Anyway. Today we went to the market again, but never fear, I have new things to tell you. Mostly. :)
First I was given the task of unlocking the door and locking it again after we were outside. I know, this sounds pretty darn easy. At the beginning, I thought so too.
Turns out I didn't got it at all. I am a failure at unlocking doors. It's a fact. I couldn't open the door to save my life! Then, when I was supposed to lock it again, I couldn't do that right either. My grandpa didn't help at all, telling me the key was supposed to be upright when I pulled it out when it was actually supposed to be sideways. I guess we both learned something today.
Once at the market, we first went to buy more chocolate bunnies (and one chocolate egg) for cakes and stuff. I think we have a lot of cakes ahead of us, because we bought a LOT of chocolate bunnies. Like, a lot.
One of the bins of chocolate bunnies. Don't worry, we didn't buy that many...
...Just this many
We also bought some cheese and some fruits and vegetables, including....
STRAWBERRIES! Oh my God, the strawberries here are so amazing. They're smaller than the ones we've had in Utah because they aren't injected with chemicals to make them bigger, and they're bright red, and they taste DELICIOUS. DEEEE-LISH-OUS!
<Drool>
I also took a lot of pictures of flowers, but I won't show you many because I took so many of pictures last time we went to the market.
"These flowers are on fire...." Okay, so the syllables don't quite fit, but whatever.
I didn't even know there was such thing as a black flower, but voila!
On our way back, we went over a bridge. The stairs up to the bridge have a small ramp built in to push bikes up. Instead of using the stairs, I walked up and down the bike ramps... Like a boss! ;)
At home, I again had problems with the door. Sigh. But I got it open.... After some struggles.
This door is going to be the death of me.
I then realized exaclty how much chocolate we had bought. And the chocolate egg... Well, it wasn't exactly egg sized. It was just a tad larger....
The chocolate egg. Oh yeah! Thumb is in the picture for comparison of both size and awesomeness.
An arrangement of all the chocolate bunnies and the chocolate egg.
!
After typing up the portion of the blog post for the morning (what you just read), I helped my grandma replace some of the flower bouquets.
If this is your first year reading my blog, then it's high time you're introduced to my grandparents' garden. It's huge and beautiful. Both of my grandparents love to garden, and the few times they ever have a disagreement (not an argument, a disagreement) it's about whether a plant is a flower or a weed or another plant-related topic. Understandably, because of their amazing garden, there are a lot of flower bouquets all around the house. I got to pick some bouquets to replace the ones that were getting old.
One part of their garden
Another part of their garden
ANOTHER part of their garden
Flowers planted outside the living room (One wall in the living room is entirely class so you can see the whole garden)
Here are the two and a half bouquets I made (I made a tiny one with all the tiny flowers I had to cut off so the big flowers would fit in the vase):
After some other activities to fill my time, I watched the Eurovision Song Conttest (ESC) with my grandparents. I'm supposed to watch more TV because it helps me learn German. Oh yeah!
The ESC is a really cool contest to find the best singer/song in Europe. This show gets the most viewers out of any show in Europe. First singers compete within their own country to become their country's representative. Then everycountry in Europe sends their representative to a huge competition, except I'm pretty sure there are semi-finals first. We watched the finals, though. It was super cool. It was almost like the Olympics as each singer walked into the stadium behind their country's flag. :)
A ton of the contest was in English because there are just too many languages in Europe to pick one, and English seems to be common ground. This was great for me! ;) The host spoke English, but I got annoyed every time the German announcers translated over her. :) Also, 18 out of the 26 countries competing sang in English.
First they showed a short clip about the background of the singer, and then they performed.
I have decided to give a short description of each song so you can pretend you were watching it with me. :) I'll keep it short, don't worry.
France: Some rock song in French. Wasn't great.
Lithuania: Eh.
Moldova: The song was in Romanian, but there were some cool lightning special effects on the dress. :)
Finland: It was kind of Katy Perry-esque, but not really in a good way. It was really just kind of weird.
Spain: It was in Spanish, and it was boring. Not that the two have anything to do with each other. :)
Belgium: Not bad. The background dancers were cool.
Estonia: I don't even remember that one...
Belarus: Pretty cool.
Malta: Awwww, so cute! It was so quaint and happy, and the singer looked like he was smiling so hard it hurt.
Russia: Boring. It was one of those types of songs that is like, "We are strong as one, blah blah blah...."
Germany: Have you ever heard of Cascada? They sing Evacuate the Dancefloor and other types of songs like that. I'm sure you've heard them before. I had no idea they're German! The song was a cool dance song, the kind that makes you want to party. :)
Armenia: Eh.
Netherlands: Borrrriiiiing. "Birds on rooftops, falling like raindrops, blahhhh"
Romania: Strangest. Thing. Ever. Picture Macklemore, except with dark hair and instead of a white fur coat a black one with weird rhinestones and things on it. I think it was supposed to be Dracula from Transylvania. And the guy had a freakishly girl-sounding voice. Not in a Justin Bieber pre-puberty type of way, but in a female opera singer way. Can you say creepy?
United Kingdom: I was expecting one of the many boy bands that England has to offer, but instead I was greeted by a 61-year-old (to her credit, she looked like she was in her 40s) who looked kind of Texan.
Sweden: This was actually a really cool song.
Hungary: This was really mellow: there was only the guy singing, a background singer, and a guitarist. Nothing more. It was kind of a nice break after all the rock type songs.
Denmark: My favorite by FAR! OMG, it was so good. SO GOOD! I loved it. It gave me chills. Officially started rooting for her.
Iceland: The guy looked like a mix between Haymitch and Thor. Can you imagine that cross of personalities?
Azerbaijan: The singing wasn't bad, but the best part wasn't the singing. The singer was standing on a glass box, and there was another dude in black inside. He was mirroring all the singer's actions, so he was upside and doing all sorts of cool things inside the box.
Greece: Oh boy. Of all countries, they were wearing skirts. Not Scotland, but Greece. The song was called "Alcohol is Free" if that gives you any idea of the sentiment in the song. It was sung in traditional Greece style and then there were guys with accordions doing the can-can and all sorts of things. Quite entertaining.
Ukraine: Yawn.
Italy: Yawn.
Norway: Eh. It was techno-y and kind of cool.
Georgia: Snooze. It was a duet and sounded kind of like a song you'd hear in a Disney princess movie. That's definitely not a bad thing, and I don't want to face the wrath of Molly :), but it's just not the type of music I prefer to listen to in my free time.
Ireland: Eh. It was all tribal-like. Nothing spectacular.
Then we had to sit through a painfully long process in which a representative from every freaking country in Europe, even those that had already been eliminated or hadn't participated in the first place (San Marino called in for crying out loud!), called in to announce how many points their country gave to each singer. Really it was just where the most votes went to in that country, because each person voted individually. They showed who they gave 1 through 7 points to, then verbally announced who they gave 8, 10 and 12 points to. It was so ridicuclously political. Every country gave the high points (8, 10 and 12) to their neighboring countries and countries that they had some sort of political relationship with. No one gave Germany any high points because in the European Union, Germany is one of the countries with the most money, and they always have to lend it to other countries. Of course, no one likes the countries with all the money (even though they are glad to accept the loans), so no one gave Germany many points. I think we got a whopping 18 points, and the winner had about 270. Yeah, pathetic. Cascada definitely deserved more points than that. I think the German announcers on TV were getting pretty fed up too. What really pushed my buttons was the fact that Ukraine, who had given a snooze-tacular performance, was in third place. THIRD! Stupidstupidstupidstupid.... But Denmark rightfully won, so I was happy about that. :)
Here are some links if you are interested in the contest. Feel free to explore the site, it's in English! They have lots of facts about who won when and great pictures and videos.
Scoreboard and participants (This is the only site in English)
The entire performance (Warning, it's a couple hours long... But if you skip to the very end they show a small clip of every song)
The winning video (If you scroll down they have the video of every single performance)
The Sunflower Project: This is going great! I've got some new sprouts and they already existing sprouts are getting huge!
German word of the day (I decided to challenge you a little bit today): Sängerwettbewerb. Aca-scuse me? I know, it's kind of daunting. :) It's pronounced ZENG-ah-vet-buh-vaerp. It means 'singing contest.'
A ton of the contest was in English because there are just too many languages in Europe to pick one, and English seems to be common ground. This was great for me! ;) The host spoke English, but I got annoyed every time the German announcers translated over her. :) Also, 18 out of the 26 countries competing sang in English.
First they showed a short clip about the background of the singer, and then they performed.
I have decided to give a short description of each song so you can pretend you were watching it with me. :) I'll keep it short, don't worry.
France: Some rock song in French. Wasn't great.
Lithuania: Eh.
Moldova: The song was in Romanian, but there were some cool lightning special effects on the dress. :)
Finland: It was kind of Katy Perry-esque, but not really in a good way. It was really just kind of weird.
Spain: It was in Spanish, and it was boring. Not that the two have anything to do with each other. :)
Belgium: Not bad. The background dancers were cool.
Estonia: I don't even remember that one...
Belarus: Pretty cool.
Malta: Awwww, so cute! It was so quaint and happy, and the singer looked like he was smiling so hard it hurt.
Russia: Boring. It was one of those types of songs that is like, "We are strong as one, blah blah blah...."
Germany: Have you ever heard of Cascada? They sing Evacuate the Dancefloor and other types of songs like that. I'm sure you've heard them before. I had no idea they're German! The song was a cool dance song, the kind that makes you want to party. :)
Armenia: Eh.
Netherlands: Borrrriiiiing. "Birds on rooftops, falling like raindrops, blahhhh"
Romania: Strangest. Thing. Ever. Picture Macklemore, except with dark hair and instead of a white fur coat a black one with weird rhinestones and things on it. I think it was supposed to be Dracula from Transylvania. And the guy had a freakishly girl-sounding voice. Not in a Justin Bieber pre-puberty type of way, but in a female opera singer way. Can you say creepy?
United Kingdom: I was expecting one of the many boy bands that England has to offer, but instead I was greeted by a 61-year-old (to her credit, she looked like she was in her 40s) who looked kind of Texan.
Sweden: This was actually a really cool song.
Hungary: This was really mellow: there was only the guy singing, a background singer, and a guitarist. Nothing more. It was kind of a nice break after all the rock type songs.
Denmark: My favorite by FAR! OMG, it was so good. SO GOOD! I loved it. It gave me chills. Officially started rooting for her.
Iceland: The guy looked like a mix between Haymitch and Thor. Can you imagine that cross of personalities?
Azerbaijan: The singing wasn't bad, but the best part wasn't the singing. The singer was standing on a glass box, and there was another dude in black inside. He was mirroring all the singer's actions, so he was upside and doing all sorts of cool things inside the box.
Greece: Oh boy. Of all countries, they were wearing skirts. Not Scotland, but Greece. The song was called "Alcohol is Free" if that gives you any idea of the sentiment in the song. It was sung in traditional Greece style and then there were guys with accordions doing the can-can and all sorts of things. Quite entertaining.
Ukraine: Yawn.
Italy: Yawn.
Norway: Eh. It was techno-y and kind of cool.
Georgia: Snooze. It was a duet and sounded kind of like a song you'd hear in a Disney princess movie. That's definitely not a bad thing, and I don't want to face the wrath of Molly :), but it's just not the type of music I prefer to listen to in my free time.
Ireland: Eh. It was all tribal-like. Nothing spectacular.
Then we had to sit through a painfully long process in which a representative from every freaking country in Europe, even those that had already been eliminated or hadn't participated in the first place (San Marino called in for crying out loud!), called in to announce how many points their country gave to each singer. Really it was just where the most votes went to in that country, because each person voted individually. They showed who they gave 1 through 7 points to, then verbally announced who they gave 8, 10 and 12 points to. It was so ridicuclously political. Every country gave the high points (8, 10 and 12) to their neighboring countries and countries that they had some sort of political relationship with. No one gave Germany any high points because in the European Union, Germany is one of the countries with the most money, and they always have to lend it to other countries. Of course, no one likes the countries with all the money (even though they are glad to accept the loans), so no one gave Germany many points. I think we got a whopping 18 points, and the winner had about 270. Yeah, pathetic. Cascada definitely deserved more points than that. I think the German announcers on TV were getting pretty fed up too. What really pushed my buttons was the fact that Ukraine, who had given a snooze-tacular performance, was in third place. THIRD! Stupidstupidstupidstupid.... But Denmark rightfully won, so I was happy about that. :)
Here are some links if you are interested in the contest. Feel free to explore the site, it's in English! They have lots of facts about who won when and great pictures and videos.
Scoreboard and participants (This is the only site in English)
The entire performance (Warning, it's a couple hours long... But if you skip to the very end they show a small clip of every song)
The winning video (If you scroll down they have the video of every single performance)
The Sunflower Project: This is going great! I've got some new sprouts and they already existing sprouts are getting huge!
German word of the day (I decided to challenge you a little bit today): Sängerwettbewerb. Aca-scuse me? I know, it's kind of daunting. :) It's pronounced ZENG-ah-vet-buh-vaerp. It means 'singing contest.'
Wow, that's a lot of info on that tv show. Were you taking notes while you were watching?? Eat some yummy strawberries for me! Remember when O&O's friend dropped some off from his farm and we stood in the kitchen eating them all while they talked? Yum!!
ReplyDeleteI had to find a list of all the performers online, but for the most part I remembered all my reactions. If I didn't remember the song, I assumed it wasn't interesting. :) Yeah, I remember that! :)
Delete