Schweinerei (#1): Introducing Our First Real ... - Claremont Port Side
This is the first post of my regular column “Schweinerei.” If you’re not familiar with the term “Schweinerei,” that’s okay. You probably haven’t spent a significant amount of time around Bavarian pig farmers. Unfortunately, neither have I. But I have spent seven months in Europe, specifically a semester in Austria and a summer in Germany.
Contrary to the belief of my mom’s friend Mark from high school, I didn’t learn Austrian in Austria (they, too, speak German). Also, it’s not the country where kangaroos live – that’s Australia. Sometimes you even have to write “Vienna, Austria, Europe” on packages to make sure the postal workers don’t send it Down Under.
Anyways, “Schweinerei” is a very important word. To Germans. And to some Austrians. It derives from “Schwein,” which any good Jewish girl from Beverly Hills knows means pig but doesn’t actually have anything to do with deliberately not keeping Kosher abroad (guilty as charged). It actually means “piggery,” often more aptly translated into “hogwash” or “bullshit,” as in: “Das ist eine Schweinerei!” (“That’s a hot mess!”) And basically, it’s my favorite German word; it reminds me of the American classic, “douchebaggery.”
I named this column “Schweinerei” not because it takes me a good five seconds to actually type the word without messing it up but because it aptly describes just about everything I learned abroad. My seven months in Europe didn’t change my life. They didn’t really change my perspective – though I learned a bunch of “Austrians suck” jokes (thanks, German coworkers!) They kind of just made me realize that most things in Europe are, well, “Schweinerei.”
Some of the experiences I’ll share in this column will be more profound, political, or non-superfluous than others. Some will be observations, some will be anecdotes, but most will be a hot mess. Basically, I was going to call this column “Shit I Learned in Europe,” but “Schweinerei” will offend fewer people and get the point across better.
Claremont Ca School Swine Flu - Bookshelf
If You Take a Mouse to School
Follows a boy and his mouse through a busy day at school.A Fine, Fine School
When a principal loves his school so much that he wants the children to attend classes every day of the year, it is up to his students to show him free time is ...Old School
During his senior year at an elite New England prep school, a young man who had struggled to find it with his contemporaries finds his life unraveling thanks to ...The magic school bus plants seeds, a book about how living things grow
The class decides to plant a garden and Miss Frizzle takes them on a zany field trip back to Phoebe's old school where they learn about the cycle of plant life ...The magic school bus, inside the Earth
On a special field trip in the magic school bus, Ms Frizzle's class learn at first hand about different kinds of rocks and the formation of the earth.Information Today Directory
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