A Good Slide

I just had a nice chat with our neighbour, Heidi. I was walking very carefully back from the grocery store because it was icy, and she took my arm and walked me to our gate. She enjoyed calling me an "old girl" because I was going so slowly.

Heidi speaks Allemanish. It is the local dialect, which is very similar to Swiss German, and very unlike High German. When Heidi and I visit, I generally get about every 5th or 6th word (at best), which gives me just enough to know what she's talking about and to join in now and then. However, her last two sentences this morning were completely lost to me, so I just wished her a "good slide" (Happy New Year!) and she was off.

Heidi and her husband Ewald are anomalies in this very formal German culture. When we moved into our house five years ago, she called to us across the yard the first chance she had to welcome us to the neighbourhood and to say, "Ich heisse Heidi" (My name is Heidi). This raised our eyebrows a little having become used to this formal culture of "Herr" and "Frau". But, Heidi jumped that first cultural wall at our first meeting, and it's been a nice change from the usual stiff acquaintances. Compare this with our landlords who call us "Dueck" (one step more informal than "Herr Dueck") and whom we call "Kilchling". It's a puzzle.

Happy New Year to you all and may you continue to enjoy God's amazing grace and goodness in your lives!