Wort&Schatz is an interactive 2022 desk calendar designed to accompany you throughout the year while teaching you twelve beautiful and unique words in German.

January

Vorfreude

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A poem

That feeling you get,
After 20 minutes of ordering pizza,
Or 20 minutes before landing in your lover’s city,
Or 20 minutes into a warm book.
That feeling,
Germans call it Vorfreude.

That feeling you get,
The first bud of your first plant,
The last page of your last submission.
Or that midday call of your school best friend.
That feeling,
Germans call it Vorfreude.

That feeling you get,
The ride to your grandma’s house,
The first walk to your dream college,
The run to your partner’s room at the maternity home.
To wait for the broadcast as your daughter will be on “The TV”
That feeling,
Germans call it Vorfreude.

I call it Hope.

© Pragya
instagram.com/writinghobbit

February

Zweisamkeit

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A song

April

Futterneid

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May

Zukunftsmusik

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A prompt

futureme.org logo

Write a letter to your future self through futureme.org to discuss all those things that feel too distant to discuss in the present!

A study

Researchers from the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts collected data from 3,000 people over three years and concluded these are the world’s 9 biggest “Ohwurm” songs:

July

Sommersprossen

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A perspective

Joel Meyerowitz on redheads

“It was in 1978, during my first summer of making portraits while using an 8x10 inch large format camera, that I found myself drawn to photographing redheads.

I have often been asked; ‘why redheads,’ and I’ve often felt it was because in summer redheads seem to bloom in the sun more gloriously than the rest of us. Redheads, like film itself, are transformed by sunlight.

I ran an ad in the local paper, the Provincetown Advocate: “REMARKABLE PEOPLE! If you are a redhead or know someone who is, I’d like to make your portrait, call…” They began coming to my deck, bringing with them their courage and their shyness, their curiosity and their dreams, and they shared their stories of what it was like to be a redhead. They spoke of the painful remembrances of childhood, the violations of privacy and name calling―“Hey, red,” “freckle face,” “carrot head.” They also shared with me their sense of personal victory at having overcome this early, unwanted celebrity, and how like giants or dwarfs or athletes they had finally grown into their specialness and by surviving had been ennobled by it. You could say that they had been baptized by their own fire, and that their shared experience had formed a “blood knot” among them. I had begun making portraits with the intention of photographing ordinary people. But redheads are both ordinary and special.

Their slender slice of the genetic pie accounts for only 2 or 3 percent of the world’s population. As different as redheads are in terms of nationality and religion, they often give the appearance of a strong familial connection.”

Book recommendation: Redheads - Joel Meyerowitz

August

Waldeinsamkeit

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A documentary

Fantastic Fungi documentary on Netflix

Fantastic Fungi is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. With no discernible endgame for our dependency on fossil fuels, this picture provides a beacon of hope. Its illustration of fungi’s resilience is dazzling, while affirming that we, as a species, must evolve with nature in order to prevent our own extinction.

September

Ruinenlust

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A fun fact

Great Pyramid of Cholula in Cholula, Mexico

If you asked most people where the largest pyramid on Earth is located, 99% would likely say Egypt. However, the largest pyramid (by volume; not height) is the Great Pyramid of Cholula in Cholula, Mexico.

Incredibly, this massive pyramid is mostly buried underground!

When the Spanish conquistadors invaded Mexico, they put Catholic churches right on top of preexisting temples, and the Great Pyramid is located underneath the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Cholula church.

October

Schnapsidee

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A note found in Berlin

Das war wohl eine Schnapsidee

Sorry to everyone in the apartment, I drank too much and cannot remember but I’m embarrassed and I’m sorry!!

November

Drachenfutter

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A scientific explanation

“There is a physiological reason why some people get angry when they’re hungry,” says gastroenterologist Christine Lee, MD.

“When you haven’t eaten for a while, the level of sugar (glucose) in your blood decreases,” she explains.

When your blood sugar gets too low, it triggers a cascade of hormones, including cortisol (a stress hormone) and adrenaline (the fight-or-flight hormone).

These hormones are released into your bloodstream to raise and rebalance your blood sugar.

“The release of cortisol can cause aggression in some people,” says Dr. Lee.

“Also, low blood sugar may interfere with higher brain functions, such as those that help us control impulses and regulate our primitive drives and behavior.”

December

Feierabend

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