and I fell off. Now I was only going like 2 km/hr so the only things bruised were my pride and my left knee. There was no blood (and no 12 stitches needed). The bike was a little twisted at the handlebars, but I was able to move them back in place with relative ease. For a second I contemplated going back and taking the U-Bahn, but then I remembered some saying about falling off a horse and getting back on, so I persevered.
The remainder of the journey was uneventful. I didn't get lost and I made it there in about 50 min door to door. So it's pretty much exactly the same as the U-bahn. I was, however, really sweaty when I got there, and therefore got really cold once the sweat dried. Does anyone know how to fight that? I'm going to leave work early today in hopes that it will still kind of be light while I learn the way back. We'll see how sore I am tomorrow.
I had the rest of the week left on my Monatskarte (month pass for the U-bahn) so I continued to ride it to work instead of biking (out of laziness and the fact that it wouldn't stop raining). I decided to give it a try today though. I had no idea how long it would take. According to google maps, it was 10.something km that would take 2 hours and 15 min to walk. I was going to leave early to give myself plenty of time for getting lost (the probability of which I thought was relatively high) but ended up leaving 45 mins after I wanted to. I was probably somewhere between 1 and 2 km away when I got stuck behind an actual old lady casually pedaling somewhere (probably from somewhere since her basket was already full). Not wanting to bike that slowly, I made my move to pass her.
Some things about Berlin you should know:
It is very bike friendly. On almost every street there is either a bike lane on the road, or on the sidewalk.
German roads and sidewalks are very often cobblestone.
The bike lanes are indicated by a different pattern in the cobblestone (normally small, close together stones to allow for a smoothe ride).
On this particular road, the bike lane was on the sidewalk. Separating the bike lane from the pedestrian lane, was a small line of bricks. Ontop of the bricks were lots of colorful autumn leaves. So in order to pass this lady, I would have to simply ride over the slightly raised bricks and go around her. Most people with basic bicycle maneuvering skills would be able to accomplish this feat without much of a problem. But for some reason, I forgot to take Physics into consideration. There are a series of laws pertaining to motion, that most people naturally execute. I failed to do so at this moment. I pretty much hit the bricks with my wheel directly parallel to it, which changed the direction of the movement of the wheels to directly perpendicular (sideways) to the one in which they were moving (forward). In laymen's terms, my bike stopped and I fell off. Now I was only going like 2 km/hr so the only things bruised were my pride and my left knee. There was no blood (and no 12 stitches needed). The bike was a little twisted at the handlebars, but I was able to move them back in place with relative ease. For a second I contemplated going back and taking the U-Bahn, but then I remembered some saying about falling off a horse and getting back on, so I persevered.
The remainder of the journey was uneventful. I didn't get lost and I made it there in about 50 min door to door. So it's pretty much exactly the same as the U-bahn. I was, however, really sweaty when I got there, and therefore got really cold once the sweat dried. Does anyone know how to fight that? I'm going to leave work early today in hopes that it will still kind of be light while I learn the way back. We'll see how sore I am tomorrow.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Halloween, German style
I'll be honest, I almost forgot about Halloween. There are very few stores that bombarb you with displays of jack-o-lanterns and black cats and those chunks of stretched out cotton balls that are supposed to be cobwebs. In fact, Germany may have America beat on the jump-the-gun Christmas decorations. Seeing as Germany doesn't really have Halloween and definitely doesn't have Thanksgiving, Christmas is really all the department stores have right now. But I had enough poeple asking me questions about Halloween the day before at work, that I did remember to acknowledge its exsistance. It was actully really cute on Friday. I was invited to dinner at my host parents' house and on the way, I had to stop by the post office to mail my ballot (I had already faxed it in so it would count, I just had to back it up with the real thing). I saw a couple of groups of kids dressed as ghosts and witches and goblins and other scary things. In Germany they like the scary costumes, not the recognizable characters costumes that populate US college campuses. So as I was leaving die Post (the post office), a troop of costumed youngsters entered die Post and said 'Süß and something I didn't quite catch because they said it really sing-songy and in unison'. Süß means sweet. So they were giving their targeted trick-or-treatee the option of sweets or I'm assuming, a trick of some sort. I saw the same thing in one of the U-Bahn Station shops. I think that's an adorable idea. And great for these businesses. Maybe this is how trick or treating is always done in big cities but it was the first time I heard of kids going store to store in addition to door to door.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wie ist das Wetter?
It is freezing cold. It is 3.5 degrees right now and the high tomorrow is 7. In Fahrenheit that's 44.6 degrees for the high tomorrow. To make matters worse, Paul hasn't turned the heat on yet because he's waiting till the end of October (which is tomorrow, thank God) so it is even colder than outside, believe it or not. I'm not sure how that works, but it is, trust me.
Another wonderful thing about Berlin weather is that it rain all the time. I'd be willing to bet that it has rained 35-40% of the two months I've been here. This includes the last three days.
And lastly, if this doesn't make you want to run out and buy a ticket to Berlin, nothing will, it's really really dark. Ok, I'm sure it's nothing like Alaska, but it's noticeably much darker much earlier than it is in Pennsylvania. Oh by the way, we had Daylight Savings Time last sunday (the 26th, Happy Birthday, Adam) so for this entire week if you ever asked yourself "I wonder what time it is for Maggie" and then calculated it, you were wrong. I'm an hour closer now. But I think it's this weekend in the States (except for the weird places that don't follow DST for the sake of the cows or something like that). But anyway as I was saying, on Monday (the first work day after we "fell back" an hour, I worked until 6pm. I worked home in the dark. Not the 'it's getting dark' not the 'it's pretty dark', no, it was the same darkness as when I come home from something at 10pm or midnight. It starts to get dark at 4pm. To be fair, it has been a long time since I've led a life as 9-5 as the one I am currently living. In college I never had a 'quitting time' so the last time I had a usual time that I went home was in highschool and that was 5 years ago. So I don't remember how dark it gets how early. It certainly is depressing going home after dark. I don't see how you Alaskans do it.
Another wonderful thing about Berlin weather is that it rain all the time. I'd be willing to bet that it has rained 35-40% of the two months I've been here. This includes the last three days.
And lastly, if this doesn't make you want to run out and buy a ticket to Berlin, nothing will, it's really really dark. Ok, I'm sure it's nothing like Alaska, but it's noticeably much darker much earlier than it is in Pennsylvania. Oh by the way, we had Daylight Savings Time last sunday (the 26th, Happy Birthday, Adam) so for this entire week if you ever asked yourself "I wonder what time it is for Maggie" and then calculated it, you were wrong. I'm an hour closer now. But I think it's this weekend in the States (except for the weird places that don't follow DST for the sake of the cows or something like that). But anyway as I was saying, on Monday (the first work day after we "fell back" an hour, I worked until 6pm. I worked home in the dark. Not the 'it's getting dark' not the 'it's pretty dark', no, it was the same darkness as when I come home from something at 10pm or midnight. It starts to get dark at 4pm. To be fair, it has been a long time since I've led a life as 9-5 as the one I am currently living. In college I never had a 'quitting time' so the last time I had a usual time that I went home was in highschool and that was 5 years ago. So I don't remember how dark it gets how early. It certainly is depressing going home after dark. I don't see how you Alaskans do it.
Monday, October 27, 2008
die Wohngemeinshaft (WG)
If someone (from Germany) asks you if you live in a WG (pronounced vay-gay), they are asking you if you share an apartment with other people. From what I've gathered, 2 people living together also constitutes a WG. So right now, I live in a WG with Paul. I think there are unwritten rules about what is considered a WG as well. If two people are dating, and decide to get a place together, that is not WG. In that case when someone asks, 'do you live in a WG?', you would respond, 'no, I live with my boyfriend/girlfriend'.
WG stands for Wohngemeinshaft which translates to living community or more generally, a shared flat. Now a little bit about Berlin. Berlin is a pretty poor city. Therefore it is a very cheap city. Aparentments avaiable to rent are in abundance. However these apartments are all empty. Available rooms in a WG are in abundance as well, but the amount of people searching for a WG is probably about 15 times that. I say 15 because that's around the average number of people who were looking at each of the places I was looking.
In case you haven't figured out what I'm alluding to, I'm going to move to a differnt WG. I was first inspired to do so by Mark from Michigan. One of the guys with whom I play american football on Sundays (although I haven't been there for 3 weeks now). He's hanging out in Berlin trying to learn German. He was living with a lady from Kenya. So needless to say, they didn't speak German in his flat. He mentioned the website wg-gesucht.de where young people post offers about available rooms, so one day during the following week, I decided to check it out (during down-time at work [like right now]). What I discovered were tons of available rooms all around Berlin. My only requirements were that the people speak German (the entire website is in German, so that's pretty much everyone), that the room is cheaper than the one I have now, and that more than just one other person live there. From the first batch I contacted (I don't remember how many) I got one responce saying they already found someone. I decided to try again and was invited to my first 'let's find a new flatmate party' (There's an actual name for this in German, but I forget what it is). After the first one I knew what to expect. I started contacting lots more places because I had seen the number of people at the first place all vying for the same room. In order to get the room, you have to somehow stand out or impress the other people currently living in the WG. It's quite interesting. I certainly don't enjoy being on this end of it, though it's probably a nice way to pick an interesting new flatmate. I honestly can't tell you how many places I visited. For close to two weeks my evenings and weekends were packed full with looking at different WG's. I know a little bit about probability, and the more places you look, the better your chances that you'll get one of them. Most of them had one person come at a time in half an hour or hour intervals to look at the house and talk about interests, how you want to do food, the cleaning plan, and stuff like that. But there were three of them where people just mingled around chatting.
After rejecting via text message from some, and just never hearing from others, I finally got a call and an email from Mascha. I got picked! The room is much smaller than the one I have now, but the flat itself is much nicer. The rent is €90 cheaper a month and they have a kitten. It's directly north on the same U-Bahn I take now (U8) and it's on the boarder of Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg (which means nothing to any of you). But I didn't really care where it was. It's pretty much the same distance from work. Aside from Mascha (who is female and 19) Katherina (f,19) and Martin (m, 18) also live there. As well as some girl whose room I'm moving into, but I don't know her name and didn't really meet her. I'm not moving until the 1st of December, and I saw Monika and Dieter (my host parents from last summer) on Sunday and they offered to give me boxes and drive my stuff from one place to the other so I don't have to take the U-Bahn. I'm pretty sure I'll take them up on their offer.
WG stands for Wohngemeinshaft which translates to living community or more generally, a shared flat. Now a little bit about Berlin. Berlin is a pretty poor city. Therefore it is a very cheap city. Aparentments avaiable to rent are in abundance. However these apartments are all empty. Available rooms in a WG are in abundance as well, but the amount of people searching for a WG is probably about 15 times that. I say 15 because that's around the average number of people who were looking at each of the places I was looking.
In case you haven't figured out what I'm alluding to, I'm going to move to a differnt WG. I was first inspired to do so by Mark from Michigan. One of the guys with whom I play american football on Sundays (although I haven't been there for 3 weeks now). He's hanging out in Berlin trying to learn German. He was living with a lady from Kenya. So needless to say, they didn't speak German in his flat. He mentioned the website wg-gesucht.de where young people post offers about available rooms, so one day during the following week, I decided to check it out (during down-time at work [like right now]). What I discovered were tons of available rooms all around Berlin. My only requirements were that the people speak German (the entire website is in German, so that's pretty much everyone), that the room is cheaper than the one I have now, and that more than just one other person live there. From the first batch I contacted (I don't remember how many) I got one responce saying they already found someone. I decided to try again and was invited to my first 'let's find a new flatmate party' (There's an actual name for this in German, but I forget what it is). After the first one I knew what to expect. I started contacting lots more places because I had seen the number of people at the first place all vying for the same room. In order to get the room, you have to somehow stand out or impress the other people currently living in the WG. It's quite interesting. I certainly don't enjoy being on this end of it, though it's probably a nice way to pick an interesting new flatmate. I honestly can't tell you how many places I visited. For close to two weeks my evenings and weekends were packed full with looking at different WG's. I know a little bit about probability, and the more places you look, the better your chances that you'll get one of them. Most of them had one person come at a time in half an hour or hour intervals to look at the house and talk about interests, how you want to do food, the cleaning plan, and stuff like that. But there were three of them where people just mingled around chatting.
After rejecting via text message from some, and just never hearing from others, I finally got a call and an email from Mascha. I got picked! The room is much smaller than the one I have now, but the flat itself is much nicer. The rent is €90 cheaper a month and they have a kitten. It's directly north on the same U-Bahn I take now (U8) and it's on the boarder of Wedding and Prenzlauer Berg (which means nothing to any of you). But I didn't really care where it was. It's pretty much the same distance from work. Aside from Mascha (who is female and 19) Katherina (f,19) and Martin (m, 18) also live there. As well as some girl whose room I'm moving into, but I don't know her name and didn't really meet her. I'm not moving until the 1st of December, and I saw Monika and Dieter (my host parents from last summer) on Sunday and they offered to give me boxes and drive my stuff from one place to the other so I don't have to take the U-Bahn. I'm pretty sure I'll take them up on their offer.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Truth About Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
I watched the movie Borat with Taras (a Tandempartner) and his friend Artur from Kyrgyzstan. They're actually both from Kyrgyzstan but Taras moved to Germany (obviously) and Artur to Russia. Although Russian is the official language of both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, both countries also have there own languages Kyrgyz and Kazakh, respectively. Artur can understand both of these language (or at least enough to recognize the language).
The three of us haning out was an interesting linguistic situation. Artur spoke very good English, much better than Taras. We could lose him by speaking quickly. However, he didn't speak much German, so Taras and I (theoretically) could speak German quickly and Artur wouldn't understand. And finally, Artur and Taras could speak any amount of Russian at any speed and I wouldn't have a clue what they were saying. I did learn, several times, how to say "My name is Maggie" and "I am 22 years old" in Russian, but of course, I don't remember.
But anyway, back to the movie. Borat is a movie about a Kazakhstani 'news anchor' who goes to America to report on the 'greatest country in the world'. It's not recommended for the easily offended or the politically correct. Some parts are down-right disgusting, but in general, I think it's very funny. And watching it with people from the region was even better. First I should say that it was basically just Artur and I who watched it, because Taras had to get stuff ready for school. But Artur was the most knowledgable of the two anyway, so it worked out nicely. Now, onto the truth about Borat.
Things that are not accuarte:
1. They are neither speaking Russian nor Kazakh. We have no idea what language (if any) it is.
2. None of the ridiculous things involving toilets are (or would be) true. The have running water toilets and toilet paper in Kazakhstan (and Kyrgyzstan).
3. Pubic hair is not valuable or used as currency.
4. While some people greet each other by kissing both cheeks, it is not as common and used in as many situations as Borat uses it. (it's used a lot in Germany as well)
5. Borat has a lot of hatred for and fear of Jews. This isn't really accurate, but most likely stems from the fact that A) Sacha Boran Cohen (the actor who plays Borat) is Jewish and it's popular with comedians to make fun of your own.
and B) most of Kazakhstan is Musilm so I guess there is some sort of natural differing of opinion.
6. Borat doesn't really look like he's from the region. Artur could tell he wasn't and was just making a poor attempt at it.
Things that are kind of accurate:
1. When Borat ia at the Hotel desk and asks for a room for one night, the desk attendant responds with the price ($115 or something). Borat responds "I'll give you 85," spits on his hand and extends it for a handshake. - This elicited laughter from Artur along with something along the lines of "They do really like to bargain and try to do it a lot". Although the spit on the hand thing isn't super common.
2. When Borat is at the Rodeo talking to some of America's finest about homosexuals, he explains that in his country they put them in prison and kill them. (to which America's finest responds "we're trying to get that done here, too") Unfortunately, this is fairly accurate. Gays are treated very poorly in Kyrgyzstan at least.
3. Borat's distain for gypsies is accurate.
4. Borat often speaks of prostitutes in Kazakhstan. There are a lot of prostitutes in that region. This is another unfortunate truth. A lot of poor women have no other choice.
5. When Borat learns that the woman he is in love with (Pamela Anderson) is no longer a virgin, he is heartbroken. It is illegal for women to have sex before marriage (but only women). In some villages the parents listen in on the wedding night (either in the same room or next door) and then check the sheets for blood in the morning to make sure she really was a virgin. (we didn't go into what happens if she was lying)
6. At the end Borat attempts to capture Pamela in a sack. This is legitimate. If a man wants a woman, he can capture her (even with help from his friends). If he succeeds, she must marry him.
There were parts of the movie to which we didn't pay attention. We never stopped the movie to discuss, we discuss during the movie, so there are things we may have missed (or I may have forgotten). But overall it was a very interesting and entertaining learning experience.
The three of us haning out was an interesting linguistic situation. Artur spoke very good English, much better than Taras. We could lose him by speaking quickly. However, he didn't speak much German, so Taras and I (theoretically) could speak German quickly and Artur wouldn't understand. And finally, Artur and Taras could speak any amount of Russian at any speed and I wouldn't have a clue what they were saying. I did learn, several times, how to say "My name is Maggie" and "I am 22 years old" in Russian, but of course, I don't remember.
But anyway, back to the movie. Borat is a movie about a Kazakhstani 'news anchor' who goes to America to report on the 'greatest country in the world'. It's not recommended for the easily offended or the politically correct. Some parts are down-right disgusting, but in general, I think it's very funny. And watching it with people from the region was even better. First I should say that it was basically just Artur and I who watched it, because Taras had to get stuff ready for school. But Artur was the most knowledgable of the two anyway, so it worked out nicely. Now, onto the truth about Borat.
Things that are not accuarte:
1. They are neither speaking Russian nor Kazakh. We have no idea what language (if any) it is.
2. None of the ridiculous things involving toilets are (or would be) true. The have running water toilets and toilet paper in Kazakhstan (and Kyrgyzstan).
3. Pubic hair is not valuable or used as currency.
4. While some people greet each other by kissing both cheeks, it is not as common and used in as many situations as Borat uses it. (it's used a lot in Germany as well)
5. Borat has a lot of hatred for and fear of Jews. This isn't really accurate, but most likely stems from the fact that A) Sacha Boran Cohen (the actor who plays Borat) is Jewish and it's popular with comedians to make fun of your own.
and B) most of Kazakhstan is Musilm so I guess there is some sort of natural differing of opinion.
6. Borat doesn't really look like he's from the region. Artur could tell he wasn't and was just making a poor attempt at it.
Things that are kind of accurate:
1. When Borat ia at the Hotel desk and asks for a room for one night, the desk attendant responds with the price ($115 or something). Borat responds "I'll give you 85," spits on his hand and extends it for a handshake. - This elicited laughter from Artur along with something along the lines of "They do really like to bargain and try to do it a lot". Although the spit on the hand thing isn't super common.
2. When Borat is at the Rodeo talking to some of America's finest about homosexuals, he explains that in his country they put them in prison and kill them. (to which America's finest responds "we're trying to get that done here, too") Unfortunately, this is fairly accurate. Gays are treated very poorly in Kyrgyzstan at least.
3. Borat's distain for gypsies is accurate.
4. Borat often speaks of prostitutes in Kazakhstan. There are a lot of prostitutes in that region. This is another unfortunate truth. A lot of poor women have no other choice.
5. When Borat learns that the woman he is in love with (Pamela Anderson) is no longer a virgin, he is heartbroken. It is illegal for women to have sex before marriage (but only women). In some villages the parents listen in on the wedding night (either in the same room or next door) and then check the sheets for blood in the morning to make sure she really was a virgin. (we didn't go into what happens if she was lying)
6. At the end Borat attempts to capture Pamela in a sack. This is legitimate. If a man wants a woman, he can capture her (even with help from his friends). If he succeeds, she must marry him.
There were parts of the movie to which we didn't pay attention. We never stopped the movie to discuss, we discuss during the movie, so there are things we may have missed (or I may have forgotten). But overall it was a very interesting and entertaining learning experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)