by Susan S.W.

“Humor.... har har.” When I was young, my friends and I would say “humourhar har” to one another when we didn’t get a joke. In other words… this is where you are supposed to laugh; duh!

Getting the joke is important, especially living abroad, I am sure Germans are funny… I just don’t get the humor, although my German husband makes me laugh. That is why I married him, even though he´s not really my type, in terms of looks, although he is attractive. I have to say this in case he reads the article. But seriously, he has a lot of great qualities and the top of the list is that I think he is funny. To my mind, as a person in a foreign land, it is important to preserve ones sense of humor and surround oneself with lots of people who are funny, like my two sons who like to tell me jokes from the Mickey Mouse comics.

In India there are clubs where people get together and just laugh. I think that would be good fun. Sign me up. There are people who claim to have healed themselves from diseases by being positive, visualising perfect health and laughing a lot. Humor is the best medicine. I am going to laugh my way to perfect health and no I am not sick now, just planning ahead. These days with internet use, funny DVDs and CDs are just a click away. When my sons were younger we used to listen to Veggie Tales. Singing vegetables, like Larry the cucumber and Bob the tomato. I think I need to start listening to them again. Humor is everywhere; you just need to keep your eyes and ears open for it.

I was driving home last Tuesday evening when I had to stop for a red light. A guy on a bicycle crossed the intersection in front of me. He was wearing a bright orange traffic vest with three reflector stripes on it and a lamp strapped to his forehead, like coal miners wear down in the mines. I could not help laughing when his bobbing head and lamp crossed in front of me. He was like a travelling lighthouse which had escaped from a local beach. Another day I saw a sign on an Astra brewery delivery truck. “Ich fahr´nicht rum, sondern Astra.” (I am not driving around/rum. I am driving Astra beer.) German: rum-fahren = English: around as well as rum.

Germans also don’t have this need, like we Americans do, to look pleasant. So keep your eyes open for grumpy looking faces, they can be quite funny. Don´t judge a book by its cover though… some of the grumpiest faces can be the nicest people. I still feel the need, however, to put on a happy face so if I am waiting for the S-Bahn and someone comes towards me, asking for directions, I am always the one who gets asked. This is particularly funny because I am probably the only one on the platform who doesn’t know the answer.

I was at the supermarket this morning and when I was leaving I spotted a man from Zespri selling gold and regular kiwis at a reduced price. So I go over to talk to him. Kiwi man informs me that if I buy ten, which he has already conveniently packaged in a clear plastic vegetable bag, I’ll then get this amazing New Zealand knife to cut my kiwis for free. Oh, he’s said the magic word. I am a sucker for free stuff. Whenever you can buy one and get one free, I buy four and get four, count`em, for free. I look through the clear plastic which he is waving around in the air, and see a plastic utensil – a camping style knife on one end and a spoon on the other. It is a beautiful kiwi gold yellow, but it is still plastic. He’s still waxing on about his amazing New Zealand knife which is so practical for when I am out and about, I couldn’t help laughing.

Well to make a long story short I bought the ten kiwis plus I also got a plastic carry bag with kiwis printed on it, too. For free. At home I told my younger son Sammy about my new amazing New Zealand knife. He was so impressed that he took it to school with a kiwi the next day. I asked him after school how the knife worked. He looked at me with a completely straight face and said, “It really is amazing.” Humor.... har har.

originally published in Currents Oct/Nov/Dec 2009