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Happy Anniversary to Me

Jill

Today is my two-year anniversary blogging for Feministe. It has been an excellent run. Thanks to Ms. Lauren for inviting me over two years ago, and to Zuzu and Piny for being the greatest co-bloggers ever. Hopefully I’ll stick it out for a few more anniversaries.

Also, an anniversary announcement, which you may already know if you’ve been reading the “About Jill” section regularly (and you totally have, right?): I’m going to Hamburg in the fall to study at an international business law school. I’m pretty excited, and I will be picking all of your brains for travel tips and beer suggestions and whatnot as the semester approaches. I’ve never been to Germany (besides the airport in Frankfurt), so it should be quite an experience. And the experience will be blogged.

Plus my little sister is graduating from college next weekend! I’ll be going down to DC for that, and am working on assembling a crack team of guest bloggers to hold down the fort starting Monday. Start looking forward to it now, because they are some fantastic writers. So Feministe anniversary, semester ending, sister graduating, hot guest bloggers taking over, and preparing to go abroad in the fall. Lots to celebrate. Raise a glass, etc etc.

Na zdravie!*

*That is how we used to say “cheers” in my family. I always assumed it was Serbian because we got it from my grandfather, but a Google search reveals that it is in fact Slovak. You learn something new every day. So, na zdravie, Feministes. A very merry anniversary to us.

36 thoughts on Happy Anniversary to Me

  2. I think all of the Slavic languages have the same expression, more or less, for “cheers”. In our dom Polski (Polish home) it was na zdrowie. Coupled with a nice tall shot of ice-cold vodka.

    So, Jill, na zdrowie! Hope there are many more!

  7. Congratulations on the Hamburg thing, too. Not that you necessarily want or need to answer these questions, but are you thinking of taking an international business tack in your career, or was that just a program you wanted to get into? I notice you also seem to have at least one academic publication now (congratulations again!); are you thinking of something more in that direction? What does the future hold for Jill Filipovic (though, again, I realize it’s absolutely no concern of mine/ours and don’t mean to come across as hectoring or nosy)?

    Oh, and I like the new profile picture.

  10. It is Russian. It’s also several other languages. 🙂

    Ahhhh. There was a woman from Poland in my Russian class this semester. She totally aced that class while the rest of us struggled!

  13. Happy anniversary! Your blogging anniversary is my birthday, so it’s a great day all around!

  15. Happy Anniversary! And if you want to do some feminist drinking whil you’re in DC, let me know.

  18. Ahhhh. There was a woman from Poland in my Russian class this semester. She totally aced that class while the rest of us struggled!

    Beware of conflating all of the Slavic languages! I studied Russian for two years at a University in the USA, now I am living with my partner in the Czech Republic and Czech and Russian have proved to be extremely different (frustratingly so).

    But to Jill all the best, and in Czech: Na Zdravi!

  19. @Hugo: It’s “Ich gratuliere Dir.”
    And that’s certainly something to say.

    Herzlichen Glückwunsch und alles Gute für die Zeit in Deutschland!

    I just don’t think fall is a good time to go to Germany. Especially Hamburg can be a nasty place to live then. Go there in the summer and spend the evenings near the river Elbe or the river Alster. Sooooo much nicer.

  20. Congrats on the two years and all that jazz that goes along with it.

    My roommate went to Slovakia this January to visit her boyfriend and brought back that cheers (along with a very very strong bottle of what seems to be a mix of juniper brandy and gin).

  21. So when do we get an update on the guest bloggers/are you taking nominations.

    As for Hamburg, you should make sure you take a train to Copenhagen–it gets on a boat!

  23. SoE, so help me, I can never remember what the hell takes dative and what the hell takes accusative! My father’s family’s Wienerisch was not much help, but you’d think with a minor in German literature I could keep it all straight… sigh.

    Es tut mir leid. Fortunately, I have that one memorized so I’m unlikely to try and stick a mich in… 😉

  25. And in those two years, you have become my hero. Congratulations, and good luck with the future!

  26. Kristjan, I very well might take you up on that. I was only at the airport in Copenhagen, but flying in over the blue water and the greenery and the white windmills was GORGEOUS, and I’ve always wanted to go back. I will let you know!

  27. I’ve never been to Hamburg, but I’ve been to Germany. The pastries weren’t that good, but the cheese was freakin’ amazing, and the wine was damn cheap. There is a way wider selection of German wine than appears in this country. Most of the wine in stores over there is dry (trocken is dry, halb-trocken is less dry [half dry if you translate it literally]).

    I have a friend who moved to Germany last year or so. There are all sorts of weird things about living there. There is a TV tax, for instance, and I remember getting his phone service was tricky. There is strong anti-foreigner sentiment in Germany, and sometimes landlords will not rent to foreigners.

    German social interactions are a little different from American social interactions. They are very serious about friendship. They don’t offer casual invitations the way Americans do. If you tell a German, “we should get together some time,” s/he will expect to set a date. They also don’t offer friendship casually, and don’t tend to issue “we should get together some time” types of statements. It can be hard to get to know people. The parties I went to were really weird, b/c people did not mingle or introduce themselves the way they do at parties here. As a physics student, I met a lot of Germans, and they were all hyper-friendly. The Germans I met in Germany appeared to play by a totally different set of rules. It took some getting used to. It will help if you learn German as quickly as possible.

  28. Kristjan, I very well might take you up on that. I was only at the airport in Copenhagen, but flying in over the blue water and the greenery and the white windmills was GORGEOUS, and I’ve always wanted to go back. I will let you know!

    Could be very cool. My suggestion would be to take a train up from Hamburg, and enjoy looking at the country-side.
    I can even make sure you have a place to crash if you come here (we have some guest apartments in the house I live in) – just give me a bit of warning.

  29. Happy Anniversary! In Polish it’s Nasdrovya (probably spelled wrong)… and they say it a lot in Chicago, but when I first moved here I thought they were saying “Nice Driveway!” So, Nice Driveway, Jill! Cheers!

  30. The pastries weren’t that good

    I take serious issue with this statement. It is obvious that furimous was eating the wrong pastries. Whole wheat (Vollkorn oder Siebenkorn) bread and Broetchen are absolutely amazing in Deutschland. Just eat them the same day. 24 hours after baking they turn into bricks. If you want more decadent pastries, hop an ICE to France. Croissants, brioche…mmm…why aren’t all Parisians 500 kilos? I’m afraid I’m no help with beer, since I never liked the stuff no matter how good it is, but my advice is just start with anything. It’s all good to those who like it.

  32. Willkommen! I’m an ex-Seattleite as well and have lived near Munich for 6 months now and love it. I wish you all the best! I don’t know you from Adam, but if you ever have questions, you are more than welcome to email me (my user name at hotmail.com).

    Enjoy yourself!

  35. In Croatian (so I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s probably pretty gosh-darn similar in Serbian), it’s na zdravilje. And my apologies on the spelling if that’s not quite right, but that is how it sounds 🙂

    But however you want to roll 🙂 Na zdravie!

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