“Yippie Yah Yei Schweinebacke!”

Ok, so I thought I’d be done posting about Germany, but I keep remembering so many good things I learned that need to be shared. I guess this discussion works for American movies brought to Europe in general.

I do not think I need to explain that many English films get dubbed when they go abroad (not all though, many just have subtitles). Well, since I typically do not understand the dubbing I just watch and laugh because it sounds funnier in another language, and in the case of a piece of crap film like Twilight, the French version was actually better because the actors/ACTRESS actually had some emotion in their voices (see note below on why I was watching Twilight).

Anyway, John the German and I were discussing the Die Hard films on day and he dropped this phrase on me: “Yippie Yah Yei Schweinebacke!” I asked him to repeat it and I said, “Ha! It rhymes!” He was confused because those phrases obviously do not rhyme, but then I explained the English version. I needed to know, “What does ‘Schweinebacke’ mean?” Turns out, this traditional German insult means “pig cheek.” This led to a good long laugh for me. I am not sure exactly why this translation tickled my fancy so much. Perhaps it was the good fortune that there is actually a phrase in German that mimics the sound of the English version,

or that the insult is strange, or that it just seems so innocent compared to the much more offensive English phrase. Oh! On a side note, there is a funny site called “Thumbs and Ammo” where they photo-shopped the guns out of scenes from action films and replaced them with a thumbs-up! Some are pretty hilarious and inspired me to make this gem combining the German phrase and one of their images.

Die Hard, rated G for all ages!

In addition to movies being dubbed, the titles are often changed. Sometimes it is a literal translation into the other language, or they are changed and added to. Brokeback Mountain, for example, becomes Le Secret de Brokeback Mountain. In other cases they keep the title in English, but change the phrase. I have not found a good explanation for why they do this exactly. It seems that the titles which receive this treatment might simply be difficult to translate or they do not have an equivalent word in that language. For example, Step Up became Sexy Dance and The Hangover became Very Bad Trip (it seems crazy the French do not have a word for ‘hangover,’ instead they say someone had ‘too much wine’).

Hopefully this was not overly boring for those of you who are not into films. As a movie lover, and I suppose as an anthropologist, I find it fascinating to see which aspects of films and movie culture are exported and modified to fit a different culture. The best part is, there is always something new to discover or learn about this because there are always new TV shows and films entering the movie world!

**Oh! And as for watching Twilight. This was two years ago, I believe, when I was staying with a friend in Dijon. She had to work for the day and I wanted to practice listening to French. I looked at her movie collection and thought, “Which of these is going to have a simple story line and basic dialogue which I may be able to understand…” Well, it proved to be that one! The funniest part was that after about an hour and a half of listening to and reading subtitles in the French, I became tired and switched back to English. I regretted it immediately. My god, the French made the film bearable because the actors actually had some feeling in their voices, but the original film…my god…how on earth were they allowed to make four of these movies?**

A Visit to Glauberg

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to take a trip to a little village called Glauberg. The village today is quite small and really has nothing significant to it as far as I know, but the hill which lies behind was home to an oppidum (a fortified settlement, typically found on a hilltop or defensible location) during the Iron Age. In addition to the settlement, a large rampart and multiple burial mounds were found around the hill too.

To get to the site, The German (whom I will now call John as this is his new nickname from me) and I had to take a train to Frankfurt from Mainz, and then another train from Frankfurt to Glauberg. We were quite lucky with our first trains – one was nearly brand new and still had the fresh scent to it! It took about two hours to get out there and luckily the ride was pleasant and we even saw some deer!

We arrived in the little village which is located at the foot of the large hill. We started working our way through the village and followed a muddy path up the hill, parallel to some freshly turned fields waiting for new crops. It was a bit tricky getting up because, well, my studious bum has been planted in a chair for the past few months, so to say I am out of shape is an understatement to say the least, but also we have had so much rain and snow in Germany this spring that everything is a bit muddy and soft in general. We made it to the top nonetheless and had to spend about five minutes cleaning the mud off of our shoes before entering the museum.

Sometimes referred to as the Mickey Mouse statue

Visiting the museum first seemed to be the best option because the weather was questionable and it sprinkled a bit while we climbed the hill. The museum, opened in the late 2000s, was not very large, but it holds most of the finds recovered from the excavations, including the famous princely burial in one of the mounds. This find was rather famous in the world of European archaeology. Statues and sculptures are typically rare prior to the Roman Period, so to find this incredible, life-size sculpture associated with one of these wealthy burials was an exceptional find to say the least. It is believed that sculptures like these were found on top of the burial mounds and served as a form of grave marker.

In addition to the sculpture, many marvelous objects were found in the burial mound of the prince. These objects are also exceptional, well, the whole situation is exceptional, because the objects found in the grave are also found on the sculpture itself. This very close connection between the sculpture, the objects, and the burial, allow archaeologists to argue that the sculpture depicts the man found in the grave with these items. This is not something that happens very often in the world of European archaeology.

See? See? Too cool! A matching sword and a shield were also discovered.

I should also mention that these mounds are not simply small little bumps in the landscape that just cover the body. Some of these are several meters high, and tens of meters wide (the princess burial at Vix where I excavate is estimated to be at least forty meters wide!). This is the princely burial of Glauberg.

The sun decided to come out the moment I snapped this photo and I could not be more grateful! As the weather turned around, we decided it was a good time to see the archaeological park which had visible ruins from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period that have been excavated from the early 20^th century to the more recent times. The Iron Age ramparts were a highlight as well as many ruins of medieval houses and castle structures. It took about an hour or so to walk around the area, and while there may have been more to see, the sun seemed to want to retire for the night and I did not want to walk down the hill in the dark.

Nothing really remarkable happened on the way back, other than these two fat cats sitting in a window wanting to get in.

These fat cats make Mea look really thin...and less grouchy.

On the train ride from Frankfurt to Mainz I was blessed with the opportunity to listen to some German skaterpunk teens rap in English for a bit and then switch to raping about how awesome Frankfurt was in German. I use blessed sarcastically here. I survived and had a Schlappeseppel when I got back. Boy will I miss that beer.

Today was my last day in Mainz and I am actually finishing this post on the bus headed for Dijon. New country, new work, and new adventures await! Until we meet again, Germany!

Being An Archaeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous: Part Deux

From the research that brought you Being An Archeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous…  comes the thrilling sequel Being An Archaeologist Isn’t Always Glamorous: Part Deux! The location, Mainz. The cast, tripled! The weather, unpredictable. The commute, longer. The research, even less thrilling!

I have not written in much detail about what I am doing in Mainz for a month because there is really not much to tell. I arrived on *March February 25^th and settled into the museum owned guesthouse that is offered to visiting scholars for free if there is available room. I stayed there for a week, then switched to a friend’s (my friend from Vix 2011 that I referred to as The German) apartment for a week, and then back to the guesthouse.

When I have not been moving my stuff from one side of town to the other, I have been spending my days in a gigantic library. Why come all the way to Mainz for a library? Well, this library contains over 120,000 books on archaeology and history alone! Most of the publications are in various European languages (mostly German), and the focus of most of the literature is the archaeology of Europe. While we have many great libraries in the States, most of these publications are very old or difficult to come by across the pond. In short, it is a fantastic place for me to get some research done as many of the materials I need are available on site. Sometimes the reading is really great and I think, “This is just the thing I was looking for!” and other days, like today, I was almost bored to tears by a book I needed to finish and could do nothing after but watch a crappy zombie movie. Here is a highlight from Cockneys vs. Zombies:

So, on average, I am spending about eight hours a day in a library reading French. I have rather limited brain power for anything else after that. Luckily, after I arrived I realized I know several people in the city and have made new friends as well during my stay. I have been watching movies and TV shows as I do at home, and eating…a lot. I have rarely had a meal alone which is a nice change from my normal research schedule! The German has been a great host too and I have been comparing him to a Midwestern mother because he keeps making me eat! I fear I will be fat before I leave Mainz.

I have also shared some of my culinary masterpieces with The German and The Hobbit (another blogged about friend from Vix who came to town last week to visit!). As the former is an avid carnivore and the latter is a vegetarian, I tried to engineer some meals that would work for the three of our diverse food tastes. Baked gnocchi, stuffed peppers, and American-style pancakes were all successfully transferred recipes! Have not been drinking too much, though I was introduced to Schlappeseppel beer! Not only is it a delicious beer, it is a great word to say while toasting your beer (apparently the first time I tried to say it, it sounded like I already drank about five of them according to my wonderful friends)! I am trying to find a distributor in the States -- keep your eyes open!

To summarize, my time in Mainz has been spent walking from one side of town to the other, sitting in a library for eight hours a day reading French (because I cannot read German yet), visiting friends, and eating too much. All-in-all, it sounds rather boring, but each day has its highlights.

*Thanks Ami, for the correction! I am not that magical yet!

4371 Miles Away, But Not Far From Home

I am a big Jane Austen fan surprisingly. I find her stories relaxing to read and rather clever. Sometimes while I am traveling I cannot help but recall some of these scenes where friends talk about writing to one another while away on their travels or in a different city for the summer (I found this excellent archive of old correspondences between friends called the Victorian Women Letters Project). It seems so sweet and it often makes me wonder if we have lost the art of letter writing today. Sure, we may send the occasional postcard, but they are often short due to lack of space or sometimes they do not arrive at all (like the batch I actually wrote last year from Vix). With today's technology, is it even necessary to write letters while traveling? If not, are today's technological advancements a good replacement for this old tradition? Do we talk about different things in letters compared to digital technology? Answers to these questions will be different for everyone I think, but I will share my thoughts on the matter.

The world in general is a smaller place. The average person probably knows hundreds of people rather than just a select few from their family or town as was the case during Jane Austen's time. If I had to write hundreds of people while traveling that is all I would be doing. Even if I select people I am in contact with most on a regular basis, it is still a rather high number of people to correspond with. Usually I am not a huge fan of technology and being connected 24/7, but in the case of modern travel, I find it a helpful thing. For a very obvious example, I am able to write about my travels and share my tales of triumph and failures in this blog. I can reach, potentially, an infinite amount of people, so everyone who knows me, or is interested in hearing about my trip, can easily keep up.

Other options include email and Facebook for more personal correspondence. While the blog typically has the highlights or summaries of my travels, I use email and Facebook messages for sending the occasional longer explanation fitting for only one person, a private joke, or just random complaints or embarrassing stories that are just too much for the entire world to see. Even when I am lacking internet access I can still keep in touch with my regular American cellphone. I have AT&T which has a "World Traveler" option which let's me pay a bit extra to use my phone abroad. I can call home and keep in touch easy as that.

All of these features are great, but I have to say that video chat through Skype or Google is by far the best advancement in technology when it comes to travel. You can actually see the other person and can still share a moment or 120 minutes together through the miracle of the internet. If I did not have Skype, I would have missed out on this epic moment of cuteness:

Regal Kitty patiently waiting for his dinner (in Reed's face), just like when I am at home! 

I do not think that it is necessary to write an actual letter while traveling, but I think we certainly make up for this in other ways. Everyone still loves to get letters in the mail I think. It is still just as exciting for me to see I have a new email from a friend or colleague checking in to see how the trip/research is going. In a way, we still talk about the same things people previously talked about in letters, we just have more ways of communicating these ideas. One thing letters cannot replace is seeing a smile from a loved one or hearing your cat purr while you are 4,000+ miles away. Yes, sometimes it is hard to be away for so long from family and friends, but with all this modern technology, sometimes its like I am not even gone...

And probably one of the cutest moments I have ever had on Skype...

The boys trying to figure out this darn technology...