christmas eve

merry christmas! or, in british english, happy christmas.

my year in hong kong (and having parents that spoke/speak british english) has actually been pretty useful in explaining english to people. in hong kong i would tell people (because i didnt know) that certain phrases/words were wrong, when in fact they were just using another version of english. oops :-(

i am in heidelberg which is gorgeous. when i was in munich and chatting with these very wealthy, older people they were not speaking very well of berlin, and instead complimenting munich, frankfurt, bonn, hamburg, cologne, etc. when they spoke of berlin they were talking about this "growing trend" of people living on potsdam and brandenburg and commuting to berlin .

i know it sounds silly, but i was honestly surprised to hear all this. (hah, maybe i am slowly acquiring berlin arrogance) but now that i've seen at least some of heidelberg i understand what those people were talking about.

i spent some time with michelle's high school friends last night. i got the sense that growing up as an american in europe (or anywhere else really) must be very special and sometimes fabulous. there were many expats in hong kong as well - people that identified as [australian/american/canadian] but just grew up in hong kong, but they tended to be more rich and spoiled.