When a herb is a hat...

And I don't mean when you take palm leaves or whatever and make a lovely Tom Hanks Castaway style hat out of them.

So, I have managed to come down with a cold in the days leading up to coming home for Xmas. It is always the way, that you become sick just before going on holidays, as the stress is finally gone, and your body relaxes it's defence mechinisms, and then the nasties take hold. Little bastards.

Anyway, I am "working" from home today, and B and I had agreed to have lunch together. After lunch we went to the Chemist to try and get Echinacea tablets, so that I can try and get a little better before flying tomorrow.

B, being the intelligent one of the two of us, had already looked up what the german word for Echinacea was, so we were well prepared. We walk into the Chemist, and it goes something like this (roughly translated).

Them: Can we help you?
Us: Do you have "Sonnenhüte"?
Them: No, we don't.
Us: Oh. (I start thinking that we could go to the Naturopath...)
Them: We have a spray that you could use for sun protection, but no sun hats.
Us: *looking confused* Um, we were looking for "Echinacea" in English.
What's that called in German?
Them: Oh, you mean Echinacea (with german pronunciation)
Us: Yes. So, it is the same in German?
Them: No, it is Latin.
Us: Oh.

So, here is the problem broken down for you into detail:
"The Sun" is "die Sonne" in German.
"Hat" is "der Hut", and "hats" is "die Hüte".
Put the two of them together, and you get "Sonnenhüte", or "Sun hats".
But, "Echinacea", or should I say the plant that it comes from is also called "Sonnenhut" or in plural "Sonnenhüte", as described in Wikipedia.

Na ja, what can you do? You do the right thing, and prepare yourselves ahead of time, and then you still screw it up. :) Either way, we scored a free calendar detailing herbs that you can used to keep healthy and stuff. :)

PS: Flying home tomorrow! See you all soon!!!!!

Tschüß,
'Brush