Today I will leave my country for my big trip. First flight will take me to Nairobi Kenya at the other side of the equator. So it’s cold winter here, but there will be hot summer. So time to do the last preparations. I started to plan this trip five month ago, and to be [...]

Starting in Fuhlsbüttel Airport in Hamburg. Checked out my devices. I am walking blogging machine. I did some audio, video and photo and have no clue when I will have time to edit all of that. Maybe my videocast will have even months after the trip videos from all over the trip. So look out, [...]

I am Georg from Germany. I will do a world travel, from Africa through Asia to Japan and back to Germany. This travel will include Kenya, Iran, India, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia.So there will be a lot of things coming up on this trip and you might like my adventures, I will share here with you.

There are very few activities which bring as much joy as a group song – it’s really always fun. This one might be a little tough for me and my fellow lexiophiles contributors though, and there seems to be some discord regarding the noises made by Old Macdonalds farm-residents. While we all can agree on “Moo” and “Meow”… it would appear the similarities stop there. There goes verse three!

[English] Le sport est l’espéranto des races. [Jean Giraudoux] Écrivain français 1882-1944 J’étais résigné à écrire un article soporifique encyclopédique sur les sports les plus populaires en France et en Belgique. Football, tennis, cyclisme, basket… Ennuyeux au possible tant pour moi que pour mes lecteurs adorés. “Sports?” J’efface donc mon premier somnifère article et remet [...]

I was resigned to write an encyclopedic article about the most popular sports in Belgium and France. Soccer, tennis, cycling, basketball… Überboring for me and for my lovely readers…
“Sports?” I decided to erase my first sleeping pill article and got back to work: go go go extreme sports! Truth be told, it’s about extreme sports on the scale of awesomeness: the most boring and the most awesome! Suit up!

Before the Pittsburgh Steelers & the Arizona Cardinals face off on Feb 1st, I wanted to make sure that anyone interested has an easy-to-follow guide to one of America’s most beloved pastimes. Whether you plan to enjoy the ritual stateside for the first time this year, or are simply fascinated by the hype from afar, you might be surprised to know that there is a lot more to the annual championship than just a game of “gridiron”. In America, the rituals accompanying the Superbowl are numerous and cherished, and though we all do things a little differently, there are a few elements that you can count on come Sunday:

Chinese people are now celebrating another “new year” this January. For us, the first month of 2009 is very interesting — in this month, we’ve had fourteen-day holiday, and celebrated two “new years”.

[English] 中国人正沉浸在过年的喜庆气氛中。对他们来说，今年的一月有点不平常——在这一个月里，他们放了14天假，过了两次“新年”。 一个是阳历的1月1日，即西方的新年。在中国称之为“元旦”。另一个则是中国传统的新年，中国人称之为“春节”。 我身边的朋友询问我，为什么有的时候中国的“春节”在二月，有的时候在一月？我抓耳挠腮想了半天，是啊，为什么中国的“春节”每年日子都会变化呢？ 通过Google和维基百科，我最终弄明白：中国的“春节”是根据中国的“农历”（又称“夏历”）而定的，而“农历”的一般年份比阳历少11天；“农历”的闰年又比阳历的一般年份多19天。所以“春节”在阳历中会有11天或19天的变化规律。就是说，如果上一个农历年没有闰月，那么下一年的春节就会比上年提前11天左右；如果上年农历有闰月，下一年的春节会比上年推迟19天左右。 我知道有些人看到这里快要晕了。为什么会有“农历”呢？“农历”属于人类所采用的天文历法中的“阴阳历”一类——自古以来，人类所采用的天文历法主要分为“阴历”、“阳历”和“阴阳历”。 “阴历”就是按照月亮圆缺变化作为计月单位的历法。古代的中国、巴比伦、埃及都是率先使用这种历法的国家。阴历的好处是能反映月亮的圆缺变化，缺点是“阴历”的“一年”比地球围绕太阳公转一周的365天5 小时48分46秒约短11天，17年就会差6个多月——这就会出现1月份夏日炎炎、6月份隆冬严寒的怪现象，完全不符合春夏秋冬冷暖凉热的季节变化，无法照此安排农业生产。现在一般国家都不再使用阴历。 “阳历”又称公元、公历，是以地球绕太阳公转的运动周期为基础而制定的历法。阳历的月份、日期与太阳在黄道上的位置能较好地符合，在一年中可以明显对应四季寒暖变化，冬夏分明，便于人们安排生活，进行生产。缺点是历法月同月亮的运转规律毫无关系，无法了解月亮的圆缺变化，对于沿海渔民计算潮汐很不方便。 于是古代的中国人就创制出兼顾月亮圆缺和太阳运行规律的“阴阳历”——“中国农历”。农历一年一般有12个月，大月30天，小月29天。为解决12个月比回归年相差11天的缺欠，每隔3年要加一个闰月，5年二闰，19年七闰。有闰月的一年也叫闰年，闰年383天或384天。农历中，基本每19年为一周期对应于公历同一时间，如公历的1963年5月 27日，1982年5月27日，2001年5月27日，都是“中国农历”的闰四月初五。 这就造成了“中国农历”的“春节”按“阳历”来看每年都在变化。在过去的45年中，比2009年更早的春节，在1966年的1 月21日；最迟的春节则在1985年的2月20日，两者在公历上的日期整整相差了30天！

Who would have thought that it were possible to do sports while drinking beer? And not just beer, but also anise alcohol? I bet some people think it wouldn’t be possible since alcohol isn’t usually the best exercise buddy. Fortunately, for those ones who always wished it were I have great news: there is a sport in which you’re supposed to drink beer.