Laugen

So I noticed the other day Natriumlaugen in a catalog and I finally connected Laugen=lye (as in the opposite of acid=Säure). I was thus very confused when I remembered that I mainly know this word from Laugenbretzel or Laugenstange, which are both types of prezel like bread rolls. I had no idea that they actually coat them in lye! This is apparently how they get the nice crispy crust. I think it might have something to do with the Maillard reaction, but I can't find a connection on wikipedia, so who knows.

Wörterspaß

I have a lot of fun things to write about since being in the hospital for a week. I'm never going to get everything put down here. Firstly though, some word fun:

Kucken or gucken (but pronounced like the german final g as somewhere between g like 'goose' and k like the c in 'cake'): 'to look', in the sense of either -look at items- or -wait and see- or -check on-. It is fascinating that I've never really encountered this word until I got here and then I was bombarded with it. I meant to say something about it before, but I could never figure out exactly what was being said because the pronunciation varies a bit and the g-k thing is really hard to get. Also, not really in dictionaries or our books for some reason, but I understand it is a common word, at least in speaking. But then there are somethings books just can't prepare you for.