Unfair

I rode the local bus yesterday, from Wiesbaden back to my village.  Normally, there's not much to see or do, for this sixteen-minute ride.  Yesterday was different.

I sat facing the rear, and about six feet in front of me.....sat a teenage German girl.  I'd estimate that she was fourteen.

The minute she sat down....she took out her cellphone and called "mama".....and so began a eight-minute conversation.

I sat there and hear the German expression "unfair" at least twenty times in this eight-minute talk.  It was loud enough that almost everyone in the front half of the bus could hear the talk.

My German is rusty, but this discussion went in the direction of time schedules, curfew, and expected time to be back home on Friday and Saturday evening.  Naturally, mama had set the curfew hours, and the teenager just continued to argue over and over.  I could tell....after three minutes, that several folks were now listening into the conversation.  Most of the women were lightly grinning.

The call eventually ended....only when the bus got to her stop, and she finally noted unfair for the last time.

There's typically three expressions that German teenagers like to use over and over.  Unfair, super (a cynical term usually meaning "absolutely great" in the negative way), and finally, there's erpressen (usually meaning you are blackmailing me).

A German kid between twelve and fifteen will use the three terms at least sixty times a week in conversation (my humble figure).  At some point around seventeen or eighteen.....reality hits, and suddenly they grasp the big world around themselves.  A German between the ages of eighteen and forty?  They usually go to using 'super'.....as the chief way to note a sarcastical moment and relieve frustration.

My wife is always anti-public transportation.....hating the crowds and the chaos of bus or train rides.  Me?  For some reason, it's like Alice in Wonderland....with a thousand characters that you tend to note on an average day.  Yesterday?  The unfair teenager.  Who knows what a simple sixteen minute trip next week will bring?