“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!

A Flawless Trip So Far

A "snowy day" near Frankfurt

Hello Loyal Followers! I come to you now with an update on my trip thus far.

My flights were fine, and even though my connecting flight departed a bit late as it was waiting for the snow to get better for landing in Frankfurt, I arrived at the same time. Their “snow” issue was laughable. I could still see the grass and the ground for the most part, but I suppose it was more of the visibility that was the issue as it was rather cloudy. I took a few trains to get to my friend’s apartment where I would be staying (one train was canceled completely, probably because of the “snow” leaving me to wait on a platform for almost an hour with a boatload of Euro-teens who just got out of school). Overall, it was an easy and average trip with the exception that my bag actually arrived!!! 

I had the best night of sleep in at least a month. I finally did not have to think about anything or plan anything. My brain tried to make a to-do list against my will, but it quickly realized I had nothing that needed to be done! The next day I finished my conference paper and resurrected the Sloppy Joe recipe for my newest victim. It was also a hit even though it was as messy as ever!

We did not have any sort of grater/shredding tool, so I had to use a veggie peeler  for the carrots, thus the extra messy batch of Joes.

The car ride from Frankfurt to Luxembourg City was quite quick as we were doing an average of 160 km on the highway. We stopped at a rest area while still in Germany to grab some lunch. The food was actually pretty good – all homemade relatively speaking.

Pretty posh accommodations!

We arrived at the hotel and goodness was I grateful to have my room paid for by the conference! It was 270 € a night! It was a lovely room and it had the best breakfast I have had in Europe! After checking in we had a trip to Dalheim, known as the Pompeii of Luxembourg and one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. The weather was cold and windy, but the tour was nice. We had a group dinner which was mostly light things: French fries, diced potatoes, salad, slices of meat, and a dessert. 

The next day the conference began, the theme of which was focused on bathhouses in the Roman Period. As springs are often found near baths because they provide a natural and local source of water, I was asked to speak about the typical objects found in springs. The paper, though very different from others presented in the conference, seemed to generate some interest and I had many good questions. It was also a great conference because I met some very wonderful and interesting people (especially a French girl from my session who I geeked-out with on Roman religion!) from different cities and countries! I can keep adding to my “people to visit” list!

Snowy ruins in Trier

Yesterday the last of the conference attendees made a trip to Trier in Germany to have a look at the baths there. Another cold and wet day, but it was an interesting tour and I learned some things that I missed last year when I saw the sites. 

I stayed in Trier with a friend, then hopped a train in the morning to connect with my Frankfurt-friend who dropped me off in Mainz. I just got settled into the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum (RGZM) where I will stay for free in their guesthouse and use their library for the next month. They sure do have a lot of books which will keep me busy for a while…

I like the contrast here between my swanky hotel room above to my modest, but comfortable room at the research center 

I am leaving soon to meet a friend (The German) from my Vix excavations for dinner, so for now I will say Auf Wiedersehen!